February 7th 2020 – Numbers 23:1-2

The lessons that emerge from this chapter and the next, which deal with various sacri- fices and ritual and ceremonial observances, come from a consideration of the broad princi- ples underlying them, rather than from a study of each enactment in close detail. To do the latter would be the proper course if we were studying Leviticus: we will therefore content ourselves with taking a sweep through these chapters in order to gather their overall message. First of all, we must remember the context, and bear in mind just where in the story of God's dealings with His people we now stand. The old generation of Israel, that generation which sinned away its opportunity to enter into the land by its failure and unbelief at Kadesh Barnea, had now, all died off, and God was dealing with the new generation that was about to go in to possess the land, under the leadership of Joshua. It is significant that, just as He had given the original generation these detailed instructions as to the observing of feasts and ordinances at Sinai, so now with the new generation He does the same. In other words, God underlines once again the fundamentals for Israel's life. 'If you are to be My people,' He seems to say, 'then this is how it must be with you, this is the priority, and this must be the basis and foundation of all your experience.' Here, then, is a lesson for us at the outset: one generation had failed; and, in taking up another, God was saying in effect that the only hope of averting failure was the establishing of a right pattern of worship. And the significance of this? Just that at the heart of these instructions for worship lies the matter of a right relation- ship with God. It is here that everything hopeful begins; as it is the lack of such a relationship that spells foreboding and disaster for the people of God.