Leen Ritmeyer - The Power of Bible Places and their Lessons for Us - Class 1 - But thou Bethlehem Ephratah

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1. 0:00

   This is the 2010 Ontario Winter Bible School. Our speaker for this second session is Brother Lane Rittmeyer from Cardiff, Wales. His theme this week is The Power of Bible Places and their Lessons for us. This is his first class and the subject of this class is But Thou Bethlehem Ephrata. The reading was taken from Deuteronomy Chapter 11, verses 1:00 to 12:00.

2. 0:29

   Dear brethren and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, it’s. Great to be with you. Especially at this time of the year, it’s wonderful to come aside from the world and to concentrate on the word of God. Our thoughts are with our brethren, sisters in in England, in Castleton, where a similar northern winter study which my sister, which my wife Kathleen and myself set up some 40 years, 14 years ago, are still going on. And they’re also.

3. 0:56

   Studying the Word of God. Away from the distraction of this world, other subject for this afternoon is Buddha Bethlehem Ephrata. I first want to speak a few words about the land of Israel, especially as a teaching aid. We read in this verse 12 that Israel is a land which Yaadai Elwin cares for. The eyes of Yaadai Elwin are always upon it from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year. What a remarkable statement.

4. 1:35

   Although we’ve lived there, I’ve lived there for 20 years in the land of Israel, mainly in Jerusalem. We often thought that God is always looking at this land. So Israel, we believe, has been created, especially by God as a teaching aid to teachers, spiritual lessons. But we lived in the land. A lot of our time was taken up with work in archaeology because both my wife Kathleen and myself, we are archaeologists. And as I said yesterday, so today we met. Our lives have been in ruins and but. It was a variable.

5. 2:13

   Very enjoyable. Way to spend your time. When you work in archaeology, you find all sorts of interesting things. And I never forget the day that I dug up my wife Kathleen on Mount Zion, the most wonderful find I ever made. But while we were working there and raising a family, we always looked at the land through the eyes of the Bible. But later on we became more deeply aware of the spiritual significance of certain places in the Bible. Some places we could time and again, the Bible is actually full of geographical places and why are they there? Why should we read that you travel from A to B and not get out on Atlas and look at those places and see the significance of those places.

6. 3:05

   Recently we’ve been making maps for our work of all sorts of Bible events and especially of the life of Christ. And during those five sessions, I want to look at the life of Christ, but through the places where he had been, which he visited some of them time and again, and make us realise that before we had laptops and projectors and whiteboards and blackboards and all sort of artificial materials, God had already designed the land as a teaching aid.

7. 3:40

   And that’s the way we learn to look at it. So what do we know about the land? Well, it lies at the junction of the great land masses of, of Europe. Here’s Europe, here’s Asia, and here’s Africa. And the land of this is right in the middle of it, a very important location.

8. 4:00

   If you go to Genesis chapter 48, then Jacob says this. After he had blessed Joseph in verse 15 and said Elovim, before whom my father’s Abram and Isaac did walk, the Elovim which fed me all or shepherded me all my life long unto this day, the Angel which redeemed me from all evil, blessed the lads, if I’m Amanasa, and let my name be named on them, and the name of my father’s Abram and Isaac. Let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth, because that’s where Israel is located. And that is why, I suppose it’s often in the news because of its central location.

9. 4:55

   Even today, almost all every day on the front page of the newspapers, Israel is mentioned. It’s also reinforced by the sounds. If you go to Psalm 74 now, you can see this centrality of the land of Israel in the purpose of God. It says that in verse 12.

10. 5:25

    For Elavim is my king of old working salvation in the midst of the earth. I believe the commas are the wrong place. Elavim is my king but of old from a long time ago he’s been working salvation in the midst of the earth and that’s why Abram was sent to that land. It was a special location with all its challenges.

11. 5:53

    If you look at this map, then we can see that the ancient land of Israel was located in between Egypt on the South and the other empires of Assyria and Babylon and Persia to the North East. And it’s all acted as a land bridge between these empires and it shaped their history. And sometimes God used the enemies of Israel to punish her whenever that was necessary.

12. 6:22

    The land has also been called a sanctuary and an observatory. If you look at the. Boundaries of the land and on the east and on the South we’ve got deserts, on the West is the Mediterranean Sea and in the north very high mountains. So it’s a land of isolation, just like we have isolated ourselves from the world so we can serve God without distraction. It’s isolation with its strength, but also its weakness because it was still possible to make contact with the neighbors who frequently used Israel as a land bridge. When Egypt fought against the Syria, they went through Israel and Babylon fought against Egypt, they went through the land of Israel.

13. 7:14

    So despite its isolation, there was also a lot of contact with the neighboring countries. And throughout its history, the land of Israel has been opened to cultural changes and social influences from nearly all points of the campus. So God used this location to give Israel an opportunity to be as separate people who would separate themselves unto God, but also to see if they trusted Him or rather in the nations that were around them. In Jeremiah 2 and WAS 18, we can see the reference which is made to the location of Israel and how they viewed and used the land.

14. 8:06

    In chapter 2 of Jeremiah and verse 18, the prophet speaks against Israel. In verse 17 he says, Hast thou not procured this unto thyself in the Taoist forsaken Yahweh thy alabin, when he let thee, By the way, how did they forsake him? What has thou to do in the way of Egypt to drink the waters of Sihor?

15. 8:30

    What is there to do in the way of Assyria to drink the waters of the river? They were not content to live in isolation in a land flowing with milk and honey, but it was plentiful water and food available. They had to go to the way of Egypt, they had to go to the way of Assyrian, and they were condemned for it.

16. 8:51

    So Israel had its strength. And it also has its weaknesses. Just as we as Christadelphians, we’ve also been placed in the sanctuary of our ecclesia. Brethren and sisters look upon it as a sanctuary where we can be isolated away from the world, where we can serve God and encourage Vangadeh without distraction. It was easy for Israel, if they wanted to, to go to Egypt or to go to Assyria.

