SYNOPSIS: One of the most profitable things you can do is to look ahead to the fateful day of your death and envision what will be engraved on your tombstone. That will become the final summation of your life—those half dozen words carved into granite by your loved ones. What do you want yours to say? Here is an idea: Start living that way now so that what you want your epitaph to say then will be a no-brainer for your family. If you want to be known then as a loving husband or wife, then start loving your spouse now! If you want to be known then as a good friend, then start now being the kind of friend that you would want to have! If you want to be known as one who served God wholeheartedly, then get with it right now. Whatever it is you want to be said of you then, start living that way now!

Moments With God // Proverbs 5:11 (The Message)

You don’t want to end your life full of regrets, nothing but sin and bones.

RIP! Unless Jesus returns sometime in the next 50 or so years—which I hope he does—you and I are likely to have a headstone that marks our final resting place. Rest In Peace! I know, that is kind of a morbid thought to start off a devotional, but it is true. It is a sobering and inescapable reality for all people, since the last time I checked, the human mortality rate was hovering around, oh, about 100%.

I think one of the healthiest things a person can do is to take a look ahead to that fateful day and envision what will be engraved on our tombstone. That really is the summation of our lives, isn’t it—those half dozen or so words carved into granite by our surviving loved ones.

What do you want yours to say? Here is a great idea: Start living that way now so that what you want your epitaph to say then will be a no-brainer for your family. If you want to be known then as a loving husband, then start loving your wife now! If you want to be known then as a good friend, then start being the kind of friend that you would want to have! If you want to be known as one who served God wholeheartedly, then get with it right now. Whatever it is you want to be said of you then, start living that way now! As Solomon said in Proverbs 5:7,

So, my friend, listen closely; don’t treat my words casually.

Seriously, this is no casual concern. So, give that some thought, and then just get after it!

By the way, the final line you will read at the end of this devotional comes from the incredible life of a young man who died on his way to the mission field—William Borden. You can read the full story at http://home.snu.edu/~HCULBERT/regret.htm.

Borden was heir to the Borden family’s wealth, gained through real estate investments and their dairy business. Upon graduation from high school, he informed family and friends that he wanted to become a missionary—a waste of a bright future, according to some. To that, Borden wrote in his journal, “No reserves.”

Borden went on to study at Yale but turned down high-paying job offers after graduation. Reportedly, in his Bible, he wrote two more words: “No retreats.”

He went on to do graduate work at Princeton Seminary in New Jersey. When he finished his studies at Princeton, he sailed for China. Because he was hoping to work with Chinese Muslims, he stopped first in Egypt to study Arabic. While there, he contracted spinal meningitis. Within a month, 25-year-old William Borden was dead.

When the news of the well-known young man’s death was cabled back to the U.S., the story was carried by multiple American newspapers. Author Geraldine Guinness Taylor wrote, “A wave of sorrow went round the world . . . Borden not only gave (away) his wealth, but himself, in a way so joyous and natural that it (seemed) a privilege rather than a sacrifice.”

As the story has it, prior to his death, he had written two more words in the back of his Bible. Underneath the words “No reserves” and “No retreats,” William Borden wrote, “No regrets.”

That was the summation of his brief life, and it is how I would like to be remembered, too: No reserves. No retreats. No regrets.

“ No reserves. No retreats. No regrets. — WILLIAM BORDEN

God really does think of everything, doesn’t he? Down to the smallest detail of individual and communal life, for every hypothetical question we could ask, for every unexpected or unwanted circumstance that may arise, God has already thought through how we as his people can pursue life, liberty and happiness within the confines of a kingdom society. In the case of sanctuary cities in Numbers 25, God even made it possible for people who accidentally take another life not to be forced to live as a fugitive. Yes, he has made contingencies for everything that might concern us, and that means everything that may be concerning you at this very moment!

The Journey // Focus: Numbers 35:6, 12, 15

The LORD said to Moses, “Six of the towns you give the Levites will be cities of refuge, where a person who has accidentally killed someone can flee for safety… These cities will be places of protection from a dead person’s relatives who want to avenge the death…. They are for the protection of Israelites, foreigners living among you, and traveling merchants. Anyone who accidentally kills someone may flee there for safety.”

God really does think of everything, doesn’t he? Down to the smallest detail of individual and communal life, for every hypothetical question we could ask, God has already thought through how we as his people can pursue life, liberty and happiness within the confines of a kingdom society. He has made contingencies for everything that might concern us.

