Good morning, today we read Numbers 9-11. There were some very interesting things discussed in these chapters.
Share our faith
It began with the Lord commanding Moses to celebrate the Passover. Why did He need to reiterate this commandment?
They received the Passover as an ordinance to keep in the land the Lord would give them. Now they had been wandering in the desert due to their disobedience at Mt. Sinai. They had not reached the promised land. According to Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary, this was the only time during the forty years in the desert they celebrated this festival.
Here God gives instruction that everyone was to take part, even the foreigners among them. As with our own faith, God never intended for us to keep these things to ourselves, but to share them with everyone we encounter.
There were to be no exceptions. Even those who were unclean needed to keep the Passover, but not until the fourteenth day of the second month.
If anyone chose not to partake part, they were to be cut off and “bear the consequences of their own sin.” (Number 9:13, NIV) Keep in mind “the wages of sin is death” (see Roman 6:23).
The Lord guides them
I found myself consumed by a bitter jealousy of their miraculous guidance. When the cloud remained over the tent, they knew to stay and when it lifted, they moved.
There are many times in my life when I wished I had clearer guidance from the Lord. I felt His presence and believed He wanted me to do something, but I still had some doubt as to the timing. I didn’t want to get ahead of Him.
Should I build my house now? Or wait until I had saved more money? What about the job opening at work? Is that a promotion worth having? Or does God have a better plan for me if I stay still? When is the right time to retire?
Oh, how I wish for a pillar that could guide me, a celestial map to my life’s journey! Instead, I have a cloud of doubt.
We all need to pray for each other to have more faith.
Sound the alarm
But not everyone was watching the cloud. Therefore, the Lord had Moses make trumpets to sound the alarm and get their attention. Perhaps I need to increase my focus or change where I am looking to increase my faith.
I find it intriguing that in 10:35 it was Moses telling the Lord to rise when they set out. This shows that we must move when we believe that is God’s will, but only after praying and asking God to go before us.
Especially for a group, like a church or a nation. There are always some who are not watching the Lord or walking with Him. In 10:36 Moses asks the Lord, when they rested, to return to the masses.
Still lacking faith
It has always baffled me, knowing they were following a cloud by day and fire by night, for all these years. After being brought out of Egypt, led through the Red Sea, provided with manna, etc. that they would still find reason to complain.
For many years, I have received many blessings, but I still find reasons to doubt and complain. We always want more than we have.
For instance, in our house, we avoid carbohydrates. Unlike the Israelites who were eating these loaves of manna day after day and asking for meat, I have the opposite. I eat meat day after day, as they would for a month, and I crave a loaf of bread. Or slice of real pizza. We always want what we don’t have.
Moses grows so weary of their complaining that he would see it as a blessing if God took his life.
There are times, with all that God provides for me, that I long more than anything, for Him to bring me home. Life can be hard. Then I am given a new assignment for the Lord and my purpose is renewed.
I know what He is asking me to do, and I know it is impossible. Just like Moses, I forget nothing is impossible with God. I need Him to remind me that His arm is not too short.
I pray we all have enough faith to move when we see the Lord moving, and when we don’t, we will have friends who will alert us. It is time to go.
