Gadfly's Muse

Numbers 28-31: Put Away Every Temptation... Without Compromise

Image: Clean Sweep Down, 2019, Severna Park, MD

 

Numbers 31:15–18 (NKJV) ¹⁵ And Moses said to them: “Have you kept all the women alive? ¹⁶ Look, these women caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to trespass against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. ¹⁷ Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man intimately. ¹⁸ But keep alive for yourselves all the young girls who have not known a man intimately.

"Now hear this: Sweepers, Sweepers, Man your brooms, Give a clean sweep-down, fore and aft."

Every Navy man with any significant experience aboard a ship is familiar with the call.  Shortly after Reveille, the first item of business was to clean up the decks.  It was (and is) serious business because a clean ship, for the most part, is not only a happy ship but it's also ready for whatever may come.  You don't want the passageways to be a problem if people have to run to quarters.  So Navy tradition going back as long as there was a Navy was "everything neat and orderly."

The room in the image, like several other rooms, was stripped of all furniture so that the floors could be refinished and the walls painted. Looking at it reminded me of the call for sweepers and chapter 31 of today's reading reminded me of "cleaning house."

Modern Christians often have a tough time with these kind of OT passages.  The Lord commands Moses and the Israelites to wage war on the Midianites without mercy.  They were to be destroyed because they had already proved to be a temptation to the Israelites at Peor.  I think this battle was a preliminary to the conquest of Palestine which indeed was to be a bloody affair.  God was quite specific: "Kill all the adults."  When the Israelite army brought back some of the Midianite wives they had to kill them also along with every young boy.  That's tough.

The sheer severity of the Lord's commands make us wonder.  How do these things reconcile with the Lord Christ's revelation of God as fully of grace and mercy?  As always, we have to humble ourselves and face facts:  God does not countenance sin in order to tolerate it.  He has no intention of allowing the wicked of heart to dwell in His Eternal City.  God's purpose in space and time, as evidenced by the flood in the days of Noah, is to purify His earth of all sin and corruption.  He will not be swayed from His purposes by pleas for mercy from those who are wicked to the end.  This is our God and He is Holy, Holy, Holy.

When Israel enters into the Promised Land they will, as demonstrated at Jericho, commence to purify that land.  They will be the "sweepers" whose duty is to cast out all of the old vestiges of shame and corruption that is found there and to "re-paint" the walls in so many words.  In this episode with the Midianites they are being conditioned to that task.  They will have to learn the lesson again.

I think, considering the Lord's parables, that we can apply the general principles to our lives also.  Our Holy Spirit comes to us and blesses us in regeneration but our spiritual warfare really begins at that point.  We do not enter into our "rest" in the sense that our struggles are now a thing of the past.  Rather we begin the life long struggle against the remaining sin and corruption in our being.  We enter into a period where, alongside our brothers and sisters in the Church, we wage war on the inroads Satan has made among us... We also have to tear down idols and replace them with the teachings of the one true God.

Sometimes this warfare can be heart-rending, especially when it involves confronting beloved members of our immediate or our spiritual families.  It is hard to bring discipline to a child of the church who has rebelled against all its teachings.  It is hard to confront the pain and suffering that such discipline may leave in its wake.  But the Lord's commands are clear.  Like the Israelites we must see through the immediate task and focus on what the Lord desires for our future.  We must see the room, in our mind, as it will be with the walls all painted, newly refinished and stained floor and furniture arranged "just so."  God has this future laid out for us and He promises us that we can make significant progress toward our future in this life.

Still.. we must consider the present.  Where are we seeking to preserve that which is a temptation to us?  How are we unwilling to give up certain pleasures or habits of sin which drag us away from Christ?  How are we our own worst enemies because we are unwilling to clean up our act in the way that we plainly know we should?

We must not look away from these passages in embarrassment.  We must not be ashamed of our God.  We must learn to embrace His justice even as we rejoice in gratitude for His mercy.  Like the Israelites we also are being prepared for our entry into the Promised Land... 

Numbers 25-27: The Changing of the Guard

Image: Standing Tall, 2018, Kauai, HI

Numbers 26:64–65 (NKJV) ⁶⁴ But among these there was not a man of those who were numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest when they numbered the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Sinai. ⁶⁵ For the Lord had said of them, “They shall surely die in the wilderness.” So there was not left a man of them, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.

The pleasures of the flesh are an ongoing temptation in the lives of the people of God.  In ch. 25 we see the Israelites, even as God as given them military victories and supplied their every need, falling into "harlotry with the women of Moab."  The sensual allure of Moabite culture was steeped in the worship of Baal.  Imagine frenzied, drug or alcohol induced dancing.  The Moabites set out to corrupt the Israelites.  They had seen the power and numbers of God's people and they rightly thought that if they could co-op them into union with themselves through marriage or acceptance of pleasure then they could control them.

