Year 7, Day 146: Numbers 31

Theological Commentary: Click Here

There are several really neat dynamics within this passage.  First of all, God sends the Hebrew people out against the Midianites prior to Moses’ death.  God wants to finish what Balaam started a few chapters back.  God wants to prove that His favor is with the Hebrew people right now.

When the Hebrew people do go out and fight, they decide to kill all the men but keep the women and children.  Of course, from the perspective of the ancient world, this action makes sense.  When the Hebrew people do take possession of Canaan, they are going to need slaves to do all of the hard work so that these Hebrew people can live in luxury.  These Hebrew people are just trying to lighten their work load.

Please don’t misunderstand me.  I’m not trying to justify what they did.  What they did was wrong.  In fact, that’s really my point.  What they did was wrong, yet it makes perfect sense from a worldly mindset.  The point should be clear.  Often what the world thinks makes sense is truly wrong.

Furthermore, think about the lasting effects of their decision.  God is rejecting the native people of Canaan because of their false worship and their lifestyle.  If these Hebrew people bring a bunch of slaves into the land with them, they will also be bringing in their gods and all of the things that God has rejected!

What I love about the end of this chapter is the grace the is shown to these warriors.  In spite of their decision to keep the Midianites alive, they suffer no consequences.  Instead, they are told about why their decision was wrong and then told to go and make amends.  Then they are told to purify themselves because of their recent combat.  Then life goes on as normal.  It shows that we need to be a people who forgive mistakes and who teach and support people who do make mistakes.

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Year 7, Day 145: Numbers 30

Theological Commentary: Click Here

It is so easy to get wrapped up in the man vs. woman debate when reading this passage.  Now that I’ve mentioned it, I also want to avoid it.  If you want to hear my thoughts on that dynamic, click on the theological commentary link above.

Instead, I want to focus on what I consider to be the more important theme in this passage.  Ultimately, this passage is about people learning to keep their word.  This chapter teaches us that when we make a promise, we need to try our very best to make that promise come to fruition.  After all, we serve a God who kept His promises – even sending His own Son to die so that His promises would be kept.  God keeps His promises, it shouldn’t surprise us that He wants us to keep ours, too.

Furthermore, if we are going to keep our promises, then we really need to think before we speak.  When we open up our mouths, the thought should have crosses our mind and we should approve of it.  After all, how can we be expected to keep our every word if we haven’t taken the time to process and think through our words?

Truthfully, I think this is a chapter that can really bring benefit to our modern culture if we don’t allow ourselves to get hung up in a debate about the sexes.  We live in a culture that is about immediate gratification.  We live in a culture where much of our contact with other people is done via quick texts, even quicker snapchats, and impersonal Facebook posts.  Our culture is becoming a culture where there is no personal consequence for the words that come out of our mouth.  I believe the results of such a culture are coming more and more to bear.  We can learn much from the underlying premise of this chapter indeed.

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Year 7, Day 144: Numbers 29

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Today, I am going to start with the fifteenth and the eight day of the festival.  Hopefully as you read, you picked up on the differences within the paragraphs that reference these.  These days are holy days.  These days are days without normal work to be done.  Naturally, being seven days apart, these days would line up with the idea of Sabbath.

If we step back from this concept, for a second, we can rationalize it really quickly.  We are very comfortable with the idea that Sabbath means no normal work.  It fits really well with what we understand of traditional Judaism.

On the other hand, let’s look at the non-Sabbath days.  These are also days of worship, yet there is no prohibition for normal work on these days.  What does this tell us?  I believe the message is subtle, yet clear.  Worship does not have to be separate from life.  We can worship God while going about our life.  We can worship God while being in the world.

So often we like to compartmentalize.  We think that there is worldly life and then there is godly worship.  What we see here in this chapter, though, is different.  There is worship while we go about our worldly business and there is worship while we separate ourselves from our worldly work.  In other words, we can take God with us wherever we are.  We may not think of worshipping God while we are out and about in the world, but that is our problem and not God’s problem!

In addition to this thought, I have some very interesting thoughts in my commentary from several years back.  You can read them if you want a completely different perspective on this chapter.  In that post, I focus on an entirely different element in these verses, not necessarily contrary thoughts.

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Year 7, Day 143: Numbers 28

Theological Commentary: Click Here

In the blog post to which I reference above, I end with a tally of the amount of sacrifices that this chapter would require.  I find it a rather neat total.  It isn’t neat in that the numbers are of any great significance.  It’s neat in the sheer volume of sacrifice that is required on a yearly basis.

That being said, let me take a step back and acknowledge something.  I am not saying that the sacrificing is neat because all of these animals had to die.  I am not a fan of the slaughter of innocent animals, nor do I promote any kind of senseless killing.  I’m not celebrating the death of these animals in any way other than they are killed at the command of God.

