If you're reading through the bible in a year you've made it two months today...way to go!!
Numbers 4:34 - 6:27
I freely confess I don't get the whole piece in Numbers 5:11 -29.
I do understand the ritualistic punishment of the woman but you would think there would be something in there about the male adulterer too. I suppose culturally there must have been something about the position of women that made it easier for them to "fall prey" and harder to find the man responsible...but still...seems like the guys are off the hook.
The Nazarite vow thing is cool...that knowledge will come in handy when we read about Samson later...especially given that he breaks his vow. I knew the hair growing was symbolic as was the shaving...I'm looking forward to reading his story to see what is going on when his head DOES get shaved.
The poetic blessing at the end of chapter 6 is one of my favorite passages. I've used it a number of times when doing baptisms:
The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace
...and may He do all that as you enter the third month of reading.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Moving the Tabernacle
Numbers 4:34 - 6:27
The book of Numbers is one of those seemingly repetitive bits that are tough to read through if you don't try to pay some attention with your imagination.
If you add up all of the metal pieces used in the tabernacle the weight of those alone is, if I recall correctly, something just under 8 or 9 tons. The curtains and wood would not be light either so there is a LOT of weight to haul around here.
What struck me reading through this though is the seriousness with which the process was to be undertaken. People not following the orders correctly weren't just reprimanded...they died.
Death was a very real option if you didn't observe the correct 'ritual' in the tear down, moving, and setting up of the tabernacle.
Now, I know we're no longer under the law, and I know that this is old versus new testament stuff, but it did strike me as an almost comical comparison when reading through these regulations...what would one of these Levite clansman think today if they were to walk into one of our church services and see us passing around a basket full of little plastic, double lidded containers that had a styro-foam wafer under the first lid and a bit of overly sweetened purple water under the second?
I know God reads the heart...maybe mine needs a little more ritualistic respect on Sundays...even if the goodies being passed don't warrant it.
The book of Numbers is one of those seemingly repetitive bits that are tough to read through if you don't try to pay some attention with your imagination.
If you add up all of the metal pieces used in the tabernacle the weight of those alone is, if I recall correctly, something just under 8 or 9 tons. The curtains and wood would not be light either so there is a LOT of weight to haul around here.
What struck me reading through this though is the seriousness with which the process was to be undertaken. People not following the orders correctly weren't just reprimanded...they died.
Death was a very real option if you didn't observe the correct 'ritual' in the tear down, moving, and setting up of the tabernacle.
Now, I know we're no longer under the law, and I know that this is old versus new testament stuff, but it did strike me as an almost comical comparison when reading through these regulations...what would one of these Levite clansman think today if they were to walk into one of our church services and see us passing around a basket full of little plastic, double lidded containers that had a styro-foam wafer under the first lid and a bit of overly sweetened purple water under the second?
I know God reads the heart...maybe mine needs a little more ritualistic respect on Sundays...even if the goodies being passed don't warrant it.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
More and even MORE Regulations
Leviticus 16:1 - 25:55
Tough reading here? Sure..sounds a bit tedious and even repetitive doesn't it?
I think there are several things going on through these regulations:
1. God is setting Himself and His people apart. Making distinctions in behavior between them and the surrounding nations.
2. God is setting the priesthood apart as a symbol of that which is holy, 'set apart', vs that which is not. Hence all of the regulations around what they are to wear, how they are to wash, what they are to eat, etc.
3. God is setting up a 'calendar of remembrance' so that the various festivals recall what he has done for His people in a way of reminding them for generations to come what God did in the lives of their ancestors.
4. God is reinforcing the truth that the land is His and the people are His...and are His tenants. Hence the regulations around sabbath and the year of jubilee.
Read these chapters with those themes in mind.
Read them with an understanding too of just how complex the requirements of living under the law really are...not because God made them up arbitrarily but because they signify something intentional about our relationship to Him.
When we begin to understand just how complex it would be to live under the law, undertsnad how many details are required of us just to meet the minimum standard...then Jesus work on the cross starts to take on an even deeper/richer meaning.
He fulfilled ALL of that on our behalf.
We're set free in more ways than we even can imagine.
Tough reading here? Sure..sounds a bit tedious and even repetitive doesn't it?
I think there are several things going on through these regulations:
1. God is setting Himself and His people apart. Making distinctions in behavior between them and the surrounding nations.
2. God is setting the priesthood apart as a symbol of that which is holy, 'set apart', vs that which is not. Hence all of the regulations around what they are to wear, how they are to wash, what they are to eat, etc.
3. God is setting up a 'calendar of remembrance' so that the various festivals recall what he has done for His people in a way of reminding them for generations to come what God did in the lives of their ancestors.
4. God is reinforcing the truth that the land is His and the people are His...and are His tenants. Hence the regulations around sabbath and the year of jubilee.
