Last Sunday

The last Sunday service of the year went off well. I led the service and Sacha, Erica and Fabio led the worship backed up by Rogerio, Netinho and Rogaciano. Pastor Rafael preached on Simeon from Luke 2. It was a good service.

QPR drew 1 x 1 away to Norwich at the weekend, with Norwich getting the equalizer in the 89th minute unfortunately.

One of the young married men from church, Perlânio, who is an interpreter for the deaf, fell off the roof of his bungalow house and was taken to hospital in an ambulance and x-rayed, but gratefully he has not broken anything and is just shaken up with cuts and bruises. Please pray for his recovery and for him to be able to get a job which he needs badly.

Happy New Year!

Numbers 1 (résumé): The Census

Now we start the book of Numbers which covers nearly 40 years of Israelite history, as opposed to the previous book of Leviticus which covered just one month. And chapter 1 starts on the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, when God told Moses to conduct a census counting all the men 20 years old or over who were apt to serve in the army.

Moses and Aaron conducted the census with the help of 12 tribal leaders and came up with the following results for each respective tribe: The tribe of Reuben (46,500), the tribe of Simeon (59,300), the tribe of Gad (45,650), the tribe of Judah (74,600), the tribe of Issachar (54,400), the tribe of Zebulun (57,400), the tribe of Joseph (40,500), the tribe of Manasseh (32,200), the tribe of Benjamin (35,400), the tribe of Dan (62,700), the tribe of Asher (41,500) and the tribe of Naphtali (53,400). This made a total of 603,550 fighting men and does not include women, girls, boys under 20, old people and sick people.

People from the tribe of Levi were not counted in the census as they had an exclusive job to take care of and transport the Tabernacle and nobody else was allowed to get near it under the penalty of death. The Levites had to camp around the Tabernacle to protect it.

End-of-year Parties

This week has seen more end-of-year parties with the different ministry groups at our church. On Thursday it was the turn of our team from the Pastor Frank Dyer School who celebrated a year of blessings at the school.

On Friday our Married Couples' Fellowship had a nice meal together in the evening along with much fun and fellowship. 

Yesterday the youth spent a relaxing fun day at Green Pastures starting at 8 am and going right through the day.

I have been listening to the Great Kiskadee sing outside my office window. I also heard the Caatinga Cacholote and saw a number of Glittering-bellied Emerald Hummingbirds.

I am pleased to have completed my résumés of the book of Leviticus. This means that with the 50 chapters of Genesis + 40 of Exodus + 27 of Leviticus I am managing to keep up my average of just over 1 chapter a day as I started this venture on 23.09.2024. 

Leviticus 27 (résumé): The Redemption of Vows

Staunch atheists have been known to cry to God when faced by death. So too people make vows to God under extenuating circumstances and then sometimes once delivered want to go back on their vow. But vows of people, property or animals are serious before God and can only be taken back or redeemed when done properly. This chapter thus gives detailed instructions of the redeemable value of people such as a man between 20 and 60 @ 50 shekels whereas a woman of the same age was only valued at 30 shekels. 

If a person vows an animal that animal cannot be substituted for another of inferior quality to pay the vow, and any questions of relevant values will be refereed by the priest. So too the priest will be judge of vowed houses and if a person vows his house and redeems it he will pay a 20% additional fine. So too the priest will act as judge regarding vowed land with the judge adjudicating respective values taking into consideration the proximity of the year of Jubilee. 

It was finally reminded that firstborn animals were automatically the Lord's as were the tithe of farming and livestock produce.  

Leviticus 26 (résumé): Reward for Obedience & Punishment for Disobedience

Now God says that if the Israelites refrain from idolatry, observe the sabbath, and obey his decrees and commands then they will receive regular rains, abundant harvests, peace, protection from wild beasts, security, protection from enemies, and fertility, and he would walk amongst them as their God.

However if they disobey God and abandon the covenant then exactly the opposite will happen. They will experience famine, disease and defeat by their enemies, and if they continue stubbornly to disobey then things will steadily get worse for them and they will even end up eating their own children out of desperation! The Israelites' enemies will end up dominating their land and many will go into exile.  

Yet God still called his people to repent of their evil ways so that he could renew the covenant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and restore peace and prosperity to Israel.

Leviticus 25 (résumé): The Sabbatical Year & The Year of Jubilee

This chapter starts by saying that every 7th year will be a year of rest for the land and the livestock. Every 7th year was a farming sabbatical.

Then it says that every 50th year will be a year of Jubilee (the year after 7 times 7 years) when all leased land was to be returned to its original owners because Canaan was divided up into sections and distributed by casting lots for each family. This Jubilee system was excellent for avoiding an accumulation of wealth by a few. The year of Jubilee was also a year of rest for farmers, land and livestock with no planting or harvesting.

The trumpets sound announcing the year of Jubilee - a year of liberty for all and a year of redemption of lost property in previous years. 

Laws concerning houses were decreed in a further example of late intromissions in the text. For some reason the rules for houses in walled cities were different to those affecting houses in non-walled villages. In walled cities if a house was sold it could be redeemed during one year, but after this year of grace the house would become the permanent property of the buyer and would not be subject to the law of return in the year of Jubilee. However in the villages the Jubilee rules apply. In the case of Levites their houses are always redeemable and are to be returned in the Jubilee. 

It then says that if a person slips into poverty then those that are better off are to help him out. They are not to sell him food for a profit or lend him money with interest. And if a poor Israelite sells himself because of his great need he should not be treat as a slave but as a hired worker to be freed in the year of Jubilee. Slave were to be bought from other nations but Israelites were not to be slaves. 

If an Israelite became impoverished and sold himself to a foreigner in Canaan he could be redeemed based on his value linked to the number of years to the next Jubilee, but if he was not redeemed he would be freed at the Jubilee. 

Christmas Day

With temperatures of a high of 37 degrees, and a low in the middle of the night of 23 degrees, dreaming of a white Christmas is just never on the cards, but it was Christmas day!

We had a nice Christmas lunch together as a family, and then gathered round the Christmas tree so that we could give our children, grandchildren, son-in-laws and girlfriends their Christmas gifts. We had a lovely time together.

I hate to have to give the news that the QPR players ate too much turkey on Christmas Day so that on Boxing Day they lost 3 x 0 in their international match against Swansea! I asked Liz to pray for QPR at half-time but she refused which didn't help. QPR have slipped down to 16th place in the Championship with this result. 😓 

I have just eaten a dish of Red Mombins which a young man, Neto, from the church brought round to us from his mother's tree. Delicious! 😋