17. 9:19

    It’s easy for us to go to the world. We walk on the computer, we are in the world at just a touch of a button and we can see all the evil that is in the world. Or do we? Use it and whatever means of communications we have to strengthen the brotherhood. But looking at the land itself, in a very small area, there are all sorts of different types of vegetation, of soils and of climate. You can divide the land into four different strips. We got a coastal plain very clearly marked out along the coast with flat and very fertile land. They get a central mountain range, high and lofty. There are no major roads going right through that central mountain range.

18. 10:05

    They got a deep and dark Jordan Valley, which ends in the Dead Sea. And then we got the other side of Jordan. And it often depends. Where you live? What influence that that may have on your life in the truth? Let’s go to two Judges. Let’s first look here at the coastal plain.

19. 10:29

    I’ve seen this one before. So here’s the coastal plain. It’s for the tribe of Asia and Zebulon and Efraim lived. You get cities like Tyre and Akko, Haifa, Dorsis, Aria and so on. But what does it say in Judges Chapter 1? Sometimes we’re going to be a bit too comfortable in our lives at the cost of our spiritual strength. In Judges chapter 1 and verse 29, talking about the people that lived in the coastal plain in the Philistine country, Ephraim in verse 29 did not drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gaza, but the Canaanites dwelt in Gaza among them.

20. 11:12

    Now did Zebulun drive out the inhabits of Kitron nor the inhabits of Nakhalo, but the Canaanites dwelt among them became tributaries. It’s getting worse with Ashen, who didn’t drive out the inhabits of Ako, nor the inhabits of Zaiden, nor Akhlab, nor Akhsiv, nor Khalban, nor Afiq, nor Ryob. But the Asrites dwelt among the Canaanites as a minority, the inhabitants of the land, for they did not drive them out. Our ecclesias.

21. 11:40

    And are we ourselves, brain and sisters, strong in faith or weak in conviction, like the asteroids, the Ephraimites, the Donites and the Zebulonites, who did not drive out the Canaanites? Do we have the inner strength, brain and sisters, to overcome our enemies? Do we believe in the power of good? Are we overcome of evil, or can we overcome evil with good?

22. 12:05

    But then we look at the central mountain. Range. And then you get a total different lifestyle. You see Kaidas, a city of refuge, Nazareth where Jesus was born, Mount Tabor, a rallying place of Deborah and Barack, Shechem, the 1st place where Abel meant to Shiloh, and the Tabernacle stood, Bethel, where God appeared to Jacob in a dream, Jerusalem where God.

23. 12:29

    Caused his name to. Dwell Bethlehem, where Jesus was born in Hebron, another city of refuge. So in between Dam and Bathsheba we’ve got this mountain range and that is much more suited for spiritual life away from the attractions of the world. So this characterised by isolation and by strength. The Philistines were in the plane, they couldn’t capture the Israelites who were in the mountains. And so we need to make our eccleses also bastions of strength, keeping ourselves undefiled by the world. But then we have the deep and dark Jordan Valley, part of the Great Rift Valley here, and we get places like Down and Hatsour and Adam and Southern and Jericho and the Dead Sea itself. It speaks of corruption from beginning to end, from Caesarea, where they had a idol worship, and up to Jericho and Sodom, which were destroyed.

24. 13:36

    It’s a pleasure we should remember Lot’s wife. When we travel this valley later this evening we can see or tomorrow we will see, there’s a picture of life itself. The name Jordan Yarden in Hebrew means the descender. It starts high peninsula where there’s snow melts. And we get lovely waterfalls, but it ends up in the Dead Sea into death itself. Sudden became an example of acts of eternal damnation by fire because of its sexual orientation. We live in very similar times and are we affected by it? And then we have the other side of Jordan, where the Rubenites were living and half type in Ghana and half type of Manasseh, and only a few places are there, Remus, Gilead and Raba of the Ammonites and Bezer and Golan, 3 cities of refuge. When the Tsionoviso came out of the desert of Sinai after 40 years of wandering, then the 2 1/2 tribes of Ruben gathered Manasseh, half of Manasseh, who first of all helped the other tribes during 5 long years to conquer the Canaanites. Then they went back home and they became content to live there in splendid isolation in beautiful countryside, very fertile land.

25. 14:57

    But what does it say about those people? Let’s go to Judges chapter 5 and 2 verses. There we like to concentrate on in the song of Deborah and Barack who were fighting against the Canaanites. They called all the tribes, but who did come, or rather, who did not come? We talk about the other side, Jordan, look what it says. In verse 15.

26. 15:25

    The Prince of Issachar, they were with Deborah, even Issachar and also Barack. He was sent on foot into the valley. But the divisions of Reuben were great thoughts of heart. By a bodis thou among the sheepfolds to hear the bleatings of the flock. For the divisions of Reuben were great searchings of heart.

27. 15:45

    They had a lovely lifestyle, plenty of food around by body that creates the searchings of hearts. Shall we go? Or shall we go? Shall we help our bread and scissors? Or shan’t we help our bread and sisters? That’s the mentality that was created in that particular lifestyle. We can also live in our cocoon and not be bothered about other bread and sisters and eccleses that are in need. So our our ecclesias characterised by the Rubenite inertia.

28. 16:16

    And are we look warm because we have increased in goods and have need of nothing or are we like the mountain dwellers of Issachar and Naftali? People who jeopardy their lives unto the death in the high places of the field in the time of Deborah and Barack. Often what we are is determined by where we choose to live. And Israel is the land of our inheritance. When you go there, you feel alive. If you’re part of God’s plan, it helps figure out figuring out where you are in the readings.

29. 16:52

    Few years ago we had a trip to Israel with 44 young Christadelphans and some older Braden sisters as well. And once said. I feel at home here. If you know the Bible, you feel at home in the land of Israel, he said. The better you know the Bible, the better you are able to understand the land.

