Tues.’s Devo - God’s Blessings on the Earth

Read: Numbers 24:1-25:18; Luke 2:1-35; Psalm 59:1-17; Proverbs 11:14 Balaam had set up his seven altars and sacrificed his animals for the third time. This time he didn’t even need to add his divination techniques, he went straight into saying what God was saying. He saw clearly that God wanted to bless the people of Israel. He told Balak that God would give them kings greater than Agag and their god was strong as an ox who devours all nations that oppose him. Everyone who blesses Israel will be blessed and everyone who curses Israel would be cursed. King Balak was enraged and yelled at Balaam. He told him he would get no reward from him. Balaam told him that he had warned him he could only say what God said. He got up to leave but first told the king what Israel would do to his people in the future. A star would arise from Jacob an a scepter from Israel. It would crush the heads of Moab, Edom, Seir, and Ir. Amelek would also be crushed along with the Kenites and those from Cyprus. The two men departed and when their separate ways. Satan couldn’t curse Israel so he infiltrated their ranks. He sent Moabite women to entice the men to have sex with them and attend their sacrifices to the gods of Moab. The Lord told Moses to seize the leaders of this revolt and have them executed before Him in broad daylight. Moses ordered the judges to put to death the men under their authority. Just as they were deciding this, one of the Israelite men brought a Midianite woman into his tent. When Phinehas saw this he chased the man into the tent and drove a spear through the man’s body and into the woman’s stomach. His act of zeal stopped a plague that had began. The plague killed 24,000 people. They then attacked the Midianites to destroy them. Sin spreads like a plague if nothing is done to stop it. I think of the sin of our nation and how the sexual revolution of the sixties led to legalizing abortion in the seventies which has morphed into sex trafficking and child sacrificing today. It is a plague that can be stopped by taking desperate measures. I pray for people with the zeal of Phineas to be raised up to stop this horrible sin. In Luke, we see how God will move heaven and earth to get us where he wants us to be. God wanted Jesus to be born in Bethlehem so he moved on the Roman emperor, Augustus to decree a census. This required Joseph to have to travel to Bethlehem with Mary who was expecting any day. They ended up in a stable which was the perfect place for the Lamb of God to be born. God appeared to shepherds who were the keepers of lambs and announced to them that the Messiah had been born that day in Bethlehem. He would be found wrapped in the worn out strips of cloth that the priests wore. All the sky was full of angels praising God because peace had come to the earth. The shepherds ran to Bethlehem to see this baby and found Mary and Joseph. They told everyone what had happened to them. The shepherds went back to their fields praising God for what they had been privileged to witness. Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day then taken to the Temple to be dedicated to the Lord and to offer the silver required for the first born child according to Moses’ law. At the Temple, they met Simeon who had been waiting his whole life to see the Messiah. When they walked in holding Jesus he prophesied that he could now die for he had seen God’s salvation that He had prepared for the world. Mary and Joseph were amazed at what he said. Simeon blessed them and told Mary that Jesus would cause many to fall and others to rise. He was a sign from God but would have much opposition. He would reveal the hearts of many and a sword would pierce her very soul. It is amazing the ones that God chose to share the birth of his son with. He chose shepherds and an old prophet in the Temple. God sees the hearts of people and doesn’t see them as the world sees them. Lord, thank you for the gift of your son, Jesus. Thank you for salvation and hope. May we be like the shepherds and share your good news to those we know.