Today's Reading
Someone said, "If the devil can't make you sin, he'll make you busy." Today in Numbers, we see that fear of the enemy is no longer hindering Israel from marching forward. Enter Balak with another solution: call Balaam.
I can imagine the innocent awe of Mary as she completely accepted God's plan for her life and future. Luke today.
Psalms: may all our hearts learn to become confident in God only.
Based on Proverbs today, may God raise up truly godly leaders whose lives consistently reflect integrity.
Your thoughts on these great passages?
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The story of the snake on a pole has always confused me because it seems like an idol...
ReplyDeletethoughts?
What a great clif-hanger ending to our Numbers reading today! Ha!
who exactly is Balaam? Obviously not one of the Israelites since the foreign leader contacted him to put curses on Israel; but he listens to the Lord God, who speaks to him. I know he's also talked about later in scripture, but does it tell where he's from and how he knew the Lord?
ReplyDeleteJulie, I have heard that the snake on a pole (which, by the way, Jesus used as an example, saying "For just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.") forced the people to look beyond themselves to God for deliverance. I understand that these red serpents injected a deadly poison and that blindness preceded death. In other words, if the people refused to look up to God for too long, they couldn't look anymore and would die. Quite a lesson!
ReplyDeleteCathy (and all of you who are interested in the mystery of Balaam), the best way to discover is -- in this case -- in other Scripture verses about him. I did a google search for "online Bible concordance" and got the following link: http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/. From there, I chose the New Living Translation (same as our daily readings) and used "Balaam" as the search term. You can scan past where we are in Numbers and discover some very interesting things about this man. I have given you a search tool. Now, have at it and share with us what you learn!