Numbers 11, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: The First Fruit

Impatience is selfishness with time. We don't like to waste it. People get in our way and slow things down, so we burn them with impatience! Patience recognizes that we share time with others-it's not just our time. Patience knows other factors are at work-that some things can be sped up with encouragement, not flames of retribution. The best way to turn down the flame of impatience is with love.
I Corinthians 13:4 says, "Love is patient." Love is a fruit hanging from the tree of Galatians 5:22. It's the first-fruit and some say the most important. The seeds of love produce the harvest of all the other fruits: joy, peace, patience. . . So, if you have the Holy Spirit, then you have the potential of making patience a part of your life. Thankfully, God is patient while you find that patience!
From Max on Life

Numbers 11

Camp Taberah

 The people fell to grumbling over their hard life. God heard. When he heard his anger flared; then fire blazed up and burned the outer boundaries of the camp. The people cried out for help to Moses; Moses prayed to God and the fire died down. They named the place Taberah (Blaze) because fire from God had blazed up against them.
Camp Kibroth Hattaavah

4-6 The misfits among the people had a craving and soon they had the People of Israel whining, “Why can’t we have meat? We ate fish in Egypt—and got it free!—to say nothing of the cucumbers and melons, the leeks and onions and garlic. But nothing tastes good out here; all we get is manna, manna, manna.”

7-9 Manna was a seedlike substance with a shiny appearance like resin. The people went around collecting it and ground it between stones or pounded it fine in a mortar. Then they boiled it in a pot and shaped it into cakes. It tasted like a delicacy cooked in olive oil. When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna was right there with it.

10 Moses heard the whining, all those families whining in front of their tents. God’s anger blazed up. Moses saw that things were in a bad way.

11-15 Moses said to God, “Why are you treating me this way? What did I ever do to you to deserve this? Did I conceive them? Was I their mother? So why dump the responsibility of this people on me? Why tell me to carry them around like a nursing mother, carry them all the way to the land you promised to their ancestors? Where am I supposed to get meat for all these people who are whining to me, ‘Give us meat; we want meat.’ I can’t do this by myself—it’s too much, all these people. If this is how you intend to treat me, do me a favor and kill me. I’ve seen enough; I’ve had enough. Let me out of here.”

16-17 God said to Moses, “Gather together seventy men from among the leaders of Israel, men whom you know to be respected and responsible. Take them to the Tent of Meeting. I’ll meet you there. I’ll come down and speak with you. I’ll take some of the Spirit that is on you and place it on them; they’ll then be able to take some of the load of this people—you won’t have to carry the whole thing alone.

18-20 “Tell the people, Consecrate yourselves. Get ready for tomorrow when you’re going to eat meat. You’ve been whining to God, ‘We want meat; give us meat. We had a better life in Egypt.’ God has heard your whining and he’s going to give you meat. You’re going to eat meat. And it’s not just for a day that you’ll eat meat, and not two days, or five or ten or twenty, but for a whole month. You’re going to eat meat until it’s coming out your nostrils. You’re going to be so sick of meat that you’ll throw up at the mere mention of it. And here’s why: Because you have rejected God who is right here among you, whining to his face, ‘Oh, why did we ever have to leave Egypt?’”

21-22 Moses said, “I’m standing here surrounded by 600,000 men on foot and you say, ‘I’ll give them meat, meat every day for a month.’ So where’s it coming from? Even if all the flocks and herds were butchered, would that be enough? Even if all the fish in the sea were caught, would that be enough?”

23 God answered Moses, “So, do you think I can’t take care of you? You’ll see soon enough whether what I say happens for you or not.”

24-25 So Moses went out and told the people what God had said. He called together seventy of the leaders and had them stand around the Tent. God came down in a cloud and spoke to Moses and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy leaders. When the Spirit rested on them they prophesied. But they didn’t continue; it was a onetime event.

* * *

26 Meanwhile two men, Eldad and Medad, had stayed in the camp. They were listed as leaders but they didn’t leave camp to go to the Tent. Still, the Spirit also rested on them and they prophesied in the camp.

27 A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!”

28 Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ right-hand man since his youth, said, “Moses, master! Stop them!”

29 But Moses said, “Are you jealous for me? Would that all God’s people were prophets. Would that God would put his Spirit on all of them.”