The Israelites "ate and bowed down to their gods."  I suppose their continual resentment against eating only manna played a part.  

The bottom line:  God called for judgment.  The heads of each household had to kill those from his family line who had participated and God struck the people with a plague.  It was not a pretty sight though Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, won approval for his great zeal for God.  When order had been restored God sent the army to attack the Midianites for their participation in the "seduction" of the people.

As ugly as this was evidently it could have been worse.  The people of God were finally shaping up.  Perhaps the 24,000 people who died in God's plague wiped out the last vestiges of that generation that was brought out of Egypt.  Chapter 26 gives some details about the next census of God's people and we should notice that for all the judgments and battles that have characterized their recent history, the numbers of the tribes and the total remain about the same.  God had carefully managed the population so that through His oversight and preserving hand they had made up for all their losses.

The key point is that there was not a man left among the Israelites who had come out from Egypt except for Joshua and Caleb.

I think it important to put those years of wandering in the wilderness in perspective.  Moses had not brought a nation out of Egypt... he had brought a rabble.  They were taken to Sinai and given the wonderful privilege of having the structure of a nation laid out for them.  But as was evident immediately after the 2nd Passover was celebrated and in their refusal to enter into the promised land when first brought to it, they had the structure but not the identity.  The old habits, attitudes and morals died slowly if they died at all among that first generation.

The second generation though, the ones now standing for the census, had grown up under Moses and the Covenant God had made with them.  They had been conditioned to military discipline and training.  The harsh land through which they traveled had toughened their bodies and their mind.  They had tasted defeat and victory but most of all they had experienced the absolute consistency with which God had governed them.  

When it came time to execute judgment on their own families there was no hesitation.  Their hero was Phinehas, a man whom God Himself had commended for his zeal "with MY zeal among them" (25:11).  The basics were now in place.  God had a people who were ready for His purposes.  They were like an arrow pointed at the heart of Canaan... they were ready

I don't think that it goes too far to apply this to God's plan for His Church today.

What God does with His people, either as individual congregations or nation-wide, is subject them to His daily guidance and demonstration of His Presence.  I know that God no longer appears in the Shekinah glory or as a Pillar of Fire, but no congregation who is sincerely and seriously seeking to follow Christ and be submissive to His will, will lack evidences of God's power among them.  No people of prayer will be denied instances where those prayers are powerfully answered such that, among the congregation at least, there is no question of what transpired.  No people of the Book, who take God's Word seriously will fail to discover the wisdom in it, the comfort of the Holy Spirit ministered through it, the joy of salvation that it engenders.  

No, God is still Present and making Himself known to His people.  Our walk is by faith and not by sight but that doesn't mean that the Presence of God is not evidenced to those who have eyes to see.  

Like the Israelites, God leads His people through tough times and in doing so He purges them of their dross and reveals the quality of their mettle.  Sanctification is a disciplining process that prepares God's people for their ministry.  When God's people embrace their calling and "get their minds right" about what God requires of them it is then that God stands them up and gives them their victories.

These chapters are about the changing of the guard in Israel.  When Moses dies it will be up to Joshua and the new generation to do the work they have been assigned from all eternity to do.  Our churches need to think in similar terms.  All the generations that have gone before have brought us to this place... wherever we now stand... but it is up to us to go on from here.

Numbers 20-24: Grace That Is Greater Than Our Sin

Image: "As In A Dream", 2018, Dole Plantation, Oahu, HI

Numbers 24:17 (NKJV) ¹⁷ “I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; A Star shall come out of Jacob; A Scepter shall rise out of Israel, And batter the brow of Moab, And destroy all the sons of tumult.

In Numbers 20-24 we see the Children of Israel turning a corner.  Their wilderness trek is drawing to a close and there are hints here and there that they have learned their lesson.

Not that the complaints have stopped, not at all, but they seem to recover more quickly.  They grumble again in chapter 20 about the lack of water and God answers relatively mildly.  It is Moses, not the people, whose sin gets highlighted and punished.  Moses is told to "speak to the rock... and it will yield water."  God knew the people needed water.  Their complaining spirit was a test of Moses not so much them and Moses failed.  Moses called out to the people and said "must WE bring water to you from this rock!"  Then, counter to the Lord's command, he struck the rock twice.  Moses was tired of the people complaining against him and he wanted to show them his own power and authority.  God said specifically "you did not believe Me, to hallow Me.."

God was not pleased.  Moses would never enter into the promised land.

And then the people grumbled again in chapter 21 and God sent fiery serpents to attack them.  But notice that in verse 7 it is the people themselves who come to Moses and confess that they have sinned.  They ask for Moses to pray for them.. that's a first in my recollection.  God honors Moses' prayer and the story of the cast serpent lifted high on a pole becomes in time fulfilled in the Person of Christ, lifted high on the cross, such that all who look to Him for salvation will indeed be saved.  

The people seem to be getting their minds right.

