Day 160 #BCaD

 

Numbers 15

1. Grace Before Meals

Do you say grace before you eat? When I was growing up we said grace before our evening meal together. We all said it aloud. I think it went like this:

‘Bless us, O Lord, and these, Thy gifts, which we are about to receive from Thy bounty. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.’

It’s quite formal isn’t it? And you can probably guess that, as a small child, I was just thinking that ‘Bounty’ was a chocolate bar and was forever wondering how that all fitted together since we never had a Bounty bar for tea!

Saying grace before meals is important though. It does two important things. Firstly, it reminds us that God has provided food for us and helps us not to take that fact for granted and secondly it reminds us of others who do not have enough to eat.

In this chapter we see God reminding the Israelites to give thanks to God for food and drink. We hear this phrase again – ‘a fragrance pleasing to the Lord.’

We went to a dear friend’s house for Sunday lunch yesterday and she was explaining how she hadn’t cooked for a while and how lovely it was to smell delicious food in the house again. I am a signed-up member of Slimming World.What that wonderful institution teaches you, amongst other things, is to really enjoy and savour the food that you can eat. I love that. If you throw food down your throat as you are doing something else, you hardly notice that you have eaten and will probably try to eat something again pretty soon afterwards.

As we move into Advent, let’s remind ourselves of the pleasure of food and drink in a wholesome and appreciative way. Grab a recipe book, make a shopping list, cook something, give thanks for it and savour it.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+15&version=NIV

2. Stoning

A man found gathering wood on the sabbath is stoned to death.

3. Tassels

The Israelites are commanded to sew tassels of blue chord onto the corners of their garments. This is to remind them not to have lustful thoughts. Worth a try !

Day 159 #BCaD

Numbers 14

The People Rebel –

1. Those Were The Days!

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=numbers+14&version=NIV

Do you ever find yourself longing for the ‘good old days’? Simpler times? If you do, I wonder which time of your life you are thinking of in particular. It is worth taking a moment to reflect upon what made those times preferable to now.

Allow me to give you an example. I really enjoyed being 17 years old. There was something about the excitement of becoming an adult and the feeling that the future was full of opportunity. Would I want to go back to being 17 if I had the chance? No. Living in the UK or more specifically South London at that time was not great. There were violent protests, strikes, hatred, crime, vandalism, anger and riots. Things are better now in these respects. They are. It’s just that a part of your brain blocks out the negative and retains the positive memories. That is why people have a second child; they block out the pain of childbirth and the sleep deprivation. I have even heard parents say they miss their children being babies. WHAT !? This simply cannot be true. On any level.

In this chapter we see the people longing for the good old days of being captive in Egypt. They have forgotten how miserable they were under Pharaoh and they have forgotten that they are on their way to the promised land. It is the uncertainty that is getting to them. Yes it was horrible in Egypt but at least they knew where they were!

We can relate to these feelings can’t we? We too are travelling towards a promised land and sometimes the older you get, the more serious a prospect it becomes. Then you long for the old days when it didn’t seem so serious or indeed so close!

Have you ever had a health scare? When you make an appointment at the doctor’s and in the days leading up to that appointment your mind starts creating negative outcomes? Or waiting for results – one of the hardest things to endure sometimes. It’s the waiting that is the most difficult bit. Even if the news is bad, at least you know and your mind can begin to process it.

So what do we learn from the Israelites today? We learn to have faith in God’s ultimate plan for us. If we believe in God and that the Bible is ‘God-breathed’ we therefore MUST believe that God loves us. If we believe that God loves us then we MUST believe that He has a plan for us, however difficult things get.

To combine two popular phrases, ‘God wins in the end, if He hasn’t won yet, then it’s not the end.’

2. The Old Testament

If you get a chance to listen to Malcolm Duncan’s talk on ‘Did God Appoint Donald Trump?’ (link below) you will hear him explain how he used to prefer the parts of the bible concerned with Jesus and how he learned that the Old Testament is relevant and compelling as well. I used to think the same.

3. Did God Appoint Donald Trump?

Over to you Malcolm:

Day 158 #BCaD

Numbers 13

1. If you were asked, “Where is the land of opportunity?” what would your answer be? Many of us would say America. Why? Because they are always telling us that it is. Australia also claims to be the land of opportunity. Today, many argue that Africa is the true land of opportunity. I think that the idea of a ‘land of opportunity’ centres around the concept of a new beginning and a fresh start. When America was discovered it presented a tantalising opportunity for people to make a fresh start and create a civilisation liberated from the ‘baggage’ of European borders, traditions and politics.

2. Moses explores Canaan and even though his scouts find it to be a land of ‘milk and honey’, they are afraid. They decide to scare the Israelites by making up stories about tough giants who already live there. We call this scare-mongering today.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=numbers+13&version=NIV

3. So, if you had the chance to start your own country, what would you do? What would be your values? Would everyone be equal? Would everyone have a duty to care for one another? How important would education be? How tough would you be in defending those values?

Guess what?

We do have an opportunity to do something. In a way we possess our own land of opportunity. Our personal values are our values. What are they? Do we treat everyone equally? Do we care for others? How important is education to us? How tough are we in defending these values?

Are we guilty of leaving it to others to uphold our values?

We have an opportunity to do something.

Donald Trump is now president-elect of the USA.

Don’t panic: Do something.

Oh and by the way, meet the next president of the USA. See you in 2020.