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Monday, August 20, 2007

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 20:28:48 GMT

Numbers 18
So here, God solves the perceived problem of the people from the last chapter, and further clarifies Aaron's status of priest. If He hadn't sufficiently demonstrated His patience sufficiently by now, this chapter has to solidify it. The people of Israel start whining because they didn't get what they thought they wanted, they continued to doubt what God had clearly shown them as truth, and yet He still cares for their concerns. In this chapter, these people are amazingly lucky that God is more patient than I, because frankly, I would have given up on them long ago. Of course, I'm also greatfull that God is long-suffering, because He should have given up on me long ago as well.

God really solves a number of problems in this chapter. The work of the Tabernacle would have simply been to great to be done by Aaron's family alone. The Levites were still feeling shafted by not being part of the priesthood. The people were so terrified of God following the judgments handed down in the previous chapters, they no longer wanted to get even close to Him. This was quite a mess. But then God, bam, solves it all in one step. The Levites would be the servants of the Tabernacle. This would spread the workload that would have been unbearable by Aaron's family alone, it gave the Levites a stake in the service of God, while still maintaining the decision of God to place he priesthood in Aaron's family, and it gave the people a group of God's servants that were more accessible thta could assist them in coming to worship and sacrifice.

It's almost like God knows what He's doing.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:43:13 GMT

Numbers 17
In this chapter, God ends the debate about who his choice for priest was. The amazing things about Aaron's budding staff was that it didn't just bud, it blossomed, and it grew almonds. There was no mistaking that God had chosen Aaron. God even told Moses to keep the rod as a reminder. The wisdom of this is evident when looking at the demonstration of short memories consistently show by the Jews on this journey from Egypt. Finally coming to grips with the reality that the priestly line was to come though Aaron's house alone, the people give up their quests to attain priestly office and turn to crying out from fear, or anger, that God had given my laws which would bring the people in close proximity to the tabernacle, but not being priests, it would be all to easy for them to commit an offense against the Holy Place of dwelling.

There's a good deal of debate among scholars at to whether this cry is the sign of a people finally repentant, or an accusation of a people lashing out in defeat. Either way, it is simply a warped view of the laws that God had given to govern His people. This misrepresentation of God's command is reflective of a problem that man has had since the garden. You might remember the serpent questioning Eve in Genesis chapter three about the law of God. When he asks her if God forbade her and her husband from eating any of the fruit of the garden, she responds by saying that they could only not eat the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, but the rest of the fruit they were free to eat.. However, she then goes on to add that they couldn't even touch it. Unless I missed something, that was never part of the original command. In fact, Here exactly what God says in Genesis 2:17, "but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." Of course, before we jump to blame Eve, remember that she had not been created when this command was given. So it's quite possible that Adam relayed the command incorrectly to her.

Isn't this exactly what we do when we have a rule that we don't like though, was start pouting about it, and blow it up in our minds so big that it expands beyond what we originally didn't like into something that we allow to be completely oppressive to us. Like where you were a kid, and your Mom tells you that you can't have a cookie, and you run to grandma saying that your Mom won't let you have any food.

Pastors also fall into this trap often when preaching. Sometimes its just easier to tell people that some things which are unwise, are sin. Or perhaps it's easier to get people to live better lives by exaggerating the consequences of something. But irregaurdless, the thought that God needs our help in polishing His message to get the results that He wants is faulty at best and arrogant and distrusting at worst.

God knows what He's doing, God is neither unfair or harsh, God merely desires the praise He deserves from us as we live the abundant life that He calls us to.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 21:38:40 GMT

Numbers 16
Ok, so here we have this group of people, leaders, who Korah, Dathan, and Abiram have gotten all riled up. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram lead the people in questioning Moses and Aaron's place as the leaders of the people. I don't know if these guys just weren't paying attention, or if their hunger for power had just so blinded them that they didn't care, but it should have been obvious to the people by now that Moses was God's chosen man to lead the people. In fact, it was not log before this that God has tried speaking directly to the people of Israel, and it was such a terrifying experience that the people themselves asked Moses to be their mediator. But here, Korah, Dathan and Abiram accuse Moses and Aaron of taking positions that were not theirs to take. The primary complaint was about Aaron and His descendants being entrusted with the priesthood.

