Numbers 25

Numbers 25 is a rather sad day in the lives of the Israelites. They are on their journey to the Promised Land and put up camp at Shittim. The verse that starts all the problems goes like this: “the men began to have sex with the Moabite women”. You knew that sex had to be part of it didn’t you. It was part of their worship – how convenient is that. So God was angry and again decides to wipe out the leaders who were participating or letting this go on. This sex and worship scheme led them to worship Baal of Peor, and God responds by telling Moses to wipe out “all the leaders….hanging them….leaving them publicly exposed”. Moses gave God’s order to the judges and the work began. Phineas, who was the grandson of Aaron, saw one of the guys – Zimri – take a Midianite woman – Cozbi – who was daughter of one of the tribal chiefs of the Midianites into his tent. This was a blatant thing and he did it intentionally in front of all to send the message that no one could tell them how to live.

But Phineas follows them into the tent and scripture tells us that with “one thrust he drove the spear through the two of them” and killed them both. Seems a little intense doesn’t it? Yet God saw his passion for truth and obedience, and at that point halted the execution of the people, which had already reached 24,000 dead. God saw what Phineas had done, and said “Because he was as zealous for my honor as I myself am, I didn’t kill all the People of Israel in my zeal”. God was pleased that one of his priests would stand strong for the truth and take action to protect God’s ways. So he spares the rest that were on the death list. The enemy knew the weakness of man, and worked to destroy God’s people by pursuing them there. We need to be very aware that it exactly how Satan attacks today. He knows all too well what our areas of weakness are, and will come after us incessantly. We need to be on our guard and stand firm so we can deal with those attacks. Scripture tells us that no temptation is too much for us to resist, but we do have to choose to resist. It isn’t just a complete pass. Are you zealous for God’s truth and His ways? Do you protect it at every turn? We need to do that. There is much power in being completely aligned with God and His Word. Are you living like that?

Numbers 24

Numbers 24 continues the story of Balaam and the attempt by Balak to get him to curse the people of Israel. Of course, that can’t happen as Balaam must speak God’s truth as a prophet.  So Balaam tells Balak of his relationship with God.  Check out the attributes that Balaam has:

“1. Spirit of God came upon him

2. Man with 20/20 vision

3. Man who hears God speak

4. Sees what the Strong God shows him

5. Falls on his face in worship

6. Sees what is really going on”

What a description of a relationship with God.  Balaam is tuned in and hears clearly God’s voice. And the result is not to curse Israel, but rather to bless the people which he does. 

 Balak gets irritated and decides to go back on his word to pay Balaam whatever he wanted.  Since it didn’t go his way, Balak sends Balaam away with no payment of any kind.  “I told you I would pay you well, but you’re getting nothing”.  That seems pretty predictable.  You don’t do what I expect so I change all the rules.  Sounds a lot like people in general.  Balaam again tells Balak that he cannot be bought with money.  He is a principled man who lives in relationship with God and is not for sale.  We can learn from that.  Balaam goes on to prophecy about a number of peoples who will be defeated and speaks truth without fear.  He wasn’t swayed by the potential for reaction to his truth speaking.  He ends his oracles with this truth: “Who stands a chance when God starts in”?  The answer is clear – no one does.  God alone is in control.  He is able, more than able.  We need to walk with him like Balaam did – speak God’s truth – not what man wants to hear.  Too often we get worried about the results.  When we speak truth the results are not our concern.  God will take care of that.  Balaam tells it like God told him and left the rest to God.  Are you a truth speaker?  Are you talking to others with the truth God has given you, or avoiding the hard stuff in life.  God is still in control.  No one stands a chance if God has spoken it as so.  We should not be afraid, we should boldly proclaim his truth!

Numbers 23

Balak now asks Balaam to seek God and hopefully curse Moses and his people.  So altars are built, sacrifices made and Balaam goes and gets alone with God.  God met him and gave him His words.  Balaam comes back and gives God’s message – that these people are blessed of God.  In fact Balaam says “I want to die like these right living people.  I want an end just like theirs”.  God had revealed how blessed the people of Israel were, and Balaam wants that blessing too.  He cannot curse what God has blessed.  So Balak is irritated and decides to take Balaam to another location to look over less of the people and hopefully curse the fringes.  He isn’t getting the answer he wanted so he is asking for another opinion or attempt.  Isn’t that human nature?  God gives an answer and if it isn’t what we wanted to hear, we ask again or more likely ask somewhere else.  That is not the way it should work.  If God says it, it isn’t going to change because we ask again.  Sure we can go find a different answer from another source, but it won’t be God’s answer and it won’t come true.  Only God’s truth is going to happen.

