Live the Word Bible Studies

Purpose Study Bible 150: Your Priestly Provision

God took care of the people's needs in the Wilderness through manna and quail, but in Numbers 18, He turned his attention to the provision for the priests and Levites since He gave them no land as He did the other tribes:

"I give you all the finest olive oil and all the finest new wine and grain they give the Lord as the firstfruits of their harvest. All the land’s firstfruits that they bring to the Lord will be yours. Everyone in your household who is ceremonially clean may eat it. . . The Lord said to Aaron, “You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any share among them; I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites" (Numbers 18:12-13, 18).

In the New Testament, we learn that all believers are priests: "You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:5) and "[Jesus Christ] has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father" (Revelation 1:6). Therefore, since God spelled out with great detail how He would provide for the Old Testament priests, how much more will He now do the same for us who serve His new order:

"So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matthew 6:32-33).

Where are you living below your assigned provision as a priest of God? Where are you allowing concern for what you will "eat and drink" to interfere with your Kingdom service and assignment? Where have your low or limited expectations of how and how much the Lord will provide been fulfilled?

Purpose Study Bible 149: Overnight Delivery

In Numbers 15 and 16, we read about the people rebelling against Moses and Aaron. When the earth swallowed some of the rebels, the people blamed the leaders for their deaths! Then the Lord proposed this solution to settle the people's discontent and murmuring:

"Speak to the Israelites and get twelve staffs from them, one from the leader of each of their ancestral tribes. Write the name of each man on his staff. On the staff of Levi write Aaron’s name, for there must be one staff for the head of each ancestral tribe. Place them in the tent of meeting in front of the ark of the covenant law, where I meet with you. The staff belonging to the man I choose will sprout, and I will rid myself of this constant grumbling against you by the Israelites" (Numbers 17:2-5).

So Moses did what the Lord directed and this was the result:

The next day Moses entered the tent and saw that Aaron’s staff, which represented the tribe of Levi, had not only sprouted but had budded, blossomed and produced almonds (Numbers 17:8).

Notice what the Lord said: "The staff belonging to the man I choose will sprout." When you're in your purpose or expressing your creativity, you're a chosen vessel. God will empower you not only to bud and blossom but to produce fruit. What's more, God didn't pay attention to the normal time line for Aaron's rod to bear fruit; it happened overnight. He can do the same thing for you, reducing the time and effort required to achieve the desired results.

When you think of fruit and productivity, you should keep in mind what Jesus said: "This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples" (John 15:8) and "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last" (John 15:16). When God is with you, you'll bear fruit and do so in a supernatural manner—if you want to do so.

In what areas has God chosen you to bear fruit? Is it fruit beyond your normal capability to produce? Have you accepted that He has chosen you to represent Him and His presence in the areas of your gifts and purpose? What more can you do to cooperate with God's choice and presence when you express your purpose to bear fruit?

Purpose Study Bible 148: Faith Facts

We have seen that the majority report from the Promised Land reconnaissance was the inhabitants were too big and powerful to overcome, which Caleb and Joshua disputed. The people weighed both reports and came to this conclusion:

And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” Then Moses and Aaron fell face down in front of the whole Israelite assembly gathered there. Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” But the whole assembly talked about stoning them (Numbers 14:4-10).

if you're going to be effective for God in your purpose and creativity, and if you're going to set lofty, faith-inspired goals, you must be careful whose voices you listen to and how you process their conclusions. You must consider the facts but not allow the facts, or others' interpretation of the facts, to have the final say. Faith facts must be front and center in your decision-making process. Once you allow a negative report to take root in your mind, it will only amplify the downside, drowning out the voice of faith.

Where is your focus these days? On the problems or the faith facts? Have you given voices not consistent with God's voice to rule and overrule your faith? Isaiah 53:1 states, "Who has believed our message? To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm?" As the song says, "Whose report shall we believe?" The answer must be, "We shall believe the report of the Lord!"

Purpose Study Bible 147: Belittling

Last week, we examined the report of the spies who came back from a reconnaissance mission into the Promised Land. They reported that the land was good but the inhabitants formidable:

But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them" (Numbers 13:31-33).

Did you notice how the people evaluated themselves when compared to the local inhabitants? "We seemed like grasshoppers"is quite an exaggeration, but it said a lot about how they saw themselves. The belittled themselves in their own eyes. Dictionaries define the verb belittle as to make (someone or something) seem unimportant; to speak slightingly of; to represent or speak of as unimportant or contemptible; or to cause to seem little or smaller than something else. Even though these people had seen God do great things for them, their own self-image was so poor that they could not assess their situation properly.

When you compare yourself to someone else, do you make them bigger than they truly are because your image of yourself is so small or deficient? When you compare your creative gifts to others, do you immediately compare them to the masters of the ages, like Rembrandt, Beethoven, or some giant of literature or industry? Why is that?

