Day 4 Reviewed

Leviticus 18 - Numbers 20

•  Jubilee

     God made so many provisions for these Israelites! It's amazing how specific He was, accounting for all sorts of loopholes or circumstances they may find themselves in!
     One of the biggest provisions was Jubilee.
     Leviticus 25 talks about the year of rest. God set it aside as a sort of "Sabbath year." For six years, the people who work, and during the 7th, they would let the land rest. Then, they would simply rely on the fruits of their labor from the previous year to sustain the during that one.
     Then, every seventh seven years (so every 49 years,) there was to be a period call Jubilee, in which debts were canceled, property was returned to it's original owner, and slaves were freed! What a concept! It was a sort of "reset button" year.
     But, alas, the Israelites did not ever experience this peaceful, year of ease. WHY? They just didn't do it! They didn't follow God's command to observe the Jubilee, for whatever reason, and denied themselves the benefit, enjoyment, and reward of it!?

• Manna

     God was supplying the peoples' every need while they were in the wilderness. No question. Personally, when my needs have been satisfied, I have begun to get dissatisfied by my unmet wants. So, they had food, but now they needed (wanted) variety. They were tired of eating the same boring food day in and day out and accused God of being uncaring. "We were better off in Egypt!" they even spat at Him.
     I guess when you get bored and comfortable, the fading memory of brutal slavery, mistreatment and persecution somehow don't seem as bad as bland cereal. Hm.
     So God said, You want meat? I'll give you meat..."You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor twenty days, but a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you," (Numbers 11:19-20).
     Uh oh. God is funny! (but not when it happens to us)

     One of my favorites quotes from the day was when Moses says, "Why then are you transgressing the commandment of the Lord, when it will not succeed?" (Numbers 14:41). Yeah! Why you blind Israelites?
     Alison, why then are YOU transgressing the commandment of the Lord, when it will not succeed?
     Oh.
     I was tired. I was lazy.
     I thought it wouldn't really make a difference this time. One more time.
     I thought my way wasn't really that different from God's.
Did you hear? NOT going to work! NOT going to succeed! Why are you even wasting your time?

Lord, You are my success. You cause me to prosper. In the land of my enemies, I will be victorious. Amongst the unclean, I am made clean. If you say rest, than it truly is better to rest than to work. What you provide is better, more perfect, more effective, more what I need, than what I think I need.