She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain
Do you remember this old family sing-along song? If so, I’ll bet you have some verses for it that I’ve never heard, and I’m certain I have at least one you’ve never heard because I think my family added some verses for their own fun. What I didn’t know until I looked it up tonight at Wikipedia is that it was an old African spiritual song that refers to the return of Christ and the rapture. The original includes verses like “King Jesus, He’ll be driver when she comes,” and “She will take us to the portals when she comes.”
Our family just sang it for the fun of it and for the sound effects at the end of each line. For example, at the end of the first (title) verse, we’d all say, “Hi, Gal!” And after the six white horses verse, we’d shout, “Whoa, Bill!” After singing about how we’d all have chicken and dumplins, we’d say, “Yum, yum.” And my favorite was always the sort of sawing sound we’d make when we sang about killing the old red rooster. The most fun was at the end when we would try to make all the sounds, one after another, and in the right order.
In today’s reading from Deuteronomy 5:19 through Deuteronomy 6:3 (in the Complete Jewish Bible) and Deuteronomy 5:22-6:3 (in the Amplified Bible and other versions), we begin this section as Moses reminds Israel of God’s words to them from the midst of the mountain covered by fire. Now, they have all gone around the mountain, and they have much to remember, including the words God etched in stone with His own hand.
Moses tells the current generation how their forefathers sent tribal leaders to Moses requesting that only he go up and speak to God rather than them. The people bring up that most who had ever heard God’s voice no longer remained alive, and the elders tell him that people have decided they don’t want to take a chance of God speaking to them in their imperfections and it costing them their lives. When Moses arrives to communicate their message to God, He tells Moses He has heard it. He also tells Moses that it is a wise decision, and that He desires the people always have that kind of respect and reverence for Him, so things will go well for them and for their children forever.
God then tells Moses to have the people go back to their tents. Afterwards, Moses is to come back and stand near God while He tells him all his commands and laws for them to do when they possess the land of promise. Moses tells the people to be watchful to do exactly as The Lord commands and not to turn to the right hand or the left. He says that if they follow God’s ways, it will go well with them, and they will live long in the land.
At the chapter change, the writing changes to where it seems more in the present tense as Moses tells the people, “These are the laws and commands of God for you to obey in the land you are going to possess.” He tells them the laws are written that they will fear The Lord and obey all his rulings in every generation–parent, child, grandchild–as long as they live. Verse 3 from the Complete Jewish Bible reads with authority but also as a blessing…
Therefore listen, Israel, and take care to obey, so that things will go well with you, and so that you will increase greatly, as Adonai, the God of your ancestors, promised you by giving you a land flowing with milk and honey.
Much like the way I reworded The Ten Commandments in yesterday’s post, this gives the “why” in fulfilling the laws of God. As God shows in His comments to Moses about desiring the people to always have respect and reverence, He wants things to go well for us forever. He is creating both a new Heaven and a new Earth because He wants an abundance of people to join Him for eternity. His arm is not too short that He cannot reach to the depths of sin to pull a person toward Him. No matter how far away someone has gone, remember that God wants them for His own. He wants to reward those who come to Him, and leave their temporary sin, with blessings that will last an eternity. He desires to see many waiting there with joy and praise when He comes around the mountain of return to bring His people home.
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10 Ways to Live a Happier Life
Ten Commandments by Flickr User Gerry Dincher, CC License = Attribution, Share Alike
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TEN WAYS TO LIVE A HAPPIER LIFE…
- Don’t prioritize anyone (or anything) that doesn’t love you with the greatest love ever offered. In other words, put God first because if you gave your all to someone, that’s what you would want too.
- Remember that statues cannot see, hear, or answer prayers, so it’s useless to worship them. Besides, if you were the one who sees and hears, you wouldn’t want to be ignored for a statue.
- Don’t call out to God unless you want Him to answer because when you call, He wants to respond.
- Remember Who gives you rest and Who came up with the idea of rest on the last day of the earth’s creation.
- Give honor to the ones who didn’t abort you and who set you on the path of life. Be thankful God used them to create life for you, and honor Him by honoring them just as you like someone to respect gifts you give them.
- Don’t murder unless you like the idea of someone else murdering you.
- Don’t cheat on the one you promised your faithfulness, especially if you don’t like being cheated on yourself.
- Don’t take or harm something that does not belong to you. Respect the property of others as you want yours respected.
- Don’t lie about other people, and remember how bad it feels to have someone tell a lie about you.
- Don’t be jealous of the properties and gifts of others since you don’t want someone to make you feel bad about your own gifts and properties.
In today’s reading from Deuteronomy 5:1 through Deuteronomy 5:18 (in the Complete Jewish Bible), and through 5:21 (in the Amplified and other versions), Moses takes Israel back through God’s commandments and laws for them to live long and happy lives in their new land of promise. He reminds them of the covenant made with them in Mt. Horeb when God spoke to them face to face from the fire. Moses says he stood between them to receive the commandments so they could live, but the covenant was between God and His people. Moses begins with God’s words that say, “I am The Lord that brought you out of the bondage of Egypt” and then goes into a reading of the Ten Commandments given to them during the covenant.
We read these same commandments when we did our studies in the book of Exodus, so I won’t rewrite the actual Scriptures again, but I did write my own version of them with a bit of a twist; I wrote them with the “why” factor. I believe God’s laws make perfect sense, and we can reason among ourselves why it is good to follow them. If we cannot find any other good reason, we have the reason that all of God’s commandments are to treat others the same way we want to be treated.
Think about it this way: If any one of us were God, we wouldn’t want to give our everything to someone only to have that someone give their lives and thanks to someone who didn’t love them with the ultimate love. We also wouldn’t want them to say “thank you” to a brick wall when we are the ones actually answering their queries. And we wouldn’t want a person to keep calling our name only to ignore us when we answer.
The commandments God gives us will bring us to a happier life because they help us to think of others and not just of ourselves. The saying is true that a person all wrapped up in themselves makes a very small package. We will always be happier if we consider our effect on the world instead of always trying to judge how the world affects us. The two greatest commandments, to love God with all our heart, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourself, follow the same rule of not making ourselves number one but of putting others first. That’s why the other ten can hang on those two. Whether it’s stated in ten, or two, or just the golden rule, the secret to living a happier life is always to think of others first.
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Jesus, The Word
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2WRGl4DWGw
I find it difficult to go very long without finding one of the ApologetiX parodies that lines up with something in the reading portions. I’m so impressed with a band that can teach strong messages from the Scriptures and still make them fun to learn. In this video, they parody the theme song from the movie Grease and do a great job with the new lyrics. They teach about the blessing of having Yeshua (Jesus) in our lives in spite of what the secular theories try to teach about Christ being bondage to people. And they also talk about confession, faith, divine grace, and searching God’s word. The lyrics are on the YouTube page, and you can also find them here.
In today’s reading from Deuteronomy 4:41 through Deuteronomy 4:49 (the end of the chapter), we begin with Moses separating out three cities on the east side of the Jordan River that will be used as cities of refuge. He names Bezer in the desert for those from the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead for those from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan for those from the half-tribe of Manasseh. These cities will allow those who have killed accidentally and without hatred in their hearts to have a place to run for mercy and to live without fearing for their lives.
After Moses names the cities, the reading proclaims, “This is the Torah which Moses placed before the people of Israel–these are the instructions, laws, and rulings which Moses presented to the people…” Said in another way, “This is the Word of God.” It goes on to describe how God delivered the people out of Egypt, the victories they won, the kings they defeated, and the borders of the new land God is giving them to possess.
God gave Moses the word to give to Israel after they were delivered from their bondage in Egypt. I hadn’t really put that together before, but it wasn’t the words of God’s law that originally set the people free. God’s love for His people came before His commands to them. The laws and commands of God have their own delivering power, but their best power is what they can do to prevent us from going into (or back into) bondage.
What sets people free from bondage to sin now? First, it is the love of God for His people. Few unbelievers will get an understanding of that from just the written words, so God gives each of us a testimony to share with the circle He places us within. Our testimony of God’s love toward us works to draw people away from the darkness and emptiness that steals their joy of living. It draws them toward a place of repentance. That place of real, heartfelt repentance when they first meet Jesus the Word heart to heart is when their chains fall off and they find themselves set free to walk away and avoid the sins that have plagued them (go and sin no more).
Once people have stepped out of their initial “Egypt” of bondage, they need direction just as the community of Israel needed direction. The written word of God gives us the direction to continually walk a path that leads away from bondage. For the Scribes and Pharisees, Jesus the Word gave them a more excellent reason (His love) to follow the laws and commands that had become their own form of bondage. He wants us to study His written word to find wisdom to lead ourselves and to teach and lead others. And, He wants us to stay in communication with Him as our Living Word to help us walk in the joy of His holy presence. The lyrics at the end of the song above say it perfectly…
Research the Word, yes the Word that you heard
It’s God’s truth, it’s God’s teaching
(It’s the truth, I mean it)
This is the time, it’s the place, it’s the moment
Now Jesus is waiting receive Him
Jesus, the Word, yes the Word, yes the Word…
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A Love of Titanic Proportions
Nearer My God to Thee by Flickr User Tim Green aka atoach, CC License = Attribution
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There is a theory that the last song played on the RMS Titanic, was the song Nearer My God to Thee. We can see how fitting it seems for the members of a band that has chosen to calm fearful passengers instead of getting rescued themselves to wish to be nearer to God before each takes his final breath. And, of course, this wish is also a wonderful blessing on others whose lives are coming to an end. However, even before we face our final moments, we should desire to become nearer to our Creator, and that desire should be the strongest ache in our heart if we claim to love and serve Him. After all, we want to be like Him, and it is His desire to be nearer to us, so our response in kind would bring us nearer to Him.
In today’s reading from Deuteronomy 4:5 through Deuteronomy 4:40, we read of Moses’ encouragements to the community of Israel before they enter into The Promised Land. He tells them to observe and follow the laws he has taught them as he received them from God, so that all people will see them as having wisdom and understanding. He says that as others see Israel living under the laws of God, they will say things like, “This great nation is surely a wise and understanding people.” And then Moses quotes one of my favorite verses (verse 7, Complete Jewish Bible)…
For what great nation is there that has God as close to them as Adonai our God is, whenever we call on him?
Moses goes on to ask what other great nation has laws like the Torah he is giving them, and he reminds them to be watchful and not forget what they have seen with their own eyes. He says they should make the laws known to their children and grandchildren, so they will never vanish from their hearts. And then he reminds them of the day they stood at the foot of the mountain and heard the voice of God coming out of the fire as God proclaimed His covenant to them.
Moses reminds the people how when they heard the voice and saw the tables of stone, they did not see any image or shape of God at that time, so they should never try to make God into any kind of image later. He says for them to not make any representation of male or female human, animal, bird, fish, etc. For the same reason, he tells them not to look up at the sun, moon, and stars and see them as gods or as anything they should worship because God Almighty has allotted these things to all people on the earth.
Next, Moses reminds Israel that God pulled them out of the smelting pot that was their life in Egypt specifically to make them a special people for Him. He again tells them how he himself cannot go into the land because of them and to watch themselves, so they will not corrupt themselves and become separated from God in their hearts. Moses says he will call on the sky to be a witness for him that on the day this people forgets their God and carves and worships false gods to serve instead, The Lord will scatter them throughout the earth, and they will disappear from the land they are about to possess.
Moses then encourages the people that–on the day they have given themselves over to false gods that cannot see, hear, eat, or smell–if they will call out to The Lord in their distress, and if they will seek and search for Him with their whole heart, they will find Him and He will answer. He tells them that Yahveh is a merciful God who will not fail or destroy them, and He will not forget the covenant He has made with them or with their ancestors.
I love what Moses says to them in verses 32 and 33 (CJB)…
Indeed, inquire about the past, before you were born: since the day God created human beings on the earth, from one end of heaven to the other, has there ever been anything as wonderful as this? Has anyone heard anything like it? Did any other people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of a fire, as you have heard, and stay alive?
He goes on to ask them if God ever tried to take any other nation from the bowels of the earth and used His might to make a people especially for Himself. Moses reminds Israel that with signs and wonders and an outstretched arm, God did exactly that right before their eyes. He tells them these things were shown to them, so they would know that Yahveh is God, and there is no other like Him. He, as their God, wants them to know His instructions because He loved their ancestors, and because He wanted to bring these present people to their new land. He closes today’s words with a message for them to keep all of God’s laws so they can do well and live for a long time in the land God is giving them forever.
It’s a little hard for me to condense these words and still let you see how big they are. Click on the link above to read the portion for yourself, so you can see just how much power and love is in God’s laws for His people. Many of the commands and words are repeated, and I think it’s for emphasis both to them and to us today. God wants a people for Himself forever, and by keeping His commands, we keep ourselves separated from anything that would try to come between us.
As God’s children, we have a promise of God’s big love for us. His word tells us the following in Romans 8:39 (New Living Testament)…
No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God loves us with the greatest love that exists, as He proved when He laid down His own life for us on the cross at Calvary. It is a love of titanic proportions, and He desires that we give it back to Him by willingly seeking His wisdom in everything we do and say, in all our desires, and in every day we live. May all of us who love God be constantly praying to draw nearer to Him today and always.
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This Hurts Me More Than It Hurts You
Our Great Niece, Elie, in Tombstone (AZ) Jail by Crystal A Murray, All Rights Reserved
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Did your parents ever tell you that whatever punishment they were about to give was going to hurt them more than it hurt you? I know mine did, and I never believed them until I had to play the parent role. Whether the punishment was to sit in the corner, or something bigger like taking away a favorite toy or object, having to dish out any kind of pain to someone we care about causes us immense sadness even when we know it’s for the good of the one receiving it. Even with the above photo showing my great niece in a fake jail, seeing the sadness on her face is painful even knowing she was doing as she was told and making a sad face for the picture. There’s just something inside of us that does not like to cause pain to others–especially when those others are people we love.
In today’s reading from Deuteronomy 3:23 through Deuteronomy 4:4, we begin a new week and a new Torah portion. Our week’s Parashah is number 45 titled Va’etchanan in Hebrew and meaning “I Pleaded” in English. We begin with Moses pleading with God about His decision to keep Moses out of The Promised Land. Moses begins with praise, telling God how he is just now learning how truly great He is and how mighty his works are. He asks God to please let him cross the Jordan River and see the wonderful country and Lebanon.
Moses then tells the people how angry God is with him because of them, and he says God will not listen to his pleas. Instead, God tells Moses to be quiet about it and not talk to Him anymore on the subject. He tells Moses to go up to Mount Pisgah and when he gets there, he will need to make sure he can see north, south, east and west. God promises Moses he can look with his eyes, but he absolutely will not be allowed to cross the Jordan.
God tells Moses to encourage Joshua as the new leader of Israel because he will lead them into the new land. Moses explains this and goes on to remind them to listen to all the laws and rulings he is teaching them because the laws will enable Israel to live long and to take possession of the land promised to their ancestors. He tells them not to add anything to what he is saying, and not to subtract anything from what he has told them, and then he reminds them of what God did at Ba’al Peor and how God destroyed all who followed the false god, Ba’al Peor. But God spared all those who chose to follow only Him, and Moses reminded them how every single one of them who followed The Lord was still alive and ready to enter the promise.
Somehow, without the Scripture actually saying it, it seems I could hear the pain in God’s words to Moses about no longer bringing up his desire to cross over. Even though it says God was angry, it was more like, “Enough, Moses. This is hurting me more than it is hurting you. I want you to cross over, but I must keep my word because I am The Lord and I change not. Now get up to the mountain where you can see everything, and don’t bring this up to me anymore because it hurts me too much to discuss it.” And the fact that Moses joined Yeshua and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration would appear to line up with the fact that Moses did go to Heaven even if he didn’t get to go into The Promised Land.
I imagine that even now, in order to show us mercy and keep us from being lost in our sins, when God has to send us some kind of painful “wake-up call,” it still hurts Him to do it. Because no sin can enter the Heavenly realm, He must push us toward a place of repentance where we will let go of our sins and willingly cast them under the blood of Yeshua. It’s not about how big or little the sins are, and it’s not about how many good deeds we do in this life to try and make up for any evil we have done, it’s about turning away from the ways of the flesh that seem right to a man and totally surrendering to the will of God. When we do that, we become dead to self and all things become new, so we can enter Heaven washed and clean. Then, God will say, “Well done, my true and faithful servant. It was worth the pain and suffering I had to bring to be able to spend eternity with you dwelling in the fullness of my presence and joy.”
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Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory
Morning Glory by Flickr User Terry Dunn, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works
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Can I tell you how many times I have gone to church services or patriotic gatherings and watched hubby cringe and grimace when they play The Battle Hymn of the Republic? Well, that’s pretty much every time. Hubby has a southern heart, and he is amazed at how many people, both southern and Christian, do not realize the history behind the song. If you click on the title, you can read the Wikipedia page showing that the song was written to proclaim victory for the Union Armies over the Confederate Armies. The lyric writer, Julia Ward Howe, was a Union sympathizer, and she believed God was on their side and would have His wrath against the south, so even when we sing it as unto The Lord taking victory over the enemy of our souls, he hears the original meaning behind the lyrics. And he should be happy that I am spreading the word about the truth behind the lyrics. 🙂
In today’s reading from Deuteronomy 3:15 through Deuteronomy 3:22, we finish another week and another portion of Torah, and we have Moses bringing things up to their present time. Moses finishes describing which lands go to which tribes, and then he tells of the last order he passed along from God. He reminds Israel that they can leave the women and children and livestock, but they are to march into The Promised Land armed and ready to fight for what God is giving them. After they win, they will come back to reclaim their families and cattle, and they will settle into their various possessions.
The portion concludes with Moses reminding the people of the words of encouragement he spoke to Joshua. From verses 21 and 22, we read…
Your eyes have seen everything that Adonai your God has done to these two kings. Adonai will do the same to all the kingdoms you encounter when you cross over. Don’t be afraid of them, because Adonai your God will fight on your behalf.
God wanted Moses to remind the people, and to remind Joshua, not to forget what they have seen. If they can keep their minds on those victories of the past, then knowing God is going with them into their future should be enough to help them keep up the good fight of faith. If they keep up the good fight, they can be sure they will win because God is fighting right there on their side.
I think we all have days that sometimes extend into longer periods of time where we begin to wonder if God is really fighting on our side with us. We lose battles, and we see friends lose battles, and it makes us think that maybe loss is the will of God for us. But while God may allow us to lose some battles in this lifetime, He will not allow us to lose the most important war, the war for our souls and the souls of others. It is not His will that any person should be lost, so whatever path we walk, it should be one that moves us forward in the great battle for the gathering of human souls to their Maker and Creator.
Whether we have seen it in our own lives, or read it in God’s word, we have seen the glory of God’s salvation. The change that comes over a person when he commits his life to Yahveh is indescribably wonderful. I think about the crazy man at the tombs, and how he was filled with so many demons that he would rip off his clothes and cut his body with sharp stones. We find at his deliverance that he was filled with a legion of demons. And yet, when Yeshua walked toward him, a thousand demons might have held his tongue so it was impossible for him to ask for salvation, but they could not stop him from running to meet his Savior who gave him the victory he needed. When the disciples caught up with Jesus, they found the man clothed and in his right mind. How amazing is that?
We are told in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that God will continually change us from one degree of glory to the next. If we simply continue to walk with Him and never forget the glories we have already seen, we can keep the faith to keep up the good fight.
(By the way, if you like to read stories about God working in human lives and bringing victories both big and small, I’d like to recommend the books written by my friend and sister in Christ, Deborah Aubrey Peyron. Her books, The Miraculous Interventions(TM) Series, are collections of stories from her own life, and from the lives of others, showing where God intervenes in the human life and world. She thought God only intended for her to write them down to remind her of His presence, so she could keep up the good fight, but when people started asking her when her book was due, she got the message. She has just released her third book in the series, and she will continue to write in the series as long as God sends her people with stories to be told.)
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I Got Shoes
Strong Shoes by Flickr User Corrie ten Boom Museum, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works
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I recommend a visit to this Flickr page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrietenboom/ It is filled with inspirational quotes from Corrie ten Boom.
“I’ve got shoes, they’re made of plywood…” is the beginning of a misheard lyric line from You’re the One that I Want out of the movie Grease. It’s only one of many misheard lines from songs that you kind find in books and online searches. But not all songs about shoes are misheard. There’s an old Johnny Cash song that says “all God’s children got shoes,” and then it says, “Gonna put on my shoes and walk all over God’s Heaven.” It’s a catchy tune, and you’ve probably heard it once or twice. If not, you can listen to it at YouTube, and you might even recognize it.