30. 17:09

    But I’m not going to give you a lesson in. Topography or geography? Let’s listen to the words of Robert Roberts. All right. Thank you. Robert Roberts wrote in In Nazareth Revisited, topographical coincidences run through the whole plan of the Bible. The offering of Isaac on Mount Moriah required that Jesus should be offered there also. The birth of David at Bethlehem required the same thing of. Jesus.

31. 17:43

    David’s flight of the Mount of Olives from the presence of Israel’s rebellion seems to find a counterpart in Christ going to Gethsemane that he also has betrayed, and they’ve returned by that mount, a counterpart in Christ coming back to the Mount of Olives before his enthronement in Jerusalem. There’s much more to that. We ask ourselves, is it because of the fact that it’s written? It’s a land that Yahweh cares for? In Hebrew it means he has searched it out. You see more beautiful countries perhaps New Zealand is a fantastically beautiful country, but now God chose Israel. The eyes of Yaad I Alwin are always upon it from beginning of the year until the end of the year. So why this land?

32. 18:30

    But from our study of it, it appears that the land was specially designed to teach the great lessons which God wanted to teach mankind, especially the nation of Israel. And the more you look into it, the more you see that there’s a like a stage set prepared for the dramas that would unfold itself on that stage. It’s truly the land of promise.

33. 18:52

    Abel Must Talk was told to walk through the length and the breadth of it, and all the great men of scriptures have done that. Jesus walked through the land in his teaching and in his healing. We learn many lessons if he walk in their footsteps. So if you walk around the States yet, it gives you an idea of the script of the drama that is going to be produced there, and it’s the same.

34. 19:18

    If you walk through the land. You get that idea when you read through scriptures. When you read phrases. Such as as mountains are round about Jerusalem, so shall round about them. Let’s fear him. She will less stable among the mountains and come or by the sea be with that Jesus must needs go through Sumerian.

35. 19:41

    Why I must be in my father’s house. Those all geographical references to very important places. Sometimes God causes or His threshing floor. Actually many times in the prophets, because the Jezreel and the Iolong valleys, they seem to be created as battlefields where Josiah lost his life. So the whole lie of the land has teaching for its people and for us also.

36. 20:11

    There are places of such significance in God’s plan that they appear again and again in the pages of Scripture. There’s one place you’ve come to later on. The Christ went back time and time and time again because he got comfort from that particular place. Not from the physical treason, the shrubs and the river that was there, but from the associations that place had built into it. Jesus said I must walk today and tomorrow, and to be a Hebrew means to walk through the land.

37. 20:46

    Let’s go to Genesis chapter 12. Then we can see that he was the first Hebrew. In Genesis 12 and verse 6, we read that Abraham, Abraham passed through the land unto the place of Shechem, unto the plain, or the oak of Mooram passing through. That’s the Hebrew word for Hebrew. Who? Ava? He was a Hebrew in the land.

38. 21:22

    And God told him to do so in the next chapter 13 and verse 7. Then verse 17, after God had given that wonderful promise, let’s go to verse 15. It says, For all the land which thou seest to D will I give it, and to thy seed forever. Now make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, so shall thy seed also be numbered.

39. 21:47

    Arise and be a Hebrew walk through the land, in the length of it and in the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee. So in these studies, we’re going to look at some examples of what we call the power of Bible places, especially those connected with the life of our Lord Jesus Christ.

40. 22:08

    And we’re going. On a journey, because life is a journey by the sisters, we go from one place to another, from one event to another, and so did Jesus also. So let’s start at the very. Beginning when the Angel Gabriel appeared to to Zacharias in the temple.

41. 22:32

    There was in this map you can see that in the gospels we first meet Gabriel who appears to Zacharias in the temple, and then later on we meet the same Gabriel again. He goes to Mary in Nazareth and then Mary goes to visit Elizabeth in the Hill Country. Of Judah, what is the importance and how do people react in the places in which they lived?

42. 23:01

    Now if you look at the temple itself, Gabriel in the temple he appeared unto Zechariah, and he says, Thy prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee son, and thou shalt call his name John. The importance of Gabriel appearing at a particular time at a particular location is extremely important. Here you can see the reconstruction of the Temple Mount.

43. 23:31

    Here’s the the eastern wall of the Temple Mount. The Golden Gate is here nowadays. Here’s the Antonia Fortress on the northwestern corner. Here’s the Western Wall and the Southern. Wall and right in the middle to this magnificent temple. It was as high as 20 Storey multi Storey building nowadays, all covered over with gold and all the buildings which had different functions built around the temple.

44. 23:57

    Right in front of the temple and you can see the temple itself standing, that beautiful golden facade. Josephus, the historian said. If you stood on the Mount of Olives early in the morning and the sun rose up, the sun that was reflected by the gold of the temple would blind your eyes. It was a magnificent building. Jesus called it the House of my Father, despite the fact that it was built by Herod the Great.

45. 24:21

    In front of it was the court of the women, also called the treasury where Jesus did most of his teaching and all the buildings of the temple which the disciples pointed out when they sat on the Mount of Olives. In this courtyard many things happened is where Jesus talked about the woman who had cast 2 mites in a treasury. It was here that Jesus was presented as a baby, where where Anna the prophetess and Simeon the prophet were meeting with them.

46. 24:51

    He would see 15 semicircular steps where the Levite used to sing their songs, and beyond there was the temple itself, an absolutely very imposing and magnificent building. That was inside this building where the Angel Gabriel appeared. He appeared in the Holy of Holies, standing on the right side of the art of incense.

47. 25:19

    What does that mean? But the out out of incense stood on the West side of the holy right in front of the veil. The right side is almost the southern side because E is forward, so right is South and left is east. So he stood in between the out of incense and the lampstand because he represents the word of God.

