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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Here are the stages in the journey of the Israelites when they came out of Egypt by divisions under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. At the Lord's command, Moses recorded the stages in their journey. This is their journey by stages:
The Israelites set out from Rameses on the fifteenth day of the first month, the day after the Passover. They marched out boldly in full view of all the Egyptians, who were burying all their firstborn, whom the Lord had struck down among them; for the Lord had brought judgment on their gods.
The Israelites left Rameses and camped at Succoth.
They left Succoth and camped at Etham, on the edge of the desert.
They left Etham, turned back to Pi Hahiroth, to the east of Baal Zephon, and camped near Migdol.
They left Pi Hahiroth and passed through the sea into the desert, and when they had traveled for three days in the Desert of Etham, they camped at Marah.
They left Marah and went to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there.
They left Elim and camped by the Red Sea.
They left the Red Sea and camped in the Desert of Sin.
They left the Desert of Sin and camped at Dophkah.
They left Dophkah and camped at Alush.
They left Alush and camped at Rephidim, where there was no water for the people to drink.
They left Rephidim and camped in the Desert of Sinai.
They left the Desert of Sinai and camped at Kibroth Hattaavah.
They left Kibroth Hattaavah and camped at Hazeroth.
They left Hazeroth and camped at Rithmah.
They left Rithmah and camped at Rimmon Perez.
They left Rimmon Perez and camped at Libnah.
They left Libnah and camped at Rissah.
They left Rissah and camped at Kehelathah.
They left Kehelathah and camped at Mount Shepher.
They left Mount Shepher and camped at Haradah.
They left Haradah and camped at Makheloth.
They left Makheloth and camped at Tahath.
They left Tahath and camped at Terah.
They left Terah and camped at Mithcah.
They left Mithcah and camped at Hashmonah.
They left Hashmonah and camped at Moseroth.
They left Moseroth and camped at Bene Jaakan.
They left Bene Jaakan and camped at Hor Haggidgad.
They left Hor Haggidgad and camped at Jotbathah.
They left Jotbathah and camped at Abronah.
They left Abronah and camped at Ezion Geber.
They left Ezion Geber and camped at Kadesh, in the Desert of Zin.
They left Kadesh and camped at Mount Hor, on the border of Edom. At the Lord's command, Aaron the priest went up Mount Hor, where he died on the first day of the fifth month of the fortieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt. Aaron was a hundred and twenty-three years old when he died on Mount Hor.
The Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev of Canaan, heard that the Israelites were coming.
They left Mount Hor and camped at Zalmonah.
They left Zalmonah and camped at Punon.
They left Punon and camped at Oboth.
They left Oboth and camped at Iye Abarim, on the border of Moab.
They left Iyim and camped at Dibon Gad.
They left Dibon Gad and camped at Almon Diblathaim.
They left Almon Diblathaim and camped in the mountains of Abarim, near Nebo.
They left the mountains of Abarim and camped on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho. There on the plains of Moab they camped along the Jordan from Beth Jeshimoth to Abel Shittim.
On the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho, the Lord said to Moses, "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish all their high places. Take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess. Distribute the land by lot, according to your clans. To a larger group give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group a smaller one. Whatever falls to them by lot will be theirs. Distribute it according to your ancestral tribes.’
'But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live. And then I will do to you what I plan to do to them.'"
Numbers 33
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
One prevalent theme in this Book of Numbers is that there are places where we see very specific accounting happening. This is particularly evident in two separate censuses we find taken of the Israelite people with separate counts made of the Levites, those who were the priests who oversaw the sacrifices and worship requirements within the tabernacle (chapters 1 and 26). You’ll remember that the first happened in the “second year after the Israelites came out of Egypt” (1:1) for the purpose of knowing how many men would serve in the Lord’s army. That number was 603,550 (1:46),
The second census happened at the tail end of the forty year judgment the lord has imposed on His people for their rebellion at the first time God worked to bring them into Canaan. You will recall that the forty years was intended to kill off the sinful generation so that they wouldn’t experience the land God had promised. That privilege would go to their children who numbered 601,730 when the second census was taken while the Israelites were encamped in the plains of Moab (26:1-56). This count was done as a precursor to dividing up the land in Canaan as it was distributed to the clans of Israel.
