Month: March 2018

God had definite ideas for what the boundaries of the Promised Land were, and for the leaders of the people who would apportion the land for the tribes’ inheritances. Do we believe that God has as definite ideas for the interests of His people today? Do we bother to seek His input in our affairs? It would be easier if He gave audible commands like He did with Moses, but since He doesn’t, do we conclude that He doesn’t give us guidance in our affairs like He did the Israelites?

I believe that He is interested in our affairs. Our ultimate enemy is His enemy, and He desires to see that enemy defeated. He has invested much in enabling us to have a relationship with Him. He doesn’t treat us who are reconciled to Him through the Savior He sent, as redeemed sinners, but as children. Consider from your own family relationships what the latter point signifies about His interest in what interests us. So if He is interested, how do we get guidance from Him?

I believe that God can communicate effectively with us. Physiologically, we hear in our brains, not our ears. Might the maker of our bodies and all of creation be able to communicate with us via means other than our ears? One thing is sure: He won’t if we don’t believe that He will. If we are truly seeking His guidance in our affairs, and if we believe He will give us that guidance, we can proceed with pursuing our interests in full confidence that He will guide us as He did the Israelites. I often wonder if He doesn’t wish we would cease to expect things from Him that He doesn’t intend to give, and accept His ways of communicating with us without the drama. We would be a lot less frustrated when it comes to making decisions in our affairs!

Cities of refuge enabled justice. How does a society serve justice when a person is killed by accident? That is not an easy question. The blood avenger was likely someone in the family who would make sure that blood was shed in payment for the shedding of their loved one’s blood. If the killer did not intend to kill, but instead was a victim of one of those awful, messy situations of life, what constitutes justice? God’s answer was pretty clever, I think. The killer could flee to the city of refuge and settle there until the death of the current high priest. If the blood avenger found him outside the city, he could kill him justly. That seems pretty just.

God’s guidance about the inheritance of women shows that He is concerned that each tribe’s inheritance stays with the tribe. It might be interesting to consider why that would be. Do you have any ideas?

We have finished reading what may be the most difficult reading in the Bible! There are passages in Chronicles listing genealogies, but other than that, these books of the Law represent to me the dullest reading of the Bible. Yet they haven’t proven dull at all, have they?! If we can glean so much rich meaning from these the dullest books, there is absolutely nothing to fear from any of the books of the Bible, as I have stated before.

Although the Israelites were living in the cities and villages belonging to the kings they had conquered east of the Jordan River, they didn’t seem to have the idea that this was part of their possession. Perhaps they felt like they were living another form of camping- out as they squatted in those cities and villages, awaiting the crossing of the Jordan which would be their entrance into the Promised Land. Although I don’t want to over-spiritualize the experiences of God’s Old Testament people, I don’t want to miss out on this lesson about living in the land of God’s promise. Are we waiting until a certain time in the future, or gaining of a certain amount of ground before we count ourselves living in the place of God’s promises? We need to take hold of His promises now. If we don’t have a right understanding of what promises we have been given, we need to be in God’s word in order to gain an understanding. That’s part of what this year’s read through the Bible is about!

Notice in Moses’ response to them, he spoke about their crossing “over the Jordan before the Lord until He has driven His enemies out from before Him.” God didn’t see the Canaanites as Israel’s enemy, but His own. How do you suppose He sees your enemies? Do you suppose that He has as much interest in your defeat of your enemies as He did in the defeat of the Canaanites?

Once again God reiterated His harsh requirements for taking the Promised Land. The principle is that anything of the old inhabitants that remained in the land would be a lure for the Israelites, ultimately corrupting them. The corruption would bear fruit in them, coming between God and them, eventually leading them away from God. That is the nature of sin – it can never be the hidden thing Satan deceives us into thinking it can be. Rather, it grows and takes on new life as it constantly demands feeding, ultimately taking over. Harsh as it may seem, the old inhabitants had to go, which would remove the influence of their lifeways, their philosophies, and their values.