Having said that, let’s talk about why I find this neat.  If we do the math, we find that the Hebrew people are being asked to sacrifice well over a thousand animals, well over a ton of grain, and over a thousand containers of oil and wine.  Why is this neat?  It is neat because in order for the people to accomplish this, they must have had it in the first place!

In other words, it guides us to a necessary aspect of God’s character.  God only asks us to give back to Him out of what He has already given to us.  He doesn’t even require us to give it all back.  God only asks us to give back a portion of His provision.  God is a very understanding God.

Furthermore, we learn about His provision.  If God is going to ask for a significant sacrifice, He’s going to give an even more significant provision!  That is an important thought to have.  We cannot out-give God’s provision in our life.  When we read chapters like this, we should be reminded about the provision of God that allows chapters like this to even be possible in the first place.

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Year 7, Day 142: Numbers 27

Theological Commentary: Click Here

For today, I’m going to talk about the daughters of Zelophehad.  Probability tells us that this situation would happen.  Even though families back in those days would have between 10 and 20 children, only about 3-7 would make it to five years old.  Of those, usually only 2 or 3 would make it to adulthood.  Naturally, we would have families whose only offspring would be girls.  In the modern world, this wouldn’t be a problem.  In the ancient world, where inheritance was passed from man to man, this was a large problem.  What do you do with an inheritance if there were no men to receive it?

What I love about this passage is that it shows us that that the typical critique of the Old Testament is completely wrong.  So often we hear that the Old Testament is chauvinistic.  We often hear presentations of the Old Testament that leave out the women and treat them as unimportant.  In this passage, we see that God isn’t this way at all!  God has no trouble with the inheritance of a man being passed into his daughters!  If God truly preferred men to women, he would have overlooked these daughters of Zelophehad and send the inheritance on to the man’s brothers directly.  This is not what God does.  The inheritance goes to the daughters.

Second, this shows us the flexibility of God.  So often we hear about God in terms of rigidity.  God is not rigid at all!  God understands that life and circumstances bring change.  When necessary, we absolutely need to think and make decisions based on the life around us.  We are not designed and created to be automatons.  God did not give us a brain so that we could abdicate critical thinking!  God desires us to always be willing to think as we apply His ways to our life.

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Year 7, Day 141: Numbers 26

Theological Commentary: Click Here

If we look at this census and compare it to the census that was done at the beginning of the time in the wilderness, we notice that the number of Hebrew people went down. In Numbers 1 we hear that the number of grown men was 603,550.  In Numbers 26, we hear that the number is now 601, 730.  Naturally, this is forty years later.  We wouldn’t expect the number to be the same.

What I find significant, though, is that it was this grumbling and complaining generation that experiences the decrease.  They had every opportunity to trust in God, to enter the Promised Land, to take over, and to prosper under God’s provision.  Instead, they lived in fear and wanted to lean on their own strength.  This decision led to a decrease in the size and strength off the people.  When we reside in our own strength and grumble against the Lord, why would He prosper us?

The other dynamic hear that I find significant is the way that this chapter ends.  Only two adult people – Caleb and Joshua – who left Egypt were listed on the census as they get ready to enter into the Promised Land.  In other words, God fulfills His promises.  Even when the promises aren’t particularly pleasant, God is true to His word.  When God says that He will wait to bless the next generation, He means it!

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Year 7, Day 140: Numbers 25

Theological Commentary: Click Here

If we only look on the surface of this story, it is easy to be offended by what we read today.  After all, in this chapter God applauds the fact that one of his high priests goes to a man and kills him and his wife simply because she is a Midianite.  If that is all the deeper that we read into this story, we get the wrong picture.

In fact, what is going on here is a very subtle deception of the Hebrew people.  The people of Moab decided to be friendly to the Hebrew people.  They started to invite the Hebrew people to live among them.  They started teaching the Hebrew people their ways.  As the Hebrew people mingled, they started losing their relationship with God. They started worshipping other things.

What God applauds is someone who is willing to stand up against the subtle corruption of God’s people and draw a line in the sand.  God applauds someone who is willing to see what is going on and actually do something about it.  This has less to do with the nationality of the woman and everything to do with the fact that the people are falling away from God because of the subtle corruption of the world around them.

I think this is a pertinent message for most modern people.  Everywhere we look, we can see the corruption of the world around us.  The world wants us to become more like it and less like God.  The world wants us to forsake the special calling that God has for us in our life and become absorbed into its lifestyle.  The world invites us in to pull us away from God.

What God needs, then, is more people like Phinehas.  No, we don’t need to go around killing people who fall into the temptation of the world.  But we do need people who will speak boldly against the world.  We need people who will rise up and live a life committed to a higher standard. We need people who value speaking truth into the lives of others more than it values acceptance from the world.  That’s what we need.  That’s what God applauds.

