Month: February 2018

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Day 59 — Numbers 11 – 13

A year without meat does sound rough. But God was meeting their needs with the manna – a miraculous, abundant provision from God in the middle of the desert, on top of the miracles He had performed on their behalf leading them out of slavery. So who needs meat in light of that?!

Their desire for meat should have made them eager to enter The Promised Land and all the good abundance God had for them there. Instead, they looked back. Their behavior seems appalling to us, but do we do the same? There is much to consider here about God’s provision for our needs and about our response to His provision.

What if, instead of complaining against God when they wanted meat, they had asked Him for meat? He seemed willing to give it to them. We are instructed throughout the New Testament to ask God for our needs. Do we do any better than God’s Old Testament people did in asking Him for our needs? Complaining does terrible things in us and for us.

The people’s complaints pushed Moses over the edge. When God’s anger burned against the people in the past, Moses had interceded for them; now He complained to God about their being a hardship. Why did God not get angry at Moses for his complaints? Can you discern the difference, and learn from it? There is a hint in verse 11:34.

At some point Moses had been given God’s Spirit, the same Holy Spirit Who lives in us. That Spirit didn’t keep him from getting fed up with the people and the burdens of his responsibility for them when they complained. Can you blame him? Might our own Spirit-led leaders grow weary of us? Might the Spirit grow weary of us? If Moses can be pushed over the edge with the people’s complaints, can our leaders, as well? God, make us intercessors for and encouragers of our leaders, not complainers!

That Spirit’s indwelling did produce visible evidence of His presence in them. Do we exhibit the same? Should we?

Why did Miriam and Aaron complain about Moses’ wife? That obviously wasn’t their real gripe; it was an excuse to elevate themselves over him and perhaps not to submit to his leadership. God’s intervention was a dramatic and probably unforgettable lesson to them, and should have been to the entire nation. His defense of Moses was a defense of His own leadership, as Moses was the leader He chose for the work of leading the people out of Egypt and making them a nation under Him. Moses was His instrument, and failure to submit to his leadership was a failure to submit to God’s leadership. In fact, in verses 17:5 and 17:10 God equates their grumbling against His chosen leader with grumbling against Him.

Is it any different with the leaders God gives us today? Do we anger God when we fail to respect and follow the leaders He gives us? Even though Moses’ humility apparently made him not very leader-like in the people’s eyes, he was nevertheless God’s chosen leader. Does this speak to you about the importance of God’s given leaders in your life, and God’s desire for your “follow-ship”?

The leaders sent to check out the land saw impressive things that should have made them eager to take God up on His promise to give them the land, but they shared with the people only the obstacles they saw. This offers further commentary on leadership. These men lacked faith in God and proper vision, both necessary for leaders of God’s people in a fallen world. How important the choice of leader is! Character qualities of a leader certainly do matter. Does this help you appreciate what a gift a God-given leader is, and give you greater understanding of their need for your prayer support and encouragement?

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Day 58 — Numbers 8 – 10

That God would tell Aaron how to mount the lamps in the lamp stand reminds me that no detail of our work or worship is too small for His care if we take it to Him. Being a detail-oriented person myself, I appreciate that about God. Do you see revelations about God Himself in the instructions He gives for worship, that make you love Him more?

Once again we see those whom God had called into service requiring preparation for service. We can’t expect to jump into service without preparation when we are called by God. Further, He knows the preparation that is needed. In this case, in order for the Levites to serve in the tabernacle as a substitute for the firstborn of the nation, they had to be separated, they had to purify themselves, they had to be cleansed, atonement had to be made for their sin, and they were presented before the Lord in a ceremony. Do any of those steps speak to you about your own preparation to serve God?

The value of the rituals is lost on us, in our informal culture, but they had their value as marking a starting point of something new, the beginning of important institutions. We don’t observe many rituals today; do you suppose there is any correlation in our culture between our lack of formal rituals and our careless attitudes towards our obligations? I wonder if we could benefit by observing more rituals?

