Gilbert House Fellowship

GOD CLAIMED for Himself the tribe of Levi in lieu of the firstborn sons of all Israel. We discuss the duties of the clans of the Levites—the Kohathites, Gershonites, and Merarites—and why it was imperative that only the high priest entered the Holiest Place.

We also discuss rules concerning unclean people, confession of and restitution for sins, and a test for adultery that seems odd, if not unfair, by the standards of today.

Derek is one of the speakers for the Discerning Minds Virtual Conference March 26-28, 2021. Find out more and sign up at www.HearTheWatchmen.com.

Join us in Israel! We will lead another tour through the Holy Land in 2021. Note: The dates have been changed due to travel restrictions because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The new tour dates are October 3–18, 2021, with an optional three-day extension to Jordan, with visits to Mount Nebo, Wadi Rum, and Petra.

For more information, log on to www.SkyWatchinIsrael.com.

Our new book Giants, Gods and Dragons is available now for Kindle and for pre-order in paperback! Get it as part of a great package with more than 27 hours of our video teachings at the SkyWatchTV Store, or by itself at Amazon.com.

And Derek’s novels The God Conspiracy and Iron Dragons are available now in paperback and Kindle! See the official trailers and learn more at the website for Rose Avenue Fiction.

Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org.

Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

ISRAEL PREPARES for war: This week, we study the arrangement of the tribes around the tabernacle and their order as they organize for the march to Canaan.

We discuss traditions regarding the banners under which the tribes marched and compare that to the prophecies of Jacob over his sons in Genesis 49.

Join us in Israel! We will lead another tour through the Holy Land in 2021. Note: The dates have been changed due to travel restrictions because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The new tour dates are October 3–18, 2021, with an optional three-day extension to Jordan, with visits to Mount Nebo, Wadi Rum, and Petra.

For more information, log on to www.SkyWatchinIsrael.com.

Our new book Giants, Gods and Dragons is available now for Kindle and for pre-order in paperback! Get it as part of a great package with more than 27 hours of our video teachings at the SkyWatchTV Store, or by itself at Amazon.com.

And Derek’s novels The God Conspiracy and Iron Dragons are available now in paperback and Kindle! See the official trailers and learn more at the website for Rose Avenue Fiction.

Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org.

Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

GOD MADE His promises to Israel contingent upon following His statutes and commandments. The blessings He promised for obedience were wonderful—harvests in abundance, peace and safety in the land—but the punishments for rebellion were severe.

We’re in the middle of a long war for control of God’s creation, Earth, and those He charged with serving as His imagers—God’s moral agents—on it. His instruction to the Israelites and Mount Sinai was intended to show them just how serious is this conflict.

We also discuss the Hebrew word translated “idols” and its origin with a fallen angel/false god who dared to call himself “god of gods,” the presence of other “destroying angels” among the curses Israel would suffer for disobedience, and the connection between God’s warning and the prophecy of 70 weeks in chapter 9 of the Book of Daniel.

You can download The Coming Prince by Sir Robert Anderson in PDF, EPUB (Apple Books), or MOBI (Kindle) format by clicking here: https://servantofmessiah.org/the-coming-prince-by-sir-robert-anderson/

Join us in Israel! We will lead another tour through the Holy Land in 2021. Note: The dates have been changed due to travel restrictions because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The new tour dates are October 3–18, 2021, with an optional three-day extension to Jordan, with visits to Mount Nebo, Wadi Rum, and Petra.

For more information, log on to www.SkyWatchinIsrael.com.

Our new book Giants, Gods and Dragons is available now for Kindle and for pre-order in paperback! Get it as part of a great package with more than 27 hours of our video teachings at the SkyWatchTV Store, or by itself at Amazon.com.

And Derek’s novels The God Conspiracy and Iron Dragons are available now in paperback and Kindle! See the official trailers and learn more at the website for Rose Avenue Fiction.

Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org.

Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

THE JUBILEE of YHWH is diametrically opposed to the way the world has set up our modern financial system—which shouldn’t be a surprise.

This week, we discuss the Jubilee, a system that God designed specifically to prevent the kind of deb servitude that’s all too common in our modern world.

We also explain the theology of “the Name,” which does not at all refer to God’s reputation.

If you missed it, you can hear Derek’s interview with John B. Wells on Caravan to Midnight from Saturday, February 13, by clicking here.

Join us in Israel! We will lead another tour through the Holy Land in 2021. Note: The dates have been changed due to travel restrictions because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The new tour dates are October 3–18, 2021, with an optional three-day extension to Jordan, with visits to Mount Nebo, Wadi Rum, and Petra.

