In between the 5's is 78.
7+8=15; 15 is three 5's
5 is all over this year.
5 is a big God number!
The Washington Monument is 555' 5" tall capped by the words Praise God.
Study 5!
Study 5, but this blog post is focusing on 78 in the middle. 78 is the 12th "triangle number."
(The monument isn't exactly 555'5". It is .12 inches taller. Does 5 and 12 mean anything to you?)
Now for the 78 in the Middle
"I shall open my mouth with a parable; I shall express riddles from time immemorial." -- Psalm 78.2
This year on the Feast of Trumpets, Rosh Hashanah, the "Head of the Year" on the Hebrew calendar, we begin the year 5785. (Rosh Hashanah begins on Wed, Oct 2, 2024 and ends at Sunset on Fri, Oct 4, 2024. It ends on the first Shabbat on the New Year.)
When I look at 5785 I see a pattern of endings and beginnings. Can their be anything in between an ending that is also a beginning? If we remove the ending and the beginning, what is there? What's in the middle?
The year begins and ends with the number 5 which is also the letter Hey. Hey reveals. Hey is the breath. Last year revealed and this coming year surely will as well. Sandwiched between the 5's, between the heys, is the number 78. This lead me to Psalm 78.
Even between 7 and 8 is an ending and beginning! In Psalm 78 there is an ending and beginning. It is hidden in a riddle for those with eyes to see and ears to hear.
Psalm 78 has multiple meanings, including:
God's faithfulness - Psalm 78 shows how God was faithful to his people despite their unfaithfulness.
The need to remember - The psalm shows that the Israelites' repeated rebellion was due in large part to their inability to remember.
The importance of teaching children about God - The psalm encourages parents and the community to teach children about God's works so that they may set their hope in God and keep his commandments.
The Covenant with Israel - Psalm 78 takes place at Mount Sinai, where God made a covenant with Israel. The psalm reminds people that the Israelites were given the law of God as part of this covenant.
God's provision for the Israelites - Psalm 78 recounts how God provided for the Israelites during their formative years. For example, God rained manna down on the people in the wilderness.
Psalm 78 highlights two things in all this history; 1) the repeated disobedience and ingratitude of the Israelites, and 2) the recurring and unfailing mercy.
PSALM 78:
1 A maskil of Asaph. Hearken, my people, to my instruction, extend your ear to the words of my mouth.
2 I shall open my mouth with a parable; I shall express riddles from time immemorial.
3 That we heard and we knew them, and our forefathers told us.
4 We shall not hide from their sons; to the last generation they will recite the praises of the Lord, and His might and His wonders, which He performed.
5 And He established testimony in Jacob, and He set down a Torah in Israel, which He commanded our forefathers to make them known to their sons.
6 In order that the last generation might know, sons who will be born should tell their sons.
7 And they should put their hope in God, and not forget the deeds of God, and keep His commandments.
8 And they should not be as their forefathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, who did not prepare its heart and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
9 The sons of Ephraim, armed archers, retreated on the day of battle.
10They did not keep the covenant of God, and they refused to follow His Torah.
11They forgot His deeds and His wonders, which He showed them.
12Before their forefathers He wrought wonders, in the land of Egypt, the field of Zoan.
13He split the sea and took them across, He made the water stand as a heap.
14He led them with a cloud by day, and all night with the light of fire.
15He split rocks in the desert and gave them to drink as [from] great deeps.
16He drew flowing water from a rock and brought down water like rivers.
17But they continued further to sin against Him, to provoke the Most High in the desert.
18They tried God in their heart by requesting food for their craving.
19And they spoke against God; they said, "Can God set a table in the desert?
20True, He struck a rock and water flowed, and streams flooded. Can He give meat too? Can He prepare flesh for His people?"
21Therefore, God heard and was incensed; fire was kindled against Jacob, and also wrath ascended upon Israel.
22Because they did not believe in God and did not trust in His salvation.
23And He had commanded the skies from above, and He had opened the portals of heaven.
24He had rained upon them manna to eat, and He had given them corn of heaven.
25Men ate the bread of the mighty; He sent them provisions for satisfaction.
26He caused the east wind to set forth in heaven, and He led the south wind with His might.
27He rained down flesh upon them like dust, and, like the sand of the seas, winged fowl.
28And He let it fall in the midst of their camp, around their dwellings.
29They ate and were very satisfied, and He brought them their desire.
30They were not estranged from their desire; while their food was still in their mouth,
31The wrath of God ascended upon them and slew [some] of their stoutest and caused the chosen of Israel to fall.
32Despite all this, they sinned again and did not believe despite His wonders.
33And He ended their days in vanity and their years in terror.
34When He slew them, they would seek Him, and they would repent and pray to God.
35And they remembered that God is their rock and the Most High God is their Redeemer.
36They beguiled Him with their mouth, and with their tongue they lied to Him.
37Their heart was not sincere with Him; they were not faithful in His covenant.
38But He is merciful, He expiates iniquity and does not destroy; many times He takes back His wrath and does not arouse all His anger.
39He remembers that they are flesh, a spirit that goes away and does not return.
40How often they provoked Him in the desert, vexed Him in the wasteland!
41They returned and tried God, and they sought a sign from the Holy One of Israel.
42They did not remember His hand, the day that He redeemed them from distress.
43Who placed His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the field of Zoan.
44He turned their canals into blood, and their flowing waters they could not drink.
45He incited against them a mixture of wild beasts, which devoured them, and frogs, which mutilated them.
46He gave their produce to the finishing locusts and their toil to the increasing locusts.
47He killed their vines with hail and their sycamore trees with locusts.
48He gave over their animals to the hail and their cattle to the fiery bolts.
49He dispatched against them the kindling of His anger-wrath, fury, and trouble, a delegation of evil messengers.
50He leveled a path for His anger; He did not withhold their soul from death, and He delivered their body to pestilence.
51He smote every firstborn in Egypt, the first fruit of their strength in the tents of Ham.
52Then He caused His people to journey like sheep, and He led them as a flock in the desert.
53He led them securely and they were not afraid, and the sea covered their enemies.
54He brought them to the border of His sanctuary, this mountain that His right hand had acquired.
55He drove out nations from before them, and allotted them an inheritance by line, and He caused the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
56Yet they tried and provoked the Most High God, and did not keep His testimonies.
57They turned back and dealt treacherously as their forefathers; they turned around like a deceitful bow.
58They provoked Him with their high places, and with their graven images they angered Him.
59God heard and became incensed, and He utterly rejected Israel.
60And He abandoned the Tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent that He had stationed among men.
61He delivered His might into captivity, and His glory into the hand of the adversary.
62And He delivered His people to the sword, and He became incensed with His inheritance.
63Fire consumed his youths and his virgins were not married.
64His priests fell by the sword, but his widows did not weep.
65And the Lord awoke as one asleep, as a mighty man, shouting from wine.
66And He smote His adversaries from the rear; He gave them perpetual disgrace.
67He rejected the tent of Joseph and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
68He chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which He loved.
69And He built His Sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth He established it forever.
70And He chose His servant David and took him from the sheepcotes.
71From behind the nursing ewes He brought him, to shepherd Jacob His people and Israel His heritage.
72And He shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and with the skill of his hands he led them.
