Numbers 16 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Go After the Small Drips

I wonder what formed the Grand Canyon? Maybe a few drips here and there. Slowly more and more water built up. Thunderstorms and lightning… angry expressions from the sky spilling out in the raging river of the Colorado. A once innocent stream now full of power and purpose. As years go by, the crevasse is dug.
Our anger builds like the Colorado. Slowly, small things drip, drip, drip down, annoying, irritating, finally enraging. That was mine! Drip. Get out of my way! Drip. Don't tell me what to do! Drip. The pressure and the buildup unleashing a frenzy of anger, pouring out in our words, sweeping away our loved ones, our homes, and our peace.
Don't wait until you have a gushing fire hydrant. Go after the small drips. Address every little irritant with forgiveness and prayer. Do it before your anger digs a canyon in your life!
From Max on Life

Numbers 16

The Rebels

Getting on his high horse one day, Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, along with a few Reubenites—Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—rebelled against Moses. He had with him 250 leaders of the congregation of Israel, prominent men with positions in the Council. They came as a group and confronted Moses and Aaron, saying, “You’ve overstepped yourself. This entire community is holy and God is in their midst. So why do you act like you’re running the whole show?”

4 On hearing this, Moses threw himself facedown on the ground.

5 Then he addressed Korah and his gang: “In the morning God will make clear who is on his side, who is holy. God will take his stand with the one he chooses.

6-7 “Now, Korah, here’s what I want you, you and your gang, to do: Tomorrow, take censers. In the presence of God, put fire in them and then incense. Then we’ll see who is holy, see whom God chooses. Sons of Levi, you’ve overstepped yourselves!”

8-11 Moses continued with Korah, “Listen well now, sons of Levi. Isn’t it enough for you that the God of Israel has selected you out of the congregation of Israel to bring you near him to serve in the ministries of The Dwelling of God, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them? He has brought you and all your brother Levites into his inner circle, and now you’re grasping for the priesthood, too. It’s God you’ve ganged up against, not us. What do you have against Aaron that you’re bad-mouthing him?”

12-14 Moses then ordered Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, to appear, but they said, “We’re not coming. Isn’t it enough that you yanked us out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? And now you keep trying to boss us around! Face it, you haven’t produced: You haven’t brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, you haven’t given us the promised inheritance of fields and vineyards. You’d have to poke our eyes out to keep us from seeing what’s going on. Forget it, we’re not coming.”

15 Moses’ temper blazed white-hot. He said to God, “Don’t accept their Grain-Offering. I haven’t taken so much as a single donkey from them; I haven’t hurt a single hair of their heads.”

16-17 Moses said to Korah, “Bring your people before God tomorrow. Appear there with them and Aaron. Have each man bring his censer filled with incense and present it to God—all 250 censers. And you and Aaron do the same, bring your censers.”

18 So they all did it. They brought their censers filled with fire and incense and stood at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. Moses and Aaron did the same.

19 It was Korah and his gang against Moses and Aaron at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. The entire community could see the Glory of God.

20-21 God said to Moses and Aaron, “Separate yourselves from this congregation so that I can finish them off and be done with them.”

22 They threw themselves on their faces and said, “O God, God of everything living, when one man sins are you going to take it out on the whole community?”

23-24 God spoke to Moses: “Speak to the community. Tell them, Back off from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.”

25-26 Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram. The leaders of Israel followed him. He then spoke to the community: “Back off from the tents of these bad men; don’t touch a thing that belongs to them lest you be carried off on the flood of their sins.”

27 So they all backed away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram by now had come out and were standing at the entrance to their tents with their wives, children, and babies.

28-30 Moses continued to address the community: “This is how you’ll know that it was God who sent me to do all these things and that it wasn’t anything I cooked up on my own. If these men die a natural death like all the rest of us, you’ll know that it wasn’t God who sent me. But if God does something unprecedented—if the ground opens up and swallows the lot of them and they are pitched alive into Sheol—then you’ll know that these men have been insolent with God.”

31-33 The words were hardly out of his mouth when the Earth split open. Earth opened its mouth and in one gulp swallowed them down, the men and their families, all the human beings connected with Korah, along with everything they owned. And that was the end of them, pitched alive into Sheol. The Earth closed up over them and that was the last the community heard of them.

34 At the sound of their cries everyone around ran for dear life, shouting, “We’re about to be swallowed up alive!”

35 Then God sent lightning. The fire cremated the 250 men who were offering the incense.

36-38 God spoke to Moses: “Tell Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, Gather up the censers from the smoldering cinders and scatter the coals a distance away for these censers have become holy. Take the censers of the men who have sinned and are now dead and hammer them into thin sheets for covering the Altar. They have been offered to God and are holy to God. Let them serve as a sign to Israel, evidence of what happened this day.”

39-40 So Eleazar gathered all the bronze censers that belonged to those who had been burned up and had them hammered flat and used to overlay the Altar, just as God had instructed him by Moses. This was to serve as a sign to Israel that only descendants of Aaron were allowed to burn incense before God; anyone else trying it would end up like Korah and his gang.

