When You're Grumbling Against God, Who's Your Moses?

Numbers 14:1-19 Israel Rebels and Moses Intercedes Again

Day 59. I can’t believe it – 8 weeks and three days of “please stay at home”. Protests grow in number. As do lawsuits. The people and democracy seem to be gaining momentum but as always, there’s a cost. I’ve been called some pretty bad things; others have lost their job. Still others don’t know what to think and millions don’t know what to believe. But hey, we were told this would happen. Of course, everything is not a “knowing conspiracy” but may I remind folks that there are two levels of conspiracy for the Christian: first, the intentional conspiracy of people (think of what has happened to General Flynn that came to light this week); second, I believe there is an evil, Satanically driven conspiracy against God in such a way that even blinds the Devil’s stooges from knowing they’re part of it and certainly fools Christian from seeing it. And this latter kind, takes its sweet, long time, trying time and again, to make any progress it can. But we know the Truth and are freed by Him, press on – praying for the world, its leaders, our country, city, church, family, and ourselves. And we continue studying the Word. Thanks to so many of you joining us regularly in this endeavor.

The Passage

14 Then all the congregation ^[a]lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept ^[b]that night. ² All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! ³ Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” ⁴ So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”

⁵ Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in the presence of all the assembly of the congregation of the sons of Israel. ⁶ Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes; ⁷ and they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, “The land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. ⁸ If the Lord is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us—a land which flows with milk and honey. ⁹ Only do not rebel against the Lord; and do not fear the people of the land, for they will be our ^[c]prey. Their ^[d]protection has been removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” ¹⁰ But all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Then the glory of the Lord appeared in the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel.

¹¹ The Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst? ¹² I will smite them with ^[e]pestilence and dispossess them, and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they.”

¹³ But Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your strength You brought up this people from their midst, ¹⁴ and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, O Lord, are in the midst of this people, for You, O Lord, are seen eye to eye, while Your cloud stands over them; and You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵ Now if You slay this people as one man, then the nations who have heard of Your fame will ^[f]say, ¹⁶ ‘Because the Lord could not bring this people into the land which He promised them by oath, therefore He slaughtered them in the wilderness.’ ¹⁷ But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have ^[g]declared, ¹⁸ ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children ^[h]to the third and the fourth generations.’ ¹⁹ Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”

Footnotes

1. Numbers 14:1 Lit lifted and gave their voice
2. Numbers 14:1 Lit in that
3. Numbers 14:9 Lit food
4. Numbers 14:9 Lit shadow
5. Numbers 14:12 Lit the pestilence
6. Numbers 14:15 Lit speak, saying
7. Numbers 14:17 Lit spoken, saying
8. Numbers 14:18 Lit on

Thoughts on the Passage

Numbers chapter 14 is a very critical chapter. It is the turning point for Israel. Up to this point, they followed Moses, did some grumbling, but for the most part, they toed the line. Now they become more adamant in their complaining, starting to demand how things should be done. Their story has reached a turning point. In our next study, we’ll hit the actual “most key verses” of the book from God’s perspective. But there’s a lot of meat in these first 19 verses of the chapter.

The previous passage ends with almost all the spies that had gone into the promised land shouting down Caleb who believed that God would allow the Israelites to conquer the inhabitants of the land. And this chapter starts off, we note, with “all the congregation” yelling and crying during the night. How miserable they must have all felt. We’re not talking about some, but “all”. They’d come all this way and now the majority word is there’s no way they can attain the promise of God for a new homeland. What a disappointment that must have been. So, what did they do? They grumbled some more against Moses and Aaron.

David Guzik says this about being angry with God which reflects my own personal position:

“Some counsel it is a healthy thing to be angry with God, and to let it all out, so that God and you can be reconciled, as sort of a matter of counseling therapy. While it is true that one may be angry with God, and should take every such feeling to God, it is wrong to ever assume or imply that such feelings are justified. If we are angry at God, we are in sin, because God has never done anything that deserves us being angry. We should honestly bring such sin before God, but never for a moment feeling it to be justified.”

But what they said is interesting. They preferred to have died in Egypt, and if not there, at least from Egypt to this point in the wilderness. They wanted to know why God was taking them to the promised land so they would die in battle. Well, at least they realized that it was God in control and not Moses or Aaron. They didn’t want their spouses and children raped, etc. So, they wanted to go back to Egypt. They wanted to go back to slavery if need be. And since Moses wasn’t about to do that, then they needed to appoint a new leader. So, you’ve got the picture – angry people afraid of dying if they move forward, willing to go back to slavery, and demanding a new leader to take them back. Robert Jamieson tells us that later on in the Bible, in Nehemiah 9:17, we read that they actually went as far as to appoint such a leader that would lead them on their return to their slavery in Egypt. Don’t you think that would have upset God? I mean they were rejecting His appointment of Moses. 

