Southern Cross Presbyterian Church

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?

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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Hi anyone who’s reading,  sorry about missing a couple of days over the weekend – I couldn’t work out how to post on the revamped website! Anyway, I’ve been set straight now so here are my thoughts on the passages from the weekend’s reading…

Leviticus 8-10

I saw a show on TV sometime last year, something like “the worst jobs in history”. Some of the jobs were pretty bad, like collecting the tobacco from cigarette butts picked up from the pub floor. But even that doesn’t compare to being a priest at the tabernacle! It sounds more like a job in an abattoir than in a “holy place”.

I’ve got to be honest, I find some of it hard to swallow. Reading about what happened to Nadab and Abihu, it’s hard not to feel like God’s being a bit unfair. In my head I know he’s not, but it’s hard to shake the feeling. Are you like me? I know this must mean that I just don’t take sin seriously enough. I know it must mean that I just don’t take God’s word seriously enough. I reckon I need to repent of that – and to be thankful again that repentance is an option because Jesus’ blood was shed for me.