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Year 7, Day 139: Numbers 24

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Today we get a chance to really see where Balaam’s heart resides.  By the third temptation, Balaam doesn’t need to go and consult God to do His will.  He knows what God will say.  He knows where God’s heart is.  It’s not that Balaam is opposed to going to God, he just doesn’t need to.  By this point in time, he and God are in a like mind.  He blesses the Hebrew people a third time.  He doesn’t care about the wealth and prosperity that Balak can offer to him.  He cares about being in a like-mind to God.  That’s highly commendable.

As for Balak, look at how he responds.  He is angry.  He doesn’t get his way.  He dismisses Balaam.  To his credit, he doesn’t try to get even or harm Balaam.  But Balak refuses to see what God is trying to tell him.  He refuses to pay attention to the fact that these are God’s people.  Instead of looking to see what God is doing and being intrigued, he goes away and finds interest back in His own thoughts and his own ways.

I typically enjoy the Balaam discourse when I study it in scripture.  I find it to be a very true and honest discourse on human behavior.  We are tempted.  We fall away.  We ignore the people around us why try to keep us safe and alert us to the danger of our choices.  Eventually we listen.   We return to God.  We become like-minded with God and we gain His perspective.  This is just such a simple and true perspective on what faith is like and what relationship with God looks like from His perspective.

The amazing thing in all of this is that He still loves us and wants to work with us.  That is a thought worth having.  Again and again the witness of God’s Word is that even though His servants are flawed, He still loves them and invites them into what He is doing in their life.

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Year 7, Day 138: Numbers 23

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Once more, we get a great perspective on humanity.  Balak has bought Balaam’s attention.  He thinks that he can also buy his allegiance.  This is an incredibly true thought with regard to human beings.  People in power think that they can buy their way.  People with things to offer others try to use what they have to buy their heart’s desire.  Balak absolutely thinks that he can buy Balaam’s words.

I was pretty harsh against Balaam yesterday, although I wasn’t any harsher on Balaam than I was on myself.  The neat thing about today’s reading is that we see that Balaam is absolutely teachable.  He makes his mistakes in allowing himself to come to Balak.  But he does not allow himself to be completely sold out.  He comes, but he is not for sale.  Balaam does go where Balak leads him, but Balaam only prophesies what God tells Him to speak.

I give Balaam a lot of credit.  While he is not always lifted up as the greatest example, I hope that in my times of temptation I will remember to be loyal to the Father.  Even when I bring those moments of temptation down upon myself because of my poor choices, I hope that when push comes to shove I will stand upon my convictions.

Before I leave, I want to return back to Balak.  Do you hear what Balak does when Balaam doesn’t give him his way in first blessing?  Balak takes Balaam to a place where Balaam cannot see the whole of the people.  What Balak is trying to do is to manipulate the circumstances to his favor so that Balaam will be more inclined to see things Balak’s way than see them according to God’s perspective.  This is important to see as well.  People don’t often take it well when they don’t get their way.  They will manipulate life around them to get their way.  Yes, if I’m not careful I’ll do it, too.  I’m just as human as the next guy.

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Year 7, Day 137: Numbers 22

Theological Commentary: Click Here

This is a great chapter.  Where else but in this chapter do you get a talking donkey?  In fact, not only does the donkey talk, the donkey is very street smart!  The donkey knows enough to protect itself from the Lord.  In doing so, he protects Balaam.  The only problem is that Balaam isn’t smart enough to see the danger himself!

Let’s back up the story and find out how this points us to the real issue.  After all, why is God so angry when He is the one who told Balaam to go with the men?

If we look back to the very beginning, we can discover the answers.  Balak and some other leaders come to Balaam and offer him a good sum of money.  They want to buy his favor.  They want to buy his favor because they know that God listens to him and he listens to God.  The people that Balaam curses are truly cursed.

Naturally, God doesn’t want His services being bought.  Neither does God want His servants being bought.  God tells Balaam to tell the men to go home.  That sounds reasonable.  That sounds like God.

However, that’s not the end of the story.  The people come back.  They appeal to Balaam once more.  No doubt they remind him just how lucrative the proposal would be.  Balaam listens and invites them to stay.  Although God has already said no, Balaam comes back to God.  Balaam has been tempted by their offering.

I think we see in this passage just how human Balaam happens to be.  He is willing to listen to God.  But he is also willing to allow himself to be tempted.  He is willing to look past his relationship with God – and more importantly, God’s command.  He is willing to desire wealth and prosperity more than God.

This brings us back to the story with Balaam and his donkey.  Why can’t Balaam see the angel of the Lord that is threatening him?  He can’t see because his eye is focused elsewhere.  Balaam isn’t looking to God with all that wealth before him.  The donkey can see to save his life.  Balaam is tempted into the world.  This is why God has every right to be angry.  His servant is walking down the road to sin.

