Day 79

And another

Today’s readingsNumbers 9:15-11:3
Luke 3:1-22
Psalm 35:19-28


So we have the Israelites marching off and following God's cloud. I like this image and I don't know quite how literally to take it but what does strike me is how following the way that God had planned for them left them relatively incident free. It's like God wants the best for us... and that His plans actually work... Who'd have thought?! But seriously I really like this passage for showing the benefits of a journey with God. And when the Israelites forget how safe they've been and start complaining that they're not living in luxury I think it's understandable that God gets mad! But there's a lesson here. We need to accept that God's plan for us might not be the most exciting and thrilling earthly life. But we are here instead to live as He wants us and to use the gifts we have for Him. And I love the little aside about Hobab. Here we have a foreigner that Moses keeps with the people because he realises that God will be using Hobab regardless of his knowledge of God. We need to remember that God doesn't just work through Christians but is capable of using anyone's gifts and talents for His purpose. And as an incentive for us, notice that it's when Habob is surrounded by God's people that His skills are used. To me this says that we need to be willing to work with non-Christians in acheiving God's aims, even if they don't realise that's what they're doing!

We see John the Baptist again doing his thing but I think it's interesting to note that he says that being one of God's people isn't enough. And I think that still applies. We can't just rest on the knowledge that we're saved. We need to be striving for God and for His blessings rather than thinking we're forgiven so it's just a matter of waiting till we die. I believe that being a Christian is as much about making this world better for other people as it is about getting to heaven and I think this is what John is getting at. We need to be able to look at our lives here and be happy with them even though they will be sinful before we start thinking about the salvation that God gives us.

Finally the Psalm ends and I still think that this is a Psalm which shows how we can miss the point with our praise sometimes. God isn't there to make our lives easy. He's shown in Numbers that He won't put up with moaning about how hard we have it. Rather we should be worshipping God regardless of the outcome and trusting that His will is coming through. Verse 27 gets quoted a lot out of context as a way of saying that everything's going to go well for us as Christians. But look at the structure of the Psalm. Usually there is a piece to a Psalm when things do work out and God is praised. But here it just ends and I think that is because God isn't being praised for the right reasons. God can't be ordered or persuaded to step in when we need Him. Instead we need to seek His will and use our own strength and motivation, supported by His grace and power, to make changes to our own lives and more importantly, to other peoples. Lots of commas there but I hope that makes sense...

Onto the next one