Then we see the battles against King Sihon and Og.  These battles will become part of Israel's lore.  They begin to get the sense that with God's power working through them they can take on mighty enemies and be victorious.  Notice that they take possession of the land of Og and dwelt in its cities.  They begin to see that God was going to provide them a home.

Then we get to the incredibly strange and wonderful story of Balaam.  

Balaam, like Melchizedek, will become the story of legend in Israel culture.  He appears to be a true prophet of the Most High God and yet, unlike Melchizedek, there does not appear to be much to commend his character.  We read in 2 Peter 2:15, Jude 11 and Revelation 2:14 that he was an enemy of Israel.  So he did not just disappear into the dustbin of history having delivered the prophecy that God forced him to speak.  This is one of those strange stories that in its own way commends the Bible to us because no mere human author would have structured it the way it is presented.

What Balaam does do is see through the mists of time to the coming of the great conquering king of Israel, David, who fulfills his prophecies in specific ways but even further through time beyond David to the coming King who was to be a Star and a Scepter.  Hearkening all the way back to Jacob's blessing on Judah, Balaam saw a magnificent King Whose reign would surpass anything that earthly kings like Balak could never have imagined.

Now, set these prophecies of Balaam in their local context.  Aaron has died for his sins before entering the promised land.  The people of God have been struck by snakes because of their sins.  Moses has sinned egregiously before His God.  If we did not have some assurance that God was for Israel a strong case could be made that He was treating them like His enemies... because they were showing proof of it. 

Only Joshua and Caleb of this generation of Israelites would enter the land.  Only they would see the power of God bringing the nations of the earth under their heels.  God has a case against this generation of people and yet, amazingly enough, His grace is greater than their sin.

He shows them that they are still His people through the victories they win over Og and Sihon.  He encourages them with His Presence and thereby gives them hope that when they, like Aaron, die before they enter the promised land, yet they will be blessed in their death and translated into the eternal Presence of God where they will dwell with Him forever (not all were elect but the general principle holds).

And, grace on top of grace, God assures them that their names would not die... that there would be generations on top of generations to replace them... to carry on the covenant relation with God that was instituted at Sinai.  This would continue, century after century, until the Lion of Judah would arise, take up the promised Scepter, and as the Star of Jacob would draw men from all the nations of the earth to His side.

Balaam saw all this, as in a dream... like the image, it was in fanciful colors but there was enough detail that he could make specific application.  God and His people were coming... they were like a train rolling through the countryside... they could not be stopped because they were blessed of the Lord though they deserved none of it.

They were coming... soon... but as Balaam said "I see Him, but not now, I behold Him, but not near."  Another was coming and in Him all the world would be blessed. 

 

Numbers 17-19: Workers Are Worth Their Wages

Calm Before the Storm, North Beach, HI, 2018

Numbers 18:19–20 (NKJV) ¹⁹ “All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer to the Lord, I have given to you and your sons and daughters with you as an ordinance forever; it is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord with you and your descendants with you.”  ²⁰ Then the Lord said to Aaron: “You shall have no inheritance in their land, nor shall you have any portion among them; I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel."

The resentment registered against Aaron and his sons as well as Moses himself may have had some pecuniary origins.  In chapter 17 God says that He intends to rid Himself "of the complaints of the children of Israel, which they make against you (Moses and Aaron)."  He goes about this by collecting rods from all the tribes of Israel and choosing only the "rod of Aaron, of the house of Levi" to bud, produce blossoms and yield "ripe almonds."  

Now this was a significant miracle, so significant indeed that God commands Moses to place the rod in the "Testimony" (the Ark) to be kept as a sign.  The clear significance of this sign was that the "rebels" (17:10) needed to "put away their complaints from Me, lest they die."  The people of Israel got the message, at least for the time being, recognizing their dire peril (vs. 12).  It's not good to complain against God or His Anointed (cf. Psalm 2).

Then, in chapters 18 & 19 God goes into some detail about how Aaron and the Levites are to be supported.  They, as has been said before, are not to have any 'portion' of the land and thus their entire income would be derived from tithes / taxes on the people.  As you read through these chapters notice just how extensive this tithing / taxing is.  There were a lot of Levites and the entire nation of Israel had to bring first fruits and first born offerings to them before any other use was made.  I think we can readily see that there might have been some grumbling over time.  One of the hardest things for some Christians to do is to dig into their pocket and give generously to the church for its expenses and for the support of the staff.  

Ten percent off the top was the standard for each tithe as it came in increments plus all of the special offerings.  That added up to a good deal of wealth as it was measured in those days.  It is not out of the question that the resentment registered against Moses, Aaron and the Levites might have had some origin in this.

What should we make of this.

