Year 4, Day 128: Numbers 13

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.

Okay, here’s a third good chapter in which we can look at character.  As I say above, character means doing the right thing regardless of whether or not people are looking.  Character is about hearing and obeying.  Character is about submitting to God and allowing Him to lead.

What does God task the spies to accomplish?  They are to go in and judge the quality of the land.  They are to evaluate the strength of the people.  That means they are to note where the towns are and where the people are strong and where they are weak.  That’s their job.

The spies do go and accomplish the job.  They at least have the character to get the job done.  This makes this perspective upon character different than the perspective we saw yesterday with Miriam.  At least here the spies are not a roadblock to getting the job done.  They come back and make their report.

However, they go too far.  When Caleb gets up to encourage the people in God’s ability to provide victory, the rest of the group talk about how they cannot do the job.  They talk about how they will not be successful.  They intimate that God’s not powerful enough.  They go too far and get ahead of God.  Rather than follow God’s lead, they jump to their own wisdom.  They put their character flaw on display.

Of course, this is human nature.  We all have a tendency to do this when making decisions.  We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see how this character flaw impacts the community.  Rest assured, it will.  For today, we should focus on how when we get ahead of God we are not putting a godly character on display for Him or the world to see.

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Year 4, Day 127: Numbers 12

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.

We’re going to look at the idea of character two days in a row – and we’ll probably look at character again tomorrow.  This is such an awesome chapter to look at character.  So let’s focus in on Miriam.  Why Miriam?  As I mention in my theological commentary, the verb “spoke against” is a feminine singular verb.  Miriam bears more guilt than Aaron in this chapter, although certainly Aaron bears the guilt of being a follower.

Look at what Miriam does.  Miriam buries the real issue underneath an attack against Moses’ wife.  She brings in an innocent bystander when the real issue is between her and God!  Rather than being honest with her feelings, she lashes out and attacks an easy target.  This is not a good display of character.

Furthermore, look at what is really at stake.  Miriam (and Aaron) is jealous!  She wants what God has given to Moses.  She’s not content with where God has placed her; she wants someone else’s role instead!  She’s not following God.  She’s not being obedient.

God desires that we do the right thing in any circumstance.  A person of character follows God rather than grumbles about where God has placed them.  A person of character is interested in doing the work of God rather than making a name for themselves.

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Year 4, Day 126: Numbers 11

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.

In Numbers 11 we have display after display of horrible character traits among God’s people.  The people grumble against Moses.  God judges against them and brings about fire.  The people complain about the fire and Moses prays for them.  The fire resides, and you would think the people would be relieved.

But they’re not relieved.  They grumble against the divine food with which God has blessed them.  So God gives them quail, but then curses those who craved after the quail more than they craved the food from God’s own hand.  That speaks volumes about character right there, does it not?

Here’s the thing.  Our character is always on display.  Our character is on display when things are going well.  Are we a braggart or a person who hogs the spotlight?  Our character is on display when things go poorly.  Are we a complainer or a pessimist or a stumbling block to others?  Our character is on display when we have much.  Are we generous and compassionate?  Our character is on display when we have nothing.  Do we trust in the Lord to provide for our needs?

Our character is always on display in every situation.  The question that we need to ask ourselves is whether or not we are doing the right thing.  Is our character actually the character that God would desire us to have?

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Year 4, Day 125: Numbers 10

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Up, In

• 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.
• In: This is the word we use to express our relationships with our spiritual family.  These are often the people who hold us spiritually accountable.  They are the ones to whom we typically go for discussion and discernment.  These are the ones with whom we learn to share leadership.  They are the ones with whom we become family on mission.

In Numbers 10, we hear about Moses and Hobab.  Moses wants to take Hobab with him as they journey through the wilderness.  After all, Hobab knows what he’s doing with respect to finding things like food and water in the wilderness.

But then again, so does God.  Right?

This is a great time to remember the relationship triangle.  Everything comes out of our relationship with God.  That is the Up dimension.  We are to follow God first and foremost, not the world or its people.  We are to put our trust in God.