We might be tempted to take offense that God would treat women differently than men regarding vows, granting men authority over women to annul their vows; but instead let’s seek to understand God. The first consideration would be, did He mean what I think He meant? In this case, it is difficult to miss the meaning because He is good enough to repeat it several times. It was almost as if He expected our incredulity! Since He was so clear about the regulation, let’s consider what He intended by it. To dismiss it as discriminatory against women is to consider our ways and thoughts higher than God’s ways and thoughts. Certainly I don’t claim to comprehend God’s higher ways and thoughts, but on contemplation I can perceive a couple of reasons that this rule makes sense.

Women were always under the protection of men in that culture, and from some of the cultural norms revealed in the books of the Law, we can understand that there was a good reason for that. Life could get difficult in a home where a headstrong daughter or wife had desires and ambitions contrary to those of her father and husband. God’s design for those relationships took care to avoid such strife by placing one party in submission to the other. Where they disagreed, He settled the argument by designating who settled the argument. A special problem might arise, however, when the party who was supposed to submit claimed that she couldn’t submit because a vow she had made to God would stand in the way. That could present a considerable source of strife in that home. His regulations about vows prevented that.

Another reason it might make sense that a women’s vows could be annulled by the man whose protection she enjoyed, was that women can sometimes be overcome by their fluctuating emotions, and do some rash things. I suppose there were many women who were grateful to be relieved of responsibility to fulfill rash vows.

So rather than take offense at God’s disparity in His treatment of women and men, let us seek to understand. Peaceful relations in the home were a higher priority to him than equal autonomy between men and women. Doesn’t that make sense? Our culture has taught us some different values. Are there adjustments you need to make in your values based on God’s revelation of His higher ways and thoughts?

God allowed them to take vengeance on Midian for the Baal worshiping incident that cost them 24,000 lives. He says that vengeance is His, and we are not to take vengeance, but in this case the vengeance He took was through the means of His people. How do we reconcile the fact that they killed every male, burned their cities, and killed even the women and “males among the little ones?” As God had pointed out to Abraham, the sin of these people had reached the point that He was ready to bring judgment on them, and the instrument He would use would be the Israelites. As He would point out repeatedly in Deuteronomy, if these people were allowed to remain, they would influence the Israelites and lead them astray; therefore they had to be totally removed. History shows that a few of them moved north to avoid the Israelite invasion and lived. Israel’s killing of every male, young and old, and the women, seems harsh, but it was a matter of their survival.

Rather than being offended by the killing as Satan would like us to be, let us adjust our vision to see how awful is that which is corrupted by sin. It is dangerous to us. The nature of sin is to grow, as we have seen happen leading up to Noah’s day and in the Canaanites. If we are offended at God’s way of dealing with sin, we have fallen into Satan’s deception. Instead, we must hate sin as God hates it. One of the reasons we should hate it is that it will be deadly to us if we don’t get rid of it. If instead we allow some to remain in our midst, in our selves, it will grow and bear fruit.

Notice the way God directed the distribution of the booty. After the soldiers shared half with the congregation and then gave from their portion to the Lord, they were so grateful for the miraculous preservation of their own lives that they were inspired to give yet more. How does that fit with your understanding of God’s desire for your giving?

Among those “hordes” of people, God took serious consideration of the dilemma of Zelophehad’s name and inheritance. This account speaks to me about how important it was to Him that a family held on to its inheritance. Why would it be so important to God that a family maintain its possession of their portion of the Promised Land? It’s worth prayerful consideration.

Moses’ prayer for a leader to replace him made a difference for the nation of Israel. Joshua led the nation into the Promised Land and saw them settled. When it came time for him to say his farewell, however, he did not make the same request of God, and the result was disastrous. We’ll read about it in the book of Judges. These experiences remind us that we can’t take God or His provision for granted. We need to ask Him for what we need.