Provision had to be made for people affected by the messiness of life to observe the Passover. They couldn’t observe it in an unclean state, and they couldn’t fail to observe it, at pain of being cut off from among God’s people. Do these seem like harsh requirements? They teach us that God has standards for His people. If He had standards for His Old Testament people, do you suppose that He has standards for His New Testament people? He died to save us from sin, and we are expected to live saved from sin. Although we aren’t told at what point New Testament followers are cut off, we would be foolish to fail to conform to His standards and then find out on the day we come face to face with Jesus that He never knew us.

After the interlude of the making of the covenant, giving of the Law, building the Tabernacle and its furnishings, and institution of worship in the Tabernacle, the Israelites were ready to move on. They were no longer a nation of slaves; the year-long interlude had transformed them into an independent people, God’s people. One year, one month and twenty days had elapsed since they left Egypt; now they were ready to move forward into the land God has promised them – The Promised Land.

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Day 57 — Numbers 7

Every tribe gave the same gifts for the dedication of the altar, and God instructed that each tribe’s leader was to present his tribe’s offering on a different day. That’s twelve more days that they remained in camp, making no progress toward the Promised Land. Why twelve days? The animal sacrifices presented each day would have been burning in a twelve-day dedication observance. The dedication of the altar, which meant implementation of the regular worship practices God prescribed in the Law, was important and worthy of a lengthy observance. The time implies that they would have had time to reflect as well as celebrate. That speaks to me that perhaps we could benefit from some time to celebrate and reflect in observance of milestones in our relationships with God. We rush through life, generally looking ahead so that we fail to appreciate what God is doing now, often missing it completely.

I also appreciate the fact that although each tribe gave the same gift, each tribe’s gift gets its own day and its full description. That may make dull reading for us, but it indicates that each gift was worthy. That speaks to me of how God deems my own seemingly feeble gifts. When I think of Him not only noticing but treasuring my gifts, lost as they may seem, piled up with so many other gifts (many of which seem more impressive than mine), I feel treasured myself.

Moses now met with God in the tent they had built for a mobile version of a temple. Think about it: God spoke audibly to Moses from the top of the Ark of the Covenant. That meant that He was really there, just behind that curtain. That’s the first time God had lived in the midst of man since Adam and Eve. What a privilege!

Consider the privilege it is to have God in us.

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Day 56 — Numbers 5 – 6

The camp must remain pure. Again, the things that made them unclean were not their poor choices or deliberate sin, but the result of simply living in a sin-cursed world. These things defiled the camp if they were permitted to remain. The defilement could not be tolerated where God dwelt.

All of this may seem unjustly exclusionary, but given God’s holy nature, that is the way it has to be. Again, if we dwell on how unloving that seems, we are duped and drawn away by Satan as Eve was. The truth is, God’s intolerance of sin is one of the characteristics that makes Him wonderful. If sin and its effects can be removed from our eternal experience, that is good! Man’s sin and the resulting curse and all it brings were not part of God’s design or will for us; that uncleanness is not His problem unless He wants to persist in having a relationship with us. He is good to pursue that relationship and to give us a way to enjoy His presence despite our corruption from His design and purpose for us. Further, He is good to give us the information we need to take advantage of the opportunity to enjoy relationship with Him. Let us use the twisted thinking with which Satan wants to tempt us, as an opportunity to take our questions to God and allow Him to teach us the truth. Thus we can use Satan’s temptation in a way that will totally thwart him, to draw nearer to God by embracing the truth, knowing Him better, and glorifying Him!