48. 25:42

    And Zacharias was standing there at the out of incense, which represents prayer. It says in Psalm 141, my prayer shall be set forth before thee as incense. The apostles in Acts chapter 3 went to the temple at the hour of prayer, at the hour of incense, between 2:00 and 3:00. That’s where Gabriel appeared to Zechariah who was offering incense. But it’s more to that because in the temple. The priest served for two weeks and he was serving according to the order of Abijah and every morning they cast lots for its priests, A certain duty to do.

49. 26:26

    There were all sorts of things had to be done. The altar outside had to be cleaned and brought, wood brought for the sacrifices inside the temple. Inside the Holy Year, 5 priests went in. One was offering incense, but before one had cleaned the out of incense, another one went out to get the coals of the out of burnt offerings. The 4th 1 looked after the lampstand and the 5th did general duty, but to offer incense was the most coveted. Lot to receive and because everyone wanted to do it, once you had done it, you could never do it again. So Zechariah got the chance of his lifetime. He got a lot of incense in the temple and that’s why he prayed there.

50. 27:13

    Of course God can hear our prayer always, but this was this particular time and a particular place to say a prayer to be almost sure that God will hear your prayer all his life. He must be waiting for this opportunity to pray to God for a son in his magnificent temple, most beautiful building in in the land of Israel and in Jerusalem.

51. 27:42

    So you think? Wow, I can. Pray to God, and I expect an answer. And he got an answer. Cable shall thy prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thy shall call his name John, as you read in Luke 1 and 13.

52. 27:59

    And then he didn’t believe it. How is it possible, pregnant sisters, you waited all your life to be in a particular place, to offer incense and to say your prayers, asking for something that seems impossible, and then Angel appears and you don’t believe it and he was struck down. So he couldn’t even say the blessing, which I said every day after the offering of incense. Here you can see 5 priests standing there. Here’s the incense offering priest after the They’ve been there a whole hour in the holy.

53. 28:32

    They came out, all five of them. They raised up their hands, all 5, as you can see there in the model, and they said the blessing the Zechariah was done. So we don’t know what he would have said, but we do know what he was supposed to have said, because every day those priests said in unison the same blessing of number six, verse 24 to 26. Yaweh, bless thee and keep thee.

54. 28:58

    Yaoh, make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. Yaoh, lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. That’s what they said every day. I’ve got made his face shine upon Zecharias. He was gracious unto him. He heard his prayer. And then he didn’t believe it. And we can mean a very similar situation by the sisters.

55. 29:21

    We read the word of God and we commit our life to God and we pray to God. But do we always recognise it? And are we thankful when? We get an answer to our prayer. Or do we? Just subscribe to certain circumstances that we got what we wanted after all and the contrast between Gabriel being in the temple.

56. 29:44

    And the later being sent to Nazareth could not have been grated because Nazareth, although we got to look much more at Nazareth tomorrow, God willing, Gabriel now, after having been in that beautiful temple and being met with unbelief, was now sent to a little village in Galilee named Nazareth. That’s what it looks like today.

57. 30:07

    You can see the Jesuit Valley to the South of it and it’s quite a large city nowadays, but. In those times it was a small city. Here’s a photograph of Nazareth about 100 years ago, and that’s what it looked like. I believe in the time of the Lord Jesus Christ. A small village inside a bowl, surrounded by mountains, isolated, poor. And that’s where Gabriel was sent. Not to the magnificent temple in Jerusalem, to a little village, to a little girl.

58. 30:38

    And a very different reception he got. Because we go to Luke chapter 1, we read there in verse 26 now in the sixth month, I mean after his appearance to Zechariah the Angel Gabriel, and his name means the mighty man of God. He was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin. Espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the House of David, and the Virgin’s name was Mary.

59. 31:30

    Her names are very important in the Bible. Mary had a Hebrew name. In Hebrew she would have been called Miriam, and her name means exalted. Her name doesn’t come from Mara or bitterness. Her name was Miriam. Even in the Greek New Testament, she’s called Miriam. And indeed she was exalted. And how did the Angel greet her? In verse 28?

60. 31:54

    The Angel came in and to her in a humble house in a humble village far away from the magnificent city of Jerusalem, he said, Hail or rejoice, thou highly favoured, the Lord is with thee, Blessed art thou among women. Now, she’s never been greeted like that in her life. She wasn’t used to be greeted like that.

61. 32:19

    And then we read in verse 29 she was troubled at this saying and cast in her mind, what men of salutation this. Should be the message of a Saviour being born of a virgin would not have been strange to her, because she knew the prophets that a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.

62. 32:41

    By the fact that it was Gabriel there which first appeared to Zechariah, now came to her. And she only thought why me after she heard the message of Gabriel, she only asked one question. She says how shall this be seeing I know not a man. It’s a wonderful lifestyle. This girl lived a very faithful girl in Israel.

63. 33:08

    But this was not a question out of unbelief, as. The question of Zacharias was who didn’t believe and asked for a sign. Her question was perfectly reasonable and therefore in verse 37, the Angel. In verse 35 says, after her question in verse 34 says, the Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall over shadow thee. Therefore so that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

64. 33:33

    And then he also says, Behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she has also conceived a son in her old age, and it’s a six month with her who is called barren. For be God nothing shall be impossible. I should have remembered Abe. Man, Sarah, is anything too hard for the Lord? Sarah laughed in unbelief. But how did Mary react?

65. 34:02

    She says, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy words. And sometimes you get a far better reception, brethren, as sisters, as the the Angel Gable did in humble dwellings with poor people rather than in that mighty beautiful gold covered temple in Jerusalem.

66. 34:30

    But now the next place you’re going to visit, we’re going to follow Mary. What would you do? If you were a girl. How old was she, 18/19/20? I don’t know young. She didn’t go to a father and a mother because I think she was an. Orphan already at that time the age of Gabriel, intimated to her that she should go to Elizabeth. He says, Behold, thy cousin Elizabeth. She also conceived, so why would you say so? If not saying well go and visit Elizabeth and that was the most important visit, not just to have a woman where she can share experiences with, but also the place where Elizabeth lived had great.

