READING:
One-year plan: Numbers 3-4, Mark 6:1-29
Two-year plan: Exodus 12:43-14:14, Matthew 19:16-30
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I don’t know the origin of my last name. I would like to think someone emphasized grace and thus used the name “Lawless,” but I seriously doubt that’s the case. I suspect somebody in my past lived a sordid life that earned him the name (though either way, “Lawless” is a cool name for a preacher—one that evoked much conversation over the years).
I thought about that fact when I read the Old Testament passage for today. Numbers 3 begins with the simple phrase, “These are the family records of Aaron and Moses at the time the Lord spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai” (Num 3:1). What seems then to be simply a genealogy of names also includes one line that strongly speaks about sin in that line: “But Nadab and Abihu died in the Lord’s presence when they presented unauthorized fire before the Lord in the Wilderness of Sinai, and they had no sons” (Num 3:4). Two of Aaron’s sons are thus remembered not for their good, but for their failure to obey God.
I am grateful to be one of the first believers in my immediate family, but I also know this: it takes only one bad choice to change my entry in the family story.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: What role model are you playing for your family?
PRAYER: “God, I need Your grace to follow You to the end.”
TOMORROW’S READINGS:
One-year plan: Numbers 5-6, Mark 6:30-56
Two-year plan: Exodus 14:15-15:27, Matthew 20:1-16
