Hi everyone,
I hope that since I've returned to a regular schedule in my life (after a week of finals and two weeks vacation), I will get back into updating regularly. By now, you've probably finished Numbers and made your way into Deuteronomy. So my blog is a little behind, but hopefully in time, I'll get us all caught up.
I just want to give some of the highlights from the readings:
1) The shape of chapters 10 through 21 is to show Israel's wandering in the Wilderness and the complaining they did during that journey. For instance, notice that in chapter 15, God instructs Moses on how to make a fragrant offering, and for the people to do this to show their gratitude to God. He also reminds them that they are to live according to His holy standard and not based on their own judgment. But then what happens? Korah and his followers rebel against Moses and against God. What happens to them? There is an earthquake that swallows up Korak, Dathan and Abiram, along with their families. Then fire comes out and consumes the 250 others. Then they complain some more and a plague comes out. So it's a strange scene where the people have this terrible attitude towards God and the leaders He has chosen.
2) Notice in 16:47 that it is the burning of incense that makes atonement for the people. I find this strange and interesting, since typically it is blood that atones for sins. I'd have to think about this further and contemplate it more.
3) God gets really angry it seems. I don't know what to do with this because God is "slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love" (Numbers 14:18). I find that troubling, but perhaps God's anger is somehow different from our anger. Of course, anger isn't a sin, it's when anger masters a person or when it leads to hatred or misdeeds that it is a problem. Still, God's anger produces a great deal of physical wrath on the disobedient, though.
4) Water from the rock: at first, it's like "Why did God get mad about this?" The problem is that they didn't follow God's instructions. Instead, Moses got nasty and struck the rock twice, instead of speaking to the rock and letting God demonstrate His power through all this. So God forbids Moses and Aaron from leading the people into the promised land.
5) Bronze Serpent: The people are on their way around the land of Edom when the people start whining again. So the Lord sends poisonous snakes to bite them. So the people realize what they've done and they ask for Moses to interceed with God and make them stop. If I were Moses by this point, and these people were my congregation, I might just be tempted to send out my PIF (resume) and start looking for a new job. But Moses intercedes and the Lord says to put a bronze serpent on a pole, and whoever has been bitten and looks upon the snake will recover from the bite. And that's what happened. Notice that Jesus compares this bronze serpent to himself in John 3:14-15, showing that He will be lifted up and whoever looks upon Him in faith will live forever. Without this story, you miss what Jesus is talking about in John 3.
6) I just find this one funny. Look at the end of chapter 21. "From there [they went] to Beer, the well the LORD told Moses about, "Gather the people so I may give them water." Then Israel sang this song: Spring up, well—sing to it!" So, in other words, they went to a bar and they sang drinking songs? Not quite. It makes me laugh to think about but this joke wouldn't make sense in Hebrew because the word "Beer" doesn't mean "Beer" to them like it does to us - the Israelites did not have beer to drink. But it still makes me laugh.
7) Balak and Baalam: Interesting that a donkey can in fact speak the word of God. And so, as Martin Luther once said, "If God can speak through the mouth of an ass, I guess He can use me!" True that.
8) The people of Israel start worshipping Baal... It's like a freaking soap opera. The men start having "all kinds of billy goat fun" with the women of Moab. Then those Moabite women seduce the Israelites into worshipping Baal. So God sends a plague on the people. When one of the couples comes by and makes their way to the tent, Phinehas follows them into the tent and kills them. Then the plague stops. So because Phinehas was obdient, God's wrath was turned away. What a story.
9) Then God wants them to attack the Midianites for what these women did to entice the Israelite men. So they take another census to see who can serve in the army.
Well, that's all I can finish for today. I'll keep working at getting caught up. But the point that I've learned from all this as a pastor, is that God's people are always complaining. It's like it never stops. But our task is never to abandon them, but to always point them back to God. Thankfully, we don't have to hold back God's wrath as often anymore.
Have a good one!
In Christ,
Pastor Nathan
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