Day 32 – October 13, 2023: Numbers 1-5 and III John

This is arguably the most difficult section so far of what we have read. It is the beginning of the listing of names which God commanded Moses to number. But keep in mind that he only counted those who were of military age, which made sense because you needed to know who was going to be able to defend the people when war came, and was was bound to come. There were over 600,000 fighting age men which was not an insignificant number. I can’t help but think of the 360,000 who have been mobilized over these past few days in these hostilities that we see taking place over this past week. But it really isn’t much of a war, it will be more of a slaughter, a classic eye for eye and tooth for tooth. Jesus had a different way.

When we get to III John we see the words of It is Well repeated in vs.2. What does it mean when we say that it is well with our soul? I see it as a defiant statement that no matter what is surrounding us, no matter the difficulties and the trials and the tragedies that we may face, it is well with our soul because we know that Jesus will carry us through no matter what. That is an encouraging statement to me.