On the other hand, God does not create us to be alone.  He gives us people to mentor us and to lead us through life.  If God is in our Up position and we are following Him, then we will also be prepared to follow those people that He sends our way to help us and guide us.  But we must not get these reversed.  We need to follow God first and then follow those He puts in our life.  If we follow others without following God first, we’ll end up not following God at all.

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Year 4, Day 124: Numbers 9

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.

As a spiritual leader, I am always impressed with Moses in these opening verses.  It doesn’t matter how often I read these verses and how many times I hear these words.  Moses just impresses me when he says, “Wait, let me consult the Lord, and I’ll get an answer.”

I think this answer does three things.  First, it should remind the people that Moses does not have the answers.  He’s not God.  Second, it puts humility on display.  Moses does not need to have an answer for everything.  Third, it models true authority.  Moses is the leader because his authority comes from God.  Going to consult God reinforces this behavior.

When we lead out of our own authority we have no guarantee of success.  We don’t even have a guarantee of saying what God wants us to say.  But when we lead out of humbleness before God’s authority we can make progress in His ways.  Life should be about Him and doing His will rather than us having all the answers.

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Year 4, Day 123: Numbers 8

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

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

Numbers 8 is another great chapter through which we can look at the lens of obedience.  We know that spirituality starts with the Father and flows into our identity.  When we are living in our most contented state, we are living obedient to that identity.

This is a great lens through which we can see the Levites.  They were a special people brought close to the Lord.  But they weren’t brought close to rule over the rest of the Hebrews.  They weren’t brought close to the Lord to sit in luxury and dominate.  They were brought close to the Lord to work for and serve the Lord.

In human culture, proximity to the highest authority in the land typically translates into luxury.  Kings and queens have courts and dinners and servants and estates.  Life according to the human lens is a life of climbing into luxury.  But not so with God.  Our God is a God of work.  He worked in creation.  His hand was at work in history and is at work in us now.  It should not surprise us, therefore, to find out that proximity to God implies that we will be about His work, too.  We are not called into proximity to God to live in luxury or be superior to those around us.  We are called into proximity to God to be obedient to the identity of disciple-making to which He has called us.

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Year 4, Day 122: Numbers 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

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

This is a really neat and challenging passage in which I can speak about obedience.  If you read my theological commentary from three years ago, you will find that I spent much time confessing that sometimes I find myself struggling to find meaning in the rote.  After all, Numbers 7 is a very rote chapter in which meaning seems to be hard to grasp.

Sometimes it is difficult to plunge through the same thing day after day and find meaning.  Sometimes it is difficult to find meaning in the daily routine that doesn’t change, the daily tasks for which there is no gratitude, the spiritual pursuits whose fruit often seems so small.  Like this chapter from Numbers, sometimes the mundane can be so uninspiring.

However, this is where the idea of obedience comes into play.  If the Father is where spirituality starts and if my identity truly comes from Him, then my obedience is important.  I need to be obedient to what God wants of me – especially in the mundane and rote tasks of life.  Obedience to my devotions may produce small daily fruit, but after a year or two that small daily fruit is a profound heap!  Obedience to my daily routine may not feel like it is producing results, but that daily routine produces a repeatable rhythm that others can learn from, imitate, and become discipled!  Quite often it is actually obedience among the mundane that ends up producing the greatest fruit in the long run.

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Year 4, Day 121: Numbers 6

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 chapter is a no-brainer when it comes to talking about identity.  The Nazirite vow is the epitome of making a promise to God and then separating oneself from the world.  Living a life where one’s identity is established solely according to the ways of the Lord is quite literally what the Nazirite vow was all about!

When a person took a Nazirite vow, they were voluntarily foregoing many of the cultural benefits of society – such as drinking alcohol and anything from the grapevine.  The Nazirite was a person who desired to draw closer to God and do so by separating themselves from the ways of the world and embracing the more difficult ways of God.  That is a great summary of the general guiding principles of a person who wants their identity to come from the Father and not from the world around them.

We also hear identity all over the Aaronic Blessing.  Where does the blessing come from?  Who shines His face upon us and is gracious to us?  Who looks upon us with favor?  Who gives us peace?  The Lord.  Life is lived best when our identity comes from the Lord.

