Latest / Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan / June 5, 2026 - Numbers 17 & Psalm 119:33-40

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June 5, 2026 - Numbers 17 & Psalm 119:33-40 · Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's word lighting the way.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Josiah Smith joined by Tyler Sanborn.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Today is Friday, June 5th, 2026.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Listen intently to God's written word.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Number 17.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the people of Israel, and get from them staffs, one for each father's house, from all their chiefs according to their father's houses, twelve staffs.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Write each man's name on his staff, and write Aaron's name on the staff of Levi.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: For there shall be one staff for the head of each father's house.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Then you shall deposit them in the tent of meeting before the testimony where I meet with you, and the staff of the man whom I choose shall sprout.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Thus I will make to cease from me the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against you.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Moses spoke to the people of Israel, and all their chiefs gave him staffs, one for each chief according to their father's houses, twelve staffs, and the staff of Aaron was among their staffs, and Moses deposited the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the testimony.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: On the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony, and behold, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted, and put forth buds, and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Then Moses brought out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the people of Israel, and they looked, and each man took his staff.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said to Moses, Put back the staff of Aaron before the testimony, to be kept as a sign for the rebels, that you may make an end of their grumblings against me, lest they die.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Thus did Moses, as the Lord commanded him, so he did.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And the people of Israel said to Moses, Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the Lord shall die.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Are we all to perish?
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: Psalm one nineteen, verses thirty-three through forty.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I will keep it to the end.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: Give me understanding that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things, and give me life in your ways.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Confirm to your servant your promise, that you may be feared.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: Turn away the reproach, reproach that I dread, for your rules are good.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: Behold, I long for your precepts, in your righteousness, give me life.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Number seventeen is a divine settling of the dispute that had been boiling over the surface at Israel and of course Korah and the rebellion we've just read about in numbers 16.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And number 17, God has the final word, and uh he comes up with this um sort of test to uh signify in a miraculous way who it is that was to be the priest.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: And you guessed it, it was Aaron the whole time.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: So God just reiterated, reaffirmed what he had already affirmed, and expected once again for the people of Israel to listen and to obey.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: And even this staff of Aaron's that budded and blossomed was to be put in the in the testimony before the testimony, thinking of the Ark of the Covenant, to be kept as a sign for the rebels that you may make an end of their grumblings against me lest they die.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: So there this is a serious warning, and it is again God sort of putting his stamp of approval on Aaron and on Aaron's house.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: They would continue to be uh the priests that would serve in uh the service of the tabernacle.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: And even the fact that uh God did this, of course, uh a staff is a piece of dead wood, it's not um on the ground any longer.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, it's not a tree, it's it's a it's a carved piece of wood, uh, so it has no life in it, and yet there was life brought out of it, out of something that was lifeless.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: God produced a blossom, uh, and it says almonds, and uh there was a sprout that came forth, and and this was again God's testimony to the people of Israel that they were to listen and obey and quit their grumbling.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh God intervenes on behalf of Moses and Aaron and lets the whole camp know.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Cut it out.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron is uh the the priest, uh, his line, his sons will continue to be the priests.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh this is a sign to you, and we're gonna, in fact, we're gonna keep it uh with the some other items in in and around the Ark of the Covenant so that you remember and that you quit your grumbling.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: You do what God says and uh you listen to him.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: So really it's it's an interesting chapter, um, but helpful if you're Aaron, where you don't have to defend yourself or right, justify your position.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: God does it for him, and uh that's a good thing for him.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's a good thing for Israel, and the expectation is for them to obey.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: And the things that are placed in the in the ark of the covenant, Aaron's staff, manna, uh the tablets of stone that God wrote on, these are all things that uh God wanted his people to remember.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh keep uh keep my leadership, keep my provision, keep my laws in your mind.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: And as we look to the Psalms, we'll continue to do that today as we look at Psalm 19, uh 119.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: And uh PJ, I have a question for you.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: What do you do with things that have no worth?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: Throw them away, cast them away from you.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you put them in your trash can or uh in your dumpster, and you roll out your dumpster and and the trash truck cruise by, uh cruises by, and my son will ooh and awe at the trash truck, and then off away the rubbish goes, the worthless things, and that's what the psalmist is calling for the Lord to help him do.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: Turn my eyes in verse 37.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things, and give me life in your ways, which is of infinite worth.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: The the God who gives his own heart and his own um his own guidance to his people, that is the way, that is the best way, and there is no better way for us to go.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: Nowhere else we can look for greater value or worth than the ways and the rules of God.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, and again, the psalmist is calling out, I need help in this.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: Teach me, show me, give me, lead me, incline my heart to your testimonies.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a great reminder for me today.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, again, as we are going day by day through Psalm 119 for almost four weeks, we're just at the beginning, but I'm I'm really enjoying this time of just remembering, pausing, stopping, thinking, and it's just reminding myself of my dependence to even ask God to help me to do the things that He has called me to do.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, verse 36 really jumped off the page to me this morning where it says, Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to selfish gain.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: I thought that was a curious way to put that, Tyler.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: I was wondering what's the contrast here?
