Today’s Bible reading* warns God’s people to be discerning about those who present themselves with signs and wonders. If they entice God’s people to leave God to follow anyone/anything else, they are to be stoned to death. (Deuteronomy 13:1-5) This sounds pretty radical, doesn’t it? It sounds judgmental, doesn’t it? Well, the warning isn’t about…
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…
We read about a prophet and his donkey in today’s Bible reading*. If you’ve been around church for very long, you’ve probably heard about Balaam. It seems that he saw himself as a mercenary prophet, a prophet for hire. After seeing what the people of Israel did to the Canaanite King of Arad and the…
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…
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…
