Thanks for being huge blessings!
Numbers chapter 26.
Once again God is taking a count amongst all the Israelites to see how many are of age to go into battle. They are in the preparation stage again for war. God had taken a count before but because the people rebelled God would not let them enter into the Promise Land. So now all those who were alive have now died and there is a new group of people being prepared for battle to go into the Promise Land.
This makes me think of Christians who go into battle everyday. Satan attacks us everyday. What do we do to get ready for battle?
We have to do something. We can't do nothing. To do nothing is to give Satan a foothold in our heart and Lives. Do nothing is the same as surrendering. We give the devil every opportunity to deceive us through our mind and our thought process. Once our mind is deceived, it affects how we approach other people either favorably or with opposition. He takes away the element of love so our motives end up being selfish. We need God's word daily!
Ephesians 6:10-20 gives a great description of how we are to get ready for battle.
They list seven key things.
- Know God's truth.
- Be righteous.
- Be a man or woman of Peace.
- Have faith.
- Salvation.
- Know God's word.
- And pray often.
To go into battle, we need our focus on the Lord always. To fulfill the 7 listed things we need to be in God's word daily. To be in God's word daily is allowing it to transform our lives so that we will end up seeing these 7 things in our lives.
- We will know God's truth and it will daily transform our lives.
- We will become holy and righteous people if we let it reign in our hearts and lives.
- We will become people of peace rather than to stir up strife and hate.
- We will be able to walk in faith because we will be more equipped to do so.
- We will be people of Prayer. And we will pray often because we know prayer puts God in control of our lives and circumstances.
- If God's word is our most important weapon when we go into battle, then we will see salvation of souls and change lives before us.
- God's word is the foundation for our lives and for our battles!
A new census for a new generation is taken and only Moses, Caleb and Joshua remain. Genealogy was and continues to be very important to the Israelites. I love the details. The biggest loss in tribe numbers since the last census approximately 40 years ago is in Simeon – this tribe lost more than 37,000 men. Jewish scholars believe this was primarily due to their participation in the sin of Bael of Peor that we read about in the last chapter. Our Zimri, “remember him”, was from the tribe of Simeon.
God again reminds us of some of the tragic results of rebellion and sin … not because He forgot He already told us in previous chapters of His Word but because He wants us to learn the lessons well. I used to think the Old Testament was just history about and for the Jewish people but He opened my eyes to all the lessons He has for us, regardless of the generation, year, or who we are. I always strive to learn my lessons the first time (it doesn’t always work that way) because some of His life lessons are painful.
The census was for two purposes: preparing for warfare and determining the distribution (not location but how much) of land in the Promised Land. Our rewards will flow from the Lord if we follow the 7 key things in Ephesians that PB reminds us of.
In Numbers 14:33, God told the previous generation exactly what would happen.
“And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness.”
It’s time for another census that takes place in chapter 26. This next generation of Israelites will soon be entering the Promise Land without Moses to lead them any longer. That will be something new for them as they’ve had Moses with them for their entire lives and the past 40 years was spent wandering in the wilderness. These people were being prepared to enter into a new place. They were told that it will be a land that flows with milk and honey.
May we be prepared for whatever God has for us as we put on the whole armor of God and stand firm in the faith by following those 7 key ingredients that Pastor Blair shared with us today.