Moses pleads with the Lord to let him “cross over and see the good land beyond the Jordan.” The Lord responds – “Enough of that! Speak no more to Me of this matter. Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift your eyes toward the west, the north, the south, and the east; behold it with your eyes, for you shall not cross over this Jordan. But command Joshua, and encourage him and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you will see.”

Then Moses gives 3 key instructions to Israel:

1. Obey the Lord – “Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’” See, the Lord calls for his people to walk in such a way that those around them will be drawn into His presence. 

2. Teach your children the statutes and righteous judgments of the law – “And teach them to your children and your grandchildren, especially concerning the day you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb…So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might observe them in the land which you cross over to possess.”

3. Do not fall into idolatry – “Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” Moses goes on to say when they do get into the land and forget the Lord and begin worshiping false gods “you will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you.” And this is exactly what will happen but the Lord does give them a word of hope – “But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice (for the Lord your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.”

Then Moses reminds Israel that there is only one God and restates the Ten Commandments to the children of Israel telling them to “be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.” 

More from Moses tomorrow, so keep reading.

(Deuteronomy 3:21-5:33)

#bibleliteracymovement #chronologicalbibleteaching

After nearly forty years of wandering in the wilderness, the children of Israel are camped on the plains of Moab looking across the Jordan into the promised land of Canaan. In the book of Deuteronomy, which means “second law”, Moses will remind the children of Israel of the Law that the Lord first gave them at Mount Sinai. Moses knows that he is going to die before entering the promised land so he is exhorting this new generation to remain faithful and trust the Lord as they move forward with the conquest of the land.

Moses tells the Israelites of the time they asked for spies to spy out the promised land and how the people listened to the bad report from the ten spies and didn’t take the land. As a consequence for the people’s lack of faith, only Joshua and Caleb, the faithful spies, will enter the land from that generation but “your little ones and your children, who you say will be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it.” Moses goes on to say how the Lord has been faithful to them during their years of wilderness journeys – “For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand. He knows your trudging through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.” 

Moses recounts how God told the Israelites not to harass their relatives, Esau’s descendants (Jacob’s brother) or Lot’s descendants (Abraham’s nephew). God destroyed the enemies of Esau, Moab, and Ammon (Moab and Ammon are descendants of Lot and his daughters) and gave them their own land…this was not the promised land God had for the nation of Israel. However, the Lord gave the Israelites great victory over the Amorite kings, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan, who are descendants of Canaan, Ham’s cursed son (Genesis 9:18-10:1, 10:15-16), and gave the Amorite kings’ land to the children of Israel. 

Moses wants the Israelites to know that they can trust the Lord. If the Lord has defeated the enemies of Esau, Moab, and Ammon and given them their own land, how much more will He do for the children of Israel. And since God has already defeated two major enemies of the Israelites, the descendants of Canaan, Sihon and Og, and given their land to Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, then the Israelites can trust Him moving forward with the remaining conquest.

We will see further into the Story that there will be tension between the Israelites and their three neighbors; Edom, Moab, and Ammon. God will use these nations to discipline Israel but later He will pronounce judgment against them for so eagerly attacking the children of Israel highlighting the Lord’s sovereignty over His people and their enemies.

Tomorrow Moses begins restating the law to the new generation so keep reading.

(Deuteronomy 1:1-3:20)

#bibleliteracymovement #chronologicalbibleteaching

Today the Lord tells Moses about the land which the remaining nine and a half tribes will inherit once they come into Canaan. The Levites will be given forty-eight cities with surrounding common land scattered throughout the inheritance of the tribes of Israel. Moses says that the children of Israel “shall give some of its cities to the Levites, in proportion to the inheritance that each receives.” Of the forty-eight cities, six are cities of refuge. If a person accidentally kills someone they can flee to a city of refuge for protection until the trial so that a family member cannot avenge the death of the victim. If the person is deemed innocent at the trial he is to remain in the city of refuge until the high priest dies. After the death of the high priest he can return back home. 

