Almond Joy
Numbers 17


So God tells Moses that He's going to put an end to all of these chest pumping, I'm God's vessel complexes the Israelites seem to be having.  He has Moses collect a staff from the leader of each tribe.  After the leader's name is written on each corresponding staff, they are placed in front of the ark of the covenant.  The man He chooses will have a staff that has sprouted.

So the next day when Moses goes to check on the staffs. Aaron's has not only sprouted, but has budded, blossomed, and produced almonds. Moses shows the staffs off and returns the  non-blossoming staffs but God tells him to return Aaron's where it had been near the ark.  This is to serve as a "sign to the rebellious."

He says it will "put an end to their grumbling against me, so that they will not die."

However, instead of bringing peace, it freaks the Israelites out.  We're doomed!  You can't go near the tabernacle and live!  Is this it for us?  Are we going to die?

I'm struck by how different God's mood is here, just one chapter later.  Earlier Moses pleads with God to spare the camp and in His wrath He sends the plague.  Here, without any recorded solicitation from Moses, God has a plan to spare them from future wrath.  He wants to stop their grumbling so they won't be the recipients of future wrath.

God wants us to be spared- God wants us to be at peace with Him- and while prayer is an amazing opportunity to bond with Him- He (at least here) is looking for ways to spare us future pain whether we're looking for those ways or not.

Second- what God intends as relief, the Israelites turn into stress.  This fig leaf from God- this clarity of His will- doesn't make things easier for them... instead they freak out.

Can we take things God intends as blessings and make them not only worthless, but thorns in our sides- opportunities that we resent, relationships that we take for granted, gifts that we squander and use in ways He never intended?  God may be giving us everything we need- but because of our lacking in wisdom we miss the big picture.

Instead of seeing His gift of peace, we assume we're going to die.

You Can Take it with You
Numbers 16


This chapter is a bizarre story that I don't remember.  So you have these three guys- Korah, a Levite, and Dathan and Abiram who are Reubenites.  They are a bit sick of Moses so they get 250 other guys, some of them community leaders to stand up against Moses and Aaron.  They said, "Who do you think you are?  God is with ALL of us, not just you.  Where do you get off being so 'holier than thou?'"

Moses is really hurt by this accusation and falls face down.  But it kind of seems that it's his pride that's really hurt (at least after my initial reading).  He tells them- "We'll see who God wants near him.  Tomorrow we'll have a community incense burning and we'll see who God picks.  We'll see who God thinks is holy."

He continues, "Levites, hasn't God done enough for you by separating you from the rest of Israel letting you be near Him to do His work?  Where do you get off griping at Aaron?  You're actually complaining against God, anyhow."

Moses then summoned Dathan and Abiram who responded, "No, we're not coming- you're not the boss of us.  Isn't it enough that you teased us with that whole milk and honey inheritance?  We're still waiting on this promise.  Are you hoping to treat us like slaves?"

Moses then made a little prayer against them.  Speaking to God, he says, "Don't accept their offering. I haven't accepted anything from them  not even a donkey-and I haven't wronged them either.

Then Moses sets them up, "Everyone take your censer and fill it with incense- and Aaron will join you."  When they were gathered, God warned Moses and Aaron, "You two step back, I'll wipe out the whole group at once."

But Moses and Aaron suddenly soften.  They fall down on their faces (a popular position this chapter) and cry "You who created everything- will you punish everyone for the sins of one man?"

God seems to reconsider and tells them to have the assembly move away from the other three.  So they do- saying- "Back away!  Don't even touch anything that belongs to them or you'll be swept away for their sins."  So the three instigators stand in front of their tents with their families and await their doom.

Moses can't resist a little speech.  He says "Here's the litmus- here's how you know that I speak for God.  If these three die a natural death, than I am not from God- but if the Lord creates this new thing... if He opens up the earth and swallows them up alive with all of their possessions (is he riffing here?) and they enter the realm of the dead still living (how will they verify that?) then you know that these three have been disrespectful to God."

