This post is part of my ongoing series of writing down my thoughts on the Bible passages I read each day. Some days I hope to have great insight that the Lord gives me, and many days, I will likely struggle through the text and not know what to write down based on what I read. My hope and prayer is that as I make this a habit, just as I did daily writing for so long, that I will improve on my ability to read and understand the passages I’m reading. Please keep in mind that many of these posts may be published late at night or with little time studying and simply be my first thoughts after reading. This is in no way a commentary that one should use to discern the Bible, but my own personal thoughts.

No one lasts forever.

In these chapters you see yet more instructions and laws around when people are clean/unclean, etc. But, in chapter 20, I’m reminded that it doesn’t matter what you’ve done on earth, you will die and, likely, you will be forgotten.

I was just having the conversation the other day with my roommate about how fast we will be forgotten after our death. If Jesus, the man who had the greatest influence on the world, can be believed by some to never even have existed, who are you to think that you will be remembered? There were likely many kings and queens of old that existed that we don’t even know about now.

That is why even people like Paul didn’t focus on proclaiming his own name on the earth. Not to have his impact. Instead, he focused on the message of Jesus. The message of salvation to all. And look at the many generations that has affected. We don’t even know who all it has affected.

I’ve often wondered about my spiritual genealogy, which I may have mentioned in another post. But who was the first one responsible for me coming to know Christ? Not the person who told me, but the person who told that person who told that person who told that person….etc. It could have been through the apostle Paul that I am even writing this now. My parents may never have come to know Christ if it weren’t for someone passing down at one point, the message of Jesus dying on the cross.

And yet, I don’t know those people’s names. They had an eternal impact on my life, yet I don’t know who they are going back only 3 generations.

I didn’t even say why I was thinking about this, but it was because of how short a passage is written about Aaron’s wife, Miriam, dying. And not much longer a passage to talk about Aaron’s death later in the same passage.

Our life is so fleeting. Why would we use it for anything except for an eternal purpose? It saddens me so much to think of the people that live their lives for the riches of this world, never knowing the joy that comes from having an eternal reason to live.