“Don’t leave home without it!” In 1975 American Express launched an advertising campaign to market their credit card and traveler’s checks an essential for everyday life, as well as, for travel. If you don’t want to get stuck, make sure you have your American Express card. If you want to get home safely, don’t leave home without it. We have called our study of the book of Numbers the Journey Home. Yet like every traveler, there is anxiety concerning how to get home. What is the power to make the journey successfully? In Numbers 11, what we will see this week is that the Spirit of the Lord is the power to bring His people home. Reading: Numbers 11:16-35, Isaiah 63:10-14, John 3:1-15, Acts 1:8 and Westminster Confession of Faith 17.

What is your favorite thing to grumble about? I think that we all have something that truly gets under our skin. Something that we feel compelled to complain about. Maybe it is traffic or bad grammar. We grumble about our government or our families. In Numbers 11, the people of Israel begin to grumble about their situation and their food. Traveling provides us with all sorts of grumbling fodder. And they were beginning to indulge. Yet their grumbling lead to nothing good. In this passage we are each encouraged to stop grumbling by remembering all that the Lord has done, is doing, and will do for us in Christ. Reading: Numbers 11:1-15, Psalm 78, Philippians 2:14 and Westminster Larger Catechism #193.

To represent one’s country in the Olympics is one of the greatest honors an athlete can achieve. This week, many of us have watched as competitors in skiing, skating and other winter sports have sought to win gold, not just for themselves, but for their country. While only one person wins the cross-country skiing event, the achievement is counted among the other metals won by the country. As I write, Germany leads the metal count. And Germans can proudly say, “We are winning!” Yet, very few Germans had anything to do with their victories. Just as very few of us have anything to do with the metals the U.S. wins. Nevertheless, we are represented by our athletes. Their defeats are our defeats and their victories our victories. When the metal is donned by an individual, it is the national anthem that is played. In our passage for this week, we read about the cleansing of the Levites. They are set aside to represent the nation of Israel before the Lord. Their service is done not just for themselves or their family but for all who are united as Israelites. What we will see is that as representatives of the people they must meet certain requirements, requirements that will make them a suitable substitute for the people. Reading: Numbers 8:5-26, Romans 3:21-31, Hebrews 7:23-28 and Westminster Confession of Faith 11.

Numbers chapter 7 can read a bit like a year-end giving receipt; repetitive details of who gave what to whom. Over the past few weeks we have received an accounting of all the charitable gifts that we have given in 2017 so that we can claim them as deductions. Yet more than a tax deduction, these year-end statements are a good witness of our approach to money and giving to the kingdom of God. In Numbers 7 we have a list of the gifts given by each tribe at the dedication of the tabernacle. While at first this list seems a bit tedious, on closer inspection, we see how God’s people respond to His gracious presence through offering their lives as a spiritual sacrifice. Reading Numbers 7:1 - 8:4, Romans 12:1-13, Hebrews 13:15-16 and Westminster Confession of Faith 8.

It may be the one passage of Numbers that you have memorized. Many of us have heard it for years at the end of worship services as the pastor gives the benediction. “May the Lord bless you and keep you…” This week we will turn our attention to Numbers 6:22-27. In this passage we find the Aaronic Blessing, the benediction that the Lord commanded the priests of Israel to speak over the congregation. As we study this passage we will come to see how the Lord intends the blessing of his presence to rest among his people through the words of the priest. And through our study we will come to see how we are to receive the blessing of God’s presence through the work of Christ on our behalf. Reading: Numbers 6:22-27, Psalm 123, 1 Timothy 2:5 and Westminster Confession of Faith 8.

Who inspires you? Whose life encourages you and/or convicts you as you grow in Christ? We learn in chapter 6 that for the nation of Israel, those individuals were the Nazirites. These were men and women who made a vow to separate themselves to God in special service. Their service was to encourage and convict the people of Israel who they were meant to be as a holy nation and a royal priesthood, and yet these earthly Nazirites also foreshadowed the true Nazirite, Jesus, who, from birth, was set apart to live a blameless life and make atonement for our sins, even those of the Nazirites. Reading: Numbers 6:1-21, Hebrews 7:11-28, and Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter 8.

We have all experienced entropy. Order naturally devolves into disorder. It happens all around us every day. Rooms don’t stay clean. Gardens don’t stay maintained. Laundry never comes out of the dryer folded. When we leave things to themselves they quickly fall into chaos. In Chapters 1-4 of Numbers, the Lord has taken great pains to ensure that the people of Israel are ordered properly for their journey to the land of Canaan. However, He knows that the chaos of sin will quickly enter into the order He has established among His people. This week, we will continue our study of Numbers picking up in chapter 5. Here we will find that the Lord has established not only the initial order of Israel, but also laws that will correct the chaos introduced by sin. Reading: Numbers 5, Luke 8:43-48, 1 John 2:2, and Westminster Confession of Faith 6.3-6.