Year 1, Day 140: Numbers 25

Zeal for the Father

Okay, I’m in an “aggressive theology” kind of mood today.  The story of Phinehas always gets me riled up.  It gets me riled up because it evokes a side within me that I keep suppressed far too much.  But I keep it suppressed because it just isn’t all that acceptable in today’s modern America.  Of course, when I see why I keep it bottled up I get riled up even more.

Here’s the deal.  Phinehas is given praise because he has enough guts to go out and do something about the fact that the Hebrew people are once more whoring about with other things than God.  In this story we see Phinehas rising up and driving a spear through a man and woman who are violating the Hebrew way of life.  The Midianite woman is leading the man away from God, and Phinehas steps up and drives a spear through them both – killing them.  But you need to realize something else.  God sees Phinehas’ zeal and applauds.  He sees Phinehas’ zeal and rewards it.

A Rabbit Trail

Ever wonder how often this passage gets preached on Sunday morning?  For those that use the Revised Common Lectionary – I’ll give you a hint.  It’s never read on Sunday morning as part of the lectionary at any point.  Regarding a non-worship setting, how many of us have ever done a Sunday School lesson on this passage?  Not very often.  I’m willing to bet that unless you have undertaken a full reading of the Bible, you’ve never even heard this story.

The question is … why?  What is so wrong with this passage?  This story is not a very comfortable message to give.  It’s not a story that we can talk about in polite company very well without the possibility of someone getting the wrong idea.  So we bury it in our Bibles – secretly hoping and praying that the subject will never come up. 

We don’t even list it among the readings in the Revised Common Lectionary.  Don’t worry, we don’t list many readings in the RCL, so Numbers 25 isn’t alone.  Here comes the rabbit trail.  On a verse-by-verse analysis, over 90% of the Old Testament (excluding the Psalms) are never read in churches using the RCL.  Among the Psalms, almost 50% of the Psalms are not read.  With respect to the New Testament, almost 50% of it is never read.  Even among just the Gospels, over 36% of the Gospels are never read.  Overall – because the Old Testament is so large and underused, the reality is that in churches that use the Revised Common Lectionary a person only going to church will hear just under 23.4% of God’s Word over the span of the 3-year cycle.  Less than ¼ of the whole Bible is ever proclaimed from our pulpits.

Why?  Largely, we do this so that we don’t have to deal with it from the pulpit on Sunday mornings.  We do it because a “visitor coming into our midst might be shamed by what they hear.  Or perhaps it is us who might feel ashamed if a visitor comes in and hears this story from our pulpit.

I’ve also been in churches where there Revised Common Lectionary isn’t used.  To be fair, I don’t think the scenario is any better.  In churches where the pastor picks the readings, the readings tend to cycle through the pastor’s favorite passages.  My guess is that this results in about the same statistic.  For people in those churches, I’d encourage you to ask your pastor how much of the Bible they’ve actually preached upon.

Back to the Story

Here’s the sad thing, though.  Do you know what this story is about?  This story is about the subtle deception of God’s people through lifestyle influences.  I believe this story is precisely what most American Christians need to hear today.  Sure, we don’t need to run out, grab spears, and run them through people who are being led astray.  I’m not saying we should do that.  But I am saying that it would do us good to see the serious issue before us about our culture being led astray from God piece by piece!

This story is actually what most American Christians need today!  If you look at the scriptural witness, what you see is that the Midianites are doing what other armies of the nations could not do.  Other armies marched out against the people, but when God opposed them the armies could not stand against the might of the Hebrew people.  So instead the Midianites fight subtly.  The Midianites engage in a whole different kind of war: a cultural war.

They say to the Hebrew people, “Come and join our feasts.  Come and participate with our luxury.  Come and experience our way of life.”  It’s the subtle call of one culture dominating another.  This story is all about cultural war.  Here’s the truth: without someone like Phinehas the culture of the world would have won over the culture of the Hebrew people!

Without someone like Phinehas today, the worldly American culture will win, too.  Listen to the call of our culture.  “Sit in front of the TV.  Stop being in meaningful relationships with other people.  Use Facebook in such a way as it demonstrates a self-centered life that is all about glorifying you.  Play video games that are inherently desensitizing your brain to violence and the effects of anger.  Listen to music whose lyrics subtly cause you to lose focus on godly living.”

Conclusions

Do I need to continue any further?  Do you see what the Midianites were doing?  Through cultural warfare, the Hebrew people began whoring after things that were not of God.  Are we any different?  Look at most Christians today.  Are we not engaged in a cultural war that most of us are admittedly losing?  How difficult is it in today’s day and age to not whore after things that are not a part of God’s directive will!

What is worse is that because stories like Numbers 25 are challenging and difficult to hear because of someone’s radical action … we bury the very message we desperately need to hear.  The Midianites are among us like a plague, and most of us are losing the war without even realizing it. 

