Numbers 22 & 23 -- Not Just A Travel Listing

I really loved these chapters that start to wrap-up Numbers!  Seeing the tribes of Gad and Reuben and half of Manasseh willing to settle for living outside the Promised Land because the plains of Moab looked so good for their flocks and herds yet willing to fight for the Promised Land for the other tribes makes us doubt their wisdom.  And while they secured their families in that land so they could go fight for everyone else, the rest of the tribes simply had to mark time, waiting for the promise of God to be fulfilled.  It’s amazing that they did wait!

At first, chapter 33 seemed to be just a long list of points on a map that are difficult, if not impossible, to find today.  But I loved what my commentary pointed out:  “Their 38 years of wandering fall between verses 36 & 37 and are graciously passed over in silence.  But this chapter is more than a list of places; it’s a testimony to the sovereignty of God in dealing with His people … God doesn’t just write history:  He plans history and sees that His plan is executed … When Israel didn’t permit God to rule, then He overruled.  Israel lost the blessing but God achieved His purposes … The sovereignty of God doesn’t destroy human individuality or responsibility.  God is so great that He can will us the freedom to choose but still accomplish His purposes.”

Father, please help my boys and me not to settle for less than Your will and Your best for us and our lives.  Guide them to learn to trust You and to seek what You want for them!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Numbers 30-31 -- Midian Pays The Price

I wonder what Moses felt when God said, “Pay back the Midianites for what they did to the Israelites; after that, you will die.”

The Midianites, at the suggestion of Balaam, had used their women to seduce the Israelite men to sin.  The 12,000 soldiers who were sent into battle successfully killed every Midianite man without losing a single soldier!  But it was the women who’d seduced them, and now they had taken them as spoils of war!

Moses directed them to kill all of the Midianite boys, since they would soon become men and be tempted to fight Israel again.  Any Midianite women or girls who’d had sex with men would also be killed (for they were likely the ones who’d caused Israel to sin), but virgins would be spared to be used as slaves.

The spoils of war were divided equally between the soldiers who’d fought and the people.  Both groups were taxed by the Lord as well.  The commanders, having noted that every soldier return from battle alive, ordered 420 pounds of gold the soldiers had collected as spoils of war be given to the Lord as a gift of thankfulness. 

My commentary had this to say about holy war today:

“The church has no mandate from God to engage in holy wars, because our enemies aren’t flesh and blood, and our weapons are spiritual.  The sword of the Spirit is the only sword we use to advance the cause of Christ.”  I wonder what our world would be like today if the church had understood and followed this advice and never set out on the Crusades against the Muslims!

Father, thank You for Your provision and protection over my family.  Help us to always acknowledge Your help.  Let us never keep for ourselves things that are weapons of the enemy which could entice us to sin.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Numbers 29 -- Sacrifices of our TIME

Sometimes we flinch at the idea of having to attend several days of Bible study at church.  Back in the old days, I remember going to church every night for a week or two for revivals.  I can’t imagine how we ever found a time that our schedules would permit it then, much less today.  This chapter lists several Jewish holy days that began their civil new year.

The first day of the seventh month was the Feast of Trumpets.  Nine days later, they had the Day of Atonement, which required fasting.  Five days after that, the Feast of Shelters began, and it lasted 8 days.  The first and last days were Sabbaths when no work was done, and over 200 sacrifices were offered by the priests that week.

Today, just giving of our time seems such a sacrifice, and we need to remember that sacrifices were supposed to cost us something.  I think so often today we’re tempted to throw money at something so long as our time isn’t required.  But I think back to mission trips I’ve taken, and I wouldn’t trade for that time I gave up.  Those trips don’t seem like sacrifices.  That’s because I communed with God.

Father, help us to realize in our busy culture that spending time with You is not a sacrifice, but a privilege, and refresh us when we do so!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Numbers 28 -- The Tremendous Cost That Was NOTHING Compared To ...

What always stuns me when I read this is the sheer number of animals it took just to fulfill the minimum offerings to the Lord that the nation of Israel as a whole had to present!  What a terrible reminder of the cost of our sin! 

My commentary said that, not counting personal offerings and the lambs slain at each home during Passover, “each year the priests offered 113 bulls, 32 rams, and 1,086 lambs,” not counting gallons of flower, olive oil, and wine!  Yes, it was expensive.  Yes, God is more than deserving, and yes, it is all His anyway!

My commentary also notes “how thankful we should be that the ancient sacrificial system has be fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and that we have the privilege of coming into the presence of God at any time through the new and living way.  As priests of God, we can bring to Him our spiritual sacrifices, our bodies, people won to Christ, money and material gifts, worship and praise, good works, a broken heart, and believing prayer.”  It also challenges us to “imitate David and not give to the Lord that which costs us NOTHING.”

