3:12      In taking the Levites instead of the firstborn God is not relieving the firstborn of his responsibility.  Rather we see a loving God who made provision for Israel in taking the Levites. Whereas other nations would sacrifice the firstborn to their God and kill him Israel were provided with priests to minister unto them so that they could give themselves in service as living sacrifices to their God.

3:7      In saying that the Levites were to ‘keep the charge’  when they did the service of the tabernacle we are to understand that they were to observe what God had taught them – Gen 26:5 – it is not simply a matter of performing the detailed tasks associated with the tabernacle service.

3:4 So, for completeness, the record names all the sons of Aaron even though Nadab and Abihu have already died.

3:16 Now se see the formalisation of the tribe of Levi after their commitment to God at the incident of the golden calf – Exo 32:26

Psalm 148 Psalm 19 links creation showing God's glory with the power of the word of God to change lives. This psalm calls for praise from the whole of creation. We can surely join in this praise because we are a people near unto him (v14)

Psalm 149 :4 the beautification of the meek with salvation is associated with Isaiah 61:10 2 Chronicles 6:41 Psalm 132:9 so we see the beautification is identified with the giving of everlasting life and the priesthood.

Psalm 150 A fitting end to the book of psalms - so many of the Psalms have called for or been examples of praise. And now the Psalmist calls on us to praise the Lord with all our strength. Such praise comes from a right understanding of His might, power and mercy.

149:1 The 'new song' [Revelation 5:9] is on the lips of the redeemed. These are the ones who are 'the children of Zion' [Psalm 149:2]

Psalm 150 - The Psalms 146, 147, 148, 149, 150 all end with 'praise ye the Lord' in Hebrew 'Hallelujah' This is the end of all things. Whatever else we think we must realise that we have got to praise the Lord for all that he has done for us. Not merely saying the word 'Hallelujah' but transforming our lives into a 'sacrifice of praise' [Hebrews 13:15] Which is the song of the redeemed - [Revelation 19:1, 3, 4, 6]

148 - The recurring key word in this Psalm is 'praise' The whole of creation praises Him - so where do we stand? What do we think about our God? Do we praise Him at times other than when we are met together to worship Him?

149:4 In speaking of beautifying the meek with salvation we see words which are developed (Isaiah 61:10) indicating that the salvation will confer on those who are saved a priesthood. So Revelation 5:10 we are to be '… priests' in the kingdom so we had better learn now how to act like priest.

150 - 'Praise' is the keyword of this Psalm too. A fitting end to the book of Psalms. Our lives should be full of praise for the things that He has done for us in Christ.

148:1-2 It is easy to see how we and the angels can praise God, but how does inanimate creation praise Him (:3-4)?

149:7 ‘to execute vengeance upon the heathen’ is quotes by Jude (:15)

150:4 In saying that we should praise God with ‘dance’ an interesting issue is raised. What sort of dance? Surely not sexually explicit or sensual dance. Nor, I suspect the staid waltz. It has to be a dance which whilst not exciting the baser feelings should grow in us a desire to praise our Father.

All the earth praises God. All His creation joins together in magnifying Him and exalting His greatness. In all of His creation can be seen His magnificence, wisdom, and perfection. Everything works as it should, doing exactly what God intended it to do. The waves lap upon the beach, the tide goes out and comes in, the moon goes on it's synchronious course, the dark descends and lifts again, animals wake, forage, eat, sleep. Day after day, hour after hour, here and there, everything declares God as perfect and praises His name.

Except us.

In Psa 148:11 we see mankind taking part in the daily continual praise of God. It is a distorted and dishonest picture. Since the mistake of Adam and Eve, we are alone in God's creation to have disobeyed the purpose for which He created us. We daily turn away from the path He has set for us. The sun, moon and stars, the seasons, the cycles of life all condemn us in our obstinancy. Do any of them ever disobey or run off their course?

