Numbers 36-Deuteronomy 7: The Golden Rules

     It is hard enough to get two people to agree totally on any one thing but there seems to be one thing that man is universally in agreement about.  We all hate rules!  We do not all hate rules to the same extent.  Some people hate all rules and labor under the misconception that rules cause rebellion when in reality rules only identify rebellion.  Others of us are not opposed to all rules but only the rules that inconvenience us.  We all know from what we have read of the Scriptures thus far that God is big on rules.  So if we don't like them, why does God give us so many that are so contrary to our sinful natures?

Deuteronomy 4:5-9   Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.  6 Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.  7 For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?  8 And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?  9 Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons;

     Rules are the golden line separating the followers of Christ from the world.  God declares that the same people who despise the laws of God will recognize the wisdom of those rules when they see Christians joyfully and willingly living in accordance to them.  These rules declare to the unconverted world the nearness of our God.  They cannot see God living inside of us but they have no problem seeing the golden glow of God living through us as we joyfully live out God's rules.  The world is also exposed to the righteousness of God through the actions of God's rules in our lives.  They know the rules are not the inventions of natural men and recognize the righteousness of God in giving us these rules as they see the results of our obedience.  Though things do not always turn out the way we desire, they do turn out right.

Deuteronomy 6:17-23   Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee.  18 And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the LORD: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers,  19 To cast out all thine enemies from before thee, as the LORD hath spoken.  20 And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD our God hath commanded you?  21 Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand:  22 And the LORD shewed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes:  23 And he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers.

     Rules are also the golden cord drawing our loved ones to Christ.  Now in order for this to work our Christianity cannot be expended during the public meetings of the church but must follow us home and throughout our daily lives (Deuteronomy 6:7-9   And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.  8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.  9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.).  Like our adherence to God's rules with joy gives us opportunity to witness to the world, it also gives us the same opportunity with our family members.  As they behold God living through us in our daily walk of faith they are driven to question why life is different, goals are different, and priorities are different in their homes.  Many mistakenly think we can educate children into salvation, but this idea is foreign to the Scriptures.  The Bible says the same thing to us no matter who we are seeking to see God convert.  We are to be a light by joyfully and willingly living out our faith in obedience to God's golden rules and when they inquire about what makes us different we are to give them the Gospel trusting that God will give them repentance unto the acknowledging of the truth that they might be converted.

Daily Devotional:  Hebrews 10:1-18   Christ A Sacrifice For All

Numbers 28-35: Content In The Wilderness

Numbers 32:1-5   Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle: and when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for cattle;  2 The children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and unto the princes of the congregation, saying,  3 Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Shebam, and Nebo, and Beon,  4 Even the country which the LORD smote before the congregation of Israel, is a land for cattle, and thy servants have cattle:  5 Wherefore, said they, if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession, and bring us not over Jordan.

     The tribes of Reuben and Gad make what seems to be a pretty harmless request of Moses.  Their desire is to stay in the land they have been traveling through on their forty-year trip to the land that God has promised them.  The reasoning of these two tribes seems to be pretty solid.  They have a large amount of cattle and the land is a land that provides adequate pasture for cattle.  Reuben and Gad do not mention it but I believe we can also see a certain degree of security in this choice.  They already possess this land and they have seen it with their eyes.  Battles will have to be fought for the other land and they must take God's word for the goodness of the land.  Like us, they found security in walking by sight instead of faith.

Numbers 32:6-7   And Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?  7 And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the LORD hath given them?

   Moses sharply rebukes them for their request.  He points out two problems with this seemingly innocent request.  First of all, it will exclude them from the battles that their brethren will have to fight.  Secondly, it will discourage the hearts of the rest of Israel.  So here we see that other Christians' courage and confidence in God can be zapped by Christians giving up on the good fight of faith and settling for a life of sight instead of a life of faith.  I wonder how many times we have discouraged others and caused them to quit on God simply because we did not continue in the battle?  I don't think we give any thought to how our unfaithfulness in little battles like attending the public meetings of the church, gracious and consistent giving, and growth in Christ's likeness in our attitude and actions discourage other saints.  Perhaps others are discouraged and don't feel like they can go on because they have watched us choose to sit down and enjoy the pleasures of this wilderness instead of fighting on by faith to live a biblical life as the disciples of Christ.  All of the Jewish males who were twenty and older died when the ten spies found contentment in the wilderness.  I wonder how many will die and spend eternity separated from God because we are content in the wilderness and have discouraged their hearts?


