Author: emmanuelpcgateshead

THURSDAY 15^th

Deuteronomy 7:17-24

NIV (V21) – ‘Do not be terrified by them, for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God.’

ESV (v21) – ‘You shall not be in dread of them, for the LORD your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God.’

Our God is an awesome God

He reigns from heaven above

With wisdom, power and love

Our God is an awesome God

Our God is the Lion, the Lion of Judah, He’s roaring with power, and fighting our battles, and very knee will bow before him.

The people of Israel as we have already seen were afraid not only of what lay before them but who lay before them, the negative spies had seen the fortified cities and the giants who were strong. They needed reminding that however big the giants were, God was even bigger and however strong the giants may have looked, God was even stronger and however fortified the cities might have been their fortification was nothing in comparison to the great and awesome God who had delivered them out of the hands of Pharaoh and from the Egyptian task masters.  They were to remind themselves of what God had already done for them, the many ways in which he had demonstrated his awesome power, to give them courage for the future and to remember that this awesome God was in their midst, he was on their side, he was the one leading them into battle, he was the one who would be tackling the giants and fortified cities head on. They needed to simply trust him.

I wonder what you are faced with at this moment, what giants do you see ahead of you, perhaps you see things that seem to be unsurmountable, impenetrable, situations that seem to be impossible to overcome, it may be issues in employment, family situations, personal issues, it may even be a spiritual issue which is weighing you down, whatever the situation the way forward seems to fill you with dread. It is at these times we need a timely reminder of who our God is, he is great and he is awesome in power and as he has been there for us in the past so he is still with us, and as he was in the midst of the people of Israel, so he is with you in the midst of your circumstances, and he will go with you, taking you through and giving you victory. When you see the giants, begin instead to see God, when you see the impossible situations, begin instead to see God, when you have a feeling of dread, begin instead to be filled with trust and confidence in God, for just as the giants came tumbling down, and the fortified cities came tumbling down for the people of Israel, the same great and awesome God will cause these things to tumble down.

It was the Psalmist who said, ‘For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall.’  (Psalm 18:29) In the next few verses he says, ‘This God—his way is perfect; the word of the LORD proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. For who is God, but the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God?— the God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless. He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights. He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand supported me, and your gentleness made me great. You gave a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip. I pursued my enemies and overtook them,  and did not turn back till they were consumed.  I thrust them through, so that they were not able to rise; they fell under my feet. For you equipped me with strength for the battle; you made those who rise against me sink under me. You made my enemies turn their backs to me, and those who hated me I destroyed.  They cried for help, but there was none to save; they cried to the LORD, but he did not answer them. I beat them fine as dust before the wind; I cast them out like the mire of the streets.’ (verses 30-42)

Too often perhaps we remain in a place of defeat or dread or despondency when we should be resting in the knowledge that God is for us and with us and as a result we should be rejoicing in the victory that is ours for the taking as we learn to trust in him who is great and awesome.

WEDNESDAY 14^th

DEVOTION 200

Lamentations 3:22-23

NIV –  ‘Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.’

ESV –  ‘The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.’

Today marks the 200^th devotion since we commenced them back on March 22nd.

That is 207 days ago as I had one week where I didn’t send them out owing to my short break away.

But it has been 207 days and 200 devotions in which we have proven the faithfulness of God time and time again. He has preserved us and protected us, he has continued to lead us and guide us, he has continued to feed us from his bountiful supply, he has lifted us up when we may have felt low, he has spurred us on when we may have felt like stopping or stalling, he has given peace in times of trouble, he has given health in times of sickness, he has given strength in times of weariness, he has given his grace, he has poured out his mercy, he has been truly faithful in every way.

We can all look back thus far and see the hand of God upon our lives as individuals, or as families and as the household of God.

Today, just spend a few moments thanking God for his faithfulness, even though we may feel that the future may still seem unclear and unsure, we go forward knowing that God is with us.