Instantly, the ground opened and swallowed them up.  The three of them and their families and all of their possessions changed zip codes. Once swallowed, the earth closed back up over them.

Understandably, this freaked people out.  They assumed the earth was still hungry and that they would also taste pretty good.

Then God sent out fire and killed the 250 who had been offering incense.  God had Aaron's son Eliazor to get the censers out of the remains- they are still holy.  He's to spread the charred remains some distance away- but to hammer the censers into sheets to put over the altar.  They will be a sign.  This was to remind them that only Aaron's children could offer incense before God or they would receive a similar fate.

This whole scenario wasn't much of a morale boost.  They approached Moses and Aaron and accused them of killing the LORD's people.  God had had enough- so He told Moses to stand back- I'm going to take them all out.

Moses told Aaron to quickly get his censer and incense and burning coals and go make atonement.  He realized that a plague had started.  Aaron ran and made atonement but in the meantime 14,700 additional people died from the plague.  Once the plague stopped, Aaron came back to the entrance of the tent of meeting.

So what to make of this?

First off- I'm reminded that not too long ago, Moses referred to himself as the most humble man alive (or something similarly extraordinary).  For someone so humble, he seems to not be perceived by others that way.

Second, I think that some of the details help make sense out of the whole.  They aren't just saying- Moses, we're sick of your mouth- they're saying- we've been made promises- they haven't come true- we're through listening to you- we're calling our own shots now.   I think Moses is right, they are defying God, not just Moses.

While Moses does seem to set them up- they seem to be breaking one of God's laws by sitting around with the censers.  Moses isn't just challenging them to see who God picks.  He's saying God said only Aaron's family can offer sacrifice- God set us apart- see what happens if you defy God's law.

Finally, Moses seems to waver in his desire for justice and his desire for mercy.  And I think this principle rings true.  He prays for God to not take the sacrifice- but He's sorry when God's wrath is stirred up.  Vengeance doesn't seem so sweet in practice.  Grace and mercy are much easier to live with in the long term.  Easy to see here... sometimes hard to recognize in the heat of rage.

The Israelites Graduate
Numbers 15: 37-41


God tells Moses to attach a tassel with a blue cord on the corners of their garments.  This is to happen from generation to generation and is supposed to serve as a reminder to follow God's commands. God ends the command by reminding them that He has the authority to command it- He  is God who brought them out of Egypt.

I really like the idea of utilizing a physical reminder of who you are, or are trying to be- I've used one before- a special coin that was in my pocket.  In tough times just a hand in my pocket feeling the coin was a help to steer me straight. In my case, it was even more of a way to help me remember that I'm not who I was- that the past is behind- that this God I follow has forgiven me. But whether a coin in your pocket, a note on your bathroom mirror, a cross on your rear view mirror (unless you're too attached to the fuzzy dice), or a blue cord on a tassel, a visual reminder to stay true to God's commands and that He is in control  can certainly be a good thing.

Black Sabbath
Numbers 15: 32-36


So while the Israelites are in the wilderness, one of the party decides to that the Sabbath would be a good time to gather wood.  As this is clearly work- this was not acceptable behavior.  So, a community of narcs grabbed him and brought him to Moses and Aaron- (which is apparently not work?) and held him in custody to see what to do with him.

The verdict?  Death by stoning.  God says that the whole assembly must take him outside the camp and stone him to death.

This is quite troubling to me.  First, the punishment seems quite harsh.  Death for gathering wood on the Sabbath.    It seems as this is the ultimate sin that could have been committed- I guess they could have tortured his family, but there's not much beyond this they could do to him.

Our culture would think of Woody as industrious, a go-getter, a hard-worker.  God is clearly not rewarding that mindset here.  Is He trying to stress the need for reliance on Him?  No need to work that hard to provide for yourselves... I'm on it.

Is He stressing that His laws, all of them, are non-negotiable?  Is there grace in this story anywhere?