In today’s reading from Deuteronomy 2:31 through Deuteronomy 3:14, we won’t read about shoes, but we will read about what happens when God tells you where to walk. Moses is talking about when God prepared Israel to overtake Sihon, King of Heshbon. He relates how the king and all his people came out against Israel, but because Israel was acting in obedience to overtake the land as God directed, they defeated him, his sons, and all his people. Moses tells them how they took every city and utterly destroyed every city and its inhabitants, and that no city was too strong or walled high enough because God handed it all over to them.
There were cities that God said to stay away from because He had plans for them, so Israel obeyed and did not attack those places. But then God told them to turn up the road to Bashan and go against Og, the king of Bashan. Again, the king and all his people came out against them, and again Israel defeated them because God gave them victory. Israel defeated all sixty of the king’s cities even though they were highly fortified with walls, gates, and bars. In addition, they took many unprotected cities.
At the end of the battles, Moses tells how he divided the possessions of the cities among the tribes. The territory from Aroer at the edge of the valley to half the hill country of Gilead Moses gave to the sons of Reuben and Gad. The rest of Gilead he gave to the half tribe of Manasseh. The kingdom of Og was called the “kingdom of giants” because when they found Og’s iron bed, it measured about thirteen and a half by six feet. Now that’s one huge guy, and you better know that God is with you before you go after someone like that.
Life is filled with giants and battles that God wants to give us victory over, but we must trust God to arm us, train us, and suit us up for battle before we can fight effectively. We can’t look at our own weaknesses because it will turn our focus away from God and toward our situation. It’s just like when Peter obeyed Jesus and walked on the water; he didn’t start to sink until he took his eyes off of Jesus and put them on the waves instead. The world is God’s to give, so if He says to do battle and overtake the enemy, it’s only because He has already planned our victory and the enemy’s defeat.
The song says, “I got shoes, you got shoes,” and we do. Ephesians 6:14-16 (in the Common English Bible) says it this way…
“So stand with the belt of truth around your waist, justice as your breastplate, and put shoes on your feet so that you are ready to spread the good news of peace. Above all, carry the shield of faith so that you can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one.”
We have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and we can walk through (and out of) any valley of defeat on this earth and keep walking until we’re stepping on Heaven’s streets of gold.
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The Right to Arm Bears
Right to Arm Bears by Flickr User David Abse aka Gary Socrates, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works
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The full title of this image is “Purple Cat is Opposed to the Right to Arm Bears.” I certainly can see his point. I know most hunters would not like the idea of armed bears, or any armed wildlife either. Imagine the days when the only way you could eat meat was to go hunt and kill it yourself. You would not have wanted it to shoot back at you. But if you were to ask the bears and other game, they would all be against hunters being armed simply because most anything that lives will fight to continue doing so. Regardless of who brings the fight and who must defend themselves, we were made to want to live.
The right to protect ourselves from anyone who might harm us or our possessions is not a bad thing, but criminals who don’t want to risk their own lives while committing their crimes, and governments who don’t want to risk people stopping them from stepping over the line, are all in favor of taking away our rights to bear arms. But it takes a strong and armed generation of people (who are willing to fight) to keep the balance. As nice as it would be to think that disarming everyone would automatically generate peace, unless you could be sure that all people would keep Godly morals and follow The Golden Rule, that idea must be reserved for the new Heaven and the new Earth.
In today’s reading from Deuteronomy 2:2 through Deuteronomy 2:30, we will read about those who had the right to bear arms but didn’t do the right thing with it. Following all we’ve been studying so far in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses is still telling the current generation of the children of Israel what events led them to where they are today. In this story I’ve noticed something new, and that is the detail that those who were forced to wander for 40 years to prevent their entrance into The Promised Land are now shown as soldiers only. Verse 14 states that it took 38 years from the time they left Kadesh-Barnea because they had to wait until every man capable of bearing arms was eliminated from the camp.
Now, just because they were trained to fight, they were not supposed to fight in every circumstance. As we read through today’s portion, we see cities where God told them to go through without fighting. When they got near Esau’s land, they were told to treat them well and to pay for all food and water they used while passing through. God reminded them that they did not need to fight because He is their provider and has given them everything they need.
When Israel crossed through the desert of Moab, God also told them not to fight there because He would not give them any of that land. Instead, He had given that territory to the descendants of Lot. The reading also mentions the fact that giants used to live in that land as well, and that makes me wonder if the men were ready to fight them there, but it was almost 40 years beyond when God intended for them to be giant killers.
As Moses continues the story, he talks of all the cities filled with giants (and men that may have been part angel in some theories) and how God went before the armies and displaced the inhabitants so those He chose could take possession. The children of Lot and the children of Esau apparently obeyed and followed God, so they were now living in their own lands of promise. But when God was ready for the sons of Jacob to have their part, and the old soldiers had been completely replaced, He told them to stop going in circles and prepare to take the land He prepared for them.
From what I read in that last part, it appears that Moab was not going to be part of it until Sichon, King of Heshbon, refused to even let the children of Israel pass through his territory. Because this evil king would not even sell food and water to his visitors, God hardened his spirit and made him an enemy that Israel would fight and defeat.
I’ve said before how uncomfortable all the war talk makes me, but at the same time, I know it’s necessary because all men do not live according to God’s righteous ways. Even in simple ways of doing business, there are times I wish God would force people to do the right thing, so I would never have the anxiety that comes from getting ripped off. If God forced people to do things His way, then we could know without any doubt that what people do for us would be done with honesty and fairness. Unfortunately, that won’t happen in this lifetime, but that’s not a reason to give up freedom and push to control all things in this life either.
I can’t guarantee that every tongue will say things I want to hear, but I would never advocate for cutting out the tongues of everyone who says something I find displeasing. I won’t take away pencils because of journalists who use their God-given gifts of writing to tell lies. And there are gun-owners that hurt people, so they should not have guns, but those who want the right to protect themselves from those abusers should not have to pay the same price as the abusers. Let us fight the good fight as God leads us, and trust the rest to the future His promises hold for us.
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No Fear (of Failure)
Bear Just Out of Hibernation; Cade’s Cove Loop, TN. By Crystal A Murray, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike
There was a lady getting really close to the fence to take pictures instead of standing back and using her zoom lens. When the bear lunged toward the fence, she backed up real quick, and I was glad I was a good distance back already.
Click the picture to open another tab/window to other cute bear images on my Flickr photostream.
When the clothing campaign first came out, and I started seeing things all over the place with the words No Fear, I remember thinking what a foolish campaign it was because it left God out of the equation. When the writer in the 23rd Psalm says he will not fear, he includes “because you are with me” in reference to The Lord his Shepherd. With God, we do not have to fear, but without Him, we have no guarantee of the kind of peace that drives away our fears.
In today’s reading from Deuteronomy 1:39 through Deuteronomy 2:1, Moses speaks to the “little ones” that God promised would cross into The Promised Land after their parents sinned against God. He tells the children what happened when God stopped them in their paths and sent them back out into the desert.
After the spies came back, and the people stirred God’s anger with their fears and complaints about giants in the land, they thought they could just change their plans and get God to change His mind. They said, “Now we will go up and do everything The Lord told us to do,” and it says they considered it an easy matter since they were following commands God had given. But Moses told them not to go and fight because God would not be with them and their enemies would defeat them.
Did they listen to God? No. Did they listen to Moses? No, not to him either. Moses says in the reading that the people took matters into their own hands and went up into the hill country without God’s blessing and presence. When they did, the Amorites came out of the hills and came against them like a swarm of bees. They defeated Israel in Seir and chased them all the way back to Hormah. After that, when they cried out to God, He neither listened to them or paid attention to them, and they were forced to stay in Kadesh longer than planned. Beyond Kadesh, they traveled the road to the Sea of Suf and stayed circling Mount Seir for a long time.
Listening to words of God without them being the current and anointed spoken word for our hearts and our time is like taking verses out of context. If we take just part of three verses (Matt 27:5, Luke 10:37, and John 13:27), we can get the instruction: Judas went and hanged himself. Go and do thou likewise, and what thou doest, do quickly. That twisting of Scriptures out of context is used often by those who are trying to manipulate people who respond to every “the Bible says” statement without searching the Scriptures and trying the spirits. More than likely, there were leaders who did this to the children of Israel, and they were outside of the will of God. God did tell Israel to get ready for battle, and He guaranteed them victory because He would be with them. But, when they chose not to go with Him, and then chose to obey later when He said not to go, they were in double rebellion against Him.
God’s word tells us not to fear in some form or other about 365 times. It’s good that we can have Yahveh to lean on and trust every day of the year, but that doesn’t mean that we have Him on our own terms. Even the No Fear company faced bankruptcy in 2011, so nothing is guaranteed even when a company is big and profitable and expands into the soft drink industry.
God has given us His entire word, and He gives us His Holy Spirit to guide our interpretations, so we can know His encouragement to not fear in the proper context. No fear, especially of failure, is good when we are walking in humble obedience to God’s direction for our lives. In obedience to Him we find His presence, and in His presence, we find the strength to do all things through Him.
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Stops Along the Way
Clouds & Trees at Sunset in Louisville KY, April 2008 By Crystal A Murray, CC License Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike
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A long journey without stops along the way is just not as fun as one with brief retreats and planned detours. When my husband and I used to travel with the boys, we tried to make the journey as much fun as the destination. We stopped to see the world’s largest prairie dog and a five-legged cow, we visited the Precious Moments museum, and we rode a miniature train in Tiny Town. If a rest area had trails or play areas, we tried to spend some time enjoying nature or riding on swings. The stops along the way are what made our journeys fun, and the stops along the road of life are what keep our days filled with real living.
In today’s reading from Deuteronomy 1:22 through Deuteronomy 1:38, Moses is continuing his talk to the current generation of Israelites about the history of the generations before them. He speaks as if they are one in the same people since he wants to make sure they will not repeat the same mistakes as their recent ancestors. As he takes them on the journey of deliverance from Egypt, he walks them through the paths walked by their parents and the stops made along the way. He begins with the journey of the spies into The Promised Land.
I noticed as the reading started that Moses says it was the people who suggested they send spies out ahead of them, but when I first wrote on this topic, the reading stated it was God who sent the men out. This makes me a little unsure as to who had the original idea, but since both God and Moses agreed the idea was a good one, they all worked together to bring it to pass. Moses tells of the journey and how the spies returned with fruit from the land and the report that The Lord was sending them to a good land.
Unfortunately for that previous and sinful generation, the good report of the spies, and the evidence they carried to encourage the people, was not enough. The people focused on the report of giants in the land and accused God of hating them by bringing them from Egypt to a place where they would be killed by giants. Moses tells this new generation of the encouragements he shared with their ancestors, reminding them of all the places since Egypt where God had shown Himself as strong and as their Deliverer. He also reminds the people that God said He would go to the land of promise with them and would fight for them, but they chose fear instead.
From here, Moses communicates God’s anger against those who saw His abilities, agreed to stand as soldiers and fight for the land, and then gave up because they only wanted the destination without the journey. Moses tells them that the entire evil generation is banished from entering into the land except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He goes on to say that it is because of them (and I’m not sure if he’s still talking of the previous group or is now focused on the current people) that even he will not be able to enter in, so Joshua the son of Nun will lead them in his place.
Not every stop in our travels, or on life’s journey, will be the same. Some places we stop because we have to, like necessary bathroom breaks when we’re traveling. Some places we stop because we catch a glimpse of something we know we may never see again, so we stop and take it in, and maybe we capture the memory in pictures. Some stops are a combination of necessary and nice, like when we’re hungry and we choose to eat at that famous restaurant we’ve seen advertised on all the billboards.
In life, we will have necessary stops, joy stops, and those that are a combination of both. As we travel, if we learn from those who have traveled before us, we can spend more time looking for the stops that will bring joy to the journey, but we will still have some of those necessary stops just because that is part of our temporary life on this earth. When I took the picture above, I was having unresolved issues from neck surgery and looking at another more serious one, plus I was dealing with a lot of stress at work as I tried to transition out of my job for a chiropractor. I didn’t plan to stop on the back steps that April evening, but I walked out at that golden hour when everything seemed to glow in the fading sunlight. I had to grab my point and shoot and grab the picture before the moment disappeared.
Since then, I’ve had many more stops on my journey, some wanted and some not so much. I can look back at that sunset image (including the colorful manipulations I’ve done on it in pink, purple, and peach) and remind myself that God has both my sunrises and sunsets in His capable hands, and He will lead me on every step of this journey as long as I am willing to follow Him. Even in those times where I face difficulties, I do not face them alone. And no matter how many stops I have to make along the way, I can trust that He will walk with me, stop with me, and bring me to the right destination when my journey reaches its end.
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If God Had a Like Button
Facebook Like Button As Seen Around the World by Flickr User Patrick Nouhailler, CC License = Attribution, Share Alike
Click image to open a new tab/window to view the original image and to access the user’s full photo stream at Flickr.
I watched a movie some years ago where people paid a machine to give them compliments that would make the payer feel better. The machine would say things like, “Wow, you look really good today,” or “Go for it. You can do anything you set your mind on today.” I remember when I watched it how my heart broke for all the rejected people in the world that might need a machine to tell them they are special. And now we have something similar in our constant quest to have our posts and images liked or favorited, and to have our pages and blogs followed.
In today’s reading from Deuteronomy 1:12 through Deuteronomy 1:21, Moses is still offering his closing speech to the children of Israel and reminding them of all they have been through since leaving Egypt. In this passage, he is reminding them of the times when so many of them thronged him for answers to life’s queries that he determined it was too big a job for just one man. At their request, and at God’s request, Moses selects representatives and leaders from every tribe, clan, and family. And, at this point in their history, those leaders still take charge to hear cases between brothers and to judge fairly.
Moses goes on to remind the leaders not to be intimidated by any person who comes to them for judgment, and he tells them not to show favoritism of great or small men. No matter how a person presents themselves, Moses tells them to not be swayed because the actual decisions in their matters belong to God. He comforts their anxieties about making judgments by reminding them that anything too hard for them to figure out was okay to bring to him.
Moses continues by reminding them of their journey from Horeb through all the fearsome desert on their way to the hill country of the Amorites, and into Kadesh-Barnea. Then, Moses repeats what he said to them about arriving in the country The Lord is graciously giving them. In verse 21 he says, “Look! Adonai your God has placed the land before you. Go up, take possession, as Adonai, the God of your ancestors, has told you. Don’t be afraid, don’t be dismayed.”
In the New Testament, in Romans 8:31, we read, “What, then, are we to say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” In social-media-speak that might say, “What should we say then when not enough people like our pages? If God clicked ‘Like’ then who could dislike us?” Like the leadership over Israel, it’s not about how many people like or follow our righteous judgments and rulings, it’s about whether or not God thinks we have judged righteously about a situation. If we have His approval, then we should stand confident in our decisions regardless of what the rest of the world thinks.
Still, can you imagine if God had a like button? Of all the buttons on the above image, I don’t think there’s one that shows what it might say in Holy Spirit language. 🙂 But imagine one, or imagine millions, of people liking your page or your post. Then, suddenly you get that little notification symbol at the top of your page, or the e-mail about new activity on your blog, and it reads, “Jesus Christ liked your page.” If you like Hebrew, you might get the one that says, “Yeshua HaMashiach is now following your blog.” Whoo Hoo! Wouldn’t that just be the best?
Of course, there are some that would freak out and hide everything if they even thought The Lord was reading their pages and posts, let alone hanging around long enough to click “like.” Me, I think God does read all our posts and pages, and I hope there are more than a few where He would click “like” if He had a button. How about you?
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Learn Some Deuteronomy
We’ve now traveled all the way from Genesis 1:1 through Numbers 36:13. we’ve learned about God’s creation of all things, the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden, an earth gone wild, and an earth destroyed by water leaving only Noah and his family. From there, we’ve met Abraham as the father of righteousness, Isaac as Abraham’s son of promise, and Jacob who became Israel. And from these leaders and patriarchs, we have seen Israel become a people in bondage, Moses become their reluctant deliverer, the leadership of Egypt destroyed for their sin, Israel delivered from their bondage in Egypt, Israel forced to wander because of their unbelief, and God use Moses to lead multiple generations of Israel from victory to victory. Now we begin a new book in their lives; the book of Deuteronomy which means “a copy of the words” in Hebrew.
Before we get into the reading, here’s a cool video (with lyrics) from my favorite Christian parody band, ApologetiX, called Learn Some Deuteronomy, which is a parody of Pour Some Sugar on Me by Def Leppard…
Now, in today’s reading from Deuteronomy 1:1 through Deuteronomy 1:11, we begin a new week and a new portion of Torah. Today, we start Parashah 44, Hebrew D’varim meaning “words” in English. We begin with the words that Moses spoke to all Israel from the far side of the Jordan River, on the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year. The reading says that Moses took it upon himself to expound the Torah of everything God had told him to speak to them. In other words, he wanted to leave them with a summation of what he felt was important about their time together–the words from The Creator to His children.
Moses begins with reminding Israel that God was the One who spoke to them in Horeb and told them they had stayed long enough on that mountain and that it was time to move on. God told them to turn and take their journey up to the hill country of the Amorites and all their neighbors in the Arabah. God then directed them to the lowland, the south (the Negev), the coast, the land of the Canaanites, and then to Lebanon as far as “The Great River,” the Euphrates.
Moses continued to speak to the people who were now at the entrance to their promise, telling them that God said (in verse 8, Amplified Bible), “Behold, I have set the land before you; go in and take possession of the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.” He went on to bless them with the reminder that God had multiplied them, and that their numbers had grown, so they were now like the stars of Heaven for multitude. He added (verse 11 AMP), “May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you as He has promised you!”
I don’t know about you, but I can hear the love as Moses speaks to this people he’s been leading for so long. He is like a proud parent who has watched his children grow, bear children of their own, make mistakes, repent, mature, and finally get to that place where he could close his eyes and entrust them fully to the hands of God. All Moses wants for this nation now is for them to continue to grow and be blessed from now through eternity.
What Moses wants for these people, and the fact that Moses spoke face to face with God, tells us that Moses bore the heart of God toward these people. God also wanted nothing more than to bless them, make them grow, and bless them some more from then through eternity. That He made them blind for a time, so He could build another flock of the Gentiles, does not mean that God has changed His desires for His children. He still wants them blessed for eternity, and this is why the two flocks will become one when He grafts Israel back into their own root. He is using those of us not born into the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel to continue to multiply Israel. We have a bigger family than we can ever imagine.
And now, I will share one more ApologetiX video with you since it is another one about Deuteronomy. This one is called Ronomy, and it is a parody of Del Shannon’s Runaway. It doesn’t have lyrics, and they’re short, so I’ll start with those…
As they walked along they numbered two million strong
With all of their wives and all their young
And as Israel walked out of Egypt some things went wrong in the desert
That’s why they took so long
In the book where it began, Israel found itself in Egypt’s land
Bid adieu in Exodus, straight through Leviticus and Numbers
They wa-wa-wa-wa-wandered
While, while, while, while, while they went astray
And they wound up their desert stay in Deuteronomy
A-ron-ron-ron-ron-ronomy
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All In The Family
It used to be that naming shows from a specific era was a clear give-away to someone’s age. But now, with the advent of cable and satellite, and stations dedicated to classic television from days gone by, lots of people have the pleasure of enjoying television and movie entertainment from the past. Of course, the older I get, the more I change what I consider to be entertainment, but I do enjoy the stuff from the era when joking about a miniskirt was considered risqué instead of the out and out sexuality that’s pushed out of Hollywood now.
In today’s reading from Numbers 36:1 through Numbers 36:13 (the entire chapter), we complete another weekly portion, and we finish the book of Numbers. And Moses is finishing up his ministry as the leader of Israel by taking care of a few loose ends. In this case, a clan member from the tribe of Joseph has just realized that an earlier ruling requested by the five daughters of Zelophehad could turn out to create an imbalance in the inheritance of the tribes. The ruling was simply that if a man had no sons, his daughters would receive the inheritance from their father as if they were sons.
The problem, as pointed out by the clansman, is that if these girls marry into another tribe, they would take their inheritance with them, taking away part of what rightfully belonged to one tribe and giving it to another. In addition, they would then have a new inheritance with their husband’s family. At the year of Jubilee, when all properties return to their original owners, the tribes these daughters married into would have more than their fair share, and the tribe from which they came would be short some of its inheritance.