Again, I’m not advocating we go out and drive spears through people who tempt us into sin; but I am saying at the very least we need to get serious about the fact that we are in a cultural war.  We cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the disastrous effects of living in a “me-centered” culture and think that we will come out with our faith intact.  Phinehas was no fool.  I guess this blog post pretty much puts me in league with Phinehas, too.

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Year 1, Day 139: Numbers 24

A Look at the Prophet

I’m going to diverge here from my normal pattern of looking at the text and applying it to life.  This chapter presents a wonderful case scenario for examining the proper perspective of prophetic utterances.  As I am fond of saying – and in today’s culture it cannot be said often enough – a prophet is not someone who sees the future.  Rather, a prophet is someone who speaks a message of God to the contemporaries around them.  The fact that utterances of a prophet have multiple interpretations into the future is not a credit given to the prophet but rather a credit given to the Holy Spirit for being able to interpret and reinterpret Holy Scripture as often as necessary.

For example, here we see Balaam giving an oracle about the Hebrew people to Balak and the various princes of the land.  Balaam is not speaking these words with a clear vision of exactly how this oracle is going to come true.  He doesn’t necessarily see the exact face of the “star” and “scepter” who conquers these people.  Rather, he is telling these princes to watch out, because nothing will get in the way of these people accomplishing God’s will.  The prophetic message from God is a message to the contemporaries that they better get used to these Hebrew people because they are going to rule over them.  That message is what makes Balaam a prophet, not his ability to – or inability to – see the future.

Now, does that mean that his words don’t come true in the future?  Of course not!  Just because we understand a correct Biblical designation of what it means to be a prophet doesn’t mean that the utterances can’t come true in the near or distant future!  What I am saying is that the fact that Balaam’s utterances come true in the distant future – not once but twice! – is a credit belonging to the Holy Spirit, not Balaam.

Truth in the Utterances

Balaam’s utterances do come true in his day, of course.  The Hebrew people do take over Canaan and push all the natives to the side.  Joshua is the first “star” and “scepter” who will lead the people through Canaan and dominate over them.

But these utterances also come true in the time of King David who does suppress the people to whom Balaam speaks in this passage.  King David is the first “future” truth of Balaam’s statement.  King David is the next “star” and “scepter” who will rule over the natives of Canaan.

Balaam’s utterances also come true in Christ.  Certainly Christ can be called a star coming out of Jacob.  In fact, some people think that this verse is the verse that the Magi keyed into when Christ was born in Bethlehem.  Certainly Jesus can be seen as the scepter rising out of Israel.  So Balaam’s oracles can be said to have come true in his current reality as well as twice in his distant future.

In any case, we should not get hung up on the necessity of Balaam to have “seen a clear image of David” – or of Christ, for that matter.  Balaam’s words were true in the day he spoke them for the Moabites and the Amalekites and all the other princes who were seated there.  That is what makes him a prophet.  The fact that they also came true in David as well as came true in Jesus Christ is something to which we should give the credit to the Holy Spirit.

Balaam’s Reward

Okay, that little lesson on understanding prophecy behind us, do notice that in the end Balaam doesn’t get rewarded.  He gets what he deserves, mind you, but he does not get compensated for his effort.  Balak promised to pay him well if he would come out to him and observe the Hebrew people.  Balaam warned Balak that if he did come out, then he would only be able to speak the words of the Lord.  Balak wanted him anyway.  So Balak got what was promised.  And although Balaam delivered on the promise, he got no payment for his trouble.

On the other hand, God told Balaam to not go.  God told Balaam that he did not want Balaam to have anything to do with the worldly trappings of life.  But remember how Balaam slipped from the absolute will of God into the permissive will of God?  So when Balaam doesn’t get paid here even after living up to his word, he deserves no sympathy.  He’s lucky to have escaped with his life – especially since he did it without God’s absolute approval!

So it is also with us.  Most of the time when we don’t get what we think we deserve, it is because we are living in God’s permissive will and should really just should count ourselves lucky to be alive.  When we live in God’s directive will, then God will provide for us.  So yes, Balaam goes away empty-handed for his trouble.  But if he’d have just listened to God in the first place and not been lured by the trinkets of Balak, he could have stayed home and saved himself the hassle anyway.

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Year 1, Day 138: Numbers 23

The First Oracle

In this chapter we have the first two oracles of Balaam.  To call them blessings is a slight misnomer.  They are more pronouncements of God’s blessing than they are actual blessings.  In fact, if we look at what Balaam actually says, he tells Balak that he cannot curse whom God has blessed.

So, if we look at these as pronouncements, then we can see these two (and the third one tomorrow) as having a chain-message.  The first pronouncement of God’s blessing is based on Israel’s calling.  The Hebrew people are a people dwelling alone and not counting themselves among the other nations.  In other words, they are a people separate – holy – unto God.  They are called by God to fulfill a particular purpose.  They are not like the rest of the world who seek to fulfill their own desires.  They are a people called to fulfill the purposes of God.  That is a high calling indeed.