In the case of Numbers 25, God even made it possible for people who accidentally take another life not to be forced to as a fugitive. By fleeing to one of the designated sanctuary cities, they could live without always looking over their shoulders, not having to worry about the victim’s family exacting revenge on them, knowing that they could move forward in spite of the tragedy they caused.

Of course, some in our current cultural context might attempt to squeeze from this chapter a justification for sanctuary cities that can overrule federal law regarding illegal immigration. That is a worthwhile discussion, but this is not about justifying willful disregard of a law. This was about accidental events. Accidents happen! Sometimes they are simply the result of a set of circumstances for which no one was at fault, at other times they are the result of someone’s negligence. But never were they intentional. And when that was the case, God set up protections to limit the outrage of the victim’s kin; the punishment was not to exceed the crime, so to speak.

Keep in mind also that the offender was not offered a day at the beach in these cities. These sanctuary cities belonged to the Levites, the clerics and religious workers of that culture. So the person who took up refuse in one of these cities would have to live under the watchful eye of Israel’s spiritual leaders. Furthermore, fleeing to a sanctuary city didn’t negate the judicial process. A murderer couldn’t leverage a gracious system to his own advantage. If there were more than one witness who could corroborate murderous intent, the murderer would face the death penalty. But if the community found that the killing was accidental, the accused could find refuge in the city. Even then, “though he was innocent of murder, he was still guilty of manslaughter. An accidental killing still destroyed a human life made in God’s image, polluting the land God had given (Numbers 35:33). A person guilty of manslaughter still had to pay for his actions.” (Quest Study Bible) In this kind of a tragic case, while no one was happy, everything would be fair.

Yes, God had thought of everything. Again and again in the Books of Moses, we see God involved in the affairs, large and small, of his people. He is a God who cares. He is a God who provides, not just materially, but through laws and processes that kept his kingdom society civil.

Which brings us to the point extracted time after time in Leviticus and Numbers: God cares about you, too. He watches over the affairs of your life, large and small, and he has made contingencies for every possible circumstance that you might face. When it comes to you, God has thought of everything.

“ God is with you, he is working all things together for good, and he will be with you to the end. —JON BLOOM

Our Heavenly Father knows that we need the safety, warmth and nurture of a protective environment, and wherever he has established a boundary, it is for that very purpose. And while we might find his boundaries restrictive, we would do well to remember that one hundred percent of the time, they are for our good. Thank God for boundaries!

The Journey // Focus: Numbers 34:1-2

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Give these instructions to the Israelites: When you come into the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as your special possession, these will be the boundaries.

Human beings have a love-hate relationship with boundaries. Intrinsically we know we need them, but throughout our lives we resist and resent them. Such is the rebellious nature of our fallen condition. So distorted is our view that we treasure the security that boundaries provide but crave the freedom of breaking loose from what we wrongly think holds us back. Somehow, we just can’t blend the two; we see boundaries and freedom as an oxymoron.

Yet boundaries are the Creator’s special gift to us—a gift that opens the way to another of the Creator’s special gifts: freedom. When we learn to accept the gifts and understand that both are two sides of the same coin, we can then come into a dimension of living that allows us to thrive in the abundance of a very wise and purposeful God.

Do you realize that God is a being of boundaries? From the very beginning, God established that Adam and Eve would have freedoms unimaginable to humans today, but there were limits. They couldn’t eat the fruit of just one particular tree. The limitation was both a test of their trust in the wisdom and love of God as well as a protection from the forces that would destroy them if they didn’t trust and obey him.

And now, in Numbers 34, as the Israelites are about to make their way into another land of abundance, a land flowing with milk and honey, God clearly defines the boundaries that will keep them safe, orderly and blessed within the freedoms of the inheritance he is giving them. The boundaries are a gift from their Creator. Embracing them will allow them the freedom to thrive. Living within them will demonstrate their trust in a loving, all-wise God. Honoring them will keep their nation safe. For Israel, these geographical boundaries were a special gift from their loving Father.

