Seeking the Gospel Truth

Today we start on a new adventure. God led Moses from the burning bush to Pharaoh, to the Red Sea, to Mt. Sinai , then finally to Mt. Nebo across the Jordan River from the Promised Land . Unfortunately, Moses would never enter the land of Canaan. Why? Because Moses disobeyed God’s orders once at Meribah where he hit the rock instead of talking to it like God told him to. The other time was at the...

Moses’ life is over. He’s 120 years old. He  helped God lead the people, but in several occasions, he didn’t do what  God told him to do. And, because of his disobedience, he can’t enter the  Promised Land. I’m sure you can think of times in your life when you  blew a great chance you had. You probably think back at it, “Man! If  only I had….” Woulda, coulda, shoulda! Mose...

Guess what?! We’re almost done trudging through  Deuteronomy! This is the next to the last part! You may be wondering why  God wanted Moses to be so repetitive. Or maybe… why did it have to be  so detailed? So, comprehensive? Clearly, God loved the Israelites — just  as He loves each and every one of us. He doesn’t want to see us go the wrong way or choose evil over good . God...

God could not be any clearer. If you obey His  commandments, you are blessed. If you disobey, you are in big trouble —  you are cursed. In fact, the more people disobey, the worse it gets for  the whole community, state, even the country. Right now, in Arizona there several major wildfires burning . One of them, not even an hour from Phoenix (where I am), burned the family cabin of...

The Bible is the Word of God. Given that, we  must read and study it daily because it helps us learn how to live  righteous, godly lives. Without it, we are left to our own ways and,  unfortunately, our ways usually don’t work. In these next few chapters  of Deuteronomy, Moses continues to unpack the 10 Commandments. This  time, the “ love your neighbo r” part. “Love your...

In these next few chapters of Deuteronomy (12-18), Moses is telling  the new generation of Israelites how to live holy lives. Basically, if  they follow these commandments, these rules, these specific ways of  worshiping, they will live happy and prosperous lives in the Promised  Land. He’s reiterating the law that he told their parents, who lost  their chance of living in...

Working with technology all day, I often deal  with things not working they way the should or finding out that I did  something wrong. That usually goes into the, “Let’s not do that again!”  memory file to make sure that I don’t repeat the mistake. Many times  it’s trial and error. You try something and it works. Yay! You try  something else and it doesn’t work. “Let’s not...

Do you love God wholeheartedly? This is what God is asking the  Israelites to do in these next chapters. If you truly love God  wholeheartedly, shouldn’t you obey ALL His commands? Shouldn’t you do  what He says? Shouldn’t you put Him first? Here, He also explains why He  chose the Israelites. And you’ll find out why Jesus chose YOU! Let’s dig in…. Keep reading in my blog where...

Deuteronomy is the epic conclusion to the Torah —  the 5 Books of Moses. In Numbers, God told Moses that he won’t be  entering the Promised Land and he dies at the end of this book. However,  God tells Moses that he has to prepare this new generation before they  go into the Land of Canaan. Remember, the majority of these folks  haven’t heard the 10 Commandments, the dos a...

It’s been a long and winding road for the Israelites to wander 40 years  in the wilderness. Finally, they are across the Jordan River from the  Promised Land. However, God has a little housekeeping — sanctification —  to do first. The Promised Land is a sacred land. God wants only  righteous people living there. The current inhabitants, in God’s eyes,  are idol worshipers...

Sin has consequences, and in Numbers 25, some of the Israelites commit 2 of the worst — immorality and idolatry. Jesus brings both of these up in the letter to the church of Pergamum in the Book of Revelation . Here in Numbers, God deals with the sinners accordingly. The problem is that we humans don’t learn from history. We don’t  learn from the mistakes other people have made and the conseq...

This is one of the best stories in the Old  Testament! Yes, it features a talking donkey! See, God can do ANYTHING!  So, even though the old generation had died off, you need to figure  there were more kids born in the 40 years of wandering in the desert.  Anyhow, there were still a good million to 2 million people who camped  in Moab, across the Jordan River from Jericho....