Moses decreed a new law that stated these daughters, and any daughters in the same position, would be required to marry within their own tribe to prevent any imbalance in the portions of inheritance. The tribes and the daughters seemed receptive to the law, and in obedience, the girls married from the sons of the brothers of their father. (In other words, they married their cousins.) In doing this, they fulfilled the command that no inheritance would be shared tribe to tribe, and each person would cling to the inheritance that belonged to the tribe of his or her ancestors.
I know there are lots of jokes about intrafamily marriage relationships and inbreeding, but I’m certain God wouldn’t have told them to do something like that if it was actually considered incest and would cause problems like birth defects. I’m happier that we consider that off-limits now, at least in the U.S., but for the purposes of keeping the purity in the tribes, it made sense for their situation. At the same time, I have a feeling that those tribal lines did eventually get blurred, and they may have led to some pretty heated conflicts in the future of Israel. Maybe they still do.
Now, I wonder how God sees the tribes and His family as it is scattered all over the world. Wouldn’t it be funny to find out that by way of ancestral bloodline, your next-door neighbor is actually related to you? Or, what if you found out that you and your cousin had ancestry from Israel but from different tribes? Thankfully, God does have it all sorted out, and He knows who is who right down to the DNA in each strand of hair. And we can be even more thankful that no matter how many families are on the face of the earth now, God has a plan to turn the multiple flocks into one flock under One Shepherd, and we will spend eternity worshiping the One Father we all share equally. Those will be the days.
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Accidentally On Purpose
Accidental Sunset by Flickr User Garry Wilmore, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike
Click image to open a new tab/window to view the original image and to access the user’s full photo stream at Flickr.
Accidents aren’t always bad things. In the image above, the photographer was trying to set up for a sunset he planned to capture in a few moments when he accidentally hit the shutter and snapped the picture. Once he looked at it and realized how good it was (except for the lens flare in the middle), he shared the unedited masterpiece on purpose. When I finally gave my heart to The Lord, it was sort of an accident that I’m glad to say has become a purposeful walk in His presence for 31 years as of today. I was bribed to visit the church, and I only knelt down because that’s what everyone else was doing, so I accidentally got myself into a position to be prayed for by a group of women who gathered around me because they thought I was repenting. That accident quieted me enough to hear the voice of God, so He could speak to my heart.
In today’s reading from Numbers 35:9 through Numbers 35:34 (the end of the chapter), we read about accidental events that lead people to cities of refuge. I spoke of the cities yesterday but only of their existence, not their purpose. Today, God speaks to Moses to detail what people are able to live within the borders of those cities. Because in God’s law the next of kin can rightfully kill a person who has killed his or her relative, a location of safety needed to be set up for those who killed someone accidentally.
This portion of the reading gives examples of accidental killings such as shoving someone without being angry or throwing something that accidentally hits the person, and the end result is death. It also lists purposeful things that cannot be claimed as accidents, such as hitting someone with a piece of iron or a large rock. Even a person who strikes another with his own hand, if the hit is in anger and it results in death, the person is considered a murderer and eligible to be put to death.
If it is determined that a person killed someone accidentally, the killer is permitted to live in a city of refuge either until a trial or until the death of the high priest. If the killer comes out of the city before either of these events, he takes his own life in his hands because he makes himself subject to the next of kin avenger. If it cannot be determined that the death was purposeful, it will be considered an accident because in order to accuse someone of murder, there must be two or more witnesses. The testimony of one witness is not sufficient enough to put someone to death.
As the reading closes, God also warns people that if a person has actually committed a murder, no one is to take a bribe from them to say it was an accident and allow them to live in a city of refuge. The killer must be put to death. Also, no one must receive a bribe to allow a person to leave the city of refuge before the death of the priest. These things that would allow a killer to go free in any way cannot be permitted because blood defiles the land. A price must be paid for it, and it cannot be allowed to defile the land because the presence of Yahveh lives in the land with His people, Israel.
The statements about an avenging next of kin being required to balance the scales by killing the murderer tells me that God absolutely requires balance in all things. The chaos in our present society is due to the lack of that balance. We have killers and liars that get away with their crimes. We have people who represent justice who will change their rulings for the right amount of money. And, we have a whole lot of people with the mindset that if the excuse is good enough, or the procedure of apprehension and conviction doesn’t dot every “i” and cross every “t,” the person who committed the crime should go free. Yikes! Fortunately, when the law operates as it should, witness testimony is still considered the strongest proof just as it is here.
Let me mention here that while we have an “accuser of the brethren” that seeks to testify against children of God and try to get them condemned to Hell, we also have God’s justice system that requires two witnesses. I believe the other witness would have to be the accused. In other words, just because the adversary wishes for you to perish, if you stand against the accusations and curses, you stand strong in Christ. No one will be lost just because the enemy desires his soul. A person will have to give up his soul by refusing to repent and place his sins under the blood of Yeshua. At the judgment seat, those two witnesses (satan and the accused) will testify, so no one will be able to claim it’s an accident if his name is not in The Lamb’s Book of Life.
Today is the day of salvation. If you have never truly repented for the sin you were born into in this flesh, walk now into the city of refuge that was built for you on the foundation of God’s mercy. It is not His will for any to perish, so He provides a way for you to escape the death sentence that is the penalty for sin. It was no accident that Christ went to the cross for “whosoever will,” and it is no accident if you are reading this post and have not yet committed your life to God. Let all the accidents of your life–loss, pain, suffering, depression, unfairness, or whatever has plagued you in this life–be a catalyst for purpose, and may you turn today and walk forever in the mercy and grace of Yeshua HaMashiach. Amen.
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A Real Place of Refuge
City of Refuge by Flickr User Topher., CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works
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Each of us may define a place to find refuge differently depending on what we are trying to escape. We may use a trip home or a vacation as a refuge from work. Refuge from pain might be in a certain medication or in healing. And, refuge from a storm could be anything from an umbrella to a storm cellar depending on the severity of the storm. The definition of refuge is “The condition of being safe or sheltered from pursuit, danger or trouble.” For Christians, our main refuge is from death as a penalty of sin, and we find it in the blood of our Messiah, Yeshua.
In today’s reading from Numbers 35:1 through Numbers 35:8, The Lord talks to Moses again about the way the community of Israel should live in their new land. God says for Moses to order Israel to give the Levites cities to live in as well as open land. The land is for livestock and crops while the cities are for the Levites and their families to live in. God gives very specific dimensions and space for the cities and their surrounding land, and the dimensions sound very much like those of the New Jerusalem in Bible prophecy.
God says Israel must give the Levites a total of 48 cites, 6 of which are designed as “cities of refuge” as a place to flee for someone who has killed another human being. The other 42 cities are just for them. The division of these cities will come from the inherited land of the various tribes of Israel with those who have a bigger inheritance giving the larger spaces of land to the Levites.
These lands and cities are a form of tithe from the people of Israel because the Levites do not have their own inheritance as do the other tribes. God has set them aside to do His work and create a government over the people that will serve to protect them if everyone adheres to God’s plan. The tribes with the bigger inheritances give more, but if we could measure it out, I’m certain they would still give the same percentage because God is no respecter of persons. He knows what we need, and He knows what we are able to share.
And don’t you find it wonderful that in providing for the protection over His people by way of law and those who will govern by that law, God also provides mercy? He is absolutely sovereign, and He is loving and giving in all He plans. He covers every possibility in life, including that humans will fail and need refuge from that. He makes the law like He makes necessary rain storms to grow plants from the earth that produce food and oxygen, and then He adds His mercy like we add storm shelters to our homes. We need the storms, and we need shelter from the storms. We need God’s law, and we need Him to pour out new mercies for us every day because we will likely break His laws many times each day.
What are some things that you consider pursuits, dangers and troubles in your life? When you need refuge from these things, what are the places or behaviors that give you refuge–even temporarily? Do you find your refuge in a bowl of ice cream or some retail therapy, or have you learned to go running to the mercy seat at the throne of God to find your peace?
A city of refuge represents more than just a rest stop. It is walled and fortified to protect you from danger, and it gives you a place to live daily in freedom. Church attendance and good works are not a city, though they can offer temporary shelter. But, salvation and living a life of obedience and worship to God is a city; a place of permanent dwelling. It is God’s will that all would find His cities of refuge and live there for the rest of their earthly lives that He may dwell with them for eternity. Let us go beyond the rest stop of seeking a brownie button for attending Sunday School or doing some good deed, and let us instead move in with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strengths to places where we dwell within God’s presence. There we will find a real place of refuge.
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Vinnie, Vidal, and Vickie
Veni Vidi Vici by Flickr User Boldly Wanderlust, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike
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Vinnie the travel-planner did a good job at getting from point A to point B, but he often left before he took time to really see anything. He went away almost as fast as he came to any destination. He was the kind of person for whom they write things like stop and smell the roses.
Vidal the photographer, however, was quite the opposite. He stopped, saw, looked at, admired, and smelled…and smelled…and smelled the roses. He liked to linger over things of beauty, and he was never ready when Vinnie set off to yet another new location. So, Vidal got Vinnie to stop just a little longer, and Vinnie kept Vidal moving at an energetic pace.
Vinnie and Vidal needed each other, but they also needed Vickie the tour guide because she was the one who made sure they took care of whatever business they originally set out to accomplish. Vickie helped both of her traveling companions conquer their “to do” lists. Together, the three of them came, saw, and conquered a magazine full of journalistic endeavors.
The End.
I had to come up with a quick fiction story to head us off because today’s reading from Numbers 34:16 through Numbers 34:29 only gives us a couple of sentences of action and then a list of the names of tribal leaders that Moses put in charge of taking possession of the land and of dividing the inheritance among the people. Eleazar the high priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, were the primary leaders. After that, each tribe had a specific leader appointed to go, see, and conquer the land of Canaan for Israel.
So, there’s not some deep spiritual lesson in a list of leaders, but in the fact that we need leaders, and we need each other, for any important task is always a good lesson to remember. Even the Latin victory chant would sound incomplete if we only said, “Vici!” (We conquered!) Most of us are so accustomed to the claim of Veni, Vidi, Vici (we came, we saw, we conquered) that we know what it means even if we don’t really knowing what it means. The image above comes from a restaurant by that name, so they gambled on most guests knowing enough to trust it would be a winning cuisine.
Many of the images I found while searching for that phrase were of people standing in some type of dominant or winning position. They stood on mountain tops and in front of tall buildings to show their successes in travel or physical endurance. Because we’re reading the Bible from this point in history, we know Israel will be successful, so we may not even think of the internal battles they had to overcome to get to their victory. But God was there with them then, and He is here with us now, so that we can boldly say, “The Lord is my Helper,” and when we reach our points of success with Him by our side, we too can shout, “Veni, Vidi, Vici.”
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Immigration and Border Security
Horse Patrol on Texas border by Flickr User U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP Photography), CC License = Attribution, Share Alike
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As a little girl of maybe two or three, I would reach for a forbidden item, draw back my hand, slap it with my other hand, and firmly tell myself, “No.” From the stories I’ve been told, this bit of cuteness was a result of early childhood training from my Aunt Shirley. When I was born, she told people she would not “child proof” her home because she felt it was more important to train me how to behave in her home than to change her home to adapt to my behavior. It worked then, and it works now. I’m a firm believer in treating the homes and property of others with the utmost respect, and I think it’s important to teach everyone to care for those things that do not belong to them as if they’re made of fine china.
So this whole thing of illegal immigration has me confused as to why people would think it’s okay to come into our home and treat it with disrespect. We have laws for a reason. We have immigration and border laws for protection of not only the current occupants, but of any who would legally and respectfully become legal occupants. But with so many in this country not setting an example of respect and value, I suppose it’s pretty difficult to expect a stranger to show respect either.
In today’s reading from Numbers 33:50 through Numbers 34:15, we read about God’s preparation for the immigration of the community of Israel into the land of Canaan. The first thing to remember is that we live on this earth that God owns and has caused to reproduce for us, and too often we forget Him as we indulge in its benefits. The Canaanites lived as if there was no God, and instead they worshiped false gods and idols. Because of their disrespect, God had no problem taking what was rightfully His and willing it to His children. He said in other passages that even the earth itself would vomit out that type of disrespect.
As Israel prepares to take over the land, God has a set of plans to help them live there securely. God tells Moses to tell the people, the first requirement is to expel all the people currently living there. Next, Israel must destroy all the stone figures, metal statues, and high places built for false gods. God warns them that if they don’t drive out all the inhabitants, whoever is left will become like thorns in their eyes and stings in their sides as they harass them in the land where they are living. Beyond this, God says He will do to Israel what He has sworn to do to the Canaanites. There is no choice. The land must be cleansed.
The rest of the reading gives exact details about the borders of the land that is to belong to them and how they will divide it up. I don’t know biblical or current geography well enough to know what that means they should own now, but I’m certain they don’t have all that God willed to them. But there is something I noticed in the description. I read how one border runs along Egypt and another along the Jordan River, and I thought how like the Christian life that is. Egypt represents sin and slavery. Since we live in the flesh, we have a border along sin and the fleshly desires that kept us in bondage before Christ set us free. The Jordan often represents death, and that is also a border as we walk through this life never knowing exactly when we will be required to cross over. It’s up to us to protect our borders to keep sin out and to avoid crossing into death before our time.
We must remember that this world is not our home. It is a temporary dwelling place provided to us by Our Creator, and we need to respect this life even though it’s not permanent. While we’re here though, God’s word says to occupy it with life until He returns, so we need to protect our borders from the illegal immigration of evil spirits that would try to put us back in bondage. We have border fencing because God says His walls are called salvation. And, since His gates are called praise, we simply need to keep the fencing secure by remembering and uplifting God for all He does for us. Because He dwells within the praises of His people, we will have perfect border security.
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I Feel Like Traveling On
When I worked in the travel store of a popular truck stop off of I-40 in Arizona, the atmosphere in the mornings always reminded me of the joys of going places with my grandparents. Sure, getting up at 4am, so we could be on the road before sunup and out of town before rush hour, was not always fun, but seeing new people and places was worth it. And the truck stops were worth it too. Being a kid, I didn’t have to drive, so I got to sleep an extra two hours and wake up as we pulled into the big travel center at Buttonwillow, California, and that’s when the fun really started. I think I discovered grape “Bubble Yum” and “Pop Rocks” both in travel stores before they were in all the convenience stores near home.
In today’s reading from Numbers 33:11 through Numbers 33:49, we read more about the travels of Israel as they left Egypt. I wonder if they got excited each time God told them to move on. If the adults didn’t, surely the kids got excited to see something new on the road ahead. Maybe they even found rocks that popped (up under the wheel of a wagon) as they pulled into some temporary campsite. 🙂
You can read all the verses by clicking on the link, and there you can see each little stop and destination. I’ll give you some of the bigger jumps like their move from The Sea of Suf to the Seen Desert to the Sinai Desert to Mount Shefer. They moved on through a bunch more towns and cities until they were once again in the desert; this time the Tzin Desert. When they stopped at Mount Hor, Aaron took his last breath, and Eleazar became the high priest in his place. Eventually, they moved on and into the plains of Moab and across the Jordan River from Jericho, which is where they are currently. This is their last stop before going in to fight for the land promised them in the land of Canaan.
Knowing the way God works in details, there is likely a type and shadow for every city and every stop made by Israel, and those types and shadows likely line up with places in life now walked by the flock gathered to God from the Gentiles. I can see so many parallels in our journey from bondage to our eternal promise. Dry places, valleys, mountain tops, new lives, deaths of mentors and leaders, etc. And we have stubborn people who make our journey more difficult like the kings who refused to let the community of Israel walk on The King’s Highway and made them walk around the long way, and Red Sea moments that seem impossible to get through until we’re on the other side. But God is faithful to bring us through it all, just like He was faithful in every step of Israel’s deliverance journey.
Neither of our journeys is ended yet. Israel still seeks her Messiah, and her faithful will know who He is when the time has come and God makes the two flocks into one. We still seek the second coming of our Messiah, and we long for the promise to see Him like He is and to be like Him. All of us long to be delivered from bondage and trouble on this earth, and we all want to see our enemies come face to face with our God and Father who has vowed to protect and deliver us. But until we get to that place, all we can do is keep traveling on, one step at a time, and one truck stop at a time, until we get where God wants us in this life and then in eternity.
Just for fun, here are a few more songs of encouragement for your road trip of life…
- Jesus, Hold My Hand (As I travel through this weary land, there is a Friend who walks with me.)
- Life’s Railway to Heaven (Life is like a mountain railway.)
- I’m Just a Poor Wayfaring Stranger (a traveling through this world of woe.)
- This Race I Have Begun (I started out and I’m gonna finish this race I have begun.)
- Just a Closer Walk with Thee (Who with me my journey shares?)
- I’ve Never Been this Homesick Before (This world has been a wilderness, and I’m ready for deliverance.)
- This Highway Leads to Glory (But it’s no easy ride.)
- Over the Next Hill We’ll Be Home (It’s a straight and narrow highway with no detours and no byways.)
Now add your favorite songs in the comments. In the meantime, many blessings on your journey as you travel on toward your promise.
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Moses the History Major
History by Flickr User Sean MacEntee, CC License = Attribution
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History was never my strong subject in school, and I don’t know why because I like it so much now. Maybe it takes getting older and more mature to realize the value of the past. I woke up the other day thinking about an event when I was twelve years old that could have drastically changed my life. In some ways, it would have been better if the rich couple from the foster home adopted me, but I wouldn’t be where I am today. Maybe I would be a writer, but it would probably be in some secular field from a college-educated philosophy instead of from the depths of emotional traumas that have molded me into a survivor that knows only God could bring me through this life with the mercy and grace I’ve seen. It has been hard, but as the line in the song says, “I wouldn’t take nothin’ for my journey now, gotta make it to Heaven somehow.”
In today’s reading from Numbers 33:1 through Numbers 33:10, we start a new week and a new portion with Parashah 43. The Hebrew title for this section is Masa’ei, and in English it means “stages.” Verse 1 (in the Complete Jewish Bible) says, “These are the stages in the journey of the people of Isra’el as they left the land of Egypt divided into groups under the leadership of Moshe and Aharon.” And verse 2 tells us that Moses (Moshe in Hebrew) recorded each stage of the journey by order of The Lord. And the rest of the reading for the next two days will simply overview the travels of the children of Israel from Egypt to the Jordan River.
For the rest of the reading, and for the next day, the text will simply reiterate where the children of Israel traveled through on their journey to The Promised Land. They began the morning after the first Passover and traveled from Rameses to Succoth. They left their camping spot there and moved to Etham at the edge of the desert. Then they camped in Pi-Hahiroth just before Migdol. Then they passed through the Red Sea and camped at Etham, so I’m guessing it’s another part of the same desert. That part was near Marah where God turned the bitter water into sweet water. From Marah they moved on to Elim where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees. When they left there, they camped back by the Red Sea.
As the above image says, history is recorded by the winners, and Moses was most certainly a winner. You don’t see much history recorded from the perspective of the Egyptians that lost everything because they continued to worship false gods even if the face of power and proof of God Almighty and His creation.
Those who serve God are winners no matter what life on this earth looks like. We have the promise of a prize that is so big, it will take God an eternity to give it to us. 🙂 The prizes God gives do not only go to the first, the fastest, the longest living, the most sacrificial, etc., but to everyone who crosses the finish line. Even Moses, who could not pass into the land of Canaan with the other children of Israel because of his disobedience against God will join us for the big prize. Actually, since he showed up with Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration, he’s likely already enjoying his big prize.
We can thank Moses for recording and capturing those journeys and memories for us to have. We can learn from them–both what to do and what not to do. We can see the endings with clarity, so we know the directions we want to walk if we don’t want to repeat the same mistakes and end up in the same places. The historian may not be recognized or appreciated until later, but of all the things Moses is, I’m certainly glad he chose to be obedient to God and become a history major.
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Your Sin Will Find You Out
Everybody knows it will find you by Flickr User Jason Kuffer, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works
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A man decided to take a day off from work on September 11th, 2001, and meet his secret lover at a local hotel across town. In the meantime, a wife sees a news broadcast and hears the sirens, and she immediately fears for her husband’s safety. So, the fearful wife calls her husband who could be dead or in grave danger, but her husband answers the phone like nothing is wrong because he is not at work. When she asks if he is okay and starts asking about others he works with, the man chats about his coworkers like there are no problems because, in his morning tryst, he has missed the goings on in downtown Manhattan. He speaks about the office as if he is there, and that’s when the wife figures out that he’s not telling the truth.
