Thurs.’s Devo - Obedience to God’s Word

Read: Numbers 21:1-22:20; Luke 1:26-56; Psalm 57:1-11; Proverbs 11:9-11 As the children of Israel came closer to Canaan, the king of Arad in Canaan attacked the Israelites and took some of them as prisoners. The people of Israel promised the Lord that if he would help them get their people back, they would destroy all their towns. God heard their prayer and gave them victory. *** The children of Israel had asked the Edomites if they could pass through their land. They promised not to take anything and to pay for any food they might need. The Edomites refused to let them pass through so they had to go all the way around their territory into the wilderness. There was no water or food out in the wilderness, so the people cried out against the Lord and Moses. *** God sent them poisonous snakes to bite them and many died. They repented and asked Moses to pray to the Lord to take the snakes away. God told Moses to make a brass snake and put it on a pole and anyone who was bit could look at the brass snake and they would be healed. That snake on the pole is the symbol of healing for the medical field today. *** They traveled on until they came to Beer where there was a well. They sang a song about the well. *** When they came to the boundary into the land of the Ammonites, they sent a message to them like they had the Edomites. They also refused to let them travel through their land and the King of Sihon mobilized his whole army and came out to fight them. The Israelites slaughtered them and occupied their land and captured all their towns and surrounding villages. *** They came to the land of Bashan where Og was the king. Bashan attacked them with his army but the Lord told Moses not to be afraid of him because He would hand them over to Israel also. Israel killed King Og, his sons, and all his subjects and none of his people survived. Israel occupied his land also. As they approached Moab, Balak, the king of Moab heard of all they had done to the Edomites and the Ammorites so he took a different strategy. Since he had seen he would not be able to defeat them militarily, he decided he would beat them spiritually so he hired Balaam, a sorcerer to put a curse on Israel. Balak sent messengers to Balaam and offered to pay him to come and curse Israel. Balaam told the men to spend the night with him and he would ask God. God told him not to go with these men and he was not to curse Israel because they were blessed. When the messengers returned to King Balak and told him what Balaam said, he tried again. This time he sent more men in number and importance to Balaam to appeal to his pride. Balak reminded him, he would pay him well. *** Balaam told them that he was powerless against God but if they would stay the night he would ask God again. God told him he could go with these men but he could only say what God told him to say. *** In Luke, Elizabeth was in her sixth month of pregnancy. Gabriel was sent to Mary who was a virgin engaged to Joseph, a descendant of King David. *** The angel told Mary that she was highly favored and she was chosen to conceive a son name Jesus. He would be very great and be called the Son of the Most High. He would be given the throne of his ancestor David and would reign over Israel forever. His Kingdom would never end. *** When Mary asked how this would happen, Gabriel explained that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and overshadow her. The baby would be holy and would be called the Son of God. Elizabeth, her relative, was now pregnant too, in her sixth month. *** Mary responded that she was God’s servant and may everything he said come true. A few days later Mary went to see Elizabeth in Judea. When Mary walked in the house and greeted Elizabeth, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb jumped for joy and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She began prophesying over Mary. She acknowledged that Mary would be the mother of her Lord. She blessed Mary because of her faith to believe all God said would happen. *** Lord, may we have the faith to believe that if you say it, we do not even need to question it. May we have faith like Mary and not like Balaam that was tempted to make money from evil kings. May we be God’s servant and give him our lives today to be used for his service.