Day 82 Bible Reading

Numbers 16, Luke 38-44, Luke 5: 1-16, Psalm 43

Numbers 16: 22-24 (ESV)

“And they fell on their faces and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and will you be angry with all the congregation?” And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Say to the congregation, Get away from the dwelling of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.””

Verses 23-24 from Numbers 16 show how much Moses and Aaron cared about their people. They had been challenged for their leadership and people were openly rebelling against them. There were 250 leaders against Moses and Aaron, and Moses said he would leave if it up God to judge if they were right. When God made his judgement to kill everyone Moses and Aaron protested and pleaded with God not to punish everyone because one man Korah had caused the rebellion. I’ve seen this kind of thing happen in the churches I’ve a part of throughout my life. It only takes one person to cause a group to fall apart. We see this warning in the New Testament in verses 17-18 from Romans 16 where Paul writes:

“I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.”

It’s easy to criticize the leadership of a church because we don’t see everything that goes into making a decision, but we need to remember that God appointed these leaders and God needs to be the final authority in all areas of our life.

Day 81 Bible Reading - Numbers 14: 36-38 (ESV)

Numbers 14 and 15, Luke 4: 14-37, Psalm 42: 7-11

Numbers 14: 36-38 (ESV)

“And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing up a bad report about the land—the men who brought up a bad report of the land—died by plague before the Lord.  Of those men who went to spy out the land, only Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive.”

Verses 36-38 from Numbers 14 shows what happened to the men who didn’t have the faith in God to help them. They died by plague. And earlier in Numbers 14, God told Moses that only Caleb and Joshua would live to see the Promised Land. This is what happens when you have faith, you see and will dwell in the Promised Land. And when you don’t have faith, you die and you don’t see or find the promised land. A plague seems harsh, but when we don’t have faith doesn’t doubt enter in our life like a poison and eventually kills our faith in God. When you lose faith in God, it is like a death of sorts. We all need to pray to have the faith of Caleb and Joshua so we can see and find our own “promised land” that God promised us.

Day 80 Bible Reading - Numbers 14: 30-31

Numbers 12 and 13, Luke 3: 23-38, Luke 4: 1-13, Psalm 42: 1-6

Numbers 14: 30-31 (ESV)

But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.”

Verses 30-31 from Numbers 14 shows the difference between people who have faith in God and people who don’t. Caleb saw the same things that the other men saw, but his faith in God was so strong that he thought to himself that God will provide a way for them to overcome it. I wonder how many of us look at a dream in the same way that the ten men did. Do we see all the danger and risk involved? Do we fear that our dream is too big and we aren’t strong enough to overcome the forces standing in the way of our dream? We need to have the same strength of faith as Caleb. God told Moses that the land was theirs, and yes it would be difficult but if we just have enough faith in God’s promises to us we will know that God will help us overcome any obstacles to our dreams. We need to pray every day to have the faith of Caleb and Joshua and believe as they did, that no matter what dangers and obstacles we see, God will fulfill his promises to us.

Day 79 Bible Reading

Numbers 10 and 11, Luke 3: 1-22, Psalm 41: 7-13

Luke 3: 21-22 (ESV)

“Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

I like verses 21-22 from Luke 3. I would have loved to have been in the crowd when this happened. Were all the people freaked out? Did everyone hear the voice? Or was it only the people around Christ and John at the time? Did a report go to the Sanhedrin about it? The baptism of Jesus by John shows up in all of the four gospels, so it definitely happened. We just don’t have the little details about the event. I would like to think that if I had been there and heard the voice and saw the dove, I would have remembered and been awed by the event and told people about it. I’m sure there were some people present who experienced the miracle and dismissed it as a hallucination. Others would have convinced themselves that they weren’t sure what they saw. Others would have been so freaked out, they would have blocked the event from their memories and said they saw and heard nothing. It’s easy I think to speculate on what you might do, but unless you were actually there you have no idea how you would have reacted to this event. Miracles are such a strange thing in our world.