Did the guy freak out once the wife told him what was going on? Did the wife divorce him once she figured out he was a lying cheater? I don’t know. Maybe the guy realized where he could’ve been if he wasn’t cheating and decided that God was giving him a second chance to do the right thing. Either way, when he left for his rendezvous, he would never have thought his sin would find him out in such a big and costly way. When people get caught in the moment a truth is revealed, they rarely react as if they expected it to happen. Whether it’s a bottle in the floor of the car at the scene of an accident, or lipstick on the collar, most cases of sin do eventually get discovered, and they are often discovered in embarrassing and public ways.
In today’s reading from Numbers 32:20 through Numbers 32:42 (the end of the chapter), we conclude another week and another Torah portion. This follows yesterday’s promise by the tribes of Gad and Reuben to fight for all of Israel while choosing to claim an inheritance of land outside The Promised Land where their brothers would be in Canaan. Moses comes back to them with an answer that if they will indeed fight for Israel as they have promised, God will authorize them to live in the land on the east side of the Jordan River, in Gilead, instead of Canaan with their brothers.
The authorization comes with a strong dose of warning, though. Moses tells the men that while God will allow what they have proposed, if they do not keep their word, God is watching and their sins will find them out. After the warning, Moses tells them to go ahead and build cities for their families and stables for their sheep, but then to go and do what they have said they would do.
The descendants of Gad and Reuben promise that every man who can fight will be armed and ready for war and will go over with Israel to battle as Moses has directed, so Moses takes the same word to Eleazar the high priest. Moses tells him that if the men go over to fight, they are to possess the land they desire, but if they refuse to fight, they are to take an inheritance in Canaan. And then Moses gave the land to the tribes requesting it plus to the half-tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph. And the tribes built cities in the lands where they had defeated enemy kings with God’s help.
I find it interesting that God gave the warning about their sins finding them out, and yet Moses made sure to say they would still have an inheritance even if they did not keep their word. God may not totally wipe us out just because we break a promise, but we may not get exactly what we were hoping for if we don’t keep the words we have given in exchange for our desires. If we tell God that we will do anything if He will just give us that dream job, then when He asks us to share our testimony with the meanest coworker there, we should keep our word if we want to keep our job in the way we want it. If not, maybe we won’t lose the job, but we may find things getting uncomfortable there, or we may get a new boss, or any number of things.
When we sin in secret and think we are getting away with it, or when we think our sins are no big deal, we need to know that God is watching and keeping a record. He says we will give an account for every idle word. And, yes, our sins will find us out, but that can be the greatest day of our lives if we use God’s findings to drive us to repent and change our ways, so our sins can be placed under the blood of Yeshua, and we can be free.
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The Devil Went Down to Jordan
This title is from one of my favorite parodies by ApologetiX. Yeah, I know, I probably say that about almost all their videos I share, but they really are one of my favorite bands. I mean, where else can you hear the tunes you grew up with, Bible messages, praises to God, and have an altar call all in the same concert? I really respect their ministry, and my love for their music is just icing on the cake.
Today’s reading comes from Numbers 32:1 through Numbers 32:19, and begins with the descendants of Reuben and Gad speaking with Moses and Eleazar about their great quantities of livestock. They gather the community leaders together to present a proposition to them about the land The Lord conquered on the side of the Jordan River across from that which God has promised to Israel. They have noticed the land is perfect for all their cattle, so they are asking if it would be okay if they just took that land instead of having to cross over.
Moses gets pretty frustrated with these guys and begins to tell them the stories of their forefathers and why they wandered in the desert for forty years instead of inheriting their promise. He explains that what the men are asking right now is akin to the sins of their fathers that stirred up the anger of The Lord. He also explains how it is not right for them to just want their own provision and comfort in a land where the enemy has already been defeated only to let the rest of the tribes go across Jordan and have to fight for the land in which they will dwell.
The sons of Gad and Reuben get the message and present an alternate idea. They say they will go ahead and build stalls for their cattle and fortified cities for their women and children since they are not part of the armies anyway. All the fighting men will then join their brothers on the other side of the Jordan River and help them fight for their promise. They say they will not only march at the front of their armies, but they will continue to fight until the rest of Israel has taken possession of their inheritance. They claim, however, that their inheritance has fallen on the east side of the river.
At my first read-through of this, I couldn’t figure out why Moses would have gotten so angry at these men for wanting to stay across the river from their brothers. I was thinking it wasn’t very nice of them to want to split themselves off, but at the same time, if it made sense for their cattle, and it was an area they had fought for, I thought maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea. It took me reading again to realize the problem wasn’t with the land as much as it was with the fact that their brothers helped them to fight for the land they now wanted. How dare they leave their brothers to fight alone just because they were now comfortable?
I guess it would be like being saved and only staying in touch with your church family and other Christians and leaving the lost to find their own way. Oh wait, too many people actually do that don’t they? I believe we call them “rabbit hole Christians” because they just go from one Christian rabbit hole to the next with no stops (in the “world”) in between. But we overcome the enemy by the word of our testimony because our testimony is what can win others to Our Savior. Don’t forget that your example in Yeshua (WWYD) is that He shared meals with tax collectors (known for their dishonesty) and sinners. Be willing to fight for the souls of others, and don’t let the devil walk into your “Jordan” (promise on this earth) and convince you to sit comfortably while the rest of the world goes to Hell.
P.S. I’m not certain how all the lands fall today, but I found an interesting site that talks of the boundaries of the promised land from God’s promise to today. Take a look at http://www.differentspirit.org/articles/boundaries.php and comment what you think about the Scripture reference from Joel at the bottom of the page. I think it means God is not very happy with those currently in charge of our country.
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The Frog and The Scorpion
The Frog and The Scorpion by Flickr User José António Fundo, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike
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There’s an old fable about a scorpion who asks a frog if the frog would carry him across a river. The frog is wise enough to know the deadly effect of a scorpion’s sting, so he tells the scorpion he won’t carry him. But the scorpion tries to reason with the frog by reminding him that if he stings him while they are in the water, both will die. The frog is convinced and lets the scorpion climb onto his back while he swims across. But just as they are halfway across, the scorpion breaks his word and stings the frog. The frog immediately feels the paralysis start to set in, and he begins to sink. Just before he goes under, he asks the scorpion why he would do something like that when it would kill them both. The scorpion’s dying declaration was simply this: It’s in my nature.
In today’s reading from Numbers 31:13 through Numbers 31:24, we have the men and leaders coming back from war with the Midianites and bringing the prisoners and the spoils to Moses and Eleazar. As the commanders came in from the battlefield, Moses got angry with them because of the women he saw with them who were being held as prisoners of war. He told them they should have killed the women because they were the ones that, because of Balaam’s suggestions, were tempting the children of Israel and causing them to transgress God’s law. Moses then instructed the leaders to kill every male plus every female who had slept with a man. They could keep the young virgins alive.
Moses then told the men to pitch their tents outside the camp, so they could complete all necessary cleansing rituals. They would have to stay outside the camp for seven days, and then they were to purify themselves on the 3rd and 7th days. Because of their proximity to corpses, it was also required for them to purify every garment, whether made of skin or goat’s hair, and to purify all wood. In addition, even though gold, silver, brass, and other metals had already been purified by fire, because they were spoils from the enemy, Moses told them to purify them under water. Anything that could pass through fire would be put through fire and water, and anything that could not pass through fire needed to be cleansed with water. After seven days, the soldiers were to wash their clothes and be clean, so they could enter back into the camp.
Sometimes, seeing people killed even if they’re the enemy feels harsh. It’s an especially harsh feeling when we stop to think of God’s grace–and of Yeshua’s words to love our enemies. But remember, these instructions were given even after the commandment that said “Thou shalt not kill,” so as it says in Ecclesiastes, there is a time to kill. Are there people who refuse to discard their old nature and will continue to attack and sting even to their own detriment? Ask a suicide bomber. Even when someone seems like an innocent woman or child, if they are from the enemy’s camp, they are not friends, and if we do not handle the battle correctly, we will become casualties of war.
Remember these things when you fight battles in the spirit realm as well. We know, as Scripture says, that our weapons are not carnal because most of our battles are not in the flesh. That said, the enemy will try to convince you to fall for some kind of trickery in an effort to destroy your soul, and you have to arm yourself with wisdom and preparation, so you won’t give in and end up paralyzed as you press your way to the other side. Don’t fall for sin just because it looks pretty or innocent, and always remember that you are a soldier for God. The good thing about this fight, however, is that both the battles and the weapons belong to The Lord, and the end of the war promises victory.
As for the physical battles in this life, most of us won’t have to fight them, but we should have compassion and love for those who do. God will lead those who need to fight for us as He would have them to fight, and the rest of us can support and uplift them. If you know a soldier who fights for the good, pray for him or her, and ask God to protect that soldier from attacks of our enemies. If you don’t know any soldiers, pray for all of our U.S. troops. Also, pray for the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) to prosper against all advancement of their enemies and the weapons of their enemies. Pray that only those in the perfect will of Yahveh Almighty will prevail.
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What If God Changed His Mind?
God Promises Eternal Life by Flickr User WELS net, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial
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How many things do we depend on each day that would change if God suddenly decided to change His mind? I mean, what if He decided that too many people were getting hurt to wait until that very last soul finds its way to its Maker? Or, what if He changed His mind about our eternal life and held back because not enough people were considering it more valuable than our lives on earth? Imagine struggling for breath as you wake up to a day of pure darkness, chaos, and the end of all things good. That would be only one scenario in a world without the grace and mercy of Yahveh Almighty. But, thankfully, we can trust in God’s promises because we have seen them fulfilled, and we have Scriptural reminders that God will never change.
- Psalm 145:13 (NLT)… For your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. You rule throughout all generations. The Lord always keeps his promises; he is gracious in all he does.
- Numbers 23:19 (NLT)… God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?
- James 1:17 (ERV)… Everything good comes from God. Every perfect gift is from him. These good gifts come down from the Father who made all the lights in the sky. But God never changes like the shadows from those lights. He is always the same.
- Hebrews 13:8 (CJB)… Yeshua the Messiah is the same yesterday, today and forever.
In today’s reading from Numbers 30:2 through Numbers 30:17 (in the Complete Jewish Bible) and Numbers 30:1 through Numbers 30:16 (in Amplified and other Bibles), we begin a new week and a new portion. The entire chapter begins Parashah 42, with the Hebrew name Mattot meaning “Tribes.” In this chapter, Moses speaks to the heads of the tribes of the people of Israel about the necessity to keep the promises and vows they make.
When a man makes a vow to God, or otherwise obligates himself by swearing an oath, he is to keep his word and do all he promised. When a woman who is still under her father’s rule makes a vow or obligation, if her father keeps silent, she must keep her word. But, if her father is against it, she is free from the promise, and God will forgive her. If a woman makes a vow without thinking, and she is a married woman, she can be free from it if her husband hears it and disapproves. But if he keeps silent, or if she is a widow or divorcee, her promise stays with her, and she must keep her word.
We depend on a lot of promises to go through our days on this earth and into eternity. We depend on our cities to provide the water and utilities we pay them for; the bank to keep the balances of money we have secured with them; and our grocery stores to be stocked with our needs when we walk in to go shopping. What happens when we flip a switch and the light won’t come on, turn a faucet and find no water, or turn a key and a car won’t start? We get frustrated, and we know there’s a problem that needs to be fixed.
What about all the things we depend on that should work but don’t because of broken promises? We have promises that we will be safe in our borders, but then those who are supposed to represent all the people in our country decide that it’s okay to cut our military and leave us vulnerable. We have promises that we should be safe in our cities, but those in positions to spend money break promises to use it wisely, and suddenly we don’t have enough of a police force to adequately protect us. Whether it’s from judges and attorneys that feel sorry for too many criminals and let them back on the streets to wreak havoc, or politicians up to the highest offices that get swayed by special interests, broken promises will bring an end result of chaos instead of peace.
We all know how it feels to have someone or something we depend on fail us, so we should strive to not do that to others. Even though we have God’s grace in the blood of Yeshua to allow us mercy that comes to us new every morning, it is better to not make promises, than to make foolish promises and change our minds when we realize the trap we’ve set for ourselves. I say this to myself as much as anyone because it’s easier to make a promise than to keep it, and I am certain some of my biggest needs for repentance come from broken promises. The book of James, in Chapter 4 and verses 13-17 (in the Easy to Read Version) gives great advice for keeping that from happening. It reads…
Let God Plan Your Life
13 Some of you say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to some city. We will stay there a year, do business, and make money.” Listen, think about this:14 You don’t know what will happen tomorrow. Your life is like a fog. You can see it for a short time, but then it goes away. 15 So you should say, “If the Lord wants, we will live and do this or that.” 16 But now you are proud and boast about yourself. All such boasting is wrong. 17 If you fail to do what you know is right, you are sinning.
Thankfully, we know we can depend on the promises of God for both now and eternity. We will never need to ask, “What if God changed His mind?” Let us give Him the same courtesy that if we have promised to love God with all our being, He will never have to give a report that we’ve changed our minds. Amen, and have a wonderful week walking in the blessings and presence of Yahveh.
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God Will Make A Way
God Will Make a Way by Flickr User jubileelewis, CC License = Attribution
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“In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. “ –Proverbs 3:6
God will make a way where there is no way, I know God will make a way for you. God will make a way where there is no way, For that’s what He promised to do. So when your situation seems impossible… Just trust in The Lord for a miracle! For God will make a way where there is no way, I know God will make a way for you.
I have thought on, or sang, this chorus to myself many times to help me get through what seemed like impossible situations, so I’m thankful I have it to lean on. Moses and the children of Israel didn’t have this chorus, or the written word that we depend on now, but I believe the ones that truly trusted Him had their own ways of hiding His words in their hearts for the times they felt they could not go it alone.
In today’s reading from Numbers 27:6 through Numbers 27:23, we begin the last days of Moses as leader for the community of Israel. It’s funny, but I actually feel a little sad, and I’m not the one losing his leadership. And back in those days, I would likely have been among those that only saw him and heard his teaching from a distance. Still, the heart he had for these people is made very clear as we follow along through the portion.
The girls that sought the advice of Moses and Eleazar yesterday are brought before God who answers that the daughters of Zelophehad are correct in their request. Not only does God tell Moses to grant them property from their deceased father, just as they would be granted if they were sons, He expands the property laws to be more inclusive. We see that property due to someone by rights should be passed along to all children, both male and female, and if there are no children, his inheritance will go to his brothers, then his father’s brothers, then other next of kin. I’m thinking that life estate beneficiary laws could follow along these same guidelines.
After God gives the expanded inheritance law, He tells Moses that it’s time for him to climb Mount Abarim and take a look at the land He is about to give the children of Israel. God explains that while Moses is up there, he will be gathered to his people as Aaron was because he cannot enter The Promised Land due to the rebellion over the water (striking the rock instead of speaking to it as God commanded) in the Tzin desert.
It almost sounds like God was speaking with pain and sadness as He told these things to Moses. I think He wanted Moses to enter into the land of promise after all the sacrifice and work he put into getting Israel there and standing for them to protect them from God’s destruction along the way. But God needed to stand firm on His word to remain a God who could be trusted by the people, so He took Moses right to the edge, and He did not take his life until He showed him that his work had not been in vain.
I’m certain that Moses knew God’s heart as He was speaking to him because he responded with beautiful praise to God. Moses asked that God, the God of all flesh and spirit, would please set someone over the people to continue their desperately needed guidance. This is where I can see Moses’ heart of love for the people. He knew He would no longer be there to lead and guide them, or to stand up for them when they failed, so He wanted to make certain someone would take over where he was having to let go. He even told God that he wanted to make sure they would not become as sheep without a shepherd.
God told Moses to select Joshua, the son of Nun, who was a man who walked in The Spirit. He said to bring him before Eleazar the high priest, and that they should stand him before the congregation of Israel and to lay hands on him to commission him in their site. God said for Moses to give Joshua some of his authority, and for the rest, Joshua would go to Eleazar who would seek God and get an answer using the Urim stone on his priests garment. The answer would allow Joshua to know how to tell the people when to go out and when to come in, and the bestowing of authority showed the people they could trust Joshua’s directions to them.
I can see the types and shadows of Yeshua in this. Moses was like God commissioning Yeshua (same Hebrew name as Joshua) to make a way for the people. Moses loved the people of Israel, and he wanted to be sure a way was made for them to know their path and walk in it. God so loved the world that He sent Yeshua to show us a path where we could walk and be saved. Just as God did not choose Joshua to condemn the people of Israel but to lead them in the way to The Promised Land, He did not send Yeshua to condemn the world either. Instead, He chose Him to light a path that the world, through Yeshua, could find a way to eternal salvation. God wanted the children of Israel to live in the land He promised them, so He made a way for them many times over. God wants us to be saved, so He makes a way for us.
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Sinai Poisoning
Mt Sinai by Sunrise by Flickr User Yann Pinczon du Sel, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike
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There are a lot of ways you can die in the desert. You can get sun poisoning, you can die of dehydration, or you can cross paths with a desert critter that bites and poisons you. None of these types of deaths sound in the least bit pleasant, and thankfully, most people who live in, or pass through, a desert won’t face a desert-related death. Personally, I loved living in the high desert of Kingman, Arizona, but I also loved having a cool house and cool water to get relief on the hottest days.
In today’s reading from Numbers 26:52 through Numbers 27:5, our reading begins with God telling Moses how to divide the land between the tribes of Israel. Because He is a fair God, He says to give the larger plots of land to the larger tribes, and the smaller pieces of land to the smaller tribes. The reading also goes through the ancestors of the tribe of Levi who will not get any land of their own because they are set apart for the priesthood.
There is a quick rundown of all the clans numbered in the recording of the Levites who now number 23,000 in the count of men who are one month old and older. The clans include Gershonites, Kohathites, and Merarites, along with the sub-clans of Libnites, Hebronites, Mahlites, Mushites, and Korahites. There were still Korahites because Korah’s sons were not killed when the followers of Korah were swallowed up by the earth for their rebellion against God and Moses. And the Kohathites are from Kohath, an ancestor of Amram. Amram married Jochebed and fathered Aaron, Moses, and Miriam.
The current census as taken by Moses and Eleazar the high priest is a registration of all the people now living in the plains of Moab, across the Jordan river from Jericho. The reading points out that not one person who was registered in the previous census taken in the wilderness of Sinai was still alive–except Joshua and Caleb. As God prophesied to the previous group of people, they all died in the wilderness without seeing The Promised Land.
The reading concludes with a group of five sisters whose father, Zelophehad, was a descendant of Manasseh but had passed away without leaving any sons to carry on his name. The daughters go before Moses and Eleazar to plead their case for their own piece of property. They state that their father did not die in the rebellion with Korah, but died in the desert due to his own sin and did not leave any sons. Moses and Eleazar promise to take the matter before God to seek an answer for them.
There are many ramifications that follow both faithfully serving God and disobeying Him. The Sinai wilderness proved to be a giant graveyard for those who refused to trust in the Word of The Lord. Maybe all those incidents of rebellion, like that of Korah and those that followed him, were the times God gave the people over to their reprobate (condemned) and fleshly minds, so their behavior would help fulfill the prophesy that they would die out there. Maybe all those places where I was reading and saying how I could not believe people could be so stupid were just areas where I was seeing what it looks like when God sears a conscience with a hot iron.
Thankfully, the end result of failing God is not always to end with a troubled mind, but what about those who have been given mercy after mercy, grace after grace, and proof after proof of God’s love and power yet still choose to walk opposite His desire and will? In today’s Proverbs (Chapter 30 for the 30th day of the month), it speaks of how churning milk produces butter, and pushing angry words produces strife. We could add that drinking poison produces death, and purposeful rebellion against Yahveh Almighty produces the wages of sin. We could also add that confession and repentance of our sins produces God’s everlasting mercy and grace, and puts our sin and its wages under the blood of Yeshua. It’s all simple mathematics (you get out what you put in) and chemistry (God is better than “poison control”), and we can trust that God will be fair and balanced and faithful to His word. HalleluYah!
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Third Time’s Not Always a Lucky Charm
Charms Cereal by Flickr User Chris Metcalf, CC License = Attribution
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Persistence should be a good thing, but when it gets mixed with stupidity, it’s just plain annoying. There are people who persist on pushing their ways on others whether it makes sense or not, and when someone tries to explain the problem, they just don’t get it. Ya know, like the woman who got drunk, stole a horse, and then when caught, blamed the horse and said she was sober, but the horse was drunk. Really, it happened even if it sounds impossible. Just look up “stupid criminals” and you’ll be amazed at the persistence of stupidity in some people.
