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.