I like the way this first pronouncement ends.  First, Balaam asks who can count the dust, or magnitude, of Jacob?  Balaam is acknowledging that they have become a numerous people.  But more important is the part that comes next.  Balaam says that he would like to die as one of them.  Balaam, a pagan man who receives oracles from God, is declaring to the current king of the land that he would rather be one of the invading people!

Of course this is an insult to Balak, for Balaam is essentially declaring himself a “Benedict Arnold.”  But perhaps even more importantly Balaam is recognizing that it is better to die in the blessing of the Lord than to die in the blessing of the world.  Balak can only promise Balaam pleasure in this age.  God uses Balaam to pronounce that blessings in this world are just not worth it.

That is an important lesson.  Yesterday we spoke of how Balaam was tempted the second time that Balak’s men came to him.  Here we see God teaching Balaam this lesson while using Balaam to try and teach it to Balak.

At least for now, we should focus on the words of the Lord as spoken through Balaam.  It is better to die in the blessing of the Lord than to die in the blessing of the world.  The things of this world are not worth what God offers to us.

Second Oracle

So now let’s turn to the second oracle.  This oracle contains a subtle hidden message for Balak and Balaam – and for us as well.  Do you hear how the second oracle begins?  God is not man, he does not lie.  God is not like the son of man who changes his mind. 

Again, what was Balaam’s offense in the last chapter?  Although Balaam knew God’s will, he tried God by entertaining the princes of Balak a second time.  Here God is using Balaam to pronounce judgment upon himself a second time.  God does not change His mind once He is set upon doing something.  Balaam stands judged by God’s own words.  God uses Balaam to pronounce judgment against his very own mindset.

Balak also stands judged because he sent a second envoy to Balaam in the first place.  Balak had the opportunity to accept God’s ruling but doesn’t.  Like Balak, we stand judged every time we try God when we know full well what His will is for us.

As for the rest of the pronouncement, notice that it is not so much a blessing upon the people as it is a declaration of what God has done for them.  God does not behold misfortune against them.  Sure, the people have sinned.  And a good number of them will never see the Promised Land because of it.

From a human perspective, the Hebrew people are failures like the rest of us.  But from a divine perspective, they were forgiven – covered by the blood.  God has made them what they are.  God has forgiven them.  Everything they are – even a lioness set upon devouring and taking ownership of the Promised Land – is because of what God has done for them.

So from this second proclamation we learn that everything in our life that is good, upright, and holy comes from God.  We should not give praise and blessing to ourselves.  Rather, we give it to God for He is the one who is at work within us.  He is the one who forgives the unforgivable.

Having learned these lessons – that the Hebrews are called by God, that they rest in His blessing, that God doesn’t change His mind, and that God is the one who deserves praise – Balak is no doubt furious.  Balaam warns Balak that he can only say what God has given for him to say.  But Balak takes Balaam for a third proclamation, hoping that Balaam will be able to give him something favorable.  Apparently Balak hasn’t learned the lessons at all.  The Hebrew people are God’s people, and God doesn’t change His mind once He sets His will upon something.

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Year 1, Day 137: Numbers 22

In The World

This story of Balaam should really grip us today (and for the next few days).  First, Balaam is a member of a pagan nation yet knows the God of the Hebrew people.  Second, he was a practitioner of the arts of predicting the future; yet God took something He considers an abomination and used it for His own glory in Balaam.  Third, he listens to God’s Word and faithfully proclaims it to the people yet he will eventually lead the Hebrew people into sin and corruption.  I think here we have a picture of just how dangerous it is to mingle with the world and think we can still truly follow God.  I’m not saying it is impossible – after all God has called us to proclaim His Word to the world.  But it is dangerous to live in the world too much.

I have to admit that when I first read through this passage I was a good bit confused.  At first reading, it appears that Balaam is doing a good thing.  The princes come to him, he invites them in to stay, and he consults the Lord.  This happens twice.  It sounds like a good thing, doesn’t it?  So then why does the anger of the Lord burn against Balaam after the Lord had given him permission to go with the princes?

As I am fond of saying, God is in it for the motivation, not the action.  God already made his desire known to Balaam after the first visit.  So when they came a second time, Balaam should have told them “No, go away, I’ve already answered you.”  Yet, because he invites them in and inquires of the Lord a second time he is essentially testing the Lord.  Balaam already knows God’s mind on this; Balaam is simply showing us here that while he knew God’s mind he also wanted to earn the favor and reward that Balak offered. 

Balaam is acting like that child who asks for something, gets an answer, and then comes back and asks again.  As a parent or teacher or pastor or whatever, doesn’t that behavior annoy?  If it annoys us, why wouldn’t it annoy God?

