Fri.’s Devo - God is Faithful to His Promises

Read: Numbers 21:1-22:20, Luke 1:26-56, Ps. 57:1-11 Pr, 11:9-11 God gives the Israelites a total defeat at Hormah and they complained about the food. God sent them snakes as punishment. The snakes caused them to humble themselves and ask God to take them away. God told them to put a bronze snake on a pole and all who were bitten by the snake could look at the snake and be healed. Jesus was the bronze snake, our curse, that when we look to, we are healed. When Israel got to the land of the Amorites, they asked if they could peaceable walk through their land. They promised not to take anything from them. The Amorites refused to let them pass through. I wonder why Joshua wanted to keep peace with them when God had told them to take the land. They did have to fight and won. The king of the Amorites lived in Heshbon which means “reason”. How interesting that the Israelites would try to use reason to keep the peace. The Amorites had taken that land from the Moabites and it was now the Israelite’s. That is the way it is in the demonic world - there is no unity. They fight each other for position. That is why God wanted Israel to take possession. God wanted to take the stronghold of the devil’s. Now they were approaching the Moabites land and the Moabites were afraid. If the Amorites hadn’t been able to hold them, then they would need help. They decided to use spiritual measures against Israel so they hired a sorcerer named Balaam. Balaam’s name means ”a prophet not of the people”. Balaam would be the epitome of a false prophet. He gets his information from the demonic spirit world that is still subject to God. God told Balaam not to go. In Luke, God sends an angel to tell Mary she is going to bear the son of God. It is the sixth month when the Israelites are celebrating Purim, the celebration where the Jews got to rise up and fight their enemies. Mary is promised she will bear a son who will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom would never end. She runs to tell Elizabeth who is pregnant with John. This was Jesus and John’’s first meeting and it took place in the womb. I love Mary’s song of praise. Lord, may we realize that, like Mary, we bear the son of God in our womb. He is the promise that the world has longed and waited for.