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Year 7, Day 136: Numbers 21

Theological Commentary: Click Here

The Hebrew people are getting ready to enter into the Promised Land.  Their forty years of wandering in the desert are coming to an end.  The begin to advance upon the nations surrounding Canaan.  Naturally, they experience resistance.

Do you hear how many of the nations don’t want the Hebrew people coming through their land?  On one hand, it makes no logical sense.  Why would you make yourself a stench in the eyes of a group of people who are numerous and who just want to cross through your land and get to their real destination?  Why come out and fight them and risk losing?  Why not just let them through?

On the other hand, though, it makes perfect sense.  In order to let them through your land, you have to trust them.  The native people have no reason to trust these wandering Hebrew people.  Furthermore, they are on their way to drive out the residents of Canaan.  This proposes two potential problems.  First, where are the dispossessed Canaanites going to go?  Second, if the Hebrew people are strong enough to possess Canaan, who is to say that they aren’t strong enough to come back and possess the land that they got a free pass to walk through and inspect?

In any case, though, these neighboring nations resist the Hebrew people.  In resisting, they make the wrong choice and oppose God.  They are defeated by the Hebrew people on their way to accomplishing the will of the Lord.  The lesson we can take from this is that God’s will shall be done.  There will be all kinds of exterior resistance, but God will prevail in the end.

However, this is not the extent of the resistance.  Do you hear the internal resistance?  The people are nearing the end of their journey and they are still complaining?  They are still troubled by the food that has literally been falling into their laps six out of every seven days for the last forty years!  The truth is that our own internal resistance to God’s will is just as much of a danger as the external resistance.  We like to think that we are in line with God.  The truth, though, is that if we are not careful we will find ourselves in every bit as much resistance internally as those who are external to God’s will.

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Year 7, Day 135: Numbers 20

Theological Commentary: Click Here

In Numbers 20, we have a really neat sequence of stories.  We do encounter the deaths of Miriam and Aaron.  This is our clue that the time of the Exodus is coming to an end.  The leadership of the people are dying.  What we can learn from this is that we are not the be all and end all that we think we are.  God’s plan carries on with us and without us.  He desires to use us, of course!  But when our time has passed, He will still be at work in this world.  This story reminds us to keep our perspective.  We are a part of His plan, not the other way around.

We also hear about the fact that the Hebrew people are denied access to the land of Edom.  They are clearly on their way into the Promised Land, but things are not going well.  In other words, the world will resist the plan of God.  Therefore, we should not give up just because we encounter a little resistance. If we are following the will of God, we should persist even in the path of substantial resistance.

My favorite part of this chapter, however, is the story of the water.  No, I don’t particularly enjoy watching Moses stumble and be told that he has sinned in the presence of God.  His mistake is so simple, even!  He is told to tell the rock to bring forth water and he strikes the rock with the staff instead.  In his arrogance, he stops being humble before the Lord.  This is the kind of mistake that I could see myself making all the time.  It isn’t that Moses wants to be disobedient; he is just a little careless.

What I like about this story, though, is that God is forgiving.  God doesn’t cast Moses off.  He doesn’t toss him to the curb.  God continues to work with Moses.  Yes, there are consequences.  Yes, Moses will have to hand over the leadership of the people to Joshua before entering the Promised Land.  But Moses and God still have relationship.  There is forgiveness and restoration of relationship.  That is the God we serve.

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Year 7, Day 134: Numbers 19

Theological Commentary: Click Here

There is lots of talk about dead bodies in this passage.  While it may feel odd to wonder why God spends time giving out instructions, I think the study of these passages can benefit us.  We can get both literal and figurative understandings from these words.

Let’s deal with the obvious first.  Literally, these passages help with cleanliness among the people.  When people die, their bodies immediately start to decay.  That means that there are germs, disease, and bacteria forming.  In the ancient world, with their obvious lack of refrigeration, those bacteria would form quickly.  Coming in contact with a dead body was literally a time of impurity.  The people would want to be careful with their bathing and cleaning after dealing with the dead.

There is a neat spiritual learning that we can get from this more literal understanding.  Because of the chance for impurity, God could have simply banned the contact with the dead.  God could have told the people to avoid the dead at all costs.  This is not how God works, however.  God knows that dealing with the dead is a vital role in community.  Therefore, God makes provision for the action, even though the action directly leads to impurity.  God understands that the high road is not always possible in society.  Sometimes we must take the road of impurity, go among sickness, and come out the other side knowing that we need to take care of any purity issues that we might face.  There is a clear analogy from this literal scenario to the spiritual call of living in the world but always remembering to not be of the world.