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Year 4, Day 120: Numbers 5

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness

• Forgiveness: Obviously, 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.”

As we open Numbers 5, we hear about the punishment for the unclean as well as some words on restitution.  The unclean are to be put out of the camp – at least until they are no longer unclean.  Proper restitution is to be accomplished.  In both cases we hear the lesson that God desires that those people who are to be in His midst are clean from their sinfulness.

Of course, in Christ we are made clean.  We are washed in the blood.  We know complete and utter forgiveness through Christ.  We should not forget this point.  The Hebrew people of Numbers certainly couldn’t have known this, but we in our day most certainly do.

Knowing that we are made clean in Christ, it is also valuable for us to remember that God desires us to be clean from our sins.  He doesn’t want us to take our cleanliness for granted, He desires that we genuinely repent and seek after spiritual cleanliness.  He knows that we cannot be perfect, but He desires that we still take the process of repentance and forgiveness seriously.  Our forgiveness is no cause for cheap grace.  Rather, our forgiveness is costly.  Restoration is costly.  Forgiveness is something to be valued.

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Year 4, Day 119: Numbers 4

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: D3, D4, Discipleship Square

• D3 is the moment in life where a person is consciously competent about what they are able to do as a disciple of Jesus Christ.  They are maturing, able to do ministry and disciple others, but it is still a conscious effort.  This is the time when a disciple’s skills are often honed deeply.
• D4 is the moment in life where a person is unconsciously competent about what they can do as a disciple of Christ.  They are mature.  Often they disciple others and perform ministry without having to think about it.  They do it simply out of their spiritual maturity and their closeness with God.

Looking at Numbers 4 allows us to see the importance for maturity.  Notice that in all other censuses that the age of counting is 20 and older.  But when the Levites are counted, the required age is 30.  When it comes to dealing with the work of God and moving His earthly dwelling place, God wants mature people to do the task.  He wants people who are spiritually mature enough to know their place, execute what needs to be done, not do anything that shouldn’t be done, and lead with maturity.  God wants people who are mature enough to be willing to listen to His orders and then act upon them appropriately.

What God wants are people who are competent.  He doesn’t mind people growing into competency.  But there are certain tasks in the faith that are so important that the competent should do them.

We can see this in the New Testament as well.  Before Jesus leaves His disciples, He leads them into maturity.  Before Paul goes out into mission, Barnabas mentors him into maturity.  Paul likewise mentors Timothy, Luke, Titus, and a host of other characters.  We are to be a people who look forward to developing God’s servants into mature followers who are capable of listening and then doing what God asks of them.

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Year 4, Day 118: Numbers 2-3

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.

What a great set of readings to ask who is at the center of our own lives!  Here in these chapters we are confronted with the Hebrew people forming camp around the tabernacle.  God is literally at the center of their life.  We hear about the Levites camping around the tabernacle in order to draw even more attention to God being the center of our life.  God makes His point clear.  Life starts with God.  He is the center of life, identity, and authority.

This is a great day to ask if that has remained true throughout the millennia that followed.  Is it true today?  Is it true in my life?  Is it true in your life?  Is God at the center of your life?

When God is the center of life, life takes a certain shape.  Life looks and feels like God.  When God is at the center of life, He is present and visible.  As we look back at the book of Numbers, we see evidence of God’s presence in the life of Moses, Aaron, Aaron’s offspring, the Levites, Joshua, and Caleb.  Life starts with God.  True life flows from God.

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Year 4, Day 117: Numbers 1

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.

Yes, this is another day in which we can talk about identity.  There are two great reasons for this.  Notice that God knows all of His people well enough to tell Moses whom he should use to conduct the census.  Yes, God knows His million-plus nation intimately enough to pick out assistants who can help Moses.   So God knows His people pretty well.  In fact, one might think that God knows His people better than they know themselves.  If that’s true, why shouldn’t we get our identity from Him instead of ourselves?

At the end of this chapter we also hear quite clearly that the Levites are excluded from the census that God commands Moses to do.  God separates His priests out even further!  That is a huge comment on identity.  To be a priest of God – remember that all Christians belong to the priesthood of all believers – means that we are separate.  We are called for God’s purposes in life.  Our identity is not found in the world, it is found in God.  In truth, if we get our identity from the world are we truly His priests?  Are we truly holy and separate if our identity comes from the world?