In response to all this, we now have Moses and Aaron falling on their faces before the people; and Caleb (the spy who said they could take the land), and Joshua (who sided with him) tearing their clothes. They all spoke to the people about the “exceedingly good land”.

But notice what they say: “If the Lord is pleased with us, then He will bring us to this land and give it to us.” Basically, folks, you can’t behave like this and expect the results you want. Keep rebelling, keep fearing the people of that land, and you’ll never get there. Right now, folks, you’re not pleasing the Lord. And not only that, we know that God has rendered our enemies powerless and “He is with us.” Now, can we move forward?

Their reply: “No. I don’t think so. Instead, Moses, Aaron, Caleb, and Joshua we all want to stone you.” As one of my daughter’s often says to her children when they can’t understand the reaction of some people to something that happened in their lives, “Sometimes it be like that.” In this case, these four were trying to suggest to the Israelites that they needed to see the error of their way, that they had or were losing their belief in God, and they needed to have faith, and they wanted to do in exchange was to stone them all. Nice. And they would have except, or but, for one thing: The “glory of the Lord appeared in the tent to all of them.” (verse 10) How to stop a fight between siblings the  – just let the parent show up in their full authority.

Now God speaks directly to Moses with a question and a heads up. He knows the people are past listening to Him. “How long will these people reject or repulse me given all I have done for them?” was the question and then His statement: “I will smite with plagues and disinherit them; but you, I will make into a nation larger and stronger than them.” It appears God was distinguishing between those Israelites that left Egypt with Moses and spurned Him, with others like Moses who were faithful. Yet they were all His people. Makes me think about how God is viewing different groups of “His people” today. There certainly is a precedent for Him to be ticked up with some of us.

This special offer to Moses, that he would be the one through whom God would bless His people, was one great offer to Moses. It was not unlike the one he had received in Exodus 32:7-10. [Check it out.] Moses had turned that offer down choosing instead to plead on behalf of his people. And God listened then. Would Moses behave in a similar fashion this time; and would accept his pleading if he did?

With respect to God not speaking directly to the Israelites at this point, David Guzik points out that sometimes Christians who have disobeyed God wonder why He doesn’t speak to them. They seem to forget it is they that have already rejected God and His directions.

Now Moses appeals to God by first telling Him all that He was currently doing for them; and then asking whether it would be good for the Egyptians to hear of the fact that He had slain His own people. Moses told God that if that happened, they would think it was because of God’s inability to deliver what He had promised – taking them to the land of Canaan. And with that Moses pleads to God that He exercise His power and channel it into be “slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression.” What a plea that was. And if God was to do this, Moses says, that would not mean that He was “clearing the guilty” but instead would visit the wickedness of the guilty on their children for four generations to come. That is understandable by Moses, but He pleads that God forgives the people at this time. Really “once more”, as God had forgiven, he realizes and points out, ever since they were still in Egypt until that point.

David Guzik writes well on this point:

Moses knew God's power and appealed to it; Moses knew God's promise and appealed to it, and Moses knew God's glory and appealed to it. This was a spectacular example of intercession.

i. What made this intercession spectacular was not primarily Moses' method (appealing to God's glory, power, and promise); but Moses' heart. Here, Moses is totally others-centered, not concerned for his own glory, but only for Israel. He displays he shares the heart of God towards His people, and that is what made Moses' intercession spectacular.

ii. This, of course, was God's intention all along: To develop and draw out of Moses just this kind of heart, transforming Moses into the image of His Son (Romans 8;29), long before the time of Jesus.

Are you or I grumbling today? Are we grumbling against God’s leadership and direction? Do we have anyone that would intercede for us like Moses did for his people? Or we might ask, if we know of someone grumbling against God, would we be willing to intercede for them? We all have a part to play going through this life – for ourselves, and for others. It’s not easy. Life is very complex; relationships are very taxing. The goal is to not lose our faith in the God Who saved us. He will see us through to our promised land.  

