Daily Devotion

^{The devotional writings on these pages were written by Dr. Armand L. Weller, Senior Pastor of the Church by the Sea (CBTS) in Madeira Beach, Florida. They are primarily intended for use by the members of that congregation but can also be beneficial to any others who request them. Each week, the CBTS Church family reads these Bible Study Devotions. On the following Sunday, the morning message is preached on a portion of the material covered in the devotional thoughts written here.}

^{Two additional Bible Study sessions are also scheduled at CBTS to}^{allow individuals the opportunity to interact with the pastor and one another on the subject of the devotions and the Sunday morning message. You are invited to join one or both of those studies. One is}^{Monday evening at 7:00. The other is Friday morning at 9:30.}

^{It is our prayer that all who read and seek to understand the Word of God through these notes will be encouraged, blessed and will mature in the}^{faith of the Lord Jesus Christ.}

^{^{Mark 4:1-9}⁽^NIV⁾
The Parable of the Sower

¹Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water's edge. ²He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: ³"Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. ⁸Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times."
⁹Then Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

WEEK #16-30

DAY #1:                                  Mark 4:1-9

Crowds of people continue to gather around Jesus. He is, in our reading for today, next to the Sea of Galilee where He shared many teachings over the years. There are so many interested onlookers that Jesus has been pushed up against the shoreline itself. Jesus does not want to send anyone away. To deal with the crowding, and to make it easier for Him to be seen and heard, Jesus got into a boat. He moved out from the shoreline just a short distance. From there, he could see the people, and could be seen and heard by the people.

On our first trip to Israel, my wife and I were excited about an insight we received about Jesus' teaching method. It was on the Mount of the Beatitudes that we looked down some distance to the sea. We saw the highway going along the shore and discovered we could hear the cars and trucks traveling along that distant highway as though they were right next to us. That is when we learned about the natural amplification system that Jesus used to communicate to thousands of people at one time. They would be sitting and standing on the level ground, the group being so large that it extended up the side of the hill away from the shoreline. With His back to the sea, and with the winds coming in off the water, and with the people gathered together in a kind of natural amphitheater, Jesus could easily be heard distinctly by thousands in one sitting. In God's timing, when we returned from the trip to the Holy Land, we read an article in the newspaper about the discovery of the natural amplification of sounds that occurs when one stands with his back to the water and speaks to people on the hill next to the shoreline.

On DAY #3, we will deal with the substance of the message Jesus shared in this portion of scripture. We will see there Jesus' own explanation of the parable of the seed and the soils.

Mark 4:1-12 (NIV)

The Parable of the Sower

¹Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water's edge. ²He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: ³"Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. ⁸Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times."
⁹Then Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
¹⁰When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. ¹¹He told them, "The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables ¹²so that,

   " 'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,

      and ever hearing but never understanding;

   otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!"

DAY #2:                      Mark 4:1-12

The disciples, especially the inner core of "the twelve," are in the role of students. They want to learn all they can about Jesus, who He is, and why He does what He does and says what He says.

Jesus has just told them a "parable." This is a kind of literary teaching tool. It is a simple story with one clear point. It is told in such a way that the person listening gets involved in the action and finds himself making a judgment about how the story should be resolved. It is important for the listener to have access to the storyteller so that any questions about the resolution of the story can be dealt with or explained. The first time we find such a "parable" is in II Samuel 12. Verses 1-4 are the simple parable. Verses 5-6 are David's immediate and emotional response. Verses 7-15 are the explanation by the storyteller who, in this case, was Nathan the prophet.

The disciples want to learn. They are curious about Jesus and His methods. They ask Him why He tells these stories that are not always obvious in their ramifications. Besides the fact that parables have such a great impact upon the listeners, Jesus explains that He does not, at this point, want everyone to hear and understand what He is saying. Why would He use such an approach? Let's remember the issue of timing that Jesus had to deal with almost every day.

Jesus had a goal to reach. On the way to that goal, He had a lot of explaining to do and a lot of groundwork to lay. He needed a certain amount of time to do all this. If things came to a head too soon, He would not be successful in His efforts. So Jesus tried to keep the wraps on some of His endeavors until the time was right (see WEEK #16-27, DAY #6 for more information about this method of Jesus). This was a primary reason why He used parables. He could then take the time to give the details to His inner core so that later, at the right time, they could give the explanation to others who needed to know . . . like you and me in the 21st century who are reading Mark's Gospel.

Mark 4:1-20 (NIV)

The Parable of the Sower

¹Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water's edge. ²He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: ³"Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. ⁸Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times."
⁹Then Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
¹⁰When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. ¹¹He told them, "The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables ¹²so that,

   " 'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,

      and ever hearing but never understanding;

   otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!"
¹³Then Jesus said to them, "Don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? ¹⁴The farmer sows the word. ¹⁵Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. ¹⁶Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. ¹⁷But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. ¹⁸Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; ¹⁹but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. ²⁰Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown."

DAY #3:                         Mark 4:1-20

Jesus is expecting a lot from His inner core of twelve disciples. He wants them to be "in tune" with Him. In that way, they will be able to see and hear and understand what those who do not know Him are not able to receive and comprehend. As a lesson in interpretation, Jesus takes time to give a point-by-point explanation of the parable of the seed and the soils (see also verses 33-34).

When you hear Jesus explain the meaning, it makes you say to yourself, "Well, that was pretty obvious. How come I didn't see that right away?!" It seems the explanation of Jesus is rather obvious. Let me share an insight that might not be so obvious on the surface.

This parable is about the issue of hearing and receiving. Each of the soils describes someone who "heard" the word of God. Each "soil" or person responds to the seed in different ways. (1) Some people hear the Word and, before they have a chance to receive it, Satan deceives them and takes it away from them. (2) Some hear the Word and have more of an emotional reaction than a heartfelt, deep spiritual reaction to the Word. Their roots never go in deep because their acceptance of it was more of a surface kind of thing. (3) Some hear the Word and never quite give up their former values. They seem to see the truth of the Word but want to hold on to the old ways as much as possible or as long as possible. (4) Some hear the Word and it goes deep into their hearts and minds and spirits. There it takes root and produces much fruit in the life of those people.

It is probably good to compare the very first category (the ones who never received the Word) to the ultra productive nature of the last group of people (the ones who sincerely and deeply received the Word of God). Beyond that, it is also good to note that, of all four groupings of "hearers" of the Word, only those who took it in and made it a part of their lives were able to be productive in their walk with the Lord. The others did not produce lesser amounts of "fruit." They produced no fruit.

Note, therefore, that someone can look like a Christian, act like a Christian and even use the vocabulary of the Christian and not actually be a follower of Jesus. Remember the words of Jesus: "You will know them by their fruits." Perhaps even more important, no matter what we think about the depth of another person's commitment to the Lord, only He looks deep into the hearts of people. And only the Lord knows who are the real fruit-producers. "Lord, help us to be more effective in producing fruit. And protect us, Lord, from taking on the role of fruit inspectors. Amen."



Mark 4:21-25 (NIV)

A Lamp on a Stand

²¹He said to them, "Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don't you put it on its stand? ²²For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. ²³If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear."
²⁴"Consider carefully what you hear," he continued. "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. ²⁵Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him."

DAY #4:                      Mark 4:21-25

You are in a dark garage late at night. It seems a circuit breaker has shut off electricity. Fortunately, you have planned ahead for just such an event. You assure the person with you there is nothing to worry about. You ask him to reach out to his right to the stand in the corner where you always keep a powerful flashlight and turn it on. He does so. You breathe a sigh of relief. And just as quickly as the light came on it goes off. "What happened to the flashlight? Why did you turn it off." Your friend responds, "I didn't turn it off. I just stuck it in the drawer here and closed the drawer." Now, isn't that a dumb thing to do! Jesus is saying something like that in our passage for today. If you have received the light, let it shine!

We are back to the subject of hearing and receiving once again and, therefore, dealing with what we have received. One of the reasons that the receivers of the Word and fruitful producers of the Word are so productive (30-, 60-, 100-fold) is clear. There appears to be an expansion of our capacity to receive that is in direct proportion to our willingness to give to others and share the light with them. That is why Jesus could say, "If you've got, you'll get more. If you have not received or are unwilling to share what you have received, it will waste away and you won't even have what you were hanging on to."

Mark 4:26-34 (NIV)

The Parable of the Growing Seed
²⁶He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. ²⁷Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. ²⁸All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. ²⁹As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."
The Parable of the Mustard Seed

³⁰Again he said, "What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? ³¹It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. ³²Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade."
³³With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. ³⁴He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

DAY #5:                      Mark 4:26-34

Here we find two more agricultural lessons to help us understand how productive a disciple of Jesus can be if he or she trusts in the Lord.

Lesson #1: If you do your part (which is really the small part), God will do His part (which is really the big part). All we have to do is follow the rules. Sometimes that is very difficult to do because the rules may seem strange or even outlandish. For example, imagine for a moment that you know nothing about agriculture. Someone says, "See this hard little bean? I know it looks all dried out but, if you stick it into a pile of dirt and spill some water on it, a beautiful green plant will come up out of the ground in just a few days."

In all areas of life, God has principles and rules that will apply. Sometimes we think those rules are ridiculous. We choose not to follow them. Then we say that God's principles are not practical. How can we know what will happen when God's principles are followed if we don't give them a try. "Well, I did try them once and I saw no results." Did you wait like a good farmer for God to "bring the increase?" You do your small part. God will do His big part.

Lesson #2: God's big part is REALLY BIG! Plant a few kernels of corn and you will get thousands of kernels of corn in return. Our small part is phenomenally magnified when we trust God for the results. Remember the young lad who was the only one smart enough to bring lunch to the Jesus Rally for 5,000 men and their families (see The Gospel of John, chapter 6). His disciples asked the pertinent and practical question: "What good are five loaves and two fish when we have more than 10,000 people to feed?" Jesus took the meager amount of food, blessed it, offered it to Father and watched God multiply it until all those in attendance were satisfied like contented cows. What is the lesson? Give what you have to the Lord. Dedicate it to Him. And watch Him magnificently multiply it.

Mark 4:35-41 (NIV)
Jesus Calms the Storm

³⁵That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." ³⁶Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. ³⁷A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. ³⁸Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"
³⁹He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
⁴⁰He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
⁴¹They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"

DAY #6:                      Mark 4:35-41

Not only can we trust the Lord to make us super-productive in our daily life when we trust in Him. We can also experience His loving protection when we trust in Him . . . even when we get the impression He is not involved in what we are doing.

The disciples were on their way across the lake. A storm arose that was so traumatic that these men, some of whom were professional fishermen who spent their lives on the sea, were scared to death. They yelled, "Jesus, don't You care that we're about to drown?"

Do you ever feel like that? You are going through some really stormy times in your life. We, as a nation, are certainly going through a horrendous storm right now. You are in the midst of the storm. You call upon the Lord for help, and you haven't seen the kind of answers to your prayers that you would like to see. In such times, our natural reaction is to conclude that God does not care, even though He said He does.

What did Jesus say to the disciples when He arose from His nap and calmed the storm? "Why didn't you trust Me? I thought you had more faith than that. I am here and will meet your needs at just the right time . . . every time. But you have to trust Me!" What a powerful lesson for you and me at this particular time in our lives.}

^{^Mark^2:23^{– 3:6 (}^NIV⁾
Lord of the Sabbath
²³One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. ²⁴The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"
²⁵He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? ²⁶In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."
²⁷Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. ²⁸So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
Mark 3:1-6

¹Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. ²Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. ³Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone."
⁴Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they remained silent.
⁵He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. ⁶Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

WEEK #16-29

DAY #1:                             Mark 2:23 - 3:6

Let's look at the history of the giving of the Law to the people of Israel. We need to do this if we are going to begin to understand what Jesus is trying to teach the Jews about the Law. Once we look at it, we will see how simple it all is; and we will wonder why anyone would have any questions about it.

This is the correct and historical order of events. God loves His people. He chooses a special group of people through whom to share His love and His message with the rest of the world. To help them establish themselves as a nation, God gathered them together, under the leadership of Moses. He brought them out of captivity in Egypt. He made a covenant with them to establish them as a nation with their own land under His leadership and authority. On the way from Egypt to the Promised Land, God brought them to Mt. Sinai and gave them the first of His commandments, the basic and foundational ones. We call them the "Decalogue" or "The Ten Commandments."

God loved them so much that He said, "If you are going to live as a nation, My nation, you will need to know how to relate to Me and how to relate to one another. Here are the rules that will help you do that." The first four commandments tell them how to relate to the Lord. The fifth commandment tells them how to learn proper interpersonal relationships at home, looking to mother and father as the authority from whom they learn the ways of the Lord. Commandments six through ten, describe clearly how to relate to one another in the nation . . . in the community.

Over the years, the Hebrews became so enamored with the Law that God gave them out of love for them, that they began to put the Law as a first priority in their lives. The way they treated the Law almost became a breaking of the very first commandment. They were to have no other gods before them, yet the Law almost became a god to them. It controlled their lives.

Sometime after the exile in the sixth century B.C., there is evidence of a clear shift in emphasis in the practice of the Hebrews. The historical order of events was this: God loves us and, therefore, He lovingly gave us the Law. Now, the Hebrew perspective has been reversed and become something like this: God gave us the Law. If we do a good job of keeping the Law, perhaps God will then love us.

This is what Jesus is dealing with concerning the keeping of the Sabbath laws. The Pharisees are stressing the legalistic approach to things. "No matter what happens, we must keep the laws of the Sabbath." Jesus says there is something more basic than that. Out of love, God gave the laws . . . not to bind men but to set them free. Jesus said that He came, not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it. Therefore, if there is a need to act in love to meet the need of someone on the Sabbath, the right thing to do is the loving thing, not the legalistic thing. (see what the Paul says about this in Romans 13:8-10).

Mark 3:1-6 (NIV)

¹Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. ²Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. ³Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone."
⁴Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they remained silent.
⁵He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. ⁶Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

DAY #2:                                  Mark 3:1-6

It was mentioned in the notes last week that Jesus chose His 12 disciples (whom He called apostles) when it was clear that evidence was being collected against Him so that the religious authorities could get rid of Him (Look again at Luke 6:9-11.).

In Mark's Gospel, we also see this effort to silence, or at least to control, Jesus. Mark 3:6 says, "And the Pharisees went out and immediately began taking counsel with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him."

This was an amazing development indeed. At that time in history, there were all kinds of political struggles to see who could gain power and how they could hold on to that power. It was not possible to separate the religious from the political groups in Hebrew culture. While the Scribes, Saduccees, and Pharisees were all religious groupings, they acted politically to achieve their ends. Here we see the beginning of a very unholy alliance by these so-called holy groups. The Pharisees and the Herodians immediately begin to counsel with each other about the right approach to stop this revolutionary movement circulating around this man named Jesus. By the time we get to the end of the life and ministry of Jesus in Israel, we find all three of these groups uniting with the forces behind King Herod to rid themselves of this nuisance and dangerous man called Jesus of Nazareth . . . a man that many claim to be the promised Messiah.

Mark 3:7-12 (NIV)

Crowds Follow Jesus
⁷Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. ⁸When they heard all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. ⁹Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. ¹⁰For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. ¹¹Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, "You are the Son of God." ¹²But he gave them strict orders not to tell who he was.

DAY #3:                                  Mark 3:7-12

We listed several verses at the end of last week's notes to show evidence of the many efforts of Jesus to "keep the lid on" His ministry until it was time to bring things to a head. In 1:45, we see that the news about Jesus has already spread so quickly that it was no longer wise for Jesus to go into the cities. He stayed out in the unpopulated areas . . . and still people came to Him from everywhere.

Our passage for today notes that they came to see Jesus from great distances. If you have a map of Israel in your Bible, look for the places mentioned in verse 8. Jesus and His disciples were next to the Sea of Galilee (verse 1). People came from nearby Galilee, from Judea and the Jordan that was south of the Sea of Galilee. They traveled from Tyre and Sidon on the northwest coast of Israel and from Idumea which was in the extreme southwest section of Judah, west of the Dead Sea.

What do you suppose was the motivation for these people to travel a great many miles and crowd around Jesus? It would be wonderful to discover that they were so excited that Messiah had come that they wanted purely to bow down and worship Him. Although that would be encouraging, we have no evidence that was the case. On the contrary, they came out of curiosity and to receive a physical healing.

They did not come to worship and bow down and give praise to Jesus, they came to get what they could to meet their needs. On one hand this is good. It shows they had faith that Jesus could provide what they needed to be physically whole. On the other hand, there is a sense that Jesus was a convenience for them. They came to use Him, not to worship Him.

Let's be careful in our walk with the Lord that we have the proper motivation. It is true we all have needs to be met; and the Lord loves to meet those needs. It is also true that if we come to the Lord to get, we will receive much less than if we come to Him to give.



Mark 3:13-19 (NIV)

The Appointing of the Twelve Apostles
¹³Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. ¹⁴He appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach ¹⁵and to have authority to drive out demons. ¹⁶These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter ¹⁷ James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder); ¹⁸Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot ¹⁹and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

DAY #4:                      Mark 3:13-19

As noted before, Jesus sensed that it was time to put together a team of disciples who would be His core group of followers. It was in the lives of these men that He would invest Himself. They would be trained by Him over the next three years. During that time, they would get to know Jesus better than any other human beings. They would travel together. He would reveal to them some of the secrets of the kingdom of God that they, in turn, would reveal to all who would receive them. They would learn from Him how to pray. They would be sent out on short-term mission trips to heal the sick, cast out demons and preach the good news.

Who were these select men who were chosen by Jesus? They were people who had already seen the primary importance of the ministry of Jesus. They were common folk like you and me . . . not one man of royalty or political power in the bunch. They were willing to leave all that they had depended upon in the past to follow Jesus.

It is also clear that they were the ones Jesus wanted to be His inner core. There were literally thousands crowding around Jesus from whom He could choose. And there were probably hundreds of them who would have gladly volunteered to be one of the twelve. But Jesus did not call for volunteers. He chose and called to His side those whom He wanted. We might learn a lesson from that fact. While volunteers do fine work in the Church of Jesus Christ today, it is the effort of those laypeople who have a sense that they have been called by God to a portion of the congregation's ministry that do the most to glorify God and touch the lives of His people in a lasting way.

Mark 3:20-30 (NIV)

Jesus and Beelzebub
²⁰Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. ²¹When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, "He is out of his mind."
²²And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, "He is possessed by Beelzebub^[c]! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons."
²³So Jesus called them and spoke to them in parables: "How can Satan drive out Satan? ²⁴If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. ²⁶And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. ²⁷In fact, no one can enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house. ²⁸I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. ²⁹But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin."
³⁰He said this because they were saying, "He has an evil spirit."

DAY #5:                      Mark 3:20-30

We have all seen someone doing a good thing. Often, people who want to discredit that person will accuse him of wrong motives. "Yes," they will say, "what he is doing is good. But look and see why he is doing it. You think he is doing it for the benefit of others. What he really wants to do is build up a following that will turn our society upside down. What he really wants to do is take control of us and all that we do."

Sometimes those who make those statements are only trying to cause trouble. Some who make such accusations actually believe them. We cannot be sure of the motivations of the critics of Jesus. It may be that some of both kinds of accusers were in the bunch.

Consider, however, how ridiculous the accusation was. They said Jesus cast out Satan by the power and authority of Satan. That is something like a person standing in a house and then trying to throw himself out by grabbing a hold of himself, picking himself up and tossing himself out of the building. That, it seems to me, only happens in cartoons. In real life, that is not possible. That is what Jesus said to His accusers. "You've got to be kidding! How is that possible? Don't be ridiculous!"

Then Jesus comments on a big issue that I am going to try to deal with in a few brief sentences ("Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."). Look at Jesus' comment on the impossibility of being forgiven for blasphemy of the Holy Spirit in the context of the passage.

The scribes said Jesus, who was doing the things of God, was actually doing the things of Satan. That, very simply, is blasphemy . . . identifying the work of the Lord as the work of the devil. If you can't tell the difference between God and Satan, how can you call upon the Lord to forgive you for your sins?

Mark 3:31-35 (NIV)

Jesus' Mother and Brothers
³¹Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. ³²A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, "Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you."
³³"Who are my mother and my brothers?" he asked.
³⁴Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother."

DAY #6:                      Mark 3:31-35

This is one of those passages that many people read and say of Jesus, "I never knew how insensitive He was. This just doesn't fit in with my idea of what a loving person is supposed to be."

I want to challenge you to look at this passage again with a different perspective. We find Jesus is being told about the arrival of His mother and siblings. Everything is so crowded that they can't get into the building where Jesus is closely surrounded by so many admirers. When Jesus asks the question: "Who are My mother and My sisters and My brothers?" we mistakenly add our own words to His statement. We read His question as, "Who are My mother and sisters and brothers. Those people waiting outside are certainly not My family. Oh, no. My real family is the people inside the house who do the will of Father in heaven." Please listen carefully. You may imagine Jesus added those last words, but they are found nowhere in scripture.

     On the contrary, I see Jesus using the information about the arrival of His family as a stepping stone to make a spiritual point. He shares a quick teaching about what is a spiritual family. It is one that has been given life by our heavenly Father, is taught by Father, and obeys the will of Father. "That is who I am," says Jesus, "and those who do the same are My brothers and sisters just as surely as those outside the door are My physical family."}

^{^{Mark 2:1-12}⁽^NIV⁾

Jesus Heals a Paralytic
¹A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. ²So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. ³Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. ⁴Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. ⁵When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."
⁶Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ⁷"Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
⁸Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things? ⁹Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'? ¹⁰But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . ." He said to the paralytic, ¹¹"I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." ¹²He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"

WEEK #16-28              July 12-18, 2010

DAY #1:                                  Mark 2:1-12

Turning back to chapter 1, we find this fact. When Jesus had been prepared by the Holy Spirit to begin His public ministry (a ministry that would last only three years), He prayerfully called 12 men to be His core group. The first place they went to minister was the town of Capernaum (Mark 1:21). It was here that Simon Peter's mother-in-law was miraculously healed by Jesus.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem. He spent part of His infancy in Egypt until Herod, the ruler in Judea that wanted this child killed, had died. Then His family moved back to Nazareth where Jesus lived until He began His public ministry at the age of 30. Leaving home to take the necessary steps to begin sharing the good news, we find the first town He enters is Capernaum. Jesus was able to do many loving acts of healing and deliverance while also fulfilling His primary purpose --- to call all people to repent and to accept Him as Lord of their lives.

Jesus spent so much time in Capernaum that eventually it became known as "The City of Jesus." Travel to Israel today and you will find at the entrance to this community a sign that says exactly that.

We have heard many times the statement, "A prophet is without honor even in his own country." That certainly applied to Jesus. We read that He was not able to heal in Nazareth because of the unbelief of the citizens (Mark 6:1-6). "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46). So Capernaum became His adopted city. Here He was free to be who He really was . . . the Son of God.

Mark 2:1-12 (NIV)

Jesus Heals a Paralytic
¹A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. ²So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. ³Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. ⁴Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. ⁵When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."
⁶Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ⁷"Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
⁸Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things? ⁹Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'? ¹⁰But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . ." He said to the paralytic, ¹¹"I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." ¹²He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"

DAY #2:                      Mark 2:1-12

Jesus had a way of creating controversy wherever He went. Maybe that is the case with most gifted leaders and communicators. It happened so often to Jesus, I believe, because He did not play any of the political games of His day. He was clearly not "politically correct." If something had to be said, Jesus would say it and not hold back. He would not tell part of the truth, but all of the truth. You might say, "He told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."

In our Scripture for today, we observe Jesus ministering to a man who was crippled. Look at the first thing Jesus says to the paralytic: "Your sins are forgiven." The place is packed. The friends of this sick man had to dramatically force their way into the house. Portions of the crowds around Jesus almost always included Jewish authorities who were sincerely frightened of this man, what He was doing, and what He might do. They did not come to be convinced of the truth of Jesus' message. On the contrary, they came to find some evidence, in His words or actions, that would give them leverage to arrest Him and, thereby, get rid of Him and these crowds of potentially unruly people.