People often get confused about the difference between a Levite and a priest in this period in Jewish history. Originally God intended for the first born of families to serve God. But following the golden calf incident of Exodus 32, and initially only the Levites repenting of their action, God replaced this system of the first born with the tribe of Levi. This is why we see the Levites caring for the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle. However, it was Aaron, and his descendants that would be the actual priests. Since Aaron himself was a Levite, often the term "Levitical Priesthood" is used, which is technically correct, because all of the priests where Levites, however, not all Levites were priests. Those who were not priests served God, the Tabernacle, and the priests in other capacities.

Now, its important to understand that Korah had a different specific complaint than Dathan and Abiram. Korah, who was a Levite, was complaining that Moses had placed the priesthood in the branch of the Levite family that was headed by Aaron. Dathan and Abiram were more concerned with the fact that Moses had taken the decision to make the line of of Aaron priests, along with other decisions, upon himself. Their's was a challenge directly to the leadership of Moses.

Moses decides to deal with Korah first. Moses tells Korah, if he wishes, that he and all of those who would like to claim priesthood for themselves should come the following morning with their firepans to offer the burnt incense offering at the Tabernacle. Of course, the law was clear that only a priest could do this, and God himself would judge any who transgressed this law, but if these men thought that they should be priests, then they should have nothing to fear, right?

When Moses sends for Dathan and Abiram to discuss their complaints, they refuse to come to see him, which exacerbates the longsuffering Moses.

The following morning Korah and his followers, 250 in all, showed up and the Tabernacle. Apparently not only did those who claimed priesthood show up but a large group of spectators and followers of Korah came to watch the spectacle. God, seeing this group of rebellious and contentious people, God tells Moses and Aaron to back up so that he can strike all the people down without hurting them. The ever benevolent Moses and Aaron plead on behalf of the larger group. So God lets Moses and Aaron warn all the people to get away from the leaders of the rebellion, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and God then opens the earth and swallows them and their families and all their possessions into the ground. Then God rains down fire on the 250 men that showed up with claims of priesthood.

You'd think that would be the end of the story, but not with these people. The next day, the people were upset that some of their leaders had been killed can accused Moses of killing them. Now, giving Moses credit for swallowing up people in the earth and raining fire down from heaven seems to be absurd, and we're only talking the next day that these people complain to Moses. So God then starts a plague among the people.

This is where the heroics starts. Moses and Aaron again plead for mercy for the people, but God had already began the plague, and people were already dying. So Aaron takes his firepan, run the to alter, gets some of the hly fire from it, runs to the midst of the people, and makes atonement for the people there sins. I love what verse 48 says,

"He took his stand between the dead and the living, and so that the plague was checked."

So the current judgment seceded, but only after 14,700 people were dead, not including those that were lost the previous day.

The story continues in the next chapter.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 23:17:32 GMT

Numbers 15
Wow, these are some strong words in this chapter. Again, we see that sin is sin, even if you do it unintentionally. When you trust in yourself, instead of God, you always end up in a bad spot. When you act, and and don't ask, then you've already doubted God, so the fact that your actions result in sin should be no surprise. But the strongest of words here are reserved for those who defiantly disobey God. Its not they they did seek God, its that they rejected Him. Both of these god back to the trust issue that we talked about yesterday. Reading the lanuage that God uses concerning those who defiantly disobey Him, though, is rather tough. I can't say that I've never know the right thing to do and done the wrong thing anyways. How dark, really, is the heart of man, is my heart, that it could ever see the truth of God, and reject it to fulfill its own debase desires? How great is our need for a Savior? How bountiful is the grace of God? How desperately to people need to hear that?

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Sun, 04 Feb 2007 03:21:04 GMT

Numbers 14
This has got to be the most absurd chapter in the Bible.Let's take this slow, so as to properly marvel and the inane thought process of the Israelites through this chapter. But first, let's continue our discussion of trust from chapter 13.

God is omniscient, God is Omnipotent, God is Omnipresent, God is concerned for us and wants us to live the best life possible. This is, the best life according to Him, not a life where we get good parking spots at the mall and drive fancy cars and make a lot of money. (Prior to a certain book coming out, I didn't really need to explain that, but popular bad theology is ever-present.) You see, God knows what satisfies us deep down at our core, what our soul was designed for, and he knows how to fill that need. If all of this is true, if it really is, then why would we ever choose to reject any part of God's plan for how to live?