A few days ago we learned that the Lord granted Zelophehad’s daughters’ request for their father’s land inheritance. Today the Lord commands that these daughters must marry within their tribe of Manasseh. “So the inheritance of the children of Israel shall not change hands from tribe to tribe, for every one of the children of Israel shall keep the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.” The daughters obey the Lord because God is keeping with His promise that He made to Abraham back in Genesis 17:8 – “And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.” The Lord is assuring that the land remains within the possession of Abraham’s descendants. 

God is always working on a much larger scale than just our short lifespan. He is working all things together from the Creation Era to End Times / New Beginnings Era to accomplish His plans to redeem His people through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ…all the way to Jesus’ second coming. 

That’s a wrap on the book of Numbers. 🎉 Tomorrow we start the book of Deuteronomy which contains the final instructions from Moses before he dies and the Israelites enter Canaan. Keep reading.

(Numbers 34:1-36:13)

#bibleliteracymovement #chronologicalbibleteaching

The tribes of Reuben and Gad request to inherit the land on the east side of Jordan because of their great multitude of livestock. So they say to Moses, Eleazar, and the leaders of the congregation, “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants as a possession. Do not take us over the Jordan.”

Moses responds, “Shall your brethren go to war while you sit here? Now why would you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the Lord has given them?” Moses reminds them of what their fathers did when Moses first sent them to spy out the promised land; how ten of the twelve spies came back with a bad report and put fear in the heart of the people. Moses tells them that “The Lord’s anger burned against Israel and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the whole generation of those who had done evil in his sight was gone. And here you are, a brood of sinners, standing in the place of your fathers and making the Lord even more angry with Israel. If you turn away from following him, he will again leave all this people in the wilderness, and you will be the cause of their destruction.” 

The tribes of Reuben and Gad agree to settle their livestock, little ones, and women in the land across the Jordan with the agreement that their men of war will cross the Jordan and fight with their brothers until each one of them inherits their land. So Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh settle in the land on the east side of the Jordan.

Then Moses documentments the over forty moves the Israelites’ made during their wilderness journeys. Can you imagine moving that many times with over two million people and all that livestock?! 🤯 The Lord is reminding His people how He was faithful during all of their wilderness journeys; and if He was faithful to them during their wilderness journeys, He will be faithful to them moving forward with the conquest of the land. 

We end the reading with the Lord once again commanding the Israelites to drive the inhabitants out of the land and to destroy their false gods because He knows they will be a stumbling block to His people. God gives Israel a warning of what will happen if they disobey Him – “But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you dwell. Moreover it shall be that I will do to you as I thought to do to them.” 

Will the Israelites obey? Keep reading to find out.

(Numbers 32:1-33:56)

#bibleliteracymovement #chronologicalbibleteaching

The Lord commanded, “If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth”. However, the Lord gives protection to women living under their father’s house and to married women by allowing their father or husband to release them from a vow. Jesus will later go on to say, “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn. But I say to you, do not take an oath at all…And do not take an oath by your head, for you can not make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil” (Matthew 5:33-37). God knows we are prone to make vows we will not keep so He says keep it simple; be a man or woman of your word; yes means yes and no means no. Simple enough. Pretty soon in the Story, during the Judges Era, we will meet a man named Jephthah who is going to make a very foolish vow to the Lord with a high cost proving that the Lord takes seriously vows made to Him. 

“And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Take vengeance on the Midianites for the children of Israel. Afterward you shall be gathered to your people.’” The Midianites were joined with the Moabites in attempting to curse the Israelites in the wilderness with Balaam. The Midianites ultimately sent out their women along with the Moabite women to lead Israel into sexual sin and idolatry. So the Israelites kill all the Midianites, except for their virgin girls, and divide the spoils amongst themselves. “Balaam the son of Beor they also killed with the sword.”