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

What The Mosaic Law's Test for Leprosy Was All About

Examination of People and Garments

Leviticus 13

A Test for Leprosy

Leviticus 13:1- 8

¹ Then the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ² “When a man has on the skin of his body a swelling or a scab or a bright spot, and it becomes an infection of leprosy on the skin of his body, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priests. ³ The priest shall look at the mark on the skin of the body, and if the hair in the infection has turned white and the infection appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is an infection of leprosy; when the priest has looked at him, he shall pronounce him unclean. ⁴ But if the bright spot is white on the skin of his body, and it does not appear to be deeper than the skin, and the hair on it has not turned white, then the priest shall isolate him who has the infection for seven days. ⁵ The priest shall look at him on the seventh day, and if in his eyes the infection has not changed and the infection has not spread on the skin, then the priest shall isolate him for seven more days. ⁶ The priest shall look at him again on the seventh day, and if the infection has faded and the mark has not spread on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean; it is only a scab. And he shall wash his clothes and be clean.

⁷ “But if the scab spreads farther on the skin after he has shown himself to the priest for his cleansing, he shall appear again to the priest. ⁸ The priest shall look, and if the scab has spread on the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is leprosy.

Thoughts on the Passage

Leprosy was a terrible thing to strike a person or a family for the Israelites in the dessert. And, in the absence of medics, it was the priests that were in charge of determining that it was leprosy, and if it wasn’t when the person who was afflicted could be deemed clean again. What is important to note is that this illness, in a practical sense, was identified with being ‘unclean’.

Chuck Smith says, “God wanted them to be very careful to, number one, if it was leprosy, to isolate them from the people to keep this disease from spreading. And so, it was a quarantine kind of thing. But secondly, the careful examination so that no one would be isolated who was not truly a leper. So, God wanted them to be careful in both directions. Make sure it's leprosy so that in case it is leprosy, the person can be isolated from the community so that the disease would not spread. But secondly, make sure if it isn't, that this person doesn't have this isolation from the community itself.”

I often feel that today we deal with the same dilemmas in other parts of life – sending children to school when they are sick because both parents have to work; or letting accused individuals go on one's own recognizance without posting bail because the ‘judge’ deems him/her to not be a danger to society; or whether a pit bull is a pit bull and it doesn’t matter that one particular dog of that kind has not killed a child yet.

Clearly, the priests, with these limited instructions from God as to what to look for, had a very difficult decision to make in each case.  The ramifications of error for the individual, the family, and the whole camp were severe.

David Guzik says, “The methodology in this passage erred on the side of safety. If a person could not be pronounced ‘clean’ with certainty, they were then isolated until they could be pronounced clean.” He maintains judgments “were made more with the idea of protecting the community from the outbreak of disease than with the idea of the rights of the individual.”

Of course, we do the opposite today in most cases – Charters of Rights or equivalents in many countries give the individual total say in what happens to him/her in many situations and what he/her can do, even if there is solid evidence that the likelihood of harming others exists.

Guzik also quotes Harrison who says, “The Hebrew priest-physicians appear to have been the first in the ancient world to isolate persons suspected of infectious or contagious diseases.” The reason for this was that smallpox, measles, and scarlet fever might start out with a skin condition considered to be leprosy – and the person would be isolated for the necessary time until the condition cleared up. God once again put this quarantine in place to prevent the spread of these diseases among His people.

Robert Jamieson says that the fact that the test for leprosy was incorporated in the Mosaic laws indicates leprosy was becoming rampant in the camp and that it happened soon after they left Egypt indicating that country where it was endemic was the source. He believes this was not hereditary with the Israelites, but rather that they got it from intercourse with the Egyptians and from the unfavorable circumstances of their condition in the house of bondage. Jamieson gives us the most “Dr. Luke-like treatment” to leprosy of all the commentators I turned to and you can read more of his comments here Jamison on Leprosy and Leviticus 13.

Matthew Henry takes a little different approach to leprosy. He sees it more as ‘uncleanliness’ rather than an illness. His argument is that the law involved priests not physicians (although I am not convinced they had any doctors traveling with them), thus indicating it had to do with being spiritually clean. He argues that Christ cleansed lepers, rather than heal them. Are we quibbling over words here?

He goes on to say we need to note it was a plague inflicted immediately by the hand of God, and not by natural causes as other diseases – thus requiring management by divine law, not medicine. He goes on to say, the leprosies of Miriam, Gehazi, and King Uzziah were all as a result of the punishments for particular sins.

He goes on to give more rationale for his thinking. Those interested should refer to Henry on Leprosy and Leviticus 13.

I think we got a lot more out of this passage than I originally thought we would.  Stay tuned as we what happens to those that were in fact pronounced to be lepers and thus were ‘unclean’.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

God’s Anger Burned, He Wanted Solitude

Exodus 32:7-10: Then the Lord spoke to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.  They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’” And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them, and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.”

In the previous segment, we left the people eating, drinking, and “getting up to play” the Bible says. All of which was fine except for the circumstances under which they were doing so – celebrating their worship to a god represented by a man-made calf fashioned with gold. God was watching from above where He and Moses had been meeting at the top of Mount Sinai. He had enough; He had to speak – as He always does, one way or another – when we have pushed His buttons beyond the allowable limits.