At the birth of our first child, the nurses at the hospital sat my wife and me down and gave us the Cliffs Notes version of Parenting 101. It was sort of a “Parenting for Dummies”—and while my wife didn’t really need it, I definitely did. And I distinctly remember the instructions on how to tightly wrap our little jewel in a baby blanket. When we laid our little girl down for her nap, they showed us how to tuck the blanket around her and into the sides of the crib so that she could barely move; she would be almost mummy-like. Why? Because they reminded us that she had spent the past nine months within the confines of a warm, safe and nurturing womb, and would not immediately know how to handle the freedoms of this new world.

We are no different before the watchful eye and tender care of our loving Heavenly Father. He knows that we need the safety, warmth and nurture of a protective environment. So wherever he has established a boundary, it is for that very purpose. And while we might find his boundaries restrictive, we would do well to remember that one hundred percent of the time, they are for our good.

What are the boundaries that God has given you? Just open your Bible and you will immediately see them. They are throughout his Word, both in the form of “thou shalls” and “thou shall nots”. They are found in the Ten Commandments and in the Sermon on the Mount. They are tucked into the epistles and scattered throughout the psalms. And each one, whether it makes sense or not, whether it challenges today’s conventional wisdom or not, is simply a reminder of how much your Heavenly Father treasures you and desires to bring you into the freedom of abundance.

Believe in the blessings of the boundaries! They will be what takes you into a land of incredible freedom.

“ “No” is a complete sentence. —ANNE LAMOTT

Do you cast all your cares on God, knowing that he cares for you—and not only cares, but is competent to carry you all along the way? Do you know that God is sovereign over you—even the smallest details of your life are within his control? Whether you do or don’t does not diminish the fact that God is leading you all along the way. There is no question: God has taken charge of you.

The Journey// Focus: Numbers 33:38-39

While the Israelites were at the foot of Mount Hor, Aaron the priest was directed by the Lord to go up the mountain, and there he died. This happened in midsummer, on the first day of the fifth month of the fortieth year after Israel’s departure from Egypt. Aaron was 123 years old when he died there on Mount Hor.

Do you trust God to watch over every day of your life? Do you believe that he is involved even in the minute details of all your moments? Can you relax about tomorrow, knowing that it is securely in God’s hands? Do you cast all your cares on him, knowing that he cares for you—and not only cares, but is competent to carry you all along the way?

Whether you do or not doesn’t diminish the fact that God is leading you all along the way. There is no question: God is in control of you. Even the day of your death is foreknown by God, which means that you will not live a day longer, nor die a day sooner than what your Creator will permit. We see that in Numbers 33 when God invited the High Priest of Israel, Aaron, up to the mountain to take back the breath of life that the Creator loaned him on the day Aaron was born. And in a very real sense, in the realm invisible to the human eye, when it comes time for you to die, God will invite you to give back what he loaned you—the breath of life—and he will exchange it for eternal air that will never be reclaimed from your lungs.

Yes, when you wing your flight to realms of day, this your song through endless ages: Jesus led me all the way. Praise his holy name!

King David offered this amazing insight about the Creator’s sovereign care over his life in Psalm 139:2-3, 7-12, 16,

You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways…
You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me…
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,”
Even the night shall be light about me;
Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You…
And in Your book the days fashioned for me,
They all were written,
When as yet there were none of them.

As David prayerfully, worshipfully exclaimed, “such knowledge is too lofty for me!” (Psalm 139:6)

God is in charge of you, whether you are conscious of it or not. So why not practice awareness of the presence of God in your moment-by-moment life? It is better than carrying the weight of the world around on your shoulders!

When God allows you to determine how you will walk out your faith, just remember that what he permits is not always what he will bless. Never make a choice that sacrifices long-term blessing for short-term comfort. Stay alert if the choice is between better and best—and go for the best!

The Journey // Focus: Numbers 32:5-8, 13

The men of Gad and Reuben asked Moses, “If we have found favor with you, please let us have this land as our property instead of giving us land across the Jordan River.” But Moses responded, “Do you intend to stay here while your brothers go across and do all the fighting? Why do you want to discourage the rest of the people of Israel from going across to the land the Lord has given them? Your ancestors did the same thing when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to explore the land….The Lord was angry with Israel and made them wander in the wilderness for forty years until the entire generation that sinned in the Lord’s sight had died.”

This section begins the Israelites’ decades-long conquest of Canaan as they settle the Promised Land. God was giving them a land that geologically would provide a great deal of security because of its natural borders: the Jordan River on the east, the Mediterranean Sea on the West, the desert on to the south and the Lebanon Mountains to the north. Israel’s enemies would not have the easiest time physically invading the land.