Read these chapters with those themes in mind.
Read them with an understanding too of just how complex the requirements of living under the law really are...not because God made them up arbitrarily but because they signify something intentional about our relationship to Him.
When we begin to understand just how complex it would be to live under the law, undertsnad how many details are required of us just to meet the minimum standard...then Jesus work on the cross starts to take on an even deeper/richer meaning.
He fulfilled ALL of that on our behalf.
We're set free in more ways than we even can imagine.
Friday, February 20, 2009
All these regulations...
Leviticus 8:1 - 15:33
I had a couple people ask about the blog this past week wondering what had happened. Most all of them wondering what the heck I was going to write about given what we'd been reading!!
The interesting bits to me are:
Lev 10:1-3
Aaron's sons experience Raiders of the Lost Ark like wrath of God stuff and get fried for offering unauthorized fire before the Lord. All I can think here is that God has ordained how that was supposed to work and they didn't follow orders. Remember this is the official grand opening of the tabernacle so God was no doubt going to be strict out of the gate. (We'll read more on this tomorrow.)
As to the stuff that follows think in the context of a 1,000,000+ person camping trip. How do we keep the people healthy, on their feet, and on the march...
Clean and unclean animals? Health regulations really. God trying to point out what is going to keep His people on their feet.
Skin diseases? For thos of us who have seen pverty in the developing world we know how easily disease can spread and we know how often e see folks, who have no medical resources available, just live day to day with bad, often contagious infections. These regulations in Leviticus are designed to keep disease from spreading. Notice how the folks deemed to be infected have to identify themselves by how they dress, they have to cover their lower face (mouth) and they have to live outside the camp. All steps that keep disease from spreading. (Interesting to note too that some of the symptoms described are the early stages of leprosy.)
Mildew? Same thing, regulations to keep folks healthy.
It starts to cross over into respect for the Lord as we see what is required to "come back" from being unclean and, although it is tedious to read, I love the picture of intimacy it paints in that the Lord wants to be intimately involved at a very detailed level when someone comes back into fellowship.
I had a couple people ask about the blog this past week wondering what had happened. Most all of them wondering what the heck I was going to write about given what we'd been reading!!
The interesting bits to me are:
Lev 10:1-3
Aaron's sons experience Raiders of the Lost Ark like wrath of God stuff and get fried for offering unauthorized fire before the Lord. All I can think here is that God has ordained how that was supposed to work and they didn't follow orders. Remember this is the official grand opening of the tabernacle so God was no doubt going to be strict out of the gate. (We'll read more on this tomorrow.)
As to the stuff that follows think in the context of a 1,000,000+ person camping trip. How do we keep the people healthy, on their feet, and on the march...
Clean and unclean animals? Health regulations really. God trying to point out what is going to keep His people on their feet.
Skin diseases? For thos of us who have seen pverty in the developing world we know how easily disease can spread and we know how often e see folks, who have no medical resources available, just live day to day with bad, often contagious infections. These regulations in Leviticus are designed to keep disease from spreading. Notice how the folks deemed to be infected have to identify themselves by how they dress, they have to cover their lower face (mouth) and they have to live outside the camp. All steps that keep disease from spreading. (Interesting to note too that some of the symptoms described are the early stages of leprosy.)
Mildew? Same thing, regulations to keep folks healthy.
It starts to cross over into respect for the Lord as we see what is required to "come back" from being unclean and, although it is tedious to read, I love the picture of intimacy it paints in that the Lord wants to be intimately involved at a very detailed level when someone comes back into fellowship.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Regulations regarding offerings
Leviticus 1:1 - 7:38
Admittedly this is another of those sections that starts to get to be tedious reading.
A couple of things become evident though:
1. Worship under the law was a fairly serious and complicated business...this speaks to a level of mystery that is lost on most of us today. These aren't regulations for regulations sake, there is deeper meaning in the detail that is worthy of consideration (though not here) if only for the sake of understanding the gravity of who God is and how we relate to Him.
2. There is also some serious consideration for hygiene/health in these sections. Practical instruction on how and when certain foods are to be eaten for very practical health reasons.
3. The Levites are already seeing the results of Jacob's parting words in Genesis:
(Gen 49:7)"I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel."
This is why they receive food from portions of the sacrifices. We'll find out later too that they get no inheritance in the land...only towns and fields.
Imagine too what this traveling horde of folks must have looked like spread out across the landscape. More than 600,000 men...probably at LEAST another 3-400,000 women (If we want to be really conservative, based on modern numbers the women may have outnumbered the men.)...who knows how many children...AND, based on what we're reading here about the expectancy that most of them have flocks to choose from for sacrificial animals, most likely literally millions of animals!!!
No wonder Moses gets frustrated so often...this would be a logistical NIGHTMARE!!!
