Year 4, Day 151: Numbers 36

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Father

• Father: This is the pinnacle of the Covenant Triangle.  God is the Father.  He is the creator.  He is love.  Our relationship with the Father is rooted in His love for us.  We get our identity through Him.  When the Father is in our life, obedience becomes clear.

If you read my theological commentary that I wrote three years ago, you already know that I really struggle with the underlying principle of this chapter.  What we see here is a people coming before Moses really concerned about their property and their inheritance.  I wanted to talk about identity here and speak to the fact that the people aren’t getting their identity from God, where it should be coming from.  It would be so easy to rip the people apart – and rip ourselves apart – because they are focused on the wrong things.

But I’ve already done enough of that.  Before we can talk identity, we have to absolutely talk about what is in our “UP” position.  I believe that God should be in the UP position in our lives.  God should be our worship.  God should be our center.  God should be our rock.  When it comes to identity, we should look to the Father.

These Hebrew people have an opportunity to focus on a great God who is delivering them into the Promised Land.  They have a great opportunity to focus on an awesome God who has already put His power on display numerous times since the Hebrew people left Egypt.  That’s where their focus should be.  That’s the direction that they should be orienting themselves.

But they aren’t.  Rather than being oriented to the Father, they are oriented to their inheritance.  They’re beginning already to orient themselves to stuff.  They are already concerned with making sure they get a fair cut of the deal.  They would be better off remembering to orient themselves to the Father.

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Year 4, Day 150: Numbers 35

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness, Protection

• Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God.  We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway.  We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.  As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others.  In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

This is a neat chapter with which to view these two issues.  The cities of refuge were places that people could flee.  If a murderer fled there they would be tried, condemned, and executed.  But if a person who did not intend to murder fled there, then the person would be tried, found guilty of the death, but rather than being executed they would be allowed to remain within the city and live.

This demonstrates forgiveness in that mistakes happen.  Consequences almost always occur because of those mistakes.  But that does not mean the mistake is always intentional.  Here we can see that those who make unintentional mistakes – even big ones – can find forgiveness amidst dealing with the consequences of the action.  It also allows the family of the one who was killed the time to find the ability to forgive before doing something drastic such as adding murder upon their own heads through an ill-advised act of vengeance.

This also displays protection.  Yes, it is easy to think of God protecting the small, weak, innocent, orphaned, and oppressed.  But what we see in this chapter is that God is even willing to protect the unfortunately guilty.  God doesn’t protect those who murder in cold blood; but He is willing to protect those who by mistake find themselves guilty of manslaughter.  God is willing to protect those who have killed unintentionally.  God is willing to protect them while hoping for such a point in time as they can repent and learn to forgive themselves.  God’s protection is far greater in scope than the typical human – myself included.

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Year 4, Day 140: Numbers 34

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Authority, Identity

• Authority: Our calling.  This comes from God as king.  Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.
• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

Three years ago, when I read Numbers 34 for the first time in my spiritual adulthood, I made a startling realization.  The borders that God gives here are never fully reached by the Hebrew people.  Even in their heyday the Hebrew people never fully controled all of the land that God promised to them.

In pondering why, I believe this is both an identity and an authority problem.  It is an identity problem because at some level the people must not believe that God really wants them to control the land to that extent.  At some point they give up on certain areas.  They have a crisis of identity.  Of course, when they give up they are also displaying a crisis of authority.  The give up because they no longer grasp the authority of God to dominate over those portions of the land that God promised to them.

Of course, this truth makes itself known in a lack of obedience and power.  As the people gain control of the land, their obedience wanes.  Their obedience falls to the side.  As they become less obedient, they are also less able to go forth in power, too.  While their lack of identity leads to a lack of obedience, a lack of authority leads to a poor display of power.

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Year 4, Day 148: Numbers 33

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from Father.

