“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land to which I bring you and when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall present a contribution to the LORD. Of the first of your dough you shall present a loaf as a contribution; like a contribution from the threshing floor, so shall you present it. Some of the first of your dough you shall give to the LORD as a contribution throughout your generations.

Numbers 15:1-21

“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land to which I bring you and when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall present a contribution to the LORD. Of the first of your dough you shall present a loaf as a contribution; like a contribution from the threshing floor, so shall you present it. Some of the first of your dough you shall give to the LORD as a contribution throughout your generations. Numbers 15:18-21

I continue my study of Numbers, and in the text today - Numbers 15:1-21 - while Israel remains in the wilderness, God gives Moses and the people laws for sacrifices that they are to make upon entry to the Promised Land.  Here are my observations using the Sword Bible Study Method.

• What do we learn from the text about God?: God seeks a relationship with Him and one of complete dependence on Him, recognizing that all that we have is because of Him and not of our own effort - see James 1:16.  Read along with Deuteronomy 26:1-11, the text focuses on how the people are to remember, celebrate, and be thankful for how God rescued the people from bondage in Egypt and brought them to the Promised Land.  God heard Israel's cries, responded and delivered them.  Of course, we should daily be thankful for God, who He is, what He has done, how He provides, and how He saves!  God is good!  Our response should be joyful and we should give as the text directs the people to do - and we are to give freely as a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7). 
• What do we learn from the text about people?: The people up to this point have been grumbling and complaining and now God is turning their attention to a promise He made and how He is going to be faithful and bring them into the Promised Land.  We need constant reminders of God's goodness and faithfulness - otherwise, we are prone to wander, grumble and complain as Israel did.  God gives us His Word as His Daily Bread and we are to consume it!
• Is there anything from the text God wants us to obey (SPEC: Sins to avoid, Promises to claim, Examples to follow, Commands to obey?): Avoid grumbling and complaining.  Claim the promise that God delivers us and He is saving a place for us in Heaven - whatever we are experiencing is temporary and God is good....all the time.  Follow the example of those who responded joyfully upon entering the Promised Land and gave cheerfully.  Consume God's Daily Bread!   

Comment and discuss this post

My Prayer: Father God, You are an awesome God who loves and saves.  My sin is great and it continues...daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul and mind and love others as You love me. Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please continue to heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them.

Isaiah 40-41

When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them. Isaiah 40:29-31

I continue my deep dive of Isaiah, based on the Precept Upon Precept study series. Today, I move on to Lesson 15, Day 4, which looks at Isaiah 41. Here, my commentary outlines the following divisions:

1. The Lord stirs up a conqueror to do his bidding (v1-7)
2. The Lord defeats Israel's enemies (v8-16)
3. The Lord transforms nature and refreshes His people (v17-20)
4. The Lord alone determines and declares the future (v21-29)

Core to this chapter is how Isaiah prophecies how God uses Cyrus from Persia (referred to in v2 as the one from the east) to conquer Babylon - consequently releasing Judah from exile to rebuild the destroyed temple in Jerusalem (536 BC).  This chapter also challenges those who rely on idols and false Gods to equal the One True God - it is God alone that is able to control every aspect of the universe, including both the large and small details in the lives of its inhabitants. Front and center in this chapter is also how God alone protects His elect and how He refreshes and provides.  

Comment and discuss this post here.

My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are a great God who loves me, who protects, refreshes, and provides - and so much more - Your blessings are innumerable and indescribable!  Thank You Jesus!  I am not deserving of such blessings.  My sin is great and it is daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith. Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

‘But I will rescue you on that day, declares the Lord; you will not be given into the hands of those you fear. I will save you; you will not fall by the sword but will escape with your life, because you trust in me, declares the Lord.’

2 Kings 25, 2 Chronicles 36, and Jeremiah 52, 39-40

‘But I will rescue you on that day, declares the Lord; you will not be given into the hands of those you fear. I will save you; you will not fall by the sword but will escape with your life, because you trust in me, declares the Lord.’ Jeremiah 39:17-18

Day 238 of my chronological study of the Bible with The Daily Bible® - In Chronological Order (NIV®) (available by purchase through Amazon - author F. LaGard Smith) continues as we actually see the details of actual fall of Jerusalem.  My commentary* describes the details: "the wall is breached in the fourth month of 586 B.C.; when Zedekiah and his troops flee the city by night, they are quickly captured; a month later the glorious temple of Solomon and the royal palace are razed; the remaining noblemen are killed and temple treasures are taken as booty; and, over a period of four years, hundreds of people are taken captive and deported to Babylon."

