Category Archives: Uncategorized

When the Holy Spirit works in miraculous ways, there always seems to be someone who wants to take the credit for His work. As I write this, there is a revival taking place at Asbury University. Reports are that many prominent preachers and musicians want to come and lend their efforts to the services, butContinue reading “Day 50: Numbers 18-20”

One phenomenon that seems to be ever more present in our society today is the unwillingness of people to take responsibility for their choices. Someone is turned down for a job and they blames the company or the manager. A person who ends up hospitalized after a drug overdose blames society for the prevalence ofContinue reading “Day 49: Numbers 16-17”

The report of the spies concerning the land to which the Lord had led Israel was mixed. On the one hand, the land was indeed good and fruitful, with the spies providing a huge bunch of grapes to prove it. On the other, there were fierce people in the land, including some giants. The peopleContinue reading “Day 48: Numbers 14-15”

Many people think that church leaders have it easy. As a pastor, I occasionally had someone tell me how it must be nice to only work a couple of days a week and to spend all my time studying. Most people in the church never see their pastors ministering to struggling people during the week,Continue reading “Day 47: Numbers 11-13”

Just over two years after they left Egypt, the Israelites prepare to move from the area of Mount Sinai and start toward the Promised Land. Looking at what we have recorded in Exodus, Leviticus, and so far in Numbers, many preparations were made for the people to enter and settle the land and establish theContinue reading “Day 46: Numbers 8-10”

Reading through the Bible involves a number of challenges as you encounter various kinds of literature and individual passages that aren’t especially exciting as you read them. Having just come through Leviticus, you understand that the first time through the Law codes there can be tough since we don’t have a modern frame of referenceContinue reading “Day 45: Numbers 7”

One of the more prominent benedictions in the Bible is the “Aaronic benediction,” the priestly blessing the Lord gave to Moses in Numbers 6:24-26. This was given as a blessing to be pronounced over the people by Aaron and his sons. It is what we would today call a liturgical prayer, a set form ofContinue reading “Day 44: Numbers 5-6”

Worship is not only expected from worshipers, it is essentially required as part of one’s religious duty. This is true no matter what religion you choose to examine. For the followers of a religion, worship can range from intimately personal to elaborately staged corporate celebrations, with a wide range of practices in between. Some worshipContinue reading “Day 43: Numbers 3-4”

The name of the book of Numbers indicates to us one of the major features of the book. (Its Hebrew name, translated as “In the wilderness” for the first word of the book, is actually more descriptive of its contents.) Numbers begins with a census of the males who could fight for Israel as theyContinue reading “Day 42: Numbers 1-2”

The Law laid out in the Pentateuch, particularly here in Leviticus, can seem overwhelming. All of the offerings, societal laws, ethical laws, guides to health and cleanliness, and religious rituals could be hard to remember. For everyone in Israel, from the leaders to the priests to the people, the Law was a guide to howContinue reading “Day 41: Leviticus 26-27”