67. 35:17

    Significance I believe in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, but Mary was a wonderful woman when we read. That she cast in her mind all the things which she heard. She didn’t always understand it, but she didn’t start arguing. She just kept those things in her heart. And it’s a wonderful call that you have by the sisters.

68. 35:41

    We don’t understand everything. Instead of arguing about it, just store it away. Read about it. The word cast in her mind in Greekis dialogizoma. It means to have a dialogue with yourself. So we read the scriptures and we think about it, we meditate on it and we either come to a conclusion or we wait.

69. 36:02

    But it’s there all the time. Mary kept all those things and pondered them in their heart. And that’s the beautiful frame of mind which God must have loved. He must have chosen her for that quality to become the mother of His Son. She was the only suitable woman to share parenthood with God. She must be an an amazing person because she knew He knew that she would teach the young mind of Jesus in all the things that he needed to know.

70. 36:38

    But how do you go to Elizabeth? Where did she live? We just thought she lived in the Hill Country of Judah. Is it important to know? But who were Zacharias and Elizabeth actually, and why did Gable say that she should go there? What is the power of the Bible place where Elizabeth and Zechariah lived well?

71. 37:10

    I’ve got a. Few places here that Mary arose and went into the Hill Country, into the city of Judah, which. City was it? If you ask anybody in Israel where did John the Baptist grow up, they say and Cairan just to the West of Jerusalem. It’s only built on tradition. There’s no historical documentation for that at all.

72. 37:30

    But. If you just look at these passages, you can look at the screen, you can look them up in your Bible. We read there that there was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, Luke 1 and five, a certain priest called Zecharias. He was off the course of abaya and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron.

73. 37:49

    She wasn’t just a nobody, she was a daughter of Aaron. Tim speaking about the importance of the Levites. Well, not just the Levites. She was a daughter of Aaron the high priest. And then in Chronicles 24, let’s turn there because it’s important that we realise whom we are dealing with. Why did Gable Saint Mary to speak to Elizabeth? I was like, why?

74. 38:16

    I couldn’t say a thing, of course. But in One Chronicles 24 we read about the divisions of the sons of Aaron, the native and Abiyu, Eleazar and Isthmar. Native and Abiyu died before the father and had no children. Therefore Eleazar and Isthmar executed the priest office.

75. 38:39

    What did David do with those two families? The families descendants of Aaron the high priest. He distributed them both Zadok of the sons of Eliezer and Ahimelech, the sons of Isthmar, according to their officers in their service. And so first five, they were divided by lot 1 sword with another for governors of the sanctuary, governors of the House of God.

76. 39:07

    They were the sons of Eliezer. And the sons of Isthmar, grandsons of Aaron the high priest. And so they divide into 24 different orders so that they would go around in two years for two weeks and serve in Jerusalem. And in verse, the 8th order in verse 10 belonged to Abijah. The Zechariah belonged to that order, an order of the sons of Aaron, and that is why he served in the temple. In verse 19 we read of the same chapter. These were the orderings of them, the sons of Aaron, in their service to come into the House of Yahweh according to their manner, and to under Aaron their father as Yahweh Elimovico had commanded them.

77. 39:58

    Well, Mary Elizabeth described as a daughter of Aaron, but Zacharias was a son of Aaron, and therefore they lived in the city of Aaron in a place called. The city in the Hill Country of Judah. If you go to Joshua chapter 21, we can find out where it is exactly.

78. 40:24

    There’s only one city of all the Leviticus cities and of all the cities in Judah that was called a city in the Hill Country of of Judah. Remember how Tim explained that Jacob said I was scatter Levi in Israel about one of the cities where they lived. We read about in verse 11.

79. 40:48

    So verse 10 for connecting the children of Aaron of the families of the Koethites, who of the children of Levi had the first Lord. They gave to them the city of Arban, the father of Anak, which is Hebron in the Hill Country of Judah, the only city that is called a city in the Hill Country of Judah with the suburbs thereof ground about it.

80. 41:13

    That’s where they lived. That was a city given to Aaron the high priest and his descendants, and that’s where Elizabeth and Zechariah lived, and that is where Mary went.

81. 41:27

    It also became a city of refuge, as you read in verse 13, as they gave to the children of Israel of Aaron the priest, Hebron as the suburbs to be a city of refuge for the Slayer. So it’s the most important place where they lived. Or the interesting thing, of course, is that Mary and Elizabeth were cousins. How is that possible?

82. 41:55

    Because Mary came from. Judah. At least her father did because you can read in Matthew chapter one that Jacob father was a direct descendant of David through Solomon. How could she have been cousins with a daughter of Aaron if not? Mary’s mother was a sister to the mother of Elizabeth. So Mary’s mother must have been a daughter of Aaron also. And it’s the most beautiful thing we can get out of this whole indication of the Angel Gabriel of Mary to go to Elizabeth.

83. 42:33

    Because we can learn from an incident that Mary’s father was on the line of the kings of Judah. Her mother was a daughter of Aaron. He got the two tribes, Levi and Judah, coming together in this family in Mary. And it is wonderful because Jesus Christ is going to be king and priest.

84. 42:58

    He could claim to be king through Mary’s father. He could claim to be priest through Mary’s mother. He’s both king and priest. My brother Tim spoke about the zeal of the sons of Levi, but Jesus said the zeal of thine house has eaten me up. Where did he get that zeal from? If not from the family line of Erin, the zeal by which they they’re the zeal of God to do away with iniquity and his evil.

85. 43:35

    So Hebron Wellness Sisters is the city of Erin and many other things happened in this city. You can just. Go through the history. But first of all, before we look a bit further into Hebron, if just think of that journey, a girl who’s just met an Angel who says she’s got to be pregnant and go and see your cousin Elizabeth.

