Our reading challenge for the day is Numbers 13-17. I’ll hit a few highlights. You make comments too and fill in the gaps. What strikes you as specially significant?
Numbers 13 - The spies who observe that they are not able to conquer the promised land and its inhabitants are absolutely correct. In ourselves we are not able to fulfill God’s promises. It is through our Lord that we accomplish anything. This is why we need God, not simply our training programs.
Numbers 14 - Unfortunately only Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Caleb recognize that the God of promise is the one who will deliver his promise. Because the people have rejected God’s promise God says he will reject them. Notice the promise had come from God in the first place. He can reject those people who choose not to be partakers of his promise. However, rather than destroy them then and there he allows them to live out their natural lives in the wilderness, where he cares for them day after day, year after year.
Numbers 15-17 God continues to show his mercy on his people through providing for their forgiveness. Yet he also shows himself to be the God who will not have mercy on people who exalt themselves against him. Luther’s Small Catechism rightly uses “fear, love, and trust” in so many places to describe our relationship to God.
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