Some of the songs we have used in the videos during this time and since we were able to reopen Church have been a real blessing, I think in particular of the two that remind us that when we can’t, we know a Man who can and that when we don’t know the future, we know the One who does.

I add the words of both here and will place links for them.

I can’t take a heart that’s broken, Make it over again.

But I know a man who can

I can’t take a soul that’s sin sick and wash it white as snow.

But I know a man who can.

Some call him Saviour the redeemer of all men.

I call him Jesus for he’s my dearest friend.

If you think that no one loves you and your life is out of hand.

I know a man who can.

I can’t walk upon the water and I can’t calm a raging sea.

But I know a man who can.

And I can’t cause blinded eyes to be open Or the lame to walk again.

Oh But I know a man who can.

________________________________________

God sent His son, they called Him Jesus

He came to love, heal and forgive

He lived and died to buy my pardon

An empty grave is there to prove my Saviour lives

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow

Because He lives, all fear is gone

Because I know He holds the future

And life is worth the living, just because He lives

How sweet to hold a new born baby

And feel the pride and joy He gives

But greater still the calm assurance

This child can face uncertain day, because He lives

And then one day, I’ll cross the river

I’ll fight life’s final war with pain

And then, as death gives way to victory

I’ll see the lights of glory and I’ll know He reigns

TUESDAY 13^th

Deuteronomy 7:6-11

NIV (v6) – ‘For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.’

ESV (v6) – ‘For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.’

Deuteronomy 14:2 ‘For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the LORD has chosen you to be his treasured possession.’

Immediately these verses remind me or take me to 1 Peter 2:9-10 which is talking about the Church. (‘But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.’)

In the Old Testament it was the people of Israel who were God’s treasured possession, when we get to the New Testament, God is about to do something new, and from this he is going to call out from the nations of the world a new people to be his treasured possession, and he would do it through the redemptive work of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. This new treasured possession is the Church, those who have been purchased by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. (‘Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.’)

The verses in Deuteronomy says that they (the people of Israel) were a holy people and so also with us as the church we are a holy people. The New Testament uses in many places the word ‘saint’ unfortunately this word has been hijacked by the Roman Catholic Church to be used as a title that is conferred upon an individual who they see had accomplished something extraordinary, or above and beyond the normal, and the person having this title conferred upon them has often times been long time dead before it happens. In the NT the English word saint comes from the Greek ‘hagios’ which is linked to holiness and purity and is a word that is used to describe every individual who has been born again, or sanctified, made clean by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is a ‘title’ that is given not because we ourselves have accomplished anything extraordinary or above and beyond, but rather as a result of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done on our behalf. 1 Corinthians 1:2 makes this very clear, ‘To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: . . .’

So, rejoice today that in Christ you are a saint! One who has been washed in his blood and set apart and called to be a saint together with every other believer, to make up the household of God, his possession so that you can proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

The same verse in 1 Peter 2 continues that once we were not a people but now we are a people, we were outside of what God was doing, we were outcasts, aliens, strangers as we read in Ephesians 2:12, but because of God’s mercy and grace we are now his possession. One of the old hymn choruses says, ‘Now I belong to Jesus, Jesus belongs to me, not for the length of time alone, but for eternity’.

MONDAY 12^th

Deuteronomy 1:1-8

NIV (v8) – ‘See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land the LORD swore he would give to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—and to their descendants after them.’

ESV (v8) – ‘See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.’

We arrive in the book of Deuteronomy today, and I have chosen the verse above as a launching verse.

In the first three chapters Moses recalls the years from when the people of Israel left Egypt up until the point where they now are, beyond the Jordan in the wilderness. They had been journeying for 40 years (v3). Moses had been forbidden to enter the land and Joshua had been appointed as his successor (chapter 3:23-29)

To me, the saddest verses in these three chapters are the ones found in chapter one and verses 26 and 32, but first in verse 21, we read, ‘See, the LORD your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not fear or be dismayed.’ But verse 26 says, ‘Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the LORD your God.’

