the Fourth Week after Easter
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!
Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 1 of 5
Numbers 1:38-54
All the children of Israel registered in this chapter had crossed the Red Sea the previous year. They had been "baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea"; they had shared in all the privileges pertaining to the people of the LORD: the manna, the water out of the rock (1 Corinthians 10:2 . . .). But out of the six hundred odd thousand mentioned in v. 46, how many were to reach the promised land? Only two, in whom God could take pleasure because they had faith (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:5 and Hebrews 11:6). Amongst the multitudes of those who today bear the name of Christians only the Lord knows how many souls truly belong to Him (2 Timothy 2:19). Let us re-iterate, it is not baptism but faith in Jesus Christ which makes us members of the people of God.
The sons of Levi were not numbered amongst the men of war (v. 47). Strength and power do not enter into reckoning for the Lord’s service. Notice however that the believer is today enrolled at the same time both among the soldiers and among the servants of the Sanctuary. He must be fitted like Timothy to "fight the good fight of faith" (1 Timothy 6:12) and at the same time, like the young Archippus, he must take heed to the ministry which he has received in the Lord (Colossians 4:17).
