Leadership Often Wants Power - Numbers 9-12

Numbers 11:24-25 (ESV)

So Moses went out and told the people the words of the LORD. And he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tent. Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. And as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied. But they did not continue doing it.

In the above passage we have the story of Moses having help with decisions and leadership in the camp of Israel.  We have to remember that there were over 600,000 men in the camp, not to mention women and children.   So this 70 men to help lead would be good, but not nearly enough for each of them to minister in a powerful way.  If these were 600,000 families that would mean each of them 70 would have over 8,500 families per to care for. That is a very large “small group.”   In Exodus 18 we can remember that Moses’ father-in-law told him to do this:

Exodus 18:17-21 (ESV)

Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God, and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.

In this passage in Numbers we read of either same time, or a second time Moses did this.  In this passage we read that the Spirit of God moved in the midst of group.  This group was to come along side Moses and assists. It will be, however, the very next chapter that Moses brother, Aaron, and his wife, Miriam will attempt a coup of leadership.   The lesson here is simply, the less leaders you have, the more you need.  The more leaders you have the more strife between leaders you get.   When people are given power they want more power.  

Faith Fights - 1 Timothy 4-6

1 Timothy 6:12 (ESV)

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Paul could have started this verse with:

• Fight a good fight of hard work.
• Fight a good fight of endurance.
• Fight a good fight of good works. 

But he didn’t.  Paul wanted to remind Timothy this whole thing was about faith.   This is where our walk with Christ begins.  Paul encouraged Timothy to finish in faith as he had started in faith.  This can remind us of Paul’s same words to the Galatian church:

Galatians 3:1-3 (ESV)

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Paul is writing this letter to Timothy at the end of his own ministry; even his own life.   He states that this faith journey is a fight.  We are in hand to hand combat but it is all conducted by faith.   We can’t do this in the flesh.  Note what Paul told the church at Corinth:

2 Corinthians 10:3-4 (ESV)

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

We are to fight the fight of faith coming to Christ for strength, just as we came to Him initially for our salvation.   Our confession to Christ before others for our sanctification is to be no different than our confession before others to Christ for our salvation.    

God Has Unusual Methods - John 7-9

John 9:4-7 (ESV)

We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

What is the purpose of the spit and mud?  

To answer that question we have to already believe that Jesus did not need spit and mud to heal.   We know He calmed the sea just by the power of His word.   We saw that He feed 5,000 with five loaves and two fishes just by praying over the food.   

But there are probably many reasons others have thought of for Jesus making mud from His spit, but I offer two here. 

1. The first reason Jesus used spit and mud was to expose the legalism of the religious leaders of the day.  It was against the Law to knead bread or do any such work on the Sabbath.    John deliberately tells us that Jesus made the mud.  He could have found mud.   But instead He made it.  He did so right in front of everyone.  The religious leaders reacted to Jesus making mud and not rejoicing in the healing of a man’s sight.  They needed to be exposed for their hypocrisy.  

2. Jesus also shows us in the spit and mud that God can use unusual means to work miracles.  He had Balaam’s ass speak.   He had Jonah swallowed, but not eaten, by a big fish.   As stated, He used someone’s lunch (on two occasions) to feed multitudes.   He used the frogs, lice, flies and the such to defeat Pharoah’s gods.   He could have just spoken into the world and done any of that.   When Moses it the rock for water with his staff, God could have just said, “Let there be water.”    God uses physical means to display His power.  Even if it is just spit and mud.   

God Steps In To Redeem - Hosea 1-7

Hosea 3 (ESV)

And the LORD said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days.

The above is all of chapter three of Hosea’s prophecy.  It is the essence of the book in story form.  Israel has left their first love, God. They have gone about whoring themselves to other gods.  God has initiated them to return to Him.   This is a key to the book.  It is God who initiates.   Israel does not suddenly repent and return to God.  It is God who steps in and buys them back from the false gods for the price of a slave.   In the above story Hosea is God stepping into the whoring life of his adulterous wife (Israel) to redeem them.   It is God who pays the price (through His Son, Jesus).   It is God who afterward gives Israel the power to seek the LORD their God, and David their king.   The key aspect of this chapter is that God steps into lives.  Left to mankind’s own will, their return to God is doomed.  It is only because steps into our lives that redemption happens.  This is the story of the Gospel and the New Testament.   Let us rejoice that God steps into our lives, pays the price for us and then provides for us His goodness in the latter days.  

