{"id":4322,"date":"2022-10-20T03:45:42","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T08:45:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=4322"},"modified":"2022-10-20T03:45:42","modified_gmt":"2022-10-20T08:45:42","slug":"devotional-on-numbers-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-numbers-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-Xq82NFA16OA\/XVSJhdYtPvI\/AAAAAAAA-eU\/m1phW9hv2bQTACcYY3C-ZwITR_uNoeXSQCKgBGAs\/s1600\/P6199561.JPG\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" class=\"size-large\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Mt Rainier National Park &#8211; big, 1000 year old tree<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nTransition of leadership<br \/>\nNumbers 27: Set a man over this community to lead them.<br \/>\nThe twenty-seventh chapter of Numbers feels a bit out of place.  After it we get back to the details of the law and descriptions of battles fought by the Israelites on their wilderness journey.  This chapter, though, is about dividing up the land once they arrive in Canaan and here in this passage we read of the mantle of leadership being passed from Moses to Joshua.   This doesn\u2019t diminish the story any, but it\u2019s interesting that it feels as though we\u2019re peeking ahead a bit.  The Lord tells Aaron and Moses that the sun is setting on their lives.  Because of their behavior at Meribeth they won\u2019t enter into the Promised Land.  The primary concern of Moses at this point is not that he\u2019ll not set foot in Canaan but is rather that a new leader will have to be chosen.  The natural selection for this job is the one the Lord makes.  Joshua, an assistant of Moses will take up the responsibility of, and be granted the gifts for, leadership.  A new generation will possess Canaan and their leader will be from that generation.  This transition of power is one of the things that work right for the people of Israel.  There\u2019s no stubborn holding on by Moses (something I\u2019m impressed with, considering he\u2019s been in charge for forty years) and there\u2019s no coop from Joshua.  The people accept the change without dividing up into the \u201cMoses did it better\u201d and the \u201cJoshua\u2019s our guy\u201d camps.  I\u2019m convinced that this is how things are supposed to work in the Kingdom of God.  I also understand that it\u2019s harder than it looks.  It takes careful, intentional, grace-filled effort for one leader to step down and another to step up.  When it works, as it does in this passage, it\u2019s a beautiful thing.<br \/>\nTake Away: During times of transition we need a double portion of God\u2019s grace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Transition of leadership Numbers 27: Set a man over this community to lead them. The twenty-seventh chapter of Numbers feels a bit out of place. After it we get back to the details of the law and descriptions of battles fought by the Israelites on their wilderness journey. This chapter, though, is about dividing up [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1522,7],"tags":[145,169,668,1102],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4322"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4322"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13987,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4322\/revisions\/13987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}