Admittedly this is another of those sections that starts to get to be tedious reading.
A couple of things become evident though:
1. Worship under the law was a fairly serious and complicated business...this speaks to a level of mystery that is lost on most of us today. These aren't regulations for regulations sake, there is deeper meaning in the detail that is worthy of consideration (though not here) if only for the sake of understanding the gravity of who God is and how we relate to Him.
2. There is also some serious consideration for hygiene/health in these sections. Practical instruction on how and when certain foods are to be eaten for very practical health reasons.
3. The Levites are already seeing the results of Jacob's parting words in Genesis:
(Gen 49:7)"I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel."
This is why they receive food from portions of the sacrifices. We'll find out later too that they get no inheritance in the land...only towns and fields.
Imagine too what this traveling horde of folks must have looked like spread out across the landscape. More than 600,000 men...probably at LEAST another 3-400,000 women (If we want to be really conservative, based on modern numbers the women may have outnumbered the men.)...who knows how many children...AND, based on what we're reading here about the expectancy that most of them have flocks to choose from for sacrificial animals, most likely literally millions of animals!!!
No wonder Moses gets frustrated so often...this would be a logistical NIGHTMARE!!!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Getting things sorted
Exodus 36:8 - 40:38
(For those following along in the one year bible this is Feb 14 and 15)
You really have to admit that these are some of the harder passages to get through when you're trying to stay on top of reading through the bible in a year. First because they are fairly detailed in terms of what is being built, crafted, assembled etc... but also because it feels like you just read all of it a couple chapters back!!
Chapters 36-40 can almost be easily summed up by simply saying..."And they did everything just as the Lord had commanded". Talk about saving on papyrus!!! Come on man where was their green thinking?
Now to be fair, I did NOT go back and compare the 'what they did' in these chapters to the 'what they were told to do' a few chapters back but I think if the reports were at odds that would have been pointed out.
There were a couple of bits I found interesting though:
At the end of chapter 38 we're told the weight of the metals used in creating the tabernacle:
A little more than a ton of gold
Three and three quarters tons of silver
About 2 and a half tons of bronze
Now granted all of this was in cast or beaten pieces, many quite small...but imagine having to move all that every time you set out from one place to the next...the total weight of the tabernacle gear that had to be moved must have come close to weighing ten tons!! Then you had set up and tear down, a whole bunch of special requirements for handling the sacred goods...These guys were the ULTIMATE roadies.
The other piece that struck me was in the last four verses of chapter 40.
They assembled all of the tabernacle as God has instructed...notice that the Holy of Holies is set up too and that no one dies from touching the sacred bits. None of it is considered sacred because of what it is in itself...but the sacred bits ALL become sacred when..."the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle."
(Ex 40:34-35)
No matter how many instructions we follow, no matter what work we do, even following God's law to the letter, we are not holy, not set apart, until the Spirit of God enters in...it is at that moment that everything is changed. We're still expected to obey on our end, to do the work, but God is the one who completes it.
I just thought that was cool illustration.
(For those following along in the one year bible this is Feb 14 and 15)
You really have to admit that these are some of the harder passages to get through when you're trying to stay on top of reading through the bible in a year. First because they are fairly detailed in terms of what is being built, crafted, assembled etc... but also because it feels like you just read all of it a couple chapters back!!
Chapters 36-40 can almost be easily summed up by simply saying..."And they did everything just as the Lord had commanded". Talk about saving on papyrus!!! Come on man where was their green thinking?
Now to be fair, I did NOT go back and compare the 'what they did' in these chapters to the 'what they were told to do' a few chapters back but I think if the reports were at odds that would have been pointed out.
There were a couple of bits I found interesting though:
At the end of chapter 38 we're told the weight of the metals used in creating the tabernacle:
A little more than a ton of gold
Three and three quarters tons of silver
About 2 and a half tons of bronze
Now granted all of this was in cast or beaten pieces, many quite small...but imagine having to move all that every time you set out from one place to the next...the total weight of the tabernacle gear that had to be moved must have come close to weighing ten tons!! Then you had set up and tear down, a whole bunch of special requirements for handling the sacred goods...These guys were the ULTIMATE roadies.
The other piece that struck me was in the last four verses of chapter 40.
They assembled all of the tabernacle as God has instructed...notice that the Holy of Holies is set up too and that no one dies from touching the sacred bits. None of it is considered sacred because of what it is in itself...but the sacred bits ALL become sacred when..."the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle."
(Ex 40:34-35)
No matter how many instructions we follow, no matter what work we do, even following God's law to the letter, we are not holy, not set apart, until the Spirit of God enters in...it is at that moment that everything is changed. We're still expected to obey on our end, to do the work, but God is the one who completes it.
I just thought that was cool illustration.
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