We also don’t need to get hung up on the seeming injustice of the provisions of the Law giving all the rights to the husband and none to the wife if her husband were unfaithful. The provisions in the Law for divorce give the husband rights to put away his wife, but do not speak to the woman divorcing her husband. Perhaps this was because in that time a woman had little hope of survival, let alone a meaningful life, if she left her husband, because she had no way to earn her living. The provision for detecting adultery protected women from being “put away” unjustly, which doomed them to a poor reputation and an unfulfilling life despite their innocence. It also protected a husband from being duped into raising another man’s child as his own. The matter would be revealed by God in the ritual which would represent a husband’s asking for revelation and which would demonstrate faith in God’s all-knowing character and willingness to reveal the truth. Hidden sin would be found out and weeded out.

Does it speak to you at all about our relationship with Jesus being described as Jesus as the bridegroom and us as the bride?

A Nazirite was one who had made vows of devotion to God, like a monk or nun. The Law didn’t require such, but made provision and established guidelines for one who wanted to express his love for Him by devoting himself to God. One key provision was that they dedicated themselves to God for only a specified period of time. Once again, we see that this type of worship had to be offered God’s way and not in any way man desired.

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Day 55 — Numbers 3 – 4

After Nadab and Abihu’s deaths in the Tabernacle, how would you like to be a Levite and receive an assignment in the Tabernacle? That job would hold little appeal. God, however, was good enough to give them all of the organization and information they needed to perform their duties safely. We may find the assignment of their duties dull, but I’m guessing that the original audience found it very interesting. Why preserve the record for us? My guess is that it reinforces important truths that God wants us to remember.

Why did it have to be so dangerous? God is holy, and man does not approach Him of his own initiative and in his own way. Rather, man is granted access to God as a privilege, and with that privilege comes responsibility. Some of the requirements may not make sense to us, but that would be expected when God is holy; His “otherness” makes Him beyond our comprehension.

God is good to give us the details we need to come near to Him. He doesn’t need to bother with us at all, and the reality that He cannot tolerate sin in His presence might make His total rejection of sinful man understandable. Instead, He makes a way for us to come near to Him and provides a way for us to be protected from destruction that would otherwise result from sin approaching Him too closely. These instructions detail His goodness to man.

We can rush through some of these readings; I encourage you to use the time you save in rushing through the dull details, to understand the significance of those details to God’s Old Testament people. Then consider what they mean to us New Testament people. What praise for God do they inspire in you? Take the time to offer it to Him out loud today!

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Day 54 — Numbers 1 – 2

There is only a month’s time lapse between the end of Exodus and the beginning of Numbers. As the book opens, the Israelites are still at the foot of Mt. Sinai where they received the Ten Commandments, made the covenant with God and established worship in the Tabernacle as described in Exodus and Leviticus. It is now one year and one month since they left Egypt. Having established a covenant relationship with God, which now defines their national identity, they are ready to move forward to occupy the land of God’s promise.

The book of Numbers gets its name from the two censuses that take place in it – one in the beginning and one at the end -, which are an appropriate beginning and end of the story told in this book. It covers forty years of history and takes place in the wilderness of what we now call the Sinai Peninsula and southern Levant.

Just as with the dullest passages of Leviticus, if we can get a blessing from the description of the first census and the organization of the Israelites’ camp, we can appreciate the most challenging passages of the Bible. So what can we get from today’s very dull reading?

Man’s best current scholarship tells us that the Bible grossly exaggerates the numbers of the Exodus; in other words, the Bible lies. If there were 603,550 men of fighting age who left Egypt, not including the Levites (who numbered 22,000), how many people might you guess left Egypt? Three million might be a conservative estimate, if you do the math and if they were as prolific as the comments of the Egyptian midwives implied. The reason so-called scholars believe that number is vastly inflated is because that many people would take forever to get out of Egypt. The column, they claim, would snake all across the Sinai Peninsula when the first of the people were entering the Promised Land.

God’s word states the numbers very clearly – twice. We have a choice to believe God or believe man. No living witness was there to see it, except God. He is honored by our faith. On the other hand, if we don’t believe what He tells us in His word in this one small detail, what else can’t we believe that His word tells us? The choice to believe God or man in this matter carries a lot of importance. What do you choose?

