It's been a few days!

First things first...THANK YOU so much to everyone who has been so sweet to ask about my health and etc after my little episode last week. For some reason I have been EXTREMELY fatigued and was struggling with faintness and etc. All of my labs came back fine so I am not sure what the deal was. Anyway, I thank you for praying!

Also, I have been L-I-V-I-N-G in the old testament lately and I am so overwhelmed with some of the things that I have been seeing with my spiritual eyes that it is just too much to put into words.

I do want to share a verse that was supposedly later added by Joshua to Numbers 12:3
3 (Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)

We have all heard that pride is the root of all sin so humility must equal friendship with God.
Miriam and Aaron were grumbling against Moe in the beginning of the passage and then in a very climatic point in the passage the Lord is going to call them all out to meet with Him because of their grumbling against Moe...see for yourself:

4 At once the LORD said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, "Come out to the Tent of Meeting, all three of you." So the three of them came out.

Can you just imagine the LORD calling them all out to give Aaron and Miriam a holy whoopin? It just sweeps a holy fear all over me when I dare think of complaining (or worse spurring others on to grumble) against a fellow brother or sister in Christ. Not only that Moses did not defend himself with Miriam and Aaron when they complained against him. When we quit stating our own cases...God takes up our case. Who would you rather have defend you...you or God? It speaks volumes to me.

Can you just remember getting in trouble for fighting with one of your siblings and your dad (if you had a dad) calling you all out front to talk about it or for punishment? There are five kids in my family and three of us are closer in age so two of us would always gang up on one. I can so relate here to the animosity in the passage. Maybe they felt like Moses was a little too favored. Now the LORD is about to come down...eavesdrop with me:

5 Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them stepped forward, 6 he said, "Listen to my words:
"When a prophet of the LORD is among you,
I reveal myself to him in visions,
I speak to him in dreams.

7 But this is not true of my servant Moses;
he is faithful in all my house.

8 With him I speak face to face,
clearly and not in riddles;
he sees the form of the LORD.
Why then were you not afraid
to speak against my servant Moses?" (emphasis mine)

Think of what the desert must have done to Moses. I have shared in past posts how he was tested and tried in the desert for 40 years. How he must have surely felt forgotten and of no use and how he went from pomp and prestige in the house of Pharoah to a lowly shepherd in the desert working for his father-in-law. Then one day he encounters God and it is time for his ministry to begin of leading Gods nation of people out of bondage. He tried to lead Gods people out in his own time and in his own way and it led him into a desert where he was humbled. Even though he took matters into his own hands in killing the Egyptian...God still had use for him. He was so humble that God did not speak to him in visions and dreams...He spoke to Him face to face as one speaks to a friend (Exo 33:11).

God has called all of us to a purpose here on this earth for His glory and His kingdom agenda, and don't you just know that Moses' time in the desert "took" it gave him the humility required to be a friend of God. Some of us are busy trying to fulfill that purpose God has for us without waiting on His timing instead we begin to run ahead and kick against the goads. I read the following from Chuck Swindoll about waiting on God (and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea):

"When I panic, I run.
When I run, I lose.
When I lose, God waits.
When I wait, He fights.
When He fights, He wins.
And when He wins, I learn."

pg 225 "Moses", Chuck Swindoll

Don't we have the same temptation as Miriam and Aaron. We see God working in someone else's life and we want what they've got and we become jealous? (And please read further they were punished for their disobedience and we also reap the same consequences maybe not in the exact way but still.) Then, so often we run ahead trying to fulfill our callings without waiting on God to continue the work in us that He so desires to do. We seek position and a name instead of His glory. Our motives may start out right but if we are having to pry open doors and use marketing schemes to fulfill our callings...maybe we should take a look and make sure God's presence is going with us or if we are on our own. Scary thought. I can't tell you the times I have had to cry out for God to go with me into my day or I wasn't gonna go without Him so we could just call it a day if He wasn't going to be with me in power. (I hope you know I mean His presence of course we are sealed with the Holy Spirit in Christ)

Oh that it would be our prayer that the fear of the Lord would keep us from sinning. That we would not (I am talking about me to) continue to have jealousy and strife with our brothers and sisters in Christ and that we would not run ahead of the hand of God. Lord help us to be your humble servants, and Lord that we would be entrusted with much of You. You are so worthy of our trust. Forgive us of our pride. May it not be said that we couldn't be entrusted with You because of our pride and arrogance.

John 2:24-25
24But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. 25He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.

Exodus 20:20
20 Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning."