1 Chronicles 4:41-43 These recorded by name came in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and they attacked their tents and the Meunites who were found there, and utterly destroyed them, as it is to this day. So they dwelt in their place, because there was pasture for their flocks there. Now some of them, five hundred men of the sons of Simeon, went to Mount Seir, having as their captains Pelatiah, Neariah, Rephaiah, and Uzziel, the sons of Ishi. And they defeated the rest of the Amalekites who had escaped. They have dwelt there to this day. In the numerology of scripture what does our Lord’s five hundred measure tell us? And does it matter? I believe that it matters if we hope to understand in fullness what The Lord is saying to us. Scripture shows us the Plan of God in a myriad of ways, confirming and reinforcing the truth of what we believe and opening new vistas of revelation. One of these ways is through numbers, and as a dear man of God once told me many years ago, “the numbers always add up.” God’s creation has a base of mathematical perfection. In Ezekiel 42 (see below) five hundred reveals the outer dimensions of the temple as shown to Ezekiel by God. In 1 Chronicles we are shown Simeon’s five hundred men defeating the Amalekites. So what is the significance of five hundred? The five hundred men of the sons of Simeon, defeated the Amalekites at Mount Seir, their leaders being four sons of Ishi, whose name means ‘He saves me’. His sons names are all related to this — revealing God gives strength, He heals and delivers His servant. When you know that Simeon means ‘hearing’, we can see the spiritual background to this defeat of the ‘valley-dwelling’ Amalekites, whose hearts’ thus focus earthward instead of heavenward, revealing their antipathy to God. The five hundred men of the tribe of Simeon who had hearing and understanding triumphed over the Godless Amalekites at the mountain of the satyr. (Mount Seir translates as the high place of the hairy he-goat, from a word meaning rough, devil, goat, satyr, or demon). Following this interpretive line ‘five’ is usually seen as referring to God’s Grace or His Redemption, and ‘hundred’ can be understood to mean ‘children of the promise’, ‘children of the harvest’, or ‘descendants of Abraham’. (See Genesis 17:17) In short, it shows us ‘the church of Jesus Christ.’ So when we look to Ezekiel’s God-given measurements for the outer dimensions of His temple built without hands, we are given the revelation that each side is five hundred by five hundred — four square in any direction, forming a perfect cube — the numbers representing ‘the church of Jesus Christ’, a church where every member was a captive, now redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the World. The Lord is building His church, and we must not be cast down by the state of things that we see around us. Rest assured, our God will have His way. Hallelujah. MEDITATE ON THESE THINGS EZEKIEL 42:15-20 Now when he had finished measuring the inner temple, he brought me out through the gateway that faces toward the east, and measured it all around. He measured the east side with the measuring rod, five hundred rods by the measuring rod all around. He measured the north side, five hundred rods by the measuring rod all around. He measured the south side, five hundred rods by the measuring rod. He came around to the west side and measured five hundred rods by the measuring rod. He measured it on the four sides; it had a wall all around, five hundred cubits long and five hundred wide, to separate the holy areas from the common. NO LONGER SLAVES — Jonathan David and Melissa Helser. PRAYER requires HONESTYTO BE CONSCIOUSLY desirous of anything but that one thing is to be off the main track. The Holy Spirit is transparent honesty. [from ‘He Shall Glorify Me’ by Oswald Chambers] LISTEN TO THIS MEDITATION BY CLICKING ON DOWNLOAD FILE BELOW…
COMING NEXT … #501 INTOLERANCE
|
MEDITATE ON THESE THINGS…Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you. Archives
September 2024
Archive by Title
Archive by Bible VerseAuthors
GEORGE and GILL STEWART |