Number 11

Soon the people began to complain about their hardship, and the Lord heard everything they said.

Lord, I am not sure what happened to Your people.  It seems they were moving when You moved and staying when You stayed; You were faithful in Your presence with them, consistent in Your provision...  Somehow, in the dailyness of their lives of freedom and being led by Your glorious Self, they found hardship in it.  OUCH.  Lord God, I am so inconsistent with my gratitude, I'm sorry.  You do all these things for me and more; yet, I can complain and dish up a hardship story all too easily.  Holy Spirit, let me rest in You, let me be grateful, content and peaceful in what has been divinely orchestrated for me.  I don't want to be known as a whiner-girl.  Lord, You have paid my price and I am Yours.  Let me not set my mind on things of the flesh; but on the things of the Spirit that I may please You and experience true pleasure myself.  When I falter, shut my mouth and sanctify my imagination so that I return to Your pattern and not the world's.  Thank You.

Numbers 10

Lord, I am tickled to see that You like the horned instruments.  May we never stop blowing Your horn to praise You and call You to us.  You, alone are worth celebrating and worshiping.  

Holy God, I am challenged by Moses' asking his bro-in-law to be the guide when You were very present with them.  He met with You face-to-face and still enlisted a local authority.  Your Word doesn't say that he was wrong; but I want to You to be my Authority, local and global, physical and spiritual.  Please, Holy Spirit grant me wisdom to know when You direct me to seek "local" assistance and when I just need to follow Your magnificence in faith.  May my life bring You praise.

Numbers 9, John 1:29-36, Matthew 26:17,26-29

Lord God, I praise You for You put in our minds what we are to do; even when You have already assigned the tasks.  Holy Spirit, You really do remind us of all things and bring to our remembrance what we need.  Thank You for Your holy post-its in my life, and Israel's.  I appreciate that You are consistent in what You endorse.

Numbers 8

The LORD said to Moses, “Speak to Aaron and say to him, ‘When you set up the lamps, see that all seven light up the area in front of the lampstand.’”   Aaron did so; he set up the lamps so that they faced forward on the lampstand, just as the LORD commanded Moses.

I wonder if Moses ever wondered about or regretted his choice to not speak God's words to the people.   Did he ever think - not pridefully; but remorsefully, "I so could have done this."  

Lord, I know that Aaron was the high priest and it was appropriate for him to have instruction; but we are mere mortals who can look back on decisions which seem to go against Your plan and wonder, doubt, question.  Please help me to embrace that which You call me to do, as You call me.  Don't let me wimp out - even when I really, really feel like it.  I don't want my spirituality to be tainted by second-guessing.  I desire timely obedience to You.

Father, I praise You for having an order, purpose and sequence in Your instructions to us.  The light is for the front; You intend for us to see, to discern that which You invite us to.  You are the Light and You came for us to see, be illuminated and to share the Light.  Father, I thank You for Your blessing in these words and the challenge  to me to let my light be forward-facing.  Your perspective is the right and true view, may I always see and shine in the same fashion.

I have given the Levites as gifts to Aaron and his sons to do the work at the tent of meeting on behalf of the Israelites and to make atonement for them so that no plague will strike the Israelites when they go near the sanctuary.

Lord, may I be as careful in preparing myself to serve You and worship You.  I wonder what worship would look like, what attendance would be like if a plague was the promise to those who had poorly prepared, unwarily worked and inattentively atoned for those they had responsibility for.  Cultivate in me, in Your Bride holiness, passion for purity, integrity and faithfulness to Your ways.  Let us all walk worthy of our calling in response to Your very great gift and most exalted Name.

Numbers 6:22-27

The LORD said, "This is how the priest is to bless the people:

'May the LORD bless {keep, guard, have charge of, keep watch and ward, protect, preserve, save life, wait for, treasure up, restrain, reserve} you.