So, the place is packed. Jesus is asked to heal a man. Instead of saying, "Take up your bed and walk. You have been healed," He blurts out this phrase that caused gigantic spiritual antennas to sprout from the heads of all the people. "Afterall," they were probably thinking, "only God can forgive sins. Who does this man think He is? God?!!" Of course, we know the answer to that question is "Yes!"

How does Jesus deal with this distress in the hearts of many of His listeners? Well, it almost seems like He is having some fun with them and their concern. It was like He said, "Look, it's easy to say, 'You're sins are forgiven.' No one can prove Me right or wrong when I say that. Now, let Me tell you something much harder than saying that. If I were to say, 'Take up your bed and walk,' unless this man actually gets up and walks, I will look really bad in the eyes of all of you. So that is a much more difficult thing to do. But to demonstrate to you that I have the authority to forgiven sins and heal the sick, watch this!" And Jesus told the paralytic to get up, go home, and carry his mat with him. "See," says Jesus, "I can do the hard stuff, too." And they were all amazed and dumbfounded.

Mark 2:1-12 (NIV)

Jesus Heals a Paralytic
¹A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. ²So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. ³Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. ⁴Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. ⁵When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."
⁶Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ⁷"Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
⁸Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things? ⁹Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'? ¹⁰But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . ." He said to the paralytic, ¹¹"I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." ¹²He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"

DAY #3:                                  Mark 2:1-12

Who were these men? And how many of them were there? Four. And why would they do something so drastic as to punch a hole in the roof of a home in which Jesus was ministering to wall-to-wall people? And it was no tiny hole in the roof. It had to be big enough to let down by ropes into the meeting room a grown adult male reclining on his pallet (a kind of stretcher-sized bed).

Who were they? They were men of faith. They had seen Jesus in action. They may have spent some significant time observing Him in ministry. They knew He could heal people because He was doing that all over the place, especially here in Capernaum. They probably knew Simon Peter and his mother-in-law. This was a small town. Every body knew every one else. They believed Jesus could heal their friend. And they acted on that belief. That is called "Faith."

They were men with compassion and love. They cared deeply for this man who was paralyzed. Very likely everything that could be done for him had already been done. They saw few options left. Jesus seemed to be the obvious answer . . . the one who could radically transform this man they cared about.

They were men of conviction. They saw a resolution to their friends suffering; and nothing would stop them from reaching their goal. Where was Jesus? That was easy. Look for the crowds. Ah, but the crowds not only pointed to where Jesus was, they were also the barrier keeping their friend separated from the Messiah.

All barriers must go. First, they muscled their way through the crowds. They might have given the crowds the impression that they were an official part of Jesus' ministry session that day. Whatever it took, they would get through the crowds. But, once through, they couldn't get in the door. No problem. They went through the roof.

Do you realize how much Jesus has changed your life? How He has brought healing to you in body, soul, and spirit? How He has given new meaning and direction to your life? Aren't there some friends or relatives you know who would greatly benefit from knowing Jesus as the Lord of their lives? If we are people of faith and compassion and conviction, we will stop at nothing to bring those we care about to Jesus.



Mark 2:13-17 (NIV)

The Calling of Levi
¹³Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. ¹⁴As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.
¹⁵While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. ¹⁶When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
¹⁷On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

DAY #4:                      Mark 2:13-17

The first action in today's passage is the calling of Levi (or Matthew) to be a disciple of Jesus. Levi was a tax collector. For Jews, being a tax collector was to unfairly rob your fellow Jews of their resources for the benefit of the Roman oppressors. Tax collectors were found right up there at the top of the list of unsavory and even hateful people.

When Jesus was seen actually socializing with these despicable characters, His reputation was brought into question. According to Jewish custom, one of the most intimate things you can do is to sit down and share a meal with someone else. You only did that with those closest to you. Did this mean that Jesus was just like these miserable sinners and tax collectors?

Jesus comes up with this really classy response. He tells them He has come to minister to the sick, just like a doctor does. You don't accuse the doctor of being sick just because he spends time with the ill and afflicted. The ill need a physician. The sinners of the world need Jesus. He is not a sinner, but He saves them.

One footnote might be worth considering at this point. Some people ask, "Should Christians go to a doctor? If you have enough faith, can't you just trust Jesus to heal you?" I think the answer to this line of questioning is very simple and is found in Mark 2:17. Jesus says it without fancy language. "It is not the healthy ones who need a physician but those who are sick." That almost seems too easy, doesn't it? Yet, there you have it in the words of Jesus. "The sick need a physician."

Well, should we not pray then and ask God to miraculously heal someone? Of course, we should pray. And we should expect God to miraculously intervene and bring healing. But where do we get the idea it must be one way or the other? Jesus seems to establish the simple truth that it should be both. Let's not put God into a box. He can bring healing any way He wants to --- by spiritual intervention and/or by gifted physicians. It is not either/or. It is both/and.

Mark 2:18-22 (NIV)

Jesus Questioned About Fasting
¹⁸Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, "How is it that John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?"
¹⁹Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. ²⁰But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.
²¹"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. ²²And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins."

DAY #5:                      Mark 2:18-22

Jesus is being asked about fasting. Some may say Jesus does not believe fasting is important. Yet, we know He does encourage fasting. All He says here is that there is a time for fasting and a time for feasting (see Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 and Isaiah 58:4-10). Jesus even told one person that some illnesses need more than prayer for healing. They need people to fast as well (Matthew 17:21). Apparently, there is a spiritual power released in us when we fast for the right reasons. Even more, there seems to be a spiritual openness to wisdom from God for those who fast.

Then Jesus talks to the people about an important issue. Can we be half new and half old? Or must we become totally new. We all know the answer to that one. If you are going to pour new wine into a wineskin, make sure it is a new, resilient wineskin. If you are not careful, the wineskin might burst.

Here is the obvious spiritual application of this teaching. We must totally surrender ourselves to the Lord. When we do, He makes us completely new creatures (see II Corinthians 5:17). He has great things to share with us. He has much He wants us to take in. He wants us to be the Temple of the Holy Spirit. The old wineskins can't handle that kind of spiritual infilling. If we let Him renew us, He promises to fill us to overflowing with His Spirit and all the wonderful gifts and blessings of life that we need as citizens of His Kingdom of Light (see Colossians 1:9-14).

Mark 2:23-28 (NIV)

Lord of the Sabbath
²³One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. ²⁴The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"
²⁵He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? ²⁶In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."
²⁷Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. ²⁸So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

DAY #6:                      Mark 2:23-28

The Pharisees were actually very orderly people. Many put them down as though there were nothing good about them. They would probably be wonderful neighbors. You can be sure they would keep their lawns and houses in tip-top shape all the time.

Being orderly, they had trouble with Jesus. Jesus believed in the Law and that it should be kept. But He knew, because of who He is, that laws were given to God's people because He loved them. The laws were to protect them and bring helpful order to their daily existence. It's much easier to make a decision about something if the will of God is perfectly clear. It's those gray areas that can drive us crazy.

The Pharisees had themselves in a frame of mind that almost worshiped the Law. They apparently believed that faithful obedience to the Law would bring special rewards to them --- either from God directly or at least from their neighbors.

When Jesus and His disciples were observed not following the strict letter of the Sabbath Law, they were questioned. Jesus reminded them of the basic reason for the wonderful gift of the Law. People were not created for the sole purpose of keeping Sabbath laws . . . scores of laws that actually became a burden, not a blessing. Rather the Sabbath was given as a gift from God to bring rest, not stress.}

^{^{Mark 1:14-15}⁽^NIV⁾

The Calling of the First Disciples
¹⁴After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ¹⁵"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

WEEK #16-27               July 5 – July 11

DAY #1:                                  Mark 1:14-15

            John the Baptist has been arrested and put in jail. He has been removed from the scene. That means all attention turns to Jesus, the one for whom John prepared the way. This is important because, from early on, there was a group of people who wanted to follow John and not Jesus. In fact, some of them are still hanging around 3 or 4 years later and are referred to in Acts 19:1-7.
            The transition from John to Jesus is an easy one. First, because John did all he could to "prepare the way." Second, because they taught basically the same message: "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand." (Compare today's passage with Matthew 3:1-6).
            It seems that we are in a new phase of the gospel ministry. In Phase I, God is preparing the nation of Israel for the arrival of Messiah. In Phase II, John the Baptist is preparing the people, with a call to repentance, for the immediate arrival of the Messiah who has been born and is now to begin His public ministry. In Phase III, Jesus is calling people to repentance (as John did) and challenging them to believe in the good news. That good news will be shared in word and deed by Jesus for the next three years. (On DAY #6, we will see why it was important to take three years for this project rather than going from the baptism to Calvary in a matter of months. This was certainly a possibility. Look, for example, at the reaction of the religious authorities to Jesus at the very beginning of His ministry as recorded in Luke 6:6-11.).
            It has been said, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true." We need to realize that there is one glaring exception to that very valid rule. When it comes to the promise of the free gift of eternal life that Jesus offers to those who have faith in Him, even though it sounds too good to be true, it actually is true. Repent and believe and you will be saved (see Romans 10:8-11).

Mark 1:14-20 (NIV)

The Calling of the First Disciples
¹⁴After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ¹⁵"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"
¹⁶As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ¹⁷"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." ¹⁸At once they left their nets and followed him.
¹⁹When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. ²⁰Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
.

DAY #2:                                  Mark 1:14-20

            There is a sense of urgency that comes along with the message shared by John and now by Jesus. "Repent and believe the gospel. The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand."
            What time is fulfilled? The time for the promised Messiah to begin His ministry. People had been waiting for centuries for this one person to arrive. The wait is over. The Messiah is here. And "the kingdom of God is at hand." What does that mean? It means that it is ready to break in upon you. If you were on the shore of the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean and you saw a huge wave building up and begin to tower over you, at the very peak of its arc, that wave is "at hand" according to this word used by Jesus.
            It is sort of like the couple who got married and wanted to have children and were not successful in their efforts for ten years. Finally, they had their first child. Then, in quick succession, they had six more, practically one per year. So it is with the arrival of Jesus. People had waited for it for centuries. Now that He is here, get ready. The kingdom of God is ready to break in upon you in a rapid succession of spiritual evidence.
            Jesus knows He must share the details of how He has fulfilled the prophecies inspired by the Holy Spirit and recorded in the Scriptures. He must also prepare a group of people to take over for Him after His ministry culminates in His death, resurrection and ascension into heaven. Therefore, Jesus prayerfully calls to His side twelve men who will be His constant companions all the days of His brief three-year ministry. They will get to know Him and His message. They will come closer to Father and be empowered by the Holy Spirit to carry out miraculous ministries to the glory of God.
            The first lesson these men learned was that Jesus has to be the focus of their life. When He called them to follow Him, they left everything --- job and family and dreams --- to follow Jesus.

Mark 1:21-34 (NIV)

Jesus Drives Out an Evil Spirit
²¹They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. ²²The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. ²³Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, ²⁴"What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!"
²⁵"Be quiet!" said Jesus sternly. "Come out of him!" ²⁶The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
²⁷The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, "What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him." ²⁸News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.
Jesus Heals Many
²⁹As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. ³⁰Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. ³¹So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.
³²That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. ³³The whole town gathered at the door, ³⁴and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

DAY #3:                                  Mark 1:21-34

            I began my Christian ministry as Associate Pastor of a large church in a little town called Nazareth in eastern Pennsylvania. The Senior Pastor was Tom Garner, a fine man who taught me more in six months under his leadership than I had been able to absorb in three years of theological seminary training.
            Tom was one of those guys who had a presence about him. When he walked into a room, even if your back was turned to the door through which he came, you knew he was there. His personality had a way of filling up a room. And when he spoke, you wanted to do what he asked of you. It was very difficult to disagree with him. He always seemed to be right. And not in an arrogant way. It is just who he was. I praise God he touched my life so powerfully.
            Multiply that image about 10,000 times and you get close to discovering how Jesus affected the people He met. Matthew notes this in the brief comment he makes about the Sermon on the Mount. At the end of this sermon (found in Matthew 5-7), the comment is made, "When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law." (Matthew 7:28-29 - NIV)
            See how the people of Capernaum respond to the presence, the words, and the ministry of Jesus in our Scripture lesson for today. He enters the synagogue to worship and to teach, and the people are amazed because He taught "as one who had authority." Then He encounters a demon-possessed man in the synagogue. Obviously, this man was known by the people. This was a small town. But no one could apparently do anything about him. Immediately, the evil spirits in the man recognize who Jesus is (most of the people did not yet know He was Messiah) and they argue with Him. Basically, they said, "Get away from us, Jesus. We are quite happy without You here." Jesus "took authority" over the evil spirits, told them to leave and they did. And the people saw His amazing authority once again. He has authority to teach the word of God because of who He is (the Word made flesh) and because of what He knows (all things from a heavenly perspective); and He has authority over evil spirits because of His awesome power. Who is this man, they wanted to know. He is who the evil spirits proclaimed Him to be --- "the Holy One of God."

Mark 1:21-34 (NIV)

Jesus Drives Out an Evil Spirit
²¹They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. ²²The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. ²³Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, ²⁴"What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!"
²⁵"Be quiet!" said Jesus sternly. "Come out of him!" ²⁶The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
²⁷The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, "What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him." ²⁸News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.
Jesus Heals Many
²⁹As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. ³⁰Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. ³¹So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.
³²That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. ³³The whole town gathered at the door, ³⁴and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

DAY #4:                                  Mark 1:21-34

            Jesus ministered to the whole person --- body, soul, and spirit. In fact, the word in the Bible we find translated "salvation" means to be made whole in body, soul, and spirit. When Jesus does a work on us, He doesn't just renovate part of the kitchen and put in a new door on the front of the house. He makes the whole place over and puts in a huge skylight so that there are no dark areas at all.
            In this passage that we have been looking at in Mark, we find Jesus ministering to the minds of the people which is part of our soul. He is challenging their preconceived ideas of what is right and wrong, of what the scripture they have read for so many years really means, and of who He is and, hopefully, of who they are.
            They observe, with wide-eyes and open mouths, the healing of the spirit of a man by cleansing him of demons that had controlled him for years. In so doing, they are beginning to learn that Jesus ministers to the mind, the soul, and the spirit.
            Following the synagogue experiences, Jesus and the disciples go to the home of Simon Peter. There Jesus miraculously heals Simon's mother-in-law. She is so healthy, she gets up from her sick bed to minister to Jesus and the disciples. Obviously, the word had spread about this man who ministers to the mind, soul, spirit, and body. Many who are physically ill are brought to Jesus. The whole town, the Scripture tells us, was gathered outside the house to see what Jesus would do. They saw Him heal the sick and cast out demons. Then He did something strange. He would not let the evil spirits tell people who He was. We will check that out on DAY #6.

Mark 1:35-39 (NIV)

Jesus Prays in a Solitary Place
³⁵Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. ³⁶Simon and his companions went to look for him, ³⁷and when they found him, they exclaimed: "Everyone is looking for you!"
³⁸Jesus replied, "Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come." ³⁹So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

DAY #5:                                  Mark 1:35-39

            Not many people know about these verses, even though they were here as long as all the other verses of the New Testament. And they are very important words because they give us clear evidence of what the mission of Jesus was as far as Jesus was concerned.
            It is early the next morning --- the morning after a day full of acts and words that raised the eyebrows of all who saw Jesus in action. He had taught with authority. No one had ever heard teaching like that before. He had clear and powerful control over demonic spirits. No one had seen that done before. They wondered who this man might be. And even though the evil spirits blurted out who He was, the news seemed to go right over their wondering heads. He healed one person after another of sickness and disease. All this in one busy day.
            Now Jesus is off by Himself. He is spending time with Father. He is trying to make sure He is doing the right thing. He wants things to be under His control, not out of control or under the control of the multitudes that were beginning to seek Him out, and not under the control of His new young, rookie disciples.
            The disciples are excited. They probably had trouble sleeping the night before. It is morning and they can't find Jesus. That is very important because, they told Him, "Everyone is looking for You!"
            What would you expect Jesus to do at a time like that? Go back immediately to the town square or to Simon's home or to the synagogue and heal some more people and cast out some more demons? That seems logical to me. But it is not what Jesus did. It is almost as if Jesus is avoiding the crowds and neglecting those who need to be healed in Capernaum. Jesus says something like this, "I've got some preaching to do. I've got a message to share. The physical healing is not the main reason I am here. I don't want people to seek signs. I want them to seek and know Me. I want them to be totally whole."

Mark 1:40-45 (NIV)

A Man With Leprosy
⁴⁰A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean."
⁴¹Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" ⁴²Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.
⁴³Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: ⁴⁴"See that you don't tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them." ⁴⁵Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

DAY #6:                                  Mark 1:40-45

            The religious authorities of Jesus' day did not like people to make waves. And they definitely wanted to make sure everyone knew they were in charge. They knew the Law of Moses. They kept the Law. And they inspected everyone's actions to make sure they kept the Law as well. Along comes Jesus who gets crowds stirred up and excited. It is clear, even to these religious leaders, that this man has the potential to cause a revolution . . . and they don't like it one bit.
            Jesus understands this as well . . . probably better than the scribes and Pharisees. These religious leaders, who want to keep things under control, would very likely be shocked to discover that Jesus wanted to keep things under control as well. Jesus knows that, if things get out of hand, the authorities will turn against Him and do all they can to stop Him in His tracks. Jesus knows that will happen in a few years, but He can't let it happen now. He has too much to do. When the time is right, Jesus will let things unfold . . . but not until then.
            Today, we see Jesus healing a leper. After the healing, we read, "Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 'See that you don't tell this to anyone.'" Why the secrecy? Because Jesus needs to keep things under control and on His time schedule. He knows His mission. He knows when and how it must be done. And He will see that His ministry will reach its peak when the time is right.
            How do you keep quiet about being healed of the dread disease of leprosy? And even if you say nothing about it, won't it be obvious that you have been dramatically and miraculously healed? Absolutely! So the crowds came to Jesus from everywhere. When they came, He taught them and He lovingly healed them in body, soul, and spirit.
______________________________________
Check out these verses that show Jesus trying to keep His ministry a secret, or at least under control until the time is right.

Read Mark 1:34 and 44; 3:12; 5:43; 7:36; 8:30; 9:9 and 30.

In 11:1-11, when the time is right, Jesus "takes the lid off."}

^{^{Mark 1:1-4}⁽^NIV⁾

John the Baptist Prepares the Way
¹The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
²It is written in Isaiah the prophet:

   "I will send my messenger ahead of you,

      who will prepare your way"—

³"a voice of one calling in the desert,

   'Prepare the way for the Lord,

      make straight paths for him.' " ⁴And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

WEEK #16-26                June 28 – July 4

DAY #1:                                  Mark 1:1-4

            The New International Version (NIV) of the Bible begins Mark's gospel this way:

The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

British writer William Barclay gives his own personal translation of the Greek text in his commentaries. He renders verse one this way:

This is the beginning of the story of how Jesus Christ, the Son of God, brought the good news to men.

The word "gospel" in the NIV is replaced with the words "good news" in Barclay's translation. The transliteration of the Greek word is "evangelion." You might see the word "angel" in the middle of that word. An angel is a messenger of the Lord. The words the angel delivers are obviously, therefore, the "message" from God. The letters "ev" at the beginning of "evangelion" are the prefix meaning "good" or "well." They modify the word "message" and let us know the message is a "good" one. Thus, Barclay's "good news." This is the beginning of the "good message" from God. It was not only brought by Jesus, as Barclay proclaims. Jesus Himself is the message. In Himself, Jesus is the gospel, the good news that would change the history of the world. As the apostle John put it in the first chapter of his account of the life of Jesus, Jesus was "the Word" and, in Jesus, "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14).
            John's account also tells us the Word, the good message or good news that was incarnated in Jesus, was "in the beginning" (John 1:1-2). When Mark is telling us that "This is the beginning of the gospel," he is not necessarily referring only to these few words and sentences that open his account of the life of the Lord. He immediately refers back to the words of God given through the prophet Isaiah centuries earlier, words that were in the mind of God from the beginning but only uttered by Isaiah as he was inspired by the Holy Spirit in the 7th century BC. What is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ? The beginning is in God Himself from before the foundation of the world and revealed, moment-by-moment, according to God's perfect plan and timing. The good news is an eternal message.

Mark 1:1-4 (NIV)

John the Baptist Prepares the Way
¹The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
²It is written in Isaiah the prophet:

   "I will send my messenger ahead of you,

      who will prepare your way"—

³"a voice of one calling in the desert,

   'Prepare the way for the Lord,

      make straight paths for him.' " ⁴And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

DAY #2:                                    Mark 1:1-4

            There is no effort to, or even a sense that there is a need to, explain who Jesus is and why He is the Christ, the Son of God. Here we see the simple declaration that this is who Jesus is. Clearly, those who were the first readers of this account accepted this truth: Jesus is the Christ (Messiah), the Son of God.
            If we turn to The Gospel According to John, we find near the end of that book these key words:
Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name. (John 20:30-31 - NASB)
            We could say similar things about the existence of God. There is no place in the Bible where authors, poets, historians, or prophets make an effort to convince the readers that God is real and truly exists. As the phrase goes, "It goes without saying that God is real." No one associated with the people of the Bible had any doubt about that fact. And it is a FACT! This is Truth with a capital "T".
            Jesus is the long-awaited, promised Messiah. Jesus is the Son of God. Ask Mark. He knows. He will tell you without hesitation. Mark and John both know who Jesus is. And they want you and me and as many other people as possible to be as sure of this as they are.

Mark 1:1-8 (NIV)

John the Baptist Prepares the Way
¹The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
²It is written in Isaiah the prophet:

   "I will send my messenger ahead of you,

      who will prepare your way"—

³"a voice of one calling in the desert,

   'Prepare the way for the Lord,

      make straight paths for him.' " ⁴And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. ⁶John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷And this was his message: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. ⁸I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

DAY #3:                                    Mark 1:1-8

            And so John came baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (verse 4 - NIV).
            Why was John baptizing Jews? This kind of ritual was usually required of Gentiles who chose to become Jews. They had to confess their sins, repent and turn away from the impurities of their Gentile living, and commit themselves to following God. The answer to our question is seen in the text before us. The relevant and motivating prophetic word for John's ministry is found in Isaiah 40. There the Lord calls for someone to go into the wilderness and "prepare the way of the Lord." That person is to get things ready for the arrival of Messiah.
            How does one carry out such an awesome ministry? Get people to repent of their sins, be cleansed of their unrighteousness. Then, when Messiah arrives, they will be prepared to receive Him. John is, in a sense, paving the highway to our hearts with his call to repentance and his ministry of water baptism.
            The baptism procedure was simple. Come into the water and get totally immersed. This symbolizes being washed clean from the top of the head to the souls of the feet. If Messiah is to come to bring the gift of salvation to the entire world, then all must repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins, whether Jew or Gentile.



