Take this morning to listen to the story of Joshua as told by our friends from the BibleProject.

• Did anything in particular strike you in the transfer of leadership between Moses to Joshua?

Read Deuteronomy 32:1-9 & Deuteronomy 34

• What are the characteristics of the Lord that you read about here?

• What do you think it means that “the Lord’s portion is His people,” “His inheritance?”

When I think of the words portion & inheritance I think of the death of my grandmother. She loved me and left me something of hers that was special to her. When the Lord says that His people are His portion, it makes me feel beloved and valuable. All the more knowing that we are called His inheritance. Moses had explained this earlier to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 4:20.

• How does God demonstrate to Moses that He cares for Him and sees his pain of not crossing into the Promised Land?

Spend some time reflecting and perhaps journaling how it makes you feel to know that you are so prized by the Father.

Read Deuteronomy 31

Moses tells Joshua twice to be “strong and courageous” and tells him three to four times to not be afraid or terrified! That might terrify me!

• How does Moses act as a strong father to Joshua through this process?

• What fears do you think the people might have watching this transfer of leadership right before such a huge task for them (entering in and taking the Promised Land)?

• How does He show care for them in the song He has Moses write?

All of these strong words from the Lord and from Moses about the unfaithfulness of the people is said (it seems) in the hearing of Joshua. He would be their leader and they would be unfaithful.

• Think of a time when you have led someone well, only to have them turn away from how you instructed them. How did you feel?

Read Numbers 20 (remember Exodus 17)

The notes in my bible say that this may have been the start of the 40th year of their time in the desert. 40 years earlier, Moses was instructed to take his staff and bring water from a rock (Exodus 17) in response to the peoples grumbling. This would have been the children of those people and again they were grumbling. It always brings me to tears thinking of Moses leading the grumblers for 40 years, and in his anger, sinning in this way.

• What is the sobering warning here?

• Why do you think God judges Moses so strictly?

Spend a few minutes reflecting on areas in your own life where you may be allowing sin and rebellion to gain a foothold.

Read Exodus 32 – 33:6

Can you imagine being Moses – who held his arms up to part the Red Sea. Now surely God had parted the waters and dried up the ocean floor- but Moses was the “front man.” And then the people refer to him in 32:1 “as for this fellow Moses, who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” Therefore the logical plan was to make their own gods.

• What’s Aaron’s part in leading the people astray? What makes you sad in his response?

• It is sobering to think that 3000 people died that day. What part does their own sin play? And what part does Aaron’s leadership fail them? How is Moses’ leadership different?

• Who do you lead? Who are your followers? James warned us this spring that we are accountable for how we lead others. (James 3:1)

Spend some time just sitting with the Lord and asking the Holy Spirit to show you yourself. If someone had followed you all day yesterday, would they have been drawn closer to Jesus because of how you lived and walked? The Father wants to show us ourselves so that we can be more conformed into the image of His son.

Grace.

This morning, sit and ponder the great majesty of God. The picture of Him with fire and smoke, speaking out the commands with a loud trumpet.

I do not always picture God in His majesty, but I want to see Him in that more consistently so that I will truly realize that my faith can rest in Him, His character and His promises.

Read Exodus 19 – 20

The Lord tells Moses that the Israelites will be His treasured possession out of all the other nations if they follow Him. If you read the rest of the story, we learn that even though they do not follow well most of the time, He remains faithful.

• In 19:16-20, God gives the people a picture of himself. How does this compare with the picture that you carry in your mind of Him?

• Take a piece of paper and list out the ten commandments.

In Mark 12, Jesus says that the whole law is summed up in the two commands “love God” and “love your neighbor as yourself.” How do you see this worked out in the ten you just listed?