When we enter a room we have the influence to create an atmosphere of pleasurable harmony or tension and strife. Our mindset has the power to determine whether we will live in a pit or a palace.

Palace living is not about wealth or prestige. Instead it is an attitude which establishes that whatever space we enter will be our place of abundance and grandeur.

The people have reached the edge of the Promised Land only to be told that they must turn around and head back into the wilderness. They are facing the consequences of their unbelief and rebellion. God tells the people that they have complained “against me too many times” and every person who “ganged up against me” will die “here in the desert”. Their children will wander in the desert for forty years—one year for each day the land was explored.

In this story, Korah a Levite, along with three friends, recruits 250 respected leaders who challenge Moses’ and Aaron’s right to lead. They accuse Moses and company of thinking they are “better than anyone else,” declaring that they are all part of God’s holy people. Moses views Korah’s rebellion as against God, (not Aaron); the result of an ungrateful spirit that doesn’t recognize the honor God has bestowed upon Levites who serve God in the tabernacle (vv 4-11).

I don’t know about you, but in high stress times, it’s easy to slip into old patterns, isn’t it? In this story Miriam, Moses’ sister dies in the desert. Moses and the Israelites are approaching the end of their wandering in the wilderness. In the midst of their mourning, the next generation of Israelites come to Moses and Aaron and complain (like their parents) about the lack of water, how Egypt had been so much better than this place and how they are going to all die – oh how our kids learn from us parents!

The Edomites were cousins to the Israelites, descendants of Esau. Esau and Jacob had been brothers, and the Israelites reminded the King of Edom that they were family. He recounted their time of slavery in Egypt and promised that they would stay on the highway and not cause their cousins any trouble as they journeyed to the Promised Land. The King of Edom wasn’t feeling any familial love for the Israelites and sent a large force to deny them access through his territory.

Years of aimless wandering are drawing to a close and now the Israelites move toward taking the Promised Land. They learn quickly that they will not enter without opposition. The King of Arad attacks a generation of Israelites with little to no experience in warfare, taking some hostage. The Israelites must have been so afraid! Yet they do well: they ask God to help them defeat the Canaanites and promise to completely destroy their towns.

The God of Scripture is universal. There is none above him. No one can do the things that he does. This joyful Psalm calls God’s people to tell every nation on earth that he saves, that he is wonderful and does wonderful things.

It goes even further and asks that the Lord’s children tell everyone in every nation to turn to him in praise and worship!