So God tells Moses to go down to the people “at once” because they are in great spiritual danger. We often think of God being outside of time and He is, but here is more evidence that He can get involved in our timeline – “Go down at once”. There is a time God is saying, through His words to Moses, for us to act immediately. When our fellow believers or our family is getting to the point where their spirituality or faith is in danger, we need to act “at once” – be it through fervent prayer on their behalf or be it through wise counsel and/or positive intervention.

You will remember back in Genesis that man was fashioned in the image of God. So when God here in speaking to Moses refers to the children of Israel, as “your people”, we can see in Him one of the characteristics He has endowed us with – legitimate or what we may call righteous anger. God was so angry with the children of Israel, that He in essence, for that moment, had disassociated Himself from them because of their idolatry. To the point I might add that He was willing to give Moses the credit for bringing them up from the land of Egypt. Poor Moses, this is not what he had bargained for.

The people had indeed as God points out, “corrupted themselves”. They had “quickly turned aside” from His commandments. There is no reference here to the “devil made them do it”. When we stray from God’s commandments, it is our choice, our decision, and there is no one else to be blamed for it. Just as our relationship with God is personal, so too our failure to keep that relationship whole is our doing, no one else’s.

And God doesn’t just stop at that observation. He goes on to call the Israelites an “obstinate people”. That’s a fascinating word and well worth looking up in any dictionary. Bottom line is that it means stubborn and unyielding even when presented with logical evidence and argument. How disappointing that must have been to God. How disappointing must it be to God when, thousands of years later, He gave His only begotten Son to die in their place and people today still are “an obstinate people” refusing to see His love for them.

We come now to a very difficult passage for some of us. God tells Moses that He wants to be left alone, but not to cool off. He wants to be alone in order to let His anger really set in (to boil) to the point that He would be able to destroy the very people He so dearly loved. What’s all that about?

We need to remember that these people were in covenant with God. And from God’s perspective, they broke the covenant. Sinning against God is not a uni-directional action. There will be a reaction. At a minimum we evoke God’s anger. And sometimes there are direct consequences of our sin, not because God wants to punish us, but because breaking His laws often have natural consequences. For example, if we steal, ultimately the authorities will lock us up. We cannot blame God for that.

Secondly, we need to ask ourselves whether or not God had any intention of breaking His covenant with the children of Israel? I believe He had every right to given that they had violated the terms of the agreement. But did He really want to? I do not think so and perhaps that is why God brings Moses back into the equation in a very roundabout way. He tells Moses that He would destroy the people and make a great nation out of Moses and his descendants. As a minimum, what we have here is a further testing of Moses’ true character. All he had to do to end up with a greater legacy than what he did end up with, was to say, “Okay, God, let’s do it.  I’m prepared to be your man in that decision which you are making in your anger.” But as we soon will see, Moses did not do that.

Thirdly, we need to remember that Moses was writing this account of Scripture and he only had human terms or language with which to describe the actual experience he had had with God. As such it is difficult for us to understand what was fully in the mind of God and in the intent of His words.

Finally, perhaps we can argue as some do that God was really inviting Moses to interfere, to save the people from God’s wrath. We do not know. But we do know this, if our God wanted to destroy the people of Israel, He could have. And if He had no intention to do so, He would not do so, no matter what Moses did or did not do. God had then and has now the right to do whatever He wants. And He also has the right to show His anger and His disappointment in whatever way He wants. I would not want to base my eternity on anyone with any less authority and power and dominion than what God has. Our God is not a golden calf.

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God Says "You Don't Need To Make a Deal" with Your Enemies.

God Says No Spiritual Multi-Culturalism and No Deal

Exodus 23:31-33: “And I will fix your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River Euphrates; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you. You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods. They shall not live in your land, lest they make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”

Back in the wilderness, thousands of years ago, God told the Israelites that He would “fix the boundaries of their land that He was giving them”.  And then the text goes on to describe the Promised Land for the Israelites.

Take a look at the description given in these verses and then check it out on a map.
On the south: The Red Sea
On the west: Somewhere in the “wilderness” from Egypt (Gulf of Suez) to modern-day Israel (north of the Gulf of Aqaba)
On the north: The Great Sea (sea of the Philistines, now also called the Mediterranean Sea)
On the east: The Euphrates River (beyond a part of Syria today).