Mark 1:1-8 (NIV)

John the Baptist Prepares the Way
¹The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
²It is written in Isaiah the prophet:

   "I will send my messenger ahead of you,

      who will prepare your way"—

³"a voice of one calling in the desert,

   'Prepare the way for the Lord,

      make straight paths for him.' " ⁴And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. ⁶John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷And this was his message: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. ⁸I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

DAY #4:                                    Mark 1:1-8

            It is obvious that John the Baptist is prepared to receive the Messiah. His humility is clear evidence of this fact. He has faced himself. He has seen his sin. He is aware of the error of his ways. And he has turned around and away from iniquity (repentance means to literally turn around 180° and go in the opposite direction). He has sold out to God the Father and is willing to do all he can to help others prepare themselves for the entering of Messiah into their lives.
            John describes the baptism he has been led by God to employ. It is a baptism with water. This baptism prepares the way for Messiah to enter in through repentance and cleansing from unrighteousness. But, says John, there is someone coming after him that is so awesome (that is, Messiah) that John is not even worthy to get down on his hands and knees and fasten the strap on Messiah's sandal. This Messiah will have a different baptism. Rather than being baptized in water, He will baptize with the Holy Spirit. What does that mean?
            Look at this word baptism, for a moment. It literally means to immerse and keep immersed. A sunken ship is "baptized." It is in the water. The water is in it. It is completely surrounded by and filled up with water. When someone is baptized in water, we never go to that extreme. We bring them up out of the water before they get filled up with the water. If we leave them under that long, they will drown. But of course, that is one of the symbols of baptism --- not only cleansing but also dying to old ways in former days. Note that the "cleansing" of sins and the "dying" to the old life are both symbolic. These are physical and outward signs of inward reality.
            Jesus, John the Baptist tells us, will have a baptism of a different sort. It will still be immersion. But now the believer will be immersed in the Holy Spirit. As in water baptism, where there is no real, physical washing or dying (it is a spiritual reality), so it is when we are baptized in the Holy Spirit.
            It is something Jesus does for us once we have invited Him into our lives as Lord and Savior. The way in has been prepared by repentance. He enters in by His Holy Spirit. So we are "filled up" with the Spirit of God. At the same time, we are encompassed by the Holy Spirit as well. We are in the Spirit and the Spirit is in us.
            How does this happen? Jesus answers that question rather simply in Luke 11:11-13. He says that the heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit "to those who ask for it." That doesn't sound difficult at all, does it? Let's take God at His word and ask. Baptism in water is for repentance. Baptism in the Holy Spirit is for power in ministry and to live the life of obedience that the Lord requires of us.

Mark 1:9-11 (NIV)

The Baptism and Temptation of Jesus
⁹At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. ¹¹And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

DAY #5:                                  Mark 1:9-11

            Jesus is baptized by John. But He never sinned. Why is He being baptized? So that He might identify with the people and that they might identify with Him.
            If there is any moment where we might find some effort to "prove" that Jesus is the Son of God, this moment of baptism would be it. It is when Jesus comes up out of the water that the dove, symbolic of the Holy Spirit, descends upon Him. Any who saw such an event would be impressed.
            Then Father does something to reaffirm in the mind and heart of Jesus that He is who He believes Himself to be. A voice comes out of "no where" saying to Jesus, "You are My Son in whom I am well-pleased." (emphasis added). Such confirmation was important for Jesus. He is about to embark upon a three-year ministry that will bring Him to death on the cross. Any doubts in His mind about His mission and ministry would hopefully cause Him to think back to this moment of baptism when Father showed Him and told Him who He was, thus cementing in His mind the truth of His mission.

Mark 1:9-13 (NIV)

The Baptism and Temptation of Jesus
⁹At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. ¹¹And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."
¹²At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, ¹³and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

DAY #6:                      Mark 1:9-13

            Look at what loving heavenly Father does to His only begotten Son, the Messiah, the Savior of the world. He leads Him into the wilderness where He will be tempted by Satan. That doesn't sound too loving, does it?
One translation says the Holy Spirit "compelled" Jesus to go into the wilderness. This was apparently an important part of His ministry. While John is preparing the way for the Lord to come into our lives, Father is doing some preparing as well. Father in heaven, by His Holy Spirit, is preparing "the Way," Jesus Himself, who confessed that He is "the way, the truth and the life" and that no one comes to the Father but by Him.
            Why send Jesus into the wilderness to have as His companions wild animals and angels? Father was doing the final preparation of "the Way." As detailed in Matthew 4 and Luke 4, this was a forty-day test of Jesus to help Him see who He really was and what His mission was indeed to be.
            When Jesus taught His disciples what we call "The Lord's Prayer," Jesus said we should pray, "Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil." Isn't this effort of Father a contradiction of that request? Not at all! Father does not lead Jesus "into" temptation. He leads Him "to" temptation and provides the angelic assistance, the sanctified wisdom, and the Holy Spirit power (remember the dove?) to withstand any temptations that He would encounter. What Father did for Jesus, He does for us as well. He does not lead us into temptation, He leads us to it so that we can be strengthened as we resist by His Holy Spirit (see James 1:2-4 for more benefits of dealing with trials and temptations).}

^{^{Numbers 32:16-42}⁽^NIV⁾

¹⁶ Then they came up to him and said, "We would like to build pens here for our livestock and cities for our women and children. ¹⁷ But we are ready to arm ourselves and go ahead of the Israelites until we have brought them to their place. Meanwhile our women and children will live in fortified cities, for protection from the inhabitants of the land. ¹⁸ We will not return to our homes until every Israelite has received his inheritance. ¹⁹ We will not receive any inheritance with them on the other side of the Jordan, because our inheritance has come to us on the east side of the Jordan."
²⁰ Then Moses said to them, "If you will do this—if you will arm yourselves before the LORD for battle, ²¹ and if all of you will go armed over the Jordan before the LORD until he has driven his enemies out before him- ²² then when the land is subdued before the LORD, you may return and be free from your obligation to the LORD and to Israel. And this land will be your possession before the LORD.
²³ "But if you fail to do this, you will be sinning against the LORD; and you may be sure that your sin will find you out. ²⁴ Build cities for your women and children, and pens for your flocks, but do what you have promised."
²⁵ The Gadites and Reubenites said to Moses, "We your servants will do as our lord commands. ²⁶ Our children and wives, our flocks and herds will remain here in the cities of Gilead. ²⁷ But your servants, every man armed for battle, will cross over to fight before the LORD, just as our lord says."
²⁸ Then Moses gave orders about them to Eleazar the priest and Joshua son of Nun and to the family heads of the Israelite tribes. ²⁹ He said to them, "If the Gadites and Reubenites, every man armed for battle, cross over the Jordan with you before the LORD, then when the land is subdued before you, give them the land of Gilead as their possession. ³⁰ But if they do not cross over with you armed, they must accept their possession with you in Canaan."
³¹ The Gadites and Reubenites answered, "Your servants will do what the LORD has said. ³² We will cross over before the LORD into Canaan armed, but the property we inherit will be on this side of the Jordan."
³³ Then Moses gave to the Gadites, the Reubenites and the half-tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan—the whole land with its cities and the territory around them.
³⁴ The Gadites built up Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer, ³⁵ Atroth Shophan, Jazer, Jogbehah, ³⁶ Beth Nimrah and Beth Haran as fortified cities, and built pens for their flocks. ³⁷ And the Reubenites rebuilt Heshbon, Elealeh and Kiriathaim, ³⁸ as well as Nebo and Baal Meon (these names were changed) and Sibmah. They gave names to the cities they rebuilt.
³⁹ The descendants of Makir son of Manasseh went to Gilead, captured it and drove out the Amorites who were there. ⁴⁰ So Moses gave Gilead to the Makirites, the descendants of Manasseh, and they settled there. ⁴¹ Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, captured their settlements and called them Havvoth Jair. ⁴² And Nobah captured Kenath and its surrounding settlements and called it Nobah after himself.

WEEK #16-25

Day #1:                       Numbers 32:16-42

We find here the unfolding of the story of the tribes of Reuben and Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh. Moses has expressed doubt of their motives and, basically, accuses them of fear and a lack of faith. They assure him that they really do want to stay east of the Jordan River for the practical reasons given. To make it clear that this is their honest desire, they offer to fight in the wars to take the Promised Land as soon as they have got their wives and children established in the land of their choice. They pledge themselves to continue in the battle until all of their brothers in the nation of Israel have also received their inheritance of land.
Moses considers this offer and makes a simple judgment. This was not going to be a “let me do my own thing” kind of a situation. Nor was it going to be the kind of a development where the leader or the parent or the teacher says, “Well, the boys do seem a little bit rebellious; but boys will be boys, you know. Let's just wait and see what they do.”
No, Moses handled it very wisely. He allowed them the opportunity for individualism. PLUS, he laid on them their responsibility to the rest of the community. AND, most importantly, he let them know that God would hold them accountable for what they eventually did (verses 20-23). We can certainly apply these three principles to our own situation at home, at work, or at church. We need to encourage a person to be the person God created him to be within the bounds of his responsibility to the rest of the group, always remembering his ultimate accountability is to the Lord.

Numbers 33:1-49 (NIV)

Stages in Israel's Journey
¹ Here are the stages in the journey of the Israelites when they came out of Egypt by divisions under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. ² At the LORD's command Moses recorded the stages in their journey. This is their journey by stages:
³ The Israelites set out from Rameses on the fifteenth day of the first month, the day after the Passover. They marched out boldly in full view of all the Egyptians, ⁴ who were burying all their firstborn, whom the LORD had struck down among them; for the LORD had brought judgment on their gods.
⁵ The Israelites left Rameses and camped at Succoth.
⁶ They left Succoth and camped at Etham, on the edge of the desert.
⁷ They left Etham, turned back to Pi Hahiroth, to the east of Baal Zephon, and camped near Migdol.
⁸ They left Pi Hahiroth and passed through the sea into the desert, and when they had traveled for three days in the Desert of Etham, they camped at Marah.
⁹ They left Marah and went to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there.
¹⁰ They left Elim and camped by the Red Sea.
¹¹ They left the Red Sea and camped in the Desert of Sin.
¹² They left the Desert of Sin and camped at Dophkah.
¹³ They left Dophkah and camped at Alush.
¹⁴ They left Alush and camped at Rephidim, where there was no water for the people to drink.
¹⁵ They left Rephidim and camped in the Desert of Sinai.
¹⁶ They left the Desert of Sinai and camped at Kibroth Hattaavah.
¹⁷ They left Kibroth Hattaavah and camped at Hazeroth.
¹⁸ They left Hazeroth and camped at Rithmah.
¹⁹ They left Rithmah and camped at Rimmon Perez.
²⁰ They left Rimmon Perez and camped at Libnah.
²¹ They left Libnah and camped at Rissah.
²² They left Rissah and camped at Kehelathah.
²³ They left Kehelathah and camped at Mount Shepher.
²⁴ They left Mount Shepher and camped at Haradah.
²⁵ They left Haradah and camped at Makheloth.
²⁶ They left Makheloth and camped at Tahath.
²⁷ They left Tahath and camped at Terah.
²⁸ They left Terah and camped at Mithcah.
²⁹ They left Mithcah and camped at Hashmonah.
³⁰ They left Hashmonah and camped at Moseroth.
³¹ They left Moseroth and camped at Bene Jaakan.
³² They left Bene Jaakan and camped at Hor Haggidgad.
³³ They left Hor Haggidgad and camped at Jotbathah.
³⁴ They left Jotbathah and camped at Abronah.
³⁵ They left Abronah and camped at Ezion Geber.
³⁶ They left Ezion Geber and camped at Kadesh, in the Desert of Zin.
³⁷ They left Kadesh and camped at Mount Hor, on the border of Edom. ³⁸ At the LORD's command Aaron the priest went up Mount Hor, where he died on the first day of the fifth month of the fortieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt. ³⁹ Aaron was a hundred and twenty-three years old when he died on Mount Hor.
⁴⁰ The Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev of Canaan, heard that the Israelites were coming.
⁴¹ They left Mount Hor and camped at Zalmonah.
⁴² They left Zalmonah and camped at Punon.
⁴³ They left Punon and camped at Oboth.
⁴⁴ They left Oboth and camped at Iye Abarim, on the border of Moab.
⁴⁵ They left Iyim and camped at Dibon Gad.
⁴⁶ They left Dibon Gad and camped at Almon Diblathaim.
⁴⁷ They left Almon Diblathaim and camped in the mountains of Abarim, near Nebo.
⁴⁸ They left the mountains of Abarim and camped on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho. ⁴⁹ There on the plains of Moab they camped along the Jordan from Beth Jeshimoth to Abel Shittim.

Day #2:                       Numbers 33:1-49

When I was writing these devotional notes, I was also getting ready for a vacation in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. As I prepared for this round trip journey of over 2,000 miles, I contacted my local AAA to order a “TripTik,” giving me the best route to follow on the way. This chapter in Numbers reminds me of my TripTik. I go from here to here to here to here until I get there. Yet, as I travel along the way, there are occasional highlights to note and remember and things to look forward to along the way.
Chapter 33, then, notes the TripTik of the nation of Israel as they went from place to place. It's like a summary of their travel without being a travelogue. When we run across a passage like this, where each verse is almost exactly the same as the one before it and after it with the exception of one or two words, the wise reader looks for that verse or two that is different and adds an interesting bit of accent to the background color.
In chapter 33, those accent verses are verses 1-9, 14, 38-39 and 40. Here we find highlights drawing our attention to the way the Lord released Israel from Egypt by the plagues; how God miraculously provided water for them to drink; how Aaron died at age 123 just east of the Promised Land; and how the rumors were beginning to spread in Canaan about this nation that was apparently about to cross over the Jordan River.
What drew my attention was the fact that crossing the Red Sea (10-11), receiving the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai (15), defeating the enemy at Rephidim (15), and so much more was not high-lighted. I am not sure why one event was lifted up while another was just mentioned seemingly in passing.
Perhaps the most important thing is not what happened then, but what we are doing now with the Lord. Someone told me that since God called Himself "I AM", we should not spend our time dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. God is with us now and we should enjoy Him and worship Him NOW. Learn from the past, look forward with hope to the future, but live NOW as God gives you direction and power.

Numbers 33:50-56 (NIV)

⁵⁰ On the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho the LORD said to Moses, ⁵¹ "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, ⁵² drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish all their high places. ⁵³ Take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess. ⁵⁴ Distribute the land by lot, according to your clans. To a larger group give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group a smaller one. Whatever falls to them by lot will be theirs. Distribute it according to your ancestral tribes.
⁵⁵ " 'But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live. ⁵⁶ And then I will do to you what I plan to do to them.' "

Day #3:                       Numbers 33:50-56

The Lord is giving the nation of Israel some very important instructions to follow when they enter the Promised Land. These instructions are so important that He is giving them ahead of time as a way of emphasizing them. Whatever directions He gives them in the future, these should be remembered as foundational.
Basically, what is being noted here is the point we made last week when we looked at Numbers 31:1-24 (DAY #3 of WEEK #16-24). All the instructions are given by the Lord out of His omniscience and wisdom. Even though something may seem strange or even harsh, trust Him and watch Him work out the details to our joy and surprise.
It is as though the Lord were saying to Israel and us, “Do what I tell you to do. And, if you don’t do all that I tell you to do, and things go bad, don't say I didn’t warn you!”
He also makes a very important point in verse 56. God is providing the land of Canaan for them by driving out the inhabitants. If Israel does not obey Him completely, they also will be driven out of the land in the same way . . . by a conquering army.
This underlines a very important point. The land was given to them by the Lord to use, but not to own. All things belong to the Lord. They are given to us for our blessing and proper use. If we misuse or do not use at all the gifts He has given, He will take them back. Examine yourself to see how you are doing with what the Lord has given to you. Are you using His bounteous gifts properly and to His glory? If not, why not?

Numbers 34:1-29 (NIV)

Boundaries of Canaan
¹ The LORD said to Moses, ² "Command the Israelites and say to them: 'When you enter Canaan, the land that will be allotted to you as an inheritance will have these boundaries:
³ " 'Your southern side will include some of the Desert of Zin along the border of Edom. On the east, your southern boundary will start from the end of the Salt Sea, ^[a] ⁴ cross south of Scorpion ^[b] Pass, continue on to Zin and go south of Kadesh Barnea. Then it will go to Hazar Addar and over to Azmon, ⁵ where it will turn, join the Wadi of Egypt and end at the Sea. ^[c]
⁶ " 'Your western boundary will be the coast of the Great Sea. This will be your boundary on the west.
⁷ " 'For your northern boundary, run a line from the Great Sea to Mount Hor ⁸ and from Mount Hor to Lebo ^[d] Hamath. Then the boundary will go to Zedad, ⁹ continue to Ziphron and end at Hazar Enan. This will be your boundary on the north.
¹⁰ " 'For your eastern boundary, run a line from Hazar Enan to Shepham. ¹¹ The boundary will go down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain and continue along the slopes east of the Sea of Kinnereth. ^[e] ¹² Then the boundary will go down along the Jordan and end at the Salt Sea.

      " 'This will be your land, with its boundaries on every side.' "
¹³ Moses commanded the Israelites: "Assign this land by lot as an inheritance. The LORD has ordered that it be given to the nine and a half tribes, ¹⁴ because the families of the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance. ¹⁵ These two and a half tribes have received their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan of Jericho, ^[f] toward the sunrise."
¹⁶ The LORD said to Moses, ¹⁷ "These are the names of the men who are to assign the land for you as an inheritance: Eleazar the priest and Joshua son of Nun. ¹⁸ And appoint one leader from each tribe to help assign the land. ¹⁹ These are their names:

       Caleb son of Jephunneh,

       from the tribe of Judah;
²⁰ Shemuel son of Ammihud,

       from the tribe of Simeon;
²¹ Elidad son of Kislon,

       from the tribe of Benjamin;
²² Bukki son of Jogli,

       the leader from the tribe of Dan;
²³ Hanniel son of Ephod,

       the leader from the tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph;
²⁴ Kemuel son of Shiphtan,

       the leader from the tribe of Ephraim son of Joseph;
²⁵ Elizaphan son of Parnach,

       the leader from the tribe of Zebulun;
²⁶ Paltiel son of Azzan,

       the leader from the tribe of Issachar;
²⁷ Ahihud son of Shelomi,

       the leader from the tribe of Asher;
²⁸ Pedahel son of Ammihud,

       the leader from the tribe of Naphtali."
²⁹ These are the men the LORD commanded to assign the inheritance to the Israelites in the land of Canaan.

DAY #4:                      Numbers 34:1-29

Notice the first words God gives Moses to say to the people: “When you enter the land . . .” It wasn’t a matter of guessing or wishing or even wondering. It was a matter of fact. All they had to do was be obedient in all ways.
God has kept His promise made centuries before to Abram when he was still in the area of Ur in the Chaldees (see Genesis 12). The Lord said to Abram: “Go forth from your country . . . To the land which I will show you.” . . . and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan. . . . And the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.”
So, God keeps His promise. He gives them the dimensions of the land they are about to take as their own. He draws up the site plan and then declares who the civil engineers are to be, that is, who are the ones who will be responsible to apportion the land among all the families of each tribe.
The Lord gave them the land. But He did much more than that. He gave them men gifted and courageous and full of faith who would be used by Him to take the land by the power of the Spirit working within them. He gave them men gifted to divide the land and wisely negotiate any concerns or fears or feelings expressed by any distressed citizens.
The land was the gift of God. They were to divide it wisely as He gave them direction. They were to remember to whom it really belonged. And they were to use it properly. Once again, the Lord has all the details worked out ahead of time for any who would want to know them. He will reveal them and hold us accountable for their proper use . . . that the gifts might last longer, provide the maximum blessings to all, and bring glory to the Lord.

Numbers 35:1-34 (NIV)

Towns for the Levites
¹ On the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho, ^[a] the LORD said to Moses, ² "Command the Israelites to give the Levites towns to live in from the inheritance the Israelites will possess. And give them pasturelands around the towns. ³ Then they will have towns to live in and pasturelands for their cattle, flocks and all their other livestock.
⁴ "The pasturelands around the towns that you give the Levites will extend out fifteen hundred feet ^[b] from the town wall. ⁵ Outside the town, measure three thousand feet ^[c] on the east side, three thousand on the south side, three thousand on the west and three thousand on the north, with the town in the center. They will have this area as pastureland for the towns.
Cities of Refuge
⁶ "Six of the towns you give the Levites will be cities of refuge, to which a person who has killed someone may flee. In addition, give them forty-two other towns. ⁷ In all you must give the Levites forty-eight towns, together with their pasturelands. ⁸ The towns you give the Levites from the land the Israelites possess are to be given in proportion to the inheritance of each tribe: Take many towns from a tribe that has many, but few from one that has few."
⁹ Then the LORD said to Moses: ¹⁰ "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, ¹¹ select some towns to be your cities of refuge, to which a person who has killed someone accidentally may flee. ¹² They will be places of refuge from the avenger, so that a person accused of murder may not die before he stands trial before the assembly. ¹³ These six towns you give will be your cities of refuge. ¹⁴ Give three on this side of the Jordan and three in Canaan as cities of refuge. ¹⁵ These six towns will be a place of refuge for Israelites, aliens and any other people living among them, so that anyone who has killed another accidentally can flee there.
¹⁶ " 'If a man strikes someone with an iron object so that he dies, he is a murderer; the murderer shall be put to death. ¹⁷ Or if anyone has a stone in his hand that could kill, and he strikes someone so that he dies, he is a murderer; the murderer shall be put to death. ¹⁸ Or if anyone has a wooden object in his hand that could kill, and he hits someone so that he dies, he is a murderer; the murderer shall be put to death. ¹⁹ The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death; when he meets him, he shall put him to death. ²⁰ If anyone with malice aforethought shoves another or throws something at him intentionally so that he dies ²¹ or if in hostility he hits him with his fist so that he dies, that person shall be put to death; he is a murderer. The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he meets him.
²² " 'But if without hostility someone suddenly shoves another or throws something at him unintentionally ²³ or, without seeing him, drops a stone on him that could kill him, and he dies, then since he was not his enemy and he did not intend to harm him, ²⁴ the assembly must judge between him and the avenger of blood according to these regulations. ²⁵ The assembly must protect the one accused of murder from the avenger of blood and send him back to the city of refuge to which he fled. He must stay there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.
²⁶ " 'But if the accused ever goes outside the limits of the city of refuge to which he has fled ²⁷ and the avenger of blood finds him outside the city, the avenger of blood may kill the accused without being guilty of murder. ²⁸ The accused must stay in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest; only after the death of the high priest may he return to his own property.
²⁹ " 'These are to be legal requirements for you throughout the generations to come, wherever you live.
³⁰ " 'Anyone who kills a person is to be put to death as a murderer only on the testimony of witnesses. But no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.
³¹ " 'Do not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer, who deserves to die. He must surely be put to death.
³² " 'Do not accept a ransom for anyone who has fled to a city of refuge and so allow him to go back and live on his own land before the death of the high priest.
³³ " 'Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it. ³⁴ Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell, for I, the LORD, dwell among the Israelites.' "

Day #5:                       Numbers 35:1-34

It has been obvious from previous studies that the Levites are a different lot altogether. God has special plans for them. They will not get an equal land and physical properties kind of an inheritance. They will live in cities provided for them by the people of Israel, including an area for gardening and caring for any livestock.
They were to have 48 cities to live in. Now, God deals with us equally. 48 cities from 12 tribes would mean 4 cities per tribe. However, not only does the Lord treat us as equals, He makes full note of our uniqueness because that’s the way He made us. He makes it clear that some have more resources than others and, therefore, those who have the most are required to give the most, and so on. We are not to each give an equal amount to the work of the Lord. We are each to give 10% of whatever we have (whether much or a little) and He will bless us richly. “To whom much has been given; of him will much be required.”
Of the 48 cities, 6 are designated as “cities of refuge” where the wrongly accused or those who unintentionally killed someone are told to flee. In that dwelling place, no authority can touch him; no irate relative of the injured party can take any revenge upon the man who is in the city of refuge.
God goes into great detail to show who is allowed in the cities of refuge and who is not. The Lord wants them properly used and not abused. He makes a very important final note in verse 34. In essence He is saying, “Follow my rules. Do My will. I live here, too. I will be watching you to bless and to correct for later blessing. I will encourage. I will correct. I will justly discipline.”