Let’s now move on to a more figurative learning that we can gather.  I think that it is interesting that God gives a timeline for the purity.  After all, if this chapter was just about the literal concern for disease and bacteria, why would seven days and multiple washings be needed?  One good washing will take care of any external bacteria.  I believe what God is doing here is teaching the people that there is a time for mourning and then there is a definite time for moving on. Many people and many cultures – for example the Egyptians from whom the Hebrew people are fleeing – mourn their beloved dead ones until they turn their mourning into a sort of ritualistic worship.  In many people, dead loved ones almost become little gods in their eyes.  In this passage, God is reminding us that there absolutely is a time for mourning the dead.  But we need to move along in our lives and go forward in life.  There is a time to remember that it is God who is the source of life, not the loved one who is not blessedly dead.

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Year 7, Day 133: Numbers 18

Theological Commentary: Click Here

This chapter is all about the priests and Levites.  In the beginning, we hear about their duty.  They are the ones who are to make sure that the sacrifices are done.  They are the ones who are to make sure that God is remembered among the people.  Their job is to be the bridge between God and the people.

To this end, God tells them that they are holy.  Their holiness comes with a price, though.  God is quite clear with them.  Because they are holy, they have absolutely no worldly inheritance among the people.  They don’t get land.  They are separate.  They are dependent upon God to provide for their livelihood.

That’s the key, though.  They don’t get land, which means that they don’t get flocks and herds from which to provide for their families.  They do, however, get the sacrifices that are offered up.  They get the grain offerings and animal offerings.  Their proximity to God is their provision.

I think that this priestly and Levitical system can speak to us in modern Christianity as well.  We are in the world, of course.  There is the old saying that we are to be in the world but not of the world.  Clearly, we are in the world.  But if we are truly in Christ, like the priests and Levites we may dwell among the world but we have no inheritance there.  Our inheritance lies with God.  Our inheritance comes due to our proximity to Him.

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Year 7, Day 132: Numbers 17

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Ah, human beings.  The testimony against us is really painting quite the fickle portrait.  Yesterday I talked about all of the grumbling that the Hebrew people had done up until now in the wilderness.  Yet, it continues to be a problem and God knows it.  God tells Moses to grab Aaron’s staff, as well as the staves of all the other tribal leaders, and place them in front of the presence of the Lord.  Aaron’s staff buds with flowers and almonds, indicating that God has chosen Aaron.

At some point in this story, you really should ask yourself how much God has to do to demonstrate His being to the people.  Then, you have to ask yourself how thick headed we are as human beings not to be able to pick up on what God is doing.  Finally, you should also have to ask yourself how short-sighted we are so as to not remember and be satisfied with all that God has done for us in our lives.

Those questions do drive home quite a valid point.  After all, look at how we leave the Hebrew people in this story.  God has done an incredible thing.  God has taken a staff, long separated from its roots, and caused it to blossom and fruit!  How is it that the people respond?  They assume they are doomed.  They wonder how they will ever survive.  They contemplate how they could possible ever live this close to the presence of God.

Human beings really are too fickle.  Either God is too distant and working from places where we cannot feel His presence or He is too close and causing us to change and grow because of His obvious work around us.  We want the benefits of both positions without the hard work of either. 

God can work in miraculous ways around us.  When He does, how prepared are we to react?

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Year 7, Day 131: Numbers 16

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Here we have a really neat chapter.  Of course, by really neat I mean a chapter that sees tens of thousands of people die in spectacular supernatural fashion.  The chapter is neat, but we should not forget that the chapter is also very real and contains very real consequences.  We should learn the lesson, but not relish in the death of the rebellious.

Naturally, it begins in rebellion.  Moses has continued to deal with rebellion after rebellion since they left Egypt.  There was the rebellion about food.  Then there was the rebellion of the Golden Calf.  Then there was the rebellion against the Promised Land.  Human beings often seem to live and promote rebellion.

This rebellion begins where almost all rebellions begin: the truth.  Do you hear what Korah says?  Korah says that the whole nation is holy.  He’s right!  God has separated the Hebrew people from the world.  They are all holy.  Korah absolutely begins in truth.

However, this truth of Korah quickly turns into a lie.  While all the people are holy, the reality is that God does not all call us to do the same task!  While all the Hebrew people are holy, they are not all called to be priests.  Only the sons of Aaron, a small subgroup of the Levites, were called to be priests.  The rest of the Levites had a different purpose.  The rest of the tribes had an even more different purpose.  While all the people are holy, they are not called to the same task.

This is the problem with human beings.  We take the truth and stretch it out to mean what we want it to mean.  Rather than being content with what God is asking of us, we make the truth out to imply what we desire.  That is exactly what Korah is doing here.  He is stretching beyond his means.  He wants the definition of holy to mean that he gets to offer sacrifices as a priest.  God has a different calling for Korah and those who weren’t sons of Levi.

Look at how Moses deals with this rebellion.  Moses could have challenged Korah personally.  He could have made it personal.  He doesn’t, however.  Moses allows God to deal with the situation.  Moses allows God to step into the role of judge.  From my perspective, that is mature spiritual leadership right there.

