Numbers 25 - Praying God's Word

 

Please read Numbers 25.

www.blueletterbible.org/nasb/num/25/1/s_142001

Meditate on verses 1-2 and Revelation 2:14. 

 

While Israel remained at Shittim, the people began

to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab.

For they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods,

and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.

 

“But I (Jesus) have a few things against you, because

 you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam,

who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block

 before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed

 to idols and to commit acts of immorality.”

 

Balaam may not have spoken a curse against Israel, but he taught King Balak how to make the people sin.  Numbers 25 is the graphic picture of God’s judgment being poured out on the Israelites.  As the leaders were being executed for worshiping Baal and 24,000 Israelites were dying by plague, Zimri, the son of a prominent Israelite leader, had the audacity to publicly engage in sexual immorality with Cozbi, the daughter of a prominent Midianite leader.  Phineas, the grandson of Aaron the priest, speared the couple to death as they committed their affair.  God was very pleased with Phineas and pronounced a great blessing over him because he took an obvious stand for God and His holiness. 

 

As you take God’s Word to heart, ask the LORD to not let you be a Balaam, causing people to sin.  Ask God to make you a Phineas, making a bold stand for Christ and His Word.

 

Pray Numbers 25:12-13 over yourself and those for whom you stand guard as a faithful, prayerful watchman (Isaiah 62:6-7).

 

“LORD, as ________ and I act like Phineas, please

 give us Your covenant of peace.  Let it be for us and

 our descendants, a covenant of a perpetual priesthood

 because we are jealous for You, God.

You are our atonement, Jesus~”

 

The WATCHMAN on the WALL – Dr. Ron and Marsha Harvell

 

 

 

 

 

Numbers 24 - Praying God's Word

 

Please read Numbers 24.

www.blueletterbible.org/nasb/num/24/1/s_141001

Meditate on verse 13.

 

Though Balak were to give me

 his house full of silver and gold,

 I could not do anything contrary

 to the command of the LORD,

either good or bad, of my own accord.

 What the LORD speaks, that I will speak.

 

Balaam spoke what God commanded him to speak, but, recall he did not do what the LORD first commanded.  God told him not to go with King Balak’s men (Numbers 22:12).  However, Balaam badgered God until God let him get what he wanted.  For three chapters, you have read the frustrating conversation between Balaam and Balak.  Finally, Balak bullies Balaam by saying he would have honored him greatly, yet God has withheld that honor from Balaam (v. 11).  Isn’t it interesting that Balak’s words are often echoed today against Christians refusing to compromise God’s Word.

 

Learn well from the story of Balaam.  When God says, “Do not go there,” obey immediately and do not be tempted to get God to change His mind.  When people try to make you say or do things contrary to the Bible, do not succumb to their bullying tactics; ask God to give you His strength to stand firm in His Word.

 

Pray Numbers 24:1 and 13 over yourself and those for whom you stand guard as a faithful, prayerful watchman (Isaiah 62:6-7).

 

“LORD, may it please You to bless ______ and me.

Do not let us go where You do not want us to go.

Keep our faces set toward You!

Even if someone were to give us his house full of

 silver and gold, do not let us do anything contrary to

 Your command, LORD, either good

 or bad, of our own accord.

What You speak, that we will speak!

In Your name, Jesus~”

 

The WATCHMAN on the WALL – Dr. Ron and Marsha Harvell

 

 

Numbers 23 - Praying God's Word

 

Please read Numbers 23.

www.blueletterbible.org/nasb/num/23/1/s_140001

Meditate on verses 19-20.

 

God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man,

 that He should repent; has He said, and will He not do it?

Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

Behold, I have received a command to bless;

when He has blessed, then I cannot revoke it.

 

King Balak really wanted Balaam to curse the Israelites for him. But, no matter how much he begged and bribed Balaam, Balaam knew he could not speak a word against God’s people.

 

Be encouraged by the story of God, Balaam, Balak, and Israel.  A human cannot “curse whom God has not cursed nor denounce what the LORD has not denounced” (v. 8).  If you belong to Jesus, you cannot be cursed by man.  God does not want you to be afraid of people; He wants you living confidently in Him (Proverbs 14:26).

 

In God I have put my trust;

I shall not be afraid. 

What can mere man do to me?

—Psalm 56:4b

 

Pray Numbers 23:8, 10, 12, and 19 over yourself and those for whom you stand guard as a faithful, prayerful watchman (Isaiah 62:6-7).

 

“LORD, please let _________ and me never be cursed

 or denounced by You or anyone.

Let us die the death of the upright.

Make us careful to speak

what You put in our mouths.

God, thank You that You are not a man

 that You should lie, not a son of man,

 that You should repent.  You have said,

and You will do it.  You have spoken,

 and You will make it good.

Because of Your name, Jesus~”

 

The WATCHMAN on the WALL – Dr. Ron and Marsha Harvell

 

 

Numbers 22 - Praying God's Word

 

Please read Numbers 22.

www.blueletterbible.org/nasb/num/22/1/s_139001

Meditate on verse 12.

 

God said to Balaam, "Do not go with them; you shall

 not curse the people, for they are blessed."

 

What a convicting chapter from God’s Word!  Have you ever known what God wanted you to do, yet you hoped to tweak His plans?  So, you started saying and doing things disobedient to God, convincing yourself He was okay with what you were doing, but in the end, God was not okay at all; in fact, He was angry, encountering you as an adversary (vs. 19-22).  And, when you came to your senses, asking forgiveness and hoping to get back into the LORD’s plan, God made you stay on your self-willed path and finish the course (vs. 34-35).  “LORD, forgive us!  Keep us from sinning!”