For more information, log on to www.SkyWatchinIsrael.com.

Our new book Giants, Gods and Dragons is available now for Kindle and for pre-order in paperback! Get it as part of a great package with more than 27 hours of our video teachings at the SkyWatchTV Store, or by itself at Amazon.com.

And Derek’s novels The God Conspiracy and Iron Dragons are available now in paperback and Kindle! See the official trailers and learn more at the website for Rose Avenue Fiction.

Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org.

Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

GOD’S HOLINESS requires perfection—a standard we can never meet on our own.

This week, we discuss rules for the priesthood: Marriage, mourning, and physical qualifications; things the priests were forbidden to eat; and physical disqualifications for sacrificial animals.

We also discuss the Feasts of the Lord and some of the odd connections between the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Feast of Tabernacles with the arrival of asteroid Apophis in 2029.

Join us in Israel! We will lead another tour through the Holy Land in 2021. Note: The dates have been changed due to travel restrictions because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The new tour dates are October 3–18, 2021, with an optional three-day extension to Jordan, with visits to Mount Nebo, Wadi Rum, and Petra.

For more information, log on to www.SkyWatchinIsrael.com.

Our new book Giants, Gods and Dragons is available now for Kindle and for pre-order in paperback! Get it as part of a great package with more than 27 hours of our video teachings at the SkyWatchTV Store, or by itself at Amazon.com.

And Derek’s novels The God Conspiracy and Iron Dragons are available now in paperback and Kindle! See the official trailers and learn more at the website for Rose Avenue Fiction.

Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org.

Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

SPEAKING WITH SPIRITS was strictly forbidden by God. This might seem to be a quaint and antiquated notion, but the fact that we encounter the prohibition three times in our reading today indicates that this was a serious issue in ancient Canaan.

Scholars are not entirely agreed on the meaning of the words translated into English as “mediums” and “necromancers,” ʾobot and yiddeʿonim. There are various terms used by translators, including “spiritists,” “wizards,” “enchanters,” “divining spirits,” and “familiar spirits.” In the context of the culture of Canaan in the time of Moses and Joshua, this was a prohibition on the veneration of the “dead”—actually, demons—that was an essential part of Amorite religious and social customs.

We also discuss prohibitions on the mixing of animals, crops, and fabrics; unjust weights and measures; and various deviant sexual practices, some of which were encouraged in the worship of the goddess Astarte, better known to history as Ishtar or Inanna (or Aphrodite or Venus).

Child sacrifice is also condemned, as we encounter twice more God’s command that giving children to Molech was absolutely forbidden and punishable by death.

With all of the laws handed down by God, there was a purpose. And it appears that many, if not all, of them had been transgressed by the people of Canaan who were to be displaced by the people of Israel.

Join us in Israel! We will lead another tour through the Holy Land in 2021. Note: The dates have been changed due to travel restrictions because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The new tour dates are October 3–17, 2021, with an optional three-day extension to Jordan, with visits to Mount Nebo, Wadi Rum, and Petra.

For more information, log on to www.SkyWatchinIsrael.com.

Our new book Giants, Gods and Dragons is available now for Kindle and for pre-order in paperback! Get it as part of a great package with more than 27 hours of our video teachings at the SkyWatchTV Store, or by itself at Amazon.com.

And Derek’s novels The God Conspiracy and Iron Dragons are available now in paperback and Kindle! See the official trailers and learn more at the website for Rose Avenue Fiction.

Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org.

Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

IT’S ANOTHER weird section of scripture this week, which, as you know by now, means it’s important.

In the middle of rules pertaining to sacrifices, God gave this to Moses:

So they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to goat demons, after whom they whore. (Leviticus 17:7, ESV)

What are goat demons? It’s significant that this warning comes shortly after God instructed Moses and Aaron on the atonement ritual that required a goat be sent into the wilderness for Azazel, who was named as one of the leaders of the Watchers who agreed to rebel against God on the summit of Mount Hermon.

But the Hebrew word se’irim doesn’t necessarily mean “demons.” That’s a choice made by English translators. If, as the early church believed (based on the Book of 1 Enoch), demons are the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim giants destroyed in the Flood, why would they be worshiped as goats? Answer: They probably weren’t.

English translators had to do the best they could with an imperfect understanding of the religious milieu that produced Moses and the Israelites. We discuss the se’irim and the shedim (translated “demons” in Deut. 32:17 and Psalm 106:37), who account for the three references to “demons” in the Old Testament. In fact, we now know, thanks to discoveries within the last fifty years, that the Hebrew word rephaim should be translated “demons” instead of “dead,” “departed,” or “shades.”

