Numbers 17

The chapter today is short, but contains a very cool miracle. Just in case God's direct statements to the Israelites that Moses was to lead them, and His confirmation of such things time and again, He gives one more proof here by causing Aaron's staff to bloom from among several placed before Him. I wonder if this will really put the people's doubts behind them for good - only time (and the remaining chapters) will tell...

Exodus 17

Today's section of Scripture was two-fold, but there is a specific thing I picked up on in the second half that I want to write about. Here we have a battle going on between the Israelites and a group that attacked them, and whenever Moses raised the staff of God the battle would go in their favor. If he lowered it, though, they would begin to lose. This showed that God was the one in charge, and He was fighting for them. In a similar way we need to depend on God to fight for us when we alone are not strong enough - and just like Moses, when we grow tired we need godly friends whom we can depend on to help us through and support us. Community is really an important theme in the Bible, and we need to work together as Christians to build each other up and reach out to those who don't know Jesus. We are each just a part of the body of Christ, and by ourselves cannot do much - but together, with Jesus as the head, we are invincible.