In today’s reading from Numbers 23:27 through Numbers 24:13, Balak is at his insistent best again. As if it wasn’t enough for Balaam to tell him he could only speak the words from God, and then to speak words saying that Israel is blessed by God and cannot be cursed, Balak asks Balaam one more time if he will curse Israel. He takes him to another mountain where he can clearly see the community of Israel camped out below, and he tells Balaam that maybe he’ll be able to curse them from this new locale.
Balaam has Balak do the usual act of building seven altars and sacrificing one bull and one ram on each altar. This time, however, Balaam doesn’t go to seek God to see if it’s okay to curse Israel, but God speaks through him anyway. The Spirit of God moves upon Balaam, and he speaks an abundant and beautiful blessing over Israel that ends with the well-known statement, “Blessed be all who bless you! Cursed be all who curse you!”
After the blessing, the portion says that Balak blazed with fury against Balaam. He clapped his hands together and yelled that he called on Balaam to curse Israel and all he did was bless them three times. Balak then accused The Lord of stealing the reward that he was going to give Balaam in exchange for the curse. But Balaam calmly answered that nothing had changed, and that he told Balak’s servants from the beginning that he could not disobey God even for a palace filled with silver and gold.
I am amazed at how calmly Balaam dealt with the stupidity of this guy. Balak’s accusation against God reminds me of those many who excuse their not serving God by saying that He takes away their right to have fun or be free or whatever. It’s senseless. Without God, we have NOTHING good AT ALL in our lives, so even the fun or freedom to get into trouble people think they have by not serving Him would not exist if He didn’t wake them and the world up on a daily basis.
I want to break away from the blessing and curse direction for a moment, and just give you a little example of how much we receive in this life. There’s a momentum that is built by provision on top of provision, and it gets us to our own provisions over and over again throughout our days. God is our ultimate Provider, and He uses others to help that process along.
Think about a simple cup of coffee and the amazing steps from the coffee bean bush to your cup. You have the people who plant it, pick it, haul it, cook it, haul it again, package it, brew it, etc. Then there are the people who build the harvesting equipment, the trucks for hauling, and the ovens for cooking. If you have it in a paper cup, you’ve also got all the manufacturing that goes into that, and if you bought your cuppa in a restaurant, you’ve got your barista, your managers, your building owner, and so forth.
It’s not so simple now, huh? What you’ve just seen should demonstrate that God is absolutely and totally in control even when we don’t see all the steps He takes to provide for us in this life. Every person involved in our provisions are given breath by God. All that grows is given life by Him.
Balaam couldn’t curse Israel if he wanted because God was protecting them from his magic to the point of using him to do the opposite of what he planned. Balak couldn’t pay Balaam enough because God stepped in and interrupted his plans and processes. The third time of requesting a curse against Israel didn’t work like the charm either of them planned. They should have learned from this that it’s better to walk in God’s blessing than to even try to play games with God or those He loves. If not, they’re in for a wild ride because when God is running the show, there’s no “third time’s a charm” or “lucky seven,” there’s only blessings or curses.
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Would You Sell Your Soul for a Palace of Gold?
Mysore Palace by Flickr User Ashwin Kumar, CC License = Attribution, Share Alike
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Would you sell your soul for any price? For a palace filled with gold and silver? For fame? For power? It’s easy to say we would not sell our souls for something that is not being offered to us, but what if we were struggling and an offer was made? If you were starving to death, you could be tempted to sell your soul for a morsel like Esau did when he gave up his birthright for a bowl of stew when Jacob offered it to him. Until that moment, he may not have valued it like he should, but that doesn’t mean he would have been willing to sell it.
In today’s reading from Numbers 23:13 through Numbers 23:20, we continue the story where Balak wants Balaam to curse the people of Israel. The first servants Balak sent came back with the report that Balaam would not go along with the plan. Balak does not accept that answer, so he finds princes that are higher in status than the first group and sends them to beg Balaam to come with them for whatever price he wants. Balak’s fear has made him desperate, so he hopes to persuade Balaam with a higher reward for his services.
Balaam says he has made the decision to serve The Lord no matter what. He answers the servants that even if Balak gave him a palace filled with silver and gold, he would not go against the word of God in any matter great or small. He then tells the servants to spend the night while he again seeks God. When God comes to Balaam to speak to him this time, He tells Balaam to go with the men that summoned him, but only to do what He says and nothing else.
We’re not given any reason to think Balaam would have a reason to sell his soul, so if he goes with the men, we know that–at least at this point in time–he is going in obedience and with the right heart. But most of us know the story doesn’t end that way, so what do you suppose might change for Balaam?
Right plans and right ideas can sour and go in a wrong direction in an instant. The girl who starts out singing praise for The Lord, and walks through the door that leads to fame and fortune, may do so because she honestly believes it’s just a way to spread the message to more people. But then, a contract or a new group of friends takes her to places and decisions that turn her away from God, and she finds herself on the edge of selling her soul without even knowing how she got there.
For now, Balaam still has the right heart and mind about the matters. For now, many who desire fame or fortune to do more and greater works for God have the right hearts and minds about the matters. Let us keep each other in prayer that should doors open to expand our territories, we will keep a humble heart and remember that it’s all about God. Let us also pray that for any child of God who truly loves The Lord with a pure and whole heart, no door would open that could lead to soul theft, and if a door does open, pray for God to pour out wisdom and discernment to keep His child from buying into any lie the enemy might send.
Our souls–ALL of our souls–are worth more than many palaces filled with silver and gold. Let us keep them with every ounce of care and diligence they deserve.
And somehow, this post made me think about an old song called Guns and Wars also known as I Wish We’d All Been Ready. I found it on YouTube by DC Talk. Lyrics are on the YouTube page. Enjoy…
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Futuristic Science Fiction
I Can See the End But It Hasn’t Happened Yet by Flickr User Paul Anglada, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike
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If you could know your future, would you want to? Would you want to know exactly what person you were going to marry, when you would get married, how many kids you would have, whether or not you would work in your dream career, etc., all before it happened? We all worry about our future (even though we’re not supposed to be anxious about anything), but somehow, I think knowing everything ahead of time would make it boring. We build our strength in our struggles to make the future come out the way we hope.
In today’s reading from Numbers 22:2 through Numbers 22:12, we begin a new week and a new portion. We are now on Parashah 40, titled Balak after the main person in the beginning of the story. Balak, the son of Zippor, is the king of Moab, and he’s been watching the battles between Israel and the Amorites. Now, the Amorites had already defeated Moab in previous wars, so when Balak saw Israel defeat them, he got real afraid real fast. Now, he’s running to the leaders of Midian and trying to provoke them with fear by telling them the Israelites will eat up everything in their land the way the oxen eat up a field of grass.
So Balak decides to get out a message to this guy he knows who apparently lives in the land of his people, the Moabites. He tells the elders to take money and to take the message that a people has come out of Egypt who cover the earth, and now they have moved in right next door to him. He sends this message to a guy named Balaam who is a teller of the future and who has favor with God, so that whoever he blesses is blessed, and whoever he curses is cursed.
Balak tries to put the same fears that he feels into Balaam. He tells him to curse the people because he says there are too many for him to fight, and he says that if the guy will curse them, maybe he will be able to drive them off. Balaam asks the men to stay the night and wait for an answer. He says he can’t promise he will do it because he has to talk to God first and see what He has to say about the situation. By the way Balaam asks God about it, I’m thinking he doesn’t know who the people of Israel are, but when he asks God about it, God tells him not to go with Balak’s servants and not to curse the people because they are a blessed people.
Balak let fictional fears of the future control him instead of turning to the real God for help. He turned to a man who knew the real God, but he didn’t seek God for himself. Had he done that, God would have told him about that blessed people and how a future Moabitess (Ruth) would be in the bloodline of their (and our) Messiah. He would have had reason to care for the people and offer praise to God instead of fearing the people and hoping to manipulate God.
Too many people live as Balak did. They don’t want to see The Ten Commandments on the courthouse walls, or The Holy Bible on the school bookshelf. They fear what these things might mean instead of seeking God to find out what they do mean. They miss out on the peace we have by serving a God we know watches over and cares for us. We don’t know the future either, but we trust the One who created it. We know His plans for our future are only good and include an eternity in His presence. As the hymn says…
Many things about tomorrow
I don’t seem to understand
But I know who holds tomorrow
And I know who holds my hand.
It’s not science fiction to trust our future to a God so big He can watch over all the world at once and yet count every hair on each person’s head. He will walk with us each and every day of our lives straight into eternity, and that’s all the future we need to know.
Enjoy this version of the song I Know Who Holds Tomorrow by Alison Krauss (includes lyrics)…
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Snake Eyes
Snake Eyes by Flickr User purpletwinkie (Scott), CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works
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I’m not a gambler, and I’ve never played craps, so I’m not certain about the significance of rolling two ones, but I’ve always heard that “snake eyes” was a bad thing. Having lived in the southwest, the kind of snake eyes that doesn’t show up on a roll of dice can definitely be a bad thing. Note: I typed the original version of this on my Kindle Fire from the hotel at the Kentucky Christian Writers Conference, so it didn’t have an image, tags, etc. I’m updating those things now that I’m home from that wonderful event.
In today’s reading from Numbers 21:6 through Numbers 21:20 the people get to deal with the truly scary kind of snake eyes. After yesterday with all of Israel’s whining and accusations against God and Moses, God decides He has had enough. He sends a bunch of poisonous snakes into the camp, and they bite and kill people until a group comes to confess that they were wrong to falsely accuse God and the leadership He has chosen for them.
In order to save the rest of those who have been bitten, God tells Moses to make a bronze replica of the poisonous snake and put it up on a staff in the midst of the camp. As the people look on it, it works like an anti-venom and the people are healed, so they are able to move forward once again.
The people go through a variety of cities until they reach Be’er meaning “well.” God tells Moses to assemble the people there, and He will give them water. This time, instead of whining, the people begin singing a song of praise to The Lord. The words include the line “Spring up, oh well” which we sing these days in the chorus to the hymn I’ve Got a River of Life. From there, the people traveled to the Pisgah range where it overlooks the desert, and that’s where today’s part comes to an end.
I see all this traveling, resting, thirsting, drinking, whining, and praising, as similar to all of us as we each go about our daily living. We have all those issues, and sometimes we even have bad events that poison our days and longer. But it is when we look the troubles right in the eye, that we can deal with them and be healed, and it is when we begin to praise God for ALL our provisions, that we can find the song in our hearts.
The snake on the staff has become a symbol for healing as we see on many medical buildings with the winged staff wrapped in two snakes. (Read about the Rod of Asclepius and the Caduceus to learn that the winged staff is used incorrectly.) Healing, even by trained medical professionals, always starts with a diagnosis. The first step in all 12-Step programs is to admit there is a problem, and from there, healing can begin. God assigned the poisonous snakes when they were slinging around false blame instead of taking responsibility, and He sent them healing when they admitted their failures.
Some things in life are definitely a gamble, and gambling never has guaranteed results. Sometimes, life gives us a bad roll, and only God can walk us through it. If it’s ever more serious, and we are poisoned by some trouble in life, we can look at it for what it is, admit our part in the responsibility instead of just blaming it on someone or something. From there, we can walk forward to the place of freedom and provision where God wants to lead us.
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Broken Beyond Repair
If There Were A Garden by Flickr User Lee Ann Petropoulos, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial
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There is something about mosaics that really catches my attention, especially the ones made from broken pieces of glass or ceramics. Maybe it’s the whole idea of something crushed and broken becoming something beautiful that attracts me, and maybe it attracts me because I feel like that represents my life. It gives me hope that anything put into the Potter’s Hands has a hope. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true.
In our reading today from Numbers 20:14 through Numbers 20:21, we will read about a continuing sibling rivalry and the end result of a broken and unrepaired relationship. As the Israelites are traveling, they come to the border of the land of the Edomites. Moses sends a message from Kadesh to the King of Edom that begins with a salutation including “from your brother, Israel.” The request is a simple one asking that Israel would be allowed to pass through the land, and stating that Israel will stay on The King’s Highway and not come off it go through fields or vineyards.
The king returns the answer as a resounding “No” and accompanies it with a threat to attack Israel with the sword. But the people ask again, this time promising the same promises plus the added promise to pay for any water the people or livestock might drink. The hateful King didn’t even take time to answer this time but came out against Israel with many people and much force until they turned Israel away.
It took me two reading to notice the statement about the brother, so I looked up the story of the Edomites and found that Edom was the son of Esau and chose to retain the sibling rivalry as if they were “The Hatfields and The McCoys.” If you’ll recall, Jacob brought gifts to Esau to rebuild their relationship, but apparently, the message didn’t get passed along to future generations. I found a great history of the Edomites at a site called “Got Questions.” I wholeheartedly recommend a reading of their article, “Who Were the Edomites.”
When something is left out of God’s hands, it can very easily in on a similar note as the rivalry between the Edomites and the Israelites and be broken beyond repair. But if we see God as the Potter, and we trust that He knows both how to create and how to re-create, we know He can turn that which is damaged to that which becomes beautiful. God even tells Israel something similar to this in the book of Jeremiah, Chapter 18, verses 1 through 6 (New Living Translation)…
1 The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 2 “Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.” 3 So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. 4 But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over.
5 Then the Lord gave me this message: 6 “O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.
The whole chapter is encouraging for Israel, and these words can be encouraging for any child of God. There’s a beautiful scene in the movie “Joshua” where the visitor (Joshua) takes some pieces of broken and crushed glass and makes a whole new object from them. I love when something with God is not broken beyond repair, and I cannot thank God enough for all the repairs He made in me. Many years ago, I wrote a chorus for the Messianic Synagogue I attended. I’ll close with the words to that chorus…
MY POTTER IS YAHVEH by Crystal A Murray
My Potter is Yahveh, He is my Maker, He’s my Creator, I am His clay. My Redeemer is Yeshua, And when I am wounded, I can run through the Lamb’s blood to my Potter, Yahveh.
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Unequal Pay for Unequal Work
Money by Flickr User Robert Huffstutter, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial
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I have never been what you might call a “women’s libber,” but I do feel that people deserve a fair wage for fair labor. When I was too young to understand it, I might have said that women should get paid the same as men if they do the same job, but with age and maturity, I have learned what doing the same job means. In truth, if a woman can do a man’s job–for example, lift exactly the same amount of weight in and for the exact amount of time, then sure, pay them what they’re worth. But It’s not about just holding claim to the same position. It’s about actually doing the same job with the same endurance and the same lack of risk. There may be muscular women out there that can lift and endure without risk, but for the most part, women are built differently and should not take risks just to “prove” themselves. We don’t typically see men with big bulky hands gluing tiny porcelain pieces together either, so just because the bull can fit in the front door of the china shop doesn’t mean you should employ the bull to repair the dolls.
In today’s reading from Numbers 18:21 through Numbers 18:32 (the end of the chapter), we complete the portion for the week, and we read more about the job of the Levites in the camp of Israel. God is still speaking to Aaron, and He tells him that the tenth of all donations, fruit of the land, etc., will belong to the descendants of Levi forever. It is their inheritance, and it is their pay for the service they will perform in the tabernacle. It is also why they do not have an inheritance of land as the other tribes of Israel have.
In the next verse, God talks about the value of the tenth that is going to Levi. He says it is the best of everything. It is like the best grain from the threshing floor and the best grape juice from the wine vats. It is a gift to God that He is passing along to the Levites. In addition, the Levites who receive the tenth are to set aside a tenth for God as well. They are to set aside the best of the best because it is a gift to God. This holy portion will be given to Aaron because he is the high priest. He and his family are able to eat this holy portion without guilt because it is in payment for the work they do for God.
God sharing what is given to Him shows how much He values the work that is done in ministry for Him. Sharing the holy portion, and the best of the best, shows that He feels the work done in keeping a holy place of sacrifice for His people is valued as the best of the best jobs. Ministry for God is not just a little thing. The sacrifice was not just a barbecue. The cleaning of the furnishings was not just a maid job. The emptying out, cleaning, and refilling of the water vessels was not just a job for the pool guy. These duties were sacred and not equal to simple tasks, so God paid for them with sacred and holy pay.
We have ministry duties today as well. We have the blood of Christ to take care of the tasks that formerly required a tabernacle and an altar of sacrifice, so Yeshua gets the highest praise for now taking care of these duties, but that does not mean God isn’t pleased when we minister to others. There is a payment of peace in the spirit that cannot be compared with any financial pay, and God showers it upon us when we determine that doing for Him is above any task or inheritance we could receive on this earth. The pay does not get poured out simply because someone is in a position of ministry, but God overflows us with unequaled value of blessing when He sees us doing the priceless work of building His kingdom.
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Best Buds
Aaron’s Rod? by Flickr User Marilylle Soveran, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial
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How cool would it be to be “best buds” with Yahveh Almighty? I mean, having Him in your corner when people falsely accuse you, and having Him to stand up for you when you’re facing strong trials would be great, wouldn’t it? What’s that you say? He IS in our corner when we’re falsely accused? He DOES stand up for us when we face strong trials? Ah, well then we can say He is truly our Best Friend, can’t we?
In today’s reading from Numbers 17:16 through Numbers 17:24 (in The Complete Jewish Bible), and Numbers 17:1-17:9 (in The Amplified and other Bibles), we’ll read about God standing in the corner of Moses and Aaron because they were His friends. In this portion, God tells the men to have the leaders of each tribe take a staff (or rod) and carve the name of his tribe into it. He says for Aaron to carve in the name of Levi. He tells Moses to have the leaders bring him the inscribed staffs, and Moses is to place them inside The Tent of Meeting where God will grow blossoms on the staff of the person He has chosen as a leader of Israel. God tells Moses that this is to prevent anymore uprisings from other leaders who would accuse Moses and Aaron of uplifting themselves to their leadership positions.
Moses and the people did as God commanded, and the next day, when Moses went into the tent, he saw that Aaron’s staff had sprouted not only flower blossoms but also ripe almonds. Moses brought out all the staffs back out from the presence of Adonai and showed them to the people, so they would know that God Himself has chosen Aaron as a leader of the people. Each man looked at all the other staffs before reclaiming his own, so all knew it was Aaron’s staff that budded.
Yeshua told His disciples that they were His friends if they would do whatever He commanded them to do. Like any good friendship, it goes both ways. In John 15:11-15, The Message Bible offers a sweet translation of the conversation between Yeshua and His followers…
“I’ve told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father.
These verses clearly show how to behave in a true friendship. Yeshua tells the men to love others the way He shows them love, and to lay their lives on the line for each other. We are His friends when we obey these same commandments because we invite Him into our lives by this behavior. When we show His love to others, it is a form of praise to Him, and He dwells in the praises of His people. It was His idea to robe Himself in flesh, so that we could better understand Him, and it is His idea to create a friendship with those who follow Him rather than making us His slaves. A slavemaster demands a response from his servants, but in Revelation 3:20 (NLT), we read of His call to us in a much nicer way…
“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.
He is still knocking today, and He wants to be best buds. Will you answer and let Him in?
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Boss; Da Plague, Da Plague
In yet another give-away to my age, let us harken back to that adorable little guy, Tattoo, that made the great announcement to his boss when he spotted the plane to “Fantasy Island” about to land. The boss of the island, Mr. Roarke, was basically the “god” of the island, and while people paid handsomely to enact their greatest fantasies, he was in charge of how those fantasies played out much like an author decides on the final plot for his or her characters. I don’t remember any specific episodes, but I remember how often things didn’t go exactly as people expected, and I remember that no matter how they went, most people learned some type of valuable lesson from their experiences.
In today’s reading from Numbers 17:9 through Numbers 17:15 (in The Complete Jewish Bible) and Numbers 16:44 through Numbers 16:50 (in The Amplified and other Bibles), we’ll read about “The Boss” over the community of Israel. Yesterday, we saw that after Korah and his family and followers were killed, many of the Israelites began to falsely accuse Moses and Aaron of killing God’s children. Their false accusations didn’t sit well with Yahveh Almighty, so in today’s portion, He tells Moses and Aaron to get away from the rest of the community while He destroys them.
Moses and Aaron are good leaders, and they are not satisfied with the destruction of the people even when they would’ve been justified because of their attacks. Instead, these priests fall on their faces and beg God to–once again–spare the lives of the people. Moses knows what will get God’s attention, so he tells Aaron to grab a censer, put fire from the holy altar in it, and lay some incense on it. Moses then tells Aaron to hurry and go out to the people to make atonement for them because the anger of God has already gone out to them, and the plague has already begun.