Second, this seems like a punishment for the community, too.  I don't want to be any part of a group stoning. I'm not interested in lining up for my throw at the blasphemous Sabbath worker.  Such an experience would be life-altering and scarring.  It certainly wouldn't be a morale builder.

And as someone who spends much of the year working hard on weekends, it worries me a bit that God's plan might be a little different.  However- the three months off help to balance that out.  Those can be my Sabbaths... right?  I don't think that as non-Jewish, post resurrection followers, God plans for us to be subject to Sabbath laws- but certainly there must be some principle of resting that He's set precedent for.

It's also hard to balance this with Jesus' statement (it won't come up in our discussion here for quite some time) about Sabbath being for man and not man for Sabbaths.

So what's the story here?  I don't really have an explanation- other than a comparative sigh of relief to not have been born Jewish in the time of Moses.  

Oops!

Numbers 15:22-30

God says that if the entire community accidentally sins and isn't aware of it- the whole community is to offer a bull, a goat, a grain offering and a drink offering. I'm reading this as one offering from the whole community not each person offering an individual one, but I could very well be wrong. I'm not sure what kind of sin would be a "community" sin. Oops, we built this idol by accident. At the same moment, we all accidentally lied. Seems like it would take a pretty odd occurrence.

If just one person sins unintentionally, he brings a year old female goat to be sacrificed, the priest makes atonement and the person is forgiven. This is for both the native and the foreigner.

But if someone sins out of defiance, God has been blasphemed- and there is no forgiveness. This person is to be cut off from his people. This seems odd to me. Wouldn't most sins fall into this category? I guess I don't ordinarily view mistakes as sin.

If I give the wrong answer, I haven't lied- but if i try to deceive I have. I guess there are instances when I do something and it results in sin I didn't intend- but I feel like most of the time when I do wrong, I know I'm doing it- I'm just acting out of my own selfish desires or ambitions. So under the old law- I'm forever lost with no hope... at least until Jesus comes.

Pulp Non-Fiction

Numbers 15: 1-21

While these 21 verses are pretty boring in isolation- I'm puzzled by them within their context (ok, they're still kinda boring, but bear with me). God has just clearly expressed his displeasure with the Israelites in chapter 14 and made it fairly clear that they wouldn't be entering the promised land. But here, just a few verses later he lays out laws for them to follow when they enter the promised land. Huh?

He details what to include in grain offerings, burnt offerings, drink offerings, and food offerings. He specifies that this applies to both natives and foreigners, and that these offerings apply to food eaten in the new land. But if they can't enter... then who and what is this for? I've come up with three possible motivations but I'm not really happy with any of them.

First- has God changed His mind? He was angry- He vented to Moses- and now He's rethought the harshness of the punishment? Maybe He accepted that these imperfect humans that He's created will consistently let Him down and He'll help us along by cutting us some slack. He expressed His displeasure, but here's some grace to go with it.

I guess we'll see how this one plays out- somehow, I don't think they get to enter.

Second- is Moses going Tarantino on us and telling us the narrative out of chronological order? Did God go through this list before the doubt discharge- but once again for a reason we'll discover later on only getting around to telling us these laws here? Is Bruce Willis going to turn up in chapter 16 as a character who died back in Exodus? Once again, doubtful- but I guess we'll see. Zed's dead, baby.

Third, and this is where I'm leaning at the moment- are these laws told WAY in advance. So in 40 years when you(if you're a kid now) or your children finally get to enter the promised land- these are the laws to follow. You've got lots of time to learn them and to incorporate them into your oral traditions.

This still seems odd, but of the three it's the one that seems the most consistent. Perhaps God is not only stressing with generations to come what their relationship with Him will be like but stressing to the Israelite Idiots how much they've missed out on by doubting Him. Remember when we had this type of relationship? Now I'll have it with your children- and you can hear about how it's going to be.

Perhaps the key is what is lost when we don't trust.

