Living by the Book/Living by the Book Workbook Set (96 page)

The repeated word is very short. In fact, it’s only one letter. It’s also a first person singular pronoun that can be found in the following words: HI, IT, IS, and PI.

TODAY’S PASSAGE:

Numbers 21:4–9

TIME COMMITMENT:

30 minutes

“By ‘related’ I mean things that have some connection, some interaction with each other. You see, just because two things are next to each other does not make them related. They’ve got to work off of each other in some way. There must be a tie that somehow binds them together” (p. 157).

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arious components of Scripture can be related through (1) movement from the general to the specific; (2) questions and answers; or (3) cause and effect. Today’s assignment focuses on the third category.

Read Numbers 21:4–9. List all the things you see where one action (the cause) led directly to another (the effect).

The examples in this account are fairly obvious. They shouldn’t be hard to discover. But let’s now consider that Jesus used this story as an illustration of His own mission in life. Read John 3:14–15. What cause and effect pattern was Jesus referring to?

Do you think Jesus just happened to use this story as an allegory for His own plans? Or do you think perhaps the solution to the Israelites’ sin in the wilderness was a prediction of what was to come?

If you chose the latter response to the previous question, would you consider this a case of a related event, moving from a general to a specific event? Why or why not?