March 18 - John Begins Preaching

Moses gets some disturbing news today from the Lord. He's to "Climb one of the mountains east of the river, and look out over the land I have given the people of Israel. After you have seen it, you will die like your brother, Aaron, for you both rebelled against my instructions in the wilderness of Zin. When the people of Israel rebelled, you failed to demonstrate my holiness to them at the waters." Moses asks the Lord to appoint a new leader so the people wouldn't be like sheep without a shepherd. The Lord grants his request and tells him to take Joshua son of nun, and present him to Eleazar the priest before the whole community and publicly commission him to lead the people. God then tells Moses "Give these instructions to the people of Israel:" and then goes into specifics on offerings. I'm not sure how anyone could focus on anything else back in those days but Gods commands....there were about a million of them for different offerings and if you messed up it would be a very bad day. Thank Jesus for his sacrifice on the cross. The ultimate lamb for our sins because I have trouble remembering what goes for what right when I read it. Imagine if I had to perform a sacrifice for a sin....I would purchase so much life insurance Boo, Pnut and Little Bit would be set for life!

In Luke today it was the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, the Roman emperor. Pontius Pilate was governor over Judea: Herod was ruler over Galilee. This is when John received a message from God and left the wilderness to preach that people should be baptized to show that they had turned to God to receive forgiveness for their sins. Everyone was expecting the Messiah to come soon and were wondering if John was the Messiah. "I baptize you with water; but someone is coming soon who is greater than I am-so much greater that I'm not even worthy to be his slave and untie the straps of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."

One day the crowds were being baptized by John and Jesus himself came to be baptized. As he was praying the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove. A voice from heaven said, "You are my dearly loved son and you bring me great joy."