Far from treating the call to tithe as part of the OT "ceremonial law", Jesus and the apostles assumed it as part of ordinary Christian spirituality.  It's true that the Pharisees were called on the carpet for hypocrisy in their tithing, but even there, Jesus told them that they were to pay attention to the "weightier things of the law" while not "neglecting" their tithe.  Paul tells the Corinthians that they are to give "not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver."  He tells Timothy that God taught (Deut. 25:4) that an ox was not to be muzzled while it was working... it deserved to eat from the fruits of its labor... and that "The laborer is worthy of his wages."  

All this is to say that the NT assumes that the people of God will take up their responsibility to support their church and its staff in such a way as to enable them to do their work without unnecessary worry about their physical needs.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist too sketch out a minimum budget for a church gathering place, suitable salaries for those necessary full time staff and then all the incidentals that are required to keep the lights on, the plumbing working and the roof not caving in.  Every family should then simply do some mental arithmetic.  The number of families (giving units) plus adult singles in the church constitutes the total giving "units."  Dividing the total budget expenses by the number of those units is the "share" each family/adult single should give.  Usually a tithe of ten percent of gross income will exceed this amount by a bit but, in my experience, not by much (on average).  

The important thing is that the people of God need to take ownership of their church budget and not resent giving their share.

On the positive side, in my experience, those people who have learned to tithe have never regretted it.  God is real.  He works in the lives of those who are humble givers and they find that God's share has always been a wise investment.  Furthermore, those who are serious in their tithing will usually be involved in the church to a greater extent and thus make the work of the church less expensive.

All in all, these chapters remind us that God takes tithing seriously.  Not because He needs the money but because it is a fundamental aspect of service.  It is part of our worship and as such is a component of the pathway of blessing.

Numbers 13-16: The Peril of Unbelief

Anger, 2005, unknown source

Nu 14:20–21 -20 Then the LORD said: “I have pardoned, according to your word; 21 but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD—

One of my sons tells the story of going to see one of those terrible "scream and slash" horror movies in a theater once.  I refuse to see them because I cannot stand the suspense.  You sit on the edge of your chair as some teenagers (usually) are creeping through a dark house and you know something is going to jump out and get them.  My son said that the plot was moving along those lines and some young girl came to a closed closet door and started to reach out for the handle when all of a sudden a man sitting behind them screamed out "No... don't open that door!"  That would have done it for me.  I would have lost it completely.

But I have to confess that as many times over the years that I have read the stories in these chapters I still feel the urge to scream out across the centuries and tell those Israelites "Don't do that!  Don't you know what will happen when you reject the Word of the Lord?"  But the girl on the screen opened the door and met her demise and those foolish Israelites paid the price of unbelief in their day.

God doesn't play around with arrogant sinners despising His Word or His ministers.  He tells Moses: "OK, I won't kill them all... yet... but the earth will be filled with the glory of God.  I will be glorified in mercy and I will be glorified in judgment.  Both will be astonishing.  Both my mercy and my judgment will serve to prove that I AM who I say I AM."  And God does just that.  

The men who brought a message of defeat back from their spy trip died at the hand of God... on the spot.  A man who presumed to pick up sticks on God's sabbath day was stoned to death. Korah and his relatives faced a horrible death as fire came out and consumed those who presumed to offer incense before Him (as it did with Nadab and Abihu) and the earth opened and swallowed entire families of those who rebelled.

What do all this have in common?  They are all products of unbelief.  They are all re-enactments of the sin of Adam and Eve when they wanted to be like God and determine good and evil for themselves.  This is repetition on a small scale of the sin of the generations around Noah when each man followed the desires of his own heart and did not submit to God nor worship Him alone.

The entire sordid history of fallen mankind is a horror movie in which stupid decisions bring disastrous results.  We never seem to learn.

God has brought judgments on the world throughout history.  During some of those periods religious worship revitalized and there was some repentance demonstrated, but most of the time, what those judgments proved was that fallen man is indeed justly deserving of every moment of eternal Hell.  He is an insult to the image of God in which he was created.

But God's glory will not be denied.  He has purposed that the earth shall be filled with it and the glory of His judgment, great as it is, is not sufficient to manifest His Ultimate Holiness.  His mercy is the crowning achievement of His eternal counsel.  As mankind has sinned through arrogant disbelief throughout the eons, so God has been gracious to those who truly repent.  God hears Moses' plea for the people and does not destroy them in a moment as they deserve.  God honors Aaron's intercession during the plague as Aaron stood between the people and God, shielding them from further plague.  

God sends His Son in the course of time to be born into the world of sinful men, to take upon Himself the burden of their sin, to intercede from then as did Moses but to a far more comprehensive fashion, and, to stand between God's wrath and His people on the cross... to receive in Himself, His very own body, the just wrath of God for our sins so that, having shielded us from it, we shall never face it again.

God is glorified in Judgment and Mercy.  The full manifestation of His glory requires both.  The peril of unbelief is real and how we deal with unbelief will determine how God is glorified in us.  We must hear the call of our Spirit lead conscience as it screams out at us "Don't do that!"  We must reject the whisper of the serpent and believe God... we must believe Him for what He actually says even when our sinful natures wish He had said something different.  We must believe!