I know it is difficult to read about women and boys being killed but remember, the women were the ones that seduced the Israelite men and the Lord knows these boys could grow up and take revenge on His people. Also, the Lord already warned the Israelites about all the sexual sin and idolatry of the people around them and He does not want the Israelites following their practices (Numbers 18). A lot of killing is about to go down as the Israelites conquer the promised land. We must keep in mind that God is good and He knows the hearts and minds and future potential of everyone. The children of Israel will have to trust the Lord to protect them His way and to carry out His judgement on the wicked as He sees best, just as we have to trust Him too. Remember, God is working His plan to send our Savior through the Israelites so keep reading because tomorrow some of the tribes are allocated their land bringing us one more step closer to Jesus!

(Numbers 30:1-31:54)

#bibleliteracymovement #chronologicalbibleteaching

Today we meet the daughters of Zelophehad. They go before Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the leaders of all the congregation with a request to inherit the land of their deceased dad who had no sons. This is a bold move for these ladies and one done in faith. The daughters are asking for land they have not yet acquired but they are trusting that the Lord will do what He said He will do and give the children of Israel the promised land. Moses, once again proving to be a wise leader, brings the request of the women before the Lord. And the Lord, once again proving to be fair, just, and gracious, honors the request of women of the congregation. He not only honors the request from the daughters of Zelophehad but He also makes a new rule for all the children of Israel, that the inheritance of a deceased father with no sons goes to the daughter. See, stepping out boldly in faith pays off for you and others! 🙌

The Lord then tells Moses he can see the promised land but reminds him that he won’t enter it due to his rebellion – “For in the Wilderness of Zin, during the strife of the congregation, you rebelled against My command to hallow Me at the waters before their eyes.” Moses, who is more concerned for the people than himself, responds – “Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, who may go out before them and go in before them, who may lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be like sheep which have no shepherd.” Moses knows he is about to die and he doesn’t want the people to be left without a good shepherd. So the Lord gives the Israelites a faithful leader, Joshua, who will bring them into the promised land and encourage them to trust the Lord…the Lord who is working His plan through them to bring the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. And when Jesus arrives on the scene He will say, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep…and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd” (John 10:11-16). Jesus is coming to lay down His life as a Good Shepherd does for His flock to provide a way in which we may enter green pastures of rest and eternal life – “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:7-19).

After the inauguration of Joshua, Moses gives the daily, weekly, monthly, and annual laws of the sacrificial system and worship of the Lord to the new generation of the Israelites who are camped outside the promised land. Tomorrow the Israelites have some unfinished business to settle with the Midianites who used their women to make them stumble with idolatry and sexual sin. Keep reading.

(Numbers 27:1-29:40)

#bibleliteracymovement #chronologicalbibleteaching

Toward the end of this Story we find out Balaam’s plan in Revelation 2:14 – “But I have a few things against you; you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.” Balaam knows he can’t curse the Israelites so he comes up with another plan to make them stumble by sending the women of Moab out to the Israelites’ camp. The women lure the men into idolatry and sexual sin. See, the children of Israel had no clue what all the Lord was doing behind the scenes. They had no clue that over and over and over again the Lord was protecting them from being cursed by their enemies. Instead of trusting the Lord and walking by faith, the Israelites make a terrible decision based on sight of these beautiful women which never goes well.

Therefore , “the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel.” He said to the leaders, “Every one of you kill his men who were joined to Baal of Peor.” Phinehas, Aaron’s grandson, shoves a javelin through a Midianite woman, Cozi, and an Israelite leader, Zimri, who were flaunting their harlotry in the sight of all the congregation in a tent near the tabernacle. Phinehas’s action ends the plague that the Lord sent upon the people and the Lord rewards Phinehas’s zeal with an everlasting priesthood to him and his descendants.

After the plague, the Lord instructs Moses and Eleazar, Aaron’s son, to take another census of the men age twenty and over who are eligible for war. The first census in the beginning of the book of Numbers resulted in 603,550 men. We see today toward the end of the book of Numbers, about thirty eight years later, 601,730 men are counted. The Lord is faithful and has replaced the first generation of unbelieving Israelites, who did not take the promised land in the beginning of this wilderness journey, with a whole new generation who will take the promised land by faith. God is keeping His promise to Abraham that He would make a great nation out of his descendants and He would give them the land of Canaan – “Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God” (Genesis 17:8). 

