Devotions:
Ps 105; Num 17:1-11; Ro 5:1-11; Mt 20:17-28
Let us thank God and praise His glorious Name; let their hearts rejoice who seek YHWH. Seek Him and His strength continually. He Is YHWH our God; He is Judge over all creation. He keeps His covenants. He has chosen and set apart a people as His special treasure. He made provision for their survival during an extended famine, then delivered His people from Egyptian bondage by acts of power that defeated Egypt's gods and its Pharaoh. He led them forth with Egyptian treasure, having killed the firstborn of Egypt. He guided them through the wilderness, feeding them manna and quail and providing water for the people and their flocks and herds, and settled them in the good land he had promised to their forefather Abraham.
YHWH had Moses tell the Israelites, 'Get a rod from each tribe and write their names on each; put Aaron's name on the rod for the Levites. Place those rods inside the Tent of Meeting, where I meet with you. The rod of My chosen one will sprout, to quell the murmurs of the people against Me and against you' Moses did as God directed; and on the next day, Aaron's rod had sprouted and put forth flowers and ripe almonds—all overnight! Moses brought the rods out and showed the results to all the people. And God had Moses deposit Aaron's rod before God's ark in the tabernacle, as an ongoing sign for those who would rebel against God—so that God did not kill them. And Moses did all that YHWH commanded him.
Paul
wrote: Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus the Messiah. Through Him we have obtained
access to God's in which we stand; and we rejoice in our hope of
sharing in God's glory. More than all this, we rejoice even in
present sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
endurance develops character, and character produces hope. And hope
does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured out in our
hearts through the Holy Spirit Whom God has given to us. While we
were helpless, at the right time the Messiah died for the ungodly.
Consider: it's unusual that one would die even for someone who is
righteous—though that is not unheard of. But God demonstrates His
own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, the Messiah
died for us. Therefore, since we now are justified by His shed
blood, much more will we be saved by Him from God's righteous wrath.
If we were reconciled to God while we were His enemies, through the
death of His Son, much more now that we are reconciled, we will be
saved by His eternal life. We also rejoice in God through our Lord
Jesus the Messiah, through Whom we have received our reconciliation.
Jesus
was bound to Jerusalem. He took the twelve apostles aside and told
them, 'Look: we are going up to Jerusalem. And there, the Son of man
will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will
condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles to be mocked and
scourged and crucified. And He will be raised on the third day.
Then Zebedee's wife, the mother of James and John, brought her sons
before Jesus and knelt to make a request of Him. Jesus asked her,
'What do you want?' And she replied, 'Command that these two sons of
mine may sit at your right and left in Your kingdom.' Jesus
answered, 'You don't know what you're asking! Can you drink the cup
I Am about to drink?' They said, 'Yes, we are able.' And Jesus told
them, 'You will drink My cup; but to sit at My right and left is not
Mine to grant; it is an honor reserved for those to whom My Father
confers it.' When the other ten apostles heard of this interaction,
they were indignant toward James and John; but Jesus called them
together and told them all: 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles
lord it over them, and their greatest men exert authority over them.
Not so among you, however: whoever would be great among you must be
your servant; and whoever aspires to be first among you must
be slave to all—just as the Son of man came not to be served but to
serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.'
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