The glory of God is to see His people rejoice in His mercy.  It is freely offered but came at a great cost.  As Hebrews reminds us we must give more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.

 

Numbers 9-12: When God's People Become a Burden....

Image: "Not a Good Sign", 2018, Severna Park, MD

Numbers 11:4–6 (NKJV) ⁴ Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat? ⁵ We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; ⁶ but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!”

A year had passed.  The time came and went for the second Passover to be observed.  God had brought His people out of Egypt to Mt. Sinai and there He had formed them into "His People."  They had been given His Law and His promises.  They had seen wonders beyond description.  They had the living glory of God there resting on the Tabernacle, a cloud by day and something like fire by night.  God had already exercised them in the discipline of movement.  They had marched to their first intermediate stop between Sinai and the Promised Land.  They saw the cloud lift from the tabernacle... they had heard the trumpets which God commanded to be blown sound and in their thousands, in orderly company they had marched.

You would think that having been the beneficiaries of such Divine Grace they would be ready to face any hardship secure in the knowledge of God's comforting Presence right there before their eyes.

No... we sinners can be pretty dumb sometimes.  

It starts out with neighbors rubbing each other the wrong way.  The people start complaining.  God sends down a fire and consumed some of them outside the camp (11:1).  Then there were those who "yielded to intense craving and started whining for "meat to eat."  They went so far as to look back at their time in Egypt and to forget all the pain and suffering they endured in that place while dreaming that they had all kinds of good food to eat.  They grumbled against the Lord's manna when every day that strange food was a bona fide miracle... appearing at the Lord's command.  They were well fed... they just wanted more.

Moses cries out to God and pours out a few complaints himself.  In something like Adam's words he, in effect, said "These people, You gave me, are too much to bear."  God tells him to calm down... that He would give these people meat alright... so much that it would be coming out their ears.  Moses himself has some doubts about that but God gives Moses the short answer.  In so many words He says... "Hush... don't you think I can do it?"  Next day quails are covering the ground and the people greedily gather and eat them as fast as they can.  God however was not pleased.  He strikes His people with a great plague and many died because of their craving (11:34).

But the complaints have not reached their peak.  Aaron, of all people, and his wife Miriam decide that they are as good as Moses and that it is time for the old man to be replaced.  This is Aaron... the High Priest... Moses' mouth piece before Pharaoh.  We are astonished at the thought of it.  

His wife Miriam is in the thick of it.  Aaron, as the High Priest, could not have acted in that capacity if he was a leper so God strikes Miriam as a demonstration of His displeasure.  She is shown grace when Moses intercedes for her and is restored after a period outside the camp with the other lepers.

It is a sorry picture painted in these chapters but one that, throughout the years, has been repeated many times.

A congregation of God's people who have been sincere and zealous for the Gospel can be subjected to spiritual attack that can rip apart the entire Church.  I have seen churches where a "spirit of complaining" has come upon the majority and nothing can make them happy.  I have seen pastors brought to their knees, even to the point of resigning their commission and leaving the church by the sinful displays of ill will that professing Christians have registered.  It is one of the most heart-breaking things that can happen.

The only way that such a situation can be reversed is through a super-natural work of the Holy Spirit guiding those leaders in the church who can see clearly and have a heart for God's people and for His Church.  They, working through the means of grace, can persevere in proclaiming, confronting, admonishing, counseling and, when necessary, disciplining those whose complaints are more about pride and arrogance than holiness.  It is a tough time and the church almost always loses some people.  Like the children of Israel some may have to be cast out of the church and given over to Satan so that their souls may be saved in the day of Christ Jesus.

Every Christian has to be on guard against this threat.  When any Christian begins to hear complaints being muttered they should take steps to deal with them.  Some complaints are valid but if they are only muttered in secret and not addressed then they will fester and go rank like those quail in the desert.  The cure for complaining is open discussion.  Problems, real or perceived, have to be addressed openly and humbly.  If the complaints are sinful then that has to be clearly established.  If they are valid then they need to be addressed and rectified.

Leadership of God's people is a burden that can be quite trying but God has not left us to bear it alone.  As God gave Moses 70 elders in these chapters to help him with this very problem, so God has given His church not only pastors but lay leaders (elders) who must be willing to roll up their sleeves and deal with what ever is there.

It can be difficult but, in my experience, every Church that has dealt with the presence of a complaining spirit openly and with humble hearts has become stronger as a result.

Our God is good at healing His people's corporate body even as He does our individual ones.

Numbers 5-8: A Good Start.....

Bright Future, 2018, Severna Park, MD

Numbers 6:22–27 (NKJV) ²² And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²³ “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. 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 lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” ’

²⁷ “So they shall put My name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”

Numbers 5-8 gives more detail about God's commissioning ceremonies for His people.  These chapters have lots of repetition in the offerings presented by the various tribes through their representative head and the sanctification of the Levites is a bit of a slog, but what we must not lose sight of is what God is doing.