Unfortunately, the people don’t respect Moses’ maturity.  The rebellion spreads.  Even more people join the rejection of Moses.  God not only kills Korah and his immediately followers, a plague breaks out among the community.  God takes control.

However, look once more at what Moses does.  He tells Aaron to go and save the people.  Instead of relishing the judgment, Moses looks to save the rebellious people!  Again, that is spiritual maturity.  The spiritual leader is always doing damage control because human beings tend to be rather rebellious.

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Year 7, Day 130: Numbers 15

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Looking at this chapter shows several lies of potential.  For today, I’m going to focus on a dynamic that I haven’t spent much time on in the past.  As we read through this chapter and other chapters like it, we hear God say something to the Hebrew people that is easy to ignore.  There will be one rule for the Hebrew people and for sojourners.

There are several reasons to pay attention to this fact.  First of all, it tells us that God expects there to be sojourners among them.  God didn’t want the Hebrew people to wall themselves off in isolation.  God expects the Hebrew people to be in the world and inviting the world to dwell among them.  God wants the people of the world to experience relationship with God through His relationship with the Hebrew people.

Note, however, that there are rules for the sojourners.  The sojourners don’t simply come among the Hebrew people and dwell.  They don’t remain as they are.  The sojourners are expected to follow the same law – lifestyle, if you will – that the Hebrew people are asked to follow.  Being in the presence of people who have relationship with God is not enough.  We are to embrace that relationship and make it our own.

Ultimately, this leads me to see the this as a chapter of grace.  All are welcome.  All are invited.  You don’t have to be genealogically related to Abraham to have relationship with the Creator.  All can come to Him.  There are expectations, of course!  But regardless of who you are, what you’ve done, and where you come from you can absolutely come to Him and learn His ways.

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Year 7, Day 129: Numbers 14

Theological Commentary: Click Here

This chapter abounds with human instinct.  The congregation has a choice to make.  Do they listen to Joshua and Caleb and believe that God can bring them into Canaan?  Or do they believe the report of the other 10 and doubt that they could ever be successful in battle against the Canaanites?  Naturally, they choose the easier path.  They choose to doubt their ability and especially God’s ability.

Next, God and Moses have a little conversation.  In an incredible twist, God desires to smite the people (again) and Moses pleads for forgiveness (again).  When the people rebel and run with their human nature, it is Moses who stands in the gap and advocates for their forgiveness.  Moses has what it takes to rise above the human instinct.  Moses could have accepted God’s offer to start over with him.  But he doesn’t do that.  Moses rises above human nature and advocates for a sinful people.

Then we return to the human nature of the Hebrew people.  In one respect, the should get some credit for being inspired by Moses.  They begin to believe in God’s power, albeit a bit too late.  However, in their inspiration they swing too far to the other side.  The rise up to take the land as God at one point desired them to do.  However, they still aren’t listening.  God is no longer with them.  God is now focused upon their punishment and planning to bring the next generation of Hebrew people into the Promised Land.  When the people go up to Canaan, the fail because God is not with them.  Although they do get a little credit for being inspired into faith, they don’t get great marks because they are still refusing to live obediently to God.

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Year 7, Day 128: Numbers 13

Theological Commentary: Click Here

It is really interesting what we do with the truth, isn’t it?  Truth doesn’t change, but our perspective of the truth sure does!  What we think of the truth shows more about us and our character than on the actual truth.

The spies go off to Canaan.  They see a very fertile land.  They see a land great for settling their flocks and growing their empire.  It truly is the Promised Land.

They also see a land filled with people.  Some of these people are huge.  These people seem brutal and cruel.  They worship gods that are foreign to the spies.

This is the truth.  It is what it is.  The land is highly fertile.  It is also incredibly occupied.

Joshua sees the truth about fertility.  Because he is a man of great faith, he does not fret about the occupants.  God has promised the land; God will deliver it into their hands no doubt!

The other spies who go with Joshua only see their own capacity.  They don’t want to fight the bigger people.  They are afraid, because they actually see only their inability.  Rather than seeing the truth through God’s possibility, they see truth through their own impossibility.

In either case, the truth didn’t change.  The spies agreed upon what they saw.  There was no conflicting witness.  There was a conflicting perception about what to do about the witness.  The spies were convinced of their weakness.  Joshua was convinced of God’s possibility.

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Year 7, Day 127: Numbers 12

Theological Commentary: Click Here

In this chapter we see the true downside of religious people.  When human beings care more about absolutes than they care about grace, we end with Miriam and Aaron in this passage.  Don’t get me wrong.  Miriam and Aaron are just trying to be pure.  Their heart is in the pursuit of purity. But they are absolutely wrong.  When we are more interested in being religious and less interested in being spiritual, there is always trouble ahead.