41 Grumbling broke out the next day in the community of Israel, grumbling against Moses and Aaron: “You have killed God’s people!”

42 But it so happened that when the community got together against Moses and Aaron, they looked over at the Tent of Meeting and there was the Cloud—the Glory of God for all to see.

43-45 Moses and Aaron stood at the front of the Tent of Meeting. God spoke to Moses: “Back away from this congregation so that I can do away with them this very minute.”

They threw themselves facedown on the ground.

46 Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer and fill it with incense, along with fire from the Altar. Get to the congregation as fast as you can: make atonement for them. Anger is pouring out from God—the plague has started!”

47-48 Aaron grabbed the censer, as directed by Moses, and ran into the midst of the congregation. The plague had already begun. He put burning incense into the censer and atoned for the people. He stood there between the living and the dead and stopped the plague.

49-50 Fourteen thousand seven hundred people died from the plague, not counting those who died in the affair of Korah. Aaron then went back to join Moses at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. The plague was stopped.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Saturday, January 15, 2022
Today's Scripture
Exodus 12:5–13
(NIV)

The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect,v and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month,w when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.x 7 Then they are to take some of the bloody and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same nightz they are to eat the meat roasteda over the fire, along with bitter herbs,b and bread made without yeast.c 9 Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs.d 10 Do not leave any of it till morning;e if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste;f it is the Lord’s Passover.g

12 “On that same night I will pass throughh Egypt and strike downi every firstbornj of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the godsk of Egypt. I am the Lord.l 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass overm you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

Insight

One of the wonders of Jesus’ crucifixion is that it happened on Israel’s national remembrance of Passover. In one eventful day, the stories of Moses and Jesus merged. From then on, the world had a new way of thinking about the mysterious language of killing and eating the Passover lamb. It was on this date on the ancient calendar of Israel that the God of creation judged the gods of Egypt by bringing to light their inability to protect anyone. It was on that first Passover that the God of gods used the sacrifice of a lamb and a sacred meal to show that He alone was the source of life and freedom. Yet it wasn’t until Jesus’ death that people would understand the connection between Him and the Passover lamb and what it meant to eat and drink from God’s own self-sacrifice. By: Mart DeHaan

Life by Death

When I see the blood, I will pass over you.
Exodus 12:13

Carl was battling cancer and needed a double lung transplant. He asked God for new lungs but felt odd doing so. He confessed it’s a strange thing to pray, because “someone has to die so I might live.”  

Carl’s dilemma highlights a basic truth of Scripture: God uses death to bring life. We see this in the story of the exodus. Born into slavery, the Israelites languished under the oppressive hands of the Egyptians. Pharaoh wouldn’t release his grip until God made it personal. Every eldest son would die unless the family killed a spotless lamb and slathered its blood across their doorposts (Exodus 12:6–7, 12–13).

Today, you and I have been born into the bondage of sin. Satan wouldn’t release his grip on us until God made it personal, sacrificing His perfect Son on the blood-spattered arms of the cross.

Jesus calls us to join Him there. Paul explained, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). When we put our faith in God’s spotless Lamb, we commit to daily dying with Him—dying to our sin so we might rise with Him to new life (Romans 6:4–5). We express this faith every time we say no to the shackles of sin and yes to the freedom of Christ. We’re never more alive than when we die with Jesus. By:  Mike Wittmer

Reflect & Pray

Why is death the only path to life? How have you shown that you’ve received Jesus’ death on your behalf?

Jesus, Your death brings me life. Help me die to sin today and live my life through You.

Do You Walk In White?

We were buried with Him…that just as Christ was raised from the dead…even so we also should walk in newness of life. —Romans 6:4

No one experiences complete sanctification without going through a “white funeral” — the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crucial moment of change through death, sanctification will never be more than an elusive dream. There must be a “white funeral,” a death with only one resurrection— a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can defeat a life like this. It has oneness with God for only one purpose— to be a witness for Him.

Have you really come to your last days? You have often come to them in your mind, but have you really experienced them? You cannot die or go to your funeral in a mood of excitement. Death means you stop being. You must agree with God and stop being the intensely striving kind of Christian you have been. We avoid the cemetery and continually refuse our own death. It will not happen by striving, but by yielding to death. It is dying— being “baptized into His death” (Romans 6:3).

Have you had your “white funeral,” or are you piously deceiving your own soul? Has there been a point in your life which you now mark as your last day? Is there a place in your life to which you go back in memory with humility and overwhelming gratitude, so that you can honestly proclaim, “Yes, it was then, at my ‘white funeral,’ that I made an agreement with God.”

“This is the will of God, your sanctification…” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Once you truly realize this is God’s will, you will enter into the process of sanctification as a natural response. Are you willing to experience that “white funeral” now? Will you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends on you.

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

Re-state to yourself what you believe, then do away with as much of it as possible, and get back to the bedrock of the Cross of Christ.  My Utmost for His Highest, November 25, 848 R

Bible in a Year: Genesis 36-38; Matthew 10:21-42