David Pawson - ’Unlocking the Bible’ Podcast

Leviticus - part 2 - Unlocking The Bible

Part 11 of the David Pawson 'Unlocking the Bible' Podcast series 

The most important things for Christians to read in Leviticus as they keep reappearing in the New Testament, are: “Be holy for I am holy” and “Love your neighbour as yourself”. There are over ninety references to Leviticus in the New Testament. God didn’t give reasons for all His rules. If you will only obey a command when you see the sense of it, you are not obedient and do not trust the one who gave you the command. God knows best. He has very good reasons for His commands. Modern man wants to know the point of it. God wants obedient, trusting children. God does give punishments for disobedience. There are rewards for obedience, blessings for those who trust and obey, but a curse on those who disobey. You could lose your home, your citizenship or even your life. God is saying the only way to be really happy is to be really holy. The sinfulness of man is not just in polluting clean things but in profaning holy things. There is a shift from the Old Testament to the New Testament. Holiness is moved from material things to moral things. Jesus said, “It’s not what goes into your mouth now that makes you unclean, but what comes out”. The other shift is that rewards and punishments are moved from this life to the next. This life is only the preparation for a much longer life elsewhere.

Numbers - part 1 - Unlocking The Bible

Part 12 of the David Pawson 'Unlocking the Bible' Podcast series 

The book of Numbers starts and ends with a census of all the men over 20. There were about 600,000 both times. God was not blessing them because when God blesses, numbers multiply. At that time the life expectancy was about 60 so after 40 years, all but 2 of the men who had been over 20 at the beginning, had died. Only Joshua and Caleb survived. Two thirds of the book of Numbers should never have happened, they were not part of God’s purpose. God deliberately delayed their journey from Mount Sinai to the Promised Land because of their disobedience, so that a whole generation spent their entire adult life doing nothing and died before they reached the Promised Land. Numbers is important because if you don’t study history, you’re condemned to repeat it. God spoke to Moses eighty times face to face. When God camped among the people, there was a danger they would become over-familiar with Him, so God gave them the legislation in the book of Numbers to prevent that. There were three types of legislation - carefulness, cleanliness and costliness. You had to be careful how you approached God, you had to be clean when you came to Him and it is costly not to be holy yourself.

Numbers - part 2 - Unlocking The Bible

Part 13 of the David Pawson 'Unlocking the Bible' Podcast series 

David Pawson looks at the narrative part of numbers which turns from the divine word to the human deeds, from what the Hebrews should do to what they actually did do. Israel did not pass the test of the difficulties of the wilderness. After Sinai they are in a covenant relationship with God and there are now punishments for their sins. They made a promise to obey Him. Obedience would bring blessing; disobedience, curse. God’s law showed them what is right; the limitation is that they can’t do it and the law can’t help them to live right. Without supernatural help we are unable to live right which is why the Spirit was given later at Pentecost. Moses got impatient with the people and didn’t listen carefully to what God told him to do. For this reason, God said Moses would not enter the Promised Land. All 3 leaders failed. Leadership of God’s people is a big responsibility, do it God’s way. The major failure of the people was they grumbled - about lack of water and lack of variety in food. The first huge crisis and the worst was when the people sent 12 spies to check out the land God was going to give them and 10 came back saying, we can’t do it, there are giants living there. So the people decided not to trust God and for that God made them wander the wilderness for 40 years.

Deuteronomy - part 1 - Unlocking The Bible

Part 14 of the David Pawson 'Unlocking the Bible' Podcast series 

David Pawson explains that in Deuteronomy God’s law had to be repeated for a new generation as almost every adult who had come out of Egypt had died. They had to enter into the covenant with God as their parents had. 2 key phrases are repeated time & again. One is “the land the Lord your God gives you”. They are reminded that this land is an undeserved gift. The other is “go in and possess the land”. Everything you receive from God is a gift, but you must go in and take it otherwise you won’t get it. The message of Deuteronomy is simple, you can keep the land as long as you keep My law, but if you don’t keep it, even though you own the land, you won’t be free to live in it and enjoy it. Ownership is unconditional, occupation is conditional. The covenant linked the land and the law of God. The Israelites were not given the land because of their righteousness but because of the current inhabitants’ wickedness. Everything God tells the Israelites not to do is what was happening already in the Promised Land with its current occupants. Deuteronomy is made up of 3 long speeches, Moses talking to the people in the last week of his life. He speaks to them like a dying father to his children. It is warm, expressive and emotional and yet very well written.

Deuteronomy - part 2 - Unlocking The Bible

Part 15 of the David Pawson 'Unlocking the Bible' Podcast series 

David Pawson examines Moses’ speeches to his people in Deuteronomy before they enter the Promised Land. Their parents’ lack of faith had delayed their journey almost 40 years. God had been faithful to them, now they are warned, don’t be like your parents; keep your faith and you’ll keep the land. Moses tells them how they are to live if they want to keep their land. The Ten Commandments are all about respect. The quickest way to destroy society is to destroy respect. The laws given to Moses cover the whole of life, from your toilet arrangements to the way you worship, from your clothes to your cooking. The laws weren’t written to restrict people, but so that it may be well with them. The last speech tells the people that when they get in they must announce the blessings for obedience and the curses for disobedience and the people must say amen. Deuteronomy is the most fundamental book to the whole of the Old Testament. It’s the key to the whole history of Israel because when they went in to the Promised Land, they followed the practices of the evil inhabitants instead of ousting them. Prophet after prophet told them, go on like this and God will keep His promise to curse you. Every prophet appeals back to Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy plays a big part in the New Testament too. To love is to obey because in God’s sight, love is loyalty.

