Posts from March 2022 (Page 2)

  DISCUSSION                                    Idolatry is not a word that we would think to have to be concerned with in the brotherhood.  When we think of idolatry, our mind conjures up images of Buddha or some other powerless figurine to which mindless followers are bowing down.  Although there may be some truth to that, idolatry is much more of a threat to the believer than we might want to think.  The same was true for…

  DISCUSSION                                 If you are reading this post, I would assume you are no stranger to prayer.  Our prayers consist of many different things; expressions of gratitude, petitions for forgiveness and pleas for things we would like God to consider.  However, I wonder how many of us pray for mercy? I don’t mean crying out to God to be merciful to us, but to show mercy on others that are guilty and deserve punishment.  In Deuteronomy…

  DISCUSSION                                         Have you ever tied a string around your finger to serve as a reminder of something?  The purpose of doing this, was to have the string serve as a symbol of what it is that you were not to forget.  The reason why this strategy is so faulty is that most of us forget what it was we tied the string for in the first place.   God knows that we…

  DISCUSSION                                                                                 Although the Israelites were known for their constant complaining and their lack of faith in God to take care of them, they must have understood just how great they had it.  They had lived in the nation of Egypt and had seen all of those statutes of idols, all of those temples that had been dedicated to imaginary god. They had to notice that the entire time…

  DISCUSSION                                        The “cities of refuge” that are mentioned in today’s reading, consisted of six Levitical towns, in which a person who was guilty of an accidental homicide could flee to and find safety and refuge.  Outside of these cities, blood vengeance was allowed within the confines of the Law of Moses.  We really don’t read of any Bible characters taking advantage of such a place, but there must have…

  DISCUSSION                                                                    As the book of Numbers draws to a close, God begins to give His people final instructions as they prepare to enter the Promised Land.  His instructions are very clear; when you go into the land of Canaan…” CLEAN HOUSE”.  He wanted them to drive the Canaanites out of the land, “destroy all of their figured stones and destroy all of their molten images and demolish their high…

  DISCUSSION                                   In Numbers 31, God tells Moses that it is time for them to take vengeance on the Midianites for something that they had done to the children of Israel earlier in Genesis 25.1-17.  The Midianites had invited the Israelites to join them in worshiping their “gods”.  The Israelites that participated in this pagan worship were punished in Genesis 25; however, now in Numbers 31-32, God is punishing the Midianites for…

  DISCUSSION                                                 What is a vow?  It seems like the only time we use the word “vow”, is when we are at a wedding ceremony referring to the vows that the husband and wife make to each other.  The word simply means “promise”, and even though it is only three little letters, it is a BIG WORD!  The promises that we make to our spouses are extremely important, as are those vows…

  DISCUSSION                                                                      In Numbers 26-27, we see why it was called “numbers”.  Chapter 27 is a detailed census that was taken by Moses, Aaron and Eleazar of all the sons of Israel that were 20 years old and older.  When you begin to add up these people, you get 624,730.  That may not seem like a whole lot of people to you, so look at it this way.  According to 2015 census,…

  DISCUSSION                                                                        When one begins to reflect on just how magnificent God is, it is easy to get so caught up in what He is that we forget what He is not as well.  In Balaam’s discourse to Balak, he reminds us of something so simple that we tend to forget.  He said, “God is not a man…” (Numbers 23.19). Those words should offer us a great deal of comfort.  How…

  DISCUSSION                                               Losing my temper has always been one of my short comings.  In the heat of the moment, I tend to scream, make exaggerations and stomp my way into proving a point.  I’m not saying it is right, but at least I do feel a little better knowing that I am in good company with the leader of the nation of Israel; Moses.  It must have been very frustrating for Moses to…

  DISCUSSION                                         As a young Bible student in Sunday school, I was always intrigued by the Ark of the Covenant.   Sadly, it may have been due to my fascination with Indiana Jones and the film “Raiders of the Lost Ark”.  Regardless of why I was intrigued, I never really understood one of the items that was to be placed inside the Ark.  You may remember that inside the Ark of the Covenant there…