Tomorrow, the Lord selects a new leader who will lead the people into the promised land. Keep reading.

(Numbers 25:1-26:65)

#bibleliteracymovement #chronologicalbibleteaching

The children of Israel are now camped in the plains of Moab. Balak, the king of Moab, fears the Israelites so he joins forces with the Midianites and together they send for the pagan prophet, Balaam, to get him to curse the Israelites. Now Balaam is a prophet that loves a profit 💰(2 Peter 2:15-16). So he is eager for the job and the Lord eventually tells Balaam he can go with them but he can only say “the word which I speak to you – that you shall do.”

Balaam travels by donkey and God uses that donkey to put Balaam in his place. See, God knows Balaam’s heart. God knows Balaam only cares about financial gain but the Lord is going to use him for His glory and for the good of His people anyway. So the donkey speaks and rebukes Balaam for his spiritual blindness. Then the Lord opens Balaam’s eyes and when Balaam sees the Angel of the Lord “he bowed his head and fell flat on his face.” God tells Balaam to go with the men but He reminds him to only speak what the Lord speaks.

When Balaam comes to the city of Moab, King Balak takes Balaam up to the high places of Baal (a false god). There Balaam asks Balak to build seven altars to the Lord. However, instead of cursing the Israelites, Balaam blesses them. So Balak moves Balaam two more times hoping for a different outcome but each time Balaam blesses the children of Israel according to the Word of God.

Well Balak gets mad and tells Balaam to go home without any payment because he did not curse the Israelites. Before Balaam leaves, he gives one last prophecy highlighting how the Lord will continue to bless Israel. He says, “A Star shall come out of Jacob; a Scepter shall rise out of Israel; and batter the brow of Moab, and destroy all the sons of tumult.” This prophecy is very similar to the blessing Jacob gave Judah in Genesis 49:10 – “The scepter shall not depart from Judah” pointing to the Messiah who is coming through the bloodline of Jacob’s son Judah and Judah’s descendant King David who will one day rule over all the nations. 

“So Balaam rose and departed and returned to his place; Balak also went his way.” When Balaam returns home he gets to thinking and comes up with an idea that will get him paid and make the children of Israel stumble. Tomorrow we will find out what that stumbling block is so keep reading!

(Numbers 22:1-24:25)

#bibleliteracymovement #chronologicalbibleteaching

Today the people complain again because there is no water. God tells Moses and Aaron to take the rod, gather the congregation and “speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water.” Moses and Aaron take the rod and gather the congregation but Moses out of anger says, “‘Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?’ Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank.” 😬 This is not good. The Lord says, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.” So Moses disobeyed God by hitting the rock instead of speaking to the rock and then he gave credit for the water to himself and Aaron when he said, “Must we bring water for you out of this rock?” As a punishment for their disobedience, neither of them will enter the promised land. We see that come true for Aaron as he dies in today’s reading and his son, Eleazar, becomes the next high priest.

The Lord will later say to Moses – “because you trespassed against Me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the Wilderness of Zin, because you did not hallow Me in the midst of the children of Israel. Yet you shall see the land before you, though you shall not go there, into the land which I am giving to the children of Israel” (Deuteronomy 32:51-52). The Lord is upset with Moses for misrepresenting Him and what He is doing through His Son Jesus Christ the Rock who is coming to pour out living water, which is the Holy Spirit, on all who believe in Him. Later in the Story, Paul will write a letter to the Corinthians reminding them of the failures of the Israelites in the wilderness and describing Jesus as the Rock – “Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud…all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness” (1 Corinthians 10:1-5).

Moses already struck the rock once in Exodus 17:6 to provide water for the people just as Jesus will be struck once when He is crucified for the sins of the world. Then Jesus will rise from the dead and forty days later He will ascend to the right hand of His Father in heaven. Ten days after the ascension to heaven, on the day of Pentecost, Jesus will pour out the Holy Spirit upon His people. However, before Jesus’ crucifixion, He will say to the worshippers at the Feast of Tabernacle – “‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” Many theologians believe that the Lord told Moses to speak to the rock instead of striking it again as a symbol of the everlasting prayers that will go up to Jesus our High Priest and Mediator. 

