In today’s Bible reading,* God tells Moses to execute His vengeance against the Midianites. One thousand from each of the twelve tribes of Israel went out and did just that, killing every male, including the kings. And they took the women and children captive. Moses was furious when he learned that the women were still…
After the spies returned and reported to Moses that they didn’t think God’s people could take the land that God had given them, they began telling the people what they thought. The fears of just ten men began to spread like gangrene among God’s people. The people began to complain. They challenged God’s authority and…
Several times in today’s Bible reading* we see challenges to authority. And challenging authority was not a good thing! Anyone who’s had children knows that children will at some point challenge authority. They will test boundaries. We see it in nature, too as young lions challenge the dominant male. These are natural challenges. It’s part…
Today’s Bible reading* includes a Blessing prayed over God’s people. For many of us who have been around church for very long, we may be familiar with this Blessing. In The Blessing, Moses gives Aaron and his sons the content of what to pray over the people of God. This is a prayer prayed by…
There’s a good reason the book of Numbers is called that: it lists a bunch of numbers. It’s a census of the people of Israel. And there were a lot of people! If you’ve ever seen Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 epic film “The Ten Commandments” (shown on network television every year since 1973 during Easter/Passover…
Because God is holy, today’s Bible reading* begins the bloody sacrificial system. Before Aaron and his sons are ready to serve the Lord before the people, they must be clean. For them to be clean, three animals had to be slaughtered. Once their sacrifice has been made, they had to offer another sacrifice before beginning…