Imagine how intimidating it would be for any leader to follow Moses! Moses was rightly revered as a great leader; who could live up to his example? The people had threatened to turn back under Moses’ leadership many times; there was a real possibility that they would refuse to follow the new leader, who was going to be leading them into battle, no less. If they questioned Moses’ leadership, who could possibly fare better? God made provision for handing over leadership in such a way that the people would be inclined to accept Joshua, and they did. We must appreciate our God-given leaders for the precious gift they are, and support them.

This account of the required animal sacrifices reminds us that worship of God was expensive to God’s Old Covenant people. Their wealth was measured in these animals. Does our worship of God involve sacrifice? Further, the given remedy for sin required daily attention, and special attention throughout the year. Do we give it any less attention?

Why would the people of Moab invite the Israelites to the sacrifices of their gods, when they saw them as threatening enemies? Look at the outcome: 24,000 people died in judgment, a number that would have made any military leader proud if he had killed them in battle. Numbers 31:16 reveals that they did it on the advice of Balaam.

Why would the Israelites accept such an invitation? They likely did not intend to abandon God. Some of their reasons likely included establishing peaceful relations with their new neighbors, and getting this potential power of Baal on their side. Both reasons were flawed, for God did not intend for them to have peace with Moab in that manner. Rather, His plan was just what He had already established, that their security would be the fear of Israel that He would put in the other nations’ hearts. He didn’t need the help of their humanly wise efforts to maintain their national security! And of course the power of Baal was nothing, since such a being was simply a figment of man’s imagination. We wonder how their choice could possibly have seemed wise to them, but once again we need to learn from them. Do we rely more heavily on man’s wisdom than on God’s in our own life choices and ways? Do we trust God to take care of us, or do we hedge our bets with building our own security as our culture teaches us to do?

Another reason the people accepted the Moabites’ invitation obviously was the lure of the temptation of sexual sin that was part of the worship of Baal. God called their worship of Baal “joining themselves to Baal.” His view, which is always true, is that alliance with the other god means total separation from the true God. If we think our intentions to split our devotion between God and any other person or thing make any difference, we are wrong. Further, we will fool ourselves if we think we can participate and overcome the temptation. Even if that is true, why would we risk so much?

The leaders had to kill those of their own men who “joined themselves to Baal.” Can you imagine, executing your own people? That is certainly harsh, harsher than our culture can accept. Aren’t you grateful that we are not called to judge our fellow believers? However, there are the directives for church discipline and resolving conflicts in the New Testament that seem harsh to us. Do we treat them as if God couldn’t really mean them?

After the death from the plague that resulted from their sin, they take another census, which verifies that all of the generation doomed to die in the wilderness were actually dead. We generally treasure the promises of God, but in this case, His keeping of His promise is a sobering reminder for us.

Why this story about Balak and Balaam in all of its detail? Micah 6:5 records God’s reference of the incident to the people of Judah in the days of the security threat from Assyria. He tells them to remember it “in order that (they) might know the righteous acts of the Lord.”

It is difficult to know how to assess Balaam’s character, as we see qualities to admire, we see him cave to the king of Moab, and we see him end up blessing Israel, all without commentary from Scripture. II Peter 2:15 and Jude 11 give us the commentary we seek, and they evaluate his actions as one who has gone astray.

Balaam departed after blessing Israel, but he gave the king of Moab advice about another possible way to defeat “the horde” that was threatening to “lick them up.” You will read tomorrow about the attempt and its outcome, and it is later revealed that Balaam was behind it. I share this to point out that we don’t have all of the information we would like in this account. Having less detail than we desire may be a common frustration of reading Scripture, but don’t be sidetracked by the frustration and so give way to the enemy even one little bit. Rather, glean what you can from what you have been given, because God has given us what we need to know in this account and throughout Scripture. If He can speak to the dense Balaam through a donkey, He should be able to get through to us in what He has provided in His word. If He doesn’t, it isn’t because He is incapable of or unwilling to speak to us, but that we aren’t listening.