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Year 4, Day 116: Leviticus 27

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.

As we end the book of Leviticus, it is a great place to be reminded of our true relationship with God.  Is He the source of our identity?  Is He the source of our values?  Is He the source of our authority?  Is His passion driving our passion?

Here at the end of Leviticus we see God placing value upon people.  In my theological commentary from three years ago I speak about the difference between reading these words in an eternal spiritual context versus reading them in the context of worldly pursuits and worldly economics.  But with that point aside, the one thing that we hear quite clearly is that the things that are dedicated to the Lord are more costly to redeem than the things of the world.  If you dedicate a sheep to God and then want to buy it back from God so you could do with it what you wanted, you would pay one fifth again plus the price of the sheep.

Is that really how we perceive our spiritual life?  Is my time with God the most valuable time in my day?  Is my time in worship more costly to redeem than my time of vacation or even my time of work?  Is Sunday church something to cross off my to-do list so I can get on with the day or is it a time to be valued and prized?  When God is truly in our focal point of worship, His things and His ways dominate our life.

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Year 4, Day 115: Leviticus 26

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.

Anytime we hit one of these “choose righteousness or choose the consequences” passages it is a great time to talk about identity.  After all, we have the ability to choose what is best for us or choose to follow our own ways.  At the heart of that issue is our identity.  Do I want what God wants for me or do I want what I think is best?

Of course, all identity questions eventually lead into obedience.  It is one thing to know what is best; it is another thing to actually do it.  But before we can get to obedience we must take the time to first go through identity.  Before we can obey God we have to take the time and discern God’s will for my life.  We have to take the time and discern how God desires me to live.

I think this is a huge point for most of the 1^st World to consider.  So much of our lives are spent deciding what I want.  Who do I want to live with?  Who do I want to marry?  Where do I want to go on vacation?  What job do I want to do?  What things do I want to buy?  What hobbies do I want to consume my free time?  It is important for us to remember to go to God for identity and not myself.  As the opening verses of this chapter promise, when we do that, things will go well for us.

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Year 4, Day 114: Leviticus 25

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Rhythm, Semi-Circle

• Rhythm: We are designed to work from rest, not rest from work.  God has created us to be a people of rhythm in which we rest (abide), grow, work (bear fruit), and prune.  The better we understand this natural rhythm in life, the more satisfied we will feel in life and the more we will be able to be in tune with succeeding in what God desires our life to be about.

Leviticus 25 is one of my favorite chapters when it comes to thinking about the semi-circle and rhythms in life.  Here we have what I believe is the grand-daddy of all explanations for needing rhythm.  We need rhythm because we live best when we understand that everything truly belongs to God and we are merely stewards of what He has given to us.

You see, we as human beings like to long for possession.  We like to own things.  We like to believe that things we purchase are ours forever.  Life becomes a grand collection of stuff.  Rather than focusing on relationships and spirituality our life becomes the pursuit of things and places.  We strive to own our way into stability – and by stability I mean keeping things just the way we like them so that we don’t need to change, work, or be under any agenda but our own.  That leads us to self-centered living.

In this chapter we hear about Sabbaths.  Each week is to have a Sabbath.  Every seven years is to have a Sabbath year.  Every fifty years is to have a special additional Jubilee.  All of this reminds us that the things that we work for are not ours.  This whole world belongs to God, and He is responsible for giving to each of us.  What should be important to us is our relationships, our freedom, and our spirituality.  These are things that are given to us by God.  These are things that cannot be taken away.  These are things that remain while the world is passing away.

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Year 4, Day 113: Leviticus 24

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Character, Discipleship Square

• 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.

Leviticus 24 is all about raising the bar of life up to God’s expectations.  In this chapter we hear about not blaspheming against God.  We learn about setting high expectations for those who dwell in our midst.  What we are talking about here is lifting people up rather than compromising ourselves down.

This really hits home when it comes to discipleship.  What is discipleship about – teaching others to imitate godly patterns or asking the godly to lower their standards to accept the world’s standards?  Obviously discipleship is about teaching other people to imitate godly patterns!

