March 10

2009

Click here for today's text.

Numbers 14:1-15:16
1. 14:4 - "We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt..."

2. 14:10 - "...the whole assembly talked about stoning them" ("them" being Moses & Aaron).

3. 14:11-12 - "The LORD said to Moses, "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them? 12 I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they."

4. 14:13-19 - "Moses said to the LORD, "Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these people up from among them. 14 And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They have already heard that you, O LORD, are with these people and that you, O LORD, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. 15 If you put these people to death all at one time, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, 16 'The LORD was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath; so he slaughtered them in the desert.'

17 "Now may the Lord's strength be displayed, just as you have declared: 18 'The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.' 19 In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now."

So I'm finding this fascinating that Moses was threatened by rebellion & stoning and (furthermore) informed by God that it was completely appropriate to "destroy" the rebels. In fact, God singled out Moses to build a nation out of Moses alone.

Yet Moses' concern was the LORD's reputation among the Egyptians and "the people of this land" that "he was not able to bring them into the land he promised them on oath" that the LORD "slaughtered" them instead.

Moses pleads for forgiveness "in accordance with your great love".

Mark 14:53-72
1. vs 72 - "Immediately the rooster crowed the second time.[c] Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him: "Before the rooster crows twice[d] you will disown me three times." And he broke down and wept.

Even here, Peter calls curses down upon himself but he's been protected by Christ whom Peter disowns & denies. If Christ is my model, how quickly should my anger or vengeance be raised against those who disown or offend me?

Psalm 53:1-6

Proverbs 11:4
1.When the DJI drops (2009)

"Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath,
but righteousness delivers from death.

This should be my memory verse as encouragement during economic crisis. The Dow Jones was below 6600 yesterday. Abide in Christ's righteousness...

Years Read
2009