Why was God angry with Balaam for going, since He had instructed Balaam to go with the men? God had already commanded Balaam not to go with them; why would Balaam have to ask a second time? He obviously wasn’t fully committed to doing what God wanted. He wanted God to sanction his own plans to add to his prestige and profit. Perhaps God knew that he was going to give in to the temptation to do what the king of Moab wanted him to do, rather than doing what God wanted him to do, and was giving him a warning that would strengthen his interest in doing what God wanted him to do. God’s dealing with Balaam should give us confidence in Him with regard to our own affairs.

This was going on while Israel was camping peacefully on the plain. God used their enemy’s desire to curse them, to bless them, while they had no idea that this was happening. Might God be advocating for you and your protection while you are unaware?

The Spirit of God came upon Balaam as he intended to bless Israel. First God was angry enough to send His angel as Balaam’s adversary, then He came upon Balaam in Spirit form, then Balaam fell away. This is an example we’ve been given as a warning. He accepted God’s gracious reconciliation and sided fully with God, allowing himself to be used fully for God’s purpose in blessing the Israelites. Can you accept God’s forgiveness and seek to be used by Him? Balaam’s example also teaches us not to presume upon God’s grace or count on past victories to keep us from judgment if we sin.

What a powerful testimony, trading the lure of silver and gold for obedience to God’s command and conformance to His heart. But did he mean it? He pronounced the “oracle of Balaam” and not the oracle of God. His opening lines exalt Balaam and not God. Was he faithful to God or himself? He is a confusing guy, much as we are if we are not sanctified of our “double-mindedness,” as James calls it.

The account ends with Balaam returning home, but that wasn’t the end of his involvement in this story.

The water for purification (yawn!) had no practical value, only ceremonial, and only for one purpose – for purification after one had contact with, even as superficial as being in the presence of, a dead person. This required a lot of effort: the preparation of the ashes, involving several people, each of whom had to wash themselves and their clothes after performing their duties (think about washing those big woolen robes by hand – that was no easy task!), seems like a ridiculous amount of work for ceremonial cleansing from simple contact with death, an experience that would occur so frequently in a population the size of Israel. Why? The requirement speaks to me of the awfulness of death. Another indication of the awfulness is the amount of time involved to make one clean after contacting or even being in the same tent as a human corpse: in case you missed it, that was seven days. The water for purification had to be sprinkled twice in that time period, once at the halfway point, and once at the end; and failure to do so resulted in that person being excluded from community worship. This is serious business! If they were excluded from the assembly, they were excluded from the proper worship of those holy days requiring assembly – and that required expulsion from the community.

Let us recognize that death is an awful thing. Even though God imposed it as a consequence of sin, He hates it. We see it as a natural part of life, but it isn’t God’s plan for His creation. Think about it – He created with excellence, repeatedly evaluating His creations as good. How offensive, then, it must be to Him to see that creation deteriorate with age, and die. Much more so when it is a person in whom He invests much because He seeks relationship with him. When we suffer the pain of a dear one’s death, or when we face a scary diagnosis, we realize that death is not natural, but horrible. I appreciate that God here elevates its unique awfulness with these unique and inconvenient requirements. Does that appraisal offer balm for your soul?

The people still had not learned to ask God for what they needed, when He was there for the very purpose of providing for them! Instead, they grumbled – again – , shifted blame for their dead-ending in the wilderness, and looked back longingly to the land of their enslavement. Is God wanting to use them as a mirror for you today? “Search me, O God,” and don’t let me be like them! Transform me so that I am not like them.

Moses’ sin of striking the rock instead of speaking to it seems mild compared to the peoples’ sin, especially since God seems rather patient with the people. Add to that the mitigating factors of Moses’ age, the amount of times he had been down this same road with the griping Israelites, his weariness of wilderness living, God’s command to take the rod, and the fact that the rod had been used in the past and he was probably operating out of habit. So why the harsh punishment for Moses and Aaron?

There may be more reasons than are evident to us, but let us learn from what evidence we do have. They as leaders had failed to obey, had failed to believe God, and had failed to treat God as holy in the sight of the people. Leaders are held to a higher standard.