Joshua - part 1 - Unlocking The Bible

Part 16 of the David Pawson 'Unlocking the Bible' Podcast series 

David Pawson looks at Joshua, the 6th book in the Old Testament which seems to follow directly on from Deuteronomy but for Jews there is a profound difference: No laws in the book of Joshua. The first five books are the basic Constitution of the people of Israel. The rest of the Old Testament is how it all works out. The next six books are what we call history, but the Jews call them prophecy. The first five books are the foundation of Judaism, and they call them The Torah which means instruction. The first five show God’s promises to them, the next six show the fulfillment of those promises, cause and effect. The book of Joshua covers his life, from the age of 80 to 120. It details how they took the land that God had promised them. After that, how they divided the land between the tribes. The book begins with Joshua’s commission by God and the people and ends with his final sermon, death and burial. God promised Joshua He would never leave him and that he would prosper and be successful in what he did for the Lord. Joshua’s courage and the people’s morale would be what won them the battle. Morale and morality are what God requires in a leader. God drying up the Jordan was a repetition of the parting of the Red Sea for a new generation to show them the God of their fathers was with them too.

Joshua - part 2 - Unlocking The Bible

Part 17 of the David Pawson 'Unlocking the Bible' Podcast series 

Looking at the book of Joshua, David Pawson points out that the first two towns the Israelites came to are written about a lot because of their significance. Jericho was a great victory, Ai, a great loss. God told them not to loot Jericho as it was the firstfruits. They made 2 errors. One was over-confidence because of their first victory. The second was that one man did loot from Jericho. One man’s sin caused the people of God to fail. Joshua preaches his final sermon. He didn’t appoint a successor like Moses because from now on, one man couldn’t do the job alone. So each tribe had its own elders, a very significant move. It actually failed as the people wanted one-man leadership again and demanded a king. But it wasn’t God’s will. Joshua made the people swear an oath of loyalty to God. Through Joshua, God says, I have done all of this for you. I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities which you did not build, and you live in them, and you eat from vineyards and olive groves you did not plant. Out of gratitude Joshua says, ‘so fear the Lord and be faithful to Him and throw away all other gods. As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.’ As long as Joshua’s generation lived, the people were faithful to God, but then, things went badly wrong. Each generation has to rediscover God for themselves.

Judges and Ruth - part 1 - Unlocking The Bible

Part 18 of the David Pawson 'Unlocking the Bible' Podcast series 

David Pawson makes history interesting.  Looking at the books of Judges and Ruth, he shows that there are 4 levels of studying history. 1) Important people; 2) Nations, political; 3) Patterns/cycles – rise and fall of civilisations; 4) Purpose/plot. While people often see no purpose in history, David shows that God is moving history to His planned ending. History is HIS-story and He’s writing it. In Judges, people had gone away from God and life became cyclical and things just happened again and again. In Ruth the line becomes the main thing and it ends with a royal line that is fulfilling God’s purpose. Redemption gets you off the roundabout and onto a line that’s going somewhere and you’re part of a purpose that’s being worked out in history. Originally Judges and Ruth were one book and still are in the Hebrew Bible. That’s important because they belong together. Many of the characters in Judges are weak but God uses them. Their weakness was matched by God’s strength. The people in this book weren’t actual Judges. They each saved the nation from a very bad situation. The Judge was God, operating through people. There was no King in Israel in those days. Every man did what was right in his own eyes. Because they didn’t clean wickedness from the land it was a constant problem to them.

Judges and Ruth - part 2 - Unlocking The Bible

Part 19 of the David Pawson 'Unlocking the Bible' Podcast series 

In the book of Judges, David Pawson observes that God is very prominent even though the people are in a downward spiral. He heard their prayers and sent them someone to rescue. God delivers to evil as well as from evil. A whole generation grew up who did not know the Lord and what He had done for Israel. They weren’t grateful for their salvation.  Because there was no king, there was no continuity of leadership. The people wanted a visible king, not just their heavenly King. God was going to provide a king and the book of Ruth tells us where he was going to come from. The book of Ruth is a romance and is the answer to the book of Judges. Ruth made the right choice at the right time and went down in history as an ancestor of Jesus Christ. She not only chose to stay with Naomi, she chose Naomi’s people and Naomi’s God. Loyalty is a very precious quality to the Lord. Love without loyalty isn’t real love. The family tree of Jesus contains some unlikely people. Individual Christians can learn a great deal from the characters in the book of Judges. We’ve got a King, and if we all did what is right in His eyes, the church would be united tomorrow, but we are following men instead. The marriage of Ruth and Boaz is a perfect picture of Christ and His Gentile bride.  

1 Samuel - part 1 - Unlocking The Bible

Part 20 of the David Pawson 'Unlocking the Bible' Podcast series 

In this first talk by David Pawson on 1 and 2 Samuel, David gives us an overview so that we know the ‘shape’ of the story and how it develops. The two books really belong together as one, but were later divided because of their length. It covers 150 years of history in the form of narrative and includes only what is important and significant to God. This is prophetic history, named after the prophet who dominates the story. This book is set in the last century and a half of the rise of Israel to peace and prosperity. David shows that Israel had been led successively by patriarchs, prophets, kings then priests, each for 500 years. Samuel was the last of the prophets. King David dominates the stories though Saul was the first king. The stories of the book deal with various interesting relationships. David Pawson says whenever Israel disobeyed God an enemy would come and defeat them and whenever they repented they defeated the enemy and got the land back. A difference between Israel’s first and second kings was that David could honour those who succeeded but Saul was jealous of them. But David’s sin heralded the downward slide of Israel from its peak.