The land was there for them, the land was given to them, it was promised to them by God himself and yet they refused to enter. They were choosing instead to listen to the ten negative spies rather than to the two positive spies and the promises of the LORD God who had continually said that he would go before them, verse 32 says, ‘Yet in spite of this word you did not believe the LORD your God.’

I guess looking back, we can easily criticise the people of Israel for their unbelief, because we now know the full story, we can see how when they did eventually move forward that God did act on their behalf and grant them success, but I wonder when we look inwardly where do we stand in our trust and our belief in the Lord our God? Do we fully trust him, do we have a strong and confident trust in him when our journey gets tough or seems almost impossible, to continue when we see our giants, or when we see our impossibilities? Do we waver each day according to our circumstances or are we constant in our faith because we trust God? (We will touch on this theme again later in the week, Thursday)

Isn’t it sad that the people of Israel missed out through their disbelief, they could have entered the land so much sooner, knowing its blessing and benefits, and enjoying the full blessing of the LORD God. May God help us to trust him to move forward with him, by keeping in step with the leading and the prompting of the Holy Spirit so that we can enter into all that he has made available, and is making available for us as individuals and as a local Church.

SUNDAY 11^th

Numbers 32:23

NIV – ‘But if you fail to do this, you will be sinning against the LORD; and you may be sure that your sin will find you out.’

ESV – ‘But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out.’

I mentioned a few days ago that this is one of the verses that always come to my mind when I think of the book of Numbers. Being one of six children, when we were growing up and our parents were seeking to instil in us right behaviour, if one of us did something wrong, (we were angels most of the time!) this would be quoted ‘be sure your sin will find you out.’ To be honest, on occasion I think we were found out because one or other of us would eventually grass on the offender to keep out of trouble ourselves. But there were occasions where the verse was very applicable, and I am sure we can all say the same thing!

I remember two occasions that are only small examples in the whole scheme of things but were sufficient to teach us a lesson.

Our farm was half a mile from the nearest road, accessed by a private track / lane and we would have to walk to the end of this lane every day to catch a bus for school and walk back again in the evening.  One day we (about 4 of us) decided to take a short cut through a neighbour’s crop field, trampling through it to eventually arrive home literally only saving a minute or two. But we carelessly forgot that trampling through a field would leave the crops damaged and our trail would be left. Later that evening the phone rang and we could tell that dad was not happy, he came into the room demanding who had been through the neighbours field, (the neighbour also happened to be our uncle!) he had seen our trail and the damage, our ‘sin’ had been found out and we were duly reprimanded. The other occasion I remember or at least am willing to remember happened when we were having a new barn built on the farm, and we were strictly warned by our dad and the builders that we were not in any circumstances to touch any of the builders material or equipment. My older sister and I got a little inquisitive and we decided to go and investigate the building site and we found the builders extra-long (and expensive) leather cased measuring tape, and so we decided to play with it until, yes, we broke it! What will we do? We had no choice but to confess to dad and he then made us immediately walk to the builder’s house which was a little over a mile away and to report our crime to the builder. Our ‘sin of disobedience’ had caught us out.

I know these may seem almost trite examples, but the lesson is there, we may think that we can do something and get away with it, we may think that no one will see, or no one will know – BUT GOD SEES and GOD KNOWS and somehow sin will always get uncovered, we will always be found out.

SATURDAY 10^th

Numbers 27:12-23

NIV (v18) – ‘So the LORD said to Moses, Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit of leadership,  and lay your hand on him.’

ESV (v18) – ‘So the LORD said to Moses, Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him.’

It must have been devastating for Moses to know that he wasn’t going to enter the promised land, but at the same time comforting to know a man had been put in place to be God’s man for the next transition and to eventually cross over into the land flowing with milk and honey.