But look at what their words would have implied to the people: that they were the ones who brought water from the rock. Their job as leaders was to point people to God; instead they were elevating themselves. Leadership is a serious responsibility. We should accept that responsibility with care. We must be praying for our leaders, that they wouldn’t have a Moses moment in the stress of their duties. We had better not be pushing them over the edge as the people did to Moses!

Today’s reading finds the Israelites on the move toward the Promised Land. Hopefully they have used their time in the wilderness to prepare for taking the land. The Canaanite king’s attack would have almost been a blessing as a thrust into war, a victory, and a first taste of battle and what God intended them to do in order to displace the inhabitants of the land. Can we see some of our skirmishes with the enemy in the same light, as actions that incite us to battle, giving God a chance to gain us victory?

Why would God give Moses instruction to raise up a bronze serpent on a pole as the antidote to the serpents’ fatal poison? God had never done anything like that before, and didn’t again. Sometimes He does startlingly unexpected things; we will never have Him figured out! I believe that His mercy to these undeserving people was in large part a lesson to us of Messiah. Understanding fallen human nature, God knows that simple faith is difficult for us to grasp, and so He gave us this object lesson. These ungrateful and perpetually grumbling people did not deserve the relief from punishment; God, however, mercifully gave it. They didn’t have to do anything elaborate or painful to earn the salvation; they simply had to look. Looking on the serpent was almost ridiculous, and ridiculously simple, given the crisis they were suffering. To look was to exercise faith in the salvation God had given. Those who looked, lived. So it is with our salvation: we do nothing to earn it. It is given by God, and we simply go to Him for our salvation.

 

Imagine what it must have been like for humble Moses to be confronted by 250 leading men of the people. These weren’t rabble, but “men of renown.” Apparently they may have had in mind to lead the nation into the Promised Land on their own initiative, or worse yet, lead them back to Egypt rather than languish in the wilderness until they all died. God did not bow to the will of the majority then, and He doesn’t now. It may sound harsh to us, but recalling that He is all-knowing and good, it is actually a blessing. Do we see it as such in our churches, or do we think we know better than our God-given leaders?

Can you believe how ridiculous the attitudes of the people were? They blamed Moses for their going nowhere and for the denial of their inheritance that they suffered. They forgot that Egypt was the place of their enslavement and called it a “land of milk and honey,” obviously wanting to go back. Even after the dramatic assertion of God’s choice of leader, the people grumbled against Moses for the death of the problem people – the very next day! They still refused to submit to God in His choice of leader and their having to serve time in the wilderness. This story is an occasion for us to remember our own fallen tendencies,  ask God to search us for these kinds of behaviors and attitudes, and correct them.

The people died for their grumbling, and what were they doing at the end of chapter 17 – grumbling about being killed by God for their grumbling? That isn’t quite clear to me. What is clear is that God does not like grumbling. That seems to be an understatement given the harsh consequences He imposed on these people for their grumbling. Do we get that lesson? God does not like grumbling in me anymore than He liked grumbling in them, since Scripture teaches that He never changes.

Does that mean that He is not open to our requests when we are suffering in our circumstances? That’s part of the power of the psalm we read yesterday. The man of God would certainly be able to show us what a properly God-honoring response is, and Moses did so in Psalm 90. It might bear another review to solidify the lessons it can teach us, given that God does not like grumbling.

The numbers are being picked off….

Aaron’s rod didn’t just bud as a sign of God’s selection; it blossomed and bore fruit. God wanted His selection to be clear. This account teaches us that He does want to communicate to His people what is important for them to know, and He can communicate with them with absolute effectiveness. Do you suppose that He wants and is able to communicate as effectively to us today? He doesn’t often do so with miracles, but if we expect Him to give us the information we need, and seek for it, we will find it. It is often embarrassingly obvious once we realize how He communicates. I believe that He doesn’t often give us miraculous revelations today, because He has given us what we need to know in Scripture. The key is to know what Scripture says and make its application to our own lives properly. The only way to know what it says is to be in it daily, as we are doing. Then when a situation arises in which we need God’s insight or guidance, we can rightly ask the Holy Spirit to remind us of what we need to understand.