The Cloud above the Tabernacle – the sign of God’s near presence. Look up 

 in a concordance and meditate on the New Testament references. The Cloud on the Mount of Transfiguration and the Cloud of Witnesses are two references worth meditating on. The 

 heralds God as the Giver of the Water of Life!

* Dear Lord, how precious is Your steadfast love! Let us take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.

“The trumpets shall be to you for a perpetual statute throughout your generations.”

We read of the importance of trumpets, both as a call to gather and to battle.

In Joshua 6 we read the Lord’s commands to Israel concerning the battle of Jericho. On the last day they were to blow seven trumpets of ram’s horns continually, before all the people shouted! The trumpets shouted too, and the walls fell.

In Judges 6 we read of Gideon sounding a trumpet, calling the people to war.

In Ezekiel 33 the prophet is called to blow a trumpet as a warning to God’s people.

And we read in the new testament, in 1 Corinthians 15,

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.”

While today’s passage shows us a beginning of sorts for the trumpet being used, in 1 Corinthians we read of a time that will come when the LAST trumpet will sound.

No more calling to gather – We will be united with God, the marriage of the Lamb and the Church fulfilled (Revelation 21).

No more calling for war – Jesus has put all His enemies under His feet, and the last enemy is destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:25-26).

And no more trumpet cries of warning – Judgement done (Revelation 20:11-15). Mercy realised (Revelation 21:1-7). Our calling complete (Revelation 20:15, 22:14).

How good then is our hope, waiting for the sound of this last trumpet!

Please may we hear Your voice ringing through our lives, from Your word, trumpet calls to us for gathering and warning, for war against our old selves, against the wiles of the evil one.

Please remind us of that final day when the last trumpet will sound.

April 29, Reading 1 – Numbers 9:1-10:10

 captivates, beggars, burns, and kills whoever comes within its arena. Just the application to adultery itself gives you sufficient information. The world paints adultery in wonderful, romantic colours. It does not show you this picture!

“… Keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye; bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.”

Solomon knows well the results of rejecting God’s commands and teaching.

He was a man with many wives, hundreds upon hundreds.

What kind of insight might he have gleaned from this?

Make wisdom your friend! An intimate close friend – To protect you!

Folly is loud and brash, enticing and full of promise.

But only emptiness can be found down the broad road.

Wisdom is different. Wisdom is a narrow road, at times hard and with suffering.

But the end of wisdom is a fulfilled promise like no other.

In 1 John chapter 2 we read, of Jesus (God in the person of the Son),

“And this is the promise that he made to us – eternal life.”

In John’s gospel chapter 10 we read Jesus saying,

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”

We see here that the pattern of wisdom is to follow Jesus. We are His sheep, He is our Good Shepherd.

And so when is this promise to be fulfilled?

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.”

So this is a time in the future, when Jesus will return.

Our King will return. And on that day we will enter in His presence, given this promised gift – Eternal life, and life to the full!

You have set a day, please mark us as a people ready.

You have set a day, and we do not know it, but You call us to be ready.

Lord God, please help us to seek after wisdom, to bind wisdom to our eyes and write wisdom on our hearts.

Please Lord, please write Your word on our hearts today.

April 29, Reading 2 – Proverbs 6:20-7:27

It is interesting that Peter starts with: 

 might be a better call. Peter, the action man, is no stranger to thought or its place. Right thinking (or good theology) is imperative for godly action. The first ten verses of chapter 2 are very significant verses.

* Dear God, thank You for this day, and thank You for Your word to us.

“Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

In this passage Peter draws our attention back to the old testament book of Hosea, one of the prophets that preached to Israel, calling them to repentance.

Three of Hosea’s children are mentioned that he had with his wife Gomer, who was a prostitute.

The second child, a little girl, was named “No Mercy”.

The third child, a little boy, was named “Not My People”.

Hosea taking a wife from whoredom and having children of whoredom was a hard narrow path for him that God called him to – And it was a direct picture of Israel at the time.

God caused the land to vomit them out, He says,

“Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel,”

“Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”

We are by nature and intent on our own at war with God, we humanity are sinners in need of a Saviour that works (as were Israel).

How wonderful then, for Israel and for us, that Jesus went outside the camp, while we were still enemies, still sinners, still at war with Him, He reverses the curse and brings such blessing.

Hallelujah for God’s mercy to us, for Jesus!

Thank You for Your mercy, not giving to us what we deserve.

Thank You for Your grace, giving to us what we do not deserve.

Thank You for Jesus, that in Him we see both Your grace and Your mercy writ large.

Daily Devotion Readings for April 29th