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March 8, 2021

Deeper into the Wilderness

Daniel Lyvers   |   Read Numbers 21:4-5

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Lectionary Week
March 8–14, 2021
Scripture Overview

Sometimes we get ourselves into trouble by our words and actions. It’s okay to admit it. It happens to all of us. The Israelites experienced this when their constant grumbling provoked God’s wrath in Numbers 21. Yet even in this story, God provides the means of salvation. The psalmist echoes the refrain that when we put ourselves in bad positions, we may cry out to the Lord for deliverance. We read in Ephesians that all of us were living in disobedience to God, but God has done all the work of reconciliation by grace given through Christ Jesus. John ties all this together, gesturing to the story in Numbers 21 to teach us that Christ is the means of restoration and salvation for all who believe in him.

Questions and Suggestions for Reflection

Read Numbers 21:4-9. When do you complain to God? Does your complaining ever interfere with your sense of God’s presence with you?
Read Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22. What practice helps you to thank God each day for God’s steadfast love?
Read Ephesians 2:1-10. How does your sense of God’s salvation and grace move you to do good works?
Read John 3:14-21. How do you act as a creature of light in the world? What are your “deeds that have been done in God”?

Respond by posting a prayer .

Numbers 21:4-5

4 They marched from Mount Hor on the Reed Sea road around the land of Edom. The people became impatient on the road. 5 The people spoke against God and Moses: “Why did you bring us up from Egypt to kill us in the desert, where there is no food or water. And we detest this miserable bread!”

Unless otherwise indicated, scripture quotations are from the Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible. Used by permission.

We are three weeks into the season of Lent, three weeks deeper into following Jesus into the wilderness. The deeper we get into the wilderness and the closer we get to the Cross, the harder the journey becomes. Impatience, fear, and exhaustion are temptations that are calling on us. The...

God, hear my complaints and help me to let them go so that I can open my heart to all that will sustain me in the wilderness. Amen.


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