The Book of Numbers

I am in the book of Numbers.  Loving every bit of it (ok, the numbering of the people in all of the tribes was a bit rough).  Korah and the earth swallowing him up.  The bit about the spirit of jealousy coming over a husband.  The 12 days of sacrifices that took place, one day for each tribe to sacrafice, sanctify the alter.  The spying of the Land.  Internal struggles as princes lead their tribes to doubt God.  God sending a disease that wiped out thousands.  Aaron and Miriam having their own little rebellion that leads to Miriams uncleanness and exile.  And do not forget the unnamed man that collected sticks on the Sabbath.....he had a very rocky ending! Miriam dies.  Aaron dies.  Phineas stops the plague with his manly javelin skills.  The number of rebellions found in this book is unbelievable.   In it all we have a beautiful reminder of what God is doing.  God is taking a people, a people that are His and He is drawing near to them.  That is what He is up to.  That is what all it is about.  He wants to be near to His people.  The book of numbers is full of stories about rebellion.  God's people keep pushing Him away.  Look at what He has done for them.  And yet they still want to go back to slavery.  They have forgotten what their God has done.  They remember the pleasures of slavery in Egypt but refuse to see the pleasures that their God has given them.  He wants them to be near.  He wants them close. This generation is stiffnecked.  They perish in the wilderness because of their unbelief.  This book is full of warnings.

 We are God's children.  He has gone to great trouble to be near to us.  We should be Joshua and Caleb in this story.  We are to believe that God can and will bring us through the wilderness.  We are to thirst after His ways and not the ways of the world around us.  We do this by remembering and being thankful. God's story is not just to be known by us. It is to be loved. We know his ways, walk in ways, delight in His ways and continue on in His ways. We love the law and meditate on it day and night.  We teach His stories, our stories faithfully to our children.  We walk before them, showing them how to be true sons and daughters of the Most High God.

The stories found in numbers are full of lessons.  Are we Korah?  Are we the bickering princes that cause others to stumble and lose their way?  Are we Miriam who murmurs against God's chosen?  Are we the grumblers in the wilderness who despise the food of the Lord?  Are we forgetful of what God has done for us?  Or can we say that we are sisters of Joshua and Caleb.  Faithful to Moses as he walked before God and led a stiff necked people. We follow Joshua into the promised land with confidence of victory because we know what the Lord has done and what He has promised to do.  We should be people of courage.  Do we look at the giants in our own story and shrink back?  Or can we say with Caleb and Joshua, "lets go to war now for the Lord will deliver our enemies into our hands!"  We pray for this kind of courage in the story we are in.  We all have our giants.  But we also have God as our Father and deliverer.  So we walk in the strength of Lord, knowing that He has led us into the wilderness so that He can bring us into the glorious promised land.

Our culture is bankrupt. We should not be tempted by what they have. They offer the same thing that Egypt offered Israel......slavery.  We need to renew our desires and seek after righteousness. We need to teach our children to love what God loves. We do this by loving His ways and keeping our own hearts from idolatry and vain things.  "Think not on worthless things," says Psalm 119.  Guard your hearts and your minds and keep the book of Numbers close when you are tempted by the ways of this world.  The stories found in this book should knock some good ole sense into our straying hearts.  The basic lesson is this:  idolatry and grumbling lead to death in the wilderness. Following, believing, and remembering our God leads to a land flowing with milk and honey.  Super easy to decide which one is best.  Super easy to slide into rebellion when we are not being diligent to keep the idols out. Idol minds lead to idolatry in the heart.  Stay vigilant!  Fight the good fight and learn to follow Joshua and Caleb into the promises that God has for you.