Father, You are so worthy of our offerings, and that’s why we give You our lives.  Help me never to complain about the cost of any offering, whether in money or time, because what You gave us when Your Son died on that cross was the costliest sacrifice ever.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Numbers 27 -- Readying To Pass The Baton

Moses had led the people for 40 years and was now 120 years old.  God had sustained him, keeping him physically strong and mentally alert despite his age.  It was time for the Israelites to enter the Promised Land and time for leadership to be transferred, since Moses wouldn’t be allowed to enter the Promised Land because of his pride and anger at Meribah.  Despite this unfortunate failure, God and Moses communed as friend with friend.  Therefore, when God told Moses he could climb the mountain to see the land and then he would die, Moses wasn’t even concerned that his death was imminent.  He instead worried about leadership for his nation.

God had already been at work on that task over the years, bringing Joshua alongside Moses at Sinai as he climbed that mountain to receive the Law.  Joshua had lived life beside Moses and learned by watching how Moses led by depending on God.  Most importantly, God said of Joshua, “My Spirit is in him.”  Joshua was concerned for the glory of God rather than his own glory, as well as for the welfare of the people.  By the time of Moses’ death, Joshua had been well-trained to take over the leadership of Israel.

My commentary brought it to the present:  “One of the responsibilities of Christian leaders today is to see that the next generation is equipped to carry on the work.  Each local church is just one generation short of extinction, and unless we teach and train new leaders, we jeopardize the future of our homes, churches, and nation.”

Father God, help me to be wise in training younger people with the knowledge You’ve given me so that they can pick up where I will someday leave off.  Help me to prepare my sons to be leaders and ready their hearts for what You have in mind for them.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Numbers 26 -- Another Census For A Reason

As the Israelites had begun their trek in the Desert of Sinai, Moses had been told to take a census of men age 20 and up, and they totaled 603,550.  Now, on the plains of Moab just across the Jordan River from the Promised Land, they totaled 601,730.  It’s as though God had replaced almost every man who’d left Egypt with a new man born on the trip.

Looking at tribes and groups, my commentary said that Gad, Simeon, and Reuben, who camped together south of the tabernacle, dropped from 59,300 to just 22,00 in total!  Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, who camped together east of the tabernacle, all showed significant gains.

Moses knew he couldn’t enter the Promised Land, but rather than coasting in his retirement or becoming reclusive and bitter, “Moses invested the closing weeks of his life in preparing the new generation to enter Canaan and claim the land God promised to give them.”  That’s the way to go out!

The second census was needed to gather information about the size of the family groups, for God had directed that each tribe’s land area would reflect its population.  “Some of the tribes gladly accepted their inheritance and went to work making it home, some complained about the land they were given, and some went out and conquered more territory,” my commentary said, and it quoted Matthew 9:29 – “According to your faith be it unto you.”

The Levites were given no land of their own, but were dispersed among 48 cities scattered throughout the country.  This occurred for at least three reasons, my commentary said.  First, on his death bed, Jacob had prophesied it, because Levi had been violent.  Second, “it gave them a better opportunity to teach the law to more people and influence them to be faithful to the Lord.”  Thirdly, God was their inheritance and they shared in the sacrifices and tithes that the people brought to the Lord.  They were to receive what they needed from God’s hand through His people.”

Father, Your hand and Your goodness and mercy were all over this process of getting Your people ready for their future.  I pray that Your hand will guide me as I prepare for the future as well.  I need Your wisdom and discernment.  Please show me every step to take.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Numbers 25 -- Balaam Couldn't Curse Them, But He Knew How To Defile Them

“Balaam wasn’t able to curse Israel, but he knew how to defile them and seduce them into sin so great that Jehovah would judge them.  Balaam suggested to Balak that the Moabites and Midianites convene a religious feast to honor Baal, and that they invite the Jews to attend.  The feast would involve idolatry and abominable immorality and would be a flagrant violation of Israel’s covenant with the Lord … What Balaam couldn’t do by appealing to the demons, he accomplished by appealing to the flesh and inviting the Jews to enjoy themselves at Baal Peor,” my commentary said.

God sent a plague that began to kill people, and Moses had to act quickly at God’s command to kill the offending leaders. “One special act of judgment helped to bring the plague to an end and save the rest of the nation.”  Aaron’s grandson Phinehas saw a leader from Simeon taking a Midianite woman into his tent right in view of the tabernacle!  He entered the tent and killed them both and the plague stopped.  But 24,000 Israelites had died by that time.

My commentary also said the man killed had committed “a brazen high-handed sin for which there was no forgiveness.”

I also liked these quotes from my commentary: 

“If God isn’t allowed to rule in a person’s life, He overrules and accomplishes His purposes just the same, but the disobedient servant is the loser.”

“When we deliberately rebel against the revealed will of God and try to change it, we are ‘walking in the way of Balaam.’”

“The doctrine of Balaam is the lie that it’s permissible for saved people to live like unsaved people, that God’s grace gives us the right to disobey God’s law.”

“Any teaching that makes it easy and permissible to sin is false doctrine, because the Word of God was given to us to enable us to live holy lives.”

“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”

Father, help me to understand the seriousness of brazen, high-handed sin, and continue to remind me never to use Your grace as an excuse to sin.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford