Gilbert House Fellowship

GOD NEVER intended for us to be in perpetual debt. Our modern banking system is a reversal of God’s will and the fulfillment of prophecy—the work of the rider on the black horse (Rev. 6:5–6). Financial servitude is not how God intended us to live. In our modern age of seven-year auto loans, twenty-year student loans, thirty-year mortgages, and perpetual credit card debt, the concept is almost unim...

THE PUNISHMENT for an Israelite who led people to worship other gods was harsh: Death by stoning. We explain why God was so insistent that His people followed His commands, especially the first commandment about not worshiping other gods—because those gods are real entities bent on destroying what God created and called good, including humankind. —————— The Bible’s Greatest Mysteries is on the air...

OUR GOD is “God of gods and Lord of lords.” This isn’t just hyperbole; it means that Yahweh is supreme among the denizens of the spirit realm. This week, we discuss Moses’ admonitions to the Israelites before they crossed the Jordan to dispossess the nations of Canaan, why Moses singled out the Anakim, and his warning to remember that God didn’t choose the Israelites as His inheritance because of...

HEAR, O ISRAEL: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. This week, we discuss the Shema, the affirmation of loyalty to God that represents the greatest commandment of Christianity and Judaism. We explain why “the Lord is one” more accurately means that God is unique in substance. A better sense of the verse is, “The Lord is our God, the Lord alone,” or, “The Lord is our God, the Lord is unique.” We als...

GOD ALLOTTED other gods to the rest of the world, but kept Israel for Himself. This week, we discuss another important verse for understanding the nature of the world: And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the...

THE BIBLE is not a history book, but the history recorded in the Bible is accurate. This week, we take a deep dive into Deuteronomy 3, in which Moses retells the history of the Israelites from the conquest of Og of Bashan through their encampment on the plains of Moab opposite Beth-Peor. We follow a number of rabbit trails, including a discussion of new research, brought to our attention by Aaron...

THE REPHAIM were remembered by Israel as giants, or at least as people who venerated the giants of the pre-Flood world. That’s why God marked them for destruction before Israel entered the Promised Land. This week, we discuss the history of the Israelites as told by Moses while the people camped in the Arabah, before they began their campaign to take Canaan from the Amorites. Moses reminded the Is...

THE BOUNDARIES of the land of Israel are a lot bigger than what’s on our maps today. This week, we discuss God’s command to drive out the inhabitants of Canaan, but the boundaries of the land promised by God to Moses extended well into what is now Syria. We also talk about the cities of refuge and rules for female heirs, which were more progressive than many today might expect. —————— The special...

THE THREE most important things when considering real estate are location, location, and location. This week, we discuss the request of the tribes of Gad and Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh to remain east of the Jordan in Gilead and Bashan. Then we recount the stations of the Exodus and explain why certain locations, especially Oboth and Iye-Abarim, were so important. Finally, we run down a...

GOD ORDERED the Israelites to take revenge on the people of Midian. This is hard to understand, since Moses was married to a Midianite woman—until you consider the context of the spiritual war being waged around the Israelites. We take a brief look at the Midianites and their identification by scholars with the Shasu, a nomadic people known from Egyptian texts. The Shasu were formerly known, in th...

THE NUMBER of bulls sacrificed during the annual Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) is unparalleled in any other feast given to Moses by God. This week, we discuss the religious calendar the Israelites were to follow when they entered the promised land, and why the sacrifice of 70 bulls over the seven days of Sukkot was so significant. It wasn’t about slaughtering a lot of beef; it was a message direct...

BALAAM WAS unable to curse Israel, but the people were lured into worshiping a god called Baal-Peor—with disastrous consequences. In His anger, God sent a plague that killed 24,000 Israelites. It was only stopped when Aaron’s grandson, Phinehas, speared a young Israelite man and Midianite woman engaged in what was probably a fertility rite. We explain why this conflict was more than meets the eye,...

A PAGAN seer 3,400 years ago prophesied not just the coming Messiah, but His ultimate victory over the Watchers and their demonic offspring, the Nephilim. This week, we discuss Balaam’s third and fourth oracles over Israel, which includes the messianic prophecy of Numbers 24:17–19. We explain why his oracle refers to the coming of Jesus and his return at the end of the age. Subscribe to the new Sk...

A DONKEY displayed more discernment and wisdom than a man whose fame as a seer and prophet was renowned in the Jordan River valley for centuries. This week, we begin the story of Balaam son of Beor, hired by the Balak, the king of Moab, to curse Israel. We discuss God’s warning to Balaam, the identity of the Angel of YHWH, Balak’s changes of venue as he tried to find a more effective place for Bal...

ANOTHER SQUABBLE over water points to the location of Mount Sinai being farther north than many think. This week, we fast forward about 39 years to the fortieth year of the Israelites’ wanderings and discuss the second time Moses brought forth water from the rock called Meribah, which means “quarreling.” This site is also mentioned in Exodus 17:1–7: “Behold, I will stand before you there on the ro...

WE HUMANS are blinded by sight. That is, our natural senses often prevent us from seeing what’s really going on around us in the spirit realm. This week, we discuss the rebellion of Korah and Dathan, who accused Moses of taking Israel from a land flowing with milk and honey (Egypt) to die in the wilderness. The actions of the rebels, who’d seen God part the Red Sea, provide manna and water, and ot...

ACTIONS HAVE consequences. In the case of Israel, the decision to rebel against Moses after the “bad [or ‘evil’] report” of the spies sent into Canaan led to forty years of wandering in the wilderness. We discuss the intercession of Moses for the people when God declared that He would “strike them with the pestilence,” and the possibility that “Pestilence,” the Canaanite pestilence-god Deber, was...

IT’S EASY to criticize the Hebrews of Moses’ day for their lack of faith. After all, hadn’t they seen the plagues that compelled Egypt to let them go, the parting of the Red Sea, and the manna that miraculously appeared six days a week? We’re not in their shoes. When we take a good, hard look at ourselves, we see that we’re not all that different. This week, we discuss that complaints of the Israe...

WE’D LIKE to say that we planned to read about Israel’s first Passover celebration after leaving Egypt on this Passover weekend, but we didn’t. God’s scheduling is clearly much better than ours. We discuss the importance of the Passover and the reason the Israelites waited more than a month to decamp and begin moving from Sinai, the connection between Sinai and Paran, and the significance of the s...

THE NAZIRITES were men and women set apart for God by a vow so serious that not only were they forbidden to drink wine, they couldn’t even eat grapes or raisins. We discuss the Nazirite vow, the priestly blessing, and the first consecration of the Tabernacle before Moses and the Israelites began their journey from Sinai toward the Promised Land. —————— Derek is one of the speakers for the Discerni...

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 unfai...

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...

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 instru...

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...

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 discuss some of the odd connections between the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Feast of...