Obedience is a funny word.  It is easy to say.  It is even easy – at least with God – to acknowledge why obedience is important and worthwhile.  However, when we’re in the moment obedience is nowhere near as easy as it first sounds.  Obedience conflicts with our human free will far more than I’d care to admit.

I think about these Hebrew people told to take the land.  God tells them to drive everyone out of the land.  In giving the Hebrew people that authority, He no doubt also gives them the power to do so.  But we know what happens.  They can’t.  They don’t.  The people that they don’t drive out slowly turn them away from God.  This results in the rebellion of the Hebrew people and their captivity to Assyria and Babylon.

Obedience.  The Hebrew people were not obedient.  They tried, but in spite of God’s authority and power they could not be obedient.  It is a reality that haunts them for the next 500 years.

I wonder what Christ’s church has been haunted by in the last 500 years because of a lack of obedience by the people who lived back then.  I wonder what will haunt people 500 years from now because of our lack of obedience today.

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Year 4, Day 147: Numbers 32

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Character

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

This is a really neat chapter through which we can study the idea of character.  These trans-Jordan tribes come to Moses and ask for their inheritance.  Moses chastens them and gives them a convicting speech about how if they don’t fight for the Promised Land they have sinned and are no better than the previous “wicked generation.”  The fact that Moses has to give this speech tells me that these trans-Jordan tribes may not have had the purest of intentions – the purest of character – at the beginning.

However, after they are convicted by Moses they rise to the challenge.  They build homes and towns in a hurry so that their wives and children will be safe while the men are off to war.  They voluntarily put themselves at the front of the battle to make sure the battles go smoothly – but that also means that they take the greatest of casualties.  They make a commitment to fulfilling God’s promise and they stick to it.  That’s character.

In this chapter we see these people grow in character.  That’s a neat perspective to take note.

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Year 4, Day 146: Numbers 31

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Authority, Identity

• Authority: Our calling.  This comes from God as king.  Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.
• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

I really had a difficult time choosing between authority and identity on this one.  So I’ll do a paragraph on each and see what truly comes out.

With respect to identity, I am planning on going two ways.  First, the Hebrew people clearly are getting their identity from God.  How many times are we told in this chapter alone that this “new generation” of Hebrew people following the Lord’s directions?  God speaks to Moses, Moses leads, the people listen!  That’s identity right there.  However, notice that after the war the soldiers are made to sit outside the camp for seven days for spiritual purification.  I can’t imagine being a soldier, but I can imagine having just risked my life in battle and coming home.  I can imagine what would go through my head when I would be told I couldn’t see my wife for another seven days.  It would take a strong sense of identity in God to abide by the purification ritual.  I give them credit.

As for authority, I am going to go to the battle on this one.  God told Moses how to arrange the men and how many to select.  The people obeyed.  The men went out under God’s authority.  Not a man was lost.  Now that’s living out the authority that comes from God!

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Year 4, Day 145: Numbers 30

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Authority

• Authority: Our calling.  This comes from God as king.  Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.

At first glance, it might seem a little unusual to look to the topic of authority on a chapter about vows.  So let me spin out this idea and see where it goes.

When we make a vow, the world looks to us to see if we mean what we say.  When we make a promise, we have an option of keeping it or breaking it.  The world is watching us.  The world is analyzing our ability to keep our word.  The world wants to know if we are trustworthy or not.

As God’s followers, we are His representatives to the world.  When His people are not trustworthy, others can conclude that God is not trustworthy.  When we break promises, others in the world assume that God likewise breaks promises.  After all, if we are the followers of God and we act thusly then people draw conclusions about the character of God.

We are not to do this.  We have been given authority by God to go forth and be His representatives.  We should be aligning ourselves to His will so that when we get an opportunity to make a promise we can discern His will and live authoritatively into the ability to make good on that promise.  When we are in tune with God, we can live in His authority and be His representative.

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Year 4, Day 144: Numbers 29

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Teacher

• Teacher: One who holds forth the truth and is excited by it. The teacher looks for ways to explain, enlighten, and apply truth.  A teacher's authority doesn't come from how smart they are but from the Word of God and the power of a transformed life.

