Numbers 25, 27

God absolutely desires for him to be the object of worship and dependence for his people.  When God sees anything else receiving the worship that he deserves it invokes jealousy.  How is this justified?  Is not jealousy and entitlement a bad thing?  The answer to the question is both no and yes.  The answer is yes for any created thing, but no for the creator (God).  Since God is owner, creator, and sustainer of all things, he is absolutely deserving and entitled to all worship, glory, and affection.  When something interferes with that or takes away from the very purpose for creating life, and God reserves the right to enact the punishment or rather results of this.  That ultimate punishment is death.  We see this displayed in Numbers 25.  God’s people are being led to worship other gods (Baal of Peor), a regional god of the Moabites).  God becomes jealous and angry for the affections of the people he loves.  The worship was diverted and God calls those men into judgment and kills them.  In turn, 24,000 people are killed because of God’s wrath in this action.  God actually displays mercy by only killing 24,000 when all of these people deserved death.  This instant in Israel’s existence is ultimately a picture of the people of Israel for the rest of their history and gives great insight into the desires of God to be worshipped.

            Now jumping ahead to Numbers 27, lets do a little break down here.  Imagine a man that desired for his entire people to follow in obedience to God to take something that he promised to them.  Not only that, the leaders and the entire people were absolutely against this man’s desire to do exactly what was right.  The people would eventually disobey God, and this man would eventually tread in punishment for 40 years because of the sin of other people.  This was exactly the case for Joshua.  He desired for Israel to obey God, take the land of Canaan, but Israel’s disobedience would lead him to walk in the wilderness for 40 years.  Numbers 27 focuses on the succession of Joshua, as Israel would be entering into the land of Canaan.  There are a lot of theological connections and significances that are connected to this, but I propose some simple questions for all of us.  Do you think Joshua was in favor of his time in the wilderness?  Do you think he wasted his time in the wilderness by not preparing for his future role?  When God appointed him was he ready?  Examining this passage and even more passages in the book of Joshua can help give you reasonable answers to these questions.  I ask you one final question, how are you preparing for something greater while you are in the situation that God has placed you currently?