Shelach - שלח : "Send thou"
Torah : Numbers 13:1-15:41
Haftarah : Joshua 2:1-24
Gospel : John 7, 8

Thought for the Week:

The world looks on us as fools, wasting our time with religion. On some occasions, we may feel as if our efforts to serve God have been utterly in vain. It might seem as if we have wasted our time and energy in pursuit of His Kingdom. But in the Torah, we learn that which is wasted on the God is not a waste at all, but a sacred service received on the altar of heaven.

Commentary:

In Numbers 15:1-12, the Torah teaches about the wine libations which the priesthood was to pour out over God's altar. No one drank of the wine libations. They were completely poured out. To some, it might have seemed like a waste.

Paul compared his own life to a wine libation poured out over the altar on two different occasions. He first did so in his early letter to the Philippians; the other instance is in one of his last letters, 2 Timothy.

To the Philippians, Paul compares his life to a drink offering in that he has poured out his efforts upon the Philippians without any…