As I spoke in my theological commentary, I love how this chapter ends.  Moses receives all of these teachings about sacrifices from God.  And what does he do?  He turns around and teaches them to the people!  And then, of course, he lives it out, too.  This is what it means to be a teacher.

The teacher is concerned about God’s Word being introduced into the lives of the spiritual community.  The teacher is concerned about God’s Word being used to transform the lives of the people within God’s community.  This is exactly what we see Moses doing here.  He hears from God and immediately teaches it to the people.  He lives it out.  He practices what he preaches so that the people can learn from his words and his actions.

But he’s not looking to create carbon copies of himself.  He’s not looking for the glory to rest upon himself.  His goal is to draw other people to God, not himself.  He uses himself as the example, but God is the goal.

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Year 4, Day 143: Numbers 28

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Provision

• Provision: God gives us what we truly need.  God knows our needs better than we can know them.  We learn to trust God to provide for us.

I’m going to stick with the theme of provision again today.  The sacrificial system always gets such a bad rap.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m glad we don’t have to sacrifice those animals.  As the spiritual leader of a group of people, I’m glad I don’t have to do all the slaughtering that the Levites and priests had to do.  So I’m grateful to live when I do; but that doesn’t mean I cannot appreciate the sacrificial system for what it truly does.

Let’s consider a point for a second.   If God expects me to sacrifice a goat, I need to have a goat.  If God expects me to sacrifice an ox, a goat, a lamb, some flour, and some oil then I had actually best live in a reasonable prosperous land.  To make those sacrifices will take a farm, not just some money.  To make the sacrifices God expects, He has to put me in a place where such sacrifices can even be accomplished!  He has to put me in a place where the ground can sustain people, herds, and crops!

Before you get me wrong, I’m not trying to preach a prosperity Gospel.  I’m not saying that God prospers those who love Him more – or those who sacrifice to Him more.  What I am trying to say is that God is a generous God.  If God places us underneath an expectation, He is His infinite power will make a way for that expectation to happen.  Sure, we can still squander His provision and abuse His generosity.  But the reality is that He is still generous in the first place.  The sacrificial system of the Hebrew people speaks loudly to the generous hand of a God who desires to grant us His daily provision.

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Year 4, Day 142: Numbers 27

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Provision

• Provision: God gives us what we truly need.  God knows our needs better than we can know them.  We learn to trust God to provide for us.

I was really tempted today to turn to the second half of this chapter and speak to Joshua’s appointment as a D2 and D3 moment.  After all, he is appointed into leadership, but he gets an opportunity to lead under the overarching leadership of Moses.  But I think I’ve said enough on that already here in this paragraph to make any point I would have made anyway.

For the rest of this post, I’d like to talk about Zelophehad’s daughters.  They come to Moses knowing that without a male heir the land promise that should have been given to their father would instead go to their cousins.  After all, their father and all his brothers would have died in the wilderness as a part of the “wicked generation.”  What this would mean is that these women and their offspring would have no means of caring for themselves.  They would become immediate orphans before even stepping foot into the Promised Land.

God knows this.  He has a plan.  He tells Moses that if a man doesn’t produce any sons but does produce daughters, then the inheritance goes to the daughters instead of the sons.  In this way, God provides for the needs of all of his people, not just the men or the strong or the rich or the silver-tongued.  God does know what we need, and He is capable of managing a way of making sure that we do receive what He has purposed for us out of His hand.

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Year 4, Day 141: Numbers 26

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Up

• Up: Up is the word we use for what we worship.  If we are following God’s will, God will occupy the Up position.  Our life, our identity, our mission, our family on mission is all derived from Up.  This is why God needs to be in our Up position.

I don’t think I write often enough about Up.  After all, Up is where it all starts.  God needs to be at the origin.  The Father needs to be at the beginning.  The King needs to be the source.  Without Up, what do we have?