Now compare that massive expanse of land to the property that modern-day Israel is fighting for and protecting as a nation today – only a small portion of what God had promised them. And still many of the world powers want them to give that up, too. They would rather have them homeless – without a land to call their own. Their enemies – primarily the Palestinians and the Iranians -- want them to be erased from the face of the earth.

In my humble opinion, there is a possibility that God not only will make sure they keep what they have, but that it is possible He may, before this is all over, in a miraculous way give them now what He promised them in the book of Exodus, or some of it. That makes for interesting observing in the years ahead. Even the Nuclear Deal agreed to by world powers with Iran this past week will change what God has in store for His people and for their enemies. (Of course, in the very end, it really will not matter, because God’s people will have it all.)

God told the Israelites that their enemies would be delivered ‘by Him’ into their hands so that ‘they’ can drive them out of the land that is to be theirs. The truth is that Israel has never actually taken over all of that land (save for a short period in the times of King David, only to lose it again because of their sin). David Guzik explains this by saying that God may “grant” but we need to “possess”. He says, “(God) withholds our possession of many blessings until we will partner with Him in bold faith and obedience.”

Like the Israelites, we too, Guzik says, have “been granted every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ; but will only possess what we will partner with Him in faith and obedience to receive. God is not an indulgent, spoiling father, pouring out on His children resources, blessings, and gifts they are not ready to receive or be responsible with.”  And there once again we see the reference to two of the three key elements we had earlier discovered are the secret to a great life with and for God: total trust (reliance on God); total obedience; and committed service.  If the Israelites did not get what God promised them it was not because He changed the rules. And the same is true in our case.  We claim God’s promises and are ticked off when we don’t get them, but we fail to examine how short we fell on our side of the agreement.

And then God says, “You shall make no pact with your enemies or with their gods.” The promise of the land was conditional also to this requirement – that they should make no agreement of friendship, nor have any familiarity with idol-worshippers, or with their idols or gods. And God goes even further by telling them such people shall not be allowed to live in their land or travel in it without first renouncing their idolatry.  So, what does this tell us about modern-day immigration laws?

I am not so sure that what God proposes is so much an immigration issue as the need for His people to avoid both His reproach and that of other believers as a result of having a close relationship with the worshippers of false gods. Now, who does that include today? Well, in one sense, just about everyone who does not accept, as the Apostle Peter utters in Matthew 16:16 that Jesus Christ is “the Son of the living God” and has accepted Him as his/her own personal Savior. That’s a lot of people.  Did God mean for us not to ‘associate’ with non-believers? Absolutely not – just look at the example of Jesus in the New Testament.  No, the intent of the instruction here for us is not to have “intimacy” and that may mean different things to different people. For me, it means do not rely on them, do not obey them where their instructions contradict what God is wanting of us, and do not serve them or the things or idols they serve. It means do not intermarry with them.

In the days of the Exodus, it may well have made sense that before someone comes to live in the land controlled by the Israelites, they had to become monotheists and agree to worship the Living God of Abraham. That would make a lot of sense today, but it’s far too late for that, as we’ve already given up idea of unification between ‘church and state’.  We have dichotomized our very essence be separating the two. But yet God never intended that way.

And God says there’s a good reason for religious (not racial) separation. Matthew Henry spells out the implication. There’s a “. . . danger of being drawn to worship with them. By familiar converse with idolaters, (our) dread and detestation of the sin would wear off; (we) would think it no harm, in compliment to (our) friends, to pay some respect to their gods, and so by degrees would be drawn into the fatal snare.” Henry, writing many years ago even points out the dangers of living in a ‘bad neighborhood’ for the sins of others will be our snares, if we look not well to ourselves.” (Italics and bracketed parts mine.) Of course, millions of people living today in the only places they can afford to live are proving that to be true. With murders and drug deals taking place regularly, these people know their only hope for survival is to move away.

But the main point Henry makes is this: “We must always look upon our greatest danger to be from those that would cause us to sin against God. Whatever friendship is pretended, that is really our worst enemy that draws us from our duty.” Amen. What relationships do you and I have that would qualify for that?

And by the way, just what did happen to the Israelites with respect to this promise and this warning?  David Guzik writes, “Through lack of discernment, Israel did end up making a covenant with some of the people of the land.” We read about it in Joshua 9. But we also know that there is no area of the law that Israel - or anyone - has ever kept perfectly. And thus, if we were honest, we cannot expect God to bless us fully in them, although in His magnificent grace and love, He does much more than we deserve.

And we will never be in a position where we have to make a “deal” with those that oppose God in order to protect ourselves. Unfortunately, our world leaders do so out of fear or political convenience and nations pay the price.

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.  And while you’re here, why not check out some more of our recent blogs shown in the right hand column.  Ken.

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