Well, believe it or not but after receiving water from a rock, the Israelites begin complaining again on their wilderness journey. Edom (descendants of Esau, Jacob’s brother) refuses to let the Israelites cross through their land. Therefore, the Israelites turn and head in another direction where they encounter the Canaanites. The Canaanites attack them but the Lord works on behalf of His people and defeats the Canaanites. However, the people grow weary and complain again about leaving Egypt and having no food or water. This time God sends fiery serpents to kill them and Moses intercedes again for the people. The Lord instructs Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole. He says that anyone who looks at that serpent with a look of faith will live. This is foreshadowing the day that our Savior will be lifted up on a pole to shed His innocent blood for our sins so that anyone who looks upon Christ in faith will have victory over death.

The reading ends with the Lord giving the Israelites a great victory over their enemies Sihon and Og. This is such a huge defeat that later in the Story a Canaanite harlot will say, “I know that the Lord has given you the land…For we have heard…what you did to the two kings of the Amorites…, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord your God” (Joshua 2: 9-11). We will get to that story soon but next up is a talking donkey so keep reading. 

(Numbers 19:1-21:35)

#bibleliteracymovement#chronologicalbibleteaching

Korah, along with his buddies Dathan and Abiram and 250 men, challenge Moses and Aaron saying, “You take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” 🤔 Are Moses and Aaron exalting themselves? Pretty sure Moses keeps asking the Lord why did He make him lead these people. The Lord is the One to exalt and He exalts the humble not the proud. We have already seen when someone is proud and tries to exalt themselves that the Lord will humble them as He did with Miriam when He struck her with leprosy (Number 12:1-16). Moses however, is “very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth,” and so the Lord is using him mightily as His faithful servant.

Therefore, Moses responds saying, “By this you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works, for I have not done them of my own will. If these men die naturally like all men, or if they are visited by the common fate of all men, then the Lord has not sent me. But if the Lord creates a new thing, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the pit, then you will understand that these men have rejected the Lord.” So the Lord creates a new thing “and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men with Korah, with all their goods…And a fire came out from the Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering incense.” 

Now the entire congregation is complaining against Moses and Aaron for killing “the people of the Lord.” Really?! I’m pretty sure at this point I wouldn’t say anything against Moses and Aaron. Besides, were Moses and Aaron the ones who opened the earth and swallowed the people? No. It was God. God is just and He judges justly so we can trust that He knows who are His people and He knows the ones He can open the earth and send to the pit. Therefore, the congregation’s complaint makes the Lord angry and He sends a plague. Moses has Aaron intercede for the people and the plague stops; however, 14,700 died in the plague. 

God then makes clear who He appointed as leader with the budding rod contest between the leaders of each tribe. Aaron, representing the tribe of Levi, is the winner with the rod that sprouts buds and “produced blossoms and yielded ripe almonds.”🏆 Then God instructs Moses to place Aaron’s rod permanently before the Ark of the Covenant as a warning against the rebels and a testimony to God’s chosen leaders. The Lord reiterates that the priesthood was given to Aaron and his sons and that all the tribe of Levi are to serve the tabernacle with them. We will find out when we get to the book of Hebrews that the children of Israel obeyed the Lord as the pot of manna from Exodus 16 and Aaron’s budding rod are both described as being in the ark of the covenant which also contained the stone tablets of the covenant (Hebrews 9:3-5).

The reading ends with the Lord laying out support the Levites are to receive from the children of Israel. He also says to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in the land; nor shall you have any portion among them; I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel.” During the Conquest Era, when the Israelites settle into the promised land, the Levites will not inherit land. However, they will be given cities among the people so that they can minister to the communities fulfilling the blessing given by Jacob back in Genesis 49:7 when he said, “I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.” 

Tomorrow, Moses breaks faith with the Lord and lashes out in anger which is going to cost him from entering the promised land. Keep reading to see what happens.

(Numbers 16:1-18:32)

#bibleliteracymovement #chronologicalbibleteaching