* * *

30-34 Then Moses and the leaders of Israel went back to the camp. A wind set in motion by God swept quails in from the sea. They piled up to a depth of about three feet in the camp and as far out as a day’s walk in every direction. All that day and night and into the next day the people were out gathering the quail—huge amounts of quail; even the slowest person among them gathered at least sixty bushels. They spread them out all over the camp for drying. But while they were still chewing the quail and had hardly swallowed the first bites, God’s anger blazed out against the people. He hit them with a terrible plague. They ended up calling the place Kibroth Hattaavah (Graves-of-the-Craving). There they buried the people who craved meat.

35 From Kibroth Hattaavah they marched on to Hazeroth. They remained at Hazeroth.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Saturday, January 08, 2022

Today's Scripture
Leviticus 16:1–5
(NIV)

The Day of Atonement

 The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they approached the Lord.z 2 The Lord said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he choosesa into the Most Holy Placeb behind the curtainc in front of the atonement coverd on the ark, or else he will die. For I will appeare in the cloudf over the atonement cover.

3 “This is how Aaron is to enter the Most Holy Place:g He must first bring a young bullh for a sin offeringa and a ram for a burnt offering.i 4 He is to put on the sacred linen tunic,j with linen undergarments next to his body; he is to tie the linen sash around him and put on the linen turban.k These are sacred garments;l so he must bathe himself with waterm before he puts them on.n 5 From the Israelite communityo he is to take two male goatsp for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.

Insight

The book of Leviticus was “God’s guidebook for His newly redeemed people, showing them how to worship, serve and obey a holy God” (Talk Thru the Bible, Wilkinson and Boa). Indeed, the most significant word in the book of Leviticus is holy, a translation of the Hebrew qados, which means “apartness, separateness, sacredness.” In its various forms this word appears in Leviticus more than in any other book of the Bible. The tangible presence of the holy God of Israel in the midst of His people required certain protocols and codes of conduct. God’s words to Moses for the people He set apart for Himself were: “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy’ ” (Leviticus 19:2; see also 11:44). And His word to believers in Christ, those He indwells by His Spirit today, is nothing less (see 1 Peter 1:15). By: Arthur Jackson

Drawn Near

Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place.
Leviticus 16:2

In the wake of the coronavirus, retrieving something from my safety deposit box required even more layers of protocol than before. Now I had to make an appointment, call when I arrived to be granted entrance to the bank, show my identification and signature, and then wait to be escorted into the vault by a designated banker. Once inside, the heavy doors locked again until I’d found what I needed inside the metal box. Unless I followed the instructions, I wasn’t able to enter.

In the Old Testament, God had specific protocols for entering part of the tabernacle called the Most Holy Place (Exodus 26:33). Behind a special curtain, one that “separate[d] the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place,” only the high priest could enter once a year (Hebrews 9:7). Aaron, and the high priests who would come after him, were to bring offerings, bathe, and wear sacred garments before entering (Leviticus 16:3–4). God’s instructions weren’t for health or security reasons; they were meant to teach the Israelites about the holiness of God and our need for forgiveness.

At the moment of Jesus’ death, that special curtain was torn (Matthew 27:51), symbolically showing that all people who believe in His sacrifice for their forgiveness of sin can enter God’s presence. The tear in the tabernacle curtain is reason for our unending joy—Jesus has enabled us to draw near to God always! By:  Kirsten Holmberg

Reflect & Pray

In what ways are you aware of being drawn near to God? How does that truth bring you joy?

Thank You, Jesus, for making it possible for me to be drawn near to God always.

To learn how to draw nearer to God this year.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, January 08, 2022
Is My Sacrifice Living?

Abraham built an altar…; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar… —Genesis 22:9

This event is a picture of the mistake we make in thinking that the ultimate God wants of us is the sacrifice of death. What God wants is the sacrifice through death which enables us to do what Jesus did, that is, sacrifice our lives. Not— “Lord, I am ready to go with You…to death” (Luke 22:33). But— “I am willing to be identified with Your death so that I may sacrifice my life to God.”

We seem to think that God wants us to give up things! God purified Abraham from this error, and the same process is at work in our lives. God never tells us to give up things just for the sake of giving them up, but He tells us to give them up for the sake of the only thing worth having, namely, life with Himself. It is a matter of loosening the bands that hold back our lives. Those bands are loosened immediately by identification with the death of Jesus. Then we enter into a relationship with God whereby we may sacrifice our lives to Him.

It is of no value to God to give Him your life for death. He wants you to be a “living sacrifice”— to let Him have all your strengths that have been saved and sanctified through Jesus (Romans 12:1). This is what is acceptable to God.

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

Always keep in contact with those books and those people that enlarge your horizon and make it possible for you to stretch yourself mentally. The Moral Foundations of Life, 721 R

Bible in a Year: Genesis 20-22; Matthew 6:19-34