Daily Devotional:  Luke 23:44-24:12   Jesus' Death and Resurrection

Numbers 20-27: Ahhh! It's A SNAKE!

Numbers 21:4   And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.

     Here we encounter one of the real, everyday enemies of a living faith--Discouragement.  Discouragement is defined as the act of disheartening, or depriving of courage; the act of deterring or dissuading from an undertaking; the act of depressing confidence.  If I could, I would like to give you a working definition from this dictionary definition.  Discouraged is the state of being robbed of courage and the confidence in God needed to continue living out the faith of Christ in daily life.

     Now we can be sure that the same thing that discouraged these people of God is the same thing that will discourage us today if we are not careful.  The latter part of verse four points out the main reason for discouragement then and now to be the challenges of the way.  They had encountered many obstacles along their journey and they allowed these to rob them of courage and confidence in God.  We too meet with many obstacles both internal and external as we seek to pattern our lives after Christ and His teachings.  The Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapters five through seven, provide many challenges to the person that desires to live an honest and biblical life.  Living out these principles of a biblical faith is the way in which God has chosen for us to walk, and it is a daunting task more akin to a mountain climb than a Sunday stroll.

Numbers 21:5   And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.

     Unfortunately, we are prone to react badly when faced with the difficulty of the way.  Like Israel, if we are not careful, we find ourselves complaining when we should be climbing.  We will sink to complaining of God's choice of leadership and blame our leaders for the difficulty of the way.  It is easy to blame our failure to continue in a living faith on others and lack of provisions, but we must keep in mind it didn't work for Israel.  Finally, if crying, "It's their fault" and complaining, "I don't have what it takes" doesn't work, we complain about God's provisions.  In this stage we see the provision of God, but it isn't enough.

Numbers 21:6   And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.

     So what happens when we allow ourselves to be discouraged by the challenges of a living faith and regress to the point of complaining about everything and everyone God has placed in our lives?  Problems multiply and the way gets harder.  Many times our complaining only magnifies the obstacles and multiplies the hindrances to our progressing along the way.  Nothing good ever comes of complaining and blaming.

Numbers 21:7-9   Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.  8 And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.  9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

     So how do we get out of this mess?  For Israel the only way out was confessing their sin and by faith placing confidence in a brass serpent on a pole to take care of their problems when they were bitten.  As for you and I, we simply need to follow their pattern.  Confess our sins of fear and doubt.  Confess our failure to live out the faith of Christ daily.  Then put our confidence in the one that the brazen serpent pictured-- the Lord Jesus Christ (John 3:14-15   And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:  15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.).  It will not make the way any easier but it will give us the courage and confidence in God we need to press on the upward way!

Numbers 21:10   And the children of Israel set forward, and pitched in Oboth.

Daily Devotional:  John 18:1-11   Jesus Willingly Taken

Numbers 12-19: It All Depends On How You Look At It

Numbers 13:33, 14:10   And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.  10 But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.

Numbers 14:6-10   And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes:  7 And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land.  8 If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.  9 Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not.

In this narrative we see the twelve spies going into the promised land to see the land that God has promised to give them for the first time.  After surveying the land the spies come back with conflicting conclusions on what the next step is to be.  Would they go in and possess the land as God had commanded or would they remain in the wilderness.  Ten of the spies say they cannot go into the land and possess it.  Two of the spies, Caleb and Joshua, urge the people to go into the land and possess it.

