It’s no fun thinking you’re almost finished, only to discover that you still have a long way to go. Like fractious children on a long car ride, Israel was very unhappy about this detour, away down almost to the Red Sea and then back up around the Dead Sea to cross the Jordan River into […]
Israel detours rather than engaging Edom in battle, but when Arad fights, they’re up to the challenge! While in Kadesh, Moses had sent word to the king of Edom, asking permission to bring the Israelites through his territory to enter the Promised Land. He calls the Jews “your brother Israel” (Num 20:14) because they descended […]
Have you spoken to Christ, the Rock, lately in seeking His blessing? The water will gush out! Time passes. In this account of the wilderness wanderings, we have few details, found elsewhere in Scripture. But when Numbers 20 opens, we find the children of Israel have just about completed their 38 years (after two years […]
It’s great to be saved from sin’s penalty, but how can we practically deal with daily defilement? There’s a wonderful verse that says, “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 […]
Read More… from September 20, 2022 — “Once And Forever Done”
Here’s a sacrifice which, in picture, was to be offered only once, but whose benefits are timeless. So what do you know about the red heifer? I know this much: if you’re going to know anything about it, you must learn it from Numbers 19! That’s the only chapter in the Bible where it’s discussed. […]
“God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name” (Heb 6:10). By a miracle, only Aaron’s dead walking stick had sprung to life in the night as it lay in the tabernacle with the sticks of the other tribal leaders. In a process that would […]
David would famously write, “Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me” (Ps 23:4). Comfort by a rod? The Lord decides, once and for all, to settle the leadership issue. “Get from them a rod from…all their leaders according to their fathers’ houses—twelve rods. Write each man’s name on his rod. And you shall write […]
Do you know who “treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God”? It’s Jesus! What wreckage is left in the path of those who defy God! Not only do Korah and his Reubenite co-conspirators go “alive into the pit” (Num 16:33), but “fire came out from the Lord and consumed the two […]
Read More… from September 14, 2022 — The Justice Of God’s Wrath
We need to be careful before we charge God with being cruel or unfair. The sons of Korah agree. On first reading, the judgment on Korah in swallowing him directly “into the pit” (Num 16:33) seems to have included “their households” (v 32). But such a judgment would be premature. When Moses warned the crowd, […]