Author: words and signs

87 “I see him, but not now. I see him, but not near.”

 Numbers 24:17

 This is the viewpoint of the wicked prophet Balaam who was paid to curse the people of God but could not. He was false and a mercenary who was trying to make money out of his gifts. He says that he can see God but God is far away from him because he regards iniquity in his heart. God does not hear the words of the wicked but only those who are redeemed and made righteous.

“If I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord wouldn’t have listened.”

Psalm 66:18

 God promises to hear the prayer of His people and to answer them. We can come to Him in great confidence and see Him up close and personal.

 Balaam could see God in the works of creation and in the circumstances of life, yet he refused to bow his knee and acknowledge the Lord. The wicked go on in their sin regardless of what they know about God and have very little thought for Him. They see the Lord but He is not near to them and they do not interpret life in terms of His will or purpose. They will not come and remain recalcitrant and stubborn against the Lord.

 What foolishness is bound up in our hearts that we refuse what is obvious and keep at arms-length what is righteous and good. Let us draw near and see our God as our Saviour and Lord and bow to Him.

“Oh come, let’s worship and bow down. Let’s kneel before the Lord, our Maker…” Psalm 95:6

 

86 “Moses prayed for the people.”

 Numbers 21:7

 The people of God had sinned and broken the commandments and as a result of this they were inflicted with serpents that bit them and caused death in the camp of God. They were sorely oppressed and called out to Moses and God. Moses, the man of God took it as his responsibility to pray for the people and that they might be delivered.

“The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.”

 James 5:16

 Moses was the servant of the Lord who was faithful and so his prayers were heard in heaven. Am I someone who is asked to pray for others? Am I known as a righteous person with a clean life so that God will hear me?

 This is the challenge for every one of those who believe, that we might be great in the kingdom of God and listened to by God. Does my life measure up or am I too concerned about the things of this life and not with the things of God?

 O that we might be people who are filled with the Holy Spirit and pray to the Lord always. The Lord waits for us to humble ourselves and come into His presence with all our burdens and requests and He rejoices in our praises as we are thankful to Him. Let us return to the Lord in all love joy and faith as we expect great things for our Lord and rejoice in His deliverance and peace.

 

85 “This is the law when a man dies in a tent:”

 Numbers 19:14

 The rule of death made all who come into contact with it unclean. Death is not the way to closeness with God, and we stay away from it. We stay away from all the manifestations of death and anyone who entered the place of death was automatically regarded as unclean according to the Levitical law.

 Death is the direct result of sin.

“For the wages of sin is death…”

 Romans 6:23

 We escape death through the death of the sinless sacrifice of Christ and His victory over it’s power. There was no other way to atone for sin but for a sinless sacrifice to die in the place of others. Jesus was that sacrifice as only He is able to bear the weight of our sin and bear it away in His body on the cross – He bore the weight of the curse of death for our sakes. He is our only hope of escaping the death of the soul and languishing in hell – eternal death – forever. We must flee from this and earnestly seek to know God who can forgive and impute righteousness to us that we don’t have ourselves.

“The soul who sins, he shall die.”

 Ezekiel 18:20

There is no hope of escaping death without the shed blood of Christ. We must come to Him in full assurance of faith and know that He died for us and in our place. Only in Him are we made clean and free of guilt. Let us bow before Him and acclaim Him Lord of all.

84 “for a pleasant aroma to the Lord”

 Numbers 18:17

 The sacrifice of our life is to be a pleasant aroma before the Lord for He takes delight in holy living and in deeds done in righteousness. This was the goal of the sacrifices of old, to bear witness to the devotion of the people to their God, and to please Him in all obedience and love. God requires holiness for us and seeks those who are upright and who will follow Him.

 What can I do to please my dear Lord?

To walk uprightly and humbly accept His will for my life and obey His loving commandments.

“The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his loving kindness.”

 Psalm 147:11

 We please the Lord as we walk in faith and do not give houseroom to depression, anxiety and fretting. These things belie lack of understanding of the Word of God and not holding firmly to His precepts. We must grasp tightly to the promises of God and apply them to the depths of our heart that we might live peaceful lives without doubt and fear. As we walk with the Lord in the light of His word, we please Him and our life becomes an aroma of praise and glory to His name.

 Let us holdfast to our profession of faith and not doubt.

“But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed.”

 James 1:6

83 “…touch nothing of theirs, lest you be consumed in all their sins!”

 Numbers 16:26

 Three families had contravened the law of God and God was going to punish them. He tells the people to stay away from the evildoers as punishment is coming. God lays down laws and precepts to show us the way ahead and how to stay in step with Him. The people of Korah, Dathan and Abiram had disobeyed, and were set apart for punishment. They rest of the congregation were told not to touch any of their belongings as they were condemned. God is earnest for the holiness of His people and tells us to live apart from evil and let not worldliness come into our lives.

“Therefore “‘Come out from among them, and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you.”

 2 Corinthians 6:17

 God requires that we keep our lives godly and clean from all the ways of this world and the standards it falsely propagates. We must know the law of God and keep to its statutes so that we can live lives that are pleasing to the Lord and that honour Him. We are to be obedient to Him and not the mindset of this fallen world we live in.  

“If anyone therefore purges himself from these, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, and suitable for the master’s use, prepared for every good work.”

 2 Timothy 2:21

Let us stay away from every manifestation of evil.

82 “All the congregation brought him outside of the camp, and stoned him to death with stones, as the Lord commanded Moses.”