Moreover, God himself had promised this land to their ancestor Abraham. Now it was time for the fulfillment of that promise; the land was theirs by divine decree. It was not their land by United Nations declaration or bilateral negotiation or some grand land for peace swap. God said it belonged to Israel—now and forever—end of story.

It had taken several hundred years for God to fulfill that decree. God had declared that the current occupants, the various tribes of the Canaanites, would have to leave, but interestingly, that time would not come until, as he had declared to Abraham, the sin of the Canaanites had reached its limit (cf. my devotional blog on Numbers 31 regarding the sin of Canaan). The inhabitants of the land had grown intolerably wicked, and divine justice demanded their expulsion, by any means necessary.

Canaan was now ready for conquest, and the Israelites were about to possess their promise, a land flowing with milk and honey. Some of the twelve tribes of Israel, however, didn’t want to go in. They didn’t want to take ownership of the land. They prefered to stay on the east side of the Jordan where there were lush plains of grazing land. From their pastoral perspective, this was the perfect place to feed their flocks, raise their kids and make a life.

Moses, however, didn’t take it kindly when the tribes of Gad and Reuben informed him of their hope to stay on the edge of the Promised Land. He charged them with being negligent in their duties to help expel the Canaanite nations on the other side of the Jordan River. He claimed their settling for the east would discourage the rest of the tribes forging ahead to lay claim to the west. He argued that they were simply repeating the same sin that kept their fathers out of the Promised Land. But after a good tongue lashing, he accepted their explanation for staying put as reasonable—not ideal, but reasonable. Yet even then, you get the feeling that Moses wasn’t totally comfortable with the idea, and his acceptance of their plan was couched in a severe warning about being unengaged in God’s mission for Israel in the years to come.

That’s the story. So what is the application for us today? Obviously there is a reason God included it in the Bible, so what are the take-away’s for us?

Perhaps there are many, but I will suggest this one: At times, God gives us a choice. Sometimes the choice is either this or that, and one is no better than the other. Then at other times, God says, “sure, you can choose, but what you want is less than my best.” So simply be aware that when God allows you to determine how you will walk out your faith, what he permits is not always what he will bless. At times God brings us to a place where the choice he allows us to make is not between good and bad, it is between better and best.

God’s deepest desire is to lead you to the best place a believer could ever hope for—but he gives you a choice. In that choice, don’t’ settle! Don’t surrender for second place. Don’t forfeit the potential for divine abundance because of a short-sighted desire for comfort and convenience. Don’t give up just shy of the thrill that awaits at the finish.

Too many Christians surrender to far less than what God has in mind for them just prior to the final push of obedience and sacrifice faith required to bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey. I am not sure what that means for you today, but I know that the choice you and I will face today and every day as we walk out our faith is settling for the good when God wants to give us the best.

Don’t settle, God has a land of promise for you!

“ Good, better, best. Never let it rest. ‘Til your good is better and your better is best. —ST. JEROME

With the things we don’t understand about God, and with the things the world shudders at about God, keep in mind that we don’t always need to defend him. God is perfectly suited to defend himself. We ought to arm ourselves with as much knowledge as we can through study, but at the end of the day, God is infinite—in being, in wisdom and in power. And we are not. So let God be God, and lean into his loving but just character!

The Journey // Focus: Numbers 31:1-2,7,13-18

The Lord said to Moses, “Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites.” …Israel fought against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and killed every man. …Moses, Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the community went to meet them outside the camp. Moses was angry with the officers of the army—the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds—who returned from the battle. “Have you allowed all the women to live?” he asked them. “They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck the Lord’s people. Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.

What are we to do with the concept of holy war in the Bible? How are we to handle it when the Lord unleashes vengeance upon a nation? It is beyond our modern sensibilities that what we have come to understand as a New Testament God of love would order the annihilation of an entire people in the Old Testament. And annihilation is too clean of a word: men, women and children were put to death—by the sword—among other “unspeakable actions.”

