Sunday, May 24, 2009

May 24, 2009
Numbers 12-13

Numbers 12 tells the story of Aaron and Miriam speaking against Moses for marrying the Cushite (Ethiopian) woman. God confronts them immediately and Miriam is inflicted with leprosy and shut up outside the camp for seven days. The verse that really sticks out to me is the last part of verse 8, "Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant, against Moses?" What were they thinking?? Although we can never answer this question in full detail, we can answer fairly confidently that they were not thinking at all! As referenced in an earlier post, there we go again-- pointing our finger. When was the last time we thoughtlessly spoke against one of God's servants? James 3:6 says, "And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell." Yikes!! We can do so much damage to each other and God's work in each other just by careless words! This might be why Paul said in Ephesians 4:29, "Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers."

In Numbers 13 we see another example of the damage the tongue can do. The Lord sent through Moses twelve spies of the twelve tribes into the promise land to see and bring back fruits and reports of the land. Well, they brought back a great report for the most part. However, most of the spies were overwhelmed with fear of the giants and their fortified cities, and they told everyone, "We shouldn't go; we can't possibly take the land!" Guess what?!-- everyone freaks out and rebels against the direction and the provision of God. I shouldn't get too ahead of myself, after all, that's chapter 14. But it reminds me of Psalms 37:8, which says, "...do not fret, it leads only to evildoing." Not only did they fret, they spoke rashly, and what do we have?? "See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!" (James 3:5b) Translation: more rebellion by the Israelites!

How many times have you and I done the same thing? God provides, God directs, God gives vision, and we say, "No! I can't do that; it's too hard..." And on and on. We are so blessed to have ALL the scriptures! We have the stories from the Old Testament AND specific directives from Psalms, Paul's letters, and Christ's own words, to glue it all together! Not only that--- We have THE HELPER, the Holy Spirit! Let's see... while I'm at it I might as well throw in one of my favorite scriptures, Romans 8:26, "In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words." Wow! That's AMAZING! I should wrap this up before I really get goin!

May God bless the reading of His word!!