Prepare
Opening Prayer
Thank God for the day and the blessing of gathering to read his Word, and ask him to work his inspired Word in our hearts so we understand and believe.
Read
Scripture Passage
Canaanites Defeated at Hormah
21 The king of Arad, the Canaanite, who dwelt in the South, heard that Israel was coming on the road to Atharim. Then he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoners. 2 So Israel made a vow to the Lord, and said, “If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.” 3 And the Lord listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of that place was called Hormah.
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Nu 21:1–3.
A — About
What Is This Passage About?
The Canaanite king of Arad attacks Israel and takes prisoners. Israel vows to devote the enemy's cities entirely to the Lord if he gives victory; the Lord hears, delivers the Canaanites into Israel's hands, and the destroyed place is named Hormah.
B — Best Verse
A Verse That Summarizes the Passage
Numbers 21:3
Distilled from the devotional exposition; the speaker did not explicitly name a best verse.
Bryan does not ask or answer a best-verse question. Verse 3 is distilled because it states that the victory belonged to the Lord, the central point Bryan draws from the event.
C — Called or Christ
C — Christ Connection
Thank God for the peace, safety, and good things he gives, and remember that Jesus has won the decisive war against sin and death so believers may live forever through him.
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
All right. Well, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions is where every weekday morning you and I, we get together. We have a little bit of. Coffee, I don't think Ellie likes coffee, though. We have a little bit of coffee, we get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. Hold on, please. Hold on. Hold on. Yeah, it's hot.
We have a little bit of coffee, we get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. That's enough. And this year, 2024, we'll make it through the books of Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Hebrews. Let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's Word. Coffee fiend.
Okay, let's pray father. We thank you so much for this day We thank you for what a blessing it is to get to come together and to read your word. Please help us please Take this word your inspired word And please work it in our hearts that we would understand and believe in Jesus's name. Amen. Okay about we have numbers chapter 21 Verses 1 through 3 you ready?
The king of Arad, the Canaanite, who dwelt in the south, heard that Israel was coming on the road to Atharim. Then he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoner. So Israel made a vow to Jehovah and said, If you will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities. And Yahweh listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of that place was called Hormah. Yeah, Hormah. Horma, what do you think Horma stands for? Horma means destruction Yeah, so Horma means destruction so so why do you think they named the place destruction?
That's right, they destructed the people in their place right? Why did they destruct the people in their place? Well, they came up to the city. And what did the king of the city do? Did he say, Oh, good. I'm so glad you guys came. This is wonderful. Nope. What did he do? He fought against Israel and took some of them. What did he do? He took some of them and destroyed them. Well, he didn't destroy them. He took them prisoners.
He's gonna like make them slaves Or he's gonna do treat them very badly And so so the people said God God, please. No, don't do this We promise if you let us go to them, we will destroy them completely. We won't take their money. We won't take their land We won't take their clothes. We won't take their fields. We won't we won't take their houses We'll just will devote it all to you and the Lord says Okay, okay And they're allowed to do it Wow. Because the Lord is going to save his people. Whose victory is it? Is it the people's or is it God's? God's. God's, that's right. It's God's. So what do you think if you left here and Mommy said, what did you learn in Daddy's office? What would you tell her you learned about? People destroying people, but she would say yuck. She would say yuck. It's not a very pretty picture, is it?
Do you wish you lived at this time? You wish you lived back then when people would destroy each other? I wish when I'd be living right now. Oh, you like, I like living right now, too, because we don't have a lot of war in our land. Yeah. So, we're living right here and people are warring. People are warring in other places in the world. That's right.
In places like Ukraine or in Gaza. So, sometimes when we're sleeping, Now they're going to barge into our house and break our food? Well, I don't think they're going to barge into our house and take our food, because we live in a pretty peace-filled land right now where we live. And we live at the very center of that land, too, so it'd be pretty hard for the enemies to come to us.
But it's possible. Do you think we can thank God for the peace that we have? Well, I hope there's no Giants coming to steal us. But can we thank God for keeping us safe? Yes. Can we thank God for peace? Yes. Can we do that now? Yes. Okay. Daddy? Yes?
I would always think that Giants would barge into our house and then I would always think that a hand would come down and I would go in with him and it would be the God. Well a giant's not gonna come down with a hand and pick you up out of the house.
So let's pray And you thought it would be God No, I don't think so, let's pray God we thank you so much For your protection of us, we thank you for the safety that we enjoy. Lord, we thank you that you are so kind to us. And Father, we pray that you would please help us, Lord, to enjoy the good things that you have given and to be thankful for the safety that we have.
Most of all, we thank you that the war against sin is over. That Jesus Defeated sin and death and we can have a life forever because of him in Jesus's name Amen Can you say goodbye Bye Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week.
If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.