Category: “Listening to God” Devotional

Read chapter in full: www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Numbers+021

 

Numbers Chapter 21   (ESV)

4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. 5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” 6 Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7 And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

 

REFLECTION:

• Read this passage the way you might to a group of children with articulation and inflections.
• God brought judgment on the people because of their grumbling. But judgment wasn’t the last word.  It’s never the last word.  Judgment is necessary because of our hard-heartedness.  Its proper work is to open our hearts, to crack the shell of our self-sufficiency so that we can experience the inrushing grace of our loving and compassionate God.
• It’s true, as the apostle Paul wrote, that the kindness of God leads us to repentance (Rom 2:4). But so does the judgment of God.  Both are the means to the same end: to bring us to God, the source of our forgiveness, our healing, and our wholeness.

 

PRAYER:

• What did God do when I need discipline? When I need relief?  How has Jesus been the lifted up Healer to me?
• Tell God my emotions right now, thank Him for His Persistent Grace “that will not let me go” until I submit. Is there anything I need to be softened to God?  Continue conversing with God.

 

Read chapter in full: www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Numbers+020

 

Numbers Chapter 20   (ESV)

1 And the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh. And Miriam died there and was buried there.

 

2 Now there was no water for the congregation. And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. 3 And the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord! 4 Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle? 5 And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink.” 6 Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them, 7 and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 8 “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” 9 And Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he commanded him.

 

10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” 11 And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. 12 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”

 

 

REFLECTION:

• Read the passage aloud.
• When God told Moses to command the rock to yield water, Moses failed to obey God, and instead struck the rock twice with his staff (vv8, 11). For this disobedience Moses was not allowed to bring the people into the Promised Land.  Moses’ punishment might seem harsh to us, but in the economy of God, the crime was significant.  Moses’ failure to obey God to the letter meant he missed an opportunity to demonstrate God’s power in a new way to the Israelites and to validate his own God-given leadership.  What’s more, this great leader who had been hand-picked by God showed that he didn’t fully trust God.
• We must be diligent in obeying God in the details, no matter how well we are doing spiritually. This is as important at the beginning as it is at the end of our spiritual journey.

 

 

PRAYER:

What is something I am very successful at?  How might this success cause me to trust in myself instead of in God?

Ask God to impress on me that my need of God is just the same in my “40th year” as well as my first.

 

Read chapter in full: www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Numbers+019

 

Numbers Chapter 19   (ESV)

1 Now the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 2 “This is the statute of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, and on which a yoke has never come. 3 And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered before him. 4 And Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, and sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. 5 And the heifer shall be burned in his sight. Its skin, its flesh, and its blood, with its dung, shall be burned. 6 And the priest shall take cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet yarn, and throw them into the fire burning the heifer. 7 Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. But the priest shall be unclean until evening. 8 The one who burns the heifer shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water and shall be unclean until evening. 9 And a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place. And they shall be kept for the water for impurity for the congregation of the people of Israel; it is a sin offering. 10 And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. And this shall be a perpetual statute for the people of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourns among them.

 

REFLECTION:

• Read aloud this passage.
• In Israel ritual uncleanness was contagious. If a person touched a dead body, he not only became unclean himself, but whatever he touched then became unclean.  This meant that uncleanness had to be dealt with immediately, before the whole camp and the tabernacle itself could be contaminated.  Thus the ashes of a sacrificed heifer were kept nearby, ready to be mixed with water and immediately sprinkled on anyone who had touched a dead body.
• The rite was not magical, but reflected spiritual realities. Sin does contaminate and must be dealt with immediately.  You and I too are to deal with our sins without delay.  We are to confess our sins to God at once, make restitution, and rely on God’s promise to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

 

PRAYER:

Go through my day mentally.  Where do I get “contaminated” by the “uncleanness” the easiest?  How can I avoid it?  How does the sin in my life “infect” those around me?  Ask the Holy Spirit help me to live a “clean” life.

Read chapter in full: www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Numbers+018

 

Numbers Chapter 18   (ESV)

25 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 26 “Moreover, you shall speak and say to the Levites, ‘When you take from the people of Israel the tithe that I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall present a contribution from it to the Lord, a tithe of the tithe. 27 And your contribution shall be counted to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the winepress. 28 So you shall also present a contribution to the Lord from all your tithes, which you receive from the people of Israel. And from it you shall give the Lord’s contribution to Aaron the priest. 29 Out of all the gifts to you, you shall present every contribution due to the Lord; from each its best part is to be dedicated.’ 30 Therefore you shall say to them, ‘When you have offered from it the best of it, then the rest shall be counted to the Levites as produce of the threshing floor, and as produce of the winepress. 31 And you may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is your reward in return for your service in the tent of meeting. 32 And you shall bear no sin by reason of it, when you have contributed the best of it. But you shall not profane the holy things of the people of Israel, lest you die.’”

