Love is doing what is best for the Beloved. Selfishness is doing what is best for me. God is love and all that He does is loving.

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The Hillsdale Free Methodist Church is located at 150 Union Street in Hillsdale, Michigan. We are a church dedicated to sharing the good news of what Jesus has done.

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If you are ever in the area, we would love for you to join us for worship! We have two services on Sunday, at 8:30am and 10:50am, with the difference being the music style. The 8:30 service features more traditional music while the 10:50am service features more modern music with a live band leading.

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Service Orientation: Love is doing what is best for the Beloved. Selfishness is doing what is best for me. God is love and all that He does is loving.

Bible Memory Verse for the Week: If you love me, you will obey what I command. — John 14:15


Background Information:

The whole section, 1:26-46, is a litany of disaster, punctuated by the sad refrain of the people’s attitudes and actions. The sequence of verbs is poignant, climactic, and sobering. It stands as a warning to every generation of God’s people to avoid such a chain reaction: you were unwilling. . . you rebelled. . . you grumbled. . . you were afraid. . . you saw but. . . you did not trust. . . you thought it easy. . . you would not listen. . . you rebelled. . . you came back. . . you wept. . . you stayed. (Christopher J. H. Wright, Understanding the Bible Commentary Series: Dt, 32)
(v. 46) we, we will go up. Another emphatic pronoun: “we, not the next generation.” (Jack R. Lundbom, Deuteronomy, A Commentary, 183)
(v. 46) Moses’ observation that they milled around in circles for many days in the vicinity of Seir represents a classic understatement, for those days turned out to be 13,880 days. During these thirty-eight years (cf. v. 14) the Israelites made no progress whatsoever toward the fulfillment of the mission on which they had embarked when they came out of Egypt. (Daniel I. Block, The NIV Application Commentary: Dt, 75)
The three verbs–in Nm 14:44 (“they went up”), here in v. 41 (“we will go up”), and in v. 43 (“marched up”)–all suggest audacity, foolhardiness, presumption, rashness, and arrogance. (Frank E. Gæbelein, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Vol. 3, 28)


The question to be answered is . . . Why would the Israelites suddenly have a change of heart and be willing to do what previously they chose not to do?



Answer: Because they saw that disobedience was less advantageous for them than obedience. They finally agreed to obey God out of selfishness, not love.



If you want to be somebody, if you want to go somewhere, you’d better wake up and pay attention. —Sister Act II