The problem is, we don't believe that. Its not that we don't know it, I know it, I know other people who know it, its that somewhere inside of us, we don't believe it. I sympathize with Paul in his struggle to understand why he sinned. The truth is so clear. But still I find myself believing that I know better than God what will bring me joy and satisfaction. It sounds silly when you say it out loud. Try it. Say out loud, "I know better than God what will bring be joy and satisfaction." Doesn't that sound silly? But the thing is, there's a part of us, in all of us, that really believes that. Meanwhile, God is patiently waiting for us, saying "Just trust me." You see, sin is not, doing something that is what we think is wrong. That is the by-product. God's concern is not that we lie, but rather that we don't believe Him when He says that not lying ultimately leads to greater joy and fulfillment.

This leaves us with the question of how do we fix this problem of sin in our lives. The answer is not to train ourselves to stop doing these acts of disobedience. The acts are merely the by-product of the problem. I might even go so far as to say that the acts are irrelevant. What is "good"? What is "bad"? The problem of sin is solved for Christians the same way as it was the first time that they dealt with sin, though trust. This means that the question of spiritual growth in a persons life is not, "How much do you do the right things and how little do you do the wrong things?' but rather is, "How much do you trust God?" If you trust him more today than yesterday, then the fruit of your life will show it, you won't be able to hide it. Discipleship then ultimately moves past behavior modification, to growing your faith.

As I talked about this with a friend of mine, he asked me a great question. "If that's true, then what do we do about the sin in our lives? How do we learn to trust more?" I hadn't really worked all this out yet when I was talking to him, but that question led me to this. We learn to trust God more the same way that we learn to trust anybody. Testing and time. We need to test what God says. We need to test his plan. I'd like to take the pentetuch, "The Law" and rename it. While "Law" is technically correct, and even rather applicable for the state of Israel, I'd like to give God's rules for life a different name. I want to rename it, "The Plan." You see, this list of do's and don'ts is not just a random list that God came up with. He didn't arbitrarily decide that is was a bad idea to lie in court. God knows that society breaks down, and life becomes pretty crappy when people can't be trusted. And in fact, as we exorcise not lying, as we practice trusting God in this part of His plan, we gain more trust for Him in other parts of our lives. But ultimately, its not lying that is the problem, its this idea that we know better than God, that God doesn't understand the situation, that God can't come through on His promise to protect us, that God isn't there, that God doesn't care about my life. Every time we commit a sinful act, it is because somewhere in us, we believe one of these statements. Though we know the opposite to be true, there is something, something in our core, that believes that God is not trustworthy.

So we need to learn to trust him. Do we test what he says to see if its true. And we watch Him over time, work in our lives, and learn that He is indeed trustworthy. He is the God who delivered Israel out of Egypt. He is the God who has delivered us out of slavery to a life of doubt and despair. He does have all authority on Heaven and on earth. He does so love the world that He would give His own Son. He does have plans to prosper us, to keep us, and to change us to the likeness of Jesus.

This is the problem with the people of Israel. Upon hearing the report of the spies, they immediately despair and believe that God is not trustworthy. They're not going to go into the Promised Land. So, after Israel again not trusting God, He again presents to Moses a plan to start over with only him. Moses again pleads for the life of His people, and God again holds His wrath. Though, He does tell Moses that these people will now not enter the Promised Land. And then, and this is what really astounds me about this chapter, when Moses relays the message that the people won't be going into the Promised Land, the next morning they try to go into the Promised Land. Of course, they are soundly defeated and expelled by the first two groups of people they come across and return to the wilderness.

Friday, February 02, 2007

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 02:30:14 GMT

Numbers 13
This is the famous story of Joshua and Caleb, and the other spies, being sent into the promise land to give a report to the people of Israel. The spies see that the land is all that God had promised. But they also see the obstacles facing them if they are to take possession of the land. Here's the thing, we often berate these spies who bring back this bad report on how there are giants (nephilim( and that they don't think they should go into the land, and we talk about their lack of faith and how obvious it should be if God told them something that it would happen. Its easy to point fingers. But again, this picture of Israel and her failing gets played out in our lives all to often.

This all goes back to trust. Andy Stanley, when talking about trust, points out that it is the cetral request of God for all of us. Trust was lost in the garden, not God's trust, but our trust in him. And ever since, God has been working to regain our trust. He never did anything to lose it, but He still takes the initiative in trying to regain it. Here, Israel the spies are faced with a trust issue. Caleb speaks up in trust, but is out voiced by the other spies who, despite God's consistent and evident faithfulness and trustworthiness, can't seem to find enough trust to recommend going into the land.

We'll talk more about the trust tomorrow as we look at Israel's response to the spies report.