Before we continue on our trek through Numbers, I wanted to dig deeper in what happened in our last story and how it significantly points to the Gospel and the Salvation of Jesus Christ. There are a lot of phrases used to describe Jesus. What’s more, they  all stem from the Old Testament and what happened during the Israelites  journey through the wilderness. We’ll take a look at them an...

It’s been almost 40 years and the Israelites  have wandered through the desert wilderness and have ended up back where  they started in Kadesh. Right on the edge of the Promised Land where they sent the 12 spies , but they didn’t trust God enough to go in and face the inhabitants. What now? It seems the younger generation who will inherit the Promised Land is  doing OK. It’s the old...

God doesn’t ask much of us — just obedience, trust and purity.  Unfortunately, as humans, that is very difficult for us. Emotions and  personal feelings get in the way, as do pride, greed and all the 7 deadly sins . This is what happened to the Israelites as well as Moses and Aaron. Already, the Israelites grumbled, rebelled and disobeyed . Now, they are doomed to wander in the desert un...

The Israelites rebelled against God by not trusting in Him and now, a whole generation will not see the Promised Land. They will  be wandering in the desert for 40 years until the younger generation is  old enough to be able to fight the people who inhabit Canaan. Meanwhile,  God tells Moses to remind the people that while they are alive, they  still have to offer special gifts...

Sixteen years ago, I packed my 2 cats in my  hatchback and set out for the biggest move of my life — Florida to  Arizona. The trip took 4 days. My cats were quiet while I was driving,  but as soon as I stopped for gas or to eat, they would start meowing,  “Are we there yet?!” They complained — a lot. Just like the Israelites.  They complained a lot. What my cats couldn’t u...

God hears us when we complain. His response,  however, may differ depending on the motives behind the complaint. If  it’s true suffering, God is comforting and healing. If the motives are  greed, gluttony, envy and lust of the flesh, vanity, etc., well, you  deserve what you get. See, God hears ALL of our complaints. The other major point here in the next 2 chapters of Numbers,...

It’s been 2 years since God freed the Israelites  from captivity in Egypt and it’s time to move on to the Promised Land. However, In Numbers 9, we have one more memoir from Moses, as a reminder to always celebrate the Passover the same time each year. I’ll let you read that on your own here. Back in my tour guide days, I once had a group of 28 tourists in  Caracas, Venezuela. We were dow...

Have you ever been telling a story from your  past and then remembered something pertinent and had to say, “Oh, I  forgot about this”, or “this is important”? That’s what’s happening  here. Moses is writing this as a memoir. He’s dictating to a scribe.  Back then, there was no inserting pages in a book already written. God  wants Moses to explain everything and not leave a...

The Hebrews call the Book of Numbers “In the Wilderness”. It’s the beginning of the journey of the Jews to the Promised Land — the Covenant that God made with Abraham . First, let’s do a little recap on the story of the people of Israel until now. In Genesis 46 ,  we learned that there were 70 members of Jacob’s (aka Israel) family  who moved from Canaan to Egypt because of the drought a...

In the last 2 chapters of Leviticus, God details  what happens when the people obey and disobey His rules. God made a  covenant — an agreement with the Israelites. It’s a binding contract.  Then, He gave them the terms of the agreement through Moses. God keeps  His promises. If you obey the laws, you will be blessed. If you disobey,  you break the covenant agreement and fa...

When I first heard the song, "Days of Elijah" (the video is at the bottom), I didn't get what they meant when they sang, "It's the Year of Jubilee". I knew from when I originally read Leviticus, that it's the 50th year, a year of rest for the Israelites. But, if in the song, it's the year of Jubilee, the fiftieth year from what? How did they figure it was the 50th year? Was it coming? Did I miss i...

Who doesn’t like a festival or a reason to get together with friends and  family and share a meal? However, the purpose of all the mandatory  Jewish feast days, were to honor God and remember what God did for the  Jews. The pagan nations that surrounded them celebrated festivals for  each one of their false gods. I discovered that the “patron saint days” observed by Catholics r...

Priests represent God to the people and represent the people to God.  Since God must be presented as perfect, priests had to be as perfect as  possible. Furthermore, being human, there are different ways a priest  can become “unclean”. In these next two chapters of Leviticus, we find  what a priest has to do to get clean and stay clean. Remember, in this  book are the inst...