God is requiring detailed observance of procedure, expensive offerings in quantity and quality and attendance at the ritual observance for nearly two straight weeks.  This is quite a program.  God wants the importance of what He is doing seared on the hearts and minds of His people because this is just the beginning... this is the start of something big.

After this period of preparation the Israelites are going to start marching to the promised land.  Many trials await them in the future.  There will be hard decisions and dangerous tasks ahead.  God knows that the only way for His people to persevere in their task is to take their commissioning seriously.  He is binding them to Himself.  The covenantal nature of this entire ceremony is clearly conveyed in the priestly blessing God sets forth in the verses above.

God tells the newly commissioned priests... "Do this!  Ensure that My people hear these words and that these words constitute, through the authority I have given you to speak in My name, a promise."  The well known words of the blessing convey all that the people of God need to know in order to serve Him no matter what.  These words are very reminiscent of Psalm 23 in the faith they proclaim.  Our God will bless us and keep us... He will always look favorably upon us and be gracious to us... He will show us His face and give us peace.  With this assurance, if the people would just remember the deep significance and holy nature of their commissioning, nothing would be impossible and they could overcome any obstacle Satan might place before them.

This they did not do.  Other than Joshua, Caleb and a few others, not a single one of the adults at that commissioning ceremony entered into the promised land.  Rather, when push came to shove, they forgot the promises, forgot their Holy state, forgot the Presence of God and they wound up wandering in the wilderness for forty years. 

What a shame.

Before we get all self-righteous and sneer at these weak and complaining Israelites, perhaps we ought to check our own history.

Think of your baptism.  Apart from the bloody sacrifices offered on the spot, isn't our baptism the same thing in essence.  Are we not set aside to a holy priesthood before God as was Aaron, his sons and the Levites?  Did not we enter into a solemn covenant with God in the same way as each of the individuals in each of the tribes through their representative head?  Are we not bound, by our baptism, into a solemn league and covenant with our brothers and sisters in Christ to be used by God together to achieve the goals and accomplish the work that He has, before all eternity, set in place for us to do?  Is this not all implicit in our Baptism?

Yes, of course it is.  But how often, as time and troubles beset us, do we shove that holy commissioning ritual to the back recesses of our mind?  Do we not find ourselves trying to compromise with the forces that are brought to bear on us?  Do we hesitate and shudder at the thought of standing against the tides of the culture and its social pressures to conform?  In so many words do we not feat the "giants in the land"?  And when we do, is this not in fact admitting that we do not believe what we have been promised and the words of blessing that have been extended to us, we count as nothing.

However, through Jesus our Lord and the power of the Holy Spirit, we can humble ourselves and be again thrilled at the honor God has shown us in our baptism.  We can remember just who we are and just Who our God is.  We can regain our zeal and we can find hope in our lives.

We have been commissioned by God as a holy people, separate from all the rest of the world and dedicated to Him.  That is who we are!  He is our God and we are His people!  Let us rejoice and sing and go forth in gladness to deal confidently and competently with whatever He places before us.

We have been given a good start... now let's continue to run the race set before us and with our own eyes we will see our Redeemer and the Promised Rest that is ours for the taking. 

 

Numbers 1-4: Military Precision for the Soldiers of God

Image:  Martial Air, 2018, Baltimore War Memorial, Baltimore, MD

Numbers 2:34 (NKJV) ³⁴ Thus the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses; so they camped by their standards and so they broke camp, each one by his family, according to their fathers’ houses.

By any standard one would have to say that the armies of Rome were among the most successful in the history of the world if not at the top of the list.  The key to Rome's military success (though they lost many individual battles and campaigns) was the strict organization, training and discipline required of every soldier and every unit.  This organization covered every detail of military life while in company.  The army was trained to march 20-30 miles a day (a quick pace) and then, on arrival at their next location, throw up a camp, complete with barricades before settling down for the evening.  The Roman camp was a square with the General's command tent in dead center with the various companies in the legion laid out in square panels all around him.  On arrival at any camp a replacement soldier would know exactly where his unit was, where he would find the tent of his immediate superior and, most likely, where he would sleep and stow his gear.  Whether the wilderness of Gaul or the deserts of Asia... every camp was the same.

It doesn't take a lot of military insight to see that these Israelites, by the command of God and under the oversight of Moses, was organized in exactly that same manner.  They may not have carried materials for an external barricade, as did the Romans, but they were prepared to defend their camp from any surprise attack at any time.  It was a layered defense with the central position being occupied by the Tabernacle.  God was the Supreme Commander of this argument and immediately next to His "tent" were the Moses and the Levites.  They were the imperial guard.  Between the families of the Levites and the outside of the camp, there were the tents of the other tribes with Judah having the honored position of being in the East, in front of the entrance to the Tabernacle.  Judah also had the honor of being the first to break camp and begin the next march.  Being at the head of the troop meant easier marching and much less dust to deal with.  The Tabernacle was in the dead center of the marching order, again so that in case of ambush, the tribes could deploy around it in their assigned positions in short order.

