Hope Alliance Nazareth

After multiple failures, we see in Numbers that God's covenant love still remains.  And that covenant love is actually what motivates our commitment and obedience to Him. 

With a new census, we once again see the faithfulness and the goodness of God.  And both of these are even more apparent when God resounds to the daughters of Zelophehad.  Though their father's sin had led to their deprivation, God welcomed them into an inheritance that legally wasn't theirs to share.  In the same way, God has welcomed us into the inheritance of enteral life through Jesu...

Idolatry is zeal for anything other than God's honor.  Fleshly zeal and religious zeal both end in pain and separation from God.  But what we see in Numbers 25 is that zeal for God's honor starts with atonement and ends in a covenant of peace...foremost and finally with Jesus!

God's promises spoken cannot be broken.  What He has blessed cannot be cursed.  He the power and the heart to fulfill all of His promises for His people...in and through Jesus.

When you plan isn't working, perhaps God is.  That's not meant to be motivational drivel.  It's meant to encourage us that when God stops us and gets our attention, perhaps He is calling us to repent and believe something new in the Gospel!

The new generation of Israel has moments of great faith followed by a massive failure.  God's faithfulness sees them through as they learn to depend on Him daily and regularly repent.  We can do the same because of love and power of God shown to us in Jesus on the cross.

Anger typically makes much of us and less of God...and that's never good.  In Numbers 20 Moses (and Aaron) lash out in anger and it has dire consequences.  The good news is, Jesus shows us we don't have to be the judge, the deliverer, and the strategists and can instead make much of God and less of ourselves.

Because of the resurrection, Godly people develop Godly peace personally and communally.  The seeds of peace are sown in faith in what God has done, is doing, and will do someday in making all things new.

Love begins and ends with liberation.  Instead of seeking our liberation FOR self, the resurrection gives us liberation FROM our selves.  That liberation makes us better lovers of God and others...which leads to their liberation.

Because of what God has done, is doing, and will do, we can cultivate the fruit of joy in our lives.

It is exactly the right mistake to make to see Jesus as a gardener outside his tomb.  At the resurrection of Jesus, new creation has begun and as followers of Jesus, we are part of it.  We can "bloom" in the wilderness with evidence of this new creation displaying joy, love, and peace.

Following their rebellion, the people of Israel sense the great separation between them and a holy God.  But God, in His grace, provides intermediaries and purification.  In the Gospel of Jesus, we find the grace to be in the presence of a holy God.

In Numbers 16 & 17 we find the people of God responding to God's grace with more rebellion and grumbling, to the point of challenging God's appointment of Aaron as high priest.  But God demonstrates his grace to the people and his vindication of Aaron when Aaron acts as the mediator between the living and the dead...just like Christ.

Numbers 14 ends with a question mark: since an unbelieving generation will be condemned to die in the wilderness, and the next generation will wander for 40 years, what will come of God's promise to enter the land?  Numbers 15 is the answer: God still desires fellowship with His people by His grace and their obedience.

In Numbers 13 and 14 we encounter two different groups of people: those that believe God and see things from His perspective, and those that doubt God and see things through their own eyes.  Both have seen God's power, character and promises...but come away with different convictions.

In Numbers 11 and 12, we find God generously putting His Spirit on other leaders so that a grumbling Moses isn't alone in leading the people.  But shortly thereafter, his own sister and brother disparage him in their envy.  We learn that envy is simply a different form of grumbling...being unhappy about what God has given someone else.  But in the Gospel, we have all we need.

Only a few days into their journey to the Promised Land, the people of Israel begin to grumble and complain.  The problem isn't wishing for better circumstances, it's that grumbling is caused by ingratitude and faith in self that leads us away from God.  However, a life of gratitude for God's grace leads to full life.

In Numbers 9&10 the people of God finally get on the journey to the promised land.  The author wants us to see that the culmination of the people's covenant obedience is the constant presence of the living God to comfort and guide them into the Promised Land.  

Before they commence their journey to the Promised Land, God calls the Israelites to celebrate Passover...again.  What we find is that Passover doesn't just set them free, it's what keeps them free.  We, too, are called to continue to celebrate the ultimate Passover in Jesus...it's what keeps us free.

In Numbers 6 and 7 we find the people of God being blessed by God, responding in worship, and enjoying His presence.  We, too, can have the blessing of God on us through Jesus.

In Numbers 5, the author wants the readers to see how God's presence cannot abide impurity or sin in the camp.  And the people of God will demonstrate their impurity again and again in the wilderness.  But praise God for His mercy that accepts the atonement for not just Israel's sins, but ours as well.

The book of Numbers, also called "In the Wilderness", begins with the people of God having been freed from slavery so they could center theirs lives in worship around God in the tabernacle.  So, too, today the people of God are able to center around God because Jesus tabernacled among us...centering himself in our midst by his Spirit.

In Numbers 3, 4, and 8 we find the role of the Levites described.  In short, they were set apart by God to remind people of God's mercy, to help others center on God's presence, and to carry the house of God everywhere He instructed.  This special calling also gives purpose to our lives today in the Gospel.

Over and over the New Testament writers call the people of God to rejoice IN their suffering and seem to believe that good can come from it.  In 2021, we will have trials and tribulations.  How will we suffer well?  

God delivers on His many promises from over many years to crown a new King David.  Jesus reigns with the heart of God and delivers his people to salvation, justice, and righteousness.