Friday, May 30, 2008

A worse day for Balaam

In Numbers 24 we see Balaam going home. In Numbers 25 we see Moab seducing Israel. At the end of Numbers 24, I thought Balaam's story was done! Evidently not- in Numbers 31 they kill Balaam and then when they come back from the battle Moses asks them:

15 "Have you allowed all the women to live?" he asked them. 16 "They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the LORD in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the LORD's people.


then in Revelation 2 it refers to more of Balaam's legacy:

14Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality.


So, he seems to have been behind a lot of troubling things, even though most of Num. 22-24 focuses on how he cannot curse Israel, which seems to have been a positive thing. But was this showing that Balaam really wanted to curse Israel and God had to do a strong job of holding him back or was he just one of those laid back guys who goes with whatever the flow is for the moment?

Voice

In Numbers 27 there is an interesting note about a woman's voice.

There must have been lots of cases that went before Moses, but it interesting that this one was written down. Probably because it was pretty unique and it was a legal precident. There was a family that only had girls in it. In the society of the time, having a male heir was pretty important (important to kings in England still many, many years after this- this being fresh in my brian from just finishing reading 'The other Boleyn Girl') and with no male heir, you got no inheritance. And so the sisters asked for an inheritance. And Moses brought the case before the Lord and the Lord said that the sisters were right, that they should get an inheritance. One small step for womankind.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

A bad day for Balaam

In Num 22 Balak wants to curse Israel because he feels threatened by them. So he goes to Balaam. Balaam seems to be some kind of spiritual guy who lives off somewhere in solitude. I picture the proverbial wise man in the cave. He doesn't seem to be an Israelite (why would Balak ask an Isrealite to curse Israel? so probably a no here) but he does seem to have a special ability to hear God.

When Balak's men come to him the first time, Balaam has no trouble at all telling the men that he will not go. I would say that if this was a test for Balaam that he passed with flying colours. A good day.

The problem is that Balak doesn't give up. He doesn't go and ask someone else to do the cursing despite the relative unsuccessfulness of the first mission. Balak sends another (better) crew to ask Balaam again. And it looks to me that Balaam is going to turn them down again. Certainly, he knew that what God told him the first time probably wouldn't change. But he goes off to hear what 'else' God might have to say.

Now here is where the story takes a wonky turn!

When Balaam asks a second time God tells him to go, but only do what He tells him. But when Balaam tries to go with the men, God gets angry with him. So, what happened? Did God want him to go or not? Was God's first command the one he wanted him to stick with? Was Balaam not hearing clearly the second time? So, even though it seems like God tells Balaam to go, God sends an angel to block Balaam's way. The donkey Balaam is on keeps him from getting killed by the angel but Balaam does not know this and so gets mad at the donkey. Then the donkey talks to Balaam! Very strange indeed. Balaam seems pretty ready to please telling the angel that he has sinned and that he was quite happy to go back.

But what isn't clear is HOW he sinned. If God told him to go and he went, well, that's not a sin. Maybe he;s talking about the past- it indicates in Num 24:1 that he practiced sorcery in the past, but he was not doing it now.

So he tells the angel he's willing to go back and the Lord (who seemed to send the angel to kill him for going) says go, but say what I(God) tell you.

He goes. Balak goes to meet him. And Balak doesn't seem too happy with him either. Balak seems upset that Balaam didn't come the first time he asked. Balaam doesn't seem to be able to please anybody here!

Then Balak takes Balaam to curse Israel and of course Balaam can't, as he warned them he couldn't because he's promised God to say what He tells him to. And Balak is even less pleased than before. But probably God was pleased and hopefully didn't send anymore angels to kill him.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Numbers

I've been having a bit of technical difficulties updating this because I generally do my reading in the evening and I make little notes, but because Myron is on the computer all evening, I don't get a chance to put them here, so today there will be a glut of notes from the last week. But my solution to the problem is to start a new book that I can take to work with me and do the updates during my lunch hour like I do with my other blog!

Numbers 15 talks about the different restitution for intentional sin and unintentional sin. I found this interesting because sin is sin, whatever the motivation behind it. Is it worse if you are deliberately rebellious?

Numbers 16:3 has the people saying something like everyone is holy, why are you treating some people (Moses/Aaron) as special. This upsets God. Maybe because the people are not trusting the way He set things up. This is the way He did it, don't complain about it or put your own spin on it, it just IS.

Then God gets angry at these people and decides to off them and we see Aaron intercede:

Numbers 16:46 Then Moses said to Aaron, "Take your censer and put incense in it, along with fire from the altar, and hurry to the assembly to make atonement for them. Wrath has come out from the LORD; the plague has started." 47 So Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly. The plague had already started among the people, but Aaron offered the incense and made atonement for them. 48 He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped. 49 But 14,700 people died from the plague, in addition to those who had died because of Korah. 50 Then Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, for the plague had stopped.