 

REFLECTION:

• Read this passage aloud slowly.
• How we use our resources is important for the spiritual life. Those committed to God must be able to give their best to Him.  In order to grow spiritually, we must treat our possessions in a manner that is honoring and pleasing to God.
• Jesus warns us in the parable of the sower that the lure of wealth will cause unfruitfulness. Only those who overcome the temptation of riches can grow in their spiritual life.

 

PRAYER: 

Meditate on this verse “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt 6:21).  Find some time today to continue the conversation with God and find out what He wants to tell me.

Read chapter in full: www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Numbers+017

 

Numbers Chapter 17   (ESV)

1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel, and get from them staffs, one for each fathers’ house, from all their chiefs according to their fathers’ houses, twelve staffs. Write each man’s name on his staff, 3 and write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi. For there shall be one staff for the head of each fathers’ house. 4 Then you shall deposit them in the tent of meeting before the testimony, where I meet with you. 5 And the staff of the man whom I choose shall sprout. Thus I will make to cease from me the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against you.” 6 Moses spoke to the people of Israel. And all their chiefs gave him staffs, one for each chief, according to their fathers’ houses, twelve staffs. And the staff of Aaron was among their staffs. 7 And Moses deposited the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the testimony.

 

8 On the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony, and behold, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds. 9 Then Moses brought out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the people of Israel. And they looked, and each man took his staff. 10 And the Lord said to Moses, “Put back the staff of Aaron before the testimony, to be kept as a sign for the rebels, that you may make an end of their grumblings against me, lest they die.” 11 Thus did Moses; as the Lord commanded him, so he did.

 

REFLECTION:

• Read aloud this passage and try to appreciate the situation then.
• The Israelite leaders challenged the authority of Aaron’s priesthood. God performed a miracle causing Aaron’s staff to sprout overnight.  Thus God demonstrated to all Israelites His choice of Aaron and confirmed Aaron’s priestly authority.  Then God told Moses the staff was “to be kept as a sign …  put an end to their grumbling against me, so that they will not die.”(v10)  Once again, God pointed it out to them that though they were challenging Moses and Aaron, their true target of complaint was toward God.
• Examine before God, do I grumble against our church pastors, deacons, cell leaders and other leaders? Do I challenge their authority?  What does God speak to me through this passage today?  Who’s my real target of complaint?

 

PRAYER:

Tell God about my thoughts and feelings, or confess to God.  Consider areas that I need to adjust my attitude toward God, and leaders of the church?  Is there any practical ways I can do to amend this issue and to show my genuine appreciation for the leaders (or one specific leader)?

 

Read chapter in full: www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Numbers+016

 

Numbers Chapter 16   (ESV)

16 Now Korah the son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men. 2 And they rose up before Moses, with a number of the people of Israel, 250 chiefs of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men. 3 They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” 4 When Moses heard it, he fell on his face, 5 and he said to Korah and all his company, “In the morning the Lord will show who is his, and who is holy, and will bring him near to him. The one whom he chooses he will bring near to him. 6 Do this: take censers, Korah and all his company; 7 put fire in them and put incense on them before the Lord tomorrow, and the man whom the Lord chooses shall be the holy one. You have gone too far, sons of Levi!” 8 And Moses said to Korah, “Hear now, you sons of Levi: 9 is it too small a thing for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself, to do service in the tabernacle of the Lord and to stand before the congregation to minister to them, 10 and that he has brought you near him, and all your brothers the sons of Levi with you? And would you seek the priesthood also?

 

REFLECTION:

• Moses led the people on their journey out of Egypt into the land of Canaan. However, the people did not always value Moses’ spiritual leadership and guidance.  They often spoke against Moses, and they rebelled, time and again, against his authority.  Korah and all his company weren’t satisfied with serving in the ministries of the Tabernacle, and standing before the congregation to minister to them.  Their ambition was to grasp for the priesthood.
• The role of a good spiritual leader or director in spiritual formation is critical. Every person on the journey of spiritual formation needs good guidance.  Through judgment upon their behavior, God taught the Israelites the importance of spiritual guidance and authority.
• Do I have a spiritual mentor that will help me, encourage me and direct me on my spiritual journey?

 

PRAYER:

If so, thank God for this mentor.  Pray for God’s blessing and protection on him/her.  If not, ask God to bless me with one that will support and accompany me on this journey.

