Dr Paul Allen

English: Moses Sees the Promised Land from Afar, as in Numbers 27:12, by James Tissot (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God ; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.” ( Exodus 19:17 ) This is the first of more than 30 references to events that took place outside the camp of the Israelites in the wilderness under Moses. In this first mention, it was “without the camp” that God first met with His people and gave them the Ten Commandments . The first temporary tabernacle was also “pitched . . . without the camp” ( Exodus 33:7 ). However, when the regular tabernacle was established, it was placed in the midst of the camp, and the camp was considered holy before the Lord . “For the LORD thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp . . . therefore shall thy camp be holy” ( Deuteronomy 23:14 ). Accordingly, anything unclean was commanded to be banned from the camp (vv. 10-13), including even “the bodies of those beasts, whos...

Moses with the tablets of the Ten Commandments, painting by Rembrandt (1659) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “Now therefore, I pray thee , if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.” ( Exodus 33:13 ) “ Moses the man of God ” ( Deuteronomy 33:1 ) was surely one of the greatest men who ever lived. He was the leader of a great nation, he received the tablets of the law from God, and he compiled and wrote the Pentateuch . It was said that “there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face” ( Deuteronomy 34:10 ). Yet, “the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth” ( Numbers 12:3 ). It was such a man as this who made two remarkable requests of God. The first was, as above: “Shew me now thy way.” The second, just a moment later, was: “Shew me thy glory” ( Exodus 33:18 ). These were not selfish r...

Plate 16 of 22 for the Macklin Bible after Loutherbourg. Bowyer Bible. Christ Stills the Storm (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Joshua 24:14–15 “And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord , choose this day whom you will serve...as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (v. 15). Unlike the topics we have discussed thus far — Bible study , prayer, and worship — some Christians do not recognize that service is a means of santification. This is unfortunate because service is vital for maturity in Christ . Our call to be servants of the Lord is a theme woven throughout the Old and New Testaments . God sent Moses to the pharaoh thousands of years ago so that the king might release His people to serve Him (Ex. 8:1). Paul in Galatians 1:10 and many other passages refers to himself as a “servant” or “slave” (from the Greek doulos) of Christ. Few would argue with our Father ’s command to serve Him; however, we often forget that the major way in whic...

The Children of Israel Crossing the Jordan (illustration by Gustave Doré) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) "Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them." ( Joshua 1:6 ) This admonition to be strong and of "good courage" ( Hebrew amass) is given some ten times in the Old Testament , plus another nine times using a different word (chasaq). The first occurrence of amass is in Deuteronomy 3:28, where it is translated "strengthen": "But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see." Christians today surely need good courage to face a dangerous world with all its temptations and intimidations, but nothing today could compare to the challenge facing Joshua. Trying to lead a nondescript multitude of "stiffnecked" desert nomads in...

Jesus is considered by scholars such as Weber to be an example of a charismatic religious leader. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Matthew 18:5 –6 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned” (v. 6). Just as the Holy Spirit inspired Moses to write five books of the Bible (Genesis through Deuteronomy ), so too did He move Matthew to group Christ ’s teaching into five major discourses so that we might recognize Jesus as the new and better Moses, mediator of a new and better covenant. The first of these sections, the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5–7), highlights kingdom ethics and the true meaning of God’s law. Chapter 10 is sometimes called the “Missionary Discourse” because it focuses on principles for preaching the Gospel in a hostile world. Matthew 13 is the third major discourse, collecting many of Jesus’ parables about th...