Numbers 21-24 Glorious Disaster (yes, I have used this title before, but I like it)

Facts of the day

1. Being home for the weekend is awesome! I am so glad to have the chance to simply enjoy my family.

2. I read through four of the most loaded chapters in the Bible tonight, so I won’t begin to cover the material. So, numbers 21-24 would be a good place for you to read as soon as you get the chance.

So…

Numbers 21 starts off with Israel doing what they normally do…complaining. They are treating the provisions that God has given them like college students treat cafeteria food.

They are, once again, telling God that he is not good enough.

In response, God sends poisonous snakes into the Israelite camp. God is clearly angry with his people and is discipline them. BUT, God also loves his people enough to give them a way out. He allows them to be saved from death if only they will look up at a giant snake statue. (Weird, yes…but go with it)

What we learn from chapter 21 is that God truly is angered by the Israelites’, complaining, but is compassion for them is greater than his anger.

Moving on to chapters 23-24, we see something really interesting…

In this passage, God is literally giving words to a prophet named Balaam, and this the type of thing that God says about the Israelites…

"How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob,
your dwelling places, O Israel!

"Like valleys they spread out,
like gardens beside a river,
like aloes planted by the LORD,
like cedars beside the waters.

Fact: in this passage, God calls his same, complaining children “Beautiful.”

The same people that angered him, he is now blessing. Just so you know, we do serve a God who can see our mistakes and failures and still call us beautiful.

He can call us out of his anger and into his blessing...so quickly.

And he still chooses to defend us…when we deserve to be chewed up by snakes.