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Incline my heart to your testimonies, to what you have said, God, and not to selfish gain.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, Well, what's being compared, what's being contrasted?
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: And really one of the things that I kind of came to understand was the need for humility that uh this verse is kind of pointing us to, that God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: And there's even a sense in which when we incline our hearts to the testimonies of God, we recognize that God has created all things for his glory, uh, for his worship.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: We are created to worship him, to glorify him, to serve him.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think if we are inclining our hearts to his testimonies, to what he has said about himself and his word, uh then we're gonna seek to live lives that glorify God and not to live lives for selfish gain, where we're trying to uh magnify our own name or trying to um, you know, increase our own glory.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so it says, incline my heart to your testimonies, God, to the way that you've spoken about yourself, the way that we can glorify you and not to selfish gain.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think even right after that, that's what you were just talking about, Tyler.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things and give me life in your ways.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the the phrase give me life uh is repeated a few times in this short section in verse 37, give me life in your ways, and ends there in verse 40.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Behold, I love I long for your precepts in your righteousness, give me life.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's this sort of language in these eight verses of a path, of a way, of life, um, that we are to to keep and to observe and to walk, lead me in the path of your commandments, it says in verse uh 35.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: I want to live, give me life in your ways, verse uh 37.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we we are wanting to walk a path, pursue a way, uh, keep statutes, precepts, be obedient.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: And again, just what a juxtaposition that Psalm 119 is to what we're seeing in Numbers, where God is having to uh to do this uh miraculous display of divine confirmation, uh, seemingly just to get the nation of Israel to obey.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they're sort of demanding signs from from the Lord.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: He's he's already told them how things are to be structured, who are to be the priests, they don't like it, they're grumbling, they're complaining, um, rather than what we're seeing here in Psalm 119.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Help us to keep your statutes, Lord, the way of your statutes.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Give me understanding that I may keep your law, lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to selfish gain.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Even there in verse 36, uh, the people of Israel, especially Korah and those 250 men that were with him, uh, they they were inclining their hearts to selfish gain and not to the testimonies of God.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, they wanted things to be how they wanted it.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: They uh, you know, I don't know if they were trying to take over the priesthood, or maybe they just wanted everyone to have the same status and the same roles and the same responsibilities, or maybe even the same sort of access uh to God.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: The text doesn't explicitly say, but nevertheless, they wanted something selfishly that God was not giving to them, and they were discontent.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, they were not inclining their hearts to God's testimonies, what God had spoken and revealed through his servant Moses.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: They were given over to selfish gain, and ultimately it was their destruction uh that uh was the result.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so that that reminds me of Proverbs where it says that there's a way that seems right to a man, but its end is destruction.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we see that in numbers.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I think what a what a safeguard for us, uh just a reminder for the need uh of humility that we need to incline our hearts to God's testimonies, to what he has revealed, to what he has commanded, not to selfish gain.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: I love even the phrase again of turn my eyes, help me to look away from worthless things, give me life in the ways of the Lord.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's just that repeated refrain of give me life, give me life, help me to obey, turn away the reproach that I dread, for your rules are good, it says.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: And that's something that we need to believe.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: We need to believe that God's rules are good and right and true and excellent.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that requires faith, that requires trust, of course, in God and his promises, and in walking in the way that God has established before us, there is life and there's uh delighting, there's flourishing that we see these kind of affective words in Psalm 119.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: So just a great, a great psalm uh to really focus on today.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, another theme that I was chewing on as I'm reading the psalm today is the the patterns of God's humbling, the the means and the ways that he corrects and and humbles his people before him when they are are standing proud before his authority, before his leadership, uh his decisions for his people.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: And we can look back and see the ways, the the grumbling, the complaining, the rebellions.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: And as we look forward to the uh the path that Israel will walk, there's more correction, more humbling.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we could look even further forward to the humbling of exile.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh in further on in the uh the Old Testament, and the prophets calling the people of Israel to turn back.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: There's always this pattern of if you're out of line, one day you will be in line and God will accomplish his purposes.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh ultimately, one day, everyone will be humbled.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that that Jesus is Lord.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: And we kind of I have that that phrase in my mind, that that scripture that's that's leading me to look at the hearts of the people of Israel and assess my own at the same time.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: So this is a great encouragement for me.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: And we'll see that God is continuing reproving, correcting, uh, and training those who he loves, those who are his, and uh, and he doesn't shy away from disciplining uh for the sake of his holiness.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: He certainly does not.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: And really, the call uh for Israel, the call for us today through God's word is to obey and uh to have this sort of cry of our hearts that we're seeing here.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Teach me, Lord, give me understanding, lead me in the path, incline my heart, turn my eyes, confirm your promise, turn away the reproach that we dread, all of these things.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Again, just a great list uh of things to pray through today as we seek to obey what God has said and to delight in what God has uh commanded.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you so much for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass bible sv.org.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Keep reading, keep growing.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path, and you can see the