Many have set forth scholarly and reasonable explanations for the concept of holy war, so I will allow you to explore those on your own should you desire to gain greater knowledge. I would simply say here, as I have often said in this journey through the Pentateuch, that context is everything. Keep in mind the progressive nature of what God is doing here: he is forming a people for himself. They have been called out from among the pagan nations, are being purged of the ungodly and brutal influences of those nations they have been among, and are now being fashioned into a nation themselves that is to be uniquely God’s and set apart in holiness for his sacred purposes. So God starts with where they are—a people without form and function—and be begins to give them both. Some of the laws and regulations that we read about are to be observed forever, some are for that time and place only, and some are for an indeterminate but definite period of time. Some of those Divine decrees won’t be needed once they are established in their Promised Land and a great many of them will go away entirely when the promised Messiah comes to establish the reign of God in the hearts of his people.

And that is precisely where the student of the Bible has to distinguish between the rigid letter of the law and the eternal principles of God.

Now what about this idea of holy war—which wouldn’t you agree after reading this account—war is hell? At this point, it will be helpful to consider the following article from the NIV Student Bible. While it doesn’t soften the tragedy of holy war, it does supply some of the contextual reasons for it:

The Old Testament makes clear that the Canaanites were not being uprooted on a sudden whim. God had promised the land to the Israelites over 400 years before Joshua. He had called one man, Abraham, to found a nation of chosen people. He repeated those promises often (see Genesis 12:1–3; 15:5–18; 17:2–8; 26:3,23–24; 28:13–14) and finally called the Israelites out of Egypt to take over the promised land. Almost from the beginning Canaan was a vital part of God’s plan. Israel’s inheritance, however, meant kicking out the Canaanites. How could innocent people simply be pushed aside, or killed? In answer to this question, the Bible makes clear that the Canaanites were not “innocent.” Through their long history of sin, they had forfeited their right to the land. Four hundred years before Joshua, God had told Abraham that his descendants would not occupy the land until the sin of its inhabitants had “reached its full measure” (Genesis 15:16). Later, just days before the onset of Joshua’s campaign, Moses stated, “It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the LORD your God will drive them out before you” (Deuteronomy 9:5). Historians have uncovered plenty of evidence of this wickedness. Canaanite temples featured prostitutes, orgies and human sacrifice. Relics and plaques of exaggerated sex organs hint at the immorality that characterized Canaan. Canaanite gods, such as Baal and his wife Anath, delighted in butchery and sadism. Archaeologists have found great numbers of jars containing the tiny bones of children sacrificed to Baal. Families seeking good luck in a new home practiced “foundation sacrifice.” They would kill one of their children and seal the body in the mortar of the wall. In many ways, Canaan had become like Sodom and Gomorrah. The Bible records that God has patience with decadent societies for a time, but judgment inevitably follows. For Sodom and Gomorrah it took the form of fire and brimstone. For Canaan it came through Joshua’s conquering armies. Later, God let his own chosen people be ravaged by invaders as punishment for their sins. The judgment pronounced on Canaan seems severe, but no more severe than what was later inflicted on Israel itself.

Keep in mind with the things we don’t understand about God, with the things the world shudders at, that we don’t always need to defend God. He is perfectly suited to defend himself. We ought to arm ourselves with as much knowledge as we can through study, but at the end of the day, God is infinite—in being, in wisdom and in power. And we are not.

Let God be God, and lean into his loving but just character. In the final analysis, God will be—and already is for that matter—justified in all his ways.

“ There is a lot more about God that we don’t know than what we do know. —MURRAY W. MCLEES

Making a vow while invoking the name of a deity was common in the ancient world. It is common in our day, too. God didn’t and doesn’t want his people to do that. He isn’t just any old god. He wants us to elevate his name. He is the Lord God, the Creator and Ruler of the universe, the Great I AM. His name is holy, and we must never profane it by treating it at any time and in any way as common.

The Journey // Focus: Numbers 30:2

A man who makes a vow to the Lord or makes a pledge under oath must never break it. He must do exactly what he said he would do.

Making a vow while invoking the name of a deity was common in the ancient world. It is common in our day as well. Someone might casually blurt out, “I swear to God” or “by God” or something similar to impress upon the listener the seriousness of that oath. The problem is, when one swears an oath by the name of the Almighty, it is usually on the spur of the moment or in a fit of emotion, and it is usually done unthinkingly and it is not going to be dependable.