 Balaam goes along with Balak’s second ask and they look over the outskirts of the camps and then Balaam goes off to get God’s message again.  This time it is a bit stronger response: “God is not man, one given to lies, and not a son of man changing his mind. Does he speak and not do what he says? Does he promise and not come through? I was brought here to bless; and now he’s blessed–how can I change that”?  Balak wanted to have Balaam curse Israel, but Balaam finds out that God’s plan for his long trip to see the people of Israel was to bless them.  Now that is a pretty big turn of events.  God makes it clear through Balaam that He isn’t swayed by man, and His mind doesn’t change like the wind.  His Word is truth and it comes through.  He does what He says and it never fails.  Balak still is not content and asks Balaam to take another look and seek God again.  He just isn’t giving up.  He knows if the people are blessed by God he and his army will be no match.  He will be toast.  So he persists again to get Balaam to take a third look.  His ask now is not that Balaam curse them but at least that he doesn’t bless them.  What a revolting development.  He brought this prophet all this way to get a curse and now it is on the verge of a blessing to the threat.  We will find out in the next chapter how try three goes down.  But the key is to realize that God is consistent, His truth happens, and we need to embrace it because it isn’t changing to fit our situation or desires.  God is not man, and He does what He says!

Numbers 22

Numbers 22 is a great story about the importance of listening. Balak, who was the king of Moab, is freaking out that Moses and the people of Israel are getting close to his country. He has heard about the fact that the Israelites are wiping up as they move and Balak is very concerned that he will be next. So he sends folks to get Balaam, a prophet of God, to come and bless him and curse Moses. Of course Balaam seeks God and is told not to return with these folks to Balak. “Don’t go with them…and don’t curse the others – they are a blessed people”. So Balak, being the fine leader he is, sends some higher ranking people to Balaam. They come with a promise to “honor and reward you lavishly” but Balaam still isn’t buying in. He doesn’t just refuse, he again goes to God to get direction. There is a principle here. Each time there is a question, even if it is the same one, Balaam goes to God. We need to do a whole lot more of that. When decisions come up, if we don’t have a clear answer from God’s Word, we need to be asking.

God does change things a little bit and tells Balaam to go but not say a word. Balaam is definitely tuned in to God as he says “I wouldn’t be able to defy the orders of my God to do anything, whether big or little”. Oh that we had that kind of attitude and desire – to serve God completely whether large or small. So Balaam heads off with these guys to go back to Moab. And suddenly his donkey goes in the ditch. Balaam beats him. Then it happens again, and again Balaam beats the donkey. The third time the donkey comes upon a narrow passage and just sits down. Balaam “lost his temper and beat the donkey with a stick”. But the rest of the story is that there was “an angel of God standing in the road to block his way” three times. Twice he was able to go around, but this third time there was no other way. And this time, “God gave speech to the donkey” and tells Balaam what is going on. Check out the reason: “I have come here to block your way because you’re getting way ahead of yourself”. It wasn’t necessarily that Balaam was doing the wrong thing, but it was the wrong time. The donkey had saved Balaam from the sword of death that the angel was carrying. Balaam immediately confesses to the angel “I have sinned. I had no idea you were standing in the road blocking my way”. How come? Was it just that Balaam was so focused on the end that he missed the path to get there and ultimately missed God? Sometimes we go so fast and go our own path and we may miss God’s instruction along the way. We need to be alert, tuned in, and listening. God will speak to us even if it takes a donkey!

Numbers 21

Numbers 21 describes the travel of Moses and the people of Israel.  It contains the story of a couple nations that refused to let them travel through their land, and instead attacked the Israelites.  Bad decision on their part as God was with the people and defeated the king of Arad, the king of the Ammorites, and the king of Bashan.  Each time when Moses asked permission to cross their land, these kings mounted their army and attacked.  But God was with them and gave them into the hands of the Israelites.  The king of Bashan was taken this way: God said “I’m making a present of him to you, him and all his people and his land”.  Moses wasn’t really on a quest to defeat armies and capture towns and land, but it was the result of their wandering and travels.  “God listened to Israel’s prayer” and not only protected them, but gave them victory.  Seems like a pretty good situation, but wait, there is more to the story.