That number also represents God’s faithfulness to His covenant with Abraham and further promises to Abraham and Jacob (Genesis 15:13-16 and Genesis 46:3-4).

That many people traveling, setting up camp, breaking camp and getting into formation would be chaos. Once again, God addressed this basic need with the plan of organization that He laid out here. Organization is good; with that many people it’s necessary. God not only provided food and water for them; He provided a plan for getting them organized. That teaches me that God understands all of our needs and has a way to meet them. What need of yours do you need to trust Him for today?

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Day 53 — Leviticus 26 – 27

Note the progression God says may happen in his people if they don’t obey the Law: they do not obey, and He brings consequences. They act with hostility toward Him in the suffering of the consequences He brings upon them, and don’t obey then, either. They have blown their second chance, being further driven from Him in their trials.

His goal in sending the difficulties was not to punish, but to turn them back to Him. If they failed to turn, He wouldn’t give up on them, but continue to try to get them to turn. How would God do that? Think about it: how does God get the attention of disobedient people? How many effective means of getting their attention does He have? How easy is it for God get your attention?

Often in the trials brought to us by God in an attempt to turn us around, we see God as mean to bring such trials. Understand that He is not a mean God, but a loving God! He could leave us alone; instead He pursues us. It is a lie of Satan that the trials are an indication of a mean character. How sad it must make God that His loving actions are misinterpreted thus.

God would continue trying to get their attention by sending difficulties, until their land and all they built and valued would be destroyed, and they would be scattered, no longer a nation, for His soul would abhor them. They would “rot.” It’s inconceivable that, given that warning, the people and their leaders would ever let their disobedience go anywhere near that far. However, history records that, crazily, they did. Look at what sin has done to them, and learn, for we are just as capable of taking the same path. The reminder in today’s reading is as compelling an opportunity for our reflection as it should have been for them.

Humbling themselves before Him and confessing their sin would turn around the spiraling catastrophes. Humility and confession. Knowing that sin has a hardening effect on us, why not just plan to stay humble by searching oneself regularly and confessing sin?

God took seriously a person’s vow to dedicate something to Him. He expected them to fulfill their vows; however, He gave them a way out of a vow later regretted. That way out required them to pay 120% of the value. There were some things that could not be redeemed thus: first-born animals (recall that they were set apart as God’s after He had saved the Israelites’ firstborn on the first Passover) and anything that God declared to be “banned” as war booty. The latter is the explanation for that startling requirement in verse 27:29. Can you relate any of these requirements or prohibitions to the work Messiah has done for us?

So we have finished reading another book of the Law, one of the most dreaded and least loved; and I, at least, have gained much from it. I hope you have, too. Once again, if we can gain insights from Leviticus, we need not dread any of the books of the Bible. Congratulate yourself for sticking with the Bible reading thus far and making it through some difficult reading!

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Day 52 — Leviticus 24 – 25

Does death seem like a harsh punishment for cursing God? Let us understand how serious an affront that behavior is to God. How much cursing do you suppose was heard among the people after that lesson?

The weekly Sabbath of rest for the people, the seventh year Sabbath of rest for the land, and the Year of Jubilee are startling distinguishing marks of God’s Old Testament people. Those practices seemed like foolishness! They had multiple purposes:

  • training the people to rely on God’s provision rather than their own efforts;
  • increasing their faith in God;
  • giving them, their working animals, and the land a rest;
  • giving them an opportunity to take care of other matters besides cultivating and harvesting, such as maintenance;
  • teaching them that there are more important things than accruing wealth;
  • caring for the needs of the poor;
  • preserving inheritance; and
  • distinguishing them from other peoples and building their unity and identity as a people.

Which of these values might God want to deepen in you as you are confronted with this practical and startling requirement for His Old Testament people?

