“Thus, did the people of Israel. They did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses.”
– Numbers 1:54
It’s kind of an ironic conclusion to the first chapter of the book of Numbers, to hear about the people of God doing all that God commanded them to do, because of the rest of this book will go down in the history of God’s people as a story of how God’s people disobey his word. They didn’t do all that God commanded them. We get to Numbers chapters 13 and 14 and God’s people turn back from going into the Promised Land at Kadish Varnea, that is a mark in the history of God’s people that the rest of the Bible will look back to and say, “Remember what they did? How they didn’t trust God’s word? That they didn’t do what he commanded him to do, and they missed out on life?”
It should be our prayer that God will help us not to live according to our ways but to obey all that He has commanded.
This Verse Thanks God for His Perfect Plan
I am compelled, when I read this, at the very beginning of Numbers 1:54 to pray that God would cause that to the story of my life, of your life. That we did, indeed do all that God commanded us to do. It’s interesting, after reading this, this morning, I was over breakfast. We were walking through reading to our kids the biography of C.T. Studd. He’s one of my favorite people in history. Just used mightily by God and all kinds of different places around the world. He gets to the end of his life and he’s writing in his last journal entry and he’s saying, “God, I have sought to do all that you had led me to do. That you had told me to do.” Oh, and I want that to be the story of my life.
Numbers 1:54 Calls Us to Trust in God’s Word
I trust you want that to be the story of your life, and so we pray, today, God help us to do all that you command us to do. All day, today, not just in the future, but in all that we have going on right before us. God in the little things, and the big things help us, help us, help us, we pray. To obey your word. To do all that you command us to do. Not to live according to our ways, our thoughts, what we think is best.
God, help us to live today, according to what you have said is best in your word. Help us to meditate on your word and obey it. Help us not just to hear it, help us to do it, help us to walk in step with your spirit in obedience to your word today, so that the story of our lives tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and how ever many years you give us might be that we, indeed, did all that you commanded us to do.
God, make it so in our lives and our families and our churches, help us, help us, we pray to obey your word. To do all that you command us to do. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