Moses had been a good leader, but sadly he failed in that he sinned by rebelling against the word of God in the wilderness of Zin. He saw the land but did not enter it. (27:12-13) Moses’ concern, on knowing he was going to die was that a man was appointed so that the people of Israel would not be without a shepherd. (v17) His heart remained toward the people all the way through, from going down into Egypt through to what were to be the closing moments in his life, and a man was found, called Joshua, and he was invested with some of Moses authority (v20) and when the time of Moses death was approaching he summoned Joshua and he was commissioned to take on the full responsibility of leading the people forward. (This is in Deuteronomy 31)

Succession is an important part of Church life, knowing the right time to hand over and knowing the right person to hand the responsibility over to. In the case of Joshua it is said he was a man in whom was the Spirit (the NIV says ‘in whom is the spirit of leadership) it means a man who had a right spirit which would result in having a right heart and attitude towards the task of leading the people, a heart right toward both God and the people. Moses had requested one who would shepherd the people, one who would go before them, leading them out (moving from where they were) and leading them in, this speaks of transitioning from one place to the next.

In his letter to Timothy and Titus, Paul gave some clear instructions on those who should be appointed into Church leadership, whether a deacon (or deaconess) , elder or pastor (bishop, shepherd). It is a high calling to be serving in any form of Church leadership, a responsibility that needs to be taken with all seriousness and with integrity. And Joshua was being called into a high position, after all he was to be replacing Moses, a hard task for anyone, but he had already began to prove his worth for he was one of the spies who was sent into Canaan and had come back with confidence that they were able to go in and to possess the land. (14:6-9) Now he had to prove it, by being the one who would take them over the Jordan.

I wonder what would have happened if Moses had argued with God and said something along the lines of ‘I have been the leader of the people since they came out of Egypt and I am not letting go’, and instead had refused to appoint a successor. My guess is that either God would have had to have dealt in some way with Moses to move him out of the way, or the people of Israel would have had to have wandered around for a few more years, but no, Moses’ heart was also right as well, he knew the importance of succession, and he was willing to allow God to be God and to appoint as and when he saw fit.

I close this devotion to simply ask, pray for us who are a part of the leadership in Emmanuel, that our hearts will also always be right, right toward God, right toward each other, and right toward you as the congregation, ready to act and to do as the Spirit commands and leads us, so we too as a people of God may transition, be led out and led on.

FRIDAY 9^th

Numbers 21:10-20

NIV (v17) – ‘Then Israel sang this song: Spring up, O well! Sing about it . . .’

ESV (v17) – ‘Then Israel sang this song: Spring up, O well!—Sing to it!—’

As I was going through the book of Numbers, I came across this verse and immediately thought, ‘I cannot leave this verse out’, then I had to decide what to write! Here goes.

The people of Israel had been busy moving on from one camp to the next – from verse 10 to verse 16 they had camped at 5 different locations arriving at a place called Beer, but there was to be no beer here, just water! For Beer was a well (the name Beer means well) and here God says to Moses, ‘Gather the people together, so that I may give them water’ I guess they were probably thirsty, for at the news of being gathered together for water they broke out into song, ‘Spring up, O well!’

The simple application I want to bring from this is for us as a local Church today. We are on a spiritual journey, there is that which is for each of us our own personal journey, but we are together as a company of God’s people on a journey, we are not moving from one location to the next, but we are moving forward step by step in the plan that God has prepared for us. This year has been completely different from last year and likewise last year was different to the year before as we have sought to move onward and upward. And we need to come to our Beer, to the well, we need to come and to draw water, and this happens as we gather together, we come to draw from the well of living water.

There are three words in this narrative (or I take from the narrative) supply, Spirit and song.

There is a supply readily available for us, the well has not and will never run dry, and the supply is that of the living water, which Jesus talked about in John 7:37-38 and in verse 39 he expounded upon what he meant by the living water – ‘This he said about the Spirit, (our second word) whom the those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.’