 The people “become irritable and cross” as they travel.  They are back to the whining and grumbling we saw earlier a few times.  “They spoke out against God and Moses” which is not a good plan.  Don’t like the food, don’t like the lack of water, don’t like the travel, just a lot of complaining going on.  God has been pretty clear previously that He is not into the grumbling.  And we see a familiar response – only this time God chooses to send “poisonous snakes among the people” which bit them and caused “many in Israel” to die.  Lots of us don’t like snakes in general, but to be plagued by poisonous snakes that were everywhere would be a very bad situation.  The people figure out they have “sinned as we spoke out against God and you”.  Once again, Moses shows his love for his people and intercedes.  “Moses prayed for the people”.  They didn’t deserve it, but he continues to lead and love.  God again hears Moses intercession and answers, but this time in a different way.  He did not take the snakes away.  This time God instructs Moses to put up a copper snake on a flag pole.  Anyone bitten by a poisonous snake would survive if they looked immediately at the copper snake.  So rather than just remove the snakes, God leaves them in place and gives the people a way to deal with the bites.  Not so fast in letting them get back to normal this time.  A little more lesson time in store.  Can you imagine?  Knowing you are likely to get bit and hoping you can see the copper snake on the pole.  But that is how sin goes.  There is a price to be paid and in our case, Jesus is our “copper snake” if you will.  By looking to Him, receiving His saving grace, our sin can be dealt with.  His love and salvation is never to be a license to sin, but His love and ability to take away the impact of sin – which leads to separation and eternal death – is freely given to all who receive him.  Have you made that choice?

Numbers 20

Numbers 20 is a very sad chapter for Moses and Aaron.  It begins with the people once again grumbling – this time because “there was no water”.   So “they ganged up on Moses and Aaron” and as usual, complain and wish they were back in captivity in Egypt.  My how that terrible life they had then seems to continue becoming something they seem to want to return to.  Moses and Aaron throw themselves “facedown” before God and He shows up – they “saw the glory of God” -  to give them an answer.  God tells Moses to “speak to that rock” that is in front of the people.   Moses goes back and address the people and makes a very poor decision.  He fails to obey God.  He “slammed his staff against the rock” and water came forth, but he had made a bad choice and disobeyed God.  Doesn’t seem like a big deal does it?  God said speak to the rock, Moses slams it with his staff.  Water came forth either way.  People’s needs were met, God was glorified, all is good isn’t it?  Nope….not quite so fast.  God gave Moses a specific instruction which was not followed.  Check out the response from God: “Because you didn’t trust me, didn’t treat me with holy reverence in front of the People of Israel, you two aren’t going to lead this company into the land that I am giving them”.  Wow – that is quite a punishment for hitting vs speaking to a rock.  Moses and Aaron have been faithfully leading the people following God’s every direction and this one mistake will cost them the right to go into the Promised Land? 

Doesn’t seem fair does it?  But it is the very nature of God.  And it is exactly the way sin works.  You can live life without sin every day and only commit one sin in your life, but that is enough to keep you from the holiness that God requires.  Failing to obey once is equal to never obeying at all.  Missing obedience to one command is like disobeying every one.  God’s requirement is to be perfect in our obedience.  There is no margin for error.  Close is not good enough.  That is why Jesus had to go to the Cross.  Because none of us will be good enough on our own.  It is not possible.  Moses and Aaron fail to receive that which had been promised for many years because of a bad decision.  They did not obey God.  And Aaron “died on the mountaintop” very shortly thereafter.  And he didn’t even strike the rock, Moses did.  That could be another whole discussion.  But the reality is that failing to obey one thing is equivalent to missing the mark and leads to eternal separation from God.  That is the story of humankind.  It started in the Garden with Adam and Eve and is still our plight today.  Enter Jesus and His sacrificial death on the Cross.  He came to take away our sin and restore us to a relationship we continually mess up with God.  Are you understanding things?  You won’t enter the Promised Land (heaven) without Jesus blood to cover your sin.  You aren’t going to get there on your own steam.  It is only by His free gift of eternal life that you can come ever hope of an eternity with God.  Have you made that choice?  Do it before it is too late!  Do it today!