Here is Balaam’s problem.  While he knows the true God, he is also tempted by the possessions of the world.  In a sense, Balaam is torn between serving God and serving “mammon.”  We know that Jesus teaches us that the heart cannot have two masters; the heart will ultimately love one and despise the other.  By Balaam opening up his heart to the prospect of material gain he is putting his walk with the Lord into potential conflict.

In this sense, God is like the parent who says, “Fine.  I know what you really want to do.  So go.  Follow your heart. But you bear the consequences of your actions.”

So, the Lord allows Balaam to go in order to test him.  The Lord would have preferred Balaam stay put and listen to him, but the Lord is going to reveal what is really in Balaam’s heart to him.  Now we understand why it is that the Lord’s anger burned against Balaam even though the Lord gave Balaam permission to go with the princes.

Absolute Versus Permissive Will

This brings us to an interesting point of thought: God’s absolute and permissive will.  God has a plan for the world.  That is His absolute will.  God knows what is best for each of us.  However, God also permits us to go against His will.  That is His permissive will.  Just because we go against God does not mean that we cannot be used by God.  But when we strike out on our own we are living underneath His permissive will rather than His absolute will.

It is a pretty scary place to live in a place where we know God is permitting us to live even though He would rather us be living in another place of mind, though, or deed.  It is always dangerous to leave God’s absolute will behind and strike out into God’s permissive will.  It’s scary because God’s absolute will is what He really wants to happen.  When we are living in God’s permissive will, by default we’re not where God would prefer us to be.

Balaam’s Donkey

To this effect, God uses Balaam’s donkey.  As a beast of burden, Balaam’s donkey pretty much had to do whatever Balaam told it to do.  However, when Balaam’s donkey refuses to go forward against the messenger of the Lord, we see the difference between God and man.  God permits us to strike out and do our own thing, but He is constantly trying to bring us back into the fold even though He didn’t get His way.  Yet, when mankind doesn’t get its way we get angry and strike out in our anger.  While God calls to Balaam to bring Balaam to Him, Balaam beats his donkey when he doesn’t get his way.

Of course, this also shows us the limited scope of sight to which mankind has access.  We get so focused on the desires of our mind that we lose perspective on what is really going on around us.  Balaam gets so focused on the wealth and reputation that is promised to him that he loses sight of God’s absolute will.  He is unable to see that the Lord is directly opposed to his course of action, although his donkey is not blind to that fact!   So we learn to be careful about things in this world that blind us to God’s will.

Finally we come to Balaam’s donkey and its ability to speak.  Without sounding trite, this teaches us to listen carefully to the advice given to us regardless of the source.  Given the choice between listening to a talking donkey or a man offering us great riches, most of us will pick the wealthy man.  But yet in this story, where was God – within the donkey or within Balak?

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Year 1, Day 136: Numbers 21

A Favorite Story

Alright, today we have the bronze serpent story – so let’s talk about that first.  Notice that the Hebrew people specifically grumble against God and then they are said to grumble against Moses.  In the New Testament, specifically in Matthew 24:37-40 and its corresponding passages in Mark and Luke, Jesus says the two greatest commandments are to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  The Hebrew people within this passage break both of these commandments.  They speak against God and then they speak against Moses.

Now the question becomes: what will God do with these people who have yet again rebelled against Him?  The answer is simple.  God will do what only a just God can do.  God judges them as they deserve.  They have sinned against an infinitely good God and thus are deserving of an infinitely just punishment: death.  The judgment is decreed.

However, we also get a glimpse of God’s grace, too.  God judges; God provides mercy in the bronze serpent.  Although people are dying when they are bit by the fiery serpents, they can live if they simply look at the bronze serpent.

Here’s another neat element of the serpent.  Do you realize that even after God provides a way out, the people still keep getting bitten by these snakes?  Just because they have freedom from the death doesn’t mean they have been spared the judgment!  Just because they have been spared from death doesn’t mean they don’t continue to live in a world that is uncomfortable and may bring them harm!

This is precisely why Jesus lifts up this story in John 3:14 during His conversation with Nicodemus.  Jesus is saying that everything in the story that we have in Numbers is also true about His own position in relationship between God and the world.  So, let’s go down the list.

·      Broken commandments to love God and neighbor?  Check.

·      God does the only thing a just God can do to sinners: sentence death? Check.

·      God provides a way out of death for those who are willing to look upon it for salvation? Check.  Look to the cross, people!

·      Although we have the cross (as well as the promise of eternal life), we still feel the judgment of death upon us? Check.

That is why I love this story.  The story of the bronze serpent helps us really understand what God is doing for us through Christ Jesus.  We are no different that the rebellious Hebrew people.  We rebel.  We sin against God.  We even look back upon them and wonder how they could be so foolish while we yet do the same thing!  We are indeed not only the same, but hypocritical about seeing them through eyes of judgment!  We deserve death, and we get it.  But thanks be to God that He has provided a way out through Jesus Christ.  You can have a way out, just look to the cross!  You can feel the promise of eternal life.  Just look to the empty tomb after looking upon the cross for salvation!