Aaron and Miriam reject Moses because of the nationality of his wife.  Don’t forget that Moses’ father-in-law was a Midianite who feared the Lord.  He wasn’t a part of Abraham’s offspring, but that doesn’t mean that he didn’t know God.  We can also assume that Moses’ wife grew up knowing the Lord as well.  However, they forget this fact because they are too focused on the literal.  They can only see that she is not of Abraham’s lineage. They see the obvious, missing God entirely.

God comes to the rescue of Moses and his wife.  Miriam is cursed with leprosy for a week.  In this, God is merciful.  He could have killed her.  He doesn’t.  He shows Miriam grace, even when she is guilty.

This is the thing about people.  God is gracious to us over and over.  He lavishes us with His grace.  We deserve His judgment, and He makes life possible.  Yet, how do we repay Him?  So often we are interested in judging other people instead of looking in towards their character when God makes every effort to give our inner character an opportunity to become more like His!

I find this battle to be one of the fiercest within me.  I am fully aware of God’s grace in my life.  I am also fully aware of my propensity to judge the people around me.  At the same time, I make rash judgments based on what I see, not what I experience and know about a person’s character.  This is a battle I constantly fight.  Just when I think that I’ve won, I find new places in my life that I am quick to judge based on my experience and uninterested in truly knowing.

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Year 7, Day 126: Numbers 11

Theological Commentary: Click Here

This is an incredibly rich theological chapter.  We’ll start with the fact that the people grumble.  They are unhappy, and unhappiness breeds more unhappiness.  They aren’t content eating what the Lord gives them for free.  They want something other than the provision of the Lord.

Furthermore, do you hear their complaints?  They paint Egypt as if it was a garden of plenty where they were happy.  How quickly they have forgotten that Moses was sent by God because of their complaining about their own oppression.  Human beings have a tendency to see the present with worry and the past with happiness because the present is unknown and the past is already behind us and known.

Second, we see Moses’ power divided up among seventy-two people.  At first, this seems like a bad thing.  Moses loses power as he gives it up to others.  Moses’ power is diminished.  Moses power is diminished because of the people’s grumbling, even!  However, I am not so sure that this is as bad of a thing as it first appears.  One man should not think they could lead a whole nation alone.  Everyone needs help.  Everyone needs people to assist in governing.  What appears as a punishment is actually a blessing to Moses in the long run.

Third, we see the plague of quail.  The people get what they want.  They get all the meat they can possibly stand.  However, the meat rots as they are eating it.  While this is a very vivid description, it has a deep spiritual teaching as well.  The fruit of our sin often poisons us at the moment that we get what we desire.  In other words, when we start off in sin, we so often only discover the negative results after they are attained.  What seems like such a good and pleasing thought so often turns out to be a bad idea in reality.

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Year 7, Day 125: Numbers 10

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Communication and order are a good thing.  Both of these attributes allow people to work together and get along.  Both of these things allow businesses to function properly.

When communication and order break down, chaos naturally ensues.  In relationships, when communication ceases the people involved in the relationship typically stop getting along.  When communication stops in business, employees end up doing their own thing and the company flounders from a lack of unifying direction.  The same is true for order.

God knows this, and he desires to teach this lesson to the people of Israel.  If they are going to be His successful people and take over the Promised Land, then they are going to need to be able to receive and follow directions.  If they are going to forge a nation together and have a national identity that unifies them, they will have to learn to communicate.  This is why God tells Moses about the trumpets.

God gives Moses orders to make trumpets and then tells them what the trumpets will signify.  If they are blown one way, then the leaders need to gather.  If they are blown another way, then it is a sign that the camp is to set out in motion.  If they are blown a different way, then it is to signify the start of one of their days of celebration.  The trumpets bring order.  The trumpets communicate.

It might seem like a strange chapter to have in the Bible.  After all, why do modern people need to hear about trumpets and trumpets blowing?  The reality is that we do not need to hear about the trumpets.  What we need is to understand our communal need for communication to help society stay organized and functioning well.  Every society needs a means to communicate.

Furthermore, we can break this idea back down into small units.  While society needs communication and order, so do communities.  Churches need the same thing.  Companies need the same thing.  Friends need the same thing. Families need the same thing.  Every level of human organization can benefit from communication and order.

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Year 7, Day 124: Numbers 9

Theological Commentary: Click Here

It may sound strange, but Numbers 9 is one of my favorite chapters in the Old Testament.  Yes, I do have a number of favorite chapters.  However, this one is special from my perspective.

What I love about this chapter is that it shows the dialogue between mankind and God.  Moses is told to celebrate the Passover with the people.  Moses begins the process.  As Moses does this, however, life intervenes.  He discovers that there are some people who cannot celebrate the Passover because they are ritually unclean.  Moses has the best of intentions to keep God’s Law with the people, but circumstance rears its ugly head.

This is reality.  I’ve often heard it said that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.  While that is true, and I understand the moral behind the saying, I think that this chapter says that sometimes we can do our best to succeed, have life intervene to foil our plans, and still be okay with God.