In this chapter, we really feel the discipleship challenge with respect to godly living.  Yes, we don’t live in a culture that stones people and we certainly live in a faith that believes in forgiveness.  But this chapter is about raising expectations.  This chapter is about discipling people into strong godly lives.  This chapter is about developing character that is worth imitating.

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Year 4, Day 112: Leviticus 23

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Rhythm, Work, Rest

• Rhythm: We are designed to work from rest, not rest from work.  God has created us to be a people of rhythm in which we rest (abide), grow, work (bear fruit), and prune.  The better we understand this natural rhythm in life, the more satisfied we will feel in life and the more we will be able to be in tune with succeeding in what God desires our life to be about.

At first glance, Leviticus 23 seems to be about special religious holidays.  This is absolutely correct.  God does want the Hebrew people to remember significant days throughout the year.  He wants them to remember Passover – when they were brought out of Egypt.  He wants them to remember Pentecost – when the first fruit of the harvest should just be coming in.  He wants them to remember the Day of Atonement, when the whole community makes atonement for their sinfulness.  He wants them to remember the feast of Tabernacles as a remembrance of the time spent in the wilderness – especially since it occurred as the last of the harvest would be brought in from their fields.

However, on a more deep level we can see that this passage is about rhythm.  In this chapter we hear about the Hebrew yearly rhythm.  But we also hear about a daily rhythm as well.  Ordinary work can be done for six days of the week, unless there is a special Sabbath or festival.  But on the seventh day, there is not supposed to be any kind of ordinary work.  Here we can hear of another rhythm: God’s work verses the world’s work.

God knows that there is work in the world that needs to get done.  God knows that there needs to be time dedicated to working.  But He also knows that we need to rest from the work of this world and work at the work He has called us to do as well.  In order to be healthy, we need to establish healthy rhythms that allow for us to accomplish work but then rest from the work of the world while we grow closer to God.

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Year 4, Day 111: Leviticus 22

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.

It wouldn’t seem right to get through Leviticus without even once talking about provision.  After all, this sacrificial system had two purposes.  The first purpose is to give sacrificially to God for the sake of atonement and fellowship.  But the second purpose was so that the priests who were serving the Lord would have access to meat and grains since they couldn’t be out in the world producing it themselves.  At some level, Leviticus is always about provision.

The neat thing about this idea is that it truly does show us God’s provision.  God does know what we need before we know we need it.  Therefore, we don’t need to worry about our needs.  Rather, if we focus on God’s desire and accomplishing His ways, God will take care of our needs.  When our perspective is truly on God, we find that God has truly already given us all that we need.

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Year 4, Day 110: Leviticus 21

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.

In this chapter we come across the question of what moves us in life.  What are the things that we value?  Where do we derive our value in life?  Are we holy unto God or are we seeking our own agenda?  Do we desire what the people of the world around us desire or do we take our agenda from the Lord?

We who follow Jesus are always in this situation.  Any one of us can find ourselves tempted by the world.  Any one of us can find ourselves living in such a way as to feed our own passions rather than in submission to God.  It’s so easy to fall into the trap of the world’s seduction.

Where does our identity as priests of the living God come from?  Are we truly about His will?  Do we make ourselves unclean without any thought?  Does our identity come from the Father so that we can pursue and be obedient to His will?

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Year 4, Day 109: Leviticus 20

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

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

In this chapter sit would be easy to talk about either identity or obedience.  Obviously our identity should come from a holy God.  We are called to imitate His holiness as we gain our identity from Him.

But for me, the real question is whether we will actually do it.  That’s where the rubber meets the road in my book.  Are we going to keep His statutes?  Or are we going to keep them when they are convenient?  Or are we going to keep them when they make sense to us?  Or are we going to keep them when we aren’t likely to get mocked by the world?

It is difficult to get our identity from the Lord.  It is even more difficult to be obedient to that identity.  Obedience is hard enough because none of us likes to serve someone else.  But when we add to it that the world will not understand our obedience it becomes even more difficult.  We are called to be a holy people.  It is time that we begin to live like it.

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