Tag Archive | women living well

Numbers 31 – Purified by fire

Dec8

Hello y’all 🙂 Today we are studying Numbers chapter 31

Be blessed 🙂

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In verse 23 Eleazer tells the people who had gone into war to put all their plunder through fire and those that could not go through fire had to be washed in water.

“Everything that can endure fire, you shall put through the fire, and it shall be clean; and it shall be purified with the water of purification. But all that cannot endure fire you shall put through water”.(V23 NKJV)

This made me realise that in this case fire was acting as a purifier. Only the one that can endure fire will be put through. Same can be said of the trials we face in our lives. They are like a fiery furnace used by God to purify us. As we go through those trials all the things that shouldn’t be in our lives get thrown away or burnt away by the fire . All that’s left is pure substance that can be used by God.  Purified to the point that we become a true reflection of God Himself.

Job said:  “When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10)

Peter said: “These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold–though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world” (1 Peter 1:7 NLT)

Another point that I would like to raise from this chapter is: when God fights your battle for you, you are guaranteed no loss. The Israelites accounted for all the men that went into battle: not one of them was missing.

“Then the officers who were over thousands of the army, the captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, came near to Moses; and they said to Moses, “Your servants have taken a count of the men of war who are under our command, and not a man of us is missing”.(Numbers 31: 48-49 NKJV)

God keeps his own; and He fights for you. He is the only warrior I know of that has never lost a battle. Remember when he told David to go into battle against the Amalakites in 1 Samuel 30? The Bible records that David recovered all: Not even one person was missing.

“So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives. And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything which they had taken from them; David recovered all” (1 Samuel 30:18-19 NKJV)

That’s the God we serve. Let Him into your affairs and let Him fight for you. You are guaranteed a win.

Thanks for joining today.

Have a blessed day 🙂

I’m blogging through the book of numbers with good morning girls. Check us out at www.goodmorninggirls.org

***With God all things are possible***

Numbers 28 & 29 – Offerings

Dec4

Good morning y’all. I’m lagging behind this week, pls pardon me 😦 .

Today’s blog is on Numbers chapter 28 and 29. I have to admit I couldn’t really see how to apply this chapter personally, seeing as it was all about the kind of offerings that should be offered to God when the Isrealites get to the promised land.

One of the things I did notice though, was the amount of sacrifices they had to make in order to atone for their sins. They had to repeatedly make those sacrifices because offering them one time just couldn’t cover for the sins. Aren’t we grateful for Jesus? He paid the price once and for all for us. His blood atoned for our sins. Hallelujah!!!

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I’d like to share a few bits from an article by John Karmelich on both chapters

Be blessed 🙂

“Know that Chapters 28 and 29 go well together. If I were in charge of the chapter breaks (and I’m not), I would have made this one single chapter. They are in effect one continuous story of what God requires of the Israelites once they actual enter the land of Israel.

Think of these chapters this way: The Israelites are now camped just outside of the land of Israel. They realize they must fight the inhabitants there in order to conquer that land.I’m guessing the average Israelite soldier is thinking, “How long will it take to win? How long before I just get to settle down there and live with my family? Will I even survive through that war myself? Yes I believe God will lead me to victory, but what is the cost?

In that sense, these two chapters are designed to calm the hearts of the Israelites by saying in effect, “Not only will you win this war, but here is how I (God) want you to worship Me once gets into the land of Israel.” I believe these two chapters are here to calm the Israelites fear that not only they will win this war, but that they will be able to focus on God throughout their years living in that land.

With that said, these two chapters in effect describe each of the daily, weekly, monthly and special holiday sacrifices that the Israelites must make in order to worship God.
   i)  To put it simply, the Israelites are required to sacrifices thousands of animals, over a ton of wheat, and many gallons of wine to God yearly on a sacrificial altar.
  ii)  What that also means is that God will provide for them all of the animals, wheat and grapes in order to make those sacrifices in the first place.
  iii)  God is saying, this land of Israel will be such a good land for one’s animals and for growing things, if the Israelites agree to follow My (God’s) instructions, there will always be plenty of food for them in order to obey these laws.

Now for the important question: why should we care about any of this?

The first thing to keep in mind is that God takes sin seriously. A reason why all of these sacrifices are made is to remember how seriously He does take sin. The idea is that there is a price to be paid for sin. Those animals being burnt up on that altar were in effect the price paid for their sins. Since Jesus literally became sin for us, we should never, ever take our own sins lightly as He died for every one of our sins, past, present and future.

The way I like to describe the life of the Christian when it comes to sin is, if we do believe that Jesus is God, why would we want to disappoint Him by sinning? We don’t avoid sin out of fear of going to hell. We avoid sin as that is the best way to live our lives and we don’t want to disappoint the one who did die for our sins.

Let’s assume we all know that fact about Jesus. If that is true, why should I care about all of these details about how many animals and non-animals are sacrificed throughout the Israelite calendar year? It is to think about all of these animals that were killed and realize that is how seriously God wants us to take sin”.

– Excerpt from “Numbers Chapter 28-29” by  John Karmelich. Full article can be found here

Thanks for joining today. I’d like to hear your thoughts and comments on the chapter 🙂

I’m blogging through the book of Numbers a chapter a day with Good Morning Girls. Check us out at www.goodmorninggirls.org

Have a blessed day 🙂

***With God all things are possible***