Let’s follow the story.  Moses returns to God and informs God that there is an issue.  God makes a provision.  God makes a way so that the people who miss out because life intervened will have a second chance in the month to come.  This is an awesome point.  God doesn’t get on His proverbial high horse and tell Moses that it’s just too bad and those people will have to suffer.  No.  God tells Moses that if those people had every intention to follow God but life intervened, then it is perfectly okay.

I really like this perspective.  I think this is why I love this chapter.  God understands that life happens.  God knows that sometimes all we can offer up is our good intentions.  God still loves us.  God even realizes that when this happens, there isn’t even really a need for apology and forgiveness.  Sometimes the road to God is actually paved with good intentions.

Having said this, though, you will notice that this only applies to people who are genuinely trying and life is intervening.  The truly disobedient people will bear their guilt.  The people who do not desire to do right will absolutely be held accountable by God.  This chapter isn’t permission to live as we want to live.  This chapter is about making allowance for people who desire to do right but the world conspires against them and makes it impossible.

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Year 7, Day 123: Numbers 8

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Today we the separation of the Levites.  We shouldn’t get this confused with the separation of the priests.  The priests were a special subset of Levites.  They served God directly, whereas the Levites served God by serving among the people.  Another difference is that the priests didn’t start serving until 30 whereas the Levites begin their experience at 25.

All of the differences aside, we can be clear on one very consistent message.  As God is claiming His people and separating them from the secular world, one of the most important things to God is the Levites and priests.  Again and again we hear about their consecration, sacrifices, and their separation.

Why should we pay attention to this?  As time has passed, things are absolutely no different today than way back then.  God wants people to serve Him.  God wants people to serve Him personally; He also wants people who will serve Him by serving among the people.  Our Father is quite serious about desiring people to serve Him.  I would be willing to bet that as far as the Law is concerned, there is more space dedicated to the work and sanctification of His priests and Levites than any other topic, even.

Therefore, we must as ourselves a question.  Where am I serving?  How do I serve in the presence of God?  How do I serve God in the world, declaring His presence to the world as I go through my life?  If these are the things that are important to God, they should be important to me.

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Year 7, Day 122: Numbers 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here

I was reminded of a teaching I learned a while back.  Ritual leads to religion; discipline leads to discipleship.  I also have another saying that I like.  Religion is mankind’s attempt to work our way up to God; Christianity is God’s way of coming down to us.  Both sayings stem from the same thought.  Our rituals, if meaningless, are nothing.

I find this a meaningful place to contemplate as we go through this chapter.  I hope you realized how you read 12 nearly identical paragraphs in this chapter.  It doesn’t make for the most interesting of reading.  I wonder how exciting the giving of the gifts was by day 8 or 9, too.  I wasn’t there.  I can’t say for certain.  But again, our ritual is meaningless if it is only ritual.  I wonder if by day 8 or 9 this was ritual for the people involved.  If it was ritual, to what did it lead?

As I said, I can’ lay any kind of judgment upon those Hebrew people so many thousands of years ago.  It may have been deeply meaningful.  It may have been ritual.  I can’t say.

I can, however, look into my own life.  Where is my ritual leading me to religion instead of relationship with the Father?  Where is my ritual taking the place of genuine spirituality?  Where is God calling me out of human ritual and into divine spirituality?

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Year 7, Day 121: Numbers 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Today we get to read about the Nazarite vow.  Here we have the case of a person who makes a vow to the Lord to serve Him.  The vow wasn’t necessarily for one’s whole life; it was usually for a period of time.  This was usually from a person who wanted to commit himself or herself specifically to the work of the Lord for a time in their life.

What always strikes me about this time is the level of commitment required.  Even if a person’s immediate family dies, their vow to God is more important than burying their own family!  That’s dedication right there.

I’m left wondering how many people in the time of Moses took this vow.  We aren’t told of many people in the Bible who did.  Even more deeply, the two in the Old Testament about whom we are told didn’t enter under their own choice.  Both Samson and Samuel’s mothers entered them into the Nazarite vow because they were barren and promised that if God would give them a child they would dedicate the child to the Lord.  In the New Testament, it may be that Paul had taken the Nazarite vow before heading to Jerusalem and then eventually to Rome.

The truth is, however, that we aren’t told of many people in the Bible who take the vow.  Amos the prophet condemns his contemporaries because they do not respect the vow.  I’m not entirely sure what this means.  Do we take from this that most human beings either do not have the courage or the need to devote themselves to God in a very strict sense?  If this is simply a case of authors not writing about the vow, why did the authors themselves find it so unimportant?

What can we take from this?  First of all, God does want us to draw close to Him.  He would not provide the means if He did not desire it.  Second, we need to take our relationship with God seriously.  There is no relationship that we can have that is more meaningful than our relationship with God.  Third, if we make a promise with God, then we need to keep it.

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