Thursday, October 8, 2009

Numbers Chapter 10-12

10:3 - In the book of Revelation, angels blow trumpets that bring about the end times (These may be metaphorical, but that's what is described). The angels blow the trumpets to usher in the coming judgement and to gather the people of God to Him. I thought it was interesting in Numbers, they also blew the trumpets to gather the faithful together.

11:4-5 - How often do we forget the pain and suffering that sins in our past caused, and instead think about how tempting and pleasing that sin was? We do this all the time. The Israelites got free fish back in Egypt, sure...but they were slaves that were worked to death constructing whatever the Egyptians wanted them to construct. Talk about viewing the glass as half full! Hey we had free fish! Don't ever forget the slavery that God has brought you out of...don't ever forget the depth of your brokenness...our past has a way of sneaking up on us and convincing us it wasn't as bad as we thought it was. Guess what? It was way worse than you remember...thank God for His love and salvation.

11:17 - God teaches Moses a little something about delegation. Moses is taught that as a leader, you must cast your vision and raise people up who can lead alongside you. No leader can do everything by himself! That's is poor ineffective leadership.

11:28ff - How many times have we seen this? How many times have I been this guy? Joshua gets jealous of the prophecies going on in camp, because those guys are doing ministry outside the "official" leadership structure! God gives different people different gifts and as mature believers we need to be able to celebrate victories with people who are gifted differently than us. Following God is not a competition...we are all in this together.

12:3 - It makes me feel a little better about all my imperfections when I read that Moses still has them too (I know that's terrible, I'm sorry). After all this time as the leader of the Israelites...after countless situations where Moses has seen God work miraculously through him...he is still insecure. He doesn't like the confrontation that comes as part of the leadership job. I fell you Moses...I don't like that either.

12:13 - It blows my mind that even after he finds out his sister was trying to take away his leadership behind his back...Moses stands up for her and begs God to heal her leprosy. Even though he hates confrontation...he will stand before God and beg Him to heal his sister, because he loves her so much. Unconditional love is a great leadership quality!

1 comment:

Matt said...

I really like 10:8. Over these past few years I really feel like i've developed a trumpet of my own which blares when I'm caught in a sinful or tempting situation and warns me when to raise my shield.