Out of Leviticus and into the Numbers...

Leviticus 26:1 - 27:34
Numbers 1:1 - 2:34

The close of Leviticus is interesting. For those of us who have moved and grooved in Christian circles for any amount of time we're aware of folks who have an image of God as a vending machine: do the right thing and God will reward you, much like dropping the right coin in to the slot.
It is easy to see how someone could get this perception from reading this last bit of Leviticus:
Lev 26:3-6
If you follow My decrees and are careful to follow my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field their fruit. Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land. I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove savage beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country....

Makes is all sound pretty straight forward...but experience tells us that it isn't that simple.
So does that mean that:
A. This doesn't apply beyond a promise to the nation of Israel? (meaning no application to us today.)
B. This promise somehow changed over the years based on the coming of Jesus?
C. It was always going to be impossible to follow all the decrees and commands so the result was/is always in question?
D. This only applies to those under the law?
E. God really DOES work like a vending machine and if we're not blessed it IS because we're missing something?

I think I'll be musing over that one all day...

Then we start off in Numbers and it is easy to see where the book gets its name.
A couple of things caught my eye, as it were, at the start of the book.
One is the text note that says Numbers starts two years after Israel left Egypt.
I think I always had the impression that Moses went up on Sinai, met with God, got the stone tablets, broke the first set, went up and got a second, and they left.
I always wondered how God got ALL the rules and regs on those two tablets unless He was writing REALLY small.
It's apparent to me now that Moses has become quite the mountain climber as the people have been there for two years. There were not just the two but perhaps many many trips up the mountain for Moses.

The other little detail I thought was interesting from all the "numbers" is that Judah, the tribe from which kings will come, is by far the largest of the twelve. Even if you combine the tribes of Joseph's two sons Judah is larger. Interesting that the military strength and the mantle of leadership come to the same tribe...coincidence? I don't think so.

You have to love the way God covers the little details.