It's because you, like the people in Numbers 13, don't see yourself through eyes of faith, thus belittling who you are in your own thinking. It's true that you may not be the best at what you do, but that doesn't mean God can't use you as you are. Ask God to show you where you are belittling yourself in your own eyes and then do some work to change your thinking so you can rid yourself of your grasshopper mentality and take your rightful place as a champion of the purpose God has assigned you.

Purpose Study Bible 146: "Let's Be Realistic"

Before the people entered the Promised Land, Moses sent out men to survey and spy out the land.

After exploring the land for forty days, the men returned to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had taken from the land. This was their report to Moses: “We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces. But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak!" (Numbers 13:25-28, NLT).

Ten of the scouts saw the problems in the Land while two only saw the promise of God: "But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. 'Let’s go at once to take the land,' he said. 'We can certainly conquer it!'" (Numbers 13:30). The ten responded by basically saying, "Let's be realistic!": "But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” (Numbers 13:31, NLT).

What do you see when you try to fulfill your purpose or express your creativity? Do you want to start a business but only see how poor the economy is and how much money you need but don't have? Do you want to take a missions trip but are afraid because the world is a big place and you are so small and insignificant? Do you want to open an art studio but then think, "Who am I to think such thoughts?" The truth is, who are you not to think them?

If you want to do great things, you will have to stop being "realistic" and focus on the truth in Ephesians 3:20: "Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think." Amen and amen. What could you do if you were more like Caleb and less like his ten comrades?

Purpose Study Bible 145: Spirit of Prophecy

They were not long in the Wildness before the people panicked and began to grumble over the Lord's provision. They could not grasp how God was going to take care of so many who were traveling in such dire desert conditions. In response to their complaints, the Lord met with the leaders and poured His Spirit out on them and the people prophesied. Several who did not go with the other leaders to meet the Lord also prophesied, leading to this story:

However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but did not go out to the tent. Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp. A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ aide since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!” But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” (Numbers 11:26-29).

Moses' wish has come true, for we are now a kingdom of priests and prophets who communicate and interpret the will of God not only to believers but also unbelievers. When you flow in your purpose or express your gifts and creativity, you are "speaking" on God's behalf to your audience just like the prophets do who speak the word of the Lord.

Do you take your purpose and creativity that seriously, accepting that you are communicating God's truth through who you are and what you do? Do you pray for your own gifts and life's work that God will work through you and speak to others of His love and desire to have a relationship with them? What more can you do to invite and then cooperate with the Spirit of God in even the most mundane of your life experiences? God wants to use you to reach and teach others. The only thing that can prevent that from happening is you.

Purpose Study Bible 144: It's Up to You

The people were getting ready to break camp and move on, but there was one important thing the Lord had to establish, and that was a system of signals so they could communicate as they moved. This is what He prescribed:

The Lord said to Moses: “Make two trumpets of hammered silver, and use them for calling the community together and for having the camps set out" (Numbers 10:1-2).

It doesn't seem that the Lord gave the specifics for trumpets, except that they were to be silver. The silversmiths and musicians were to decide their length, sound tone, and amount of silver used. In other words, God directed the work but they were to apply their own God-given creativity to craft what He commanded. It was a partnership between God and His creative team:

"When both are sounded, the whole community is to assemble before you at the entrance to the tent of meeting. If only one is sounded, the leaders—the heads of the clans of Israel—are to assemble before you" (Numbers 10:3-4).

Then He gave instructions for how the trumpets were to be used to signal their departure, during their feasts, during battle, and as a sound over their sacrifices. Do you think those trumpets simple made a sound or did they make music and a different tune for each occasion when they were used? If they did make music, it would have been up to the player to compose the tunes and familiarize the people with them so they would know what each melody was directing them to do or remember. Once again, the Lord directed their work but they were able to apply creativity to their tasks at hand. Oh yes, and the trumpet sound was a collaboration between their breath and someone's handiwork that crafted the trumpets—a creative partnership.

Where does God expect you to use the creative skill He gave you to do a job He has assigned you? Are you waiting on the Lord to do what He is waiting for y0u to do by using your creative skills? Are you maximizing your creativity by using it to become even more creative while helping others to do so as well?

Purpose Study Bible 143: Time to Move On

It was the subject of an earlier study that guidance should not be a problem for those who follow the Lord. It certainly wasn't for those who were in the Wilderness with Moses:

Whenever the cloud lifted from above the tent, the Israelites set out; wherever the cloud settled, the Israelites encamped. At the Lord’s command the Israelites set out, and at his command they encamped. As long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle, they remained in camp. When the cloud remained over the tabernacle a long time, the Israelites obeyed the Lord’s order and did not set out. Sometimes the cloud was over the tabernacle only a few days; at the Lord’s command they would encamp, and then at his command they would set out. Sometimes the cloud stayed only from evening till morning, and when it lifted in the morning, they set out. Whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud lifted, they set out. Whether the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for two days or a month or a year, the Israelites would remain in camp and not set out; but when it lifted, they would set out (Numbers 9:17-22).