Then God again shows the people how he has chosen Aaron by having his rod bud. This is the way He shows. This is How I am doing this. And then the people get overly dramatic, swinging the other way:

Numbers 17:12 The Israelites said to Moses, "We will die! We are lost, we are all lost! 13 Anyone who even comes near the tabernacle of the LORD will die. Are we all going to die?"


I wonder if God thinks: get a grip people! Listen to what I am saying. I am trying to help you not hurt you. I am trying to show you something. I am trying to help you understand.

In Numbers 18 God moves on to explain what the priests need to do and I just loved this line:

I am giving you the service of the priesthood as a gift.(Numbers 18:7)


Your job is a gift. What you are to do is a gift from God to the people.

In Numbers 19 the water of cleansing is explained. I thought it was interesting that it talks about how you can chose to be cleansed by the water or not. You can stay unclean if you want. The same choice still applies today.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Repetition

In Numbers 7, the writer list the gifts that the leaders of the tribes brought for the dedication of the Tabernacle.
I read the gifts that the first leader brought on the first day.
Then I read the gifts that the second leader brought on the second day.
And it was exactly the same as what the first leader brought!
And I was like- hey- couldn't he think of his own gift? But then I read all 12 and each of the 12 brought EXACTLY the same gift! Lack of originality, but high consistency!
Then I thought - why write out what the gifts were when they were exactly the same for each guy? Why not just write a list of the dudes and then the gift once? Because every gift we bring to God is precious. Maybe it's the same as what someone else is bringing, but it's still special to Him.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Blessing

I read this in Numbers 6 last night:

22 The LORD said to Moses, 23 "Tell Aaron and his sons, 'This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:
24 " ' "The LORD bless you
and keep you;

25 the LORD make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;

26 the LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace." '

27 "So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them."


It is a simple blessing, but such a good one!
I used it in my prayer time today, subtituting the 'you' with the person I was praying for.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Leviticus

I finished Leviticus on Friday. I think my overall impression of that book is that it is really important to God what we do. Specifically in keeping ourselves holy. Also in keeping ourselves obedient. I started Numbers last night. There is a disclaimed at the start of Numbers in my Bible that says that a lot of people don't want to read the book of Numbers BECAUSE it is called the book of Numbers. And numbers sounds scary. So they suggest if this is a problem for you to call it by it's alternate name "Desert".

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Year of Jubilee

Leviticus 25 talks about the Year of Jubilee that the Israelites were to observe once every 50 years. This year was such an important one that parts of the economy reveloved around it. You would calculate payment for some things based on how far or near you were to the Year of Jubilee.
This would only happen once or twice in your lifetime.
It is hard to imagine a year as important as that, but some years are more important in our lives than others. Maybe not as important as the year of Jubilee, but still...

Friday, May 2, 2008

Clean and unclean

Leviticus talks a lot about what is clean and what is unclean. While Exodus pointed to the fact that God is holy, Leviticus is concerned with how the Israelites can keep themselves holy.

There are rules for purification, rules for skin diseases, rules for mould. Rules so that the people would see that there is a difference between clean and unclean. Some of it was quite sensible and helpful in that it would keep contagious diseases out of the community. A few things didn't make much sense to me.

One interesting note was about the scape goat. In Leviticus 16, on the Day of Atonement:

6 "Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household. 7 Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. 8 He is to cast lots for the two goats—one lot for the LORD and the other for the scapegoat. 9 Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the LORD and sacrifice it for a sin offering. 10 But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat.


There is a lot of sacrifice with blood spoken of in these early books. Looking forward to Jesus, we can see that Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice.
So one goat plays the sacrifice role, and one escapes the sacrifice and one is removed to the desert, never to be seen again. So there is the sacrifice and the removal of sins. Not a happy day for either goat though, I would think!

There is a lot of talk about blood, as I mentioned. One rule is that you can't eat the blood.

Leviticus 17:10 " 'Any Israelite or any alien living among them who eats any blood—I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people. 11 For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life. 12 Therefore I say to the Israelites, "None of you may eat blood, nor may an alien living among you eat blood."


I'm not very keen on eating blood myself, and don't think I would need to be told! But it says a number of times that the life of a creature is in the blood. Now, obviously, if we don't have blood, we don't have life. But is there more than that?

Another line that caught my eye was in Leviticus 19:

14 " 'Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the LORD.


For those that are already down, those that are already weak, don't make things worse for them. We should always be seeking to lift up, not push down.