Does it offend you that the Law given by God seems to sanction slavery? God is acknowledging yet another horrifying fact of life in this sin-cursed world. His requirements also gave humane guidelines for the practice, which if followed make slavery look nothing like what it did in our nation’s history. In that culture, desperately needy people found slavery an alternative preferable to starving. God’s provision made it sort of a bankruptcy protection for people who had fallen on bad times. Given the guidelines of the Law, slavery is a more attractive option than debtor’s prison or other alternatives societies have devised. Isn’t God good to give those guidelines?

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Day 51 — Leviticus 22 – 23

Does it seem unfair to you that God excluded men with deformities from the priesthood, as we read in yesterday’s chapters? We can perhaps understand that animals with defects were not acceptable sacrifices; but to discriminate against a handicapped man, especially for something that was not his fault, seems cruel to us. Is God cruel and unfair? The whole counsel of Scripture tells us that He is not; so what can you understand from His restrictions against men with deformities?

The observance of God-given holidays was part of their covenant requirements. Each has a significance for us New Testament people of God as well. The holidays are, in chronological order:

  • The first three holy days were celebrated together. When the day would come that God would designate a place to build a temple, they would be celebrated in a single pilgrimage.
    • First month/day 1 – Passover. We have looked at this already at the institution of the Passover after the Exodus. It is celebrated at about the same time as Easter, which is easy for us to remember because Jesus was crucified during the Passover celebration. The connection to us is obvious, but no less profound for it: Jesus is our Passover Lamb.
    • First month/day 15, for 7 days – Feast of Unleavened Bread. No laborious work was to be done on the first and seventh days. Throughout the seven days, special offerings were made to God and they had to eat unleavened bread to commemorate the Exodus. Note that Jesus used leaven to signify sin. Today Jews will do their spring cleaning in preparation for this feast, to make sure that no yeast is in their homes. Do you get the significance for us?
    • First harvest of grain (April) – Firstfruits. They had to offer to God the very first of their harvest of grain, which would be the choicest of the harvest. They were permitted to eat none of the new harvest until this offering was brought to the priest. This connection isn’t so obvious. It’s that Jesus if the “first fruits” of those of us who will rise from the dead; its significance is hope.
  • 50 days after the Firstfruits offering (June) – Feast of Weeks. A celebration of the harvest, where they offered bread and animal sacrifices, held a “holy convocation” (solemn assembly) and were permitted to do no laborious work. It was to be celebrated as a pilgrimage. In the New Testament this was called Pentecost, and it brought Jews from all over the world to Jerusalem to witness the first infilling of the Holy Spirit in the ascended Jesus’ followers. New Testament believers who celebrate Pentecost today are celebrating the giving of the Holy Spirit.
  • Seventh month/day 1 – Feast of Trumpets. They were to rest, blow trumpets as a remembrance, hold a solemn assembly, and offer an animal sacrifice. This day looks forward to Jesus’ Second Coming, which will be accompanied by the sounding of trumpets.
  • Seventh month/day 10 – Day of Atonement. The priest made atonement for the people, the Tabernacle and its articles of worship; they held a solemn assembly; and they were to rest, doing no work of any kind, and reflect and humble themselves and offer animal sacrifices.
  • Seventh month/day 15 for 8 days – Feast of Booths/Feast of Tabernacles. They were to hold solemn assemblies and do no laborious work on the first and eighth days. For all eight days they camped out in booth-like shelters and offered sacrifices to God. This relaxing week represented the end of harvest for all the crops, and recalled the days they lived in the wilderness. It is significant for us as we look forward to the time when we are no longer pilgrims.

These days were given to them for multiple purposes. All of them required rest; almost all of them commemorated God’s provision for them and thus were celebrations of remembrance. Three of them required observance at the Tabernacle and, in the future, the Temple in Jerusalem, which would require them to gather as a nation, enhancing unity and a strong sense of identify as a people. If these were important for God’s people then, are they any less important now? Does understanding His requirements prompt you to consider your own holiday observances?