I think Numbers 26 provides us with a neat perspective.  The Hebrew people do not increase in the wilderness.  In fact, they actually decrease.  When the census is taken, there are fewer Hebrew males after the purging of the wicked generation than when they went into the desert.  While you might be tempted to think that this makes sense because of the generational purging, remember that it only takes each family to have 2 children in order to keep a population stable.  Families with 2 children was not only the norm for that time period, it was actually below the norm!  The population should have grown under normal circumstances.

So what is going on here?  We see that the blessing of God has been removed from the perverse generation.  They turned their back on God and they diminished.  It’s as simple as that.  When we who are supposed to be God’s people become focused on other things, we diminish!  It’s a very simple lesson to learn.

When God is in our Up position, we will flourish.  Our life may be difficult because of persecution, but we will flourish.  But when we substitute God for something else and God is not in our Up position, why would we expect to flourish?

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Year 4, Day 140: Numbers 25

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

This is an interesting chapter in which to look at identity.  After all, most of us hear this story of Phinehas and recoil in horror.  It’s bad enough that the chiefs of the tribes that embraced the Midianite gods are hung at the beginning of the chapter.  But when Phinehas takes a spear and drives it through a Hebrew man and a Midianite woman we can’t help but step back and say, “Really?  This is the God I serve?”  Especially when the Lord celebrates the act!

On the other hand, we can clearly see that the Lord does in fact celebrate the act.  But it is not the death of the Hebrew man, the Midianite woman, nor the tribal chiefs that God celebrates.  Rather, God celebrates the passion that Phinehas has for protecting the honor and righteousness of God.  Phinehas is devoted to the ways of the Lord and making sure people understand the seductive danger and temptation of sin.

Phinehas’ identity isn’t in violence.  Phinehas’ identity is in the Lord and the Lord’s righteousness.  I’m not saying we need to start taking spears to the people who violate the Lord’s ways.  But I am saying that we might want to learn from Phinehas and take seriously how easy it is to be seduced into sin by the ways of the world.

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Year 4, Day 139: Numbers 24

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Prophet

• Prophet: A prophet is one of the fivefold ministry categories that is used throughout the Bible and especially lifted up in Ephesians 4:11.  The prophet is primarily concerned with whether or not the people are hearing the voice of God.  The prophet is also concerned about whether or not the people are responding to God’s voice.

In this chapter, we get to see the negative example of Balaam.  Balaam is a seer, known among his own people for being able to bless and curse people.  However, he also knows that God does not want the Hebrew people cursed.  In fact, when the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him, he can only proclaim what the Lord God determines him to say.

We see a third oracle in which Balaam blesses the Hebrew people.  It was God’s will to bless the Hebrew people and to cause them to prosper within the Promised Land.  Through Balaam, God speaks truth to the princes of the nations gathered together by Balak.  Even though Balaam would prefer to keep his mouth shut, he can’t help but utter truth directly from the mouth of God.

We also get the prophetic utterance in his fourth declaration.  In this declaration Balaam turns to the princes of the land and makes sure that they understand God’s design for them.  Balaam speaks truth into the princes of these nations that are gathered here.  However, Balaam likewise shows concern for their living out their life according to God’s Word.  How many times does Balaam speak about the native people needing to get used to the Hebrew people being around and in charge?

Balaam is absolutely an unwilling prophet.  If he could, he would rather keep his mouth shut.  But God does not allow it.  Balaam speaks the truth of God and then makes a blunt point to make sure these princes not only hear God’s truth but know how to live out of it.

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Year 4, Day 138: Numbers 23

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: King

• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

One of my favorite aspects about God is His omnipotence.  God can say anything and speak multiple meanings through His Word.  This demonstrates that He truly reigns supreme over the universe rather than the physical laws of the universe reigning supremely over Him.  We can see this very clearly in this chapter.