 Numbers 15:36

 This was the shocking penalty for breaking the sabbath of the Lord. There are tremendous blessings to be experienced when we keep the ways of the Lord and honour Him. He has made us for Himself and knows our frame that we are dust and need Him so desperately, even if we don’t think so! He knows we need rest and respite from the cares of this evil world and its philosophies, and we need to draw aside to rest in His work and in His mindset, not our own.

 In the Old Testament times the penalty for breaking the sabbath was death by stoning. God will keep His commandments pure and we must obey them. When Jesus came and the church of Christ was begun, the commandments were not repealed, and we are required to walk holy lives unto the Lord.

 We will not lose our life for breaking the commandment in these days, but we will suffer in other ways. The closeness of the Lord will not be with us, and we will not know the liberty of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. We must not pass up these blessings for the sake of fitting in with the world and being comfortable. Those who will stand up for the ways of the Lord will not suffer loss and God will give great spiritual blessing on those who are faithful to Him.

“For to everyone who has will be given, and he will have abundance, but from him who doesn’t have, even that which he has will be taken away.”

Matthew 25:29

 

81 “His iniquity shall be on him.”

 Numbers 15:31

 Sins that are committed without thought for God or His laws shall be without recompense. There are deliberate sins which the Lord does not forgive, sins carried out without shame and without thought for the ways of the Lord – sins that we refuse to be sorry for and carry on in them.

 We bear our own iniquity if we refuse to repent and humble ourselves before the Lord. We must put our Lord first and obey Him above all other considerations. The deliberate sin had no sacrifice attached to it and the perpetrator bore the fault of it alone.

 We can sin with a high hand, thinking that God will forgive us anyway, but we must be full of the fear of the Lord if we are to turn away from such thinking. God is no respecter of persons and will not in any way let the guilty go free. We must seek the refuge of the cross of Calvary if we are to conquer our sin and not deal presumptuously with the Lord. We do not take our forgiveness for granted but remain full of penitence and seeking to please the Lord.

 The Lord will not listen to those who sin outwardly and without care. We are called to walk circumspectly with God and not to go along with our own desires and thoughts. Let us fly to the cross and come before the Lord who will set us free from the guilt and shame that attend such sin and lift us up again. We must continue to fight the fight against our sin and not just pander to our desires. We can overcome in the power of the Lord and we grasp hold of this and become victorious.

 The Lord is patient and will bring us through.

80 “All the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.”

 Numbers 14:1

 There is nothing wrong with weeping as long as we are weeping for the right things. In this instance the people wept because they wanted to be in Egypt where they felt they were looked after. They did not appreciate the provision of the Lord and wanted more of the things of this present world. They wept for the want of slavery over the freedom of the Lord and the promise of the land flowing with milk and honey. They hardened their hearts to the future and felt secure with the ways of the past even though they were in chains.

 The Lord has delivered us from the slavery of sin, let us not hark back to it and reject the provision of the Lord. We can get nostalgic ideas about the way things were and forget the great deliverance we have had from sin. We can go back to our old ways and find ourselves disappointing our Lord and insulting His provision for us. Let us be glad about what He has given and lift our hearts daily in thanksgiving to Him.

 Let us not be found weeping for sinful ways and the situations that we have been delivered from. God is our portion and will lead us in all righteousness and give us His peace, not the gaudy things of this present life.

“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that you, always having all sufficiency in everything, may abound to every good work.”

 2 Corinthians 9:8

 Let us look to our God and not the sin that so easily entangles.

79 “At the commandment of the Lord, the children of Israel traveled, and at the commandment of the Lord they encamped.”

 Numbers 9:18

 What it is to be in tune with God and obey all His will and commands! The children of Israel were never happier than when they obeyed the Lord and followed the cloud and fire before them. They were totally safe and secure, and their enemies were far away and waiting to be conquered. The Lord their God was with them, and they knew it and were always conscious of His presence because of the signs they enjoyed.

 We are travelling through our life and at the mercy of all dangers if we are not following the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our guide and we lean hard on Him as we travel through the changing scenes of life. He is our everlasting banner, and His love follows us through our days and we watch His way carefully so that we do not run ahead or lag behind Him. The children of Israel were safe as long as they followed the cloud and fire, and so we are safe as we walk carefully after our Lord.

 The pathway can seem long and difficult, but we are safe even as the saints of old were safe. They could rely on the Lord for He made His way plain to them. So we have the guide of the Word of God to show us the way and keep us safe and secure in our walk with God.

“…and when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.”

 Isaiah 30:21

 God will guide all those who are looking to Him.

78 “Aaron did so. He lit its lamps to light the area in front of the lamp stand, as the Lord commanded Moses.”

 Numbers 8:3

 We are to let our light shine brightly to all around us for the testimony of the Christian is a wonderful thing. We must do all we can to protect our precious lives from the darkness of this world, the darkness of our own hearts and the darkness of Satan.

 It is too easy to fall into sinful ways and allow the things of this life to dull down our psyche and cause us to do and say things that are not right. What goes on in the privacy of our devotion to the Lord is of prime importance and the flavour of our days is dependent on the deepness of our communion with the Lord. It is really important that we draw near to God every day for we grown cold very easily and quickly. We will find ourselves doing and saying things that are not from the Lord and so our testimony can be undermined.

 Aaron was instructed to light the lamps and to put them where the light would shine out. So we too put the glory of God at the forefront of our life so that we reflect and shine for Him. We pay careful heed to His commandments that we might obey and show the holiness of God in all we do. This is the command of the Lord, and we as obedient servants do His bidding.

“Even so, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

Matthew 5:16

 Let us shine brightly for our Lord today that He might be better known.