God didn’t want his people to do that. He wasn’t just any old god. And he wanted them to elevate their God’s name. He was the Lord God, the Creator and Ruler of the universe, the Great I AM. He was holy, and he took his holiness so seriously that he demanded his people eat, sleep, breathe and live 24/7 as his holy people. In fact, they were not to casually utter his name—to do so would be to profane it; to treat it as common. He even put that prohibition in the Top Ten of all his Commandments:

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. (Exodus 20:7)

Was Israel’s God serious about his people honoring his name? You bet! And here is a shocking example from Leviticus 24:10-14,

One day a man who had an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father came out of his tent and got into a fight with one of the Israelite men. During the fight, this son of an Israelite woman blasphemed the Name of the Lord with a curse. So the man was brought to Moses for judgment. His mother was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan. They kept the man in custody until the Lord’s will in the matter should become clear to them. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and tell all those who heard the curse to lay their hands on his head. Then let the entire community stone him to death.

God was deadly serious about his name being profaned. He still is. Obviously, we don’t execute people for misusing it, but he is still the Lord God, the Creator and Ruler of the universe, the Great I AM. He is no less Yahweh today than he was in ancient Israel. He is still holy, and he still takes his holiness so seriously that he demands that we eat, sleep, breathe and live 24/7 as his holy people.

So as it relates to casually and unthinkingly uttering his name, don’t. And one of the ways to implement that kind of respect for the name of the Lord relates to this business of invoking his name in making an oath. To honor his wishes that he clearly expressed to the Israelite, keep the following in mind:

• If you are making a vow and tempted to invoke his name to demonstrate how serious the oath is, never do it in the emotion of the moment. Never make it rashly. Stop, think about it, know exactly what you are saying, what you are promising. Remember, if you invoke God’s name, you are putting his character on the line in your oath.
• If you make a vow using his name, it must be fulfilled. Sorry, but you committed to it, and you chose to use God’s name as your earnest money. That is serious business, so that is why you must first clearly think it through before you do it. God will hold you to it.
• If you make a vow by swearing to the name of your God, remember this: you did not make it by uttering the name of any old god, this was the Lord of the Universe you brought into the agreement. And even if you or the one to whom you pledged didn’t take it seriously, God did.

Bottom line: Don’t swear to an oath and invoke the name of the Lord. Follow Jesus’ advice found in Matthew 5:33-37,

The law of Moses says, ‘You shall not break your vows to God but must fulfill them all.’ But I say: Don’t make any vows! And even to say ‘By heavens!’ is a sacred vow to God, for the heavens are God’s throne. And if you say ‘By the earth!’ it is a sacred vow, for the earth is his footstool. And don’t swear ‘By Jerusalem!’ for Jerusalem is the capital of the great King. Don’t even swear ‘By my head!’ for you can’t turn one hair white or black. Say just a simple ‘Yes, I will’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Your word is enough. To strengthen your promise with a vow shows that something is wrong.

Break the habit of uttering the name of the Lord your God unthinkingly in your conversations.  Don’t use his name casually in making promises, as if that somehow adds credibility to what you are committing to do. A simple “yes’ or “no” will do!

Elevate his name; reverence it. After all, he is still the Lord God, the Creator and Ruler of the universe, Yahweh, your Great I AM!

“ God has never, in the history of mankind, allowed his name to go long offended. —DAVID WILKERSON

The fact that the Kingdom of God is a party doesn’t mean the God of the Kingdom winks at sin. He doesn’t! Not because he is a killjoy, not because he can’t wait to punish our misdeeds, not because he is an angry deity—not at all. Scripture is abundantly clear that God is benevolent, merciful and kind, all because love is the DNA of God. But let us never forget that true and pure love cannot turn a blind eye to sin. That is why God always confronts sin where it exists, punishes it when he must, but mostly, forgives it where his people acknowledge it through confession and repentance.

The Journey // Focus: Numbers 29:7-11

Ten days later, on the tenth day of the same month, you must call another holy assembly. On that day, the Day of Atonement, the people must go without food and must do no ordinary work. You must present a burnt offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. It will consist of one young bull, one ram, and seven one-year-old male lambs, all with no defects. These offerings must be accompanied by the prescribed grain offerings of choice flour moistened with olive oil—six quarts of choice flour with the bull, four quarts of choice flour with the ram, and two quarts of choice flour with each of the seven lambs. You must also sacrifice one male goat for a sin offering. This is in addition to the sin offering of atonement and the regular daily burnt offering with its grain offering, and their accompanying liquid offerings.