So what made the difference?  The ten spies magnified the enemies saying there were giants in the land and they magnified the part they would play in conquering the promised land therefore they were discouraged because they assumed that they looked like grasshoppers to the inhabitants of the land.  The two spies magnified the Lord.  They put no confidence in their abilities but declared their total reliance upon the Lord.  Let us make sure that we are not magnifying the problem but magnifying the Lord.  As we behold the greatness of God then the challenges of life will grow small as we rely upon God's strength instead of our own.

Daily Devotional:  John 3  Jesus Teaches About New Life

Numbers 4-11: There is No Difference

Now we come to one of those chapters of the Bible that my wife claims as her favorite chapter of the Bible and that I have read time and time again as I read through God's word but not with nearly the same level of excitement that my wife approached it with.  This chapter is Numbers chapter 7.  You know which chapter I am talking about.  This is the chapter in which each of the tribes of Israel offer the identical offering for the dedication of the altar.  I know you remember the list of the offerings:  ...one silver charger, the weight thereof was an hundred and thirty shekels, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them were full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meat offering:  One spoon of ten shekels of gold, full of incense:  One young bullock, one ram, one lamb of the first year, for a burnt offering:  One kid of the goats for a sin offering:  And for a sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five he goats, five lambs of the first year: this was the offering ...

My problem with this had historically been the repetition of the offering.  My wife really enjoyed this repetition of the entire list for each tribe but I always thought surely this would have been easier to just say they all offered the same thing.  Then God used my wife to open my eyes to the reason why God repeated their offerings over and over and over again.  Are you interested?  Here it is.  They brought burnt offerings for atonement, sin offerings, and peace offerings.  All of them were the same because it does not matter who you are or what you have done or what you own, we must all come to God on the same terms--the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Lord is the only sacrifice that will atone for sin and bring peace with God.  This seemingly repetitious cataloging of the offerings of these twelve tribes serves as an illustration driving home the point that the Lord Jesus is the only sacrifice that is acceptable to God and that all of us must offer the same offering.  Now aren't you glad God repeated Himself?

Daily Devotional:  Matthew 5:17-20; Romans 8:1-4  Jesus Fulfills the Law

Leviticus 23-Numbers 3: Of Such Is The Kingdom Of Heaven

Now we come to one of those intensely interesting sections of the Scripture.  Numbers 1-3 are filled with hard to pronounce names and numbers that really have nothing to do with life today...Right?  Wrong!  There is a great lesson in these numbers for us today about service to the Lord.

Numbers 1:2-3   Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls;  3 From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies.

In this passage we see the instructions given by God for the numbering of the people that are available for war in the tribes of Israel.  There are two things that we must take note of in this passage.  First, only those who were twenty years old and up were counted in this census.  Secondly, they were counted according to their ability to perform the task they had been given of going to war.  Now the Tribe of Levi is excluded from this list of tribes.  They too are numbered but they are given different instructions.

Numbers 3:15   Number the children of Levi after the house of their fathers, by their families: every male from a month old and upward shalt thou number them.

 Now as we take a look at the numbers in chapter 3 we find that a new stipulation is given.  These are going to be numbered from one month old and up.  They also have a different purpose.  Their purpose is to minister about the things of the Tabernacle and to be a holy replacement for the firstborn of everyone in Israel.

So from these numbers and names we learn the valuable lesson that we are never too young to serve the Lord.  I understand that a person cannot be converted until they can understand the Gospel.  I also understand that the Lord said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven."  I see two messages for us today in this passage.  First of all we must not shun to declare the Gospel to people even if they are younger than eighteen or twenty and expect them to repent and believe the Gospel.  Secondly, we need to be sure that we are providing opportunities for service for these young people that do get converted.  Like Samuel, they need a place to minister in the house of the Lord.  We should not neglect to evangelize and then disciple people simply because they have not reached the magic age of 18 or 21. We should make it our business as parents/guardians to teach those in our care of the Lord and the salvation that has been provided on Calvary while they are young and not wait until they have been swallowed up by the world of self-worship, sin, and the occult.   I remember a wise man once said, "Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth".

Daily Devotional:  Matthew 9:1-8; Luke 13:10-17  Sings and Miracles of Authority