Salvation by Grace

Oh, here’s another interesting tidbit about this story.  Notice that the solution wasn’t based on anything the people could do.  There wasn’t any medicine with which they could treat the bites.  Beating the snakes and killing them wouldn’t even solve their problem.  The only solution was to look in faith towards God’s provision and live.  So it is with us.  We like to think we can fix ourselves.  We like to think we can beat sin out of us with enough pious living.  No.  The only solution to our sin is to look to Christ and live.

Early Stories of the Conquest

Moving beyond the story of the Bronze Serpent, let’s not ignore completely the stories of conquest.  While the defeat of the native peoples is certainly seen as judgment – and we should not revel in the real judgment of human beings when we all know that our own time of judgment is coming – we can also say that these are victory stories for the Hebrew people.  So in meaning no disrespect to the judged Canaanites who were destroyed, let’s look at what these stories mean for the Hebrew people.

If nothing else, these victory stories show us the grace of God.  Although the rebellious people are not going to see the Promised Land, God is gracious enough to give them a taste of the promise.  God allows them to have victories across the Jordan River so that they can see that God will deliver the promise of Canaan to the next generation.  God could have let them wander until they were all completely dead, but God imparts some grace on them before they die.  In some respects, this grace is exactly like the grace of the bronze serpent and all the other implications of grace in the Bible.  Judgment remains, but judgment does not dominate.  Grace is woven through the deserved judgment.  That is something we can hold dear for ourselves, too.  Even in our rebellion, grace is present.

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Year 1, Day 135: Numbers 20

The End is Near

Numbers 20 is the proof of the beginning of the end.  Miriam – the priestess who helped lead the people out of Egypt dies in this chapter.  Aaron dies in this chapter.  And here is where Moses smites the rock and is told that he will not enter the Promised Land himself.  It is the beginning of the end.  Not “The End,” mind you.  God will go on with a new generation.  But for this current generation of Hebrew people it is officially the beginning of the end.

Aaron’s Sin

The question has been raised, what was Aaron’s sin and what prevents him from going into the Promised Land?  Well, Aaron pretty much is guilty by association – but not in an unjust way.  You see, one of the things that Moses and Aaron are repeatedly lifted up as possessing is meekness.  Whenever trouble rises against them, they pause to ask the Lord for guidance.  Whenever a difficult question is asked of them, they pause and ask for guidance.  And when they receive guidance, they go back to the people and give God’s message in a way that brings glory to God.

But not so here.  Look at this Water from the Rock Pt. II story.  They absolutely do pause and go to the Lord.  But when they get the message from the Lord, there is no meekness about them.  They return to the congregation and call the people rebels – and they were, mind you.  But rather than leading meekly and humbly in such a way as it points the congregation to God, Moses and Aaron lead angrily in a way that shows how they despise the people.  Moses – and by association, Aaron – don’t have a meek attitude when they ask the question “Shall we bring water for you out of this rock?”  They have a self-righteous attitude.  If there is anything that self-righteousness does, it is not glorifying to God.

As far as I can tell, if you are looking for a sin in Moses and Aaron, it is that they are self-righteous.  It is not that Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it – although he does that, too!  But if I had to bet, Moses struck the rock out of his – and again by association, Aaron’s – anger and self-righteous.  These things blinded them both to their calling from God to glorify God in their leadership.

I’m Not Altering the Past

Now, I know what you are saying.  “From youth I’ve always been told that Moses’ sin was striking the rock and not speaking to it!”  I’m not saying that teaching is wrong.  Certainly Moses hit the rock rather than speaking to it.  Moses was certain disobedient.

But think about it for a minute.  All throughout the Bible the emphasis is seldom really put on the action.  Emphasis is put upon the motivation for the action.  In Genesis the sin isn’t so much eating of the fruit as it is in trusting Satan’s interpretation of God’s Word over God’s interpretation.  The sin of the Garden of Eden isn’t so much the fruit as it is misplaced trust.  Look to David – who is a murderer and adulterer.  God pardons David not because he is innocent but because David confesses the motivation and repents of his sinful nature.  If the action was more important than the motivation, forgiveness would not be possible because the action cannot be undone.  Think of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (See Matthew 5 and following).  Time and time again Jesus reinforces that there are certain things that are wrong: murder, divorce, swearing oaths, etc.  But the most dangerous aspect of is the motivation for the behavior: anger, lust, lack of faith in God.

