March 7 - Numbers 25:1-26:65

Good morning everyone,

This morning as I was reading I found myself wondering, “how in the world did the Israelites get so deep into their sin?” But it isn’t like they woke up one day and said “Let’s go grab some women, hang out and we’ll worship their gods too, to impress them.” No, this was a more gradual decent. It started off with a “I wonder what it would be like?” then a single choice to compromise just one moral, to consciously look at the boundary line and think “I probably should not cross that line” but do it anyway, which led to having sex with a Moabite woman; a woman who had different standards, a woman who did not worship the God of Israel but a slew of false gods. The next thing you know they were so deceived that Zimri boldly, defiantly took his harlot to the middle of camp, before the eyes of Moses and all who were weeping and praying for those lost.

What does that look like today? Maybe meeting with a co-worker after a long day at the office to have just one drink; or searching out on the computer what the guy down the hall got fired for breathing hard over; or just a flirtatious attitude with people you know or don’t know, people who you are not like minded with in God or with someone else's spouse. Compromise has many, many faces and we believe these types of behaviors are innocent, that we can be dishonest just a little bit, but that little bit is all the enemy needs to slap the blinders on your eyes, on my eyes, and lead us down a path that will ultimately lead to death. There is no “little bit” with God, we are either following His lead or following Satan’s. 

Integrity is always honest. It is always trustworthy. It is always dependable. There is no room for concession because with that comes an entirely corrosive behavior full of corruption. Picture rust that starts off as a teeny tiny speck on the hood of a car; slowly and ever so surely over time it will eat away every good piece of metal in its path until there is very little good left in it. Satan is the exact same way, his biggest weapon is time, he has mastered the art of lulling those who choose to open the door of compromise, feeding their ego encouraging them with welcomed lies of what we would love to be true until there is very little light left in us. 

Well, while Phinehas gave a death blow to the corruption brought front and center, God cleaned up His camp and the plague against the Israelites was stopped.

Chapter 26, briefly, is the second census taken of those 20 years old or more, the counting would help in determining how much land would be needed for their group once the crossed into the promised land. Please note that not one of them counted were among those counted by Moses and Aaron except for Caleb and Joshua. God had told the older generation that they would die in the wilderness and surely they did yet through all the ups and downs God’s laws and spiritual character of His people were still intact.

I pray you have a great day and to God be the glory.
God bless you all …