We’ve made it to the end of Numbers. What did we learn? It started with a census, a numbering of the people. It dealt with the dividing of the land and their rebellion against God’s good and perfect plans for them.

It ends with Moses and a leader of the tribe of Manasseh deciding that women who have received an inheritance of land, a very forward-thinking idea, should marry within their tribe so that a husband from another tribe couldn’t marry them and then take the land for their own tribe’s inheritance.

They had bigger problems to worry about. God could have worked out the inheritance land issue. It didn’t matter in the end anyway. They were all going to lose their land inheritance because of their sin. They were worried about the wrong things. They were worried about holding onto their earthly possession instead of worrying about holding onto their rich spiritual possession as children of God.

How much time, thought, effort, do we put into getting and holding onto earthly possessions?

Why do you work? Is it because God sends you to your job each day, or is it just because you have to earn a living in order to provide for your family? Those men might be both going to the same job but only one has God as his family’s provider.

Why do you save? Is it because you are waiting on God to show you how to use the money, maybe even give it all away? Or do you save because you want to make sure you have enough for yourself and your family? Those bank accounts might look exactly the same, but only one is safe from the moth that destroys and the thief that steals.

Do you ever try to get the best for your child? Best position, best education, best toys or clothes? Is it because you are honoring God and caring for what He gave you and are acknowledging Him as you make those decisions, or is it because you value your children over others and selfishly want them to seem better than others so that people will look up to them and to you?

Do you ever train your children up in Bible lessons and good manners and proper dress and good works? Do you do it because you have given your children over to God and are seeking His ways for them each day? Or are you doing it because you want the appearance of godly children? Or are you hoping to control their life outcome, aka playing God?

What are you trying to hold onto that you should let go of? Jesus told Mary to not cling to Him because He hadn’t ascended yet. He’s ascended now. Cling to Him! Hold fast! You can’t do it unless you take everything else out of your hands.