March 2-8

Heart Prep:
God, as we open Your Word this week, prepare our hearts to have an encounter with You. May we see Your holiness, Your grace, and Your love through the text. Help us remove our own agenda and to see You fully for who You are. 


This Week’s Study:

• Sunday, March 2nd –  Numbers 16-17
• Monday, March 3rd – Numbers 18-20
• Tuesday, March 4th – Numbers 21-22
• Wednesday, March 5th – Numbers 23-25
• Thursday, March 6th – Numbers 26-27
• Friday, March 7th – Numbers 28-30
• Saturday, March 8th – Numbers 31-32

What to Expect:
This week, you will begin the Wandering Years of Israel, a period of 40 years in which they are to wander throughout the wilderness. This is a consequence for the people not trusting God and being obedient to Him. An entire generation is going to pass away in the wilderness, but God is faithful to His covenant with His people. 


Some Things to Look For:
This section of Numbers can be difficult to read, not because of a list of laws and regulations, but because it appears that God is vengeful and genocidal. This is actually what God has been called in recent years, starting with this portion of Scripture. God calls for the complete destruction of the nations. But what we must understand is the holiness of God. When we encounter these passages, we need to look for the context of the holiness of God. We need to see the omniscience of God (He knows all things), and therefore He knows that these nations will cause the people of Israel to fall away from Him. This is what you see when the men of Israel marry the women of Shittim, they turn their hearts to worshipping Baal, the very thing that God had warned them about. God has just spent a portion of Exodus, all of Leviticus, and some of Numbers expressing His holiness, and His people’s call to be holy. These nations will instead cause the people to not be holy, but rather to worship Baal and Molech (both involved child sacrifice, an abomination to God). Through these challenging reads, we need to see God for who He is, and trust that He is still good. 


Personal Insight:
This weeks reading has a lot of memorable events, many of which are referred to again in the New Testament.  There is Korah’s rebellion, Aaron’s staff that buds, water from a rock, the bronze serpent, and who can forget Balaam’s talking donkey.  But what kept coming out to me was all the times that the people grumbled, complained, and rebelled: “We can’t stand this food.”  
“Did you bring us out here to die of thirst?”  “We wish we were back in Egypt.”  “Moses and Aaron, you’ve gone too far.”


Even after all that, God does not destroy them or abandon them, not because of who they are but because of who He is.  Yes, this is God’s chosen people.  He has promised that through these people, the whole world will be blessed.  And when God gives a blessing, you are blessed indeed!


I have to stop, reflect and ask myself, “Do I ever see myself in these people?”
Yes, more often than I would like to admit.  But that’s where the greatness of God’s mercy and grace kicks in.  You see, in God’s perfect timing, the Descendant of this grumbling, rebellious nation, is born in the little town of Bethlehem.  A new star announces His birth.  The Angels proclaim, “Peace on earth, good will to men.”
Later, John the Baptist calls Him the “Lamb of God” who takes away the sins of the world.


All the laws and sacrifices that God is giving to His people as they are wandering in the wilderness comes to fulfillment in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
And He did all of that so that anyone who puts their faith in Him becomes a child 
of God.  


Remember what I said about a blessing?




Prayer:
God, thank you for being a God of grace. Thank you for not giving up on me, but for continuing to offer your forgiveness and grace upon me. Help me when I look at situations and think that You are not a good God. Help me see Your goodness through everything that I do. 


This week’s personal insight was offered by Kregg Rennie. Kregg is an elder at Center, as well as teaches the High School Sunday School class, older Junior Church class, and helps with the Youth Group on Sunday nights.