Numbers 36:1-13 (NIV)

Inheritance of Zelophehad's Daughters
¹ The family heads of the clan of Gilead son of Makir, the son of Manasseh, who were from the clans of the descendants of Joseph, came and spoke before Moses and the leaders, the heads of the Israelite families. ² They said, "When the LORD commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance to the Israelites by lot, he ordered you to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters. ³ Now suppose they marry men from other Israelite tribes; then their inheritance will be taken from our ancestral inheritance and added to that of the tribe they marry into. And so part of the inheritance allotted to us will be taken away. ⁴ When the Year of Jubilee for the Israelites comes, their inheritance will be added to that of the tribe into which they marry, and their property will be taken from the tribal inheritance of our forefathers."
⁵ Then at the LORD's command Moses gave this order to the Israelites: "What the tribe of the descendants of Joseph is saying is right. ⁶ This is what the LORD commands for Zelophehad's daughters: They may marry anyone they please as long as they marry within the tribal clan of their father. ⁷ No inheritance in Israel is to pass from tribe to tribe, for every Israelite shall keep the tribal land inherited from his forefathers. ⁸ Every daughter who inherits land in any Israelite tribe must marry someone in her father's tribal clan, so that every Israelite will possess the inheritance of his fathers. ⁹ No inheritance may pass from tribe to tribe, for each Israelite tribe is to keep the land it inherits."
¹⁰ So Zelophehad's daughters did as the LORD commanded Moses. ¹¹ Zelophehad's daughters—Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah and Noah—married their cousins on their father's side. ¹² They married within the clans of the descendants of Manasseh son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in their father's clan and tribe.
¹³ These are the commands and regulations the LORD gave through Moses to the Israelites on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.

Day #6:                       Numbers 36:1-13

There is one final question that some of the men bring before Moses and the Lord. You may remember the daughters of Zelophehad (see Numbers 26:33; 27:1-11, and today's chapter). In chapter 27, the Lord allowed them to have an inheritance even though all property is handed down from male to male. That was a just ruling and applauded by all.
Now, some people who are busily thinking of the ultimate ramifications of this general ruling raise this question: “Well, what happens if little Susie marries someone of another tribe? Does the land that belonged to her in her present tribe then move on over to the tribe of her groom on the day of the wedding? Isn't there a danger that theoretically, all the land could come under the jurisdiction of one tribe, depending on who marries whom when?”
The tribes in question felt this was not just and the Lord agreed with them. His new ruling was that all females who receive an inheritance because of not having any brothers are required to marry within their own tribe, thus keeping the land, etc., equally divided among all.
I believe the Lord honors our honest questions of Him as long as they are asked with a willingness to follow His directions as He reveals them to us. If you don't want to know the answer because you might not want to follow His will, then don't ask the question. But also remember that He is a loving, just, and wise God whose answers will only bring blessings to us and the others we meet in our daily rounds . . . even when they don't initially make sense to us.
                        ___________________________

Today, we finish our study of The Book of Numbers and the wanderings in the wilderness of the Israelites. The next book is called Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy is a 33 chapter talk by Moses to remind the Israelites of all he ever told them and of all they have done and should be doing. Moses concludes his long speech with a prophecy for the tribes. In chapter 34 of Deuteronomy, we read of the death of Moses. The Book of Joshua continues the story of the people of Israel as they enter the Promised Land. You might want to make that your next project . . . reading the continuing saga of the people of Israel as they travel with their loving God into the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey.}

^{^{Numbers 28:1}^{– 29:40 (}^NIV⁾

Daily Offerings
¹ The LORD said to Moses, ² "Give this command to the Israelites and say to them: 'See that you present to me at the appointed time the food for my offerings made by fire, as an aroma pleasing to me.' ³ Say to them: 'This is the offering made by fire that you are to present to the LORD : two lambs a year old without defect, as a regular burnt offering each day. ⁴ Prepare one lamb in the morning and the other at twilight, ⁵ together with a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil from pressed olives. ⁶ This is the regular burnt offering instituted at Mount Sinai as a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire. ⁷ The accompanying drink offering is to be a quarter of a hin of fermented drink with each lamb. Pour out the drink offering to the LORD at the sanctuary. ⁸ Prepare the second lamb at twilight, along with the same kind of grain offering and drink offering that you prepare in the morning. This is an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD.
Sabbath Offerings
⁹ " 'On the Sabbath day, make an offering of two lambs a year old without defect, together with its drink offering and a grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil. ¹⁰ This is the burnt offering for every Sabbath, in addition to the regular burnt offering and its drink offering.
Monthly Offerings
¹¹ " 'On the first of every month, present to the LORD a burnt offering of two young bulls, one ram and seven male lambs a year old, all without defect. ¹² With each bull there is to be a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil; with the ram, a grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil; ¹³ and with each lamb, a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil. This is for a burnt offering, a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire. ¹⁴ With each bull there is to be a drink offering of half a hin of wine; with the ram, a third of a hin ; and with each lamb, a quarter of a hin. This is the monthly burnt offering to be made at each new moon during the year. ¹⁵ Besides the regular burnt offering with its drink offering, one male goat is to be presented to the LORD as a sin offering.
The Passover
¹⁶ " 'On the fourteenth day of the first month the LORD's Passover is to be held. ¹⁷ On the fifteenth day of this month there is to be a festival; for seven days eat bread made without yeast. ¹⁸ On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. ¹⁹ Present to the LORD an offering made by fire, a burnt offering of two young bulls, one ram and seven male lambs a year old, all without defect. ²⁰ With each bull prepare a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil; with the ram, two-tenths; ²¹ and with each of the seven lambs, one-tenth. ²² Include one male goat as a sin offering to make atonement for you. ²³ Prepare these in addition to the regular morning burnt offering. ²⁴ In this way prepare the food for the offering made by fire every day for seven days as an aroma pleasing to the LORD; it is to be prepared in addition to the regular burnt offering and its drink offering. ²⁵ On the seventh day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.
Feast of Weeks
²⁶ " 'On the day of firstfruits, when you present to the LORD an offering of new grain during the Feast of Weeks, hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. ²⁷ Present a burnt offering of two young bulls, one ram and seven male lambs a year old as an aroma pleasing to the LORD. ²⁸ With each bull there is to be a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil; with the ram, two-tenths; ²⁹ and with each of the seven lambs, one-tenth. ³⁰ Include one male goat to make atonement for you. ³¹ Prepare these together with their drink offerings, in addition to the regular burnt offering and its grain offering. Be sure the animals are without defect.

Numbers 29
Feast of Trumpets
¹ " 'On the first day of the seventh month hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. It is a day for you to sound the trumpets. ² As an aroma pleasing to the LORD, prepare a burnt offering of one young bull, one ram and seven male lambs a year old, all without defect. ³ With the bull prepare a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil; with the ram, two-tenths ; ⁴ and with each of the seven lambs, one-tenth. ⁵ Include one male goat as a sin offering to make atonement for you. ⁶ These are in addition to the monthly and daily burnt offerings with their grain offerings and drink offerings as specified. They are offerings made to the LORD by fire—a pleasing aroma.
Day of Atonement
⁷ " 'On the tenth day of this seventh month hold a sacred assembly. You must deny yourselves and do no work. ⁸ Present as an aroma pleasing to the LORD a burnt offering of one young bull, one ram and seven male lambs a year old, all without defect. ⁹ With the bull prepare a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil; with the ram, two-tenths; ¹⁰ and with each of the seven lambs, one-tenth. ¹¹ Include one male goat as a sin offering, in addition to the sin offering for atonement and the regular burnt offering with its grain offering, and their drink offerings.
Feast of Tabernacles
¹² " 'On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. Celebrate a festival to the LORD for seven days. ¹³ Present an offering made by fire as an aroma pleasing to the LORD, a burnt offering of thirteen young bulls, two rams and fourteen male lambs a year old, all without defect. ¹⁴ With each of the thirteen bulls prepare a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil; with each of the two rams, two-tenths; ¹⁵ and with each of the fourteen lambs, one-tenth. ¹⁶ Include one male goat as a sin offering, in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain offering and drink offering.
¹⁷ " 'On the second day prepare twelve young bulls, two rams and fourteen male lambs a year old, all without defect. ¹⁸ With the bulls, rams and lambs, prepare their grain offerings and drink offerings according to the number specified. ¹⁹ Include one male goat as a sin offering, in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain offering, and their drink offerings.
²⁰ " 'On the third day prepare eleven bulls, two rams and fourteen male lambs a year old, all without defect. ²¹ With the bulls, rams and lambs, prepare their grain offerings and drink offerings according to the number specified. ²² Include one male goat as a sin offering, in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain offering and drink offering.
²³ " 'On the fourth day prepare ten bulls, two rams and fourteen male lambs a year old, all without defect. ²⁴ With the bulls, rams and lambs, prepare their grain offerings and drink offerings according to the number specified. ²⁵ Include one male goat as a sin offering, in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain offering and drink offering.
²⁶ " 'On the fifth day prepare nine bulls, two rams and fourteen male lambs a year old, all without defect. ²⁷ With the bulls, rams and lambs, prepare their grain offerings and drink offerings according to the number specified. ²⁸ Include one male goat as a sin offering, in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain offering and drink offering.
²⁹ " 'On the sixth day prepare eight bulls, two rams and fourteen male lambs a year old, all without defect. ³⁰ With the bulls, rams and lambs, prepare their grain offerings and drink offerings according to the number specified. ³¹ Include one male goat as a sin offering, in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain offering and drink offering.
³² " 'On the seventh day prepare seven bulls, two rams and fourteen male lambs a year old, all without defect. ³³ With the bulls, rams and lambs, prepare their grain offerings and drink offerings according to the number specified. ³⁴ Include one male goat as a sin offering, in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain offering and drink offering.
³⁵ " 'On the eighth day hold an assembly and do no regular work. ³⁶ Present an offering made by fire as an aroma pleasing to the LORD, a burnt offering of one bull, one ram and seven male lambs a year old, all without defect. ³⁷ With the bull, the ram and the lambs, prepare their grain offerings and drink offerings according to the number specified. ³⁸ Include one male goat as a sin offering, in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain offering and drink offering.
³⁹ " 'In addition to what you vow and your freewill offerings, prepare these for the LORD at your appointed feasts: your burnt offerings, grain offerings, drink offerings and fellowship offerings. ' "
⁴⁰ Moses told the Israelites all that the LORD commanded him.

WEEK #16-24

Day #1:           Numbers 28:1 - 29:40

We noted last week the need for a transition to take place in the life of the nation of Israel. Moses will not be entering the Promised Land. He has sought the counsel of the Lord to discern who his replacement should be. The clear direction from God is that Joshua --- the man of faith with the heart of a servant and the indwelling power of the Spirit of God --- is the Lord’s choice.
Not only must the nation be under the control of a Spirit-filled man, the people must know how the Lord expects them to honor and worship Him on a regular basis. The rules and regulations in the passage for today are not new. They were already given in Leviticus. This is a review for those new folk who are soon to enter the Promised Land and do not yet know the orders of the Lord in this very important area of their life.
The progression is simple although, on the surface, it looks complicated. Here is a summary.

There are rules for:

daily offerings --- verses 1-8
weekly Sabbath offerings --- 9-10
monthly offerings --- 11-15
annual offerings --- 28:16 - 29:40

The annual offerings relate to major festivals of the Hebrew nation such as Passover (verse 16); Unleavened Bread (verse 17); and the Feast of Weeks (verse 26).
At some point, it looks like a recipe for a special meal. We note that each time a bull is sacrificed, 3/10 of a measure of fine flour is to be used with each bull, 2/10 with each ram, and 1/10 with each lamb.
In 29:12-34, it almost looks like “the 12 days of Christmas” or “99 bottles on the wall.” Everything in the list is the same except that the number of bulls to be sacrificed decreases one a day from 13 on the first day (verse 13) to seven on the seventh day (verse 32).
Also repeated with each new offering is the statement that this new offering is in addition to “the continual burnt offering” which refers to one unblemished lamb sacrificed at the beginning of each day and one at the end of each day. This daily offering was to keep the nation cleansed.
We have the joy of knowing that Jesus is the lasting sacrifice, the once for all eternal sacrifice which never has to be repeated daily. Jesus did it all. He was at once the culmination of the sacrificial system and also the end of the sacrificial system. When Jesus said, “It is finished,” we know it was finished.
Now we have living sacrifices (ourselves --- see Romans 12:1-2.) Jesus did the dying. We are to do the living, abundant living, until the resurrected One comes to share with us the fullness of eternal life.

Numbers 30:1-16 (NIV)

Vows
¹ Moses said to the heads of the tribes of Israel: "This is what the LORD commands: ² When a man makes a vow to the LORD or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said.
³ "When a young woman still living in her father's house makes a vow to the LORD or obligates herself by a pledge ⁴ and her father hears about her vow or pledge but says nothing to her, then all her vows and every pledge by which she obligated herself will stand. ⁵ But if her father forbids her when he hears about it, none of her vows or the pledges by which she obligated herself will stand; the LORD will release her because her father has forbidden her.
⁶ "If she marries after she makes a vow or after her lips utter a rash promise by which she obligates herself ⁷ and her husband hears about it but says nothing to her, then her vows or the pledges by which she obligated herself will stand. ⁸ But if her husband forbids her when he hears about it, he nullifies the vow that obligates her or the rash promise by which she obligates herself, and the LORD will release her.
⁹ "Any vow or obligation taken by a widow or divorced woman will be binding on her.
¹⁰ "If a woman living with her husband makes a vow or obligates herself by a pledge under oath ¹¹ and her husband hears about it but says nothing to her and does not forbid her, then all her vows or the pledges by which she obligated herself will stand. ¹² But if her husband nullifies them when he hears about them, then none of the vows or pledges that came from her lips will stand. Her husband has nullified them, and the LORD will release her. ¹³ Her husband may confirm or nullify any vow she makes or any sworn pledge to deny herself. ¹⁴ But if her husband says nothing to her about it from day to day, then he confirms all her vows or the pledges binding on her. He confirms them by saying nothing to her when he hears about them. ¹⁵ If, however, he nullifies them some time after he hears about them, then he is responsible for her guilt."
¹⁶ These are the regulations the LORD gave Moses concerning relationships between a man and his wife, and between a father and his young daughter still living in his house.

Day #2:                       Numbers 30:1-16

A few years ago, I remember talking to a high school sophomore who wanted to quit school and leave home to get away from her parents. I shared with her one of the most important losses she would experience if she went through with her plans. “When some guy calls you up and asks you for a date,” I said, “and you don't want to go out with him, what are you going to say. If you are off on your own, away from your parents, you won’t be able to say to the guy, 'Gee, Id love to go, out with you but my parents wont let me.’” Parents are very helpful when used properly.
This is one of those passages of Scripture that most people don't even know exists. It provides an umbrella of protection over the daughter of a man or the wife of a husband. It is self-explanatory. Here a woman has the opportunity to be released from a vow she made if she is under the covering of her father, if single, or her husband if she is married. If that man has the understanding that the vow the woman made was foolish or poorly advised, he may release her from her obligations and no one will be punished.
The tough part of this arrangement for the woman is to admit she made an ill-advised vow. The difficult part for the man is to be objective and sensitive to the Holy Spirit that he might take the right and just action out of love for God and love for his mate (or daughter).
From the beginning, the Lord has provided the man as the representative to God for his family. Those who take advantage of this arrangement, say this: They find the women in this setting usually feel secure and the men feel fulfilled and useful. Why not prayerfully consider how the Lord would have you apply this important principle to your own life. Keep this in mind. This is not designed to let people sneak out of their responsibilities. Rather, it is a merciful rule designed to help a person be released from something under which she is in bondage . . . a vow that should never have been made.

Numbers 31:1-24 (NIV)

Vengeance on the Midianites
¹ The LORD said to Moses, ² "Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites. After that, you will be gathered to your people."
³ So Moses said to the people, "Arm some of your men to go to war against the Midianites and to carry out the LORD's vengeance on them. ⁴ Send into battle a thousand men from each of the tribes of Israel." ⁵ So twelve thousand men armed for battle, a thousand from each tribe, were supplied from the clans of Israel. ⁶ Moses sent them into battle, a thousand from each tribe, along with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest, who took with him articles from the sanctuary and the trumpets for signaling.
⁷ They fought against Midian, as the LORD commanded Moses, and killed every man. ⁸ Among their victims were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba—the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword. ⁹ The Israelites captured the Midianite women and children and took all the Midianite herds, flocks and goods as plunder. ¹⁰ They burned all the towns where the Midianites had settled, as well as all their camps. ¹¹ They took all the plunder and spoils, including the people and animals, ¹² and brought the captives, spoils and plunder to Moses and Eleazar the priest and the Israelite assembly at their camp on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan across from Jericho.
¹³ Moses, Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the community went to meet them outside the camp. ¹⁴ Moses was angry with the officers of the army—the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds—who returned from the battle.
¹⁵ "Have you allowed all the women to live?" he asked them. ¹⁶ "They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the LORD in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the LORD's people. ¹⁷ Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, ¹⁸ but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
¹⁹ "All of you who have killed anyone or touched anyone who was killed must stay outside the camp seven days. On the third and seventh days you must purify yourselves and your captives. ²⁰ Purify every garment as well as everything made of leather, goat hair or wood."
²¹ Then Eleazar the priest said to the soldiers who had gone into battle, "This is the requirement of the law that the LORD gave Moses: ²² Gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, lead ²³ and anything else that can withstand fire must be put through the fire, and then it will be clean. But it must also be purified with the water of cleansing. And whatever cannot withstand fire must be put through that water. ²⁴ On the seventh day wash your clothes and you will be clean. Then you may come into the camp."

Day #3:                       Numbers 31:1-24

Here is one of those passages where people say, “Why does God act so harshly? Why would God have these people disciplined for not killing off all the people of the nation they destroyed?” The answer is actually quite simple.
Recently, scientists have discovered the health conditions of the pagan worshipers in the area of Canaan before the Israelites entered the Promised Land. An integral part of their worship experience was the fertility rite. To enter and worship in the temple of their fertility god, a person was required to be involved in sexual relations with one of the hired temple prostitutes. As a result, venereal disease was running rampant in that region and, had the Israelites not destroyed as many as they did, the citizens in the whole area and surrounding regions were in danger of being destroyed by the plague of this venereal disease. This would lead, obviously, to the destruction of the nation of Israel. God brought them out of Egypt and to the Promised Land to live and to flourish, not to die of such diseases.
Note that the Lord did provide merciful exceptions. For example, the one exception the Lord gives here is the young virgin girl, who has not been contaminated with V.D. since she has had no sexual relationships.
All physical treasures and booty had to be purified and cleansed before bringing them in to the area in which the Israelites lived. This also included the clothing they wore when they went into battle against the Midianites.
Therefore, a directive given by the Lord that appears on the surface to call for the destruction of life was really handed down for the purpose of preserving life. All that God does, when seen from His perspective, begins to make sense.



Numbers 31:25-54 (NIV)

Dividing the Spoils
²⁵ The LORD said to Moses, ²⁶ "You and Eleazar the priest and the family heads of the community are to count all the people and animals that were captured. ²⁷ Divide the spoils between the soldiers who took part in the battle and the rest of the community. ²⁸ From the soldiers who fought in the battle, set apart as tribute for the LORD one out of every five hundred, whether persons, cattle, donkeys, sheep or goats. ²⁹ Take this tribute from their half share and give it to Eleazar the priest as the LORD's part. ³⁰ From the Israelites' half, select one out of every fifty, whether persons, cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats or other animals. Give them to the Levites, who are responsible for the care of the LORD's tabernacle." ³¹ So Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the LORD commanded Moses.
³² The plunder remaining from the spoils that the soldiers took was 675,000 sheep, ³³ 72,000 cattle, ³⁴ 61,000 donkeys ³⁵ and 32,000 women who had never slept with a man.
³⁶ The half share of those who fought in the battle was:

       337,500 sheep, ³⁷ of which the tribute for the LORD was 675;
³⁸ 36,000 cattle, of which the tribute for the LORD was 72;
³⁹ 30,500 donkeys, of which the tribute for the LORD was 61;
⁴⁰ 16,000 people, of which the tribute for the LORD was 32.
⁴¹ Moses gave the tribute to Eleazar the priest as the LORD's part, as the LORD commanded Moses.
⁴² The half belonging to the Israelites, which Moses set apart from that of the fighting men- ⁴³ the community's half—was 337,500 sheep, ⁴⁴ 36,000 cattle, ⁴⁵ 30,500 donkeys ⁴⁶ and 16,000 people. ⁴⁷ From the Israelites' half, Moses selected one out of every fifty persons and animals, as the LORD commanded him, and gave them to the Levites, who were responsible for the care of the LORD's tabernacle.
⁴⁸ Then the officers who were over the units of the army—the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds—went to Moses ⁴⁹ and said to him, "Your servants have counted the soldiers under our command, and not one is missing. ⁵⁰ So we have brought as an offering to the LORD the gold articles each of us acquired—armlets, bracelets, signet rings, earrings and necklaces—to make atonement for ourselves before the LORD."
⁵¹ Moses and Eleazar the priest accepted from them the gold—all the crafted articles. ⁵² All the gold from the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds that Moses and Eleazar presented as a gift to the LORD weighed 16,750 shekels. ⁵³ Each soldier had taken plunder for himself. ⁵⁴ Moses and Eleazar the priest accepted the gold from the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds and brought it into the Tent of Meeting as a memorial for the Israelites before the LORD.

Day #4:                       Numbers 31:25-54

The Lord wants to remind the people of at least two things at this point.
First, they won this battle because He has delivered these people into their hands. Therefore, He deserves a first percentage of all the treasures they claimed from the battles.
Second, ultimately nothing belongs to any of them. What they have in a material sense is only on loan from the Father in heaven. The same is true for you and me. God expects us to take good care of it. When the expiration date of the loan is upon us, He will hold us accountable for what we have done with what He gave us. Here we have another opportunity for the people to return to the Lord a small portion of all that He so generously bestows upon us.
The right motivation for giving is mentioned in verses 48-54. The people gave, in gratitude for God’s victorious intervention in their battle, a “free-will” offering. The point of required giving is past. The call to give out of love and gratitude is upon us all.
This means we should seek the Lord's direction for what we should give and to whom we should give a portion of His bounty bestowed upon us. It could be He wants you to give to The Church by the Sea or to another congregation of which you are a member. In addition, the Lord may be prompting you to support one or more charitable organizations. Whatever it is He directs you to support, it is to be given for His glory and your blessing.

Numbers 32:1-19 (NIV)

The Transjordan Tribes
¹ The Reubenites and Gadites, who had very large herds and flocks, saw that the lands of Jazer and Gilead were suitable for livestock. ² So they came to Moses and Eleazar the priest and to the leaders of the community, and said, ³ "Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo and Beon- ⁴ the land the LORD subdued before the people of Israel—are suitable for livestock, and your servants have livestock. ⁵ If we have found favor in your eyes," they said, "let this land be given to your servants as our possession. Do not make us cross the Jordan."
⁶ Moses said to the Gadites and Reubenites, "Shall your countrymen go to war while you sit here? ⁷ Why do you discourage the Israelites from going over into the land the LORD has given them? ⁸ This is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to look over the land. ⁹ After they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and viewed the land, they discouraged the Israelites from entering the land the LORD had given them. ¹⁰ The LORD's anger was aroused that day and he swore this oath: ¹¹ 'Because they have not followed me wholeheartedly, not one of the men twenty years old or more who came up out of Egypt will see the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob- ¹² not one except Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua son of Nun, for they followed the LORD wholeheartedly.' ¹³ The LORD's anger burned against Israel and he made them wander in the desert forty years, until the whole generation of those who had done evil in his sight was gone.
¹⁴ "And here you are, a brood of sinners, standing in the place of your fathers and making the LORD even more angry with Israel. ¹⁵ If you turn away from following him, he will again leave all this people in the desert, and you will be the cause of their destruction."
¹⁶ Then they came up to him and said, "We would like to build pens here for our livestock and cities for our women and children. ¹⁷ But we are ready to arm ourselves and go ahead of the Israelites until we have brought them to their place. Meanwhile our women and children will live in fortified cities, for protection from the inhabitants of the land. ¹⁸ We will not return to our homes until every Israelite has received his inheritance. ¹⁹ We will not receive any inheritance with them on the other side of the Jordan, because our inheritance has come to us on the east side of the Jordan."