86. 44:02

    She had to travel 190 kilometres from Nazareth all the way through Jordan Valley by Jericho and Jerusalem, Bethlehem and go to Hebron. Now that is quite a distance just walking from here where we are all the way to Hamilton and back again. Well, I’m sure there was no snow in those days, but still quite, quite a bit of a journey.

87. 44:25

    And to do that. All on her own, in a time when travel was not always very safe. Must have proved to her, to us to prove. That she completely trusted in God. If she was chosen by God to become the mother of His Son, that He would look after her wherever she went, as long as she didn’t tempt the Lord.

88. 44:50

    But other things happened in in Hebron. It was the burial place of of the patriarchs. You know that Abraham, he bought of the sons of Head a burial place to bury Sarah. And he himself was buried there, as are Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah. The city was conquered. I think you can read quite a few references here by Caleb, the son of Gefenne was given to Aaron. But it also was a city of refuge. And finally David was crowned king there. How many associations are there in that city? So we saw early that God told Abram, Arise, walk through the land, in the length of it, and in the breadth which I would give it, and unto thee.

89. 45:33

    And although Jesus was not yet born, he was there with her, wasn’t he? And later, when he grew up, she would have told him when he was a little bit older about that journey while he was still in the room. She would have told him that the Angel told her to go there to bring home to this young boy Jesus his connections with Abraham, with Isaac and Jacob, with David and the ironic priesthood, and that he’s going to be king and priest in Israel.

90. 46:10

    All the city brothers and sisters, Abram and his family buried there. The city of the high priest. David was crowned king there and now Jesus. God was indicated all these things to Jesus even before he was born. Let me know that your wife’s going to give birth. Don’t you make preparations, buy cot, buy little baby clothes, and prepare everything.

91. 46:31

    So God was preparing for His Son Jesus by showing him the root and the connections which he had with the fathers of old today. Of course you can. Go there to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a building rebuilt by King Harry the Great in the typical Herodian style. Inside, as you can see on this drawing, there’s a Crusader church.

92. 46:53

    So it’s a site holy for for Jews, actually for Muslims also who also pray there, and for Christians. But somewhere underneath that platform, if you could only make a hole in that surrounding. Wall. There is the double cave where Abram and Isaac and Abraham and and Sarah and Isaac and and Leah and and Rachel and and or Jacob and Leah were buried. So what a place it was not just a randomly chosen place when the Asia told her to go to death.

93. 47:24

    No, it was to make sure that Jesus understood all the connections with the royal House of David and the high priesthood of of Aaron. But then he was going to be born in Bethlehem, the verse says. Out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be a ruler in his realm.

94. 47:46

    How was it just a randomly chosen cave where Mary gave birth to Jesus? You can go to Bethlehem nowadays. I mean I went there just after the 6th day war in 1967. Spent the whole night there watching those priests. The Bishop was a big mice on his head, having a plastic door in his hand and little door at his legs, legs crossed in the hands. Like this.

95. 48:06

    He was walking through the door, through the church, followed by a whole row of priests with staging hand and boom, boom, boom, just to impressed the people that came to visit there. And I just couldn’t go back to the kibbutz where I was. So I stayed all the night in that, in that cave there where Jesus was supposed to be born with a silver star.

96. 48:23

    On the floor. Well, Jesus was not born in a cave, and there was no Silver Star when he was born there at all. And so that makes you just wonder, well, is it important for us to know at all where he was born? The fact that he was born, that he became the saviour of the world, is surely more important.

97. 48:42

    But still a thing by instances that we can learn a lot from Bethlehem. First of all, the Romans were in power and if you go to Luke chapter 2 we can see what forced them. They were living in Nazareth in the wrong place. Jesus could not have been born in Nazareth. In chapter 2 we read they came to pass in those days, that they went out for a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.

98. 49:10

    This Texan was first made when Sirenius was governor of Syria and all went to be taxed, everyone into his own city. You’re going to just go where you wanted to. So Joseph, he had to go up from Galilee, another long journey which Mary had done before, out of the city of Nazareth into Judea and to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David to be taxed or enrolled with Mary, his espoused wife, being great wish child.

99. 49:41

    Well, that must have been a very uncomfortable journey. If you’re almost nine months pregnant and you’ve got to travel about 100 kilometres on the back of a donkey shaking around. That was not very comfortable, but it was determined that Jesus. Had to be born in Bethlehem and so they had to go there.

100. 49:59

     Going there through the hot Jordan Valley, like going from here to Toronto, 100 mile long journey. It’s a very long distance. And then they. Arrived there to give birth to the Son of God and there was no place for them to stay in. The only available place for the Son of God was to be born in a dirty stable which you had to share with animals. It wasn’t a romantic Christmas postcard stable at all. You only hope that there were some women capacity enough to help her with her childbirth, otherwise Joseph would have been the only.

101. 50:31

     Support in those dire circumstances. That’s how the Son of God was born, pregnant sisters. So what is the importance about Bethlehem? That’s the journey. Then he had to undertake that to leave Nazareth, go to Bethshan through the Jordan Valley, crossover Bethabarra, and have that steep climb up from Jericho to Jerusalem and then go to to Bethlehem.

102. 50:56

     Well, you can see Bethlehem today. It’s quite a large city all over here. And here’s the centre of Bethlehem, where Jesus was born and Joshua. Came into the. Land we can read in chapter 6. He conquered Jericho. He cursed the city so that it became a city of death. Nobody lived in Jericho anymore. But remember Rahab and the family, the only person that was saved, she married Salman of the tribe of Judah, and they must have settled in Bethlehem when Judah captured first its inheritance and later we know that. Let’s go to Ruth in Chapter 4.