That is what I am getting at.  Certainly Moses’ action was wrong.  But the action of striking the rock instead of speaking to it is a pittance when compared to the arrogance with which Moses and Aaron approached the rock in the first place.  Striking the rock was nothing when compared to the self-righteousness they displayed before the Hebrew congregation.  Look at what God says is their sin in Numbers 20:12.  “Because you did not believe in me and uphold me as holy before the congregation.”  God doesn’t say “because you struck the rock instead of speaking to it.”  God is concerned with Moses’ and Aaron’s motivation first and foremost!

There’s your main problem right there.  Was Moses guilty?  In heart and deed: absolutely.  Was Aaron guilty?  In heart at least: absolutely.  This is why in Numbers 20:12 and Numbers 20:24 the “you” said in those sentences are plural.  Moses and Aaron are both guilty of not upholding God as holy at that particular time and they are punished for it.

A Short Conversation about Edom

So, I’ve spent all this time on Moses and Aaron without looking to Edom.  Remember that the Edomites are descendants of Esau, Jacob’s brother.  So they are kin – although kin from many generations back.  The Hebrew people don’t desire to fight their kin, so they ask for permission to pass through, paying for any resources that they use.  When that is denied to them, the Hebrew people still have no desire to fight their kin here, so they turn away and approach the land from another direction.  I don’t have much to say about this other than to remind us who the Edomites were and to point out that they chose a different route rather than beginning the conquest of Canaan by shedding the blood of their kin.

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Year 1, Day 134: Numbers 19

Dealing with the Unseen and Unreadable

Something happens today in Numbers 19 that nobody sees.  Most scholars assume that this passage’s timeline jumps the vast majority of the 40 years wandering in the dessert.  It wasn’t too long ago that the Hebrew people were beginning their journey as they left Mount Sinai behind them.  It was only a few chapters ago where they were wrestling with whether or not they can take Canaan.  Now in the story they are already nearing the end of their wanderings.

You might be wondering why people come to this conclusion.  Remember, this is just a speculation because there are very few textual clues upon which we can draw.  But here are the main reasons. 

• First, in this chapter we have a lot of instruction about dead bodies.  The primary concern for dead bodies would be as the evil generation dies off in larger numbers, which would have happened at the end of the journey.  After all, when that generation is dead, the next generation can go into the Promised Land!
• Second, in the upcoming chapter we have the death of both Miriam and Aaron.  That clues us in that we’re getting ready to change leadership.
• Third, it won’t be too many chapters before we talk about Joshua as successor to Moses.  That’s a big clue that we are getting close to the end of the journey.

 Tying these things together helps us understand that Numbers has now brought us close to the end of the wandering.

Dealing with Dead Bodies

So, what can we learn here?  Well, I apparently learned the lesson about touching dead bodies when we studied it before in scripture.  Immediately upon reading this text my brain said: “Remember the cult o f the Egyptians and other neighboring countries.  When a person died, friends and family mourned over their loss – turning the mourning service into a service of worshipping an idol.”  For many ancient cultures, ancestor worship was a big thing.  Some cultures believed their ancestors became gods.  Others believed their ancestors continued to exist, just on a different plane of existence. 

Ever hear anyone today talk about feeling like their deceased relative is still with them?  That is a cultural throwback to thousands of years of ancestor worship and our human inability to let them go!  It is inherent to who we are as human beings.  We cannot let go, so we invent and devise means of holding on.

The point is that hanging around dead bodies for too long brings about the perspective of seeing the ancestor for more than they are and at some level beginning to worship them.  God wants to be clear with the people: He is God, the dead relative is not.  There is nothing wrong with burying them, but it will make a person ritually unclean.  That ritual uncleanliness is there to remind someone that what we are doing is spiritually dangerous if we let it go beyond simply treating the body with respect.  If we let our thoughts and minds get out of control, we can be headed down the road of ancestor worship far too quickly and easily.  If we aren’t direful at times when important people in our life die, we can find ourselves straying from the worship of God.

Timeline for Uncleanliness

Just to strengthen my point about the ritual uncleanliness regarding contact with the dead, notice that there is a specific timeline given for washing.  The period of uncleanliness lasts seven days.  On the third day, there is to be cleansing.  On the seventh day there is also to be cleansing.  If this was not a ritually and spiritually motivated cleansing, why would the third and the seventh days be lifted up?  If this were a physical cleansing, what would be served by washing on those specific days?

The number three has always been considered the number of the divine in Hebrew and Christian cultures.  The number seven is the spiritual number for completeness (deriving out of Genesis and creation).  So the uncleanliness that comes from association with dead things is purified by specifically washing on a day that is to remind us about the divinity of God and it is finished on the spiritual day of completeness.  The point is simple: God is God, the dead person is not.  Even in our uncleanliness we are reminded that our cleanliness comes only from the divine.