Day #5:                       Numbers 32:1-19

God has promised land for the 12 tribes of Israel. He is about to present this land to them. Just before making their final approach, some of the people raise a key question. Two of the tribes, who have accumulated much livestock and who apparently consider that “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” make a request of Moses. They find the land on the east side of the Jordan River much to their liking. They want to know if they can have the land east of the Jordan River as their inheritance.
They are approaching this in the right way. This is a divergence from the established plan. So they inquire to see if this idea is O.K. with Moses and the Lord (A little later, half of the tribe of Manasseh see the wisdom of this request and ask if they can share in this decision as well.).
When Moses hears this request, he immediately remembers the last time they were about to enter the Promised Land and 10 of the 12 spies said it just couldn’t be done. As a result of that negative report, the whole nation lost faith . . . and they lost the joy of entering into the land flowing with milk and honey promised to them by the Lord (see Numbers 13 and 14).
Ever since that tragic event 38 years ago, Moses and the people of Israel have been wandering in the wilderness until all the unfaithful of that time had died. Now, in the mind of Moses, the thoughts begin to race to and fro: "Uh oh! Here we go again! Last time it was 10 spies discouraging the nation. Now it looks like 2 tribes are going to do it" (verses 6-7).
Moses really didn’t believe the tribes of Reuben and Gad. He did not think they honestly wanted to remain on the east side of the Jordan for the simple reasons they gave to him. Because of his past experience, he assumed they were doing the same thing the 10 spies did 38 years ago. You and I have made that same mistake from time to time in our own lives. Someone has told us what they believe or what they want to do or what they honestly would like to accomplish; and, because of a very emotional experience sometime in our past which is brought to the surface of our thinking by the statement of this friend, we misjudge his motives and even accuse him of wrong purposes.
We need the wisdom of the Lord in such situations. On the one hand, we can wrongfully judge someone’s motives and turn down their request or suggestion. On the other hand, we need to look at ourselves and ask this question: “Haven’t there been times in my past when I repented of my wrong words and actions and really, honestly and truly chose to change my ways? How did others react to me at that time? What can I learn from that experience?” We need to steer our course carefully somewhere between the shoals of being wishy-washy and being judgmental.
Is there a way around this that always works? Perhaps the only good way is to seek the Lord. This is only one reason why it is so important for us to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and to know the voice of the Lord. If we want to be just in our decisions, we need to go with the leading of the Lord and the loving and sensitive counsel of trusted and mature brothers and sisters in the family of God.

Numbers 32:1-19 (NIV)

Joshua to Succeed Moses
¹² Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go up this mountain in the Abarim range and see the land I have given the Israelites. ¹³ After you have seen it, you too will be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was, ¹⁴ for when the community rebelled at the waters in the Desert of Zin, both of you disobeyed my command to honor me as holy before their eyes." (These were the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the Desert of Zin.)
¹⁵ Moses said to the LORD, ¹⁶ "May the LORD, the God of the spirits of all mankind, appoint a man over this community ¹⁷ to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the LORD's people will not be like sheep without a shepherd."
¹⁸ So the LORD said to Moses, "Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand on him. ¹⁹ Have him stand before Eleazar the priest and the entire assembly and commission him in their presence. ²⁰ Give him some of your authority so the whole Israelite community will obey him. ²¹ He is to stand before Eleazar the priest, who will obtain decisions for him by inquiring of the Urim before the LORD. At his command he and the entire community of the Israelites will go out, and at his command they will come in."
²² Moses did as the LORD commanded him. He took Joshua and had him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole assembly. ²³ Then he laid his hands on him and commissioned him, as the LORD instructed through Moses.

Day #6:                       Numbers 32:1-19

Here are two important principles to learn and to adopt as a daily way of life for us:

(1) We need to remember that although we are to learn from the past and what we have experienced, each situation is new and unique. We cheat ourselves out of blessings and people out of justice if we judge every situation with blinders on our eyes. Perhaps a better illustration would be to regard the danger of looking at each current situation through the lens of similar past experiences. No two situations are exactly alike. It is easy to make “snap judgments” but it usually limits our ability to see the truth.

(2) Each person is an individual. Therefore, we need to STOP, LOOK, and LISTEN. In the same way that we need to avoid the danger of prejudging a situation, we need to be just as careful (if not more so) when dealing with individuals.

So how do we apply this STOP, LOOK and LISTEN directive?

STOP any prejudging of persons or situations.
LOOK to the Lord to help us interpret freely what is really happening here.
LISTEN with love and concern to the Lord
and to the person who is sharing thoughts with us.

You know that in real life we see the STOP, LOOK and LISTEN signs at railroad crossings. The signs are there to challenge us to be cautious and to avoid mistakes that can be truly injurious. That is why we need to follow this directive in our interpersonal relationships. Caution, caring, and common sense can go a long way in helping us make right decisions to the glory of God and the blessing of others.}

^{^{Numbers 25:1-18}⁽^NIV⁾

Moab Seduces Israel
¹ While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, ² who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate and bowed down before these gods. ³ So Israel joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor. And the LORD's anger burned against them.
⁴ The LORD said to Moses, "Take all the leaders of these people, kill them and expose them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that the LORD's fierce anger may turn away from Israel."
⁵ So Moses said to Israel's judges, "Each of you must put to death those of your men who have joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor."
⁶ Then an Israelite man brought to his family a Midianite woman right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. ⁷ When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand ⁸ and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear through both of them—through the Israelite and into the woman's body. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped; ⁹ but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.
¹⁰ The LORD said to Moses, ¹¹ "Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites; for he was as zealous as I am for my honor among them, so that in my zeal I did not put an end to them. ¹² Therefore tell him I am making my covenant of peace with him. ¹³ He and his descendants will have a covenant of a lasting priesthood, because he was zealous for the honor of his God and made atonement for the Israelites."
¹⁴ The name of the Israelite who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, the leader of a Simeonite family. ¹⁵ And the name of the Midianite woman who was put to death was Cozbi daughter of Zur, a tribal chief of a Midianite family.
¹⁶ The LORD said to Moses, ¹⁷ "Treat the Midianites as enemies and kill them, ¹⁸ because they treated you as enemies when they deceived you in the affair of Peor and their sister Cozbi, the daughter of a Midianite leader, the woman who was killed when the plague came as a result of Peor."

WEEK #16-23

Day #1:                       Numbers 25:1-18

The Lord makes very clear to us His desire to have a pure and undefiled and faithful relationship with each one of us. The clearest illustration He employs is the one of the marriage covenant. He states clearly that we can only have one God. To worship other gods is to be unfaithful to Him as our covenant partner. Therefore, God tells us, idolatry is adultery.
God pictures for us His ideal relationship with us by setting down for us His guidelines for our marital relationships in this world. We are to have one mate and be faithful to our marriage partner always. Unfaithfulness, adultery, divorce go against His will for us. The more such sinful activity is promoted, the more it becomes commonplace, the more watered-down will be our understanding of what God expects and requires of us in our relationship to Him.
God tells us He is a jealous God and will not tolerate unfaithfulness in us. We are to have no other gods before Him. He will deal harshly with those who are unfaithful to Him AND with those who are unfaithful to their mate. Please take His word very seriously.

Numbers 26:1-65 (NIV)

The Second Census
¹ After the plague the LORD said to Moses and Eleazar son of Aaron, the priest, ² "Take a census of the whole Israelite community by families—all those twenty years old or more who are able to serve in the army of Israel." ³ So on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho, Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them and said, ⁴ "Take a census of the men twenty years old or more, as the LORD commanded Moses."

      These were the Israelites who came out of Egypt:
⁵ The descendants of Reuben, the firstborn son of Israel, were:

       through Hanoch, the Hanochite clan;

       through Pallu, the Palluite clan;
⁶ through Hezron, the Hezronite clan;

       through Carmi, the Carmite clan.
⁷ These were the clans of Reuben; those numbered were 43,730.
⁸ The son of Pallu was Eliab, ⁹ and the sons of Eliab were Nemuel, Dathan and Abiram. The same Dathan and Abiram were the community officials who rebelled against Moses and Aaron and were among Korah's followers when they rebelled against the LORD. ¹⁰ The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them along with Korah, whose followers died when the fire devoured the 250 men. And they served as a warning sign. ¹¹ The line of Korah, however, did not die out.
¹² The descendants of Simeon by their clans were:

       through Nemuel, the Nemuelite clan;

       through Jamin, the Jaminite clan;

       through Jakin, the Jakinite clan;
¹³ through Zerah, the Zerahite clan;

       through Shaul, the Shaulite clan.
¹⁴ These were the clans of Simeon; there were 22,200 men.
¹⁵ The descendants of Gad by their clans were:

       through Zephon, the Zephonite clan;

       through Haggi, the Haggite clan;

       through Shuni, the Shunite clan;
¹⁶ through Ozni, the Oznite clan;

       through Eri, the Erite clan;
¹⁷ through Arodi, the Arodite clan;

       through Areli, the Arelite clan.
¹⁸ These were the clans of Gad; those numbered were 40,500.
¹⁹ Er and Onan were sons of Judah, but they died in Canaan.
²⁰ The descendants of Judah by their clans were:

       through Shelah, the Shelanite clan;

       through Perez, the Perezite clan;

       through Zerah, the Zerahite clan.
²¹ The descendants of Perez were:

       through Hezron, the Hezronite clan;

       through Hamul, the Hamulite clan.
²² These were the clans of Judah; those numbered were 76,500.
²³ The descendants of Issachar by their clans were:

       through Tola, the Tolaite clan;

       through Puah, the Puite clan;
²⁴ through Jashub, the Jashubite clan;

       through Shimron, the Shimronite clan.
²⁵ These were the clans of Issachar; those numbered were 64,300.
²⁶ The descendants of Zebulun by their clans were:

       through Sered, the Seredite clan;

       through Elon, the Elonite clan;

       through Jahleel, the Jahleelite clan.
²⁷ These were the clans of Zebulun; those numbered were 60,500.
²⁸ The descendants of Joseph by their clans through Manasseh and Ephraim were:
²⁹ The descendants of Manasseh:

       through Makir, the Makirite clan (Makir was the father of Gilead

       through Gilead, the Gileadite clan.
³⁰ These were the descendants of Gilead:

       through Iezer, the Iezerite clan;

       through Helek, the Helekite clan;
³¹ through Asriel, the Asrielite clan;

       through Shechem, the Shechemite clan;
³² through Shemida, the Shemidaite clan;

       through Hepher, the Hepherite clan.
³³ (Zelophehad son of Hepher had no sons; he had only daughters, whose names were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah.)
³⁴ These were the clans of Manasseh; those numbered were 52,700.
³⁵ These were the descendants of Ephraim by their clans:

       through Shuthelah, the Shuthelahite clan;

       through Beker, the Bekerite clan;

       through Tahan, the Tahanite clan.
³⁶ These were the descendants of Shuthelah:

       through Eran, the Eranite clan.
³⁷ These were the clans of Ephraim; those numbered were 32,500.

      These were the descendants of Joseph by their clans.
³⁸ The descendants of Benjamin by their clans were:

       through Bela, the Belaite clan;

       through Ashbel, the Ashbelite clan;

       through Ahiram, the Ahiramite clan;
³⁹ through Shupham, the Shuphamite clan;

       through Hupham, the Huphamite clan.
⁴⁰ The descendants of Bela through Ard and Naaman were:

       through Ard, the Ardite clan;

       through Naaman, the Naamite clan.
⁴¹ These were the clans of Benjamin; those numbered were 45,600.
⁴² These were the descendants of Dan by their clans:

       through Shuham, the Shuhamite clan.

      These were the clans of Dan: ⁴³ All of them were Shuhamite clans; and those numbered were 64,400.
⁴⁴ The descendants of Asher by their clans were:

       through Imnah, the Imnite clan;

       through Ishvi, the Ishvite clan;

       through Beriah, the Beriite clan;
⁴⁵ and through the descendants of Beriah:

       through Heber, the Heberite clan;

       through Malkiel, the Malkielite clan.
⁴⁶ (Asher had a daughter named Serah.)
⁴⁷ These were the clans of Asher; those numbered were 53,400.
⁴⁸ The descendants of Naphtali by their clans were:

       through Jahzeel, the Jahzeelite clan;

       through Guni, the Gunite clan;
⁴⁹ through Jezer, the Jezerite clan;

       through Shillem, the Shillemite clan.
⁵⁰ These were the clans of Naphtali; those numbered were 45,400.
⁵¹ The total number of the men of Israel was 601,730.
⁵² The LORD said to Moses, ⁵³ "The land is to be allotted to them as an inheritance based on the number of names. ⁵⁴ To a larger group give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group a smaller one; each is to receive its inheritance according to the number of those listed. ⁵⁵ Be sure that the land is distributed by lot. What each group inherits will be according to the names for its ancestral tribe. ⁵⁶ Each inheritance is to be distributed by lot among the larger and smaller groups."
⁵⁷ These were the Levites who were counted by their clans:

       through Gershon, the Gershonite clan;

       through Kohath, the Kohathite clan;

       through Merari, the Merarite clan.
⁵⁸ These also were Levite clans:

       the Libnite clan,

       the Hebronite clan,

       the Mahlite clan,

       the Mushite clan,

       the Korahite clan.

       (Kohath was the forefather of Amram; ⁵⁹ the name of Amram's wife was Jochebed, a descendant of Levi, who was born to the Levites in Egypt. To Amram she bore Aaron, Moses and their sister Miriam. ⁶⁰ Aaron was the father of Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. ⁶¹ But Nadab and Abihu died when they made an offering before the LORD with unauthorized fire.)
⁶² All the male Levites a month old or more numbered 23,000. They were not counted along with the other Israelites because they received no inheritance among them.
⁶³ These are the ones counted by Moses and Eleazar the priest when they counted the Israelites on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho. ⁶⁴ Not one of them was among those counted by Moses and Aaron the priest when they counted the Israelites in the Desert of Sinai. ⁶⁵ For the LORD had told those Israelites they would surely die in the desert, and not one of them was left except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

Day #2:                       Numbers 26:1-65

There have been a number of battles engaged in by the Israelites. Although they have been victorious under the leadership and power of the Lord, they obviously have some casualties. They also lost many people by the plague that came upon them. In addition, many were killed as a result of their idolatry in worshipping the pagan gods of the nations they were traveling through. They were also reproducing rapidly which offset many of these losses. Now God very practically tells Moses to take a break in their travels and fighting and to take a census of the nation. God wants to help all of them know what human resources they have available to them.
At other times in the history of the nation of Israel, they were condemned by the Lord when they took a census. Yet here He actually instructs them to do what at other times He has condemned. Isn't that contradictory? Only if you look at it from the outside . . . at the surface facts. Question: “Is one census like all others?” Answer: “No.”
God wants the Israelites to trust in Him, not in numbers, not in chariots and horses. Yet He also knows their deep-seated need for encouragement and reinforcement. Therefore, in this instance, God instructs them to take a census. He wants them to discover that they are still as strong numerically as they ever were. Removing this question from their minds allowed them to focus their attention on God and following Him wherever He leads them.
An even more significant point is made in the last two verse of chapter 26. The old census was made by Moses and Aaron at Mt. Sinai. This new accounting was made by Moses and Eleazar, Aaron's son who took his place when he died. All those who were counted were people who were not guilty of disobedience at Kadesh-Barnea when God first told them to go in and take the land he had prepared for them (see Numbers 13 and 14). At that time He told them they would wander in the wilderness until all those disobedient ones had died. When that happened, He told them, He would bring them into the Promised Land. So, God's message to the Israelites at this time is very clear. He told them to take a census so that they would not only see their numbers, but also to see who those numbers were. What He is telling them with this census is, “Now is the time to go in to the Promised Land. You are ready to receive My gift to you."
The only ones left of that first group at Kadesh-Barnea were Joshua, Caleb and Moses. We will see next week the Lord's will for Moses and the plans for his successor.
Here again we see God keeping His promises to His people. He is truly faithful and trustworthy.

Numbers 27:1-11 (NIV)

Zelophehad's Daughters
¹ The daughters of Zelophehad son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Makir, the son of Manasseh, belonged to the clans of Manasseh son of Joseph. The names of the daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah. They approached ² the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and stood before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the leaders and the whole assembly, and said, ³ "Our father died in the desert. He was not among Korah's followers, who banded together against the LORD, but he died for his own sin and left no sons. ⁴ Why should our father's name disappear from his clan because he had no son? Give us property among our father's relatives."
⁵ So Moses brought their case before the LORD ⁶ and the LORD said to him, ⁷ "What Zelophehad's daughters are saying is right. You must certainly give them property as an inheritance among their father's relatives and turn their father's inheritance over to them.
⁸ "Say to the Israelites, 'If a man dies and leaves no son, turn his inheritance over to his daughter. ⁹ If he has no daughter, give his inheritance to his brothers. ¹⁰ If he has no brothers, give his inheritance to his father's brothers. ¹¹ If his father had no brothers, give his inheritance to the nearest relative in his clan, that he may possess it. This is to be a legal requirement for the Israelites, as the LORD commanded Moses.' "

Day #3:                       Numbers 27:1-11

If you read the list of families in chapter 26 of Numbers yesterday, you may have noticed an unusual notation in verse 33. It was about a man who had no sons and five daughters. In this chapter, we find these women coming to Moses to ask how they are to be cared for. They rightly ask what will become of their father's land and inheritance.
The first thing I get excited about is the faith with which these people come to Moses. They have not yet arrived at the Promised Land and we see in them such an expectation that the Lord will provide it for them that they are concerned that their father's portion be allotted to them (see Hebrews 11:1). They note that their father was a good man, had not been involved in rebellion against Moses. Their case is that he deserves to have his portion given to his children, even though there are no sons. Keep in mind that a person’s name and reputation were handed down from generation to generation. It was in this way, in a sense, that the man lived on because his name lived on through his family and their inheritance from him.
The second exciting part of this account is the way it shows that there was concern for women in the Old Testament. Many have doubted this over the years. These women had the right to an inheritance. They were not rejected in any heartless way with the words, "You are just women; you don't get an inheritance. You don’t deserve any part of the estate." The matter was dealt with on an individual basis and a very wise ruling was handed down.



Numbers 27:1-11 (NIV)

Zelophehad's Daughters
¹ The daughters of Zelophehad son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Makir, the son of Manasseh, belonged to the clans of Manasseh son of Joseph. The names of the daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah. They approached ² the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and stood before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the leaders and the whole assembly, and said, ³ "Our father died in the desert. He was not among Korah's followers, who banded together against the LORD, but he died for his own sin and left no sons. ⁴ Why should our father's name disappear from his clan because he had no son? Give us property among our father's relatives."
⁵ So Moses brought their case before the LORD ⁶ and the LORD said to him, ⁷ "What Zelophehad's daughters are saying is right. You must certainly give them property as an inheritance among their father's relatives and turn their father's inheritance over to them.
⁸ "Say to the Israelites, 'If a man dies and leaves no son, turn his inheritance over to his daughter. ⁹ If he has no daughter, give his inheritance to his brothers. ¹⁰ If he has no brothers, give his inheritance to his father's brothers. ¹¹ If his father had no brothers, give his inheritance to the nearest relative in his clan, that he may possess it. This is to be a legal requirement for the Israelites, as the LORD commanded Moses.' "

Day #4:                       Numbers 27:1-11

Today, we continue our look at this important passage of scripture. The most exciting thing for me, in this passage, is the simple statement in verse 5. It demonstrates for us that the first order of business for Moses was to “go to the Lord.” He didn't try to solve this problem on his own with his intellect and logic. We all should understand that Moses certainly seemed to have plenty of intellectual ability. His intellect, his experience, and his heart told him that the FIRST thing to do was to “go to the Lord.”
There is obviously a lesson to be learned here; and it is not a lesson that is new to us. If we have a problem, the first thing to do is to go to the Lord. We need to seek Him out. It is important to see what He wants us to do in the situation. He has all the answers. We might as well take advantage of His great supply.
If someone else has a problem and comes to us for counsel, once again, the first thing to do is “go to the Lord.” There is a great advantage to having the ever-present Lord as our resource and ultimate counselor. We can be going to the Lord even while the person is talking to us, explaining his situation and seeking our advice. We need to ask the Lord to help us hear the person in the way the Lord wants us to hear him. Then we also need to ask God to help us hear the Lord as He helps us understand the problem or situation. We also need to hear from the Lord concerning what He wants the person to do about the difficulty he is facing.
Such an approach to counseling should help people to understand a very important fact: Others should not come to us just for our personal opinions. Hopefully, they will be looking for the counsel the Lord will give through us as He uses us as His messengers and counselors. That is the way the person gets true wisdom and a righteous answer to his questions. The Lord gets the glory, and we avoid the danger of getting a big head.
Isn’t it amazing how the Lord's principles and ways are so practical? When do you suppose we will begin to go to Him as a first resort instead of a last resort?

Numbers 27:12-23 (NIV)

Joshua to Succeed Moses
¹² Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go up this mountain in the Abarim range and see the land I have given the Israelites. ¹³ After you have seen it, you too will be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was, ¹⁴ for when the community rebelled at the waters in the Desert of Zin, both of you disobeyed my command to honor me as holy before their eyes." (These were the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the Desert of Zin.)
¹⁵ Moses said to the LORD, ¹⁶ "May the LORD, the God of the spirits of all mankind, appoint a man over this community ¹⁷ to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the LORD's people will not be like sheep without a shepherd."
¹⁸ So the LORD said to Moses, "Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand on him. ¹⁹ Have him stand before Eleazar the priest and the entire assembly and commission him in their presence. ²⁰ Give him some of your authority so the whole Israelite community will obey him. ²¹ He is to stand before Eleazar the priest, who will obtain decisions for him by inquiring of the Urim before the LORD. At his command he and the entire community of the Israelites will go out, and at his command they will come in."
²² Moses did as the LORD commanded him. He took Joshua and had him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole assembly. ²³ Then he laid his hands on him and commissioned him, as the LORD instructed through Moses.

Day #5:                       Numbers 27:12-23

This brief passage is packed full with important information. This information is based on the events described in Numbers 20:1-13. That is when Moses was instructed by God to speak to the rock and water would come forth to meet the needs of the people of Israel. Instead of merely speaking to the rock, in anger, Moses struck the rock. His anger and his disobedience had to be dealt with harshly. After all, he is the example to a nation of millions of how the Lord expects all of them to act.
We can easily divide this passage into four simple "bite-sized" pieces:

(1) Moses' sentence --- verses 12-14. Only those who truly showed their faithful obedience to the Lord were allowed to enter into the Promised Land. They would need to be obedient to Him as they possessed the land. It would not be good for them to have a leader who demonstrated anger and disobedience to the Lord as they began this new venture with Him.
At a retreat at a place called Sandy Cove, I was joking with the people at our table for Sunday dinner. One of the people had to leave early and got up from the table. I made believe I was a distressed father who had been neglected and said, "You didn't ask permission to leave the table." She replied, “No, and I’m not going to.” We all laughed. In a few minutes, two others got up to leave and I said, “Now do you see what happens when one person is disobedient and is allowed to get away with it, and is not disciplined immediately? Now two more of you are leaving the table without asking permission of father.” It was said in jest, of course. But we see in today's account that perhaps there was a nugget of truth in that humorous exchange. Perhaps we can all attest to seeing this truth in some personal experience of our own.

