~ by Terry Walters
Numbers 14:1-24
When I was a junior in high school,
two friends of mine got into
a fight at lunchtime one day.
You had to fight across the
street to avoid school discipline!
It quickly became a one-sided pummeling!
Another bigger friend stepped in to break
it up and had to use a little force
to stop the beating! About that time,
a much older friend, known for fighting,
drove by and began to threaten the one
who had stopped the fight, because he
had close ties to the one being forced to stop.
On behalf of the peacemaker, I stepped up
to this older guy and talked him down.
I traded on my friendship with this
older guy and he backed away as
I had asked him to. That afternoon,
several friends said they couldn't
believe I did such a thing nor
that he had actually just drove away.
They felt I had taken a big chance on
behalf of the friend who was stopping the fight.
I really didn't think about the
possible consequences, I just knew he
needed someone to speak up on
his behalf, before he got hurt, too!
Moses spoke up to the Lord on
behalf of his people to ask the
Lord not to punish them for their actions.
God honored his request and forgave
the people. Jesus said in
his Sermon on the Mount,
“Blessed are the peacemakers for they
shall be called the sons of God.”
The very least we can do is pray
for people, but we may be able to do
even more than that. Look for
opportunities to step up on behalf of other people.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, we were helpless
and hopeless until Jesus stepped up
for us and took our place on Calvary.
Help us to be like Jesus
and step up on behalf of others.
Show us ways where we might be able to
lift their burden, help them along the way,
and most of all lead them to Jesus.
P.S. You never know what it might do
in the future when you do
something good for someone else.
In the Old Testament, Jacob’s sons
developed jealousy and even hatred for Joseph.
One day they plotted to kill him, but
the oldest of the sons, Reuben convinced
them to throw him into a deep pit instead.
He had to leave but intended to
come back later and rescue Joseph.
By the time he returned, the others had
sold Joseph to a group of travelers who
took him to Egypt and sold him into slavery!
Years later, God had blessed Joseph
and made him a ruler in Egypt
in charge of food during a famine. He was
able to save his entire family from starvation!
And from that family, we got Jesus.
Good thing Reuben spoke up on
behalf of his younger brother, huh?
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