Bible Journaling: Numbers 14

Numbers 14 is a rather tragic chapter in the lives of the Israelites. After the scouts had come back with their favourable report of the produce of Canaan, they completely discouraged the people by focusing on the physical bulk of the enemy. As a result, the people rebelled and refused to enter the land promised to them by God.  It is small wonder then that God's anger was aroused against them and Moses had to intercede with prayers for the nation. The result was that God would not allow the current generation to reap their promises, but they would have to dwell in the desert for forty years, waiting for the next generation to supplant them, so that THEY could enter into God's rest. When journaling this chapter, I focused on some of the verses that stood out to me, and simply finished off by adding a number of stickers dealing with prayer, as prayer was the key to saving the nation from total annihilation.

The chapter looks like this in the Inspire Praise Bible.

I treat the page (not the vellum one) with Dala Clear Acrylic Gesso.

Once dry, the pages look like this.

I use an Artline Marker to underline some of the key verses in the chapter.  The first of these is verses 15-16:

Now if you slaughter all these people with a single blow, the nations that have heard of your fame will say, ‘The Lord was not able to bring them into the land he swore to give them, so he killed them in the wilderness.’

I then underline verse 17-18a

“Please, Lord, prove that your power is as great as you have claimed. For you said, ‘The Lord is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. But he does not excuse the guilty.

I next underline verse 28, which teaches us that sometimes what we declare will come over us, although we should guard against finding some sort of spiritual rule in this single passage:

Now tell them this: ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very things I heard you say.

Verse 31 is quick to contradict the rule we were tempted to formulate from the previous verse mentioned:

“‘You said your children would be carried off as plunder. Well, I will bring them safely into the land, and they will enjoy what you have despised.

In verses 34-35 we read the following about the punishment God visited upon the Israelites:

“‘Because your men explored the land for forty days, you must wander in the wilderness for forty years—a year for each day, suffering the consequences of your sins. Then you will discover what it is like to have me for an enemy.’ I, the Lord, have spoken! I will certainly do these things to every member of the community who has conspired against me. They will be destroyed here in this wilderness, and here they will die!”

The next couple of verses tells us more about the people's reaction to God's verdict:

“Let’s go,” they said. “We realize that we have sinned, but now we are ready to enter the land the Lord has promised us.”
41 But Moses said, “Why are you now disobeying the Lord’s orders to return to the wilderness? It won’t work.
44 But the people defiantly pushed ahead toward the hill country, even though neither Moses nor the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant left the camp.

I then gather a selection of stickers a friend had given me.

I neatly cut these out and stuck them down in the margins of the page.

I then decided to go back and highlight the verses I had already underlined.

I used Mont Marte Dual Tip Adult Colouring Markers for the purpose of highlighting the verses.

The completed pages looked like this.

You can watch a short compilation video of the steps above on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/dxoKmbvOa84

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2005,2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois, 60188. All rights reserved.

Inspire PRAISE South Africa edition copyright 2017 by Christian Art Publishers, PO Box 1599, Vereeniging, 1930, RSA. All rights reserved.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
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