This brings us to chapter 33 of this book where we see a summation of Israel’s travels, from the time they departed Egypt to the present as they were ready to invade and conquer the nation of Canaan to make it their own.
As we see, the Israelites had certainly traveled most of the time from when they departed Egypt through the miraculous Red Sea crossing. During their journeying, we know that God was with them every step of the way, providing guidance and provision for His people and here in this chapter, we see where He continues to do so as the people of Israel get ready to cross the Jordan River and begin their conquest of the Promised Land. We read where God provides the following message via Moses as the Israelites were camping “on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho”:
“When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish all their high places. Take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess. Distribute the land by lot, according to your clans. To a larger group give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group a smaller one. Whatever falls to them by lot will be theirs. Distribute it according to your ancestral tribes. But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live. And then I will do to you what I plan to do to them."
These words from the Lord carried a reminder and a warning.
First, He commanded Israel to “drive out all the inhabitants of the land”, destroying “all their carved images and their cast idols” and demolishing “all their high places”. The Israelites were to “take possession of the land and settle in it” for the Lord had given it to them “to possess.”
After this, we find Him reminding the Israelites of how He wished for the land to be apportioned, saying:
“Distribute the land by lot, according to your clans. To a larger group give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group a smaller one. Whatever falls to them by lot will be theirs. Distribute it according to your ancestral tribes.”
Finally, we find the Lord warning Israel about what would happen to them if they failed to carry out His orders in complete obedience:
“…if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live. And then I will do to you what I plan to do to them."
Here we find God making it clear that if the Israelites failed to totally eliminate their enemies in the land of Canaan, those foes would return to be “barbs in (their) eyes” and “thorns in (their) sides”. In regard to the latter, we now know where the age old expression “a thorn in my side” originated from, a saying that is centered on someone or something that brings difficulty and annoying hardship to someone.
This would be bad enough but God added one more element to the consequences that His people would face if they didn’t comply with His wishes. For we read where He promises His people that they would face the judgment reserved for their Canaanite enemies if they didn’t carry out His command fully. Unfortunately, as we continue to study through the Old Testament, we will see where Israel does indeed sin against God by not following this direction and as a result, suffers the punishment He promised here.
As I stepped back from this chapter and thought about the concept of completely driving something out of my life or face the prospect of it coming back to be the barb in my eye or thorn in my side, I couldn’t help but think how I have done well in this regard in some instances and not so well in others. Maybe you can relate.
Through it all, I have learned that when I fail to eliminate a sin in my life, I subtract from my progress in becoming the kind of person the Lord wants for me to be. The worst part about it is that I placed my desires on something that was an abomination to God (all sin is, by the way) instead of making Him my greatest delight. This clinging to a worldly pleasure over making the Lord my biggest treasure placed resulted in a spiritual deficit in my life. And as much as I tried to hide my inability to completely rid my life of the sin, I found that the Lord continued to convict me more and more each time. He never stopped attacking my consciousness until there was no pleasure anymore in doing the things I knew I shouldn’t be doing. Only guilt and shame remained as I discovered myself feeling like David when he said this in the thirty-second Psalm:
“When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.” Vv. 3-4
In that place, I learned that the only way I could get the barb out of my eye, to extract the painful thorn in my side, was through genuine, heartfelt repentance. Not just the artificial, superficial repentance I had given God so many times before, the multiple times when I said I was sorry when I was already thinking about an opportunity when I could sin again, but rather now saying I was sorry for good as I looked to the cross of Calvary and reaffirmed how He was nailed there in my place because of my sinfulness.
Friends, when that happened, I felt an unexplainable liberation and relief, the polar opposite of the incessant condemnation and conviction I felt before. It was then that I experienced the full power of God’s love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness which led me to be able to rejoice like David when he confessed this:
“Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’ - and You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.’”
“Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to You while You may be found; surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach him. You are my hiding place; You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” Psalm 32:5-7
As I close, if you have a sin in your life that is like a barb or thorn, now is the time to do something about it. I encourage you to fall on your knees and confess your sin to the Lord, the only One who can remove it and provide spiritual healing and restoration, the only One who can lead and guide you to stay on the path of righteousness and holiness during every day of this earthly, human existence.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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