March 16

Numbers 24:1-25:18, Luke 2:1-35, Psalm 59:1-17, Proverbs 11:14 

Pray: Father, I pray with David “I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.” Lord, may I remember to seek You in the morning and allow You to guide me through my day. Amen.

Read: A sobering story in Numbers 25 this morning reminds us of how important it is that we do not waver in our devotion to the Lord. The people of Israel went after the daughters of Moab and culture of people who worshiped the false god Baal. God strictly forbid this behavior in His law. At one point a man had the audacity to bring one of these women into the camp before the eyes of Moses. This bold sin by the people of Israel caused a plague on the people that killed 24,000. The plague was stopped finally when the woman and man were killed in the camp. These stories of unfaithfulness with foreigners in the Old Testament speak metaphorically to us not to cheat on God with the “foreign women” of the world. God calls us to be set apart and holy and not to mingle with sins that only pull us more into the world and not apart from it.

Edify: As I read Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus this morning I couldn’t help but be struck by all the details. We get the names, Caesar Augustus, Quirinius governor of Syria, and the places, the city of David, Nazareth, Judea, Bethlehem, etc. The Christmas story of Jesus' birth gets so sensationalized in our society that most think it a fairy tale or folklore. But here we see facts and unarguable historical events. I am encouraged that Jesus' birth was a true and historical event that changed the whole course of human history.

Practice: One of the hardest Christian disciplines is receiving instruction or correction from others. Yet Proverbs tells us that we should have an abundance of counselors in our lives. I hope that we can seek out some people in our lives who can give us the counsel we need.