I provide the outline here as a reference for you, because God will reiterate the required holy days again in the Law, and describe them more fully. They are important for us because each has significance for us as well as for God’s Old Testament people, either because they help us understand what Messiah has done for us, or another truth relating to our salvation. You can reflect on that significance based on what you know about them.

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Day 50 — Leviticus 19 – 21

These chapters repeat the highlights of the Law and enlarge upon some of its requirements. Again, it may be dull reading for us, but we can appreciate God’s goodness in giving His people all the information they needed to worship Him appropriately, especially since the consequences of inappropriate worship were so severe. He has preserved them here for us for a reason; we are challenged today to understand what He wants us to understand from them.

What does it mean that these requirements are not given to us in the New Testament? I encourage you to consider not what your church believes, but what God is showing you.

  • Does the absence of these commands in the New Testament mean that none of them apply to us? If that is the case, what does it teach you about the work Messiah has done on your behalf? One thing it cannot mean is that our salvation is cheap, for God Himself paid a dear price for it. In comparison to the requirements imposed on His Old Testament people as condition for relationship with God, simple faith seems a very cheap price to pay for relationship with Him. Given our human tendency not to value that for which we haven’t paid fully (and certainly God knows that about us!), it seems unlikely that God would want to limit our part in our salvation to simple faith. The New Testament sheds some light on this, and this blog will have to delay further discussion on it until then. But we don’t have to wait to understand; God can certainly reveal His will to each one of us. These readings give us an opportunity to seek His revelation to each of us about what He wants for our relationships with Him.
  • Since Jesus came to fulfill the Law and not abolish it, do all of these requirements apply to us? If we truly are seeking to know Him, should we reject Old Testament Law without considering what it reveals about God’s desire for people who have relationship with Him?

God speaks often here of being holy. These commands are all to that end. The justification He offers for their being so is that He is holy. Holiness is not something we understand well, because we have no experience by which to reference it. Since we learn by making connections to something we already know, and we have no experience on which to base our understanding of holiness, we need to rely on God’s revelation in His word and His Holy Spirit to understand the idea of holiness. The best definition I have heard of holiness is one offered by R.C. Sproul: it means to be “other” – other than what we are. That definition challenges us to consider prayerfully what God wants to teach us about Himself and His requirements and desires for us.

The expectation for His people to be holy is not just an Old Testament concept. The New Testament doesn’t speak practically about holiness as much as the Old Testament does, so the Old offers a practical teaching for New Testament seekers. This passage teaches us that being holy means being:

  • Set apart by God for special relationship with Him. This is a privilege not to be taken for granted and not to be a reason for pride but rather humility, for it is not my doing but God’s. With privilege always comes responsibility.
  • Distinct from other people – in one’s appearance, behavior, values.
  • Pure

Note the first requirements for holy living that God offers here:

  • Number 1: Every one shall reverence his parents – no conditions given. And it is brought up a second time in this summary, adding the consequence of death.
  • Number 2: Keeping the Sabbath.

These came before the command not to turn to idols. They must be important to God. Are they important to you?

Consider the requirement about gathering the gleanings of the fields and vineyards: as someone who is not a farmer, I can reject those kinds of commands, right? Well, a true seeker will seek to understand the principle behind the command, so as to please God in his or her own affairs. Is the principle one of laziness or carelessness with God’s abundance to us? The whole counsel of Scripture would answer “No.” The principle is one of caring for the poor.

Consider each requirement prayerfully, seeking first what God was requiring of His Old Testament people, and then what He wants you to understand about His desires for you. Some hints for you:

  • The prohibitions against trimming hair and beards was not commanding them to look unkempt, but to look different, behave differently, and hold different values in a world where men elaborately styled their hair and beards.
  • Molech was a god worshiped by one of the peoples living in Canaan. Their practice in desperate times was killing their children in sacrifice to appease an unresponsive god. God’s requirements cost His people dearly, but emphatically not in that manner.