First, remember that Balaam is a pagan prophet who secretly craves what Balak can offer to him.  Yet at the same time, Balaam finds himself unable to say words that would earn him Balak’s favor.  Time and time again Balaam finds that his mouth will only open and declare the praise of God and God’s blessing upon His chosen people.  This is the King of the universe having His way.

Another way that we see the King at work in this chapter is through His words.  Remember what God said to Abraham way back in Genesis?  Abraham would have more descendants than the stars in the sky.  Abraham would have so many descendants that they would be uncountable.  That is exactly what Balaam proclaims in these verses.  Who can count the people wandering through the desert?  Who could number even a fourth of Israel?  The God that we serve is King of the universe so much so that He can make promises that span the generations and see that the promises are accomplished.

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Year 4, Day 137: Numbers 22

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

Paul writes that the “wages of sin is death.”  We know that the temptations of the world do not lead to genuine happiness.  We teach and preach that we should follow God and His ways.  Academically, we know this is truth.  Emotionally, we know what we should be doing.  But isn’t it hard to do it?

I think that is one of the reasons that I find the story of Balaam so intriguing.  Yes, there is a talking donkey.  Talking donkeys make every story more interesting.  But what really gets my attention in this passage is Balaam’s intrigue with respect to the request from Balak.

The first time Balak’s men come to Balaam, Balaam shows wisdom.  He inquires of the Lord.  He gets a very clear answer.  At this moment in time, his identity is clear.

However, the second time that Balak’s men come to him, Balaam is not quite so quick to get his identity from the Lord.  Balaam goes back to the Lord.  He forgets that initial answer and goes back to the Lord just to make sure.  Balaam’s heart is lured by the fame and wealth that Balak promises to Balaam.  He’s suddenly not as interested in God’s identity for him as much as he is interested in the identity that Balak could give to him.

The temptation of the world is strong, isn’t it?  We can say what we know is the correct answer.  But it is often difficult to live our true identity over the identity of the world.

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Year 4, Day 136: Numbers 21

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves.  In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

In Numbers 21, we clearly see an example of the people that need to be delivered.  Yes, they need to be delivered from the snakes.  That’s the point of the bronze serpent.  It allows them to be delivered from the poisonous bite of the serpent.

However, I think this story truly goes a bit deeper.  The Hebrew people really needed to be delivered from themselves.  After all, what is it that brought the Hebrew people to the point of needing deliverance in the first place?  They grumbled.  They grumbled against God and they grumbled against Moses.  Their own self-centered bitterness drove a wedge between them and God.

How often do we truly need to be delivered from ourselves?  How often do we dig our own pits into which we fall?  How many days could we genuinely pray, “Lord, protect me from my own self today?”  I don’t know about you, but that prayer is a useful one for me on most days!

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Year 4, Day 135: Numbers 20

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Up

• Up: Up is the word we use for what we worship.  If we are following God’s will, God will occupy the Up position.  Our life, our identity, our mission, our family on mission is all derived from Up.  This is why God needs to be in our Up position.

I can’t help but feel the challenge of Numbers 20.  In the theological section I wrote three years ago, I spent most of my time talking about the sin of Moses and Aaron being not their disobedient act as much as their self-righteous heart.  As God says, they fail to uphold God and His righteousness in the midst of the congregation.  Rather than remind the Hebrew people of the righteousness of God, they act out of their anger and strike the rock with no mention of God!

Ugh.

How guilty am I of that?  How guilty am I of not reminding people of God’s righteousness?  When having a conversation or a debate, how quick am I to forget that one of my roles is to ask “Where is God in this?”  How quick am I to get caught up in what is going on around me so that I lose sight of God, who should be at the center!

This leads me back to pondering UP.  Who or what am I worshiping?  In those moments where I take my eyes off of God and get caught up in the discussion at hand or the decision to be made, who or what am I worshiping?  If God truly were the center in those moments, I would not forget to ask “where is God in this.”