Numbers 19

Numbers 19 is a rather interesting chapter dealing with death and how to cleanse oneself in the event you are in the presence of a dead body.  God clearly speaks to Moses and Aaron that this is not some simple set of instructions that can be ignored.  Serious consequences – like “excommunicated” result if people don’t follow the “rules from the revelation that God commands”.  It is interesting that God specifically instructs them to sacrifice a “red cow” and then to burn the entire thing outside the camp.  Commentaries seem to point to the fact that red is the color of blood, and that is the reason for this instruction.  But the reality is that God has a very specific way to deal with cleansing people from the presence of death.  Not only direction for people who touch a “corpse…or human bone….or grave”.  Anything to do with death needs cleansing.  It took a period of seven days and specific tasks needed to be done along that timeline.  Lots of details and instruction in how to deal with death.

 So what about death today?  Sometimes it seems like we have become sort of immune to the impact of death.  It happens all around us and honestly doesn’t phase us much some days.  Why such a big deal here in God’s eyes?  I think it probably has to do with the reality that death is the result of sin.  “For the wages of sin is death” is what scripture tells us.  It was the reality of what happened in the garden when Adam and Eve chose to do things their way.  Death is like sin made visible.  It doesn’t happen as the result of a single sin in most cases – where God strikes someone dead for something they did.  But it is the general result of sinfulness in our lives.  And sin always requires that it be dealt with.  That is the message here – that the sin in our lives has a requirement to be dealt with.  There must be a cleansing in order for us to be right with God.  Sin can’t just be ignored and we pretend it doesn’t exist.  It does separate us from God unless confessed, repented from and put off.  It was very important to the folks in Moses time to do that.  I think we need to take a hard look at how we deal with sin in our lives today.  We tend to give an awful lot of passes which I am confident God can’t.  Are you clean in your relationship with God?  Have you dealt with the sin in your life?  It will keep you apart from Him.  Make sure you burn your red cow and get right with the Father!

Numbers 18

Numbers 18 is the instruction for how the Tent of Meeting was to be managed.  It is interesting that this chapter starts with “God spoke to Aaron”.  This is one of the few times that God speaks directly to Aaron himself.  Normally it is through Moses, or He spoke to Moses and Aaron together.  Only a few times in scripture is it directly to Aaron.  But this chapter is all about how Aaron is to manage God’s Tent.  He has several assignements: “responsible for taking care of sins having to do with the Sanctuary…..responsible for sins involving the priesthood”.  God provided a tribe to assist him in the work – the Levites – and Aaron was to “enlist your brothers….they report to you”.  So God is setting up the leadership of His ministry to the people and Aaron is the CEO/President if you will.  The service was very strict in it rules – those who violate it – well scripture says “both they and you will die” as God spoke to Aaron.  That is pretty high stakes to say the least.  It is also interesting that “outsiders are not allowed to help”.  This task was assigned to Aaron and the Levites and that was it.  No one else could be involved.  It was he and the boys and his Levite brethren period. 

 There was one other aspect of this job – Aaron and team were in “charge of my contributions”.  They handled all the offerings and tithes.  That is in fact how they were compensated for their efforts – through receiving a portion of what came into the storehouse.  There were very strict rules on what and how much and how it all happened, but they were totally at the mercy of people doing what they were supposed to in terms of tithes and offerings.   “All the firstfruits are yours….you get the redemption price”.  Aaron’s team received much as people brought in their firstfruits, but they were not allowed to own any land.  God told them “I am your plot of ground” and they were admonished to never own ground.  My guess is this was a pretty high stress job with all the sacrifices and rules to follow.  They were on call and required to be there all the time.  Only Aaron and his sons could enter the holy of holies.  It was a pretty small group that had to do the most important stuff.  But God obviously takes this area of sacrifice and tithes seriously – He speaks directly to Aaron about it and the stakes are high in regard to how it is to be handled.  God knows the way the human heart is regarding money and stuff.  And He left no room to wonder how it was to be managed and handled here by Aaron and the Levites.  Is your heart right regarding money and stuff?  Do you recognize that is all belongs to God and He chooses to let us be stewards of some of it?  We need to get that right!