(2) Moses' response --- verses 15-17. Look at the trust of this man in his Lord. There are no arguments, no complaints, no requests for reconsideration of the case. Although Moses had, on a number of occasions, come to the defense of the children of Israel when God had planned to destroy them, he did not defend himself. He knew his sin; he knew the wisdom of the Lord; and he simply accepted the sentence from God.
The fact is that Moses’ concern was more for the people than for himself. It was as though he said, “Well, if that is Your will, Lord, then how shall we go about this transition in an orderly manner? Who do You want in charge after I leave?” He saw the people under his care as a flock; and he wanted to make sure they had a shepherd to watch over them --- a shepherd who would give them loving care and trustworthy leadership.
More about this amazing man tomorrow.

Numbers 27:12-23 (NIV)

Joshua to Succeed Moses
¹² Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go up this mountain in the Abarim range and see the land I have given the Israelites. ¹³ After you have seen it, you too will be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was, ¹⁴ for when the community rebelled at the waters in the Desert of Zin, both of you disobeyed my command to honor me as holy before their eyes." (These were the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the Desert of Zin.)
¹⁵ Moses said to the LORD, ¹⁶ "May the LORD, the God of the spirits of all mankind, appoint a man over this community ¹⁷ to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the LORD's people will not be like sheep without a shepherd."
¹⁸ So the LORD said to Moses, "Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand on him. ¹⁹ Have him stand before Eleazar the priest and the entire assembly and commission him in their presence. ²⁰ Give him some of your authority so the whole Israelite community will obey him. ²¹ He is to stand before Eleazar the priest, who will obtain decisions for him by inquiring of the Urim before the LORD. At his command he and the entire community of the Israelites will go out, and at his command they will come in."
²² Moses did as the LORD commanded him. He took Joshua and had him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole assembly. ²³ Then he laid his hands on him and commissioned him, as the LORD instructed through Moses.

Day #6:                       Numbers 27:12-23

Yesterday, we looked at “Moses’ sentence” from the Lord and at “Moses’ response” to that sentence. Today, we look at the next two sections of this passage.

(3) Moses’ successor --- verses 18-21. What kind of a man do you choose to be the leader of a nation of wanderers --- people who have no place to call their own but who will be entering such a place very shortly? What should the man be like who will be able to lead them in a unified way into battle after battle as the Lord would guide and direct them? What kind of a man could take the place of a dynamic man like Moses who had the respect of all the people, a man who (with the exception of only two of the people --- Joshua and Caleb) was the only leader they ever had?
The Lord's choice was obvious --- Joshua. He was a man who was always seen with Moses. He was the one man given charge of the army at the first battle they fought at Rephidim. There he led the people to victory. He was a willing servant of Moses, which was very evident to all the people. But most important of all, he was “a man in whom is the Spirit.” In order to discern the will of the Lord, one must have the Spirit of the Lord working within. It was on this man, selected by God Himself, that Moses laid his hands and gave him authority to lead the people. This was, then, confirmed by the actions of the priest, Eleazar.

(4) Moses’ obedience --- verses 22-23. What a great statement for someone to make about any one of us --- "Moses did just as the Lord commanded." Can you and I replace the name of Moses with our own name and have that statement still be true? If this would be the only thing they remembered about Moses, it would be worth the memory and the example it would leave for the entire nation. What do you suppose they will remember about you and me? I pray that whatever it is, it will bring honor and glory to the Lord our God.}

^{^{Numbers 21:10-35}⁽^NIV⁾

The Journey to Moab
¹⁰ The Israelites moved on and camped at Oboth. ¹¹ Then they set out from Oboth and camped in Iye Abarim, in the desert that faces Moab toward the sunrise. ¹² From there they moved on and camped in the Zered Valley. ¹³ They set out from there and camped alongside the Arnon, which is in the desert extending into Amorite territory. The Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. ¹⁴ That is why the Book of the Wars of the LORD says:

       "...Waheb in Suphah and the ravines,

       the Arnon ¹⁵ and the slopes of the ravines

       that lead to the site of Ar

       and lie along the border of Moab."
¹⁶ From there they continued on to Beer, the well where the LORD said to Moses, "Gather the people together and I will give them water."
¹⁷ Then Israel sang this song:

       "Spring up, O well!

       Sing about it,
¹⁸ about the well that the princes dug,

       that the nobles of the people sank—

       the nobles with scepters and staffs."

      Then they went from the desert to Mattanah, ¹⁹ from Mattanah to Nahaliel, from Nahaliel to Bamoth, ²⁰ and from Bamoth to the valley in Moab where the top of Pisgah overlooks the wasteland.
Defeat of Sihon and Og
²¹ Israel sent messengers to say to Sihon king of the Amorites:
²² "Let us pass through your country. We will not turn aside into any field or vineyard, or drink water from any well. We will travel along the king's highway until we have passed through your territory."
²³ But Sihon would not let Israel pass through his territory. He mustered his entire army and marched out into the desert against Israel. When he reached Jahaz, he fought with Israel. ²⁴ Israel, however, put him to the sword and took over his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, but only as far as the Ammonites, because their border was fortified. ²⁵ Israel captured all the cities of the Amorites and occupied them, including Heshbon and all its surrounding settlements. ²⁶ Heshbon was the city of Sihon king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken from him all his land as far as the Arnon.
²⁷ That is why the poets say:

       "Come to Heshbon and let it be rebuilt;

       let Sihon's city be restored.
²⁸ "Fire went out from Heshbon,

       a blaze from the city of Sihon.

       It consumed Ar of Moab,

       the citizens of Arnon's heights.
²⁹ Woe to you, O Moab!

       You are destroyed, O people of Chemosh!

       He has given up his sons as fugitives

       and his daughters as captives

       to Sihon king of the Amorites.
³⁰ "But we have overthrown them;

       Heshbon is destroyed all the way to Dibon.

       We have demolished them as far as Nophah,

       which extends to Medeba."
³¹ So Israel settled in the land of the Amorites.
³² After Moses had sent spies to Jazer, the Israelites captured its surrounding settlements and drove out the Amorites who were there. ³³ Then they turned and went up along the road toward Bashan, and Og king of Bashan and his whole army marched out to meet them in battle at Edrei.
³⁴ The LORD said to Moses, "Do not be afraid of him, for I have handed him over to you, with his whole army and his land. Do to him what you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon."
³⁵ So they struck him down, together with his sons and his whole army, leaving them no survivors. And they took possession of his land.

WEEK #16-22

DAY #1:                      Numbers 21:10-35

Many travels and battles over an unknown period of time are described in this section of the Bible which demonstrates, once again, that the Lord keeps His Word. Way back in Exodus 23:20-23, just before beginning the journey to the Promised Land, the Lord spoke to the Israelites. God said He would send an angel before them to watch over them, to protect them, and to hold them accountable for all the rules and regulations He had given to them. He declared that no enemy would be able to stand before them if they would remain obedient to Him and walk in His way.
We find here that they were not trying to be an antagonistic group of people. They truly wanted to do nothing more than take a direct route to their next destination instead of going the long way around. King Sihon did not believe that they were really peace-loving people. So, he refused to let them pass through his territory. Not only did he prohibit their passing through his land. The king went out against them in the wilderness and engaged them in battle there.
The Israelites did not start the war; but they did respond with strength and the power of the Lord when attacked. And they were victorious!
I believe that if the Israelites had been obedient to the Lord at Kadesh-Barnea instead of believing the negative, pessimistic, faithless reports of the 10 spies . . . if they had instead gone in to the Promised Land in faith as God had directed them, things would have been different. They would have won a miraculous hands-down victory by the power of the Lord. After such a victory, no one would have dared to challenge them because of that power that was unleashed through them by the Lord.
Because they disobeyed the Lord and tried to do later, on their own, what He had previously called them to do under His direction, they lost the battle and looked bad and made their God look weak. From that point on, the nations of the area saw them, not as miraculously invincible but as a nation that could be defeated in battle. This was not God’s primary intention for them. It was part of the consequences of their sin of doubt and disobedience.
The consequences of our sins may not be so earth-shattering as those of the nation of Israel; yet there are consequences to pay. There was an old game show on radio and on TV many years ago called "Truth or Consequences.” Their slogan was, "If you don’t tell the truth, you must pay the consequences." For the Christian, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. If you don't follow the truth, you must pay the consequences. If you do follow in His way, you reap the rewards of victory over any enemies that come against you.

Numbers 22:1-35 (NIV)

Balak Summons Balaam
¹ Then the Israelites traveled to the plains of Moab and camped along the Jordan across from Jericho.
² Now Balak son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites, ³ and Moab was terrified because there were so many people. Indeed, Moab was filled with dread because of the Israelites.
⁴ The Moabites said to the elders of Midian, "This horde is going to lick up everything around us, as an ox licks up the grass of the field."

      So Balak son of Zippor, who was king of Moab at that time, ⁵ sent messengers to summon Balaam son of Beor, who was at Pethor, near the River, in his native land. Balak said:

       "A people has come out of Egypt; they cover the face of the land and have settled next to me. ⁶ Now come and put a curse on these people, because they are too powerful for me. Perhaps then I will be able to defeat them and drive them out of the country. For I know that those you bless are blessed, and those you curse are cursed."
⁷ The elders of Moab and Midian left, taking with them the fee for divination. When they came to Balaam, they told him what Balak had said.
⁸ "Spend the night here," Balaam said to them, "and I will bring you back the answer the LORD gives me." So the Moabite princes stayed with him.
⁹ God came to Balaam and asked, "Who are these men with you?"
¹⁰ Balaam said to God, "Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, sent me this message: ¹¹ 'A people that has come out of Egypt covers the face of the land. Now come and put a curse on them for me. Perhaps then I will be able to fight them and drive them away.' "
¹² But God said to Balaam, "Do not go with them. You must not put a curse on those people, because they are blessed."
¹³ The next morning Balaam got up and said to Balak's princes, "Go back to your own country, for the LORD has refused to let me go with you."
¹⁴ So the Moabite princes returned to Balak and said, "Balaam refused to come with us."
¹⁵ Then Balak sent other princes, more numerous and more distinguished than the first. ¹⁶ They came to Balaam and said:

       "This is what Balak son of Zippor says: Do not let anything keep you from coming to me, ¹⁷ because I will reward you handsomely and do whatever you say. Come and put a curse on these people for me."
¹⁸ But Balaam answered them, "Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything great or small to go beyond the command of the LORD my God. ¹⁹ Now stay here tonight as the others did, and I will find out what else the LORD will tell me."
²⁰ That night God came to Balaam and said, "Since these men have come to summon you, go with them, but do only what I tell you."
Balaam's Donkey
²¹ Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab. ²² But God was very angry when he went, and the angel of the LORD stood in the road to oppose him. Balaam was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. ²³ When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand, she turned off the road into a field. Balaam beat her to get her back on the road.
²⁴ Then the angel of the LORD stood in a narrow path between two vineyards, with walls on both sides. ²⁵ When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she pressed close to the wall, crushing Balaam's foot against it. So he beat her again.
²⁶ Then the angel of the LORD moved on ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no room to turn, either to the right or to the left. ²⁷ When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she lay down under Balaam, and he was angry and beat her with his staff. ²⁸ Then the LORD opened the donkey's mouth, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?"
²⁹ Balaam answered the donkey, "You have made a fool of me! If I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now."
³⁰ The donkey said to Balaam, "Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?"

      "No," he said.
³¹ Then the LORD opened Balaam's eyes, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell facedown.
³² The angel of the LORD asked him, "Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. ³³ The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If she had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have spared her."
³⁴ Balaam said to the angel of the LORD, "I have sinned. I did not realize you were standing in the road to oppose me. Now if you are displeased, I will go back."
³⁵ The angel of the LORD said to Balaam, "Go with the men, but speak only what I tell you." So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.

Day #2:                       Numbers 22:1-35

After studying a brief passage of Scripture that covers a long period of time, we now begin a study of a long portion of the Word that covers a short span of time. It is the famous story of the man named Balaam. It is told in three chapters, includes many arguments and numerous sacrifices as well as four prophecies. We will spend the rest of this week looking at this story and applying the truths to our lives.
Balaam has a very bad reputation in the rest of Scripture. He is described as a mad prophet and is referred to as an example of greed and idolatry. Hopefully, we will see how this reputation developed in the thinking of the Israelites as revealed to them by the Lord.
The story is basically simple. Balak has seen the total destruction of the people of King Sihon and others. He knows such victory must have supernatural forces behind it. So he decides to deal with Israel from that perspective. He calls in Balaam who was known as a powerful prophetic person who could free up or bind up individuals and even armies of nations by the spiritual forces he used. You can get the impression that Balaam was a kind of specialist who carried a business card with the words printed on it: "Have Curse, Will Travel.”
We find here a leaning in the direction of a cultic heresy. The religions of the world worship “gods” they have created out of their imaginations. Judaism and Christianity are quite unique in that the God we worship has been revealed to us by Himself. He has told us who He is. The other world religions think they can manipulate their “gods” to do their bidding. We have no such option. God tells you what to do and you do it. You cannot talk God into changing circumstances and consequences. You cannot manipulate things to make God change Himself. The people who called in Balaam were trying to get him to do the impossible. They wanted him to convince God to change what was part of His plan. They were willing to do whatever was necessary to “pay” for such changed results.
We need to be sure we don’t try to follow a similar approach in our walk with the Lord. He is to be obeyed. He cannot be manipulated. God does not change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. We can change and often should change. Let’s remember that in our prayer life with the Lord.

Numbers 22:1-35 (NIV)

Balak Summons Balaam
¹ Then the Israelites traveled to the plains of Moab and camped along the Jordan across from Jericho.
² Now Balak son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites, ³ and Moab was terrified because there were so many people. Indeed, Moab was filled with dread because of the Israelites.
⁴ The Moabites said to the elders of Midian, "This horde is going to lick up everything around us, as an ox licks up the grass of the field."

      So Balak son of Zippor, who was king of Moab at that time, ⁵ sent messengers to summon Balaam son of Beor, who was at Pethor, near the River, in his native land. Balak said:

       "A people has come out of Egypt; they cover the face of the land and have settled next to me. ⁶ Now come and put a curse on these people, because they are too powerful for me. Perhaps then I will be able to defeat them and drive them out of the country. For I know that those you bless are blessed, and those you curse are cursed."
⁷ The elders of Moab and Midian left, taking with them the fee for divination. When they came to Balaam, they told him what Balak had said.
⁸ "Spend the night here," Balaam said to them, "and I will bring you back the answer the LORD gives me." So the Moabite princes stayed with him.
⁹ God came to Balaam and asked, "Who are these men with you?"
¹⁰ Balaam said to God, "Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, sent me this message: ¹¹ 'A people that has come out of Egypt covers the face of the land. Now come and put a curse on them for me. Perhaps then I will be able to fight them and drive them away.' "
¹² But God said to Balaam, "Do not go with them. You must not put a curse on those people, because they are blessed."
¹³ The next morning Balaam got up and said to Balak's princes, "Go back to your own country, for the LORD has refused to let me go with you."
¹⁴ So the Moabite princes returned to Balak and said, "Balaam refused to come with us."
¹⁵ Then Balak sent other princes, more numerous and more distinguished than the first. ¹⁶ They came to Balaam and said:

       "This is what Balak son of Zippor says: Do not let anything keep you from coming to me, ¹⁷ because I will reward you handsomely and do whatever you say. Come and put a curse on these people for me."
¹⁸ But Balaam answered them, "Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything great or small to go beyond the command of the LORD my God. ¹⁹ Now stay here tonight as the others did, and I will find out what else the LORD will tell me."
²⁰ That night God came to Balaam and said, "Since these men have come to summon you, go with them, but do only what I tell you."
Balaam's Donkey
²¹ Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab. ²² But God was very angry when he went, and the angel of the LORD stood in the road to oppose him. Balaam was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. ²³ When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand, she turned off the road into a field. Balaam beat her to get her back on the road.
²⁴ Then the angel of the LORD stood in a narrow path between two vineyards, with walls on both sides. ²⁵ When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she pressed close to the wall, crushing Balaam's foot against it. So he beat her again.
²⁶ Then the angel of the LORD moved on ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no room to turn, either to the right or to the left. ²⁷ When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she lay down under Balaam, and he was angry and beat her with his staff. ²⁸ Then the LORD opened the donkey's mouth, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?"
²⁹ Balaam answered the donkey, "You have made a fool of me! If I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now."
³⁰ The donkey said to Balaam, "Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?"

      "No," he said.
³¹ Then the LORD opened Balaam's eyes, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell facedown.
³² The angel of the LORD asked him, "Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. ³³ The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If she had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have spared her."
³⁴ Balaam said to the angel of the LORD, "I have sinned. I did not realize you were standing in the road to oppose me. Now if you are displeased, I will go back."
³⁵ The angel of the LORD said to Balaam, "Go with the men, but speak only what I tell you." So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.

Day #3:                       Numbers 22:1-35

Balaam seems to be an opportunist who will try to use any spiritual force that benefits him. He is obviously familiar with the various pagan gods and deities of that area. He even refers to the Lord of Israel at one point as "my God.” But one wonders if that meant a “god” he worshipped or one he thought he had possession of that he tried to employ for his own purposes.
He apparently knows the power of the God of Israel and decides not to go against Him. When he refuses to say a curse against Israel, Balak offers him what amounts to a blank check. "Curse the nation and you can determine your own payment for the job done" (see verse 17).
Now, God has already told Balaam not to go and do what Balak wants him to do. God also knows that Balaam really wants to go anyway. So, He tells the man to go even though He is angry with him for his independent and self-centered attitude. As the story progresses and we meet Balaam's famous talking donkey, we find that the one who is supposed to be super-sensitive to the Lord is not even as good at hearing the word of God or of seeing His messenger angel as is his "stupid" donkey.
What is a simple lesson we can learn from this experience of Balaam? As we focus our attention on ourselves, we will find a true insensitivity to the Lord and His Word. If you are feeling distant from the Lord, if you can get nothing from the Word of God right now, if He seems distant from you, one possibility is that your own selfish desire to have Him do things your way has clouded your spirit so that you cannot see His will that He is trying to reveal to you. You might want to take time today to ask the Lord to forgive you for any selfishness, to remove any blockage from between you and Him, and to make His way clear to you.
A second lesson is this: It is also good to remember that you cannot “con” God. You cannot give the outward impression that you want to do the right thing when inwardly you are choosing to go your own selfish way. God is not fooled by appearances. He looks into the heart. He not only sees what we do, He also can see why we do it.



Numbers 22:36 – 23:12 (NIV)

³⁶ When Balak heard that Balaam was coming, he went out to meet him at the Moabite town on the Arnon border, at the edge of his territory. ³⁷ Balak said to Balaam, "Did I not send you an urgent summons? Why didn't you come to me? Am I really not able to reward you?"
³⁸ "Well, I have come to you now," Balaam replied. "But can I say just anything? I must speak only what God puts in my mouth."
³⁹ Then Balaam went with Balak to Kiriath Huzoth. ⁴⁰ Balak sacrificed cattle and sheep, and gave some to Balaam and the princes who were with him. ⁴¹ The next morning Balak took Balaam up to Bamoth Baal, and from there he saw part of the people.
Numbers 23
Balaam's First Oracle
¹ Balaam said, "Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me." ² Balak did as Balaam said, and the two of them offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
³ Then Balaam said to Balak, "Stay here beside your offering while I go aside. Perhaps the LORD will come to meet with me. Whatever he reveals to me I will tell you." Then he went off to a barren height.
⁴ God met with him, and Balaam said, "I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram."
⁵ The LORD put a message in Balaam's mouth and said, "Go back to Balak and give him this message."
⁶ So he went back to him and found him standing beside his offering, with all the princes of Moab. ⁷ Then Balaam uttered his oracle:

       "Balak brought me from Aram,

       the king of Moab from the eastern mountains.

       'Come,' he said, 'curse Jacob for me;

       come, denounce Israel.'
⁸ How can I curse

       those whom God has not cursed?

       How can I denounce

       those whom the LORD has not denounced?
⁹ From the rocky peaks I see them,

       from the heights I view them.

       I see a people who live apart

       and do not consider themselves one of the nations.
¹⁰ Who can count the dust of Jacob

       or number the fourth part of Israel?

       Let me die the death of the righteous,

       and may my end be like theirs!"
¹¹ Balak said to Balaam, "What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but you have done nothing but bless them!"
¹² He answered, "Must I not speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?"

Day #4:           Numbers 22:36 - 23:12

Even though Balaam's desire is to have control over others, he is wise enough to know that He cannot control the God of the Israelites. He states in our study for today a very important principle that we should all understand. "I can only do what God tells me to do, and say what God tells me to say." Here is recognition by Balaam that God really is the Lord of the universe and all is under His authority and control. We can choose to cooperate with Him and win or to fight with Him and lose.
We see here an important principle for all of us. But I particularly see in this principle a guideline that all preachers and teachers of the Word of God need to take very seriously. In the prophecy of Jeremiah 23:21 and 31, the Lord says very clearly that many try to speak His word without first listening to Him. Or they go someplace announcing that He sent them, and they never even asked Him where He wanted them to go.
Jesus was the perfect example of how to properly move by the Spirit of the Lord. The only words He spoke were the ones Father gave Him. The only deeds He accomplished were the ones Father directed Him to do (see John 7:16-18; 8:26, 47; 14:10 and other passages in John).
The more time we spend with Father, the more we will know His will, His word, and His way, by the power of His Holy Spirit working within us.

Numbers 23:13-26 (NIV)

Balaam's Second Oracle
¹³ Then Balak said to him, "Come with me to another place where you can see them; you will see only a part but not all of them. And from there, curse them for me." ¹⁴ So he took him to the field of Zophim on the top of Pisgah, and there he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
¹⁵ Balaam said to Balak, "Stay here beside your offering while I meet with him over there."
¹⁶ The LORD met with Balaam and put a message in his mouth and said, "Go back to Balak and give him this message."
¹⁷ So he went to him and found him standing beside his offering, with the princes of Moab. Balak asked him, "What did the LORD say?"
¹⁸ Then he uttered his oracle:

       "Arise, Balak, and listen;

       hear me, son of Zippor.
¹⁹ God is not a man, that he should lie,

       nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.

       Does he speak and then not act?

       Does he promise and not fulfill?
²⁰ I have received a command to bless;

       he has blessed, and I cannot change it.
²¹ "No misfortune is seen in Jacob,

       no misery observed in Israel.

       The LORD their God is with them;

       the shout of the King is among them.
²² God brought them out of Egypt;

       they have the strength of a wild ox.
²³ There is no sorcery against Jacob,

       no divination against Israel.

       It will now be said of Jacob

       and of Israel, 'See what God has done!'
²⁴ The people rise like a lioness;

       they rouse themselves like a lion

       that does not rest till he devours his prey

       and drinks the blood of his victims."
²⁵ Then Balak said to Balaam, "Neither curse them at all nor bless them at all!"
²⁶ Balaam answered, "Did I not tell you I must do whatever the LORD says?"

Day #5:                       Numbers 23:13-26

One thing you have to say about Balak: He was certainly persistent. Of course, when you are dealing with the possibility of losing your life or at least your kingdom, I suppose you could get rather persistent. So, he tries again to persuade Balaam to curse Israel. He says, in essence, come with me and let me show you the nation from this new perspective. He literally takes Balaam to another hill to look at another portion of the nation of Israel.
It may be that Balak believes Balaam is afraid to curse the nation because the nation looks too big to him. He may be showing him a small portion of the nation to build up his courage, in a sense. But, of course, Balaam was not concerned with how big the nation was, but how big their God was. All too often, our God is too small, or rather our understanding of what He can accomplish falls far short of reality.
God is Lord of ALL that exists. He is absolutely dependable. Verse 19 tells us that God does not lie. What he says is true. He is the truth itself (which is what Jesus said about Himself --- John 14:6). What God says is true AND IT WILL COME TO PASS. You can depend upon it because you can depend upon Him.