So why make a big deal out of all of this timeline?  Culturally speaking, we tend to brush it under the rug.  Modern ‘civilized’ beings in the First World are really good at not even caring anymore about the little things we do that undermine our reliance upon God.  We don’t care that we are really practicing in ancestor worship – although we’d never stoop to call it that!  We don’t think to examine the little things enough to care that we are subtly undermining our declaration of God as being the sole source of life in our lives.  As modern people, we brush aside the ritual nature as we go about our busy lives thinking that it really isn’t important.  We as civilized beings are so good at doing this that it is scary.  Occasionally we need to make a big deal out of something that was so clear to an ancient people and yet is so foreign to a civilized people.

God is God.  We are not.  None of us.  Even our blessed dead are not God.  He alone is God.

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Year 1, Day 133: Numbers 18

We see within this chapter two striking concepts.  First, we see the issue of tithe.  But we’ll come back to that one because it is the most obvious within the passage.  The other topic that we see is the Lord setting up measures to protect the sanctity of the tabernacle and the space within.

Joyous Consequences

Numbers 18:1-7 is clear about one thing.  The Levites are a gift to Aaron, his family, and Moses for the sake of keeping the tabernacle free from ritual uncleanly behavior.  I find this extraordinarily interesting for one giant reason.  It was Korah and many of the Levites that led the revolt back in Numbers 16 that started this whole mess!  So it seems like God is looking to those who started the rebellion and saying, “You all are now in charge of making sure that doesn’t happen again.”

I think this is a pretty neat tie into the New Testament.  While we were yet sinners, God sent Jesus to us.  While we were enemies of God, God planned our salvation.  Now God has looked upon us – His enemies – and called us to protect His Word and His worship.  As God calls the Levites here to protect the sanctity of the tabernacle and the proceedings therein, so God also calls us.  We – originally His enemies – are now those who are called to keep watch while Jesus our Great High Priest makes atonement for us.  I find that truth absolutely striking today.

Tithing: Gratitude

That leads us now into the concept of tithing.  As payment for their devotion, God institutes a tithe from the people to support the Levites.  Out of this tithe, God calls the Levites to also tithe in order to support Aaron and His family.

The Hebrew people were to give out of their first fruits of the land.  They were also called to redeem any unclean womb that was opened. 

I’m going to digress here for a second.  Do you also notice that we are to redeem every human womb opened in addition to the wombs of unclean animals – but God specifically says of the animals that are clean that their opened wombs need not be redeemed?  It makes me wonder if humanity doesn’t have more in common with unclean animals than clean ones.  But as I said earlier, I digress…

The point of all of this is that the holy people of God should desire to give of their best to God.  They should desire to remember all that God has done for them and thus desire to come to Him with thankful hearts.  When we speak about tithing and giving to God, it first goes to the point of gratitude and thankfulness.

Tithing: Support

I’m not going to argue about numbers and percentages – although remember that tithe literally does mean 10%.  But out of our tithe to God comes the support for His worship.  That’s the system, and it is a pretty cut and dry system.  God’s holy people give of their first fruits to support His worship.

As I look at this passage, something neat jumps out at me.  The tithe is meant to support the worship of God.  The tithe is meant to support the work of the tabernacle (or in the future, the temple).  That’s it.  It is a pretty narrow focus.  God doesn’t want to burden the people by huge taxes to support all kinds of social service and care for the poor, etc.  The tithe is for the support of the worship.  The people are charged to remember the poor and the downtrodden and the orphan and the widow out of the rest of their money or food stores or whatever.  But the tithe supports the worship of God.

Beyond Support

Here’s actually the really neat thing about understanding this concept.  In every congregation that I have been a part of, the average percent given by the average worshipper was far less than a tithe.  Yet the churches still functioned!  Sure, there were some people that gave way over their tithe.  Of course there was, some people are blessed and called to give over and above because God continues to bless their generosity.  Yet in reality the church is able to be supported on an average percentage that is less than a tithe.  This causes me to look forward rather hopefully.  Here’s why:

Imagine if everyone in the church were able to actually tithe.  We’d have a surplus.  In fact, we’d have a surplus of close to 4 times more than we currently have.  The average Christian in America gives 2.5% to God in one form or another.  Now imagine a God-following body that understands this concept but is still devoted to tithing.  Imagine a group of people who do give graciously enough to support the church.  But these people don’t need to offer the pastor a larger-than-necessary salary to keep him or her around.  And they don’t do building projects to impress the community around them.  And they don’t suddenly buy all the latest programmatic activities for the church.  Rather, imagine a congregation that understands how blessed they have been to support their congregation with what is needed and still have excess to do ministry.  These are people who take their money and rather than funneling into the glory of the church they funnel it into ministries that they themselves create to reach the poor, the orphan, the widow, the lonely, the downtrodden, the sick, the forgotten, the homeless, the lost, the searching …

Imagine a church where people are committed to supporting the church to the level that it needs in order to worship God – but the rest is funneled through families on mission for God with each other.