Read chapter in full: www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Numbers+015

 

Numbers Chapter 15   (ESV)

37 The Lord said to Moses, 38 “Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. 39 And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. 40 So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God. 41 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the Lord your God.”

 

REFLECTION:

• Read this passage twice aloud slowly.
• God told the Israelites to add “fringes” to their garments, so they would remember and obey His laws whenever they saw the fringe. By remembering and following God’s laws they would have the strength to avoid following their fleshly desires and greed.  Because they were His set-apart children, God desired holiness in the Israelites.  He wants the same in us.  God exhorts us to meditate on His word constantly and to obey.
• What “tassels” do I put before me to remember what God wants in my relationship with Him? Which ones work best?

 

PRAYER:

If there is one, hold this “tassel” of mine, pray for the Holy Spirit’s help to remind me often to obey God’s word.

Read chapter in full: www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Numbers+014

 

Numbers Chapter 14   (ESV)

17 And now, please let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised, saying, 18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’ 19 Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now.”

20 Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, according to your word. 21 But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, 22 none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, 23 shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it. 24 But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.

 

REFLECTION:

• Read the passage aloud slowly. Keep in mind that this is the prayer of Moses after ten of the twelve members of the Israelites scouting party to the Promised Land expressed doubt that they could make their home in that land, even with God’s help. (Read the vv 1-24 to learn more about the depths of the Israelites’ doubt.)
• Read the passage again slowly, noting (a) qualities of God that stand out, (b) qualities of Caleb’s response to God, and (c) whatever else comes to mind.
• What impresses me most about God? Why?   What impresses me most about Caleb?  Why?
• How do I respond to God’s willingness to forgive so many Israelites even though He seems to think they do not have the capacity to be used by Him?

 

PRAYER:

Ask God to show me where I fit in this passage.  How might I be tempted to “[turn] a deaf ear”?  How might God be calling me to live a different story – to be one who has “a different spirit” from others, who follows God passionately even though it might involve risks (for example, loving the unlovely, pursuing a career that makes less money, admitting to others the mistakes I’ve made)?

 

Read chapter in full: www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Numbers+013

 

Numbers Chapter 13   (ESV)

25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. 26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.”

 

30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” 31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” 32 So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

 

REFLECTION:

• Faith has to do with marrying the Invisible and the Visible. When we engage in an act of faith as Caleb did, we give up insisting that head knowledge is our primary means of understanding.
• Faith isn’t a conclusion we come to simply on the basis of what we see. It’s a conclusion we come to on the basis of who God is.  And that fusing of the Visible with the Invisible gives us a different way of looking at the world around us.
• It’s often said that living by faith is a risky way to live. What isn’t so often said is that living by sight has risks, too.  Even greater risks.  As the story of Joshua and Caleb unfolds in the next chapter, we find that the greater danger wasn’t living by faith but living by unbelief, the way the rest of the nation lived.

 

PRAYER: 

This song was based on Mark 9:14-27 when the father called to Jesus: “I believe, help thou my unbelief.”  Written By Bill & Gloria Gaither.

Use it as my petition to God. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGXdlFF_Lp4)

I believe help thou my unbelief,  I’d take the finite risk of trusting as a child
I believe help thou my unbelief, I walk into the unknown trusting all the while

I long so much to feel the touch that others seem to know,
but should I never feel a thing I claim him even so

I believe help thou my unbelief, I walk into the unknown trusting all the while

 

Read chapter in full: www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Numbers+012

 

Numbers Chapter 12   (ESV)

1 Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. 2 And they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the Lord heard it. 3 Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. 4 And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.” And the three of them came out. 5 And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward. 6 And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. 7 Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. 8 With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” 9 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed.

 

10 When the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, like snow. And Aaron turned toward Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. 11 And Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, do not punish us because we have done foolishly and have sinned. 12 Let her not be as one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother’s womb.” 13 And Moses cried to the Lord, “O God, please heal her—please.”

 

REFLECTION:

• Read quietly twice trying to capture Moses’ feelings.
• God punished Miriam and Aaron when they criticized and challenged Moses’ authority. But when Miriam became a leper, Moses did not rejoice in her fate.  Rather, he felt compassion toward her and cried out to God on her behalf.  He was humble, tender, and very loyal.  And he was a man of prayer, a faithful leader for God’s people.
• God’s statement that He speaks to Moses face-to-face is evoked by the jealousy of Miriam and Aaron over Moses’ special relationship with God.

 

PRAYER:

Have I ever been jealous of a person who has received clear, unmistakable guidance from God?  What was this a symptom of?  Ask the Holy Spirit to light up all the dark corners in my heart and to cleanse me clean.