It must have been a thrilling sight to watch and an awesome spectacle in the eyes of the many spies that the surrounding nations probably sent to keep tabs on them.  Here was a purposeful people... a disciplined army... a force to be dealt with and not taken lightly.

There were a lot of fighting men, sure enough.  But what made them most formidable was that they were not a mob... this was not a horde of rampaging Bedouins intent on sudden slashing attack, killing and raping and ravaging a city or camp and then disappearing into the sands.  This was a nation on the move.  They were going somewhere and they were prepared to face whatever was in front of them.  Any one who tried to interfere with them would have their hands full.

I think there were practical reasons for this military order that was, in fact, tied to the historical circumstances of the day.  The battles that the people of God were going to face were in fact military... there would be blood on the ground and their would be many wails of grief over fallen comrades, brothers, fathers and sons.  But I think it also is instructive that the military metaphor is used often in the New Testament for the Church of Jesus Christ.  Famously, Ephesians 6 calls for the people of God to put on the whole armor of God because they must "stand" against Satan and all his hordes.  At the end of the day, they were to see that their calling was "having done all, to stand."  

The metaphor Paul is using is that of a soldier, standing in line, shield to shield with his buddy next to him.  "To stand" meant to not give way such that the enemy could break through the line at the point where you stood and thus turn the flank of the rest of the unit.  This was, in Paul's day, a direct reference to the Roman legions where an individual or a unit that broke ranks faced the harshest possible punishments.  Paul is not adverse to calling upon each individual Christian and each individual church (as in Ephesus) to think of themselves as organized military units, fighting real battles, where real flesh and blood opponents may inflict deadly harm and pain.

Our modern churches most often forget this idea.  So many of us emphasize our relationship to Christ almost totally in individual terms.  The focus is on the individual as an individual.  However, OT and NT, portrays things differently.  The individual is in fact to have a personal relation to Christ but he/she is to see that Christ has placed them in ranks.  There is an horizontal relationship that we have with our fellow brothers and sisters.  We are to be a unit, organized under our leadership, those chose for that position, so that as a unit we are to engage the enemy wherever God leads us.  We are to be in a defensive and offensive posture.  The enemy is always attacking us even as we, when we take this to heart, are attacking him.

Our surrounding culture provides the military bastions that we are to see as fortresses, cities of Satan, whose doors shall not stand against the purposeful advance of the Christian Church which our Lord Himself instituted.  

The ordinary Christian church and every individual in it has to be trained and cultivated into this mentality and there must be a sense of unit identification among us, so that we know where we fit, with whom we are to fight and where we are to stand in the ranks.  

The image of Israel marching through the desert, headed toward the promised land, is a metaphor for the journey of the Christian church through time to the great Day when our Supreme Commander, seated on His White Horse, will have the final victory.  This martial image may not be popular to a complacent people who are used to luxury and ease, but it is an important Biblical metaphor.

We have much to do to make it happen.

Leviticus 26-27: Blessed is the Nation Whose God is the Lord (Psalm 33:12)

Image: Blossoming In The Light, 2017, Severna Park, MD

Leviticus 26:11–12 (NKJV) ¹¹ I will set My tabernacle among you, and My soul shall not abhor you. ¹² I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.

The covenant promise "I will be your God and you shall be My people" is the most often repeated promise in all the Bible.  It continues from Leviticus right through Revelation and constitutes the most fundamental foundation on which all the blessings of Christ are built.

God sent His Son into the world because from all eternity He declared that He would have a covenant people among whom He would walk.  God sacrifice His Son on the cross on their behalf.  Jesus rose from the dead and ascended unto heaven in order to rule over His people and all of time until the consummation of this promise.  God has ordered all things in heaven and on earth unto the end that everything works together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His (covenant) purpose.  The entire Gospel proclaimed to fallen mankind is that God is fulfilling this promise.

Leviticus 26 in particular proclaims that blessings and curses associated with people to whom God calls to covenant relation to Himself.  In this passing age, as was the case with Israel, the visible covenant people of God is comprised of those who are eternally elected by God and some who are only temporally elected.  Those eternally elected will be preserved in their faith through the sovereign workings of the Holy Spirit.  Those who are only temporally called (elected) such as Judas Iscariot, will prove their prideful orientation and will reject God and His covenant as revealed in Christ at some point.  But the point remains that in this life it is impossible for fallen sinners to distinguish the status of any other fallen sinner who is in visible covenant relation to God.  We must, until proven otherwise, assume that though still sinful God is working in all our brothers and sisters and that we will see His power manifested in them and in ourselves.