The third word is song, now at this moment in time with our present restrictions it almost seems a little unfair to talk about songs or singing, it’s a little like standing a child next to a sweet shop and saying that he / she is not allowed any sweets! But the people of Israel sang a song, ‘Spring up O well!’ And to me it speaks of a people who were so thirsty that they wanted to express their thirst in song, and we the people of God when we gather together can use song to express our thirst, our spiritual hunger, our spiritual desire for God to come and to pour out the living water upon us, to satisfy our thirsty souls.

As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after you, you alone are my heart’s desire and I long to worship you.

Oh, let the living waters flow,

Oh, let the living waters flow,

Let the river of your Spirit flow through me,

Flow through me, flow through me.

THURSDAY 8^th

Numbers 21:4-9

NIV (v9) – ‘So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.’

ESV (v9) – ‘So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.’

Yesterday we looked at the problem within this verses, the peoples grumbling against God and against Moses, today we turn to the solution. The first part of the solution was God sending the fiery snakes among them, the second part was the people getting bitten and dying, the third part was the people recognising that what had happened was because they had sinned, and so they then went to Moses admitting their sin and asking him to intercede on their behalf and for him to ask God to take the snakes away from them. The very one they were grumbling against, they now had to grovel (for want of a better word) to.

The solution was then given from God to Moses, to make a snake out of bronze and to lift it up on a pole and if anyone got bitten, if they looked up to the bronze snake they would live.

Jesus referred to this account in John’s gospel 3:14, ‘And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.’ It seems strange at first for Jesus to be likening himself to a bronze snake lifted up on a pole in the wilderness, but what he was indicating is this; the snakes in the wilderness had become a curse upon the people of Israel, and as such they were being bitten and dying, and likewise, for the whole of the human race, the snakes are a picture of sin, which has become a curse upon humanity, and all have sinned (been bitten by the curse of sin) and all fall short of the glory of God, and all will die in their sin unless . . . and the unless leads to what Jesus is referring to in John 4:14, ‘As Moses lifted . . . so must the Son of Man be lifted up, . . .’, he was willing to become the curse on our behalf, he who knew no sin, became sin and was to be lifted up on a pole, which we see as the Cross at Calvary so that if anyone should look up to him and believe they would be saved and live. (2 Corinthians 5:21 ‘For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.’)

Scripture says, ‘Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree — so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.’

I am reminded of one of the older hymns,

There is life for a look at the Crucified one,

There is life at this moment for thee.

Then look, sinner, look unto him and be saved,

Unto him who was nailed to the tree.

Look, look, look and live,

There is life for a look at the Crucified one,

There is life at this moment for thee.

When in my mind I think back to this account in Numbers, and I see the people being bitten and slowly dying what must have been an awful painful death, I fail to see them refusing to look up to the bronze snake on the pole, one look would be enough to live, and yet when it comes to eternal redemption, to be saved from the curse of sin and the eternal consequences of it, so many blatantly refuse to look at the One who has made redemption and eternal life possible, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Where are you today? Are you still suffering from the curse of sin, still heading toward an eternity lost forever, cut off from God in the lake of fire, the place reserved for the devil and all who reject God’s mercy – why not take a look today to the One who was lifted up on your behalf, the One who became a curse so that you can be set free from the curse, take a look at Jesus, and believe in him, put your faith in him, put your hope in him, for there is no other cure for the curse of sin, he is the only one who has conquered death and thus able to grant life everlasting.

WEDNESDAY 7^th

Numbers 21:4-9

NIV (v9) – ‘So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.’

ESV (v9) – ‘So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.’