103. 51:55

     Here we have the the Redeemer Boaz in verse 9 saying to the eldest and to all the people that were in the gate. You have witnesses this day that I have bought all that was Elimelechs and all that was Killians and Maclons of the hand of Naomi. Moreover, Ruth don’t know by this the wife of Maclon have I purchased.

104. 52:14

     To be my wife, To raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, That the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren and from the gate of his place. Ye are witnesses this day. And so Ruth was there. She became the great grandmother of David, and she was redeemed by Boaz, the type of Christ and Gentile.

105. 52:36

     Ruth is one of the four women that are mentioned in Matthew chapter one in the genealogy of Jesus, a Gentile woman. Just amazing. So Jesus was born in Bethlehem just as David was born in Bethlehem. David was anointed king in Bethlehem by Samuel the prophet, and so the place is so important in all the associations.

106. 53:02

     We can go back earlier in history. Let’s go to Genesis chapter 35. What can we learn there about Bethlehem in verse 18? Over 16 for connection Here’s another family who’s a pregnant woman travelling down to Bethlehem just like Joseph and Mary did about 2000 years later on their journey from Bethel. Over 16 There was better little way. To come to effort.

107. 53:40

     And Rachel travelled as she had hard labour. And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not, thou shalt have this son also. And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing. For she died, that she called his name Benoni, but his father called him Benjamin. And Rachel died and was buried in the way to effort, which is Bethlehem.

108. 54:03

     And Jacob said the pillar upon her grave, that’s the pillar of Rachel’s grave unto this day. And then he journeyed and spread his tent toward the Tower of Ida, another very important place in Bethlehem. To go back to Mary, that she was in the stable. She had just given birth.

109. 54:27

     I’ll be present at the birth of my children to be with my wife Kathleen. And I’m sure the last thing she found and have a group of angels coming in and telling you what they had seen is just not be quiet and get over the experience of having given birth. But why did the Angel appear to shepherds, and not to carpenters or to fishermen or to stonemasons?

110. 54:55

     The shepherds in Bethlehem whom those angels appeared may not have been ordinary shepherds at all, according to ancient Jewish sources. The Tower of Ida or Migdal Edde we just read about in Genesis 35 in verse 21, the tower of Ida. Means the tower of the flock. That’s where Jacob camped after Rachel had died and Benjamin was born.

111. 55:27

     Now we know that if you go to Micah chapter 4, that was most people say why the Jews had to be born in Bethlehem, not because of Micah. Most people say I was he was born in in Bethlehem and they quote Micah first stood, but thou Bethlehem Ephrata doda by little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of this shall he come forth unto me.

112. 55:58

     That is the ruler in Israel. Whose going forth had been promoted from everlasting. But to understand the shepherds, then you go to chapter 4 and verse 8. And thou tower of the flock. Same place where Jacob pitched his tent after Rachel had died. Back in the same place. What does it say about that place?

113. 56:23

     It’s a stronghold of the daughters of Zion. And to thee shall it come the first dominion. The Kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem. Where? In the tower of the flock.

114. 56:40

     Now we know from other sources that in this particular place a flock was kept looked as very special flock by very special shepherds because from that flock, every day two lambs were taken to be sacrificed in the temple. And those shepherds had to make sure that those lambs had no broken legs, no missing tail or ear or whatever.

115. 57:06

     And if you were a. Shepherd And you’ve got all those lovely lambs around you, and every day two were taken away to be killed on the art. They said, well, what is all this about? It would set you thinking, wouldn’t it? Would they have thought about the lamb that was? Slain from the foundation of the earth. It was to those shepherds that were wondering about the Lamb that was going to be slain of the world that he appeared, and they announced, as it says here in verse 8, the Kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem. That’s why the angels went to those shepherds, and that is the beauty of Bethlehem.

116. 57:47

     So Mary, it’s much to ponder about, to think about, as she would have thought and meditated on it and kept it in her heart. And she would have taught Jesus all about the circumstances of the announcement by the Gabriel, the Angel Gabriel, of her visit to Elizabeth, her birth in Bethlehem, and the visit of the Angel. But now there was all the references about the tower of the flock.

117. 58:16

     Use the shepherd’s field. You can go to the shepherd’s field now. Not quite sure. Whether this is? The tower of the flock, because there’s a Catholic one, there’s a Greek one and a Latin 1. So you can take your, your, your, your pick. But what is more important is where was the inn and what do you know about this table where she was born?

118. 58:39

     And there’s a fantastic lesson here in showing out God had 1000 years beforehand prepared a place for Jesus to be born. Let’s go to second Samuel. Chapter 19

119. 59:06

     is after the rebellion of Absalom. Absalom. Was slain. David mourned for him, but then he went back home and he wanted to take Barcelonae with him. He says There in verse 33, the king said unto Barcelonae, Come down over with me, and I will feed thee with me in Jerusalem. Barcelonae said unto the king, How long have I to live, that I should go up with the King unto Jerusalem? Now he’s too old and all that, he said, verse 36 that I served or go a little way over Jordan with the king, and why should the king recompense it to me with such a reward? And he says that thy servant I prayed, he turned back again, that I may die in my own country by the grave of my father and of my mother.

120. 1:00:02

     But behold thy servant Kim Hum. That was his son. Let him go over with my Lord the King, and do to him what shall seem good unto thee. And the king answered, King Ham shall go over with me, and I’ll do to him that which shall seem good unto thee, and whatsoever required me I will do for thee.

121. 1:00:23

     And so he went, and he ate of the King’s table. But how was he going to make a living? Of course he was fed from the table of the king. He had a family to look after him. He wants to Job. So how did he go about looking after his family? It’s a very interesting connection with Jeremiah chapter 41 in Jeremiah 41, after the Babylonian invasion, with all the trouble with Godalaya and Ishmael and all that, and then the remnants wants to go to Egypt that asked Jeremiah to pray for them, but when he came back with an answer, they didn’t want to listen to him and so they took him for his. I must make this short.