Numbers 23:27 – 24:25 (NIV)

Balaam's Third Oracle
²⁷ Then Balak said to Balaam, "Come, let me take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God to let you curse them for me from there." ²⁸ And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, overlooking the wasteland.
²⁹ Balaam said, "Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me." ³⁰ Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
Numbers 24
¹ Now when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he did not resort to sorcery as at other times, but turned his face toward the desert. ² When Balaam looked out and saw Israel encamped tribe by tribe, the Spirit of God came upon him ³ and he uttered his oracle:

       "The oracle of Balaam son of Beor,

       the oracle of one whose eye sees clearly,
⁴ the oracle of one who hears the words of God,

       who sees a vision from the Almighty,

       who falls prostrate, and whose eyes are opened:
⁵ "How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob,

       your dwelling places, O Israel!
⁶ "Like valleys they spread out,

       like gardens beside a river,

       like aloes planted by the LORD,

       like cedars beside the waters.
⁷ Water will flow from their buckets;

       their seed will have abundant water.

       "Their king will be greater than Agag;

       their kingdom will be exalted.
⁸ "God brought them out of Egypt;

       they have the strength of a wild ox.

       They devour hostile nations

       and break their bones in pieces;

       with their arrows they pierce them.
⁹ Like a lion they crouch and lie down,

       like a lioness—who dares to rouse them?

       "May those who bless you be blessed

       and those who curse you be cursed!"
¹⁰ Then Balak's anger burned against Balaam. He struck his hands together and said to him, "I summoned you to curse my enemies, but you have blessed them these three times. ¹¹ Now leave at once and go home! I said I would reward you handsomely, but the LORD has kept you from being rewarded."
¹² Balaam answered Balak, "Did I not tell the messengers you sent me, ¹³ 'Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything of my own accord, good or bad, to go beyond the command of the LORD -and I must say only what the LORD says'? ¹⁴ Now I am going back to my people, but come, let me warn you of what this people will do to your people in days to come."
Balaam's Fourth Oracle
¹⁵ Then he uttered his oracle:

       "The oracle of Balaam son of Beor,

       the oracle of one whose eye sees clearly,
¹⁶ the oracle of one who hears the words of God,

       who has knowledge from the Most High,

       who sees a vision from the Almighty,

       who falls prostrate, and whose eyes are opened:
¹⁷ "I see him, but not now;

       I behold him, but not near.

       A star will come out of Jacob;

       a scepter will rise out of Israel.

       He will crush the foreheads of Moab,

       the skulls of all the sons of Sheth.
¹⁸ Edom will be conquered;

       Seir, his enemy, will be conquered,

       but Israel will grow strong.
¹⁹ A ruler will come out of Jacob

       and destroy the survivors of the city."
Balaam's Final Oracles
²⁰ Then Balaam saw Amalek and uttered his oracle:

       "Amalek was first among the nations,

       but he will come to ruin at last."
²¹ Then he saw the Kenites and uttered his oracle:

       "Your dwelling place is secure,

       your nest is set in a rock;
²² yet you Kenites will be destroyed

       when Asshur takes you captive."
²³ Then he uttered his oracle:

       "Ah, who can live when God does this?
²⁴ Ships will come from the shores of Kittim;

       they will subdue Asshur and Eber,

       but they too will come to ruin."
²⁵ Then Balaam got up and returned home and Balak went his own way.

Day #6:           Numbers 23:27 - 24:25

     According to II Peter 2:15 and Jude 11, this man, Balaam, is condemned for greed and idolatry. Why? As we see his story unfold, he certainly said only the words God gave him, didn't he? That is true. But it is also true that he did so grudgingly. He would much rather have made a fortune by cursing Israel than to simply be obedient to the Word of the Lord. It is obvious that if he could have got away with it, he would have been disobedient to the Lord.
We see him time and time again going back to the Lord to say, "What would you like me to say this time?,” hoping God’s word would have changed by now. What he really wanted to do was to be obedient to God and also make a fortune in the process. If God would only respond to all of these sacrifices by changing His mind and allowing Balaam to curse Israel, he could be obedient to God and make a fortune from Balak as well. He didn't know God well enough to realize that He does not respond to pressure from His creatures. You can't twist God's arm or "con” Him into doing something (see our notes from DAY #3). God does what is right. He calls us to do the same.
In Matthew 5, in the Sermon on the Mount, we see Jesus telling us that lusting after someone in our heart means we are already guilty of adultery and need to ask forgiveness. We see again the principle of the Lord that He looks upon the heart and not just upon the outward appearance. No matter how many times Balaam spoke God's words to Balak, in his heart he wanted to curse Israel.
The Lord knows your heart and my heart. No matter what the rest of the world sees, God knows our hearts. And we need to be clean before our Lord. Ask Him to cleanse you right now.}

^{^{Numbers 18:21-32}⁽^NIV⁾

²¹ "I give to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do while serving at the Tent of Meeting. ²² From now on the Israelites must not go near the Tent of Meeting, or they will bear the consequences of their sin and will die. ²³ It is the Levites who are to do the work at the Tent of Meeting and bear the responsibility for offenses against it. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. They will receive no inheritance among the Israelites. ²⁴ Instead, I give to the Levites as their inheritance the tithes that the Israelites present as an offering to the LORD. That is why I said concerning them: 'They will have no inheritance among the Israelites.' "
²⁵ The LORD said to Moses, ²⁶ "Speak to the Levites and say to them: 'When you receive from the Israelites the tithe I give you as your inheritance, you must present a tenth of that tithe as the LORD's offering. ²⁷ Your offering will be reckoned to you as grain from the threshing floor or juice from the winepress. ²⁸ In this way you also will present an offering to the LORD from all the tithes you receive from the Israelites. From these tithes you must give the LORD's portion to Aaron the priest. ²⁹ You must present as the LORD's portion the best and holiest part of everything given to you.'
³⁰ "Say to the Levites: 'When you present the best part, it will be reckoned to you as the product of the threshing floor or the winepress. ³¹ You and your households may eat the rest of it anywhere, for it is your wages for your work at the Tent of Meeting. ³² By presenting the best part of it you will not be guilty in this matter; then you will not defile the holy offerings of the Israelites, and you will not die.' "

WEEK #16-21

DAY #1:                     Numbers 18:21-32

As we noted last week, in our first look at this passage, the Lord is going to take care of the daily necessities of life for the sons of Levi. The members of this tribe did not get any land for themselves as a portion of the inheritance God promised all of Israel in the land flowing with milk and honey. They were not to be involved with daily matters of the upkeep of their land and property and possessions. They were to be able to devote all the time necessary for their service to the Lord. God declares that they are to receive the tithe that was required of all Israelites.
Many Christian groups provide a salary, and in some cases even a home, for their pastors in a similar way. The idea is to free up those ministering for the Lord so that they have sufficient time to accomplish the tasks God sets before them. The people make it possible for the pastor to minister to the spiritual needs of the people.
This simple system is also very practical. Consider this scenario: If a congregation has 100 families each of which has an income of $50,000, then each family would tithe by giving $5,000 to the Church. 100 families times $5,000 is $500,000. If they hire a pastor for $50,000, he and his family can live in the same income range as the people he is serving. The pastor, therefore, will feel no resentment nor suffer from any envy or covetousness. When the pastor in turn gives a tithe of $5,000 to the church, this provides $455,000 for the expenses of running the ministry and the business of the church.
Obviously, if you increase the number of families you also increase the amount of budget you can use to serve the Lord. Isn't our God practical? Isn't it great how He cares about everything in our lives, even how we have our daily physical needs met and where we will get the resources to serve Him and meet the needs of others in the world? The beauty of the principle of tithing is two-fold. First, we learn to trust the Lord for all of our needs. That is why He said we should test Him with the tithe (see Malachi 3). Second, the leadership of the congregation can prayerfully make decisions about the present and future ministry of the church with the right frame of mind. That is to say, they can ask themselves, “Does God want us to do this? If so, we have the funds to accomplish it.” There never has to be the question raised, “Can we afford it?” If God wants us to do it, we can do it.

Numbers 19:1-22 (NIV)

The Water of Cleansing
¹ The LORD said to Moses and Aaron: ² "This is a requirement of the law that the LORD has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect or blemish and that has never been under a yoke. ³ Give it to Eleazar the priest; it is to be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence. ⁴ Then Eleazar the priest is to take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tent of Meeting. ⁵ While he watches, the heifer is to be burned—its hide, flesh, blood and offal. ⁶ The priest is to take some cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool and throw them onto the burning heifer. ⁷ After that, the priest must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water. He may then come into the camp, but he will be ceremonially unclean till evening. ⁸ The man who burns it must also wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he too will be unclean till evening.
⁹ "A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. They shall be kept by the Israelite community for use in the water of cleansing; it is for purification from sin. ¹⁰ The man who gathers up the ashes of the heifer must also wash his clothes, and he too will be unclean till evening. This will be a lasting ordinance both for the Israelites and for the aliens living among them.
¹¹ "Whoever touches the dead body of anyone will be unclean for seven days. ¹² He must purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third and seventh days, he will not be clean. ¹³ Whoever touches the dead body of anyone and fails to purify himself defiles the LORD's tabernacle. That person must be cut off from Israel. Because the water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on him, he is unclean; his uncleanness remains on him.
¹⁴ "This is the law that applies when a person dies in a tent: Anyone who enters the tent and anyone who is in it will be unclean for seven days, ¹⁵ and every open container without a lid fastened on it will be unclean.
¹⁶ "Anyone out in the open who touches someone who has been killed with a sword or someone who has died a natural death, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.
¹⁷ "For the unclean person, put some ashes from the burned purification offering into a jar and pour fresh water over them. ¹⁸ Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to take some hyssop, dip it in the water and sprinkle the tent and all the furnishings and the people who were there. He must also sprinkle anyone who has touched a human bone or a grave or someone who has been killed or someone who has died a natural death. ¹⁹ The man who is clean is to sprinkle the unclean person on the third and seventh days, and on the seventh day he is to purify him. The person being cleansed must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and that evening he will be clean. ²⁰ But if a person who is unclean does not purify himself, he must be cut off from the community, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD. The water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on him, and he is unclean. ²¹ This is a lasting ordinance for them.

      "The man who sprinkles the water of cleansing must also wash his clothes, and anyone who touches the water of cleansing will be unclean till evening. ²² Anything that an unclean person touches becomes unclean, and anyone who touches it becomes unclean till evening."

Day #2:                       Numbers 19:1-22

Another practical matter for a practical God is the keeping of the nation and the people clean as they go about their daily tasks. The Lord declared to the Israelites that one is not to be ceremonially unclean when worshipping the Lord or ministering in the service of the tabernacle. And He tells them very clearly what makes a person unclean. In this passage, the issue is contact with a person who has died. Anyone who has had such contact must go through a process of cleansing prescribed by the Lord.
Note these two reasons for cleansing . . . one spiritual, and one practical. First, the Lord wants all to know who He is and that He deserves nothing but the best. Therefore, one does not come into His presence in just any old state or condition. Not only must the sacrifice you bring be clean and unblemished, you must be clean as well. This reinforces the idea that even our worship is a sacrifice to the Lord and we give ourselves to Him as a living sacrifice.
Second, it makes sense that where there are dead bodies, there is the possibility of contamination from disease and infections. Therefore, the Lord requires the cleansing of the people and the tent before any involvement in worship will be allowed. The one place where all people were required to go was to the tabernacle to present themselves and their sacrifices to the Lord. This means that anyone who went to the tabernacle with any infectious disease risked the health of the entire community. So, practically speaking, it was very wise to require purification before getting involved in public worship.
God not only requires purification and cleansing; He also provides the means to accomplish this task. The sacrifice of the red heifer and the ashes that resulted were used in water to provide a means of cleansing. This may have had some medicinal or antiseptic qualities. It is not known for sure how this worked. It was certainly not a magic potion provided by God.
It makes sense to me that it was not what the people did that caused the cleansing. Their act was only symbolic of the work of the Lord who did the cleansing of the community both physically and spiritually. In the same way, we do not make ourselves clean when we confess our sins to the Lord. Our act of repentance only opens the door for us to receive the forgiveness already provided for us by Jesus.

Numbers 20:1-13 (NIV)

Water From the Rock
¹ In the first month the whole Israelite community arrived at the Desert of Zin, and they stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried.
² Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. ³ They quarreled with Moses and said, "If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the LORD! ⁴ Why did you bring the LORD's community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here? ⁵ Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!"
⁶ Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the LORD appeared to them. ⁷ The LORD said to Moses, ⁸ "Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink."
⁹ So Moses took the staff from the LORD's presence, just as he commanded him. ¹⁰ He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, "Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?" ¹¹ Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
¹² But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them."
¹³ These were the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarreled with the LORD and where he showed himself holy among them.

Day #3:                       Numbers 20:1-13

This is one of those sad accounts. It makes me wish I could help Moses take back the action that caused him to receive what appears to be harsh discipline by the Lord. This is only the second act that shows Moses outwardly demonstrating anger toward the people. The first was in the throwing down and breaking of the two stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments when Moses saw the people worshipping the golden calf.
I imagine that the Lord told Moses at that point that such behavior was not allowed for His leader of the nation of His chosen people. We do see here that the discipline for those in positions of leadership is rather strong. That is only right. If what they do is going to influence the direction of all those under them (and it will), it is necessary for them to be held highly accountable by the Lord. This puts the leader into a position of wanting to be a good example because he cares about the people and because he does not want to get "zapped" by the Lord in any painful way. Such strong discipline also shows the people the importance God places upon those in leadership roles. God gives a clear example to them in public of how He will deal with disobedience.
            But what did Moses do that was so wrong? Two things: (1) He did not obey the Lord. He was told to speak to the rock. Instead, in anger he struck the rock with the rod. God has difficulty showing His loving provision through the anger of His servants. (2) He spoke and acted as though He and Aaron were the ones providing the water for them. He said, "Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?" Once again the Lord has trouble showing His loving provision through the anger of His servants.
            Those in leadership should take seriously the requirements Father has for them in carrying out the ministry He has set before them. Those under leadership should devote themselves to daily prayer and support of those God has called to guide and nurture them in the ways of God.



Numbers 20:14-21 (NIV)

Edom Denies Israel Passage
¹⁴ Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, saying:

       "This is what your brother Israel says: You know about all the hardships that have come upon us. ¹⁵ Our forefathers went down into Egypt, and we lived there many years. The Egyptians mistreated us and our fathers, ¹⁶ but when we cried out to the LORD, he heard our cry and sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt.

       "Now we are here at Kadesh, a town on the edge of your territory. ¹⁷ Please let us pass through your country. We will not go through any field or vineyard, or drink water from any well. We will travel along the king's highway and not turn to the right or to the left until we have passed through your territory."
¹⁸ But Edom answered:

       "You may not pass through here; if you try, we will march out and attack you with the sword."
¹⁹ The Israelites replied:

       "We will go along the main road, and if we or our livestock drink any of your water, we will pay for it. We only want to pass through on foot—nothing else."
²⁰ Again they answered:

       "You may not pass through."

      Then Edom came out against them with a large and powerful army. ²¹ Since Edom refused to let them go through their territory, Israel turned away from them.

Day 4:                         Numbers 20:14-21

Here is one example of the sins of the fathers affecting the lives of their descendants. All Moses wants from the people of Edom is safe and quiet passage through their land. The Israelites have no plans to take over the land, just to use it as a "short cut" to their next destination.
It is possible that the Edomites could not imagine a couple of million people going through their land without destroying it or possibly devouring all of their food along the way like a band of locusts. They, of course, would not know that the Lord was miraculously providing food for them (manna) as they journeyed.
It is more likely that they simply did not trust them because of previous relationships between their common ancestors. In the message Moses sends to Edom, he refers to his people as "your brother Israel." Why would he do that? Well, the Edomites were the descendants of Esau. Esau was the twin brother of Jacob whose name was changed by God to Israel. Therefore, we have here the descendants of Esau mistrusting the descendants of Esau’s brother Israel. Did they have cause to mistrust these people? Only insofar as a few hundred years before this their father Esau was cheated out of his father’s blessing by the lying and scheming of Jacob (Israel). So the sins of the fathers do have direct impact on the sons for generations to come.
            You do have the right to ask the Lord to release you from any wrong spiritual influence coming down your family line. And you would be wise to ask the Lord to protect and free your children from any negative influence you may have upon them. Consequences will follow sins as chains of events are started into motion. However, wrong spiritual influence can be removed by the power of the name and the blood of Jesus.

Numbers 20:22-29 (NIV)

The Death of Aaron
²² The whole Israelite community set out from Kadesh and came to Mount Hor. ²³ At Mount Hor, near the border of Edom, the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ²⁴ "Aaron will be gathered to his people. He will not enter the land I give the Israelites, because both of you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah. ²⁵ Get Aaron and his son Eleazar and take them up Mount Hor. ²⁶ Remove Aaron's garments and put them on his son Eleazar, for Aaron will be gathered to his people; he will die there."
²⁷ Moses did as the LORD commanded: They went up Mount Hor in the sight of the whole community. ²⁸ Moses removed Aaron's garments and put them on his son Eleazar. And Aaron died there on top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain, ²⁹ and when the whole community learned that Aaron had died, the entire house of Israel mourned for him thirty days.

Day #5:                       Numbers 20:22-29

Aaron has come to a position of leadership in the nation of Israel. God now talks to him directly and uses him directly in ministering to the people. It was to Moses and Aaron both that instructions were given for the provision of water out of the rock. Read again 20:1-12 to see the direct involvement of Aaron in this process. Therefore, Aaron will receive a discipline similar to that of Moses. He will also not get into the Promised Land.
And Aaron dies. We do not know the cause of his death. Perhaps it was just time to "go home" and the Lord arranged transportation for him. We do know that the entire nation mourned his passing. We also know that not a whole lot of mourning apparently took place when his sister Miriam died (see 20:1). She gets one sentence. Aaron gets 30 days of mourning and weeping. Is that because he was a man? No. I believe it was because Miriam never did repent of her sin of pride and rebellion for which Aaron interceded on her behalf. It is likely that she spent the rest of her life in misery and perhaps being miserable to those around her.
            What kind of mourning will people have for you and me when we die? Now is the time to do something about how we will be remembered after we have gone to be with the Lord.
If you were to write your own obituary, what would you say about yourself? If others were to write your obituary, what would they say? If you don’t like what you imagine they would say, do something now to lovingly change their minds. You still have time.
You may want to use the space below to write some initial ideas for your “imaginary obituary.”

MY OBITUARY

Numbers 21:1-9 (NIV)

Arad Destroyed
¹ When the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming along the road to Atharim, he attacked the Israelites and captured some of them. ² Then Israel made this vow to the LORD : "If you will deliver these people into our hands, we will totally destroy their cities." ³ The LORD listened to Israel's plea and gave the Canaanites over to them. They completely destroyed them and their towns; so the place was named Hormah.
The Bronze Snake
⁴ They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; ⁵ they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!"
⁶ Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. ⁷ The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prayed for the people.
⁸ The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." ⁹ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.

Day #6:                       Numbers 21:1-9

This passage of scripture can be outlined very simply and briefly:

            21:1 ---------- Defeat by the enemy
            21:2-3 -------- Destruction by Israel
            21:4-5 -------- Discouragement of Israel
            21:6 ---------- Discipline by God
            21:7-9 -------- Deliverance from the serpents

Jesus refers to this incident in the life of Israel. It becomes for the Church a symbol of the lifesaving power of His crucifixion. In John 3:14-15, Jesus tells the people that as He is lifted up (on the cross) and people believe in Him, they will receive eternal life, a benefit infinitely more lasting and miraculous than this astounding deliverance of the people of Israel from poisonous serpents.
In both instances, the key is not what we do but in whom we put our faith and trust. The people of Israel did not have faith in the fiery serpent on the pole. They had faith in the God who instructed this symbol to be placed there. When we look to Jesus for salvation, it is foolish to think it is our looking that brings eternal life. It is not something we do. It is receiving in faith what God has already accomplished for us in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
By the way, if you ever wondered where the symbol used in doctors' offices and on the sides of ambulances and rescue squads came from, the source is here in Numbers 21. It is the symbol of a serpent on a pole that brings life. Once again, a daily reminder that any healing that takes place at the hands of any medical practitioner is really coming from God Himself. They are the tools and channels through which the Lord often chooses to work.
Praise God for His wondrous provision for our physical wellbeing and for our salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. To Him be all honor and glory forever!}

^{^{Numbers 15:17-31}⁽^NIV⁾

¹⁷ The LORD said to Moses, ¹⁸ "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When you enter the land to which I am taking you ¹⁹ and you eat the food of the land, present a portion as an offering to the LORD. ²⁰ Present a cake from the first of your ground meal and present it as an offering from the threshing floor. ²¹ Throughout the generations to come you are to give this offering to the LORD from the first of your ground meal.
Offerings for Unintentional Sins
²² " 'Now if you unintentionally fail to keep any of these commands the LORD gave Moses- ²³ any of the LORD's commands to you through him, from the day the LORD gave them and continuing through the generations to come- ²⁴ and if this is done unintentionally without the community being aware of it, then the whole community is to offer a young bull for a burnt offering as an aroma pleasing to the LORD, along with its prescribed grain offering and drink offering, and a male goat for a sin offering. ²⁵ The priest is to make atonement for the whole Israelite community, and they will be forgiven, for it was not intentional and they have brought to the LORD for their wrong an offering made by fire and a sin offering. ²⁶ The whole Israelite community and the aliens living among them will be forgiven, because all the people were involved in the unintentional wrong.
²⁷ " 'But if just one person sins unintentionally, he must bring a year-old female goat for a sin offering. ²⁸ The priest is to make atonement before the LORD for the one who erred by sinning unintentionally, and when atonement has been made for him, he will be forgiven. ²⁹ One and the same law applies to everyone who sins unintentionally, whether he is a native-born Israelite or an alien.
³⁰ " 'But anyone who sins defiantly, whether native-born or alien, blasphemes the LORD, and that person must be cut off from his people. ³¹ Because he has despised the LORD's word and broken his commands, that person must surely be cut off; his guilt remains on him.' "

WEEK #16-20

DAY #1:                      Numbers 15:17-31

Many hours of discussion have been held over many centuries on the issue “Are there big and little sins?” If so, which ones are big and which ones are little? We would probably assume that to tell a lie is not nearly as big a sin as is murder or adultery. It is interesting to me that Paul makes a long list of sins in Romans 1:28-32. There he ranks haters of God and murderers right alongside those who are disobedient to their parents. James 2:10 tells us that to break one of the laws of God is to be guilty of them all.
So, if there are big sins and little sins, it is likely that our definition would not fit in to the criteria set forth in Scripture. The closest we come to it is in our passage of Scripture for today. Here the Lord sets forth the principle that to unintentionally sin, to sin by accident or out of ignorance of the rules, is less drastic than to sin defiantly. Both require the sinner to pay the consequences. The one who knows the rules and openly flaunts his disobedience at the Lord will have a high price to pay. In the Old Covenant, it was separation from the Lord.
It is significant that consequences follow the sin even when it is unintentional. That should show us that God does not wait in the wings or behind a tree trying to catch us doing something wrong so He can think up some fiendish or nasty way to do us in or make us suffer. This tells me that the nature of sin is that it costs us dearly when we get involved in it. Because God wants us to avoid such experiences, He tells us ahead of time what is right and what is wrong . . . so that we can avoid the pain of disobedience. That is the way of a loving and just God.