 

You may want to reread this chapter, noticing when Balaam started disobeying God and what enticed him to sin.  Learn well from Balaam’s rebellion, asking the LORD to keep you on His path for your life.

 

Use the words from Numbers 22:12, 20, 22, and 34 to pray over yourself and those for whom you stand guard as a faithful, prayerful watchman (Isaiah 62:6-7).

 

“LORD, help _________ and me obey when

You say, ‘Do not go with them.’

Please let us be blessed by You; let no one curse us.

Help us do only the word which You speak to us.

God, we do not want You angry with us

and be as an adversary against us.

LORD, we have sinned; please allow us to turn

 back from what displeases You.

In Your name, Jesus~”

 

The WATCHMAN on the WALL – Dr. Ron and Marsha Harvell

 

 

Numbers 21 - Praying God's Word

 

Please read Numbers 21.

www.blueletterbible.org/nasb/num/21/1/s_138001

Meditate on verse 8.

 

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery

 serpent and set it on a standard;

 and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten,

when he looks at it, he will live."

 

Thankfully, Moses obeyed God’s instructions for providing a cure to the calamity caused by sin.  He made a bronze image of the thing killing the people.  All they had to do was look at it in order to live.  In human reasoning, it seems an odd thing to do, but God’s ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8), and just like the life-giving rock in Numbers 20, this serpent on a stick was actually a foreshadowing picture of Messiah.

 

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even

 so must the Son of Man be lifted up;

 so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.

—John 3:14-15

 

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf,

 so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

—2 Corinthians 5:21

 

In obedient faith, the people had to look up at the serpent, the thing killing them, in order to live.  In obedient faith, you must look up at Jesus, who became the sin that will kill you, in order to be saved.

 

Ponder the enormity of God becoming your sin and taking the punishment.  Then, look to Him, and as a faithful, prayerful watchman (Isaiah 62:6-7), confess your sins by praying Numbers 21:7.

 

“LORD, I have sinned because I have

 spoken against You and against ___________.

Jesus, please intercede for me

and remove these sins from me.

(Continue confessing your sins to the LORD.)

Thank You for forgiveness in Your name, Jesus~”

 

The WATCHMAN on the WALL – Dr. Ron and Marsha Harvell

 

 

 

 

 

 

Numbers 20 - Praying God's Word

 

Please read Numbers 20.

www.blueletterbible.org/nasb/num/20/1/s_137001

Meditate on verses 12.

 

But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you have

not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the

 sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this

 assembly into the land which I have given them." 

 

This was not the first time the Israelites grumbled about their water situation.  The first was recorded in Exodus 17 when God told Moses to strike the rock once with his rod (Exodus 17:2-6).  Now, more than a year later, God told Moses to speak to the rock; Moses disobeyed, striking it twice.  Moses’ disobedience had severe consequences: he would not be allowed to enter the Promised Land, and he marred God’s picture of Messiah. 

 

For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that

our fathers … all drank the same spiritual drink, for they

were drinking from a spiritual rock which

 followed them; and the rock was Christ.

—1 Corinthians 10:1, 4

 

By this will we have been sanctified through the

 offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

—Hebrews 10:10

 

This rock was to be struck only once for the people to receive life-giving water because according to God’s Word, the rock was Christ, who would only need to die once for the forgiveness of sins.  When Moses struck the rock twice, he gave the Jewish people an unholy picture of Messiah, that His once for all sacrifice was not enough to take away sins.

 

Let these amazing truths from God’s Word soak in and pray Numbers 20:12 over yourself and those for whom you stand guard as a faithful, prayerful watchman (Isaiah 62:6-7).

 

“LORD, may _______ and I always believe You

 and treat You as holy in the sight of all people.

Because You are holy, Jesus~”

 

The WATCHMAN on the WALL – Dr. Ron and Marsha Harvell

 

 

Numbers 19 - Praying God's Word

 

Please read Numbers 19.

www.blueletterbible.org/nasb/num/19/1/s_136001

Meditate on verses 1-4.

 

Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,

"This is the statute of the law which the LORD has commanded,

saying, 'Speak to the sons of Israel that they bring

 you an unblemished red heifer in which is no defect

 and on which a yoke has never been placed.

You shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and

it shall be brought outside the camp and

be slaughtered in his presence.  Next Eleazar

 the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger

and sprinkle some of its blood toward the

 front of the tent of meeting seven times.’”

 

Before the people came to the tabernacle to offer an unblemished lamb as a sacrifice for sins, God required a red heifer be sacrificed outside the camp.  The people needed a red heifer before they could even come close to the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God.  As you ponder this requirement to come near to God, read these words from the book of Hebrews:

 

Therefore, Jesus also, that He might sanctify

the people through His own blood, suffered outside

 the gate. So, let us go out to Him outside

the camp, bearing His reproach.

—Hebrews 13:12-13

 

Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), is also the red heifer you need to even begin drawing near to God.  Jesus fulfilled all of the sacrificial requirements of the Law.  As you spend this day walking with the LORD, thank Him for all He did to make your relationship with Him possible.

 

As a faithful, prayerful watchman (Isaiah 62:6-7), thank Jesus for fulfilling the sacrificial requirements of Numbers 19:2-3 and pray for those who need Jesus to be their red heifer.

 

“Jesus, thank You for being the red heifer

 slaughtered outside the camp.

LORD, _________ needs to You to be their red heifer,

so they can come near to God through You.

Please save them in Your name, Jesus~”

 

The WATCHMAN on the WALL – Dr. Ron and Marsha Harvell