I believe we are all guilty of this from time to time – especially in the high and low moments of life.  It is easy to get caught up in the excitement, joys, and celebrations of a life going well.  It is easy to get caught up in the pain, hurt, and frustration of a life going poorly.  But when we remember that God is the center, He can bring balance to those moments of high and low by reminding us of what is truly important.  Who is your UP today?

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Year 4, Day 134: Numbers 19

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Up

• Up: Up is the word we use for what we worship.  If we are following God’s will, God will occupy the Up position.  Our life, our identity, our mission, our family on mission is all derived from Up.  This is why God needs to be in our Up position.

Who do you worship?  I’m not talking about just on Sunday mornings when you go to church.  Who do you worship in your waking moments of life?  What – or who - is the goal of your life?

I think the truth is that all of us worship multiple things in life.  I’d like to say that I am always worshipping God, but that’s just not true.  I do sin.  I’m not perfect.  Other things – sometimes other people – occasionally come between God and me.  I wish it weren’t so, but it is.

Here in Numbers 19, I think we get yet another glimpse into God’s concern for us to worship Him.  Look into God’s Word in verses 11-22.  God spends much time talking about how we deal with the dead.  I think God is cautioning us that if we’re not careful, our loved ones can become objects of worship.  After all, how many cultures throughout history practiced the worship of their ancestors?

Now look specifically into verse 12.  Notice that God tells the person who has touched a dead person that they are to wash on the third day and the seventh day.  Remember that these are especially holy numbers.  The number three represents God.  The number seven represents completion found in God.  It is significant to note that even in our process of burying our dead God makes certain to instill patterns within the process to remind us of Him.

We should always be aware of the one we are worshiping.  Our works always point to what or whom we are worshiping.  How we spend our time points us to what or whom we worship.  Even how we treat the dead truly demonstrates to us what or who we are worshiping.  So who do you worship?  How often do you really need God’s reminder to worship Him?

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Year 4, Day 133: Numbers 18

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

At first glance, this chapter is a pretty dry read.  If you want some inspirational thoughts on the subject of tithing, I’d invite you to follow the link above to the theological commentary.  But for this post, we’re going to look at identity.

By now, we know that our identity does come best from God.  Furthermore, we also understand that we need to be balanced in our life with respect to our relationship with God (UP), our relationships with our spiritual family (IN), and our relationships with the rest of the world (OUT).  Combining these two together shows that while our identity comes from God, it should therefore naturally flow into our IN and OUT (spiritual family and mission, respectively.)  Our identity should be visible in whom we hang around and in what ministry we perform.

Look at Numbers 18 in the big picture.  A few chapters ago we heard about the Korahite rebellion.  The Levites were having an identity crisis.  They wanted to be involved in the central workings of the tabernacle.  God punished those who rebelled.  But here in this chapter – once God settles once and for all whom He has chosen to be the spiritual leaders – we see that God gives the Levites their identity in both their spiritual community and their mission.  They are to be the support for the priests.  That’s their IN.  They are to guard the tabernacle to ensure that such a rebellion does not happen again.  That’s their OUT.

Rooted in God, their identity comes from Him.  In being Levites, they are able to put their identity into practice by serving the priests and guarding the temple for God.

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Year 4, Day 132: Numbers 17

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: King

• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

In Numbers 17, we hear about Aaron’s staff budding and bearing fruit.  In my theological commentary, I talk about the preposterous nature of this story and how seeing this story as outside the physical laws of the universe actually points us to God and enhances our belief in Him.  This brings us to the idea of God being King of the universe.

God created the universe, not the other way around.  God came before the universe; the universe did not come before Him.  God established the physical laws of the universe; the physical laws of the universe did not bind God.

He is God.  God can make a staff bud and bear fruit.  God can part water.  God can walk on water.  God can bring new life to those who have died.  He is God.  He is King.  He gives authority and power unlike anyone else.

