LivethruJesus

As we enter a new year and you are thinking about your new years resolutions, think about your inheritance from the Lord and the legacy you want to leave. Make changes that will matter in the long run, things that will impact those around you for years to come. Adopt values and practices that you want your loved ones to inherit and work to leave a legacy that matters.

As the Israelites prepare to enter the promised land, they begin thinking about their inheritance. Moses allows 2 1/2 of the tribes an inheritance on the eastern side of the Jordan River as long as they don't settle in it until their brothers receive and settle in theirs. God also reveals what to do with a man's inheritance when he doesn't have any sons.

God has an inheritance for us in heaven. He wants to gather His children together in His eternal Kingdom. He cares about families, inheritance, and legacy. His desire is for us to leave a legacy of faith to our children and those that we know so we can all receive the inheritance He is preparing for those that love Him.

Also, we briefly discuss what to do when the Bible doesn't speak on a specific matter and how prayer can reveal God's plan to us.

There is no spiritual neutrality. We are either with God or we are against Him. He has no use for someone that is lukewarm. We are of no use to anyone when we are straddling the fence. We all have to make a choice. If we play both sides, then no one knows where we stand.

Balaam appeared to be on God's side because he obeyed Him and blessed the Israelites instead of cursing them. But after that, he stayed with the Midianites and advised them how to weaken the Israelites in a different way. So, even though he appeared to belong to God, he was working against Him behind the scenes.

What about you? Is it clear where you stand? Do you go to church on Sunday but act contrary to His Word for the rest of the week. Are you worried more about what God thinks or the world?

Anything that pulls us away from God, weakens us. But when we partner with other believers, we are stronger. They can help us carry the burdens of life and when we are closely tied to that person, they keep us on the straight path. Also, if you are both being guided by God, then you will be going in the right direction. So, unite yourselves to other believers and let God guide you. Move in unison to accomplish the work God has for His people.

What the Moabite men couldn't accomplish with war, the women set out to accomplish with their wiles. The women formed relationships with the men, to weaken their relationship with God, pulling them away from Him and to their gods instead.

So, they joined themselves, not only to these women, but also to their gods. Since the penalty for being unfaithful to God was death, He ordered all the men that betrayed him to be killed. Then when one of the men paraded the foreign woman he was with in front of the priests, Phinehas was jealous for God and killed this man and woman on the spot.

God is jealous for us because we belong to Him and He rewards those that are jealous on His behalf.

Can you be doing the right thing and it still be wrong? In this episode we talk about a man who did exactly what God told him to do, but God stood against him because he was doing it for the wrong reasons. He was trying to compromise with God. It was all for his own gain. God cares about our intentions otherwise He would have made us robots. He gave us hearts for a reason.

Balaam was a diviner paid to curse the Israelites. But God turned the curse into a blessing because what God has blessed, no man can curse.

What is a diviner? Why are Christians not supposed to participate in divination.

God reveals and proves Himself so we can be at peace when things are hard, so we will have the courage to keep going, and so we will place our faith in Him as we do. The more He reveals His ability and willingness to intervene on our behalf the better we can trust Him in the next battle we face.

God reminds the Israelites of all He has already done for them and how He has fought for all His children. By seeing that God has already dispossessed whole nations for their relatives, some of them even containing giants, the Israelites faith is strengthened. We too can lean increasingly on God the more He proves Himself in our own lives.

In this episode we also talk about the difficult things of war and the battle between good and evil.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus had to die? Why did God set it up that way when He could have just kept us from sinning at all or forgiven our sins without confession and death? Then we all would have eventually been in heaven with Him one day and there would be no worry that some would be separated from Him for eternity. On this episode, we will see how God provides the means of salvation but requires that we demonstrate our faith to receive it.

The Israelites complain against God because of their lack of water and their dissatisfaction with the manna He provided for them as food. So first we talk about being thankful for what God has given us in this week leading up to thanksgiving.

Then, because God is angry with them for complaining once again, He sends poisonous snakes to bite them and many of them die. When they asked for Him to take the snakes away, instead of saving them from death in that way, He provided a way for them to live after they were bitten. If after they were bitten, they looked up to the bronze serpent Moses made, then they would live. If not they would die. So, God made them demonstrate their faith for their salvation and it is the same for us today. If we look up to Jesus on the cross for salvation from the death we will eventually receive from the bite of the serpent, Satan, then we will live, but if we don't, then we will die.

