Today’s Tasting: Numbers 23-25: Balak, the son of the king of Moab, had called Balaam, a Midianite, to curse the Israelites. They went to Baal and built seven altars there to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. Then Balaam spoke what he heard the Lord say: “How shall I curse whom God has not cursed?” (Numbers 23:8). Again Balak built seven altars for sacrifice and told Balaam to curse the Israelites. Instead, Balaam spoke the words he heard from the God of Israel, that He had blessed and no man could reverse the blessing, neither would any witchcraft or divination stand against Israel. Then Balak took Balaam to a third place and asked him to curse the Israelites from there. Again God spoke through Balaam: “I will bless those who bless Israel, those who curse you, I’ll curse!” (24:9). Then Balak became very angry with Balaam, because he had called Balaam to curse his enemies but instead he had blessed them three times. So Balaam reminded Balak that he had said he would speak only what he heard from God: “What the Lord speaks, that will I speak” (Numbers 24:13 ESV). So the two men went their separate ways.
While Israel camped on the plains of Moab, the men began to sleep with the young women of Moab. Soon the Israelites began sacrificing and bowing down to the gods of Moab.
“Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel” (Numbers 25:3 ESV).
When one of the Israelites brought a Midianite woman home to his family, Phinehas, Aaron’s grandson, became enraged and killed them both. Thus the plague that had come upon the Israelites was stopped, though twenty-four thousand died before the plague ceased. God was pleased with Phinehas and gave him and his descendants a covenant of perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for God and made atonement for the people of Israel (24:13).
Today’s Nourishment: Although we don’t build altars and make sacrifices to gods today, we create gods in our lives when we place a higher value on our possessions or our relationships than we do on our relationship with God. When we worship other gods, the result is death and destruction. But when we worship God in spirit and in truth, it produces life and the fruit of the Spirit in us (see Galatians 5:22-23).
Worship isn’t about beautiful buildings or a specific day of the week. You may worship God today, right where you are and right where you sit or stand.
“For the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24 ESV).
Since I learned that “worship,” in this passage, comes from the Greek words pros, meaning “to go toward” and kuneo, meaning “to kiss,” I realized that worship is the same as living in intimate relationship with the Lord. Learning this also changed my perspective on how and how often I worship the Lord. Understanding that to worship is “to go toward to kiss” increased my desire to love the Lord and receive His love for me.
Jesus says that if we love the world the love of the Father is not in us (see 1 John 2:15). Let us turn from worshiping the gods of this world and worship the Lord—“go toward Jesus to kiss Him.” Share with us how you choose to worship the Lord today.
Tomorrow’s Delight: Numbers 26-27
Carolyn Marlowe, CCLC
https://www.facebook.com/AlivebyHisWord
Carolyn I love to worship The Lord through song. When I sing to The Lord I truly feel His Presence engulf me. There is nothing like being in His sweet Presence. I love this meaning of worship ” to go toward to kiss”, like you this is going to cause me to desire Him more. This was a great word thanks for sharing it!
Tammy, my prayer is that our blogs will cause all who read The Bible Feast Blog to desire Him more on a daily basis! I am still amazed at how the blogs flow from one to another, while the bloggers have no idea what the others planned to blog from day-to-day. Thanks to all of The Bible Feast Bloggers.
It’s been such a blessing to read these posts! Keep them coming!
Wow, Carolyn! Worship is a lifestyle, these are words I live by and your posts makes it even more real to me. Like Tammy, I love to worship through song and I do it daily because I want it to be s part of my life and not just an “act” on Sundays. I truly believe when it’s your life, it’s part of you, you can worship through good times and bad, whether you’re happy or sad. I also think it’s awesome how you brought out the fact that we don’t build or make Goss like they did then, but our possessions and relationships that we put before God is the same thing and I will definitely be more aware of this so that I don’t fall into that.
I want to say thank you, Carolyn for this opportunity, I’m absolutely stoked to be amongst you ladies and I ejoy and learn very important lessons from each and every blog.