Numbers 10:1 – 13:23

There’s been a pause in the story of Israel. After all the instructions and the commands, we rejoin the story where the people were in waiting. They haven’t entered the promise land yet and were getting tired of being God’s people… AGAIN! They were not happy about their hardships, they were not happy about the food (seems like they were sick of being vegos) and some of them were not happy with Moses’ leadership.

For their rebellion and rejection of God as their king, His wrath was poured out but yet He still showed them mercy… God didn’t completely wipe them out. He EVEN continued along with his plan – today’s reading ends with Moses sending out spies into the Promised Land. The promise seems like it has almost reached its fulfilment – God’s people, numerous as the stars in the heavens, living under God’s rule in the Promised Land. So today ends with a “To be continued…” feel…

The question that comes to mind is why does God lead them to the Promised Land after their rebellion, their rejection of living under God’s rule? Why not wait til they’ve learnt their lesson? Thoughts??

Num 7:1-10:10

The details and the repetition continue here. You will no doubt remember this little chant:

79 His offering was one silver plate weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, and one silver sprinkling bowl weighing seventy shekels, both according to the sanctuary shekel, each filled with fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering; 80 one gold dish weighing ten shekels, filled with incense; 81 one young bull, one ram and one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering; 82 one male goat for a sin offering; 83 and two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five male lambs a year old, to be sacrificed as a fellowship offering. This was the offering of Ahira son of Enan. Num 7:79-83

This level of detail was just for the dedication of the altar. Then it goes on preparing the Levites for service. All these things that need to be in place before the tabernacle even goes operational. Preparations, laying the ground work so God can dwell amongst his people.

In Num 9:15 he comes:

15 On the day the tabernacle, the Tent of the Testimony, was set up, the cloud covered it. From evening till morning the cloud above the tabernacle looked like fire. 16 That is how it continued to be; the cloud covered it, and at night it looked like fire.

If he is to remain amongst the people of God they will need to live by the commands the Lord has just decreed in Leviticus.

They would inevitably fail. They would defile the sanctuary. They would defile Gods holy place. In Ez 8-11 the glory of the Lord departs the temple, the cloud departs.

It would not return for centuries. When it did some preparations would need to take place. The lamb of God, Jesus would die, he would bring atonement so God could dwell amongst his people and he did:

1When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them. Acts 2:1-4

Numbers 4-6

These chapters deal with the preparations for moving the tabernacle (even Israel had a pack-up team!) and also 2 very specific examples of the role the tabernacle was to play in the life of Israel.

The first of these 2 examples relates to how to resolve jealousy that arises when a husband suspects his wife of unfaithfulness but has no proof. While it’s hard to read chapter 5 without a bit of a cultural cringe (not only does it seem open to abuse but it also kinda superstitious) the fact is that this law is designed so as to protect the innocent and uncover the guilty. There’s certainly no separation of private life and public life here!

The second example is that of the ‘Nazirite’ who decides to set himself apart to the Lord for a period of time. This seems to be a display of devotion to God during which the Nazirite willingly takes on extra covenant obligations. Once again there’s something that seems almost unreasonable about the regulations governing the Nazirite’s period of devotion (like in 6:9-11 where being in the presence of a guy who suddenly drops dead is counted as sin!) but we have to view this in the context of the voluntary nature of the commitment.

Once again, I feel this passage challenging my assessment of God’s holiness and his right to determine what is reasonable and good.

Numbers 1-3

In this “bible-in-a-year” journey there’s something about starting a new book that’s pretty satisfying. Especially when the books has been long and harrowing like Leviticus! But I’ve gotta say that starting Numbers hasn’t exactly got me jumping out of the bath shouting “Eureka!” (sorry about the visual there everyone). Numbers is a book with a pretty bad rap and the first few chapters help you to see why – “from the descendants of Zebulun… 57,400… from the descendants of Ephraim… 40,500, from the descendants of…” YAWN…

But to be fair, I think we’ve gotta see the bigger picture. By the time we get to the end of Numbers we’ll see that it’s actually a book full of action as God prepares his army (did you notice the way Israel is organised into “divisions”?) for their entry into the promised land. We’ve also gotta see the way this episode of God’s history is about God’s faithfulness to his covenant promises even in spite of the people’s sin. As we read in Leviticus 26, God’s desire is to dwell among his people in a good land and to bless them but that can only happen if it’s a desire that the people also share

We need to ask ourselves, is it a desire that we share as we journey together to the new creation? How do we express that desire?

Lev 26:1-27:34

An ominous warning.

As the book of Leviticus comes to a close it outlines the judgments on those who fail to observe the law. Now if you had been reading along with the story and if you didn’t know how the story ends, I think you would be pretty worried. The whining in the desert and the whole golden calf incident doesn’t instill you with a heap of confidence. Judgment seems inevitable. Judgment does come.

A ray of hope though shines out of this passage:

⁴⁰ ” ‘But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their fathers—their treachery against me and their hostility toward me, ⁴¹ which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies—then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, ⁴² I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham Lev 26:40-42

This hope though relied on circumcised hearts, something Israel did not know. Something even the prophets longed for. Something that would come through Christ:

¹³When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature,^[b] God made you^[c] alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.^[d] Col 2:13-15

As Leviticus comes to a close a book of blood, sacrifice, law and circumcision.

It should send a warning to us, to never forget the cross.

starts 6AM tomorrow Friday 5th

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SWEET – we have nearly made it to the end of Leviticus – which for me is a pretty big feat.

I guess today’s reading leaves me thinking about the year of Jubilee. A year where everything is restored.

I  remember Steve mentioning something about the year of Jubilee and Jesus’ arrival, but I can’t remember all the details (does anyone remember the talk? It was from a series on Luke  in 2008) .

Anyway it’s pretty cool to read what Jesus says in Luke 4:18-19 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.

From what I can remember we aren’t actually sure if the Israelites ever kept the year of Jubilee (the year of the Lord’s favour). But it is pretty cool to think about how this little restoration/redemption every 50 years was pointing to the day when Jesus would come into the world and bring great news. That his death on the cross  would redeem us (buy us back) once for all and restore our relationship to the LORD.

This week’s Bible Talk took us to 1 Timothy 1:1-11 where we discovered that there is a chain of command from King Jesus that operates within the church for the good of the church – to maintain the truth and promote the goal of love.

click on the following link to listen or to download.

Talk 1, The King’s Command

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