See, what I am reminded in this passage is that here in America we are so blessed that our “tabernacle support” doesn’t even require a full tithe.  If we could open peoples’ eyes to a vision of families on mission for God and mobilize the portion of the “tithe” that the church doesn’t need … we could actually glorify God by changing the world through proclaiming God’s Word to the ends of the earth.

Now, I don’t want this to be about money.  Adding money never actually solves problems, it just creates more.  What I am really talking about here is followers of God who truly desire to follow God’s ways, listen to God’s Word, and do what God asks of them.  If we had churches where everyone within them had this perspective, then we could do some amazing things.

I hope this doesn’t come across as a whiney talk about money.  Because, well, it isn’t meant to be.  What I hope it comes across is a talk about how we as a community of followers of God have a long way to go in understanding what God is calling us to be in our world.

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Year 1, Day 132: Numbers 17

Absurd

This story is absolutely preposterous, isn’t it?  To think that you can gather 12 staffs, put it with Aaron’s staff, and get one of them to produce buds and even almonds is simply ridiculous.  These are dead pieces of wood that have been long ago cut away from their roots.  They have been moved far from their roots.  They have been up in the world exposed to the harsh dry air of the wilderness.  Simply preposterous, isn’t it?

Of course it is preposterous!  Preposterous means “to go greatly against that which is thought to be possible or probable.”  Of course this story is preposterous.  You can’t take a dead staff, move it away from its roots, expose it to drying air, and expect it to not only bud but to fruit with almonds!  You can neither do it nor expect it.  For that matter, I can’t either.

But God is the God of the preposterous.  God can absolutely do it if God wants to!  Just because something is preposterous does not mean that I don’t think it happened.  It just means that it goes against what natural human and reason should dictate would happen.  But God is the God of being able to do precisely what goes against human reason or expectation.

This is precisely my point.  When stories like this come along, I think it is good for us to sit back and remember just how preposterous these stories are.  We need to confess that they go against every single human piece of reasoning that we can muster.  But that is precisely what makes them special.  That is what makes them unique.  Only God can be the source of power for this story to occur.  Let me repeat that.  The preposterous nature of this story necessarily implies that God is the source of the power for this story to be true.

Pointing Us to God

When we take the time to acknowledge and confess that this story is preposterous – and yet still believe that it happened! – then it must necessarily point us to God!  If something is physically impossible yet we still believe it happened then there must be someone out there that is capable of doing the physically impossible.  To assert the impossibility of this story and yet still believe it happened necessarily asserts that there must be a God who is not confined to the rules of this world.  That is why I boldly declare that it is preposterous, yet I still believe it true!

What’s the Big Deal?

Now, why have I spent so long talking about something that at first glance seems bad theology: confessing the preposterous nature of this story?  Because we know this staff is dead, yet God brought it to life to illustrate His chosen priest.  God does the physically impossible regarding death to make it clear who the Hebrew people should follow.  So?

Well, I know this guy named Jesus.  He died.  We know that dead people don’t come back to life under the physical laws of the universe.  But Jesus did come back to life.  I assert that from the perspective of the physical laws of the universe what I just said is absolutely preposterous.  Yet I still believe it.  Just like I believe God can bring a dead staff to life in order to bear fruit, I believe God brought Jesus back to life to bear fruit as well!

Add to this that the Holy Spirit brings spiritually dead people back to life in order to bear more fruit through the same Holy Spirit... 

The fact that I believe something physically impossible happened necessarily means that I believe there is a God.  There is nothing wrong with confessing something preposterous – so long as if it happens we necessarily declare that it is evidence of God!  Such belief often only leads to even more great expressions of God’s dominance over the physical laws of the universe.

Another Relationship between this Story and Jesus

Oh, yeah.  I forgot to mention one other cool thing about comparing this story to Jesus.  Not only does God raise Jesus to new life in a similar way as the dead staff was made to bud and bear fruit, but God made this staff comes alive so the Hebrew people could all know who God’s chosen priest happens to be.  Similarly, God has chosen Jesus as the high priest. 

In bringing Jesus back to life, God makes it clear who our high priest should be.  Nobody can make atonement of our sins except Jesus Christ.  Not me.  Not you.  Nobody.  There is none but Jesus Christ who has been chosen as God’s high priest.

Furthermore, notice that God chose Aaron but did not deny the Levites their place of service in the holiness of the people.  What this means for us is that while Jesus is our great high priest and nobody can supplant Him, we still have a role to play as servants underneath Jesus.  We do not ourselves provide atonement, but we point to the one who does.  We do not ourselves provide forgiveness of sins, but we point to the one who does.  We do not ourselves provide righteousness or holiness, but we point to the one who does.  We are a chosen priesthood of believers underneath the great high priest of Jesus Christ.  Embrace that designation, for if you believe in Jesus’ preposterous – yet very real – resurrection, then that is who you are!

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