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May 15, 2023 06:00am

The Bible Recap: Days 57-63

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(The following are reflections from the writer’s personal journey through The Bible Recap by Tara-Leigh Cobble – a Bible reading plan to read the Bible chronologically in one year. To learn more about The Bible Recap, visit thebiblerecap.com. Find more posts from this series at https://lifeword.org/?s=The%20Bible%20Recap).

Day 57: Read Numbers Chapter 7

My Takeaways:

Strange, today’s reading was the most repetitive reading, but a few things really grabbed my attention!

1. Everyone gave something, an offering and a sacrifice, to have God’s presence. Everyone came together for a single purpose.

2. Then, after the offerings and sacrifices had been made, God spoke to Moses.

In order to keep this holy relationship, people had to give. Everyone had a stake in supporting the tabernacle. Today, our offerings and sacrifices may look a little different, but we too can give so that we can experience God.

We can give by surrendering our hearts and walking by faith. It can be salvation or it can be choosing to trust God more.
We can give God our time by spending time with Him in His Word each day.
We can give God more time spent in prayer.
We can give our food for a time and fast for direction or help or forgiveness-whatever is weighing on our hearts!
We can give praise to a holy God who still pursues us, His flawed kids.
We can make sacrifices by confessions of sin and unholiness—those areas we think, do, or say something that would separate us from a holy God. Areas we turn away from and turn to God for help.
We can give our 10% to the church, our “tabernacle” through tithing and volunteering.

There are so many ways we can give and show our hearts to God! And, He blesses us through the nearness of His presence—whether it’s speaking to us, strengthening us, helping us, comforting us, emboldening us, or opening those doors of opportunity. Like Tara-Leigh said, it’s not always a “yes” to a prayer…it might be a “no, but I will help you through it” type of nearness. God draws closer in all sorts of ways!

So, if you are in a season of not hearing God, think about how you can give more to experience Him more. I think sometimes He is silent to see if we are willing to seek Him through the silence. If we draw close to Him, He promises to draw close to us (James 4:8).

And we can trust God to keep His Word. He is the ultimate Promise Keeper!

Day 58: Read Numbers Chapters 8-10

My Takeaways:

Today felt like a training program of obedience! The cloud (aka God) trained them when to camp and when to leave. The silver trumpets reminded them of these times, too.

My God Shot came in 2 areas: short blasts on the trumpet got God’s attention and help in battle—He would fight for them!

Moses also invited God into their journey by speaking a blessing over them when they left and when they camped.

Day 59: Read Numbers Chapters 11-13

My Takeaways:

We are back to narratives again—yippee! And boy, oh boy, do we have some action!

People complain, God sends a blazing fire.
People complain again, this time about wanting meat, and God sends so much quail, you could see it for a mile! While they are eating, He sends a severe plague. Tara-Leigh said God sees their hearts here and is just in who He punishes.
Moses gets overwhelmed or frustrated by the people, so God takes some of Mo’s Holy Spirit and puts it in 70 elders to help Mo out.
Miriam and Aaron slander Mo because of his wife (Is this the same wife he married in the desert?) and God defends Mo and punishes Miriam.
12 spies take off to Canaan and give a good report of the land….but 10 of them give way to fear of the people who live there. Only Joshua and Caleb stand firm in taking it.

Wowza! Lots of action here! Did you have a God Shot in all this?

Here’s mine: in the midst of all the complaining and drama, Moses questions God when it comes to the people’s complaints and whether or not God can feed them with enough meat. I think the same can happen to us…when life gets overwhelming, we can give way to doubt and question God. But, like Moses finds out, God is there. He is listening. He answers in miraculous ways. And, He cares for Moses.

Day 60: Read Numbers Chapters 14-15 and Psalm 90

My Takeaways:

If today had a title for our reading, I would title it this: Distrust, rebellion, consequences, and regret.

Or, this: We messed up.

Today’s reading got me! How many times have we been there? A time we didn’t trust God. A time we doubted Him. A time we questioned His motives.

And though He gives grace for such moments, there are consequences. The Israelites have been privy now for over a year to experience God and His presence in their lives. He has recused them from slavery. He has parted a sea for their escape. He has provided food for them. He has organized them into tribes and given them boundaries. He has reinforced His holiness and laws.

And yet.

They doubt His goodness in the very moment they needed to trust their track record with God.

And they lost out on the biggest blessing of their lives.

Oh, this gets me every time! Because I have been there! Instead of looking back on my history with God, I look forward to the obstacles with fear and doubt. I don’t want to be like that…and yet, my flesh can trick my eyes every time when God is prompting me to do something.

God is so good to give second (and third and fourth and fifth and so on) chances till we get it right, but for our Israelites, their children would inherit the second chance to go into the promised land.