By the time we get to this point in the book of Numbers, both Miriam and Aaron have died (Miriam 20:1, Aaron 20:28) and the people of Israel had become a little on the miserable and grumpy side. They started to complain to Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.’ Somehow they had seemed to have forgotten that it was the LORD himself who had brought them up out of Egypt, they seemed to have not realised it was their own fault that they were still in the wilderness going around in circles, they complained about the servant of God, Moses, who was still God’s man for the moment and to top it all they were complaining about the manna which was one of God’s provisions for them, calling it ‘worthless food’! Imagine how poor old Moses must have felt, but then imagine how must God have felt, despite all he had done for them they were so ungrateful. As a result, we find that God caused venomous snakes to appear among them and if the people were bitten, they would die. To be honest at this point, you would have thought the people of Israel would have learned their lesson and quit their complaining, for it is only a few chapters earlier that we read that God had caused a plague to come among them because of their ongoing rebellion (see chapter 16 which closes by telling us that 14,700 died as a result of the plague). The trouble is old habits die hard, and once you start on a road of complaining or grumbling or murmuring, the further down the road you go the easier it is to continue doing it, and some people can be just like that, always complaining, nothing is ever right, or nothing is ever done in the right way, whoever’s job it is to do something, they could have done it better etc. Poor old Moses, but God steps in to deal with the problem. And because of the fiery snakes they repent saying ‘we have sinned against the LORD and against you’  and the Lord instructs Moses as what to do. We will consider the remedy tomorrow. To close today, may we constantly check our hearts and our attitude so that we will always be right before God and toward one another. Remembering we are all on a journey, we will all make mistakes or perhaps do something a little bit differently, but what matters is that who we are and what we are doing is always beneficial to the whole in moving us forward in God’s plan and purpose for us as  people of God in Gateshead. There is a place for and a proper way to deal with issues or matters of differences, but it is not through murmuring, grumbling or complaining, may we always seek to deal with anything in a good manner, in a godly way.

In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul refers back to our text for today, saying that this along with other lessons from the people of Israel has been recorded for our instruction, so that we take heed that we do not fall – ‘We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.’ (vv9-12)

‘Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labour in vain.’ Philippians 2:12-16

TUESDAY 6^th

Numbers 6:22-27

NIV – ‘. . . the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.’

ESV – ‘. . . the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.’

Our final word from this blessing is the word GIVE. I quote the Amplified Bible again here, ‘The LORD lift up his countenance (face) upon you [with divine approval], And give you peace [a tranquil heart and life].’

The people of Israel were going to face a lot as they journeyed, sometimes not knowing who or what they were going to meet around the corner, understandably from the human point of view fear and trepidation would fill their hearts, but in this blessing Aaron and his sons were invoking the peace of God to be given or granted to them. As the Amplified suggests the peace was to be an internal peace – a tranquil heart and an external peace, which would mean peace during external conflict. The people of Israel were going to know conflict, the journey was not going to be a bed of roses, but they could go through it knowing the peace of God was upon them and within them. Sadly, they did not always live in the peace that was available. For example, when the spies were sent to spy out the promised land, it filled the hearts of ten of them with fear – they saw the problems, the giants big and tall, the cities fortified and large, the people who occupied the area surrounding and it was a case of ‘forget it we cannot go up’. But there were two, who quietly and confidently trusted in the Lord, can I suggest they were filled with the peace that the blessing had granted them and they saw beyond the impossibilities to the possibilities because God was in the business. Deuteronomy records their verdict, ‘And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.’

Sadly, the fear mongers still rebelled! Fear is a thief; fear will rob us of blessing if we allow it to fester in our lives. The fear of the unknown, the fear of the future, the fear of what if, the fear of stepping out (in faith), the fear of letting go, the fear of moving forward, the fear of change, etc. Fear robs us of peace! Jesus made a statement in Johns Gospel, ‘In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart (but be of good cheer), I have overcome the world’. (John 16:33) One of the names that was to be given to ‘the Son given and the Child born’ was the Prince of Peace, (Isaiah 9:6), while in discourse with his disciples, the Prince of Peace said, ‘Let not your heart be troubled, Believe in God, believe also in me.’ (John 14:1) He later continued with, ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.’ (John 14:27) Paul then reminds us in Ephesians 2:14  ‘For he himself is our peace . . .’ and in Philippians 4:5-7, ‘The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.’

Whoever you are, wherever you are and whatever you as a child of God are faced with today, my prayer is that the LORD will lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace, internally, in your heart and life and externally in the midst of your life circumstances.