God makes us demonstrate our faith to receive His salvation.

Pride comes before the fall. Satan was prideful and wanted to be like God. That's what caused his fall from heaven to earth. Then he tempted Adam and Eve to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil by telling them they would be like God if they ate it. So, their pride caused the fall of all mankind into sin. We cannot be like God. No one is like God! Drawing attention away from God and placing it on ourselves is a dangerous game.

In this episode, we see the fall of Moses as the Israelite's leader. Because he fails to demonstrate God as holy, the Lord will no longer allow him to lead the people into the Promised Land. God needed a leader that would point them to Him. Instead of teaching the people how to place their trust in the Lord, Moses wanted them to place their trust in him as their leader. He took credit for God's provision to the people so he would not get the chance to take credit for taking them into the promised land too.

Aaron also took credit for God's work so he died just before the people entered the land and his son Eleazar became the high priest in his place. Also, God took care of Esau's family as well, and gave his family land too. As Abraham's grandsons, Esau and Israel received an inheritance from the Lord. They never lived in the land, but their children did. Instead, they received the same heavenly inheritance that all God's children will receive one day. This eternal inheritance awaits all who believe in Him as their Savior!

Have you ever had someone intervene on your behalf? How does it feel when you know that there is at least someone that has your back no matter what? No matter how much trouble you get yourself into, no matter what you’ve done, you know that if you call this person they will be on your side. If you have someone like this in your life, you are blessed. If you do not, know that you have that in your Christian life. Jesus is the One that stands up for you. He is constantly interceding on your behalf, no matter what you have done, He is on your side.

Often God gives us an earthly visual of the spiritual things and the Israelites foreshadow what we find in Jesus. On this episode we will see Aaron intervene for the people and focus on the intervention of Jesus on our behalf.

Before Aaron intervenes though, we see how the Israelites absolutely reject God's correction, God's response, and what we can learn from it. We look at several passages in the Bible that talk about listening to God's instruction and how we hurt only ourselves when we don't.

This episode ends with the budding of Aaron's staff, revealing God's choice in leadership once and for all. They place the staff before the Holiest of Holies as a reminder of God's chosen.

In the family, everyone has a part to play. If one person's missing, the family's incomplete. It's the same in the family of God. We all play a special part. But in our families and in the family of God sometimes we are discontent with our role or we covet the role of another. But God created us with unique personalities and gifts and we have a purpose that is important and exclusive to us. We cannot do the job of another as well as they can and they cannot do our job as well as we can. God created us to individually play our roles to the benefit of the whole working together to accomplish His will.

Now that the Israelites were no longer allowed into the Promised Land, many of them grew discontent with their leadership. They blamed Moses and Aaron for their situation and started wondering what made them so special. Their own pride would be their downfall. They presumed to be just as chosen as Moses and Aaron, and they were, although for a different role. God had chosen the entire Israelite nation to be holy (set apart) to Him. He had specifically chosen the Levite tribe to serve Him in the Tabernacle and represent Him to the people. But everyone cannot be a priest, let alone the high priest and everyone cannot be THE leader. These men learn the hard way who had been chosen by God and for what role.

They should have stayed in their own lane and maybe we should too. What are your spiritual gifts? How can you use them to benefit the family of God? How can you work better with others in His family to accomplish His will?

The very best place to be, is wherever God wants you! No matter how scary the place seems that He is taking you, it will never be as bad as the place where He is not. It is better to be with Him than to travel this life alone. As long as He is with you, then you will make it through whatever life throws at you.

The Israelites didn't think they wanted to go in the direction that God was leading. But when faced with the reality of their choice, they realized that God knew what He was doing. Like a child, when their consequences were revealed, they tried to reverse course. But they did not truly have an obedient, trusting heart. They were just trying to avoid their useless fate and it was too late. God would no longer fight for them. The victory and blessings were reserved for their children instead. When they left God behind and went their own direction, they were utterly defeated.

We do not have the power to be victorious without God. We have no knowledge of the future or understanding of the path we choose on our own. We also have no insight into the blessings we are missing if we choose not to follow the direction that God is leading each one of us. We want to be on the path that God has for us because He is there with us.