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The Hillsdale Free Methodist Church is located at 150 Union Street in Hillsdale, Michigan. We are a church dedicated to sharing the good news of what Jesus has done.

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Service Orientation: God loves and disciplines us because our actions affect more than just us. Who we are, what we do and do not do affects everyone around us. For our own good and the good of the world, we must love as Jesus loves.



Bible Memory Verse for the Week: Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. — 1 John 2:15-16



Background Information:

(v. 37) He blames the Israelites that he is unable to enter the Promised Land with Caleb and Joshua. The statement is remarkable on several counts. (1) Far from associating Moses with the rebellion of the people, in the narratives of Numbers 13-14 Yahweh offered to start over with Moses and to have his descendants replace Israel as his covenant people (Nm 14:12). (2) The reasons given for God’s refusing Moses entrance into the Promised Land in the earlier narratives relate to an entirely different incident–his failure to treat Yahweh as holy by striking the rock rather than speaking to it at Meribah (Nm 20:2-13; cf. Dt 32:48-52). With this act of faithlessness, Moses personally disqualified himself from achieving the prize. How then could he blame the Israelites for his failure to enter the land? The answer is actually simple. If the Israelites had trusted Yahweh at Kadesh Barnea and entered the land at his command, the event recorded in Numbers 20 would never have occurred. However, since the people’s faithlessness precipitated a series of unfortunate events, including Meribah, in a sense Moses was right. However, as we will learn from Dt 3:23-26, Yahweh will not listen to such arguments. (Daniel I. Block, The NIV Application Commentary: Dt, 73-4)

(v. 39) The parents had used their children as an excuse to rebel against the Lord’s command. It is ironic that the little ones, who were weak, would be able to conquer and possess the land, while those who were strong would not. (John C. Maxwell, The Preacher’s Commentary, Dt, 50-1)
(v. 39) The fear that the people’s children will become a prey in the wilderness is expressed in Nm 14:3 and in Nm 14:31, where Yahweh says what he says here, that they are the ones who will be brought in. (Jack R. Lundbom, Deuteronomy, A Commentary, 182)
(v. 40) In verse 40 Yahweh called for a literal and figurative turning point in Israel’s history. He commanded the people to retrace their steps back to the desert and set their sights on the Red Sea. In one stroke the exodus was annulled and the nation’s history reversed. Those whom Yahweh had brought out of Egypt were rejected as heirs of the promise to the fathers. (Daniel I. Block, The NIV Application Commentary: Dt, 74)


The question to be answered is . . . Why does God direct Moses to include these 4 seemingly irrelevant verses?



Answer: I believe God is wanting us to realize the more we love something, the more influence it has on us. Be careful what you love.





The current of society always moves in the direction of conformity. (Andy Stanley; Visioneering; 210)



The Word for the Day is . . . Influence