Editor’s Note: We continue our series of blogs for those who are reading the Bible with us cover-to-cover this year. Interspersed with our thoughts on our daily reading, we want to provide some tips about reading the Bible in general. Today we want to explore …
Eradication Protocols
The book of Numbers reveals many enemies to our love for the Lord.
1. The first enemy is fear. (Numbers 13.30-33) This is often a result of a lack of relationship with God.
2. A second enemy to our love for God is doubt. (Numbers 14.6-9) When enemies appear in our lives, we doubt God’s love because we wanted “Easy Street.” A lack of faith is usually at the center of our doubt. Faith is enhanced and nurtured when we hear the Word of God. (Romans 10.17)
3. Another enemy to our love for God is rebellion. In Numbers 16.1-2 we discover that 4 men incited 250 men to rebel against God’s leadership. This demonstrates a lack character.
4. Distrust is seen as an enemy of our love for God in Numbers 20.12-13. Often this is displayed in bouts of anger. This reveals we have a lack of certainty, assurance in God and his lovingkindness.
5. As Numbers 21.4-6 shows us that impatience, as evidenced in the people’s murmuring in this passage can really destroy our walk with God. This often demonstrates a lack of maturity.
6. Numbers 25.1-3 shows us that moral compromise can be a great enemy of our love for God. Someone has said, “Our morals are always a reflection of our souls.” This is a lack of godliness within.
o In order to eradicate the enemies of our faithful love for God we must learn to follow the Shepherd!
The Lord replied, “Take Joshua son of Nun, who has the Spirit in him, and lay your hands on him. Present him to Eleazar the priest before the whole community, and publicly commission him with the responsibility of leading the people. Transfer your authority to him so the whole community of Israel will obey him. When direction from the Lord is needed, Joshua will stand before Eleazar the priest, who will determine the Lord’s will by means of sacred lots. This is how Joshua and the rest of the community of Israel will discover what they should do.” Numbers 27:18-21 (NLT)
We eradicate these enemies when we allow God to work in our lives. If we allow Him, …
§ He will turn our eyes back to the Lord and off of the scary enemies that bring us fear.
§ He will fill our heart with hope in the love of God and remove the doubts placed there by our enemies to destroy us.
§ He will focus our memory upon the Lord’s faithfulness in times past so that the enemy of rebellion does not lead us to irrevocable harm.
§ He will assure us of the character of God when our journey grows long and our distrust grows strong.
§ He will draw us into prayer in those hours when we can’t seem to wait a moment longer because our impatience is eating us alive.
§ He will feed us from God’s Word so that we do not minimize or compromise the wisdom of God for the fleeting feelings of the moment.
You can trust God!
It is our hope that this background information helps a bit as you read on in the Bible. We will continue this series with our next installment on Sunday when we talk in detail about the “Old Testament Route Number 3.”
For daily insights into the passage we are reading together each day, you can follow Dr. Smith on Twitter and on Facebook.
You can obtain more help from the FREE Bible reading schedule on our resource page. In His Image is a daily devotional that also follows our reading schedule and expresses the Biblical truth: “God Created You to Love You.” You can find this resource on the side bar of our website.