Manipulative Moses
Numbers 14
Mob mentality ensues. The defeatist dialogue dampened the Israelite's spirits- and they are ready to call it a day. In fact, they begin to weep and trash Moses and Aaron. They ask, why did God bring us here if we're just going to be killed anyhow? Our wives and children will become plunder for the enemy. Let's just choose a new leader and head back to Egypt.

So in a short span of time- they have rejected the Promised Land, rejected Moses and Aaron, and rejected God. Not a good long term plan. I don't understand the desire to trek back to captivity- but I do understand the fear they must have felt. It seems silly to think that they would doubt God's care after seeing what He'd taken them through- but I can imagine words of such negativity from leaders would strike fear deeply- especially regarding issues like death of myself and the potential capture, abuse, torture and death of my loved ones.

Moses, Aaron, Joshua and Caleb speak up. Don't be so rash- if God's happy, He'll give us this land. As they tore their clothes they spoke of the greatness of the land- and God's providence. Their plea was to not rebel against God- and to be confident- with God, they could totally devour the inhabitants of the land.

Their reaction was to consider stoning the four- but God stepped in and He was none too pleased. In disbelief , He asked Moses, "What do I have to do to get these people to trust Me? They doubt Me even after all the signs? I'm done! I'm sending a plague down and I'll build a nation through you- a better nation than they are."

But Moses disapproves. "If You do this, it'll get back to the Egyptians and it will look like You couldn't do what said You could. Everyone knows about Your relationship with these people. If You reject them now- it'll just seem like things got too hard for You so You just slaughtered them. Instead- just do what You promised- let the world see Your strength. Forgive these idiots- just like You've been forgiving them from the beginning."

God seems to calm down a little and says, " I have forgiven them- but listen up, there's no way that any of them that saw My signs and tested me ten times will see the promised land. The people who treated Me with contempt will never see it. But Caleb is another story- he follows Me completely. His people will get the land. Tomorrow you need to turn back and head toward the Red Sea. Because of the grumbling- none of you 20 years or older will enter the land- except Caleb and Joshua. They were worried about their children being taken hostage? These same children will be the ones to get the land- in 40 years after the rest have died. They'll shepherd one year for each of the 40 days of the land exploration. Those 20 or older will die in the wilderness."

Moses reports back and the spies who offered skepticism are struck dead. Only Joshua and Caleb survived. The people all mourned but apparently thought they could change God's mind. The next morning they said, "What were we thinking? We can take this land with God's help."

Moses said, " You dummies! Weren't you listening? This won't work! God is NOT with you! You will fail!" But they went on- without Moses- without the ark of the covenant- and they were beaten by their enemies all the way to Hormah.

I'm struck again by the emotional capacity we see in God's personality. We think of God's love and anger and forgiveness- but here we see some of that emotion in action. God is irate! He plans on wiping out His people. It doesn't seem at this point like He's following the script of some predetrmined plan- He's letting His emotions make decisions for Him. And Moses is able to convince Him to change His mind. He seems to use flattery- and then logic. He uses logic to make God change His mind. Is this odd to anyone else? Had God not considered this viewpoint already?

Granted, once again Moses is painting himself as the hero- but there's something to this, right? God's plan has been altered- and then he is calmed down based on His interaction with His creation.

And the people- they try to change God's mind too- but in a more stupid way. They just act assuming God will relent. They assume everything will be ok if they only act now the way God wanted them to before. The window had closed. And it may be that our impulsive action does the same thing. When we bull our way through despite God's will we may end up with similar fate- and perhaps wondering where God was throughout it all.

Perhaps the lesson to learn here is timeliness. God adapts His will depending on context and circumstance. I would have done this- but now since We find Ourselves here, this is where I want things to go. I'm not suggesting that God changes his expectations for us, but that perhaps what we are expected to do may change depending on where we find ourselves. Sometimes action may be necessary- strong action trusting God is with us. Sometimes it may be important to recognize that the window for action has passed- and to act strongly may only cause harm to myself and others- and when this happens I can wait, and pray, and look for the next opportunity.