Aaron did just as Moses directed and ran to the middle of the assembly where the plague was raging full speed ahead. He added the incense to make atonement for the people, and the plague began to slow down. As Aaron stood between the dead and the living, the plague stopped, but many were already dead. When it was finished, there were 14,700 dead in addition to those killed in the Korah incident. When the plague stopped, Aaron returned to The Tent of Meeting and to Moses.
There are plagues in the world that can enter “the church” because of the sins of the people, and it is prayer for God’s mercy that makes all the difference. The greatest leaders are the servant leaders who will stand in the midst of the people and offer praise to God that makes atonement because they care for the people and want the plague stopped. These are the ones that, like Mr. Roarke on “Fantasy Island” may not preach the fantasy message the spoiled people want to hear, but they will preach hard and true messages that will draw people to the God of Truth.
I hunger for the kind of preaching that hurts when it touches the things in my life that shouldn’t be there. I may not like the pain right when it happens. I may even bristle and feel a resistance at the first hearing, but good teaching from a caring teacher will find its place in my soul, and I will seek to get right with God. I call for all who consider themselves priests, prophets, preachers, teachers, or ministers of any kind to take up the cause of ringing the bell and calling out to those who would be lost, “Da plague, da plague; beware of da plague.” Even those who fight it at first will eventually receive it and apply it to their lives and gain the wisdom that will draw them closer to their Wonderful Creator. Proverbs 19:20 states it well…
Listen to advice, and accept discipline,
so that in the end you will be wise.
May there be more teachers that are willing to stand between the dying and the living and give the advice and discipline that brings wisdom–and life.
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Imitation is not Flattery to God
Flattery by Flickr User Sanctu, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike
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I recommend a visit to Flickr to view this image in full size. It’s actually very cool what the guy has done here, and apparently it’s an imitation of another artists style, but I think the guy did a great job. I thought it was perfect for this post because you can’t sit on a chair made with words , and you can’t depend on imitation service to Christ.
When we call someone a copycat, it’s not usually a compliment, and yet, there’s the quote that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” So, is margarine a compliment to butter? Is polyester a compliment to silk? Most of the time, we use imitations of things not because we think the imitation is as good as the real thing, but because we have some reason (usually cost) for not using the real thing, and we are looking for an acceptable replacement. Me, I’m satisfied with cubic zirconia in my jewelry because it often has more sparkle than I could find in any type of diamond that would be affordable for me.
In today’s reading from Numbers 16:20 through Numbers 17:8 (in the Complete Jewish Bible), or to Numbers 16:43 (in the Amplified and other Bibles), we will find out what happens to people who imitate the things of God without being chosen to perform them.
The first thing we see is that Yahveh is angry enough with Korah and his followers that He is ready (once again) to destroy the whole community of Israel. He tells Moses and Aaron to step back while He comes down to take care of business. And, (once again) Moses saves their lives by presenting a perspective to God that turns His wrath around. This time, Moses asks God if all should pay for the sin of one.
With that question, God tells the community of Israel to get away from the tents and families and belongings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. As the people move away, the troublemakers come out and stand in the entrances of their tents with their families. Moses speaks out that if the men die natural deaths, the people can know that God did not send Moses as a leader for them. Moses goes on to tell them that if, however, God does a new thing and brings the men alive into Sheol (the place of the dead), the people can be sure that God is with Moses and has chosen him.
As soon as Moses quit speaking, the earth opened up beneath Korah, Dathan, and Abiram and swallowed them up completely. It also swallowed up all who sided with them and all their belongings before it closed up again. The community of Israel ran away shouting that the earth might swallow them too, and then the fire of God came down and destroyed the 250 elders that brought up fire in their censers. I’m guessing the fire in the censers part was based on the fact that the 250 elders were imitating an act of the priesthood, and back then, God did not put up with apostates in the camp, so He dealt with the trouble immediately.
God spoke to Moses and said to take up the censers that the 250 used for incense and hammer them into a covering for the altar of sacrifice. He said they were holy because they were used on God’s altar, and covering the altar with them served as a way to keep them holy as well as making them a warning to others of Israel who might consider trying to imitate the priesthood in the future. No ordinary person, not descended from Aaron, is allowed to offer incense at the altar of God if he does not want to suffer the same fate as Korah and his followers.
After all that was done before them, the community of Israel began to accuse Moses again. This time they said that Moses killed the people of God. (I did a mental “I could have had a V8” slap on the head when I read this.) However, as the community gathered against Moses and Aaron, they looked in the direction of the temple and noticed the cloud of God’s presence descending on it, and the glory of The Lord appeared. Moses and Aaron then went to the front of the Tent of Meeting to meet with God.
From all of this, I would guess that imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery to God. He is interested in real people, real hearts, and real lives being dedicated to Him. Our position doesn’t matter to God except that He wants us to fulfill the demands of the position to which He has called us. In Malachi 1:6a, God speaks a message to the priests that can be applied to all of us…
The Lord All-Powerful said, “Children honor their fathers. Servants honor their masters. I am your Father, so why don’t you honor me? I am your master, so why don’t you respect me?”
I actually recommend a reading of the whole 1st chapter of Malachi for an interesting perspective on how we as people treat our Wonderful and Almighty Lord God. It’s eye-opening and heart-breaking. It reminds me of my own salvation experience, and what God spoke to my heart the night I gave my whole life over to Him. To keep it short, I’ll just say that I was not at church because I wanted to be, but I was there because someone manipulated me, and I could only have my way if I agreed to attend. The preacher did something he had never done before (or since) in asking everyone in the building to pray where they were because of a baptism they were having that night. As everyone knelt around me, I was the only one standing, so I got down by my seat to imitate what everyone else was doing.
Like I said, God doesn’t like imitation, so He used my own prideful behavior “against” me (though it turned out for me) by having all the women in the church gather around to pray with me. I thought to myself, “Oh, Crystal. What have you gotten yourself into now, and how are you gonna get out of it?” And then came a voice as audible as if He was in the room in human form, and God spoke these words, “You’re not rejecting these people or all the other people who have hurt you in your life. You are rejecting me, and I haven’t done anything to hurt you.” I broke at those words because the last thing I ever wanted to do was hurt God even if I wasn’t purposefully walking according to His will.
I have served God to the best of my ability since that date back in July of 1983. I have failed Him many times, and I used to keep the Malachi 1:6 scripture printed on a card at my desk to remind me to always keep my attitude filled with honor and respect toward God. I cannot put into words how much I love Him, or how humbled I am by the fact that He loves me. When I try to make myself useful to Him, I usually fall flat on my face. Maybe my motivations aren’t right, or maybe I’m stepping outside of His calling for me when that happens, but I don’t like it. Oh, but when He chooses to use me for something, the feeling is indescribable. When it comes to God; keep is honorable, keep it respectful, and keep it real.
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Fringe Benefits of Serving God
NMAI_Woman’s “Indian Cloth” Dress (Thimble Fringe) by Flickr User Lia, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike
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Growing up as a “Valley Girl” in Southern California, I had a lot of neighbors who moved to California from Mexico and Tijuana. Their culture, at least in the twentieth century, was consumed with color and flair. I used to love the cars that had colorful fringe and beads sewn all the way around the perimeter of the headliner. I have always liked things like clothing and pillows with fringe attached, things with tassels, and other similar fancy edgings.
Fringe usually means that little something extra that makes all the difference, whether it’s a row of dangling threads and beads or a two-week paid vacation as a hiring bonus. A job might come with fringe benefits when salary alone is not enough to attract the kind of employees the company wants to hire. A business might offer fringe benefits to customers as an incentive to return or to choose one business over another. Whatever the extra (fringe) is attached to, it generally adds value or beauty.
In today’s reading from Numbers 15:27 through Numbers 15:41 (the end of the chapter), we complete this week’s reading, and we will learn that God, too, likes fringe. If you read yesterday’s post, you know I talked about the sacrifice required when the community committed a sin by mistake. Today, the reading begins with a little more on the requirements to be set free from the sins that a person might commit by accident, and it repeats the fact that there is one law, and all requirements are the same for both the community of Israel and the foreigners that live with them.
The reading then takes a more somber turn as it talks about those who do not fail by mistake but who sin on purpose. It says that any person, whether citizen or foreigner, that does something wrong intentionally is blaspheming God because he has had contempt for God’s word and disobeyed His commands. It says he will be cut off from his people completely, and it says his offense will remain with him.
That sounds harsh, but a person who does something intentionally against God does not likely have a thought in his heart about repentance or of being sorrowful for his wrong doing. We’re told in Proverbs 28:13 that to obtain mercy, a person must both confess and forsake his sins. But how can a person confess and forsake something that he doesn’t believe or care is wrong? And with the population of psychopaths and sociopaths that fill our prisons, I can certainly understand why God would want that type of people to be cut off from the rest of the community.
As our portion continues, we learn about a man who went out to gather wood on the Sabbath day. We don’t get the back story here, like whether he was sick on all the days leading up to it, or if it got colder than he expected and gathered for during the work week, or if he was simply lazy and didn’t care about God’s Sabbath or about entering into it. I’m guessing the lack of back story is why the people took him to Moses who sought God for an answer rather than just executing judgment. As it came out, God told the community to stone the man to death, so God must have known the man could have behaved better and chose not to.
And now we will see how much God likes fringe. He tells the people that He wants them to begin sewing fringe, called tzitzit in Hebrew, on the corners of all their garments, and to add a blue thread to each corner. I’ve always heard the fringe was for the corners of the prayer shawl, but this reading makes it sound as if the fringe was to go on all garments. I even looked it up in other translations. God wants the fringe on the garments to constantly remind people to obey God’s commands. It says that by looking at the fringe, they will not go around wherever their eyes and hearts lead them to prostitute themselves. God wants faithfulness, and He reminds them here that He is The Lord who brought them out of Egypt for the purpose of serving Him.
So, we get to escape an eternity of darkness, emptiness, and existence without The Lord of Love by choosing to give our lives to God and to serve Him. We escape the penalty of sin that is death. But we get so much more both now and in eternity. We get fringe benefits of serving God that go beyond mercy and straight into grace. Those benefits may be answers to prayers that are not about life and death matters, wisdom that leads us right when we need it, or a special touch of God’s presence to comfort us when we are lonely or sad. I find fringe benefits in serving God every day, even if some days I don’t notice them until after the fact. There is truly no comparison to walking with God or to the joy of dwelling in His presence.
And I’ll close with this–maybe silly–thought: As I read this, I began to wonder if this was maybe the first use of fringe. God certainly has a way with decorating. I mean, look at the beauty in nature, including the many flowers with fringed edges. There are even some birds that have fringed edges on their wings. So, did God invent fringe, or is He just good at knowing where to put it? Either way, I’m thinking that with God as the decorator, if I actually have a mansion in Heaven, I’m really going to like it. And if I get a bunch of stuff with fringed edges, that’s a benefit I’ll happily enjoy.
And with all this talk about fringe, especially in cars, how can I not include the video for the part of the movie “Oklahoma” that has the song, “Surrey with the Fringe on Top”? So, here it is…
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A Balanced Meal
New York Steak and Rice by Flickr User Cliff Hutson aka The Marmot, CC License = Attribution
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Has anyone here tried quinoa? I’ve been contemplating giving it a shot because I like rice so much, and I’ve heard that quinoa is a grain that is also a complete protein, yet it absorbs other food flavor and has a texture like rice. If things slow down, I want to try a Tupperware party where we use the new metal-infused steamer to cook chicken on one level and quinoa on the next to simmer in the chicken juices. I’m intrigued with the idea but a little afraid to try something so new to me.
In today’s reading from Numbers 15:8 through Numbers 15:16, we’ll read about a balanced meal request from Yahveh when people offer him a meat offering. He wants all bulls, rams, male lambs, and kids offered with a partnering of a grain offering of flour and a meat offering of wine. I don’t know if rice grows (or grew) in the area where they were dwelling, but if so, the fine flour God requested could just as well have been rice flour as wheat or some other grain. Who knows, maybe they even had quinoa in that desert place.
The reading goes on to tell Israel to apply the formula of meat offering to grain offering to drink offering for every sacrifice they make, regardless of how many animals are offered. He also says this is to apply to every citizen and foreigner throughout all their generations as a permanent regulation. He then reminds them that the same Torah and standard of judgment is to apply to both citizens and foreigners living with them.
Way back then, there wasn’t the division of Jewish and Christian believers like we have now, but there was a division between those who served the God of Israel and the many false gods people created over the years. But regardless of the God or god a person was raised with, in the House of Israel, the God was The God of Israel, and His laws reigned supreme. It didn’t matter if the land they dwelt in was formerly a place where other gods were worshiped, when Yahveh Almighty came on the scene, He became what mattered most because even those that did not follow Him knew of His power and authority.
In our current world and culture, we try so hard to create balance in giving others what we expect them to give us that we often put the authority and power of Our God in the back seat. Our government–one that was supposed to have been built on the blessing of Yahveh and His Word–tries to make us allow people to come into our homes and businesses and conduct themselves as they choose rather than as we choose, and it’s as out of balance as an offering given in a different way than what God requested.
It’s not easy to stand for only our One God while refusing to bow to the gods of others, so some people try to create balance by creating things like “Chrislam” (a unification of Christianity and Islam) and saying we all serve the same god but by different names. But the fact is, if we do not adhere to the same foundations and laws, and if we do not abide by the same Word of God, we are not to be unified. If we serve the God of the Torah, and if we believe we have been grafted into the root of Israel, then we should be abiding by the laws of Yahveh in our hearts by keeping a lawful heart toward Our Creator.
Imagine the difference in just the United States of America if we applied all laws the same to all people. But we don’t. Instead, we make excuses for foreigners who “just don’t understand.” We give liberties to foreign leaders by allowing them to skate around personal responsibility while claiming “diplomatic immunity.” And, we pardon those who have skirted the laws we set for citizenship because we feel for whatever situation they are running from. We don’t have to boot them out, but we don’t have to let people just get away with everything either. God set the example even down to the details of how to present an offering that would be acceptable to Him.
We may not be able to change the laws ourselves, but we can govern our own homes, and we can vote in ways that bring spiritual balance to our country. We can stand for and support those businesses that have chosen to represent God in all their dealings both personal and business, and we can refuse to bring those that don’t under our roofs. For example, we may want to consider refusing to watch HGTV because of how they treated the Benham brothers simply because they stood for Biblical values. If we don’t bring balance according to God’s will and God’s plan, we will bring a false balance and a false peace that will end in sudden destruction.
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Desert Breakdown
Desert wreck with cactus for seats by Crystal A Murray. Taken 05-17-2010 in Seligman, Arizona
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The one place you don’t want to break down is in the desert. It’s hot, there are bugs and snakes and scorpions. It’s dry. There’s little to no water. You could die out there. And did I say that it’s hot? Yep, there are some beautiful things about the desert, like the colorful flowers on some cactus, but it’s definitely not a place to get stranded.
In today’s reading from Numbers 14:26 through Numbers 15:7, we read about a different kind of desert breakdown. In this one, there was a huge breakdown of honor and respect between the community of Israel and Yahveh, their Deliverer. The community of whiners and complainers have gotten on God’s last nerve, so He tells Moses to give them the bad news of what their complaining has brought to them.
God makes a promise that all who treated Him without honor and respect would die in their journey instead of entering into The Promised Land. He tells Moses to let the people know that their carcasses would fall and rot in the desert. On top of that, He says their children will be forced to wander the desert with them until their parents’ carcasses turn back to dust. I don’t know exactly how long that would take with the desert heat and scavengers, but God tells them they will wander for a total of forty years because their punishment is to wander one year for each day the spies were on their mission. Forty days of recon have now turned into forty years of sunburn.
But even as God is issuing this justice to those who continually failed Him, He lets them know that His eyes have been on two men from the same generation, and those two men have not failed God. Joshua and Caleb will enter the land sworn to their ancestors because they have honored God as God and respected His word with trust.
After all of this is decreed, the people are sorrowful and want to make up for their misdeeds, but again they want to do it on their terms and without either respecting or honoring God. This part really must be read to be appreciated, so here are verses 39-43 from Chapter 14 in The Message Bible…
When Moses told all of this to the People of Israel, they mourned long and hard. But early the next morning they started out for the high hill country, saying, “We’re here; we’re ready—let’s go up and attack the land that God promised us. We sinned, but now we’re ready.” But Moses said, “Why are you crossing God’s command yet again? This won’t work. Don’t attack. God isn’t with you in this—you’ll be beaten badly by your enemies. The Amalekites and Canaanites are ready for you and they’ll kill you. Because you have left off obediently following God, God is not going to be with you in this.”
Still, even with the warnings, these disobedient people did things their own way, and the Amalekites and Canaanites attacked them just as Moses said they would. Those who lived in the hill country beat the arrogant Israelites all the way back to Hormah.
The beginning of Chapter 15 talks of the sacrifices that will acceptable to God when those who do enter The Promised Land get there, so I guess this change is just to show that it’s time to focus on those who will dwell there and not spend anymore time on those who will die in the desert. I almost feel more of a sadness over the end of God’s conversation toward these people than when He was angry and threatening them.
To me, the very definition of “Hell” is eternal separation from God, and there can’t be more of a dry place than one where His presence and voice are absent. Thankfully, because our Messiah is The Lily of The Valley and The Rose of Sharon (desert), we have an advocate who will deliver us even from the dryest desert breakdown. If we are broken under the burdens of our sin, we can turn to Him for redemption and salvation. His mercy will bring us cool comfort in the dryest places of our lives, and from there, He will continue to deliver us as long as we walk with Him and show Him obedient trust.
And, here, for a little contrast to the rusty old cactus-filled clunker above, is a mosaic I put together from beautiful cactus flowers I found around Flickr. If you click on the image, you can find links in the image description to view each picture in full size and by its original photographer…
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Forgive? Yes! Forget? Not Necessarily.
Forgive Anyway Quote by Flickr User BK of Symphony of Love, CC License = Attribution, Share Alike
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For as much of my life as I remember, I’ve heard that we should forgive and forget. Because of the latter half of this admonition, I’ve dealt with a lot of guilt whenever things happened that I just could not purge from my mind. I mean, how do you force yourself to forget something? But with both physical and spiritual maturity, I have realized that forgetting is not necessarily a requirement in an act of forgiveness, and forgiving when you still remember what happened may actually take more strength than trying to let go of something by simply erasing it from memory.
In today’s reading from Numbers 14:8 through Numbers 14:25, we read about the community of Israel needing to be forgiven by God. Yesterday, we saw their bad reaction to the return of spies from the Promised Land, and that they had started up again with whining to return to Egypt. Today, we see that they were so angry and frustrated with the hopelessness of facing giants in the new land that they were ready to stone Moses and Aaron, and maybe Joshua and Caleb–especially since Caleb was still trying to encourage them to be willing to fight with God on their side.
Just as they were about to take things into their own hands, the presence of God came down in a pillar of cloud to speak with Moses. He asked Moses how long the people would doubt Him in the face of all the signs and wonders He had used to prove to them that He had a plan. God even said He would destroy them all with sickness and disease, and then He said He planned to make a new nation from Moses.
But Moses began to plead with God to spare Israel and show them mercy. He didn’t beg for God to forgive them as much for their sake as for the sake of what the Egyptians would say about God if Israel was not able to enter into the Promised Land. He made the point that Egypt would hear about it because of God’s amazing deliverance of Israel from there, and that if He didn’t bring Israel to the end of the journey, the Egyptians would say He could not let them in. Moses reminded God that He had put up with them and this kind of behavior since Egypt and that He could endure it.
Imagine Moses encouraging The Almighty. He actually had a heart that wanted to protect God from being looked down on by unbelieving nations. He cared enough about God’s reputation to speak to Him as a friend who wants to protect another friend from harm generated by false accusations and slander. So when God said He spoke to Moses face to face as a friend speaks to a friend, He was seeing Moses as a true friend to Him as well as seeing Himself as a friend to Moses. How awesome is that?
As the reading comes to an end, God tells Moses that He has forgiven (not will forgive, but already has) just as Moses asked Him, but with a caveat. God says that He absolutely will not forget what the people have done after all He has had to put up with from them. He says that because they have seen His signs and His deliverance yet continued to test Him, not one of those who treated Him with contempt will see the land He promised to their ancestors. He does add, however, that because Caleb had a different spirit about Him, and because he fully followed Him, he would see the land. The chapter ends with God giving Moses a new direction for Israel to walk.