The song of praise of the whole earth is marred by us. That earth has been waiting for us to join it in praise (Rom 8:19-22). We need a new song. The old song is torn and tattered, and ready for disposal. We have spoiled the perfect and harmonious creation of God. In 149v1 the Psalmist praises God with a new song, a song sung in the assembly of saints. It is the song sung by the new creation, a people born again and recreated, as we are if we are with Christ. It is those who are humble (v4) and have let go of their old life, embracing in meekness the life lived by grace. These new creatures sing a new song of praise, re-joining with the rest of creation, in one purpose and one common goal, that of Psa 150:6:

"Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.

Praise the LORD!"

148:4    the ‘water that be above the heaven’ quotes Genesis 1:7

148:13-14 This Psalm is looking to the kingdom when all en will praise God when Israel will be exalted as a repentant nation.

149:13The ‘excellent name’ whilst appearing to speak of God is ascribed to Jesus – Heb 1:4– after his resurrection showing the exalted status of the risen Christ.

148:5The Psalmist here echoes the description of creation in Gen 1:6

149:1 The ‘children of Zion’ are not literally those who live in Zion. Rather it is to do with birth and allegiance – Psa 87:3-6

13:31 Thee suggestion that the Pharisees made that he should flee because Herod would kill him was doubtless meant to frighten Jesus off from the area. Jesus' cousin John had been beheaded by Herod already. Herod, on the other hand, had desired to listen to John (Mark 6:20) and later we learnt that he wanted to hear Jesus (Luke 23:8) so the Pharisees comment about Herod were an incorrect assessment of his mind further reinforcing the view that they were simply trying to frighten Jesus off.

14:34 Matthew 5:13

:13,21 The repeated use of 'maimed … blind' shows that the parable that Jesus told was to teach the Pharisee (:1) how he should conduct his feasts.

13:7 The 'three years' matches the 'three years' of Leviticus 19:23. But after three years the tree was expected to bring forth fruit that would be taken and used. We have now arrived at the moment of reckoning with Israel.

14:25 Again we see that Jesus did not make life easy for those who wanted to follow him. We might be inclined to minimise the commitment required of those who we speak to lest we dissuade them from following Jesus. He, on the other hand, emphasises the cost of discipleship at every opportunity. Have we got it right?

13:4,11 Is there any link between 18 who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell and the length of time the woman had been afflicted?

14:2 Was the Pharisee in the habit of having ill and afflicted people in his house? I doubt it.  It was doubtless a trap for Jesus but Jesus took control and highlighted the hypocrisy with his question 'is it lawful ...' 14:3

13:1-5 echo the fact that time and chance happens to all men (Ecc 9:11-12).
In Hebrew, letters have numerical value. The letters chet and yod  when combined have the value of eighteen. Chet  and yod combine to form the word chai  which means life.  From this comes the salutation l'chaim meaning to life.
The eighteen on the tower in Siloam (13:4) lost life, while the infirm woman of eighteen years (13:11) had her life restored whole by the Lord.

13:3,5  Jesus’ reminder ‘except ye repent’ puts a totally different perspective upon natural disasters and man’s inhumanity to man compared to how the world views such things. ‘Why doesn’t God intervene?’ is often the cry. We need to be careful that we do not slip into the world’s way of thinking. We must realise where these things slot into the purpose of God. This is not to suggest that we should not show human compassion. However repentance is the crucial thing.

14:3  When we are told ‘Jesus answering said …’ we should realise that up to this point no one has asked Jesus a question. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took the initiative and answered the question forming in their minds.

13:6-7 This parable, spoken very near to the end of the ministry of Jesus – speaks of Jesus’ work. He had been seeking repentance and there had been very little so far. The challenge about the Galileans and those on whom the tower of Siloam had fallen and Jesus’ response to the question about the Galileans along with this parable highlight that personal repentance is the issue we should consider. Many would look to ‘natural’ disasters rather than their own position. However such reactions are simply diversions from the real issues.