Do You Ask Directions? Proverbs 19

Proverbs 19:27 (ESV)

Cease to hear instruction, my son,

and you will stray from the words of knowledge.

If you are lost do you stop and ask for directions? I know most men don’t, but women might be as equally guilty of this poor practice. I stop and ask for directions, but I don’t always listen when they are given. I get back into the car and realize I didn’t hear a word they said. So, I take off and immediately turn the wrong way. So, too, with God’s Word. When we stop listening to God’s Word (instructions) we will eventually veer down the wrong path. People who quit reading His Word; quit listening to it preached; and, stop putting themselves in places where God’s Word is magnified, will eventually find themselves on the wrong path. Stop listening to God’s word and you will find yourself looking for God’s Word. Once I find myself lost, I find a map to lead me back.  You can’t find your way back, however, if you don’t search God’s Word.    God’s Word gives us knowledge and understanding.    Note what Solomon’s father, King David said about God’s Word and our walk with Him through it:

Psalms 119:105

Your word is a lamp to my feet

and a light to my path.

Without the light of God’s Word we are lost in the darkness of this world. 

God Forgives; God Disciplines - Psalms 99-101

Psalms 99:8 (ESV)

O LORD our God, you answered them;

you were a forgiving God to them,

but an avenger of their wrongdoings.

The context of the them in the above passage is that of Moses and Aaron.   The previous section talks about the two of them coming to God in His holiness, in the Tabernacle of God.  In the midst of the pillar of the cloud of His glory, O LORD our God, you answered them.   So what did God say? 

The above verse is written in both synthetic and antithetic Hebrew parallelism poetry.   That simply means one line builds on another and then one contrast the other.   There are actually three lines in the verse:

Line one: O LORD our God, you answered them; 

Line two: you were a forgiving God to them,

Line three: but an avenger of their wrongdoings.  

Line two builds upon line one.   Line one states that The LORD answered them, but line two builds on line one and tells us what God answered them; you were a forgiving God to them. 

Line three then contrasts line two.  He may be a forgiving God, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.   

 God gave them two types of information.  The first was the positive and the second was negative.  Yes, He a forgiving God: 

Exodus 34:6-7 (ESV) The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.

But God will also discipline them for their sins:

Exodus 32:35 (ESV) Then the LORD sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.

Numbers 20:12 (ESV) And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”

Although there is no commendation for those who are in Christ Jesus, God is still not mocked; whatever a man sows he will also reap.  

Romans 8:1 (ESV)

Life in the Spirit

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 6:7 (ESV)

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

God Puts The Army Together - 1 Chronicles 10-14

1 Chronicles 12:23 (ESV)

These are the numbers of the divisions of the armed troops who came to David in Hebron to turn the kingdom of Saul over to him, according to the word of the LORD.

1 Chronicles 12:38 (ESV)

All these, men of war, arrayed in battle order, came to Hebron with a whole heart to make David king over all Israel. Likewise, all the rest of Israel were of a single mind to make David king.

 In between 12:23 and 12:38 (above) there is a list of warriors who came to fight for David.  They are from each of the twelve tribes (except Levi ... the priestly tribe).  The total listed amounts to 340,600 men to fight.    That is a great number of soldiers in any time period, much less, during David’s day.  In our modern day formations there are about 1,000 soldiers to a battalions and as much as six battalions to a regiment.   So, David’s army was quite large by any standards.   If you simply Google, “how many solders are on active duty in today’s Army” you get a number slightly larger than David’s army, 450,000 (+).   This gives us an idea of the numbers David had following him.  These warriors wanted to fight for a warrior. David’s legend of killing Goliath made him a man others wanted to follow.  But it was more than that.  God put David in command and moved the hearts of men to follow him.   This is God’s way.   God had people follow Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Peter, Paul.   When God puts someone in charge He assures others follow.   Leadership is less about your skills and more about God’s power to make others follow.   

Psalms 75:7 (ESV)

but it is God who executes judgment,

putting down one and lifting up another.