Read: Numbers 31-32
Marked: Numbers 31:37, and the LORD’s tribute of the sheep was six hundred and seventy-five.
They had won a great victory and obtained much plunder. But Moses remembers the Lord and gives Him a tribute from the spoils.
When we receive a blessing from God do we remember to give to Him? Proverbs 3:9-10 says we are to honour the Lord with our possessions and with the first fruits of all our increase.
Read: Numbers 28-30
Marked: Numbers 28:15, Also one kid of the goats as a sin offering to the LORD shall be offered, besides the regular burnt offering and its drink offering.
God commanded Israel to keep certain days and feasts marked by offerings. They were to keep these faithfully at their appointed times (V2). These were Sabbath offerings, monthly offerings, Passover offerings, the Feast of Weeks, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. The monthly offerings, Passover, and feasts all included a sin offering.
The relationship God has with His people is one of great joy and these offerings and feasts represent this close relationship. The offerings and feasts all point to Jesus. In Him is completeness of joy and restoration of our broken relationship with God.
Before the coming of the Lamb of God who once and for all made atonement for us (Hebrews 10:14), the sacrificial system, and especially the offerings made for sin, were made by faith to bond them to God.
Habakkuk reminds me when he says, “But the just shall live by his faith (Habakkuk 2:4b); that it’s always been by faith through which we are saved because of His grace (Ephesians 2:8-9). The sacrifices and feasts were outpourings of faith which washed and renewed them before God.
Read: Numbers 26-27
Marked: Numbers 26:64, But among these there was not a man of those who were numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest when they numbered the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Sinai.
I have spoken with some who believe that regardless of what they believe, if God exists, that they will enter heaven. Yet, not one of the men who were numbered in the first census in the wilderness of Sinai entered the Promise Land. Why? Because of unbelief towards God.
They did not take Him at His Word, and so died in the wilderness. We can’t expect an inheritance in the Lord if we are not numbered among the faithful.
Read: Numbers 23-25
Marked: Numbers 23:19, “God [is] not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”
God impressed upon Balaam His divine nature. People say a lot of things about God and His word. Some think the Bible is full of contradictions and others consider some things in Scripture to be untrue. Really they are saying God can’t be trusted.
But what does God say about Himself? He is not a man. He does not lie. He’s not an offspring of man. He does not need to repent. He does what He says. When He speaks His words hold true.
Read: Numbers 21-22
Marked: Numbers 22:20, And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, “If the men come to call you, rise [and] go with them; but only the word which I speak to you–that you shall do.”
God tells Balaam to speak only the word which God speaks. God repeats His command in verse 35. When we speak of God and His word, perhaps quoting a verse or relating a subject or a topic found in Scripture, do we do so accurately?
There are many things said about God, or what Scripture says that have no basis in fact. For example: “God helps those who help themselves.” Or, “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle.”
In Acts 17:10-12 we have the example of the Bereans. They received the word with all readiness, but then searched the Scriptures if what Paul said was true. We shouldn’t be too quick to accept what someone says about God or the Bible without first checking it out for ourselves.
Read: Numbers 18-20
Marked: Numbers 18:8, And the LORD spoke to Aaron: “Here, I Myself have also given you charge of My heave offerings, all the holy gifts of the children of Israel; I have given them as a portion to you and your sons, as an ordinance forever.
We don’t serve God for gain, but we do receive gifts from God as a result. Aaron and his sons were tasked with the work related to the sanctuary, but would bear the iniquity associated with the priesthood (V1). This gives a sense of responsibility and accountability.
As the priesthood of all believers Christians are first to represent God to the world. This isn’t easy, but it is our responsibility. Many will question what we do or why we do what we do, even within the church. But we are accountable only to God.
In return God gave them what was His. They received the best of the best of the offerings (V9, 11, 12, 29). This was their inheritance from God. They had no other inheritance in the world. God, and God alone, was their portion (V20). We only receive the best of the best from God. The least we can do is give Him our best.
Read: Numbers 16-17
Marked: Numbers 16:48, And he stood between the dead and the living; so the plague was stopped.
Rebellion breaks out against Moses and Aaron. But it wasn’t against them, but against God. And once again God dealt with it (V1-40). But the people weren’t done yet.
The next day they complained against Moses and Aaron and turned toward the Tabernacle of Meeting (V41-42). What their intentions were isn’t said, but the cloud of God’s presence covered it and the glory of the Lord appeared. God intended to consume the entire congregation and a plague begins.
There is a plague affecting us all; the plague of sin. We see it working in the rebellious hearts of people manifesting in self-righteousness and condemnation of God. Sin is revealed in our works: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, envy, murder, and the like (Galatians 5:19-21).
And we are as good as dead because of this plague of sin. Like Aaron did, we have a Great High Priest standing between the dead and the living offering atonement to us through His sacrifice on the cross, setting us free from the bondage of sin and stopping its plague.
Read: Numbers 14-15
Marked: Numbers 14:9, “Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they [are] our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD [is] with us. Do not fear them.”
The Promised Land was the land long dreamed of and hoped for, a land flowing with milk and honey. Israel had spent four hundred and thirty years in Egypt, a land not their own. They were abused, mistreated and enslaved.
Now they stood on the border of the land of promise. Yet, because of the testimony of the ten spies, and their failure to trust in and believe the Lord, they turned on Moses and God (V2-3).
In Christ we have received the Kingdom of God, the real Promised Land. while we are not yet living there we are citizens of it. Living in Christ, living for Christ, means we live as Kingdom people walking worthy of God who calls us into His Kingdom and glory (1 Thessalonians 2:12).
What kept them out of the Promised Land was rebellion and fear. Instead of trusting in God they wanted to return to Egypt and stone Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Caleb (V10).
If God is for us who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, distress, famine, nakedness , peril, or sword? as it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.” (Romans 8:32; 35-36)
Read: Numbers 11-13
Marked: Numbers 12:1-2, Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman. So they said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?” And the LORD heard [it.]
From these chapters we see the effect discouragement can have on people and how one thing leads to another so that even Aaron and Miriam grumbled and complained. Discouragement can bring to the surface long buried resentments and prejudices that we might not even realize we have.
In the case of Aaron and Miriam it centred on their prejudice and resentment towards Moses’ wife (V1), inflamed by their desire for recognition (V2).
There is no place in the body of Christ for prejudice or power seeking; we are all one in the Lord and servants to one another (Galatians 3:26-27; Romans 10:12). There should be no line drawn by Christians dividing denominations or race or position or people. Nothing should divide us from the obligation to live; love God and love each other.
Read: Numbers 8-10
Marked: Numbers 10:2-3, “Make two silver trumpets for yourself; you shall make them of hammered work; you shall use them for calling the congregation and for directing the movement of the camps. When they blow both of them, all the congregation shall gather before you at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.”
When I served in the military we got used to hearing a bugle call in the morning and again in the evening. It was a sound that could easily be heard across the base I served on. You could almost sense when the bugle would sound, it was so familiar.
Different calls on the trumpets were made to direct the congregation of Israel. Both trumpets were sounded to gather the congregation. If only one sounded, then the leadership would gather. Another sound signalled the advance, and a different sound was the alarm for battle.
Matthew 24:32 says God will gather His elect with the great sound of a trumpet. Another trumpet call will signal the Rapture, that gathering of God’s people on the last day (1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16).
Are you ready? Will you hear the sound of the trumpet when the Lord returns?
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