Regret is a hard thing to live with. Perhaps that is what prompted Moses to write Psalm 90:

“Have compassion on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with your faithful love, so that we make out with joy and be glad all of our days.”

“ let the favour of the Lord, our God be on us…”

“ you have set our iniquities before you, our secret cents in the light of your presence…”

“ teach us to number or days carefully, so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts…”

Our time on earth is brief, friends. May we soak in these readings, grow that wisdom in our hearts, so that when God calls us to step up and believe Him, we look back to where we have been with Him and we look forward in faith…and we step outside our comfort zones with a “Yes, Lord.”

Day 61: Read Numbers Chapters 16-17

My Takeaways:

Today can be summed up into one phrase: HOLY FEAR.

If our readings have shown us anything, it shows us that God is holy. That we are to show respect and honor to Him, His word, and His the people He has put in charge. His character has shown He is worthy of this.

He has saved them.

He has fed them.

He leads them by day and night.

God has shown them that while He can be trusted, He demands their respect. He instilled a holy fear in them when Aaron’s two sons flippantly offer sacrifices and are burned up on the spot.

Today, He shows what happens when you try to criticize and usurp authority from His leaders: you are consumed in a sinkhole, consumed by fire, or killed by a severe plague. Yikes.

What a message to God’s people: they were to have a holy fear of God.

Yes, God is Love! But, His character today shows us we are to fear him, too (show honor and respect). It’s the fear of God that can prompt repentance. It’s the fear of God that leads us to be sanctified.

And that’s my God Shot for today: we are to have a holy fear of God. It’s showing honor to Him. It’s respecting Him and His boundaries. It’s showing our love to Him through this honor and respect.

We may not be seeing Him burn people on the spot for their flippant comments about Him, but make no mistake: they aren’t excused either. God is just and will hold them accountable.

I think churches today make God out to be our friend (which is true-He is our helper and counsellor) so much, we forget He is also our king and judge. How many of us wouldn’t listen to a king or judge? Orthodox Jews, to this day, have a holy fear of just saying God’s name. They will say “Yahweh” instead or write “G-d” so that they can honor it.

Day 62: Read Numbers Chapters 18-20

My Takeaways:

Water from a Rock.

That is the title for Chapter 20 in my Bible. (It reminds me of the song “Water from the Rock” released last year.) The Israelites have been here before—they are thirsty. And when they feel like God isn’t taking care of their basic needs, they do what their parents did: they complain. They accuse God of treating them unfairly. They revert back to old behavior.

They don’t remember God’s goodness.

When times get tough, they don’t look back on their track record with God and remember that He is their provider, they look forward with uncertainty. They don’t remember the last time God provided water for them when they needed it. So, they long for their former slavery (the good ole days!).

Guilty. As much as I like to poke fun of these rebellious people, I am so much like them! I can be like this too when my eyes tell me God isn’t being faithful.

And Moses, older now, is probably tired and grumpy with these people and partially obeys God’s instructions about bringing water from a rock.

And it costs him the promised land. Yes, he is God’s leader. Yes, God spoke to him like a friend. Yes, he has performed miracles.

But, yes, he too is to obey God. Fully. And he is held accountable for his actions.

My God Shot today is this: partial obedience is disobedience.

I wonder how many times I have lost out on the biggest blessing of my life because I partially obeyed God? How many times I obey God on the part of His instruction that sounds comfortable? How many times my flesh has kept me from fully obeying?

Moses shows us that we can be close to God and still fall into sin.

Thank God for His grace and mercy for those times! But, there are still consequences for our actions. Moses has to live with the consequences of his for the rest of his life.

May today be a good reminder to all of us—listen and obey. That thing God is prompting you to do could make all the difference in your life if you obey…and if you don’t obey.

Day 63: Read Numbers Chapters 21-22

My Takeaways:

Last reading, some really hard things happened…Moses and Aaron were banned from the promised land, and later, Aaron died.

But, what I loved about today’s reading was that even in God’s discipline with His people, there is blessing.

A king battled the Israelites and took some prisoner…they went to the Lord and asked for His help—He listened and helped them destroy the enemy!

Another king comes against them, using Balaam to curse them, and God protects them. He prevents Balaam from speaking a curse over them.

Even while they are living with the consequences of their actions, there is still blessing there. There is still victory. There is protection. Their lives look different, but God is still with His people!

The same goes for us. We can’t out-sin God. He is there. He is waiting for us to turn to Him for help. He is waiting for that heart change. And many times, adversity yields a potential heart change.

No matter how much you have messed up, doubted God, or disobeyed God, He is there—still guiding, still teaching. There is grace and mercy there!

Turning to Him can yield blessing even amid the consequences of sin.