Tues.’s Devo - The Kingdom is Coming

Read: Numbers 21:1-22:20; Luke 1:26-56; Psalm 57:1-11; Proverbs 11:9-11 One of the Canaanite king was told by his spies that Israel was coming their way so they attacked and took some of them prisoner. Israel promised God that if he would give them victory over the Canaanites, they would destroy their cities. God agreed and gave them the victory. *** As the people were going around the land of Edom the long way, many got impatient with the journey. They complained about the manna and spoke against God and Moses. God responded and sent poisonous snakes to kill them. They repented and begged Moses to ask God to take the snakes away, so God told them to make a replica of the snake in bronze and put it on a pole. Whoever looked at the snake would be healed. This was a picture of death being dealt with on the cross. The snake was the curse of sin just as Jesus became the curse for us. *** They continued until they came to the land of the Amorites. Their king also refused to let them pass through his land and his army attacked the Israelites. But the Israelites won and occupied their land up to the land of the Ammonites. They settled in their land and conquered the other towns along their way to the land of King Og’s of Bashan. His army came to attack the Israelites but God told them not to be afraid of them. He would give them their land. They won and occupied their land also. *** They were approaching the land of Barak of Moab and he didn’t want to be defeated like the others. He saw that no one would be able to defeat the Israelite army so he decided he had to fight them spiritually. He hired a soothsayer named Balaam to curse Israel. *** Balaam understood the hierarchy of the spirit realm. God is above Satan. He would not be able to do anything God didn’t allow him to say anything God didn’t allow him to say. God told Balaam not to go with Barak and curse Israel because he had blessed them. Balaam sent this message back to Barak. *** Barak then sent more distinguished men with promise of riches if he would just come and curse these people for him. Balaam told them to give him a night to think about it. He went back to God and God relented and let him go with the promise that he would only say what he told him to say. Balaam agreed. *** Meanwhile in Luke, Zechariah and Elizabeth were expecting the child God had promised and Elizabeth was in her sixth month. God sent his messenger, Gabriel to a virgin named Mary in Nazareth. Mary was Elizabeth’s niece. The angel told Mary that she was favored by God and would conceive and give birth to a son whose name would be Jesus. He would be very great and called the Son of the Most High. The Lord would give him the throne of David and he would reign over Israel forever. His kingdom would never end. *** Days later, Mary went to see Elizabeth and when she entered the house and voiced her greeting to Elizabeth, the child within Elizabeth leapt and was filled with the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth prophesied that Mary was the mother of her Lord. Mary praised the Lord for his mercy and salvation. She stayed with Elizabeth until her time to deliver came, then went home. Lord, you do all your great things in secret first. You are doing great things that few can see, but we can see. We see revival coming. We see the Kingdom of God coming to earth. We see the enemy being defeated even though it is not evident to everyone. Thank you for eyes to see. May your Kingdom come!