Numbers 15:32-41 (NIV)

The Sabbath-Breaker Put to Death
³² While the Israelites were in the desert, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. ³³ Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, ³⁴ and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. ³⁵ Then the LORD said to Moses, "The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp." ³⁶ So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Tassels on Garments
³⁷ The LORD said to Moses, ³⁸ "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel. ³⁹ You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by going after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. ⁴⁰ Then you will remember to obey all my commands and will be consecrated to your God. ⁴¹ I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD your God.' "

Day #2:                       Numbers 15:32-41

The Law of God has been given to the people by the One who loves them and works in their lives with justice and righteousness. But they have never used these laws before. How do we take care of the details when someone does sin? Do we discipline him right away? Do we give him a second or third or fourth chance before handing out the prescribed punishment? And, by the way, what is the punishment?
Well, the people got the answers to many of these questions when someone was caught breaking one of the ten basic commandments. He was gathering wood on the Sabbath when he was supposed to be resting and receiving refreshment from God. So the people talked to the Lord and said, "Now what do we do?" Their instructions from God were to stone the man on this first offense. This would certainly underline the importance that God placed upon obedience to His plan and order and hopefully at the same time discourage disobedience in the future.
An additional help God gave them was to instruct them to wear tassels on their garments with a blue cord attached. This would act as a daily reminder of the importance of keeping the Law. Only those under covenant to the Lord would wear such a decoration on their clothing. This would place them in a position where they could remind themselves to keep his Law. It would also place them in the public eye where others would be watching to see if they would indeed keep the laws their garments said they should keep. That is one good reason for a Christian to wear a cross today. It reminds us and others of our standards and principles for ethical behavior.
Unfortunately, many who are not followers of Jesus are now wearing crosses just for decoration and nothing else. This certainly waters down our witness, especially when many who are not Christians and wear crosses are involved in blatant sinful lifestyles. It is also sad that the tassels called for in Numbers 15 became, by the time of Jesus, not a reminder to do good but a sign to all those around of how wonderful and righteous these people really were.
If this is all true, then how do we deal with the necessity for obedience in our lives today? The clue is what the Lord tells us in the prophecy of Jeremiah (chapter 31). He says He will establish a new covenant. Those who agree with Him and accept His gift of salvation will not have to look to some external principles to know what to do. Rather, the law of God will be written on their hearts and they will not only know what He wants them to do, they will know Him as well. What does that mean for us today, if we have made a covenant with the Lord? The more that we get to intimately and personally know the Lord, the more sure we will be of His will and plan for our lives day by day. and the more we will want to do His will.

Numbers 16:1-40 (NIV)

Korah, Dathan and Abiram
¹ Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and certain Reubenites—Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—became insolent ² and rose up against Moses. With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council. ³ They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, "You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the LORD's assembly?"
⁴ When Moses heard this, he fell facedown. ⁵ Then he said to Korah and all his followers: "In the morning the LORD will show who belongs to him and who is holy, and he will have that person come near him. The man he chooses he will cause to come near him. ⁶ You, Korah, and all your followers are to do this: Take censers ⁷ and tomorrow put fire and incense in them before the LORD. The man the LORD chooses will be the one who is holy. You Levites have gone too far!"
⁸ Moses also said to Korah, "Now listen, you Levites! ⁹ Isn't it enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the rest of the Israelite community and brought you near himself to do the work at the LORD's tabernacle and to stand before the community and minister to them? ¹⁰ He has brought you and all your fellow Levites near himself, but now you are trying to get the priesthood too. ¹¹ It is against the LORD that you and all your followers have banded together. Who is Aaron that you should grumble against him?"
¹² Then Moses summoned Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab. But they said, "We will not come! ¹³ Isn't it enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the desert? And now you also want to lord it over us? ¹⁴ Moreover, you haven't brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you gouge out the eyes of these men? No, we will not come!"
¹⁵ Then Moses became very angry and said to the LORD, "Do not accept their offering. I have not taken so much as a donkey from them, nor have I wronged any of them."
¹⁶ Moses said to Korah, "You and all your followers are to appear before the LORD tomorrow—you and they and Aaron. ¹⁷ Each man is to take his censer and put incense in it—250 censers in all—and present it before the LORD. You and Aaron are to present your censers also." ¹⁸ So each man took his censer, put fire and incense in it, and stood with Moses and Aaron at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. ¹⁹ When Korah had gathered all his followers in opposition to them at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the glory of the LORD appeared to the entire assembly. ²⁰ The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ²¹ "Separate yourselves from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once."
²² But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and cried out, "O God, God of the spirits of all mankind, will you be angry with the entire assembly when only one man sins?"
²³ Then the LORD said to Moses, ²⁴ "Say to the assembly, 'Move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.' "
²⁵ Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. ²⁶ He warned the assembly, "Move back from the tents of these wicked men! Do not touch anything belonging to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins." ²⁷ So they moved away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram had come out and were standing with their wives, children and little ones at the entrances to their tents.
²⁸ Then Moses said, "This is how you will know that the LORD has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea: ²⁹ If these men die a natural death and experience only what usually happens to men, then the LORD has not sent me. ³⁰ But if the LORD brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the grave, then you will know that these men have treated the LORD with contempt."
³¹ As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart ³² and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households and all Korah's men and all their possessions. ³³ They went down alive into the grave, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. ³⁴ At their cries, all the Israelites around them fled, shouting, "The earth is going to swallow us too!"
³⁵ And fire came out from the LORD and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.
³⁶ The LORD said to Moses, ³⁷ "Tell Eleazar son of Aaron, the priest, to take the censers out of the smoldering remains and scatter the coals some distance away, for the censers are holy- ³⁸ the censers of the men who sinned at the cost of their lives. Hammer the censers into sheets to overlay the altar, for they were presented before the LORD and have become holy. Let them be a sign to the Israelites."
³⁹ So Eleazar the priest collected the bronze censers brought by those who had been burned up, and he had them hammered out to overlay the altar, ⁴⁰ as the LORD directed him through Moses. This was to remind the Israelites that no one except a descendant of Aaron should come to burn incense before the LORD, or he would become like Korah and his followers.

Day #3:                       Numbers 16:1-40

God has set forth His rules for the governing of the nation. He has declared clearly who is to do what in the worship life of the people. Those in charge have been anointed and ordained for the specific tasks they are to perform. Some of the people, particularly people in leadership positions, are now declaring that anyone can be a priest because God is in the midst of all of them and no one should be set apart above others. They assert that Moses is seeking glory and honor and has personally surrounded himself with "yes-men" who will do his bidding in running the nation.
Korah claims the right to leadership because back in his ancestry he is a “son of Levi” and should be able to do those things Moses has told them only Aaron and his immediate family are to perform. Moses says such a distinction of position and responsibility comes from the Lord. Korah claims it comes from no higher a source than the scheming mind of Moses himself. Dothan and Abiram claim rights of leadership because they are from the tribe of Reuben who is the first-born of Israel Therefore, they say, they should have special privileges.
Moses does not argue with them. He simply says, "Let God tell us who is right. Let us all gather with the holy censers for worship; those who are not set aside by God to use them will be punished." The day approached. Korah and company handled those holy items God warned they were not to use, and the ground opened up and swallowed them all. A very clear object lesson: Don't fool around with God! He makes His point very clear!



Numbers 16:41-50 (NIV)

⁴¹ The next day the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. "You have killed the LORD's people," they said.
⁴² But when the assembly gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron and turned toward the Tent of Meeting, suddenly the cloud covered it and the glory of the LORD appeared. ⁴³ Then Moses and Aaron went to the front of the Tent of Meeting, ⁴⁴ and the LORD said to Moses, ⁴⁵ "Get away from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once." And they fell facedown.
⁴⁶ Then Moses said to Aaron, "Take your censer and put incense in it, along with fire from the altar, and hurry to the assembly to make atonement for them. Wrath has come out from the LORD; the plague has started." ⁴⁷ So Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly. The plague had already started among the people, but Aaron offered the incense and made atonement for them. ⁴⁸ He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped. ⁴⁹ But 14,700 people died from the plague, in addition to those who had died because of Korah. ⁵⁰ Then Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, for the plague had stopped.

Day #4:                       Numbers 16:41-50

The words and rumors of Korah and company had poisoned the minds of the people of Israel. They claimed Moses was not taking them to a land flowing with mild and honey but away from one in Egypt. They blamed Moses for the deaths of the rebels and rose up against him.
Moses acts quickly to ask the Lord not to destroy them all with fire. God agrees and tells Moses to send Aaron, the one who has the rightful responsibility to carry the holy censer with fire, to take the censer throughout the camp. God was sending a plague upon the people as punishment for their rebellion, but He would allow the act of worship by Aaron with the censer to bring atonement to the people.
This action demonstrated that Aaron was indeed God’s man for the job as surely as Korah was not. They experienced the miraculous protection of the Lord from the spreading of the plague. And it drew them back into obedience to the Lord and His man of authority, Moses.
Those who would aspire to positions of power in the Lord's kingdom should understand that only those He has chosen for that purpose will be effective in the carrying out of that ministry. God chooses to do His most powerful work through those who are willing to be nothing and to receive no accolades for their efforts. Those who aspire to positions of honor will find their efforts exhausting and unproductive. Those willing to serve God no matter what happens will find that signs and wonders surround them.

Numbers 17:1 – 18:20 (NIV)

Numbers 17
The Budding of Aaron's Staff
¹ The LORD said to Moses, ² "Speak to the Israelites and get twelve staffs from them, one from the leader of each of their ancestral tribes. Write the name of each man on his staff. ³ On the staff of Levi write Aaron's name, for there must be one staff for the head of each ancestral tribe. ⁴ Place them in the Tent of Meeting in front of the Testimony, where I meet with you. ⁵ The staff belonging to the man I choose will sprout, and I will rid myself of this constant grumbling against you by the Israelites."
⁶ So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and their leaders gave him twelve staffs, one for the leader of each of their ancestral tribes, and Aaron's staff was among them. ⁷ Moses placed the staffs before the LORD in the Tent of the Testimony.
⁸ The next day Moses entered the Tent of the Testimony and saw that Aaron's staff, which represented the house of Levi, had not only sprouted but had budded, blossomed and produced almonds. ⁹ Then Moses brought out all the staffs from the LORD's presence to all the Israelites. They looked at them, and each man took his own staff.
¹⁰ The LORD said to Moses, "Put back Aaron's staff in front of the Testimony, to be kept as a sign to the rebellious. This will put an end to their grumbling against me, so that they will not die." ¹¹ Moses did just as the LORD commanded him.
¹² The Israelites said to Moses, "We will die! We are lost, we are all lost! ¹³ Anyone who even comes near the tabernacle of the LORD will die. Are we all going to die?"
Numbers 18
Duties of Priests and Levites
¹ The LORD said to Aaron, "You, your sons and your father's family are to bear the responsibility for offenses against the sanctuary, and you and your sons alone are to bear the responsibility for offenses against the priesthood. ² Bring your fellow Levites from your ancestral tribe to join you and assist you when you and your sons minister before the Tent of the Testimony. ³ They are to be responsible to you and are to perform all the duties of the Tent, but they must not go near the furnishings of the sanctuary or the altar, or both they and you will die. ⁴ They are to join you and be responsible for the care of the Tent of Meeting—all the work at the Tent—and no one else may come near where you are.
⁵ "You are to be responsible for the care of the sanctuary and the altar, so that wrath will not fall on the Israelites again. ⁶ I myself have selected your fellow Levites from among the Israelites as a gift to you, dedicated to the LORD to do the work at the Tent of Meeting. ⁷ But only you and your sons may serve as priests in connection with everything at the altar and inside the curtain. I am giving you the service of the priesthood as a gift. Anyone else who comes near the sanctuary must be put to death."
Offerings for Priests and Levites
⁸ Then the LORD said to Aaron, "I myself have put you in charge of the offerings presented to me; all the holy offerings the Israelites give me I give to you and your sons as your portion and regular share. ⁹ You are to have the part of the most holy offerings that is kept from the fire. From all the gifts they bring me as most holy offerings, whether grain or sin or guilt offerings, that part belongs to you and your sons. ¹⁰ Eat it as something most holy; every male shall eat it. You must regard it as holy.
¹¹ "This also is yours: whatever is set aside from the gifts of all the wave offerings of the Israelites. I give this to you and your sons and daughters as your regular share. Everyone in your household who is ceremonially clean may eat it.
¹² "I give you all the finest olive oil and all the finest new wine and grain they give the LORD as the first fruits of their harvest. ¹³ All the land's first fruits that they bring to the LORD will be yours. Everyone in your household who is ceremonially clean may eat it.
¹⁴ "Everything in Israel that is devoted to the LORD is yours. ¹⁵ The first offspring of every womb, both man and animal, that is offered to the LORD is yours. But you must redeem every firstborn son and every firstborn male of unclean animals. ¹⁶ When they are a month old, you must redeem them at the redemption price set at five shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel, which weighs twenty gerahs.
¹⁷ "But you must not redeem the firstborn of an ox, a sheep or a goat; they are holy. Sprinkle their blood on the altar and burn their fat as an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD. ¹⁸ Their meat is to be yours, just as the breast of the wave offering and the right thigh are yours. ¹⁹ Whatever is set aside from the holy offerings the Israelites present to the LORD I give to you and your sons and daughters as your regular share. It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the LORD for both you and your offspring."
²⁰ The LORD said to Aaron, "You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any share among them; I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites.

Day #5:                Numbers 17:1 - 18:20

Time for a quick review. A big area of controversy in the nation of Israel has been over the issue of leadership. Is Moses to be the spokesman for God or not? This then spilled over into the debate over who is allowed to minister to the Lord for the people in the Tabernacle itself. The people were told by Moses that it was God’s idea that only Aaron and his immediate family were to go into the inner area of the tabernacle. The sons of Levi were to be assistants to Aaron and his sons. Many people disagreed. They were killed as the ground opened up and swallowed these antagonists who were against Moses. In this long passage of Scripture for today, we see the Lord reinforcing the distinction between Aaron and the rest of the priests.
The Lord wanted to make it very clear to the people that the setting aside of Aaron was God's idea and not the figment of Moses' imagination. We see in this passage at least four ways the Lord accomplished this:

(1) He set up a visual demonstration to show clearly and miraculously His selection of Aaron for special service. All tribes chose a rod or a branch of wood to give to Moses. Each tribe had its name inscribed on its own branch or rod so that no one could suggest any trickery in this experiment. They were placed in the presence of the Lord in the Tabernacle. On the next day, the rod with the name of Aaron on it had blossomed with leaves and even almonds.

(2) A second way of showing that Aaron was to have a special place in His scheme of things: God began to talk directly to Aaron (18:1, 8 and 20).

(3) God reiterated the basics of His rules for who was to do what in the worship life of the Israelites.

(4) God gave instructions once again concerning the way in which the other tribes of Israel were to bring their best to the tabernacle . God specifically said that, of the best given to the Lord, a portion was to go to Aaron and his family.

            I believe it is significant that one reason the Lord has taken this step (to amplify the position of Aaron and his sons) is because Aaron has now gone through a time of remorse and repentance. He has come to an awareness that he does not need position but that he needs the Lord most of all. We are back again to the simple principle of truth found in the Word: He who humbles himself will be exalted. That is as true today as it was in the days of the Old Covenant. We should apply it to our daily lives and decisions about life itself.

Numbers 18:21-32 (NIV)

²¹ "I give to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do while serving at the Tent of Meeting. ²² From now on the Israelites must not go near the Tent of Meeting, or they will bear the consequences of their sin and will die. ²³ It is the Levites who are to do the work at the Tent of Meeting and bear the responsibility for offenses against it. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. They will receive no inheritance among the Israelites. ²⁴ Instead, I give to the Levites as their inheritance the tithes that the Israelites present as an offering to the LORD. That is why I said concerning them: 'They will have no inheritance among the Israelites.' "
²⁵ The LORD said to Moses, ²⁶ "Speak to the Levites and say to them: 'When you receive from the Israelites the tithe I give you as your inheritance, you must present a tenth of that tithe as the LORD's offering. ²⁷ Your offering will be reckoned to you as grain from the threshing floor or juice from the winepress. ²⁸ In this way you also will present an offering to the LORD from all the tithes you receive from the Israelites. From these tithes you must give the LORD's portion to Aaron the priest. ²⁹ You must present as the LORD's portion the best and holiest part of everything given to you.'
³⁰ "Say to the Levites: 'When you present the best part, it will be reckoned to you as the product of the threshing floor or the winepress. ³¹ You and your households may eat the rest of it anywhere, for it is your wages for your work at the Tent of Meeting. ³² By presenting the best part of it you will not be guilty in this matter; then you will not defile the holy offerings of the Israelites, and you will not die.' "

Day #6                        Numbers 18:21-32

Today, we see that the Lord is also going to take care of the daily necessities of life for the sons of Levi. The members of this tribe did not get any land for themselves as a portion of the inheritance God promised to all of Israel in the land flowing with milk and honey. They were not to be involved with daily matters of the upkeep of their land and property and possessions. They were to be able to devote all the time necessary for their service to the Lord. Therefore, they had to have some other source of income to provide for their daily needs of food, clothing, and shelter.
God declares that they are to receive the tithe that was required of all Israelites. This was to be the first fruits from the harvest of the crops by the other tribes of Israel. Well, if everyone had to tithe, that is, give the first 10% of all they produce to the work of the Lord, What about the Levites? Did they have to follow this law as well? Did they also tithe? If so, to whom did their tithe go? The rule was that their tithe (of the tithe they received) went to Aaron and his family.
Obviously, the manner in which many Christian groups provide a salary, and in some cases even a home, for their pastors is similar to the procedure set forth by God in this passage. It is based on this simple principle of freeing up those ministering for the Lord so that they have sufficient time to accomplish the tasks He sets before them. The people make it possible for the pastor to minister to the spiritual needs of the people. We will look at this in more detail in next week’s Notes.}

^{^{Numbers 14:1-10}⁽^NIV⁾

Numbers 14
The People Rebel
¹ That night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. ² All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, "If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! ³ Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?" ⁴ And they said to each other, "We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt."
⁵ Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown in front of the whole Israelite assembly gathered there. ⁶ Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes ⁷ and said to the entire Israelite assembly, "The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. ⁸ If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. ⁹ Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them."
¹⁰ But the whole assembly talked about stoning them. Then the glory of the LORD appeared at the Tent of Meeting to all the Israelites.

WEEK #16-19

DAY #1:                      Numbers 14:1-10

We have been looking at these people called the Israelites. We need to say just one more thing about the nature of these people. After all, they have been chosen by God to reveal Him to the rest of the world. Whether for good or for ill, we discover that they are exactly like many of us in so many ways.
They vacillate in their faith from high euphoria to deepest depression. If they were to have a “coat of arms” for their family, on the shield would be a roller coaster. Up and down, up and down, but rarely level and steady. Rushing here and turning quickly there to seek and discover something new. Almost never standing still to enjoy what they have and where they are.
This is often the character and nature of those who have not yet learned to trust the Lord. Instead they seem to want to base their sense of security on their surroundings. These were the ones Jesus was talking to when He warned them against worrying about food, clothing, and shelter. Jesus challenged them to “seek first the kingdom of God.” Jesus told them that, if they were to do this, all of these “things” would be theirs as well (see Matthew 6:24-34).
There is a mindset we find in so many places that says, “If I can touch it, it is real and I can depend upon it.” This attitude has developed out of a raising of the scientific process almost to a position of worship in our western society. Here is the actual fact. That which we can touch is not reality and certainly not lasting. The strange paradox we find is this: That which we cannot see and touch, that which is of the spiritual realm of the Lord, is the eternal and lasting. That is true reality.
In the Order of Worship used by the denomination in which I grew up, there is a beautiful and powerful phrase used in the Service of Holy Communion. As the pastor describes the nature of this sacrament, he says, “We have to do here not with these signs merely, but with the reality which these signs represent.” That is to say, it is not the bread and wine (which we can touch) that are important. We must look beyond these to Jesus and His mystical, real presence with us as risen and reigning Lord.

Numbers 14:11-19 (NIV)

¹¹ The LORD said to Moses, "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them? ¹² I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they."
¹³ Moses said to the LORD, "Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them. ¹⁴ And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard that you, O LORD, are with these people and that you, O LORD, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵ If you put these people to death all at one time, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, ¹⁶ 'The LORD was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath; so he slaughtered them in the desert.'
¹⁷ "Now may the Lord's strength be displayed, just as you have declared: ¹⁸ 'The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.' ¹⁹ In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now."

DAY #2:                      Numbers 14:11-19

The Lord seems to be getting quite disgusted with the attitude of these people . . . vacillating from heartfelt thanksgiving to rank rebellion in a matter of days. So, the Lord makes Moses an astounding offer. The Lord is saying, "Why don't I start all over again and make you the father of many nations. I'll scrap all of these ungrateful and disobedient people and create a nation through you and your offspring. What do you think about that idea, Moses?” One would think that was quite a tempting offer. How would you have responded to that astounding plan if the Lord had offered it to you? Put yourself in Moses sandals for a moment.
The offer the Lord made was quite amazing. I believe equally astounding was Moses' response. We see here the true nature of this man named Moses. He is, in fact, a humble person. He is a servant of the Lord who is happiest when he is exalting Father. (I would guess that most people in Moses’ position would have had a similar spiritual development. When you have the opportunity to spend so much time with the Lord, in conversation with Him, and in the powerful presence of Almighty God, one is bound to become more and more humble.) Moses honestly wants nothing for himself. He really and truly does care about what the world will think about the Lord if He turns His back on the nation of Israel after having rescued them from bondage in Egypt.
That, I would imagine, is one of the main reasons the Lord chose Moses . . . because he was a humble man with a teachable spirit (most of the time). In fact, the Lord seems to be in the business of choosing “nobodies” and then doing amazing things through them.
Take some time to look over the great characters of biblical history, people that God used to shape history and reveal Himself to the world. He chose people like Gideon, Jeremiah, Mary, Rahab. These people and many others were used mightily by the Lord because they knew that without Him they could do nothing. In fact, if God had not moved upon them, called them and used them in His service, we never would have heard about any one of them. With Him, they soon discovered, all things were possible.
So, all you former grasshoppers and present nobodies, offer yourself for service in the army of the Lord and He will amaze you! Indeed, He will amaze others through you. He calls for surrender and service. He will do the rest in you and to you and through you. Trust Him.

Numbers 14:20-35 (NIV)

²⁰ The LORD replied, "I have forgiven them, as you asked. ²¹ Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the LORD fills the whole earth, ²² not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times- ²³ not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. ²⁴ But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it. ²⁵ Since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea. "
²⁶ The LORD said to Moses and Aaron: ²⁷ "How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. ²⁸ So tell them, 'As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you the very things I heard you say: ²⁹ In this desert your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. ³⁰ Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. ³¹ As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. ³² But you—your bodies will fall in this desert. ³³ Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the desert. ³⁴ For forty years—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.' ³⁵ I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this desert; here they will die."

DAY #3:                      Numbers 14:20-35

The Lord deals with individuals, with groups and even with generations of nations. He is not only intimately involved in what you and I are doing. He knows about the future, thousands of years from now. The Lord cares about that which will contribute to His best blessings for those who lived in biblical days. He cares just as much that we receive His best for us now.
Therefore, when Moses interceded on behalf of the nation of Israel, the Lord agreed not to destroy the nation immediately and start over again with Moses. He did say, however, that those who were disobedient would not make it into the Promised Land but would die during a period of wanderings in the wilderness. The only two exceptions to that would be Joshua and Caleb who, among all the men who “spied out the land,” were the only ones who had faith and believed the Lord would give them the land they had surveyed.
The Israelites had become very good at grumbling. We don’t know if this was their nature for many years or if it were a newly acquired character trait. Whatever its origin, they grumbled well.
Three aspects of these grumblings are obvious. First, the people wanted things, material comforts, more than a relationship with the Lord. This is a common human malady. Second, they did not appreciate all they already had as a gift of love from God. Perhaps they felt it was owed to them. Or they may have just taken things for granted. We are good at that too, aren’t we? Third, they never really asked the Lord for understanding, etc. They only complained. Of course, if we remember our Israelite history, they didn't have direct access to ask God anything. By their own choice, they had forfeited that right of access when they insisted that Moses be their intermediary (see Exodus 20:19}