Numbers 14:18

‘The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth, taking away lawlessness, wrongdoings, and sins; but He would not cleanse the guilty by repaying the sins of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’

Encouraging Word

Moses shows us that it is okay for us to remind God of His mercy towards us. It is not that God forgets, but it is really to remind ourselves of just how much mercy God pours out on us every moment of our lives. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Numbers 12:3

(Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all men on the face of the earth.)

Personal challenge

This verse comes from a very interesting story in the Bible. Aaron, Moses’ brother and his wife Miriam were giving Moses a bad time because he had married an Ethiopian woman. We are told that God heard their grumbling and then this parenthetical verse shows up. By itself, it is innocuous, even a little out of place, until you read on to hear God explain to Aaron and Miriam that because of Moses’ meekness, his humility, He talks to Moses face-to-face, as He does not do with any other prophet. Do we want to hear Gods’ voice in our lives? Then we too must be humble before Him. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Numbers 6:24-26
“The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be merciful to you;
the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.”

Encouraging Words

We are blessed! God has blessed us with life. God has blessed us with His son. God has blessed us with the Holy Spirit. We have been blessed becoming His children, adopted into His royal family. This blessing from the priests of the early Jewish synagogue guides us through our day. Glory be to God!

Leviticus 26:12

I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.

Encouraging Words
In the beginning of mankind, God walked in the garden with His creation. He talked to them, fellowshipped with them, and they knew Him face to face. Then they rejected God by choosing to sin and that fellowship ended. In this verse, God promised the Israelites that if they would be obedient to Him again that He would walk among them again and call them His people. Unfortunately, they continued to reject Him until finally 2,000 years ago, He walked amongst us one more time. Jesus returned in His incarnate body and became God amongst us ushering in an entirely new covenant. Those of us who claim Him as our Lord and strive to be like Him and obey Him, are numbered amongst His people. Lord, Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Exodus 36:3-5

They received from Moses all the offerings the children of Israel brought for all the works for making the holy place, and they continued bringing him freewill offerings every morning. Then all the wise men who were doing all the work of the holy place came, each according to the work he was doing, and they spoke to Moses, saying, “The people bring much more than enough for the work the Lord commanded us to do.”

Encouraging Words

Since God holds everything in creation in the palm of His hand and is the owner of all of it, He can distribute it as He sees fit. The people of Israel were asked to contribute to the building of the tabernacle. It was God’s will for this to be done. The Israelites submitted their wills to God and freely gave according to the request. Their will was in synergy with God’s will and great miracles abounded. So much was brought forth that the workers doing the building had to tell Moses to ask the people to stop giving. When we align our wills with God’s will, great things happen because He can use us fully to His Glory. Glory be to God in all things.

Exodus 34:14

(for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord God, a jealous name, is a jealous God),

Encouraging Words

How can our God who is sinless and passionless be given a characteristic such as being a jealous God? It is because human language is too constrained to be able to fully describe God. We are finite and limited in our ability to describe things and He is infinite and unlimited. So this is an attempt by the writer to describe God metaphorically so that we get the picture. This parenthetical verse falls in the middle of a passage where the second set of commandments written on stone tablets is given to the Israelites. These are to replace the ones destroyed by Moses when he found the people worshiping idols. The metaphor is that of a father who is jealous, or zealously protective, of his child who is making a wrong decision because he knows the consequences that they will suffer for their choices. This father wants his child to make the right choices so that they will be blessed in their consequences. This is how God is jealous for us so that we will remain close to Him and flee from idolatry. Glory be to God.

Exodus 19:5-6

“‘Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you shall be a special people to Me above all nations; for all the earth is Mine. You shall be to Me a royal priesthood and a holy nation.’ These are the words you shall speak to the children of Israel.”

Personal Challenge

There is a price to pay for being counted amongst the royal priesthood and a holy nation. That price is obedience. We do not become a part of this royal priesthood by obeying the commands of God. We enter into His family through the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is our salvation and there is nothing that we can do to earn that salvation. However, once we are grafted into His vine, His family, it is up to us to listen to His voice, keep His commands, and become like Him. Our journey through life as Christians is not about just enjoying His grace but is also about becoming like Him. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Exodus 15:2

Exodus 8:11

But when Pharaoh saw there was relief, his heart was hardened; and he did not heed them, as the Lord said.

Personal Challenge

In Orthodoxy, we teach that God created us with a free will, the ability to choose and that He will never force us to do what is against our own will. So people will usually use the story of Pharoah to counter that teaching because the scriptures say that God hardened his heart. We must read the entire scriptures to understand the context. Pharoah’s heart was already hardened against Moses and the Jews. They were his slaves and he wanted to keep it that way. The Old Testament often uses phraseology that looks like God is doing something when it means that He is allowing something to be done. God allowed Pharoah to harden his heart even more towards Moses, the Jews, and ultimately against God. This was a choice that Pharoah made on His own. In this plague, Pharaoh pleaded with Moses to have his God remove it. He was beginning to see that the God of Moses was real and more powerful than all of the gods of Egypt. However, when the plague was removed, Pharaoh reneged on his deal and hardened his heart even more. He chose to do this. We must learn from that that we are respons­ible for our choices and actions aid that we should always be prayerfully seeking God’s will so that ours aligns with His. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!