So, we can see that forgiveness does not necessarily mean forgetting or letting someone get away with treating us badly. God withheld a blessing from those who treated Him with contempt, but He stills said they were forgiven. Considering God was ready to totally annihilate them more than once, just going without the blessing is still a big hunk of forgiveness. Israel may not have seen it that way, and they may have complained about their lack of that particular blessing, but because we see in hindsight, we know what kind of mercy God was showing them here even if He refused to forget their misbehaviors.
I prayed for many years about the guilt I felt regarding things I remembered being done against me. Some of it did need to be dealt with by a more sincere forgiveness. Some thoughts were simply memories in the same way I have remembered tastes and smells of foods that have made me sick. I have come to believe that remembering is not necessarily a bad thing, and it can save us from setting ourselves up for a fall.
Whatever the cause of an offense in our lives, we can and should forgive the offender. We should never hold bitterness because that will bring even more damage to the situation. If the offense was done by mistake and not with cruel intentions, and then we refuse to offer another chance, that means we’re being unforgiving. Refusing to let go of hurt, especially if the hurtful thing was followed with an apology or an act of repentance, also means we are not being forgiving, and it means we need to examine ourselves. However, just because we remember a wrong done against us, does not mean we are being bitter or unforgiving, and just because we think it’s right that a person pays for a wrong done (to us or anyone else) does not mean we are unforgiving. We should always look deeper to make sure we don’t harbor an unforgiving spirit that could create a wedge between us and our Creator, but we also need to remember God’s example in today’s reading. It is always good to forgive, but it is not always good to forget.
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I Spy Games
Spies by Flickr User Hope Abrams, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works
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I spy with my little eye, something giant. Traveling is the most fun when you have people to travel with, and even more fun when you play travel games together. When hubby and I traveled with the boys, we played games like “I Spy,” “A to Z” where you have to find something beginning with all the letters in the alphabet, and any variety of word association games. Hubby and I still like to play the one where each person says the next thing that comes to mind from the previous person’s word or statement, and we don’t even wait for long trips to be an excuse to play.
In today’s reading from Numbers 13:21 through Numbers 14:7, we’ve got the leaders from yesterday’s reading actually in The Land of Canaan to spy it out for God’s people to move in. They ran their recon mission from the wilderness of Zin to the entrance of Hamath, and then up into the south desert of Hebron. When they got there, they saw the wonderful fruit of the land of Eshcol (meaning “cluster”), and they cut a cluster of grapes so large it had to be carried on the shoulders of two men.
But then they spied the inhabitants of the land. Of course, giant fruit means giant people to eat it, right? They saw the sons of Anak who were likely descended from Nephilim (giants that were said to be half angels and half men), and they suddenly felt like grasshoppers by comparison. But God only sent them there to look at things, not to compare themselves until they saw themselves as too small to make a difference. Hmm, I wonder if I have ever done that? 🙂
Now they get back to Moses, and they begin to tell him of their journey. “It’s just like you said, Moses. It flows with milk and honey. And, wow, check out this fruit. But…” Ah, the “but” sentence. How often do we use it to excuse away a wonderful gift God has prepared for our lives? “But, what if I can’t succeed?” “But what if they don’t like me?” “But what if someone gets mad?” Of course, there’s a big difference in questioning things because you’re using wisdom to count the cost and questioning things because you’re scared to receive something promised to you by Your Creator.
Most people find it easier to see the glass as half empty, so when the travelers came back from their spy game with scary stories of giants and fortified cities, the children of Israel suddenly lost all hope in the promises of God. The people of the camp wept all night long because of their hopelessness. As if the fear of the unknown isn’t enough of a battle, to top it off with a good dose of discouragement made it just that much worse. Well, for most of them anyway.
Joshua and Caleb refused to agree with the other ten members of the jury. They chose to believe the word of God, and Caleb tried to quiet the people with encouragements. He said, “We ought to go up immediately and take possession of it; there is no question that we can conquer it.” But the people wouldn’t listen. Instead, they listened to the negative reports and began complaining to Moses that they wished they had stayed in Egypt. Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the people, and Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes and said to the whole community, “The land we passed through in order to spy it out is an outstandingly good land!”
God’s word tells us that God has only good plans for us, and that He will do far more than we can even ask or think, but if you’re like me, you struggle with knowing exactly what it is that He has promised. I trust God that His perfect will is better than whatever blessings I can conceive, but there are some that believe it is a lack of faith to just let go and let God. Truthfully, I have no problem claiming the promises of God if I am sure they are from Him, but my struggle is with the knowing. I’d love to believe that no one who serves God will ever have to deal with sickness or trouble, but that doesn’t line up with even what His own disciples went through. So I will make my requests to God with the humility of knowing that He has already done more for me than I deserve or can repay. I spy with my little eye that His word promises me an eternity where God will wipe away ever tear from my eye, and where pain, death, and sorrow will be no more, and that makes this race of life worth running to the end.
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Scout it Out
Scout Sniper by Flickr User DVIDSHUB, CC License = Attribution
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Many years ago, I was a “Girl Scout,” but I wasn’t in it long enough to figure out why we were called scouts. Maybe it had something to do with preparedness. Hubby always says he could not be a scout in the military because he doesn’t pay enough attention to little details. Me, I might pay too much attention to the little things. In a recent TV western I watched about Bat Masterson (the man who became a legend in his own time), a scout made all the difference in catching the bad guys who got ambushed after the scout had passed, so it’s a pretty important position to hold.
In today’s reading from Numbers 13:1 through Numbers 13:20, we begin a new portion, Parashah 37, This one is called Shlach L’kha in Hebrew and means “Send on Your Behalf,” It tells of the men whom God is gathering from the ancestral tribes to go before the rest of the people to scout out the land of Canaan. Moses chooses leading men from among the people of Israel, one from each tribe (listed in the link), and sends them out from the Paran Desert.
Many of the names listed should sound familiar, including Joshua and Caleb, but until this reading, I was unaware that Moses renamed Joshua from Hosea. As I understand it from teaching I’ve received so far, his original name means “salvation,” and his new name means “God’s salvation.” What a name to give someone who is about to scout out the promises of God for a whole nation of people.
So Moses sends the men on their recon mission, and he tells them to take notice of things like the people who live there, if there are just a few or a lot of people, and if the people are strong or weak. He also tells them to take notice of the land. He says to see if the land is good or bad, fertile or unfertile, whether it has many cities or just a few, and whether the cities are open or fortified. As a last order, Moses tells the men to be bold enough to bring back some of the fruit from the land, and he sends them out right after the first grapes have begun to ripen.
I’ve heard a lot of messages about this story, and usually they have been about it being a lack of faith to send scouts ahead to claim a land that God has already promised. But in reading it more closely, the scouting of it is God’s idea. I believe it is all about proper prior preparation, and it is actually an act of faith to find out what movements and tools will be needed to claim God’s promises. God does not expect us to walk by ignorant faith when we have His wisdom to guide us and light our way. Luke 14:28 (CJB) puts it this way…
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Don’t you sit down and estimate the cost, to see if you have enough capital to complete it?”
And we read in Psalm 127:1 of the Common English Bible (CEB)…
Unless it is the Lord who builds the house,
the builders’ work is pointless.
Unless it is the Lord who protects the city,
the guard on duty is pointless.
God is not only the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), but we’re also promised in Philippians 1:6 that He who began a great work within us is sure to finish it within us. That means that even our scouting and recon missions can be done in faith because we know that He is the One who started it all, promised it all, and will finish it all. Truly, He is the Alpha and Omega in and of all things.
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A Grave Situation
Flooded Graves in Mexico by Flickr User bigdadventures aka David, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike
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The dictionary says that when grave is used as an adjective, it means things like “serious,” “solemn,” and giving cause for alarm. I would say that makes walking in a way that causes God to be either hurt or angry is a grave situation, especially on the definition of solemn. I think it would do us well to take more time for self-examination to check not only our behaviors but the attitudes and motivations behind them.
In today’s reading from Numbers 11:30 through Numbers 12:16, we read about some people that most certainly should have taken things a lot more seriously. If you read yesterdays Scriptures or post, you know that the people were complaining over a lack of meat, so God promised so much quail that it would come out their noses and they’d be sick of it. Today, the wind comes in and brings with it piles of quail.
As the reading continues, it says that while the meat was still in the people’s mouths, God becomes angry and strikes them with a plague that kills all those who were greedy. Because so many died there, the place was called in Hebrew, Kivrot-HaTa’avah meaning “Graves of Greed,” Yesterday, it said the greedy ones were the strangers that lived with the community of Israel, so I don’t know if they were the only ones to die, or if it was all who gathered in the piles of the birds. It is against God’s law to eat animals that are dead by reasons other than men killing them for their meat, so if the birds came in on a wind already dead, they would not have been okay to eat. The strangers would not have known that, but if any children of Israel gathered the birds, they would have known, so that could be what kindled God’s anger.
Now we switch chapters and we go to Miriam and Aaron talking against their brother, Moses, for marrying a Kushite woman. In their criticism of him, they start asking why he thinks he’s so special because he hears from God. They state that God likely speaks to them as well. So God comes down in the column of cloud and calls Miriam and Aaron to the Tent of Meeting. He explains that He does in fact talk to men who are prophets, but that He mostly talks to them in dreams and visions. He goes on to tell them that Moses is the only one who is faithful enough to Him that He talks to him face to face.
When they walk away from the meeting, Miriam is suddenly completely white with leprosy. When Moses sees it, he begs God not to let Miriam die as a baby born with parts of its body rotting away from the time it leaves the womb. God agrees to take away the plague from her, but He says that since she would have to be put out of the camp for seven days if someone simply spit on her, she must be put out of the camp for a week because of the leprosy as well. After she comes back in, the community is ready to move on, and they travel to the Paran desert.
Like I said yesterday, when I read about things that cause God to get angry, I feel a strong need to examine myself to make sure I am not wrapped up in the same types of sin. I know I have an advocate in Christ and His blood over me, but I figure that if something made God angry at one time, He doesn’t feel any less affected by it just because there is a blood covering over it. I think about the song that says, “Does He still feel the nails every time I fail? Does He hear the crowd say ‘Crucify,’ again? Am I causing Him pain; then I know that I must change. I just can’t bear the thought of hurting Him.”
Even if I could get away with every type of sin that is available on this earth, I don’t want to do anything that would hurt my Lord and Savior. I don’t want to do anything that would drive even the slightest bit of wedge between me that my Wonderful Creator. I don’t want to allow anything into my life that would open up even a tiny crevice for the enemy (who is an enemy both of me and of God) to find a camping spot in me. I know I’m not perfect, and I know I fail daily, but I do not want to excuse my failures–only humbly beg God to forgive me because I don’t deserve it but gratefully receive it. It is truly a grave situation when someone who claims to love Yahveh Almighty can commit sin that hurts Him without feeling broken when He confronts their behavior. May I never get to that point, and if you agree with me, may you never get there either. As King David said in Psalm 51:17 (NLT), “…You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.” Amen.
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Cheap Talk and Whine
No Whining by Flickr User Rachael Voorhees, CC License = Attribution, No Derivative Works
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When I read in the Scriptures of people whose whining upset Yahveh, my first reaction is to look at myself and check to see if I have been hanging out at the complaint department window too much myself. It’s easy to do, especially in our current culture of constant comfort seeking and bad attitudes caused by lack of rest and improper diets. Add to those things the media blitz of commercials advertising the stuff we can’t possibly live without any longer, and whining becomes almost second nature.
In today’s reading from Numbers 10:29 through Numbers 11:29, we see a few different personalities from the people of Israel, and some of them are not pretty. The reading begins with Moses trying to convince Hobab, the son of Moses’ father-in-law, to travel to the promised land with Israel. He wants to go home to his own people, but Moses convinces him that he’ll be blessed because of the promises God gives to Israel. In the next verse, the people are heading in that direction, so I guess he convinced him. I don’t think the Midianites served the God of Israel, so this may have been the first recorded act of proselytizing.
As the journey begins, the Scripture talks about Moses reaction to the movements of The Ark of the Covenant. When it was lifted to move forward, Moses would shout a praise to The Lord and a blessing that His enemies would be scattered. When it was set down again to rest. Moses said, “Return, Adonai of the many, many thousands of Israel!” But while Moses was shouting praises, the same could not be said of the others on the journey with him. Instead, the people complained so much that they stirred up God’s anger until He broke out against them with fire and consumed the edges of the camp. Oh, if only they had taken Moses’ example and spent their time praising their deliverer.
Some of the complaining from the people came from the mixed crowd with whom they were traveling. The strangers became greedy for comfort and got the people complaining about the provision of mannah. The people started crying and whining about the lack of meat and spices until God finally told them they would have a full month of meat, and they would eat so much that it would be coming out of their noses–and they would hate it. When they should have be content with God’s provision for them, they were ungrateful and wishing they were back in their bondage.
By now, Moses was beginning his own whining, but it did not appear to be the type that made Adonai angry. Moses asks God why He is allowing the burden of all the people to rest solely on him, especially if He is pleased with all that Moses is doing. God understands and tells Moses to choose seventy leaders of Israel with whom he can share his burden. God takes some of the burden off of Moses and places it on the seventy elders who begin to prophesy whenever God’s Spirit rested on them.
As we get to the end of today’s reading, we find two men in the camp named Eldad and Medad, and the Spirit of God comes to rest on them, so they begin to prophesy in the camp. A young man runs to tell Moses about it, and when Joshua hears about it, he tells Moses that he should make them stop. But Moses tells Joshua that he wished all of God’s people were prophets and that God would put His Spirit on all of them.
I can understand Moses sentiments in the last paragraph. After hearing the people whine and complain and seeing what that brought upon the people, Moses would want them all to be filled with God’s Holy Spirit for their own protection as much as to relieve him of some of his burden. When I see people follow after the things of the soul (the mind, will, and emotions) instead of after the things of the spirit, I get frustrated and wish more people would seek God from the depths of their hearts. The things of the soul can imitate the spirit (which is how we get false prophets), but we’re told that the “soulish” man won’t receive things from God. It is far better to let God’s Spirit take over our spirit-man and be led by God’s truth, and then we will be sensitive to the moving of God, so we can lift up genuine shouts of praise to Him instead of spending our prayer times caught up in the “why me” syndrome or in depressing cheap talk and whining.
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Corporate Travel Policies for Israel
Camel Rides in Egypt by Flickr User Jeremy Jones, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial
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I have great travel memories all the way back to times as a small child when most of my car travel included long naps in the backseat. I still love the atmosphere of a truck stop early in the morning just before the sun comes up because I remember that first stop on a drive we started at about 4am. That time of day, the idling truck engines create a steady hum, and in the late spring and early summer, there is is just enough crispness in the dew-filled air to chill you awake. That first stop on a long trip is also still charged with excitement about both the journey and the destination.
In today’s reading from Numbers 10:11 through Numbers 10:28, we read about the beginnings of travel for the community of Israel. I don’t know if they had any camels, but I imagine a camel ride would be preferable to a very long walk. The journey ahead would take the children of Israel from the Sinai Desert to the Paran Desert as the pillar of cloud led them. This was Israel’s first journey, and the Scripture says they followed according to all of God’s words to Moses. In other words, they adhered to God’s corporate travel policies.
As they traveled, they moved by companies and leaders, and the divided movement allowed the Levites to take down and carry the tabernacle according to God’s direction. The descendants of K’hat who carried the tabernacle were ahead of the other tribes, so that the tabernacle could already be set up by the time the rest of the community of Israel arrived. You can click on the above link to read the exact divisions of camps and leaders as they traveled in the orderly fashion directed by their travel agent, Moses, according to all the instruction He received from God.
While I still love going places, travel is not as easy for me with having to carry a CPAP machine, get someone to care for my kitty cats, and the general issues with age and pain. But I imagine things were quite a bit rougher for a people that had to carry their entire house and home with them as they moved along. Still, I wonder if they got excited to see where God was going to take them next. They knew their stops were temporary because they knew their final destination was “The Promised Land,” but each step along the way must’ve held some excitement as they knew it was getting them closer to home.
Even with the enjoyment I find in traveling, seeing new sites, visiting with those I love, and finding fun things to do along the way, there is nothing like getting back home and back into my regular routine. Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz said it well when she said, “There’s no place like home.” For believers in Messiah who trust in the promises we will receive after He comes back for His own, we know that our stops in this temporary life are steps to move us closer to that place we long for, that place we will one day call “home” for eternity. In the meantime, if we move forward according to God’s travel plans, we can enjoy the journey.
As I finished this post, I thought about an old song by Johnny Cash called “Over the Next Hill We’ll Be Home” and I’ve found it here sung by him and June. It even includes his notes about writing it. Enjoy…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGKXegPVsMM
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Blow the Trumpet in Zion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYK1B7ung-s
Wake Up! The alarm is going off, and the time has come to arise.
I use an alarm on my phone that allows you to type in whatever message you like, so you can remind yourself of why you have set the alarm. Unless I need to put in a specific reminder, the default message reads, “Wake up, Sweetie.” I did it that way on purpose because I’m not one who likes to be startled awake. Sometimes, it’s hard to pull myself out of sleep mode and realize the alarm is not just in my dream, but a gentle reminder works better for me than a loud blaring alarm.
In our reading today from Numbers 9:15 through Numbers 10:10, we read about the alarms God says to sound before His people. But first, the reading starts out talking about the cloud of God’s presence over the tabernacle. I almost named the blog “I’ve Looked at Clouds from Both Sides Now,” but since the majority of the reading talks of sounding the alarm, I decided to use that as a title–and an excuse to include the inspiring praise video.
God showed the children of Israel when to move and when to stay by the cloud of His presence. If He settled on the tabernacle, the community knew to stay. If the cloud lifted from the tabernacle, the community knew it was time to travel. Whether the cloud stayed for a week, a month, a year, or just overnight, the people camped for as long as it was there. And as soon as the cloud lifted, the people rose up with it.
In addition to knowing God wanted them to travel, the people learned to find the exact time to travel by listening for the sound of the trumpet. God told Moses to make two trumpets of hammered silver. He told Moses they would be used both for summoning the community and for telling Israel when to break camp and move on. When the alarm was used for summoning the community, one blast meant that only the leaders were to gather at the tabernacle, and two blasts meant the entire community was to assemble before the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
God told Moses to sound different alarms for different events. Some alarms told which camp was to begin traveling. Some proclaimed war with an oppressive enemy. Some proclaimed celebration, like the alarm that was sounded at the beginning of each month, called Rosh Hodesh in Hebrew. And some were sounded along with the sacrifices offered before God. The call to assembly was not to be one of alarm. All trumpet calls were to be given by the sons of Aaron, the priesthood, according to the permanent regulation of Yahveh.
Alarms aren’t always fun to hear when they first go off, especially if they are used to wake us from sleep, but sometimes they can signify a great day ahead. We set our alarms for regular events, like going to work, but we also set them for special events, like weddings and graduations. Our purposes in setting alarms may often be different, but our reason–that is to get up and move toward a specific event–is always the same.
God’s word has both warning and inspiration, and both require us to move from wherever we are to wherever He wants us to go. Let us hear the alarm He sets in our hearts, and let us wake up to whatever He is calling us to do, whether it is to sound the alarm to the lost around us, or to sound the alarm to ourselves that we will wake and watch with Him. Blow the trumpet in Zion: The Messiah has come to save and deliver us, and He is coming again to take us home. Halleluyah!
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Razor Burn
Clean and Shaven by Flickr User Stefan Ray, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial
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I have cats. Not just one cat, and not just one color of cat. That means I also have hair on stuff. Not just one hair, and not just one color of hair. My cat’s hair likes to travel with me wherever I go. If I wear dark colored clothing, I wear light-colored cat hair with it. If I wear light-colored clothing, I wear dark cat hair with it. But I love my kitties, so I carry a lint roller. But there are times I wish I could just take a razor and shave off all their cat hair, so maybe I wouldn’t run late to all the places because of forgetting that I needed extra time to try to get all the hair to stick to the roller instead of me.
In today’s reading from Numbers 8:1 through Numbers 8:14, we begin a new week and a new portion. Parashah 36 is called, in Hebrew, B’ha’alotkha, which means “When You Set Up” in English. In this reading, God is giving Moses more information on setting up the tabernacle, and He begins by talking about the menorah. We get a description of the menorah, how it is a work of hammered gold, and then God tells Moses to make sure to have Aaron light the lamps in such a way that the light shows in front of the menorah.
The next section talks of pulling the Levites out from among the rest of the Israelites to prepare them for the service of the tabernacle. The first thing God tells Moses to do after separating the Levites is to cleanse them, and then He gives instructions on exactly how to cleanse them. They are to completely shave their bodies, and then they are to wash their bodies and their clothing. After they are cleansed, they will bring sacrifices, and then Aaron can present them to all the people.