The LORD turn toward and cause You to be in His presence, illuminating you

and be gracious {incline Himself, encamp around, bend down} to you; 

the LORD be lifted up, be exalted on, in and through you 

and give {lay, set, extend, appoint, establish}  peace {completeness, soundness, safety, welfare, quiet, tranquility, contentment, friendship} to you.'

So shall they give {invoke, appoint, lay, establish} My Name {Reputation, Glory} upon the people of God Prevails, and I will bless, actually and abundantly bless them. "

Make it so, even more today, everyday, precious LORD.  Thank You.  And may I, as one of Your blessed, royal priesthood, bless others as You say.  Thank You.

Judges 13

Interesting exchange between the Angel of the Lord and Mrs. Manoah.  She faithfully reports to her husband what was spoken to her with an added interpretational detail that the son will be a Nazarite his whole life.  Manaoh wishes his own revelation to clarify the child's mission and manner of life - maybe what he was to do specifically (which would probably overwhelm the parents-to-be, if it had been spoken then), or to verify his wife's words, or he wanted his own miraculous encounter, or to avoid the Adam/Eve situation, or ...  The divine visitor returns to the wife of Manoah and waits for her to bring her husband to Him.  The prophetic words are affirmed to Manoah and Mrs. Manoah's interpretational detail is not corrected nor is it clarified.

This small detail sets me wondering.  Was the perfect intention for the child to be a Nazarite his whole life; but the Omniscient Lord knew that, as He had designed and purposed the coming child to be a Nazarite, the promised son would, again by divine design, have a powerful weakness for the fruit of the vine.  And the weakness would prove to be the grown man's choice?

I recognize these things beg the election versus free-will debate; but they are not incompatible to my simple mind.  God can't help being God; Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, Omni-everything-divine, and so He knows all that "will" happen.  He also designs us to do that which brings Him glory and somehow, in the God-only plane, He allows us to choose and "uses" those things to bring Himself best glory - the fact He knows and has set it up doesn't make it any less a choice for the mere mortal me.  My finite mind can't comprehend all the realms of imagining this requires; but that's God's role - not mine.  

The question I land on is "Why?"  Why would the Omni-Omni'd, All-Self-Suffient-and-Self-Abundant, LORD of All even start this ball we call earth a-rolling?   He always amazes me.

Lord God of ALL!, I praise You for Your ultimate, never penultimate wisdom and power.  You are never second at anything.  You are faithful to all generations, generations that You have divinely ordained.  I praise You.  I praise You for Your mysteries and Your grace.  I thank You for Your encouragement in the story of the mother-to-be - one who is without name for posterity; but who was deemed worthy of receiving Your Presence, words and responsibility to carry forth that which You required of the next generation.  Inerrant Father, I wish to be that reliable to You in my life and assignments.  Holy Spirit, please help me, teach me, cultivate in me the trustworthiness born of a "good and faithful servant."  Jesus, my Messiah and Example, please strengthen me to walk worthy of my calling - as You did.  Thank You, my Lord, for desire to even engage in this sort of life - only You could make that happen.  Please continue to do that which You began in me, keep me from trying to go my own way and struggling against the truths You have given me. May I be faithful as the wife of Manoah was with Your words and Your divinely orchestrated details for my life. May I live in the understanding and confidence she displayed, as well.  Only by You, only for You.

Numbers 6:1-21

Until the time is completed for which he separates himself to the LORD, he shall be holy. … All the days of his separation he is holy to the LORD.

He shall be holy, he is holy to the LORD… Lord God, You are holy, a quality I don’t comprehend; but You give us instructions on being holy. You give us salvation which makes us holy. Your Holy Spirit brings the holy to us, in us, through us. And as Your children, we are holy, righteous, blameless. But there is more to holy, isn’t there? I thank You for Your provision of holy. I seek understanding of holy, what You mean by holy. I praise You that regardless of my prior life, You have still chosen to set me apart for Yourself. May I live in gracious response to Your gift to me.