We also discuss the laws against sexual immorality in Leviticus 18, the Bible’s first mention of sacrificing children to Molech (or “the king”), and God’s command to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Join us in Israel! We will lead another tour through the Holy Land in 2021. Note: The dates have been changed due to travel restrictions because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The new tour dates are October 3–17, 2021, with an optional three-day extension to Jordan, with visits to Mount Nebo, Wadi Rum, and Petra.

For more information, log on to www.SkyWatchinIsrael.com.

Our new book Giants, Gods and Dragons is available now for Kindle and for pre-order in paperback! Get it as part of a great package with more than 27 hours of our video teachings at the SkyWatchTV Store, or by itself at Amazon.com.

And Derek’s novels The God Conspiracy and Iron Dragons are available now in paperback and Kindle! See the official trailers and learn more at the website for Rose Avenue Fiction.

Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org.

Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

THE SCAPEGOAT is a concept that originated at Mount Sinai.

This week, we discuss God’s commandment to send a goat into the wilderness for Azazel, similar rites in northern Syria and southern Anatolia in the days of the patriarchs, and the role of Azazel (or Asael), one of the Watchers who descended to Mount Hermon in the days of Jared, in teaching humanity forbidden knowledge.

Join us in Israel! We will lead another tour through the Holy Land in 2021. Note: The dates have been changed due to travel restrictions because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The new tour dates are October 3–17, 2021, with an optional three-day extension to Jordan, with visits to Mount Nebo, Wadi Rum, and Petra.

For more information, log on to www.SkyWatchinIsrael.com.

Our new book Giants, Gods and Dragons is available now for Kindle and for pre-order in paperback! Get it as part of a great package with more than 27 hours of our video teachings at the SkyWatchTV Store, or by itself at Amazon.com.

And Derek’s novels The God Conspiracy and Iron Dragons are available now in paperback and Kindle! See the official trailers and learn more at the website for Rose Avenue Fiction.

Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org.

Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

ISRAEL WAS commanded to be holy because God was literally in their midst. The Law set them apart for Yahweh, distinct from other people.

We note that some foods declared unclean, especially pigs, may have been so designated because of their use in pagan rituals (in the case of pigs, as offerings to the dead). However, the bottom line is that God established very specific rituals for washing and sacrificing to maintain holiness—a Law that only changed upon Christ’s ascension to sit at the right hand of God (see Hebrews chapters 7 through 10).

Join us in Israel next year! We will lead another tour through the Holy Land April 18-May 1, 2021, with an optional four-day extension to Mount Nebo, Wadi Rum, and Petra in Jordan.

For more information, log on to www.SkyWatchinIsrael.com.

Our new book Giants, Gods and Dragons is available now for Kindle and for pre-order in paperback! Get it as part of a great package with more than 27 hours of our video teachings at the SkyWatchTV Store, or by itself at Amazon.com.

And Derek’s novels The God Conspiracy and Iron Dragons are available now in paperback and Kindle! See the official trailers and learn more at the website for Rose Avenue Fiction.

Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org.

Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

THE FORMAL beginning of the Levitical priesthood and the sacrificial system is the focus of this week’s study.

After going through the rules for the sacrifices in our last couple of studies, this week we discuss the formal ordination of Aaron and his sons.

Sadly for Nadab and Abihu, their term as priests didn’t last very long. Leviticus 10 describes their destruction by God for offering unauthorized (or “strange”) fire before the Lord. To be honest, their specific transgression is not named in the Bible; it may be that they hadn’t prepared incense according to the instructions of Exodus 30:34-38, or it may be that they weren’t even supposed to burn incense since that task had been appointed to Aaron (Ex. 30:7-8). Perhaps Aaron’s sons thought that burning some unauthorized incense would curry God’s favor and earn them a promotion ahead of their father.

Whatever the reason, it was a hard lesson that God is to be respected and His will is to be done—a lesson the modern church seems to take all too lightly.

Join us in Israel next year! We will lead another tour through the Holy Land April 18-May 1, 2021, with an optional four-day extension to Mount Nebo, Wadi Rum, and Petra in Jordan.

For more information, log on to www.SkyWatchinIsrael.com.

Our new book Giants, Gods & Dragons is available now for Kindle and for pre-order in paperback! Get it as part of a great package with more than 27 hours of our video teachings at the SkyWatchTV Store, or by itself at Amazon.com.

And Derek’s novels The God Conspiracy and Iron Dragons are available now in paperback and Kindle! See the official trailers and learn more at the website for Rose Avenue Fiction.

Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org.

Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.