No Collateral Damage

[S] Numbers 31:3,48-52; Mark 9:22-23 --

³Moses spoke to the people, saying, "Arm men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian to execute the LORD'S vengeance on Midian.
⁴⁸Then the officers who were over the thousands of the army, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, approached Moses,
⁴⁹and they said to Moses, "Your servants have taken a census of men of war who are in our charge, and no man of us is missing.
⁵⁰"So we have brought as an offering to the LORD what each man found, articles of gold, armlets and bracelets, signet rings, earrings and necklaces, to make atonement for ourselves before the LORD."
⁵¹Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from them, all kinds of wrought articles.
⁵²All the gold of the offering which they offered up to the LORD, from the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, was 16,750 shekels.

²²"It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!"
²³And Jesus said to him, " 'If You can?' All things are possible to him who believes."

[O] What a successful victory! After the leaders of the army reviewed the damage report they were thankful for not losing any soldiers during the war. Perhaps they did this as part of the military discipline but nevertheless it displays their care for their men. And since God was fighting in behalf of them, no one was missing (i.e., hurt). These officers and captains knew that such a war can cause a lot of damage including the lives of their men and so when they found the good report of no one missing, they gave credit to the Warrior who went ahead of them to fight this battle for them because from verse 3 we can see that Moses made it clear whose battle this belonged to. So many times I'm too focused on the task at hand in doing ministry for God I lose focus of whose ministry I'm taking part in and when things are moving along "successfully" my desire is to grab all the attention and credit instead of doing what the leaders of this army did by giving credit to God through their offerings. In light of this realization, there were thanksgiving, unity (everyone gave), and sacrifice. How am I doing in these fronts, I wonder....

[Sidebar] Mark 9:22-23 is not really related to the Numbers portion but this section gives me the goose bumps every time I read it because that "If you can?" is quite piercing to me. In New Living Translation (NLT) it says, "What do you mean, 'If I can?'" I can just imagine the facial expression of Jesus saying this. In today's lingo it'd be something like, "Hey Dude! What d'you mean I can?" This is piercing to me because I say to Jesus "If you can ..." everyday. I have too many doubts in His power and strength playing out in the routines of my life.

[A] Remember at all times, we've embarked on the small group ministry at our church by God's commission and therefore I must recognize that He is in full control and fights ahead of us even the spiritual warfare we face. As I take my own "census" I also should be thankful for His provisioning power and the unity of the leaders, and then offer my sacrifices to Him because He deserves them all.

[P] Dear God, so thankful for going ahead of my life, my family members' lives, and our ministry because if You didn't do that, everything would fall on our own power and efforts which I know to be short-sighted, short-lived, and full of holes. Please continue to abide in the midst of us even though we come short so many times. In Jesus' name. Amen.