The fact that the Kingdom of God is a party (see yesterday’s devotional thoughts on Numbers 28) doesn’t mean that the God of the Kingdom winks at sin. He doesn’t! Not because he is a killjoy, not because he can’t wait to punish our misdeeds, not because he is an angry deity—not at all. Scripture is abundantly clear:

• God loves for us to experience joy: “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11)
• God is reluctant to punish sin and ready to show mercy: “Where is another God like you, who pardons the guilt of the remnant, overlooking the sins of his special people? You will not stay angry with your people forever, because you delight in showing unfailing love. Once again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean! (Micah 7:18-19)
• God is fundamentally loving and kind in character and action: “But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” (Psalm 86:15)

Yes, God is all of those—benevolent, merciful and kind, because love is the DNA of God—but let us never forget that true and pure love cannot turn a blind eye to sin. That is why God always confronts sin where it exists, punishes it when he must, but mostly, forgives it where his people acknowledge and repent of it:

God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth.  But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. (1 John 1:57-10)

In Numbers 28-29, God lays out not only days of celebration but days of confession as well. He made it possible for his people to party—to remember his goodness and provision, and to repent—to acknowledge their impurity and be cleansed from it. Throughout the law Moses delivered to this new nation, God’s holiness took center stage. God is holy, and he expected his people to honor his holiness by following his guidelines for both public worship and daily living. And when there were missteps, he provided sacrifices to atone for their sin through offerings “to purify yourselves and make yourselves right with the Lord.” (Numbers 29:5) In fact, he set up a singular day of the year, called the Day of Atonement (Numbers 29:7), where he commanded his people to cease all their normal activity to fast, wait upon him and make sacrifice for the remission of their sins.

Since we live in a new age as followers of Christ where we are not required to offer sacrifices for sin or to set aside an entire day for confession, repentance and cleansing, that is, a Day of Atonement, it is easy for us to forget how deadly serious sin truly is. So let us never forget that sin destroys. It corrupts our nature, it corrodes our relationships—with God and one another, and it kills—both the abundance of God in this life and eternal life in the next:

For the wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23a)

But let us likewise never forget the Good News that provision for the bad news of sin was made by a benevolent, merciful and lovingly-kind God, both through the temporary sacrifices in under the Old Covenant and permanently through the true Day of Atonement through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ:

The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared. But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year.  For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. …For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time. (Hebrews 10:1-4, 10)

No, God doesn’t wink at our sins. How could he wink at what would separate us relationally and eternally from his love? He doesn’t wink at sin, but he certainly washes us clean from it: “the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7) Yes, the wages of sin is death. That is the bad news; but the Good News is,

But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23b)

Thank God for the true Day of Atonement!

Everyone loves a party—including you, and most importantly, including God. And while we, as New Testament believers, aren’t required to celebrate the Old Covenant feasts and special days, I say why not repurpose your parties. How? Include God in them. In fact, make God the center of attention at the next get together you have, and then have fun!

The Journey // Focus: Numbers 28:1-2

The Lord said to Moses, “Give these instructions to the people of Israel: The offerings you present as special gifts are a pleasing aroma to me; they are my food. See to it that they are brought at the appointed times and offered according to my instructions.

I apologize if the title sounds a bit irreverent. I don’t mean any disrespect. But as I read the Bible, I see a God who loves to celebrate—and the way he celebrates is through the special days and feasts he commanded his people to observe. Yeah, God parties through you.

Note that he didn’t send out party invitations; he commanded them: “These are the instructions to the people of Israel.” (Numbers 28:1) Following that, throughout this chapter, there are several “you must’s” that God gives the Israelites: Numbers 28:3,5,7,9,12,14,15,16,19,22,23,26. The high point of the “you must’s” has to be the command to celebrate the Passover:

On the fourteenth day of the first month, you must celebrate the Lord’s Passover. (Numbers 28:16)

Again, note the “you must celebrate” as well as “the Lord’s Passover.” It’s the Lord’s party and you are commanded to enjoy it. Apparently, God was deadly serious about having fun—in the most worshipful way.

Once more, let me say that I mean no irreverence here. But the truth remains, God wants his people to party. Not in some sort of fleshly way, not to indulge our base nature, not like a good deal of the partying that goes on in our culture—through meaningless activity. No, this was partying with a purpose. And here is the rub: the celebrations were to remind the people of how good their God was. As the generations passed from one to the next in Israel, these feasts and special days were to be a perpetual reminder that Yahweh was a God worthy of celebration.

