#45. Numbers 20-23 | God's Judgment Transformed Into A Rescue and Picture of Christ's Salvation

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Welcome to the Dwelling Place from Entrusted Ministries.

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I'm Stephanie Hickox,

I wanna welcome you to.

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A new month, a new plan.

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If you're starting fresh

with us, that's fantastic.

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If you started fell off a bit and are

joining back in, I'm proud of you too.

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And if you've been walking all

the way through, you've already.

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Gone through 179 chapters of scripture.

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I hope you're seeing some

patterns about who God is

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And growing and trusting him personally.

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With each story we read, I'm amazed

at how much I need these reminders

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to focus on God's faithfulness and to not

meditate on the circumstances around me.

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Today we're focusing on

numbers Chapter 20 through 23.

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We're going to see why the most humble

man on the earth was not allowed

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to enter the promised land, and how

the bronze serpent in the wilderness

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Actually points to the most well-known

Bible verse in all of scripture.

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About 37 years have

passed since chapter 19.

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That's a pretty long intermission,

and we're picking up with the

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second generation of Israelites.

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Many of them have already

died off in the wilderness.

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That means that Moses, Aaron, and

Miriam are quite advanced in years,

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and Miriam passes away at the

beginning of this chapter.

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They're still in the wilderness.

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There's a shortage of water again,

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and this generation isn't

handling it well either.

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when I look at pictures of the

wilderness and the Sinai Peninsula,

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It makes me extend a lot

more grace toward them

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can you remember the last day

that you were really, really

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hot doing manual labor outside

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Maybe you were nine months

pregnant in the heat of the summer,

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Their need is real, but once

again, the way that they handle

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it, is not honoring to the Lord.

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In chapter 20, beginning in verse three.

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And the people quarrel

with Moses and said, what?

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That we had perished when our

brothers perished before the Lord.

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Why have you brought this assembly

of the Lord into this wilderness?

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That we should die here,

both we and our cattle.

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And why have you made us come up out of

Egypt to bring us to this evil place?

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It is no place for grain or figs, or

vines or pomegranates, and there is

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no water to drink . Then Moses and

Aaron went from the presence of the

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assembly to the entrance of the tent of

meaning, and fell on their faces, and

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the glory of the Lord appeared to them.

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And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, take

the staff and assemble the congregation,

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you and Aaron, your brother, and tell the

rock before their eyes to yield its water.

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So you shall bring water out of

the rock for them and give drink to

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the congregation and their cattle.

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And Moses took the staff from

before the Lord as he commanded him.

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Then Moses and Aaron gathered the

assembly together before the rock, and

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he said to them, here, now you rebels.

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Shall we bring water for

you out of this rock?

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And Moses lifted up his hand and

struck the rock with his staff twice,

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and water came out abundantly and the

congregation drank and their livestock

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and the Lord said to Moses and Aaron

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because you do not believe in me,

to uphold me as holy in the eyes of

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the people of Israel, therefore, you

shall not bring this assembly into

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the land that I have given them.

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These are the waters of Maribo where the

people of Israel quarreled with the Lord

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and through them he showed himself holy.

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With our limited perspective

and in our humanness

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our spirit might rise up a bit.

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\ Learning that, after all of the obedience.

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Work, an intercession that Moses

has put in that he's not going

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to enter the promised land.

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but if we think that, I believe

we're missing the point moses

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has dwelt with the Lord.

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He's spoken to him face to face as a man.

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speaks with his friend.

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That is better than any

giant grapes or pomegranates.

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Or figs.

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he might enjoy in the Promised land.

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He's accomplished so much with his staff.

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It's controlled battles and brought

water and it's part of to see

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perhaps he was finding security in it.

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And maybe he was even

questioning his voice again

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like he did at the burning bush.

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In any case, he needed to carefully

follow the directions of the Lord,

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and it seems he was given over to

a moment of pride in which he took

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credit for the work of the Lord.

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Eventually in the New Testament at

Jesus' transfiguration, Moses did get

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to take a peek of the Promised Land,

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I have this picture of Jesus and

Elijah kind of poking fun at Moses

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and saying, so Moses, what's it

like to finally be in the promised

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land there on top of the mountain?

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and I have no doubt the Lord.

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Has richly rewarded him in the afterlife.

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Moses joins the list of many characters

we've already read about that didn't

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see what they were hoping for on this

earth, even after a life of faith.

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my kids and I are being called to make

some really difficult changes right now.

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And I'm trying to be very careful to

not promise them that the season we're

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going into next will be better because I

honestly don't know what God has for us.

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But what I can promise them is that

God will go with us and that is what

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we should desire more than anything.

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Also in chapter 20, the King of Edam.

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Tells them they cannot

pass through the land.

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This would've caused a 175 mile

detour through a rocky wasteland

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when you realized how much

of an inconvenience this is.

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It's a little easier to

understand why they're struggling

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with their circumstances.

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Then Aaron passes away on the mountain

And the Lord has Moses take his priestly

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garments and put them on his son alazar.