As I searched for pictures to represent the clean shave, I came across a number of different types of shavers and razors. Suddenly, I thought about how much those Levites might have appreciated some of the shavers we use today. I wonder just how much they had to deal with razor burn after shaving desert-toughened skin with a straight-edge.
And that leads me to another type of cleansing where the Word of God which is sharper than a two-edged sword is able to shave off the layers of sin that threaten to keep us separated from Our Creator. His Word will cut as deeply as necessary to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, so we can be free. But sometimes, even when we know something is bad for us, we resist allowing God to cut it away. But if we will trust God and allow Him to coat us with the oil of the Holy Spirit, we can freely get rid of our five-o-clock shadow of sin instead of resisting until we end up with spiritual razor burn.
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The Chuck Wagon Gang
I have a lot of old gospel favorite songs and a few favorite groups, but the one that covers both is called “The Chuck Wagon Gang.” I grew up listening to their album titled “Hallelujah” with songs such as “If We Never Meet Again,” “Happy and Free,” “Give Me That Old Time Religion,” and–the one I sang most with my sister and my mom–“I’m Bound for the Land of Canaan.” The history of this group can be found here, at their official website, and it spans over 75 years.
Today’s reading from Numbers 7:72 through Numbers 7:89 (the end of the chapter) brings a close to our week and the portion. It covers the last two days of offerings which were brought in by the leaders of the tribes of Asher and Naphtali. After twelve days of offerings, there were wagons and wagons of gifts for the priests to use in the tabernacle and for their own living. (It’s the reference to covered wagons at the beginning of the description of the caravan that led me to share my favorite group because of the name.)
The reading gives a breakdown of the total items offered if you want to read it yourself. In summary, there were silver vessels, gold vessels, bulls, rams, lambs, and goats. All this was given as offering in dedication of the altar after it had been anointed.
The reading concludes with what could almost be an introduction to the next chapter as God calls Moses into The Holy of Holies to speak with Him. The voice of Yahveh spoke from above the ark cover over the Ark of the Covenant from between the two angels.
Since there’s not much more to say on this subject with it being the third day of it, I will close now and bid Shabbat Shalom to all my readers. Blessings to you, and I hope you enjoy the music. I have been unable to find a good video of “Canaan Land,” but here are a few other Chuck Wagon Gang song videos I really like…
Jesus Hold My Hand
Looking for a City (Live Recording)
Church in the Wildwood
And here’s a 38 minute video with a variety of songs
I’ll keep looking for a link to somewhere you can hear “I’m Bound for the Land of Canaan.”
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God is Just
Book Cover for Shattered Justice (Family Honors Series, Book I) by Karen Ball
Click the book cover image to open a new tab/window for the book page at Amazon.
God is just. No matter what we may see, feel, imagine, or think, that is an absolute fact. Sometimes it feels like He is far away, maybe even ignoring us, but He always knows what He is doing, and He will always answer the right answer in the right time. This world has so much injustice, which by definition means justice is not done, so we may wonder what God is doing as we watch the innocent suffer and the criminals prevail, but there is an eternity of true justice in our future if we trust God.
In today’s reading from Numbers 7:42 through Numbers 7:71, we get a little more of a glimpse of what our future world might be like as we see more of Israel’s leaders bringing gifts for the wilderness tabernacle. I say it’s a glimpse of our future world because right at this moment of our reading, we’re only seeing the well-oiled workings of people in obedience to Their Creator. In addition to obedience, these men are gathering love offerings to help keep the ministry moving forward, and the offerings are abundant.
For just a quick rundown, yesterday’s reading covered days one through five in the list of those bringing gifts to the priests, and today covers days six through ten. Yesterday’s givers included representation from the tribes of Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Reuben, and Simeon. Today’s givers include representation from the tribes of Gad, Ephraim, Manasseh, Benjamin, and Dan. On both days, the gifts included silver, gold, grains and oils for sacrifices, animals for sacrifices, and much more. And, again, I recommend reading the linked passage above for complete details.
Now, I’m going to go in a totally different direction here and use something from the reading to jump off into a quick book review. One of the leaders of Israel, the one from the tribe of Benjamin, is named “Avidan.” That is the name of the main character from book one of the Family Honors trilogy by Karen Ball. Avidan means “God is Just.”
I’ve read all three of the books in the trilogy, and they are some of my favorite books. The three books are about three siblings in the Justice family, and each sibling gets the focus of one book, though all the siblings show up in all the books. The characters all became so real to me that now, years later, I still want to find the little town in Oregon where they lived and try to meet all three of them. 🙂
Book one is called Shattered Justice, and it focuses on the story of Avidan, aka Deputy Sheriff Dan. Dan is the law in a small town that has its share of big problems. He faces more than most of us could deal with, and it shatters his sense of justice. In a “Job-like” storyline, we watch Dan go through his trials in very human ways as he struggles to find the help he knows God promises his children. As readers, we get to see the people God sows into Dan’s life to give him strength to face each new trial and an uncertain future, and we get to watch Dan discover why these people are there as he needs them.
I’m struggling to figure out what to tell that won’t be considered spoilers, though knowing things ahead of time does not hinder the reading. I read the books out of order since book two, “Kaleidoscope Eyes,” was the first one recommended to me, and I read it before realizing it was part of a series. The affect it had on my reading of book one was simply that I was prepared to cry at any moment because I knew bad things were going to happen, but the story still surprised me with just how they happened.
I want to just say, “Trust me, this book and series is worth reading,” but I know people want reasons for that, so I’ll just add that if you have ever experienced struggles that seemed impossible to get through, read this great piece of fiction with realistic events and emotions to find hope. By the time you get to the end of Dan’s struggles to come back from blaming and rejecting God, you will see how, even in the face of tragedy, God is just.
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The Welcome Wagon
Ghost Ranch Welcome Wagon by Flickr User Angi English, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial
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What a marvelous array of images you get when doing an image search for the words “welcome wagon” on Flickr. I was torn between the one above, one that showed a wagon that said “Needles, California” on it (because I’ve been there, and I can tell you stories), and the one with the words “Welcome to Calaveres County” because of the tie into a famous writer. I decided on the one that actually said “welcome wagon” in the description, plus it’s a beautiful image.
In today’s reading from Numbers 7:1 through Numbers 7:41, we will read about all kinds of welcome wagons. Knowing that the term actually means “a wagon full of necessities for new residents to make them feel welcome” makes the details in the reading just that much better.
We begin with Moses as he finishes putting up the tabernacle. He consecrates and anoints all the furnishings and articles used in tabernacle service and is greeted by the leaders of the clans of Israel bringing him an offering. They brought him six covered wagons (a wagon for every two leaders) and twelve oxen. Moses receives the offerings and then directs them to be given to the appropriate Levites. He divides up the wagons to the clans based on their tabernacle service, so he gives 2 wagons and 4 oxen to Gershon, 4 wagons and 8 oxen to Merari, and no wagons or oxen to K’hat because their service only uses the holy things of the tabernacle.
The rest of the reading details the gifts received by five of the twelve tribes, and it appears they each present their gifts on a different day. The next two days of reading will details the gifts from the rest of the tribes. You can read the Scriptures for yourself if you want to see exactly what each tribe gave, and I will add notes if anything about their gifts speaks to me somehow. I do recommend that visitors click the links I provide for Bible reading because you can do so without leaving my blog, and the readings may speak to you in ways it does not speak to me.
I do find it amazing how the whole community of Israel pulled together with offerings to make sure the operations of the tabernacle were fully provided for. Of course, unlike our churches and fellowships now, the tabernacle represented their place of salvation, so it was important to keep it operational to keep the people free from sin. The tabernacle was a place where representatives met with the presence of Yahveh to keep Him from being angry with the community, so it was also necessary for going forward with day to day life.
For us now, we have The Holy Spirit (called The Ruach HaKodesh in Hebrew) dwelling within us and willing to walk with us through our daily lives. We no longer have to gather around a building or bring offerings to a priesthood in order to be free of our sins because Yeshua became our High Priest and allows us to bring our confessions and sacrifices directly to Him. That is why we can now come boldly before His throne–to GIVE Him our repentance and offerings to show we are serious about it. It actually hurts me to hear preaching that tells people to come boldly to GET something from God because I know the people are missing out by having a “taking” spirit instead of a giving one. God’s “welcome wagon” has always worked on a “give and it shall be given” basis, and if we give Him our hearts, He will give us more than we can conceive.
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Purity Testing & The Nazarite Vow
Testing Lab by Flickr User USDAgov, CC License = Attribution
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It sure seems hard to find anything or anyone that is truly pure anymore. Even when you find shows that are “pure” for the most part, you must endure commercials that are not. It’s like trying to find pure seeds that have not been affected by the farm next door that is growing genetically modified crops. Everything around us seems to be seeking to bring us out of a state of purity and into a state of chaos.
In today’s reading from Numbers 5:11 through Numbers 6:27 (the end of the chapter), we have a long reading with God telling Moses how to have the priests deal with matters of impurity. I chose the image of the lab above because it reminded me of what the office of the high priest might look like today if God still wanted purity testing done. It’s a pretty detailed process that God lays out, but it’s interesting to read about.
If a man becomes jealous of his wife because he thinks she cheated on him, he is to bring her to the high priest for a test of her purity. The husband comes in with a sacrifice for his own spirit of jealousy, and then the wife meets with the priest who performs a ritual to see if she really has been unfaithful. The ritual involves water, a clay pot, and some dust, and if the woman is found guilty, she receives a curse that her private parts will shrivel and her abdomen will swell. I think that would be enough to keep a woman faithful, don’t you? Read it for yourself if you want to see the details of the ritual.
The next part of the reading concerns men who want to take the Nazarite vow. This is the same vow that Samson took, and it includes not cutting the hair, not drinking any wine or other alcohol, and not ever touching anything dead. Again, it has a lot of details, which is why the reading is so long, but it’s actually quite interesting. It is in my plans to go read it in The Message Bible as well, to see how he deals with it in a more poetic type of writing. But there is a poetic end to the reading that some of you may be aware of. It is called the Aaronic blessing and it goes like this from The Complete Jewish Bible…
24 ‘Y’varekh’kha Adonai v’yishmerekha.
[May Adonai bless you and keep you.]
25 Ya’er Adonai panav eleikha vichunekka.
[May Adonai make his face shine on you and show you his favor.]
26 Yissa Adonai panav eleikha v’yasem l’kha shalom.
[May Adonai lift up his face toward you and give you peace.]’
And just a quick note before I close tonight: Most of the images we see of The Messiah have Him with long hair because of this Nazarite vow. The confusion comes in the crossover of the words “Nazarite” and “Nazarene.” Yeshua was a Nazarene because He was born in Nazareth, but He did not take the Nazarite vow as evidenced by His touching the young girl to raise her from the dead. So, if you didn’t know this already, you can say you’ve learned something today. And with that, may the blessing above be upon all of my readers and followers, and upon the whole community of those who love Our Almighty Creator, Yahveh. Amen!
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Paying Our IOUs
IOU More Chocolate by Flickr User Tom_Bullock, CC License = Attribution
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If someone hurts you, even unintentionally, isn’t it nice to get an apology that says the person really cares how the hurtful behavior affected you? And if that hurt cost you something, isn’t it even nicer when the person who did the hurting makes an effort to make restitution? Knowing how nice that is, I’m sure you can agree that when you make apologies and restitutions for your own poor behaviors that you are doing more than just making up for a wrong, you are becoming a blessing.
In today’s reading from Numbers 5:1 through Numbers 5:10, God is giving Moses more instruction for how to keep the community of Israel peaceful. God wants to make sure the camp will not be defiled because that is where He lives among the people, and making restitution for wrongs done to others is one way to keep the camp a pleasant place for Our Creator to dwell.
The reading begins with instructions on putting the diseased outside the camp. Now, I don’t think God felt He might catch anything, so His instructions for keeping people on the outside until they were healed was for the benefit of everyone else in the camp. If a lot of people became diseased, or better said “in a state of dis ease,” there would be chaos in the camp instead of peace. Better to not have people running around with anxiety and rejecting every person with a suspicious spot on his or her skin.
The portion goes on to talk about actual restitution by telling Moses to make sure that all debts against another are paid. It says that if a man or woman commits a sin against another human being, that person incurs guilt for breaking faith with Yahveh. When that happens, the person must confess his wrongdoing and make full restitution for his guilt plus add twenty percent to give to the victim of his sin. This restitution is in addition to the ram offering of restitution, and it’s so important, that if the victim has no family to receive the restitution, it is still to be paid but given to the priests.
The last statement given for keeping the camp at peace is a reminder that whatever the people of Israel consecrate to the high priest belongs to him. It is his property, and he will decide how to divide it among the rest of the priests. This means that if we promise something toward God’s work, it belongs to that ministry even before we give it, so we should keep our word. I admit that I have too easily made promises out of heightened emotion without checking with my husband or my calendar first, but I hope I have kept those promises and paid those debts because I don’t want to be spending someone else’s money or time as my own.
As for restitution, I know we often think of the blood of Christ as paying for all of our debts in full, and in a very big way, that is totally correct–in the way of paying for the wages of sin that would be death. But I think God wants us to make restitution when we can for more than the reason of just paying our debts. It says above to make restitution in addition to the sacrifice, and I think it’s because it helps the doer of the deed pay attention, so he won’t repeat the misdeed. It also adds a tangible freedom to the spiritual freedom we receive in Messiah. And, as I said above, it can help the sinner become a blessing to the person he sinned against.
I just rewatched The Passion of The Christ movie yesterday, and it still brings me to tears when I see what all Yeshua went through for me. I know that if no one ever sinned, from Adam to me and beyond, He would not have had to go through the torture, the disrespect, the false accusations, the pain and the death He suffered. I know I have gained multiple debts in my life–especially when I was young and had no understanding of how my actions affected others, and I know He bore those things all the way to Calvary, so I could be free of them.
As the lyrics say, “He paid a debt He did not owe; I owed a debt I could not pay; I needed someone to wash my sins away.” He did that for me. And now, because I am thankful for all He did, and because I love Him with all my being, I want to keep myself clear of debts–current and future, to the best of my ability. If I sin against someone, or if I hurt someone, I want to make it up to that person and be a blessing. As Forrest Gump might say, “Life is like a box of chocolates; if you eat the ones that belong to someone else, you should buy them another box.” 🙂
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License and Registration Please
Registration by Flickr User NHS Confederation, CC License = Attribution
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“License and Registration, Please.” Aren’t those just some of the scariest words in this life? They usually mean we have done something wrong, or that we have some unfixed issue with our vehicle that we will be forced to deal with now. But how much scarier will it be when a government official can come to your door any time he wants and ask that question? As much as I don’t want to think about it, that day may come for the USA, and it may be here sooner than we think. But until it does come, I will thank God for every day my freedoms are mostly intact.
In today’s reading from Numbers 3:40 through Numbers 3:51 (the end of the chapter), we read more about the census God has asked be taken for the community of Israel. In this chapter, all the males from one month and older have been numbered, and God wants Moses to register all those who are firstborn. From the counting and registration, the total number of firstborn males comes in at 22,273.
You may remember from yesterday that the total number of Levites ended at 22,000. Well, since the Levites are to belong to God as a redemption for all the firstborn males of Israel, there’s a difference of 273 that have no one to redeem them. But all must be redeemed, so God tells Moses what he needs to do for their redemption. God has Moses take 5 shekels for each of the 273 males that is not redeemed by a Levite, and then He tells Moses to give the redemption money for the extra people to Aaron and his sons. Moses, of course, did just as God ordered him to do.
Maybe it’s from watching too many post-apocalyptic movies and/or shows, but the idea of each and every person being registered sounds scary to me. Of course, if it was God asking for the registration, it wouldn’t seem so bad because I know He only has plans for my good and never to harm me. But I don’t know that about the U.S. government–or any government in the world. But even with the fear out there that ungodly governments could acquire information and abuse what it finds, I know that I can trust being in the hands of a God whose only desire is my redemption. And besides that, I’m already registered with Him since even the very hairs of my head are numbered.
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Hear Oh Israel
Shema Yisrael by Flickr User Yaniv Ben-Arie, CC License = Attribution, Share Alike
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Imagine trying to have a close relationship over a long distance and without ever getting to know your partner. Could you even call it a real relationship? Two people who are acquainted with one another have a type of relationship, but they do not have an interactive, loving, and intimate relationship. They can’t. An intimate relationship requires truly knowing who your partner is.
God knows us because He made us, but it takes more than a set of repetitive prayers, a few glimpses at Scripture, and a weekly visit to a church to get to know God. All the gold stars, volunteer duties, and memory verses in the world will not take the place of seeking God with your whole being in the effort to get to know Him deeper and better. His word even tells us that when we seek and search for God with all our hearts, we will find Him.
In today’s reading from Deuteronomy 6:4 through Deuteronomy 6:25 (the end of the chapter), we begin with God’s main introduction of Himself to the people of Israel. In Hebrew, the first verse is called The Shema. It means “hear” or “listen.” You may even have heard it sung in your church in either Hebrew or English or a mix of both since some Israel-friendly churches like to add it to the worship songs. There’s some great information with a breakdown of words and such for the subject at Wikipedia. For our reading today, the verse that begins it all goes like this…
The reading continues with what Yeshua quoted as the greatest of all commandments…
Moses then tells the people that these words should always be on their hearts, and they are to teach them carefully to their children. They should talk of them when they are at home, when they travel, when they lie down, and when they rise up. They are so important, they should be written on something strapped to their hands, tied around their foreheads, written on all their door frames, and engraved on their gates.
As the chapter continues, Moses reminds the people that when they are living in the land of promise, in houses they didn’t build, using water from wells they didn’t dig, and eating from vineyards and olive trees they didn’t plant, to remember who delivered them from Egypt and brought them to the land. He tells them to fear The Lord, serve Him, and swear by His Name. Then, he reminds them to never follow other gods, especially those chosen by the people that surround them because Yahveh is there with them, and He is a jealous God. Moses reminds them to never again test God like they did at Massah and to always do what is right in His eyes.
The last paragraph gives us the first representation of the power of personal testimony. Moses tells them that someday their children will ask them why they have so many laws and rules. When that happens, they are to tell their children that the community of Israel was once in slavery to Pharoah in Egypt, but The Lord brought them out with a strong hand. They should tell them of the signs and wonders God worked against Egypt, and that He brought them out for the purpose of bringing them to the land He promised to their ancestors. And they are to share that He gave them all the laws and statutes for their own good because it is righteousness for them to observe all that The Lord commands.
I love how Moses keeps referring to the laws of God being for the good of the people, and how that should even be part of their testimony to their children (and I’m sure to others). Their testimony should include the bondage they were in before they were delivered, and it should include the powerful ways in which God brought them their deliverance. Our reasons for keeping the laws of God are the same. They bring us righteousness, and they are for our own good. By living a holy and separated life, people will ask us why we’re not like everyone else, and then we will have a chance to share the testimony God gave us when He delivered us from whatever bondage we were in.
No matter how many laws we keep though, if we forget God, they become nothing but legalism. We must know who He is to know why we would want to walk with Him. The longer we serve God, the more we should know Him and know about Him, but it must begin somewhere. That somewhere for Israel was Deuteronomy 6:4-5, so it should work just as well for us. When we know God as who He is, we can have an intimate relationship with Him that becomes more than doctrine or legalism.
So how does that translate to those of us now who serve under the blood of Messiah? Well, since God never changes, it means that even for those of us who consider ourselves to be Christian, God is still One. We won’t be able to fit that infinite concept into a finite mind easily. Even Paul says in 1 Timothy 3:16 that Godliness is a great mystery. He reminds Timothy that God was manifested in the flesh, seen by angels, preached to the Gentiles, and received up into glory. God could only have done those things in the body of Yeshua.
Because of my personal testimony and studies, I have much more to share on this finding out who God is and how we can draw closer to Him, so if you want to read the rest, just click for more at the end. If you must come back to it later, or you’re just not ready now, I ask you to pray specifically to ask what God meant when He told Israel that He is One Lord and why that is important. I bless each one of you, my readers, with a desire for more wisdom in your walk that you may also have more intimacy in your walk with our wonderful Creator. Shalom and Bye for now.
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July 31, 2014 Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) | Bible Study, Nonfiction, Torah Commentary | Bible Commentary, Bible study, Complete Jewish Bible, Deuteronomy, God is One, Israel, Moses, One God, One Lord, Oneness, relationship, Scripture, Shema, Shema Yisrael, Torah Portions | Leave a comment