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 14:58:56 GMT

Numbers 12
Again we get a picture of the type of leadership that God desires for His people through the example of Moses. Aaron and Miriam, two prominent leaders among the people of Iarael, not to mention Moses' siblings, started talking trash about Moses. God steps in and personally lectures the two of them for speaking against Moses. He even strike Miriam with a disease. Of course, after seeing the consequences of their actions, Aaron begs for mercy, and no other than Moses steps in to plead for a pardon for the two rebels. "But Josh," you might point out, "It was Moses who they were talking trash about, why would he plead their case before God?" The key to that is the statement at the end of the first paragraph. Moses was humble.

Had I been in Moses' place, my first instinct would have been to leave Aaron and Miriam and move on down the road with the rest of the people. But here, Moses asks God to restore his sister, offers his total forgiveness for the ill words that were spoken about him. Moses was the bigger picture. He knew Aaron and Miriam were valuable as leaders, and more than that, Moses know that they were valuable to God. Of course God knew this as well, but the all knowing God, here, presents Moses with the opportunity to show his humility, leadership, and love through his pleading for mercy.

This begs the question for us, how often do we run to the defense of those who have wronged us? As Jesus says in the New Testament, its easy to show love for those that are our friends, but if we really want to reflect the love of God for humanity, we will even show love for those who act as our enemies.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 16:24:34 GMT

Numbers 11
If you've ever been a pastor, this chapter resonates with you're very heart. To see a group of people that you've been charged with shepherding, that have experienced great blessinging and miraculous redemption from God complain and whine about details that they would have prefered be different is heart breaking. To realize your own inadequacy to effectively lead and teach people, and to cry out to God in seeminly hopeless and inconsolible frustration is a natural response. But then He answers, "Is the LORD'S power limited? Now you shall see whether My word will come true for you or not." There's also a good lesson about living in God's provision, and trusting Him to provide tomorrow at the end of the chapter.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 23:55:09 GMT

Numbers 10
Here we have a few different things happening. First, God sets up a mass communication system. This has obvious practicle benifits when moving a large group of people on foot across a wilderness.

Secondly, we have the great scene of Israel packing up and leaving Sinai, moving closer to their destination. Of course, we will see later that few of those who are in this group will acctually reach their destination. We're given a breakdown of their travel alignment by tribe. The Kohathites would be the decendants of Kohath, the second son of Levi.

Just prior to the explination of the little speeches that Moses would do when they left and set up camp, we see something very interesting. Hobab tells Moses that he's going to go back home. Hobab is the son of Reuel, also know as Jethro, which would make him Moses' brother in law. Dont forget back in Exodus 2, Moses rescued Zipporah and her sisters from some rufians at a well, and the father of the girls, Jethro, who just happened to be a Midianite priest who apparently did a little shepherding on the side, thanks Moses for his chivalrous act by giving him Zipporah to be his wife. All that to simply point out that along with the massive numbers of Jews that were traveling out of Egpyt, was this handfull of Midianites. God had made all these promises to the decendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but had made none specifically to these few traveling companions who happened to be the family of Moses. So Hobab has this idea that perhaps in this world among the Israelites, he will be a stranger, and perhaps even fears being made a slave. But Moses assures Hobab that all of the blessing that are outpoured on Israel will overflow to him, and even points out his usefulness to the community, giving him a sense of value.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Sat, 07 Oct 2006 02:19:46 GMT

Numbers 9
So here we have God doing a couple things. First, he deals with a practical matter relating to Passover, and then we have a desciption of how He led the Israelites on their journey. I find in both descriptions something amazing, and that's the Israelites responses to God.

In the first half of the chpater, a situation arises where at the appointed time for Passover, there were some people who were unclean. These people come to Moses, disheartened that they missed their chance to honor God and sacrifice to Him on Passover. This is astounding. Could you imagine this happening today? Well, even if you get past how little we acctually sacrifice to begin with. But Think about a church having a service where they take up a monetary collection and sing praises to God. And there's a few families who can't be there, for a good reason, like a funeral. Then they come to the Pastor and request that he do something that would allow them to participte in the worship and the giving that they missed. I dare say that if the Pastor had a weak heart, this might be enough to send him into cartiac arrest.

In the second half of this chapter, we see the people following God around the countryside of the mid-east. At this point, at least, they simply just follow Him, they don't question, they don't try and figure out a better way. They just follow. What a lesson in how we should live our lives. Rather than searching the Scriptures trying to find ways to justify how we live, we should spend more time just following, putting aside the complexities of life for the simplicity of wisdom and truth.