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In chapter 21, the people are

becoming impatient and complaining

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about their food once again.

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And in 21 verse five.

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And the people spoke against

God and against Moses.

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Why have you brought us up out

of Egypt to die in the wilderness

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for there is no food and no water,

and we lo this worthless food.

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Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among

the people and they bit the people

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so that many people of Israel died.

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And the people came to Moses and said,

we have sinned for we have spoken

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against the Lord and against you.

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Pray to the Lord that he take

away the serpents from us.

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So Moses prayed for the people

and the Lord said to Moses, make a

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fiery serpent and set it on a pole.

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And everyone who has bitten

when he sees it shall live.

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So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it

on a pole, and if a serpent bit anyone, he

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would look at the bronze serpent and live.

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Let's fast forward to the New

Testament in John chapter three.

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When Nicodemus came to speak at night

to Jesus, he was aware that Jesus was a

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great teacher and he wanted to know more.

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In John three 13, Jesus told him, no one

has ascended into heaven except he who

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has descended from heaven, the son of man.

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And as Moses lifted up the serpent

in the wilderness, so must the son

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of man be lifted up, that whoever

believes in him may have eternal life.

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For God so loved the world that he gave

his only son, that whoever believes in him

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should not perish, but have eternal life.

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But God did not send his son into the

world to condemn the world, but in order

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that the world might be saved through him.

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Are you surprised that the most

well-known verse in all of the entire

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Bible, jesus is actually relating

the salvation that he'll bring

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To the way that the bronze serpent.

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Brought physical salvation to the people.

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The next time you see an ambulance or a

medical sign and you see that image of

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the serpent wrapped around the staff,

you can be reminded that it's the only

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way that we're saved when we look to him.

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many will say that that symbol is actually

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the rod of the sepsis.

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But from what I can find.

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The origin of that myth

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came in at about 600 bc but the story

we're reading about of the bronze serpent

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in the wilderness took place in 1400 bc.

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And the tribe of Dan was known

to have traded with the Greeks,

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so it's entirely possible.

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they got this story from scripture.

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In Numbers 22 this Whole

deal with Baam is confusing.

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It's hard to tell his true

motives and much of the story

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Entrusted has a whole Bible study

method called Get the Word Out.

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My favorite tool is the color coding, and

what you do is you underline scripture.

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And dark pink represents righteousness

and godly choices, and the

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orange represents sinful choices.

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And the first time I was color coding

and I got to this story about balum, I

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had to stop and read several chapters

before I felt like I could accurately

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underline anything in orange or pink,

because he's a really complex character.

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God's directions to him.

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Even give me pause

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and I'm not sure I quite always

understand it except that I know

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that God is obviously in the right.

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Balik wants Baam to curse God's people.

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But we know from Abraham's promise in

Genesis 12 that that's not gonna happen

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' cause God promised Abraham that

he would bless those who bless

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him and curse those who curse him.

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And Baam knows

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he can't speak ill of God's people.

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His donkey acts honorably saving his

life when the angel of the Lord shows up.

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And Baam repents.

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And several times he ends up

blessing God's people, okay.

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I know it's confusing.

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Baam.

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Baic.

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Just think Baic is not gonna

get a lick out of this deal.

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And Balum ends like lamb, which is

the guy who was riding the donkey.

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It seems he finally surrenders and

I love what he says about the Lord.

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I'm under no illusion that

he's a godly man because he

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was associated with divination.

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Yet he still says amazing and

true words about the Lord.

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In 2319 through 21 bail proclaims

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god is not man that he should lie or a

son of man that he should change his mind.

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He has said and will he not do it or he

has spoken and will he not fulfill it.

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Behold I received a command to bless.

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He has blessed and I cannot revoke it.

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He has not beheld, misfortune and Jacob,

nor has he seen trouble in Israel.

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The Lord their God is with them.

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And the shout of a king is among them.

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We will continue Baum's

story in the next episode,

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Once again, we see that God uses

fallen people to accomplish his

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purposes, but rest assured Jesus

is perfect through and through.

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Let's keep looking to him even

when we're in the wilderness.

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Heavenly Father, as we watch Moses, have

a lapse in judgment and sin against you,

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it reminds us of our need

to be aware of our sin.

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And even if we've walked with

you for a long time, we know we

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are prone to wander, to go our

own way and rely on ourselves.

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I pray our confidence would only come

from our reliance upon you, and that

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you would help us to walk in daily,

surrender to your plans and purposes

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for ourselves and our families.

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I pray for protection over every

mom and family she represents.

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And just as the Israelites were able to

look at that bronze serpent and be saved,

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we pray for the salvation of our children.

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Not only that they would know you

and be saved by you, but also that

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they would walk in humility before

you and just as Bayam recognized your

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favor upon your people, we ask that

people would look at our families.

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Take note that you are with

us and that they would be

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drawn to you and who you are.

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Jesus.

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It's in your name we pray.

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Amen.