Seize the Moment – Day 602
Positioned for Faithfulness!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, November 9.
Forty years is a long time to wait!
How many of you could tell me from personal experience what was happening forty years ago?
Personally, I was Willow’s age (7), and what I know about forty years ago comes from the stories I have been told.
The book of Numbers started with a census after the Exodus and numbered the fighting men at 603,550 (Numbers 1:17-40). Except for Caleb and Joshua, the two believing spies, all who were counted in the census would die in the desert as a judgment for their unbelief (Numbers 14:20-38).
Fast forward forty years and upon the judgment at Peor the last of the unbelieving generation were now dead and a new census was ordered in Numbers 26:1-4. Verses 63-65 summarizes this significant moment in Israel’s history as the new generation stood on the cusp of God’s promise:
These are those who were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the sons of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho. But among these there was not a man of those who were numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest, who numbered the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. For the Lord had said of them, “They shall surely die in the wilderness.” And not a man was left of them, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.
There were now 601,730 fighting men in Israel (51). Every person counted was either a youth during the last census or not yet born. A new generation was positioned for faithfulness and all that they knew came from the previous generation’s stories about God and His faithfulness through forty years of following God in the desert.
Seize the moment and position the next generation for faithfulness through the stories you tell them about God and His faithfulness.