122. 1:01:19

     In 1st, 5th, 1st, 14 all the people that Ishmael carried away kept it from Misbah cast about to return to a minute to Chaconam the son of Korea. But Ishmael the son of Netanyahu of Nathania, he escaped with Jochnam with eight men and went to the Ammonites and took Jochenam the son of Korea.

123. 1:01:36

     And all the captains of the force that were with him, all the remnant of the people which he had covered, because from Ishmael the son of Nathanael, from Mizpah, all that he had slain. After that he had slain Gadoli, the son of Ahaikum, all the mighty men of war, and the women and the children and the eunuchs, which he had brought again from Given. And they departed and dwelt in the habitation of Kim Ham, which is by Bethlehem, to go to enter into Egypt because of the Chaldeans, because they were afraid. So they’d made-up their mind to go to Egypt, and they waited till they were all together, and they stayed in the habitation of Kim Ham.

124. 1:02:14

     Was Kim Ham the son of Barcelona? Whom they was going to look after. What’s the word? The habitation is the word for an inn. This is the inn of Kim Ham in Bethlehem. How did you get the inn? David, I suppose, would have taken part of his inheritance, given it to Kim Ham so he could build.

125. 1:02:44

     An inn and make a living. It was still known as the Inn of Kim Ham all those many years later. Now we know from archaeology that there’s only one. Inn in a village in a city. There’s only one inn in Bethlehem and so, but it says through the generosity of David to Barthelai Alison Kimham, a birthplace had been prepared by the fore sight of God for the Saviour of the world.

126. 1:03:19

     Now that is wonderful. Now by the. Stable. We know what stables look like. You can see on the on the picture here. It’s a reconstruction drawing. It was quite an extensive building, a main entrance where the travellers came. They stayed in the buildings around the courtyard. The owner of the inn would have lit upstairs.

127. 1:03:43

     There was a well in the courtyard, but here’s a stable block where the animals stayed. There’s a wall there, as you can see here, with windows in it. We call it the fenestrated wall. The animals are put at the back of this wall, like the donkey standing there will be fed from the foot that was put inside those windows, perhaps in their wooden box.

128. 1:04:07

     And the people that served the animals would be here on this side of the stables, and that’s where Mary and Joseph would have been. And after Jesus was born, he. Would have been put. In one of those window boxes, the food taken out, straw pudding there. And so a a place has been provided for Jesus to be born in. But in his own inheritance in the inn of Kim Ham, which David had given to him to make a living, that most thought to prepare a place.

129. 1:04:36

     For Jesus to be born in in the inheritance of David, when he says. This just blows you away how God has prepared a place for. Jesus to be born. Not in a. Cave, no Silver Star, nothing in it at all like that, but in his own inheritance.

130. 1:04:54

     Let’s just remember that when Jacob and Rachel travelled. To the same. Place here that Rachel died when Benjamin was born. You go to Genesis chapter 48. Let’s just go back again to Rachel and what happened to her in Bethlehem. They printed on the mind of Jacob, he says there in chapter 48 and verse 7.

131. 1:05:30

     As for me, when I came from Param, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way when she had a little way to come to effort, and I buried her there in the way of effort. The same is Bethlehem. That connection between Rachel dying there must have been a great mourning when she died because Jacob put a. Pillow on her grave and was still known all through the ages even up to today.

132. 1:05:59

     You can still go to Rachel’s Tomb, if not exactly in the same place, but certainly in the area if you go to Matthew chapter 2.

133. 1:06:27

     We have those wise men, those Megai coming from Mesopotamia, and they asked the verse to where is he that is born king of the Jews? We have seen a star in the East and come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him.

134. 1:06:42

     We’ll just skip what happened there, which we know and verse 16 when those mega I didn’t come back then I heard when he had when he saw that he was mocked off. The wise man was exceeding wrath, and sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem. And all the coast era from 2 years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise man then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet saying in Rama was the voice heard lamentation and weeping and great mourning. Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they are not.

135. 1:07:16

     And she died in Bethlehem. So why did Jeremiah mention Rama in connection with the weeping of Rachel? Rama was further to the north in the territory of Benjamin, where Rachel represents the Jewish nation in trouble, just as he yourself was when Benjamin was born. We know Joseph is a type of Jesus who’s Benjamin then his younger brother, all those that believed in him after he was risen from the dead and Rachel will have to make way, will have to die. The state of Israel will have to make way for the Kingdom to come.

136. 1:07:56

     But in Jeremiah chapter 40, we can see what’s happened there in Rama in Jeremiah chapter 40 after. The city was destroyed, the city of Jerusalem.

137. 1:08:15

     Jeremiah’s life was saved with that of Ibad Milek, the Ethiopian. Do you remember the story? And then it says in verse 1 of chapter 40, the word that came to Jeremiah from Yawa. After that, Nebuchadne, the cap of the guard, had let him go from Rama. They had taken him, being bound in chains among all that were carried away captive of Jerusalem and Judah, which were carried away captive and to Babylon.

138. 1:08:42

     So after Jerusalem was destroyed, a rounded of all the survivors and brought them to Rama. I can imagine what a weeping that must have been, but among. All those prisoners, there was Jeremiah also, but he was let go. He was set free, chains taken away, his life preserved, and he could stay in Jerusalem.

139. 1:09:07

     That was what happened in in Bethlehem in the time of Jesus. All those young children, those babies of two years old were. All. Killed. But God knew that beforehand. He remembered Jeremiah. Who was set? Free. And he set his own son. Free by warning Joseph and Mary to go to Egypt before this happened, just just as Jeremiah was set free, so Jesus also escaped a terrible fate that was suffered by the little ones in Bethlehem at the and of Herod.

140. 1:09:34

     And there was an opportunity to fulfil another prophecy out of Egypt. Have I called my son? And there’s a subject for tomorrow’s Doctor Scott Willing.