*Smith, F. LaGard. The Daily Bible® - In Chronological Order (NIV®). Harvest House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Just as God promised (as God is faithful), Jeremiah survives the fall and God attributes it to Jeremiah's faithfulness. Time and time again, we see how

But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me....As for me, I will be vindicated and will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness....Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever....My feet stand on level ground; in the great congregation I will praise the Lord....The Lord is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one. Save your people and bless your inheritance; be their shepherd and carry them forever....Love the Lord, all his faithful people! The Lord preserves those who are true to him, but the proud he pays back in full. Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.

Psalm 13, 17, 23, 26, 28, and 31 

But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me....As for me, I will be vindicated and will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness....Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever....My feet stand on level ground; in the great congregation I will praise the Lord....The Lord is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one. Save your people and bless your inheritance; be their shepherd and carry them forever....Love the Lord, all his faithful people! The Lord preserves those who are true to him, but the proud he pays back in full. Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.  Psalm 13:5-6, 17:15, 23:6, 26:12, 28:8-9, 31:23-24

Day 108 of my chronological study of the Bible with The Daily Bible® - In Chronological Order (NIV®) (available by purchase through Amazon - author F. LaGard Smith) continues my focus on 112 of David's psalms which my study has not already covered or will not cover through other daily devotions as part of a broader study within their historical context. This study of these 112 psalms groups the psalms into five major topical areas, and I continue with "Psalms of the Troubled Soul".

The psalms from my reading this morning reflect David's prayers for salvation and rescue from enemies, praise of God as the Good Shepherd, for redemption of the righteous and punishment for the wicked, and relief from pursuers and slanderers. What is apparent from these psalms is that while David does have moments of despair, worry, etc. - he does not remain in these moments.  With exception to Psalm 23 where the entire psalm is focused on praise, the other psalms move from cries to the Lord to praise and rest in the Lord and His faithfulness to rescue, comfort, and heal His children.  God is faithful - we can and SHOULD rest in His arms.

My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are an amazing God who loves me and who is always there to lift me up, comfort, heal, encourage, protect, etc.  Thank You Jesus!  You are MORE than enough - You are my all and all.  Yet I am undeserving of such a God.  I sin...daily, including worry, harshness with others, gossip, etc.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

In that day,” declares the Lord,"I will gather the lame; I will assemble the exiles and those I have brought to grief.

Micah 4

In that day,” declares the Lord,"I will gather the lame; I will assemble the exiles and those I have brought to grief. v6

We are all lame, stricken with some thorn in our side (2 Corinthians 12:7-10) - for none of us are free of sin and pain (Romans 3:23).  We are all exiled and separated from God due to our sin.  

Yet through Jesus we have reconciliation and restoration - freedom from the sting of sin and death. 

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19

God has already gathered us to Him and He will do so once more in Heaven - for all of this we should be grateful!

My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are a great God who knows everything about me yet choose to submit His life for me so that I may be saved from the sting of sin and death!  Thank You Jesus!  I am not worth such an act of grace and love - by a long shot! I continue to sin in my life and I need You daily to help protect myself from shame and from further sin.  Please forgive me for my worry.  Help me turn from my sin and turn towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You do.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal and cure Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others. Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies.

Psalm 108

With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies. v13

We have many enemies - whether they be temptation and sin, or fear, doubts, worries that lead to temptation and sin.

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8 

Yet we have a God who has overcome sin and death so that we may be free from the power sin and death has over us.  God has more for us!  Thank You Jesus!

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21

My Prayer:  Lord, You are an awesome God full of love and compassion for Your children, regardless of where we are and how broken we are!  Thank You Jesus!  I am not worth such a God - a God who is with me always.  I am broken - yet with You I am a new creation.  Thank You Jesus!  Forgive me for my sin and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength.  Help me love others as You do.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give me strength.  Give Lisa strength.  Please heal and cure Lisa of her cancer and the side effects from chemo.  Help me lead and serve Lisa, Zach and Dustin...and serve You.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.