God warned Israel, "And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it" (Ex. 20:25). To pollute something is to make it ordinary. God insists that any approach crafted by human ingenuity will produce a worship system just like all the pagan systems in the world. In other words, it will be common or profane - just like everyone else's paganism.

Even guilty people deserve to be treated as those made in the image of God.

Our identity as the people of God is marked primarily by our faithfulness in obedience to Him.

Although their parents died in the wilderness for their stubbornness, Israel could profit from the older generation's failure by remembering that God had used adversity to train them.

Those who serve God in vocational ministry must learn to trust Him for their daily needs before they can encourage others to do so.

Individual believers are not to usurp the role of civil government and judge people who are offensive.

Although the world places a premium on the latest things, some realities are discovered by looking into the past.