Numbers!

Praise the LORD, it's Sunday!!  I love Sundays!!  Hope you have a blessed Sunday as well.  This one is very special since 24 years ago, we had our first service at Grand View Baptist Church and my how good God has been to us. It hasn't always been easy, but it has always been worth it.  We are so glad we stuck it out through thick and thin, because God has been so good to us and to our precious people.  We love our church and it's people, and.... the best is yet to come!! I'm reading in Numbers today.  God loves numbers, He even named a book after it.  1) God speaks- In Numbers 7:89- God speaks from the mercy seat.  The mercy seat is where sin is settled and forgiven.  After sin is settled, then we have an open line of communication with God, but not before.  It is only after we accept Christ as our Savior that we can communicate with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.  After sin is paid for and applied by faith, then we see that God speaks!  God speaks to us through His Word, and by His Spirit.  Are we listening?  Lord, help us to listen as You speak to our hearts today. 2) WHAT IS REALLY FREE?- In Numbers 11:5, the children of Israel are gripping and say that "We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely: the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic:"  They ate in Egypt freely??  Maybe they forgot something.... "They were slaves!!"  How does a slave eat anything freely?  And yet in verse 6 and 7, the manna was provided for them to eat and it was free!  They didn't appreciate what they truly ate in freedom.  I hope we have better attitudes about God's blessings than they did.  Lord, help me to be thankful today for all that I'm blessed with in this free country and that you indeed give to me freely.  The Bible says that God gives us "freely all things".  Wow.  Thank you Lord! 3) THEY BELONG TO GOD!  Numbers 18:15 is very clear, the firstborn of man or beast belongs to God.  Men and unclean beast were to be redeemed for five shekels (this they owed God), but the clean beast could not be redeemed, they firstborn would be given to God in sacrifice.  The meat after cooked would go to the Levites for their food.  This is one way God taught the people to sacrifice unto God and yet at the same time, take care of the Levites (the priest).  verse 24 says that the tithes would be given to the Levites to inherit since they had no inheritance but God. 4) WHAT DOES GOD THINK ABOUT ISRAEL? Numbers 24:9 tells us plainly: "Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee."  I don't know about you, but I'm going to be on the side of people who bless Israel, not curse them!  I'm for the nation of Israel, and all Bible believing people should be.  Now, are they living for God now?  No!  They are not, but they are still God's to deal with and not us or anyone else.  God has not given up on them, and we had best always be for them.  Well, so much for today!  Have a blessed Sunday!!  Dr. Mike Mutchler