The Feed Mill

Today’s Bible Reading: Numbers 27-30

Today’s Devotional: Numbers 27:12-22

The end of a season

Numbers 27:12-14 God told Moses months ahead of time that he was going to see the promised land, would not be allowed to enter, and would die there on the mountain, Deuteronomy 34. God told Moses here, and was able to prepare his heart.

Numbers 27:15-17 We see then Moses’ pastoral heart:

1. He doesn’t try to talk God out of His will, but is content and trusts the will of God; and Moses doesn’t complain.
2. Moses’ concern was for God’s people, what was best for them, and not for himself or his personal gain.
3. A man who would both serve and protect the congregation. This man would have to whole heartedly serve the people in the will and direction of the Lord and not his own will and direction, the will and direction of the world, or in the peoples own will and direction. (The book of Judges is full of what happens when the world and a man takes control of his own heart.) He would need to stand up to ungodliness that would seek to be brought into the midst of the congregation from within or impressed upon the congregation from the outside world.
4. “So not to be like a sheep without a shepherd,” ultimately this is fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ, Micah 5:2-24, John 16:11; and we see God also uses a subservient shepherd to Jesus Christ, and not one who is subservient to his own desires or the desires of man but to Jesus and that is fulfilled in the pastor-teacher, 1 Peter 5:4. The shepherd is to lead, John 21:15-17, giving guidance and direction of the Word of God, Numbers 27:21, So that all may be equipped and edified in all that God has for the congregation and the fulness of Jesus Christ, Ephesians 4:12.

Jesus was moved with compassion when the people were without a shepherd or under-shepherd, and this wasn’t compassion for Jesus present circumstances but the circumstances of the people; Mark 6:34, John 21:15-17.

Numbers 27:18-23 we see what God said about Joshua, “in whom is The Spirit.” This is a relationship with God’s Spirit that is more than just in the midst of the congregation and present when the congregation was saved out of Egypt. And any man who is to be a pastor must have this same relationship with the Holy Spirit and to be an example of a man walking in the Spirit filled life, and not one enamored still with Egypt or the land on the other side of the Jordan.