"Joshua, and the Israelites under his orders, were facing physical enemies of God as they
delved out His justice and took over the land that God had promised to them. It was a brutal
reality. While hostility against God has not changed, our situation has. Today, we live after the
Messiah came to ...

"Trumpets weren’t just used for music and worship in Israel, they were also used for signaling
and announcing, they were effective tools of communication. They are used in an interesting
way in our reading today. When the people of Israel surrounded the ancient city of Jericho, they were careful ...

"Deuteronomy 29 records a covenant that God made with Israel while they were in Moab. What is a covenant? When you look in English dictionaries it will give a definition that speaks about an agreement, a promise, or a formal contract between people or groups. However, in the ancient culture that ...

"Aaron and Moses had to redefine their understanding of sacred. In their time, as it is today, there were people who practiced other religions, idols were worshipped and upheld as sacred and divine. Coming from Egypt and Midian, Aaron and Moses would have been very familiar with at least some of ...

"Time is a confine that was set in place by God Almighty. In the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 3 states that there is a time for everything: “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” There are 28 examples given, some of which are: “A time to be born, and a time to ...

"The fourth book of Moses is called Numbers, which gets its name from the two times that Israel was numbered after coming out of Egypt. They’re first numbered right after the Exodus event, and then again just before they go into the Promised Land. Much of the book of Numbers is about Israel’s wan...

"The people of God were, and still are, called to be holy, to be separated from the world in word, in action, in lifestyle. Separation to the LORD may look different in different times and cultures but it always involves separation from the sins of this world. When we come to Jesus Christ we conf...

"Dedication. In so many ways this word defines what Moses and Aaron were commanded to do at the beginning of the nation of Israel. The nation itself was to be dedicated to God, its people were to be dedicated to following God, the priesthood had to be dedicated to serving God and the people. This...

"The time that Israel spent in the wilderness was challenging, and it did not draw out their best behavior. Many of them seemed like professional complainers, viewing themselves as customers of God rather than as people called to fulfill God’s plans. Unfortunately, they complained about God’s pro...

"The regulations that we read about today were specifically for the Israelites, once they had
moved into the Promised Land and had begun raising animals and farming the land. God told
them to worship through making offerings and sacrifices a regular part of their lives in the land. To live in the...

"Numbers 26 records the second time that God had Moses take a census of Israel. This census showed how the nation had changed during its time in the wilderness, and emphasized how the land of Israel would be divided once the nation took possession of it. In this census list, rebellion against God...

"The Bible emphasizes taking personal responsibility for our words and actions, and today’s reading is no different. We see that men and women were responsible to do what they vowed to do before God. God did make allowances for women who were stopped in fulfilling their vows by their patriarchal ...

"The territory of ancient Israel is outlined in our reading today. And though it has been noted
many times, it is still worth saying that it is amazing how much strife has occurred over such a small piece of land. God promised this land to the descendants of Abraham back around 2100 BC, and it wa...

"In Numbers 36, the tribe of Manasseh was concerned with the law that allowed daughters of
a father to inherit his land. This meant that the land of a tribe could be given to other tribes
through the marriage of these daughters. God’s answer to this problem maintained the integrity of the daughte...

"In today’s reading, we see some brutal history that displays how much God had blessed Israel before they even entered the Promised Land. The people around Israel were threatened by and hostile to Israel’s presence. Seizing the opportunity to defeat this landless group, the people of Bashan set t...

"The principle of Deuteronomy 13 is critically important. Just because someone can prophesy or do signs, wonders, or miracles, does not mean that we should follow everything they say. Signs and wonders, prophecies, and dreams are not necessarily verification of God’s backing. The person’s teachin...

"God arranged special celebrations that would help Israel remember. The most important
celebration in the Jewish faith is Passover. It remembers the nation’s beginning, their miraculous rescue by God in the event of the Exodus. Seven days of celebration are commanded by God in the 16th chapter of...

"God made provision for human sin in the very infrastructure of Israel. We see this in our reading today with the strategic placement and commissioning of cities of refuge. If someone was killed accidentally, without premeditation, the murderer had somewhere safe to go to await judgment from the ...

"We do not give offerings to make ourselves feel better or to absolve our guilt. Only an
understanding of God’s great mercy and forgiveness can take our guilty feelings away. He
is powerful enough to forgive us! We cannot earn forgiveness, we cannot buy it, but we can
receive it from God the Make...

"In Joshua’s old age, God reminded him that there was still much work to do. There was a lot
of the land that had not yet been conquered by Israel. So, we see Joshua move to encourage
and spur on the tribes of Israel. Life is so full of work and distractions that it is still easy for us to
fall b...

"In our reading today, we are given the borders of the tribal territory of Judah. We already know
from the census taken back in Numbers 26, that the tribe of Judah was the largest Israelite
tribe. Moses has also given us the backstory of the tribe’s founder back in Genesis, and this is
of great i...