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Year 4, Day 131: Numbers 16

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Character, Competency

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.
• Competency: Being able to accomplish what one is called to do.

In Numbers 16, we see Moses’ and Aaron’s character being called into question.  Other people want to lead.  Other people want to be equal with Moses and Aaron.  We can learn a good bit by how Moses and Aaron lead.

First, notice that they try and resolve the issue with words.  A diplomatic solution is always the easiest because it has the least cost.  Moses and Aaron seek out the resolution with the least cost because they are a people of character.  For the record, they do a competent job at diplomacy.  It’s just that the rebellious leaders are stubborn.

Next, notice that when the diplomatic solution doesn’t work that they essentially go to war.  When diplomacy fails, confrontation is unavoidable.  But Moses and Aaron don’t fight the battle themselves.  Rather, Moses and Aaron are content to let God fight the battle for them.  They again display their character in leadership as well as their competency to lead.  They step back and let God fight for them.

Finally, when even more people rebel against them and God sends a plague into the people, we truly see the character and competency of these leaders.  Anyone could have celebrated while their enemies were destroyed.  But a true and competent man of God steps into the breach between God and those who deserve to die.  Moses declares to God his desire to rescue the people.  Aaron acts out Moses’ plan to stop the plague.  Here again we see Moses and Aaron competently leading forth in a display of character that is above and beyond what the world would define as character.

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Year 4, Day 130: Numbers 15

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Guidance, Forgiveness

• Guidance: God grants us His guidance.  Sometimes this guidance is God leading us away from temptation.  Sometimes this guidance is helping us to follow in a direction for which He has chosen.  Our default position should be to wait for God’s guidance and then follow when it comes.
• Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God.  We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway.  We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.  As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others.  In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

In this chapter of Numbers we hear about intentional and unintentional sin.  Both of these topics require forgiveness.  Sin is sin.  Any unchecked sin can lead to more sin.  We need forgiveness because perfection is out of our grasp.  Sin is a part of our current reality.  Our sin must be dealt with through God’s atoning forgiveness so that we can remain in relationship with Him.

Of course, this is then where guidance comes into play.  Left to our own devices, we’ll simply sin again.  But with God’s guidance, we can often avoid sin.  God can guide us through His ways to allow us to turn from the path of intentional and unintentional sin and into the path of true righteousness.  God’s guidance and forgiveness go hand in hand in keeping us on a path where we can continue to walk with Him.

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Year 4, Day 129: Numbers 14

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Identity, Authority

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.
• Authority: Our calling.  This comes from God as king.  Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.

Identity comes from the Father.  Authority comes from the King.  If the King and the Father are one, then identity and authority should actually be two different sides of the exact same coin.  I’m not saying that identity and authority are the same thing.  Rather, what I am saying is that if the Father has created us with a particular identity then the King will give us the authority to live into that identity.  These concepts inherently go hand in hand with one another.

We see this twice in this chapter.  In a negative example, we see that the people rebel.  As punishment, God tells the people that they will wander through the wilderness and not take possession of the Promised Land.  God removes that from their identity.  Instead, the identity of this generation will be the generation that wandered through the wilderness.  God has given them the authority and power to survive in the wilderness until the next generation takes over.  But what God has not given them is the authority to take the Promised Land.  So when they go into the land, they discover they do not have the authority to do what God has not given them as a part of their identity.  They fail in taking the Promised Land because it is no longer their identity.

In a positive example, we see Joshua and Caleb.  They do live out of their identity and speak to God’s ability to fight for them.  Thus, it is still a part of God’s identity for them to enter into the Promised Land.  We know that Joshua will rise up in power and be the leaders of the people when that time is right.  Caleb will also be there beside Joshua.  Why do Joshua and Caleb have the authority to rise in power and lead the next generation into the Promised Land?  They have the authority from the King because the Father has rewarded them with that as a continued part of their identity.

When God gives us identity, we also have the authority to act in our identity.

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