As much as you would like to settle down and establish a routine, sometimes it's not what God has in mind for you. It's important that you devote your energy not to resisting change but cooperating with it, keeping your eyes on Him and not trying to determine in your own understanding what's best for you.

As a person of purpose, you have to go where you're needed, which is the opposite of where you're comfortable or at ease. For example, if your purpose is to relieve pain, then God sends you to those who are hurting. Once they're healed, there's no reason for you to be around. If your purpose is order, he sends you to chaos and doesn't allow you to linger once you've established order.

Is the cloud moving you on? Is it sooner than you hoped or anticipated? Or does it have you someplace and you're ready to move on, but it's not? Regardless of which it is, if your heart is to follow the cloud, then God will make His guidance clear, even if you won't understand the rationale behind its movement—or lack thereof.

Purpose Study Bible 142: Term Limits

In Numbers 8, the Lord directed Moses' attention to the role and work of the Levites, the tribe that had no land inheritance but was rather to serve the things of the Lord in the tabernacle and the Lord would be their inheritance. At the end of the chapter, we read

The Lord said to Moses, “This applies to the Levites: Men twenty-five years old or more shall come to take part in the work at the tent of meeting, but at the age of fifty, they must retire from their regular service and work no longer. They may assist their brothers in performing their duties at the tent of meeting, but they themselves must not do the work. This, then, is how you are to assign the responsibilities of the Levites” (Numbers 8:23-26).

The "mandatory" retirement age for a Levite was 50. After that, they were to assist their younger brethren in the worship and religious work they were assigned. This has interesting implications for us as we express our purpose and creativity. Here are some thoughts:

1. Often as we get older, we don't think we have "lost a step," but sometimes we have. We are to avoid any problems in that area by willingly seeking and accepting roles that assist others rather than take on new and more responsibility.
2. The older Levites were to "make room" for the younger ones, helping them where necessary but not keeping them from their work by holding on to a position for an indefinite period of time.
3. The age of 50 is not a hard-and-fast rule, for the life span in Numbers 8 was probably less than it is today, but the principle holds true even now: Make room for fresh legs and ideas at some point in your career, work, or even family. Voluntarily move on rather than having to be removed by health challenges or by the governing entity where you serve. No one has a lifetime appointment to any role in God's Kingdom.
4. The time to do your work is now. That means you must make the most of every opportunity, realizing the clock is ticking and your days are numbered—even if you are a young 25 years of age.

Where are you delaying your effectiveness, assuming you have a lot of time left? Are you doing all you can do where your purpose and creative gifts are concerned? Where can you look to support someone younger in their God-assigned role? Are you holding on to your position, job, or title as if it is the last one on earth, something you cannot surrender or abandon unless you have no choice?

Fifty is not the magic number to step away from anything but the principle holds true: Walk away while you still have the option to do so and trust the Lord for someone to fill your shoes. Better yet, proactively train people to do so. The answer isn't to hold on to any assignment from God for too long, but to trust the Lord that He has other things for you to do, even if they aren't as prestigious as what you are leaving.

Purpose Study Bible 141: How He Speaks

Numbers 7 contains a long and tedious list of the offerings that the tribes brought to the tabernacle when it was erected and dedicated. At the very end of the chapter, we read

When Moses entered the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim above the atonement cover on the ark of the covenant law. In this way the Lord spoke to him (Numbers 7:89).

"This is the way He spoke to him" is the phrase we want to focus on, for God is a great communicator and He is able to talk to His people in various ways. This concept makes many people nervous because they believe it's too easy to miss His voice or that He just doesn't "speak" except through His word. However, He can speak through others, those who know Him or don't, through circumstances, through His word, and through the "still small voice" in someone's heart.

The point is that He individualizes His communication and it's important for you to identify over time how He has chosen to speak to you. Of course, what He imparts will never be contrary to biblical principles, yet there are daily life decisions on which He can communicate to you His will and wisdom. Do you believe God speaks to you? How does He choose to speak to you? Is it through your finances? Through Bible study? From the pulpit? From a certain life situation through which He reveals His lessons and wisdom? What do you do when you think you have heard from Him? Do you have faith or are you fearful and thus require Him to confirm His "word" to you again and again? If you want to find and fulfill your purpose, you will need to "hear" what God is showing you, having faith that He is willing and able to communicate with you just like He did to Moses.