Numbers 17

Numbers 17 is another lesson in God’s anointed leadership.  Of course the people are still grumbling and God instructs Moses to get a staff from each tribe of Israel.  He is instructed to “write the man’s name on his staff” and then lay them out in the Tent of Meeting.  So there are 12 staff’s lying on the ground in the Tent – one for each of the 12 tribes.  Aaron’s is the one for the tribe of Levi.  The test here is that one of the staffs will grow.  Now that is a pretty good trick.  A dead piece of wood will come to life and grow – not slowly, but now.  Can you imagine the ribbing Moses would take here.  Dead sticks lying down – no watering – no fertilizing – just drop them down in the Tent and wait for one to grow.  Sort of like watching paint dry isn’t it? 

 “Moses walked into the Tent of Testimony the next day and saw that Aaron’s staff…..had in fact sprouted–buds, blossoms, and even ripe almonds”!  As is most always the case, God outdoes Himself.  He said one would sprout, but this staff grew and even produced fruit.  Now that is nothing short of a major miracle wouldn’t you say.  Overnight – dead wood to live tree with fruit.  That is a pretty strong message that Aaron is the chosen leader here.  God instructs Moses to put “Aaron’s staff to the front of The Testimony”.  This is to remain as a reminder to the people of who God has put in charge here.  He was to “keep it there as a sign to the rebels”.  That is how God sees people who are not willing to follow the leader He puts in place – rebels.  Ponder that one.  God’s expected outcome is that “this will put a stop to the grumbling against me” – which actually had been against Moses and Aaron but because they were God’s chosen leaders it was really grumbling against God.  Are you catching this?  People died prior and in future examples because they were not following God’s chosen leaders.  God Himself takes that personally.  God will stop the grumbling even if it means wiping out some people.  The people of Israel are getting the picture in this chapter.  They know that it will be a “death sentence” if they don’t respect what God has said.  How much do you respect what God is doing around you?  Are you following the leaders He has put in place in your life?  Are you grumbling against them and ultimately to God?  Time to ponder a whole lot of things about leading and following.  God takes it seriously, so should we.

Numbers 16

Numbers 16 is a rather graphic lesson in what happens when people violate God’s leadership and grumble against it. It is sort of like the showdown at the Tent of Meetings. Kohar “getting on his high horse” decides to challenge Moses and Aaron. He shows up with 250 of the finest in the tribe of Levi who are ministers to the people. They are determined to “rebel against Moses” and they ask “why do you act like you’re running the whole show”? Bad decision on their part. You see, they have been selected by God “to bring you near him to serve in the ministries….and to stand before the congregation to minister to them”. They were a chosen group and were to serve. But they were under the leadership of Aaron and Moses, and their decision of rebellion and “badmouthing Aaron” was a very poor one. They accuse Moses of “now you keep trying to boss us around…. you haven’t produced”. More bad decisions. They are digging a very deep hole as you will soon see.

“Moses’ temper blazed white-hot”. He is ticked off. Rightfully so as the people have continually tested his patience with their attitude and now the leadership of the Tent is doing the same. So Moses challenges these guys to a dual. Show up tomorrow and let’s see who God favors. He has no doubt – he knows that God is on his side. “It was Korah and his gang against Moses and Aaron at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting”. God shows up too and is more than slightly annoyed. God is going to wipe out the entire congregation – He has had enough. Moses and Aaron intercede and convince God to only deal with Korah, Dathan and Abiram who were the ring leaders. Moses tells them that everyone would know who was favored if the trio died before their natural time had come and before he finished speaking the “earth opened its mouth and in one gulp swallowed them down”. These men, their families and all they owned were gone in a heartbeat. Moments later the 250 were cremated by lightning as God expressed His displeasure with their attitudes and actions. One would think that would send a pretty strong message to the people wouldn’t you? But check out what happens: “grumbling broke out the next day”. Not 24 hours later the people are grumbling about Moses. God has really had it and announces a plague. Moses and Aaron again intercede and the way they were to stop the plague was to run into the mass of people with their censor so Aaron goes a running. “He stood there between the living and the dead and stopped the plague”. That is real intercession. Getting between the people and the punishment. Jesus is our intercessor today. He stands between us and the sin with it’s punishment – eternal separation from God. I am amazed at the love Moses and Aaron have for an ungrateful people. It would have been so much easier to just let God wipe them out. 14,700 died before Aaron could get there to stop the plague, so don’t wonder if God was serious. He has to deal with disobedience and sin, and the penalty is death. That is clear in scripture. And that death means a separation from Him. Jesus is the way for us to deal with sin. He is the intercessor who will stand between us and our punishment. But we have to receive Him. Have you?