Numbers 10: Share the Wealth

"If you come with us, whatever good the Lord does for us we will do for you."

Numbers 10:32

Moses says this to his brother-in-law (Hobab, a non-Israelite), who has been helping the Israelites during their time in the wilderness.  Hobab was going to return to his own family and their land, but Moses convinced him to join the Israelites in their quest for the holy land, promising him land of his own once they took their Promised Land.

The war to come is so vastly different from the wars we face today.  Here, we have a wandering society with no land to call home.  They follow the Lord into a war of conquest, in order to procure for themselves a land to call their own.  The Israelite people are so numerous that a great deal of land is needed.  The amount of land they've been promised is huge, and is to be shared among all the Israelites.  Appropriately, Moses decides to share the wealth with foreigners who help them as well.

Question of the Day:

Has there ever been a time where someone else helped you procure something you had been wanting or needing?  How did you repay them for their assistance?  Did you keep most or everything for yourself?  Did you share equally or proportionally with the helper?  Did you pay it forward in order to help someone else?

Prayer of the Day:

Teach me the appropriate ways to handle gifts that are given to me.  Show me when it's necessary to accept gifts graciously without return, when it's appropriate to share with the giver, and when it's best to pay it forward to the next person in need.  Help all of Your people understand these concepts so that we may better help each other as a community, and so that we may show the rest of the world around us what it truly means to be a part of Your community.  Amen.