The Lord Jesus Christ looked over to Jerusalem, and wept over it (Luke 13:34,35). How often would he have gathered them to him, like a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but they refused him. They didn’t want to know. And it hurt the dear Lord. Bro Alfred Nicholls in his comments on God’s spirit moving, or hovering, over the face of the waters in Genesis 1:2, describes God’s Spirit as over-arching – just as Jesus here wanted to cover and protect Jerusalem.

13:11  In healing the woman who was ‘bowed together’ Jesus was showing that he was  working on behalf of God – Psa 146:8

Luke 14:26 Jesus is not advocating that his followers hate their families in the sense of violently disliking them or showing enmity towards them. This would contradict His commandments to show love to all (Matt 5:43,44). The word hate is translated from the Gr. miseo which can mean detest, but which can also mean love less. It is in this sense of comparison that the Lord uses the word. Love for Jesus takes precedent over love for all else. By extension, the love of the spiritual family in Christ (His ecclesia) should take precedence over the love for natural families.

We would tend to see the falling of the tower of Siloam as a random occurrence. But this is not necessarily the case. The context of chapter 13 can be seen in v6-9 where Israel is likened to an unfruitful fig tree which is cut down by the keeper. Given that Israel is the fig tree, Jesus the keeper, and God the owner, it would be reasonable to suggest that God would bring about the destruction of that tree, which happened in AD70. So going back to the tower, Jesus may be suggesting that God had a hand in it.

The Bible teaches us no such thing as the theory of "time and chance". This phrase only occurs in Ecc 9:11 where the word is "occurrence" such as used in 1Kin 5:4 of God's control over the chance events in life. Moreover Isa 45:7 states that God creates both peace and calamity (evil in the King James version). So Jesus was certainly not saying that the tower fell by chance out of the Father's control. Every man has his time known to God but not to us (Ecc 9:12). And this is the point really. God is in control and knows the day of our death; whereas we are not in control and have no idea whether it will be today or another day.

Jesus then introduces the fact that for those who are in the privileged position of occupying God's land, yet continually disobey God, there will be a judgement day. Interestingly the other occurrence of a wall falling on people is certainly God's work (1Kin 20:30) and demonstrates how we might escape one fate only to be overcome by another; which is Jesus' point in v5.

13:16-17  Notice the play on words. ‘Satan’ had bound the women. Jesus ‘adversaries’ were ‘ashamed’ when the woman was loosed from the power of Satan.

Sometimes when there is a major disaster like we just had in Haiti or other unfortunate circumstance there are some who like to point fingers as if this is proof of God's anger on the afflicted people/person, but as others have already supported with scripture this was not the case according to Jesus with 18 killed by the falling tower of Siloam (Luke 13:4-5) - they were not worse sinners than other people though the lesson for all to repent is clear. Many righteous suffer and are healed/spared but sometimes they are not (Heb 11:36-40;2Cor 12:8-10;Matt 15:22-28).  Before Christ's return and the redemption of the saints, we can expect an increase of trouble and calamity (Luke 21:7-11,25-28). As we never know how much time we have (Rev 3:3;Matt 25:1-13) before Christ (the bridegroom) returns we have to make good use of our time and be prepared. Mentioned by Peter Forbes in 2007 was a parable (Luke 13:6-9) where we have a fig tree fruitless after 3 years (Israel's lack of response to Christ's ministry?) and then we have the cutting down in 70 AD. There will soon be a latter day cutting down (Eze 38:5-8,16,23;Zech 12:9-10;Zech 13:1;Zech 14:8-9) but Jesus will be sent to rescue his people, there will be a fountain and living waters and the Lord will be king over all the earth. The Greek word "Siloam" (4611) means "sent" (Luke 13:4;John 9:7,11) as does the Hebrew "Siloah" (7975) which connects the Jerusalem location (Neh 3:15) of a pool of water and a nearby fountain. Soon will be the day when Jesus will come (is sent) to gather the saints (Gen 49:10) and there will no more suffering, sorrow, misery or disasters (Isa 35:9-10), but Jesus will be sent to establish a new world order of peace with the capital and word of the Lord from Jerusalem (Isa 2:2-4). The living water will refresh those with eternal life (John 4:10-14).