Of course, self-denial and privation were and are to also be a part of the worship life of God’s people, but do you realize that much more space is dedicated to feasting than fasting in the Bible. God wants you to enjoy him, and there is nothing more enjoyable than remembering who he is, how he has led you, met all your needs, guided you to a good place all along the way, and how each satisfying moment in the journey of faith as you have followed him as his dearly loved child has given way to a higher level of satisfaction in him than the previous. And ultimately, each feast points forward to the day when this life will be done, and the most indescribable pleasure will be finally and fully realized through unending life in the eternal feast of God. That, my friend, is party-worthy!

Everyone loves a party—including you, and most importantly, including God. And while we, as New Testament believers, aren’t required to celebrate the Old Covenant feasts and special days, I say why not repurpose the parties you have throughout the course of your life. How? Include God in them. In fact, make God the center of attention at your next get-together, and then have a lot of fun.

It’s worshipful—and it makes the God who loves to party happy indeed!

“ The Kingdom of God is a party. —TONY CAMPOLO

The great leader is truly a servant of the people. Unfortunately, too many in leadership today—in government, in business, in the church—are not public servants. They may run to get elected or selected based on what they will do for their constituents, but soon after getting into power, their main purpose seems to be doing whatever they can to stay in power. But the good heart of a godly leader cares about the health and happiness as well as the success and significance of the people they serve in the present moment, in the journey forward, and in the season after the leader’s time is up.

The Journey // Focus: Numbers 27:15-17

Then Moses said to the Lord, “O Lord, you are the God who gives breath to all creatures. Please appoint a new man as leader for the community. Give them someone who will guide them wherever they go and will lead them for into battle, so the community of the Lord will not be like sheep without a shepherd.”

What makes a great leader? Charisma? Skill? The right look? The ability to move people to achieve the vision of the leader or the mission of the community they lead? An impressive record of throttling the competition? Improving the company’s financial bottom line? Likeability?

Most, if not all, of the aforementioned qualities and benchmarks are good, but I would submit to you that what sets a leader above all the rest is the addition of this one attribute: they shepherd the people with a passion for their wellbeing, present and future. In other words, they are not in it for themselves, and they are not in it for the moment. They truly care about the health and happiness as well as the success and significance of their people in the present moment, in the journey forward, and in the season after the leader’s time is up.

The great leader is truly a servant of the people. Unfortunately, too many in leadership today—in government, in business, in the church—are not public servants. They may run to get elected or selected based on what they will do for their constituents, but soon after getting into power, their main purpose seems to be doing whatever they can to stay in power. People are no longer theirs to be served, but to be used to further the aspirations of the leader, the board of directors, the stockholders and the powers that be.

Jesus had some different thoughts about leadership, didn’t he? He told his disciples, “Jesus called his disciples together and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28)

Simon Peter, one of the twelve disciples, a guy who didn’t mind pushing his agenda forward before his transforming encounter with Christ, said, “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.” (1 Peter 5:2-3). He went on to say, “clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” (1 Peter 5:5-6)

Of course, Jesus and Peter were both referring to spiritual leadership, but nonetheless, their exhortations show us God’s ideal for all human leadership. Regardless of the venue, this is the leadership of which God approves: “And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.” (1 Peter 5:4)

In the account of Numbers 27, Moses is overlooking the promised land, gazing upon what he would never attain in this life. God had called him up to the heights of this mountain range, and there the Almighty, the giver of the breath of life, informed this faithful leader that he would take Moses’ breath from him. Moses’ work was coming to an end. As indispensable as he had been in leading Israel out of Egypt, through the wilderness, establishing them as a nation under the law of God, he was dispensable. God was, after all, the true leader of Israel and Moses was only the human instrument in God’s hands. He would not lead them into the Promised Land; another leader would.

But rather than being fearful, upset, or even curious about his life’s end, Moses’ concern was for the people he had shepherded all these years. He wanted to make sure they had a worthy leader; one who would protect and guide the people, who would shepherd the flock so they wouldn’t be scattered, who would ensure they came into the promised fullness of God.

Over the forty years in the wilderness tending his father-in-law’s sheep, and over the past forty years tending to the people of Israel as they wandered in the Sinai wilderness, Moses had truly developed a pastor’s heart. Even in the face of his own death, he was still pastoring his people.

That is the good heart of a great leader, for in his heart, he always carries his people.

“ I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion. —ALEXANDER THE GREAT