So, God has a visible covenant people existing in time and space and Leviticus 26 speaks to them... to us... with solemn and holy promises and warnings.

Think of the glorious experience of being part of a people among whom God is walking and working and preserving and blessing.  They will be like the crocus in the image above, they will bend toward the Lord's life and be nurtured by it.  They will receive the blessings of rain and nourishment in due season.  Their seed will prosper and they will see their spiritual generations extending down through time.  Their witness will bear fruit and the social order in which they live will be blessed because of their presence.  God's promise to Abraham was that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through His Seed and that Seed, the Lord Christ, is even now extending the healing grace of His power through His visible Church into every darkened corner of this planet.

Yes, unfortunately, we have seen evidence in our history of many nations where the gospel flourished, bore fruit and, in essence, withered on the vine.  We see European countries that were once a hot bed of Reformation zeal where now it is only the state support that keeps the buildings in working order.  What is this historical phenomenon other than the outworking of the threats contained in this chapter.  Did not God say that if His people turn away from His revealed will, stop keeping His commandments and substitute false doctrines for His Holy Word, that He would turn away from them and depart?  Did He not say that they would wither and die but that He would preserve a remnant?

There is no other comprehensive explanation for the continued existence and overall prosperity of the Christian Church down through the ages than the historical evidence that God is keeping His covenant with His people.  He will be their God and they will be His people.   Those who prove their eternal covenant status by the evidence of their heart felt faith and obedience will prosper.  Those who prove themselves to be idolaters and hypocrites... well, God's covenant provides for them also.

Leviticus 23-25: Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing

Image: "Sheridan Roundup", 2019, Guest photographer - Dave Johanson

Leviticus 23:32 (NKJV) ³² It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath.”

All of us need structure.  Some of us may need it more than others and some may positively hate any attempt to hem them into any kind of mold, but the bottom line is that even the most free spirited human around still requires some modicum of structure just to exist within the prevailing social order.  God knows this.  It is the way He created us.  God is a God of order not chaos and He who set the rhythms of the cosmos in place also has designed human life to be conducted according to some rhythm.

This endemic sense of rhythm has always been present in every human social setting.  What we may not realize is that in many ways the patterns to which we conform shape us... they align us with a given consciousness... they not only affect our emotions they also effect our emotions.  We are cultivated into many aspects of our world view by the simple recurring patterns of our social behavior.

When God set Israel aside for Himself He carefully imposed on them a musical "beat" for their common existence.  When we read these chapters in Leviticus we must note this, not so much for the sense of press of duty, the idea of being burdened by religious obligations, but rather for the purpose these events were to accomplish.  God's people needed structure in their lives that made them think about their special status as well as the reality of the ever present God who was shaping them and guiding them and watching over them.

Let's face it.  Apart from some sense of obligatory rhythm to focus us on what's really important in life - our relationship to God and His abiding Presence - we would drown in the daily stuff that comes at us from all directions.  In the parable of the seeds Jesus spoke of the seed that was choked to death by the "cares and worries of the world."  A person who is in danger of that has to see through those pressing matters and discern that in the long run they are not really what is most important.  The "main thing" in our life must be our religious consciousness, our sense of walking daily with God.

God set the weekly Sabbath in place to help us get our mind right every week.  He instituted a year long series of celebrations that required as much as a week of dedicated resting in observance.  This applied not only to the Israelites but also to their servants and animals.  He even set aside an entire year for the land itself to rest.  This is how God sought to keep us from a total "work-aholic" focus... it's how we were to keep perspective on those over whom we exercise authority.  God forced His people to look away from their common practices and think about Him... throughout the week certainly but at certain times of the year to focus on specific aspects of His saving work in our lives.

Notice how He calls on the Israelites to "afflict" their souls in these periods.  God is not telling them that they are to whip themselves with leather straps in some masochistic false repentance as some priests did in the monasteries.  What he was directing His people to do was to shift their thoughts from their own accomplishments and responsibilities and humble themselves before Him.  There is a place in our ordinary lives for the drastic self-humbling exercise of seeing just how far from being worthy of God's love we really are.  It makes a huge difference in the way we view troubles when we realize that troubles are nothing more than we really deserve in and of ourselves.  "Afflicting" our souls does not come naturally.  We have to have structure in our lives to remind us of God's unmerited blessings... His amazing grace.  We all need times when, like Isaiah, we fall on our faces and confess our sins.  

If we don't have some structure to push us in that direction it won't happen.

But, along with noting the call to afflict our souls, look at the sheer joy of these celebrations.  Notice how God instituted the Feast of Tabernacles to the end that His people would "rejoice before the Lord your God" and they were to do it for seven straight days.

Delighting in the Lord is something we have to be reminded to do just as we have to be reminded to afflict our souls.  

God built a social pattern and instituted a yearly cycle of worship rhythm to help His people keep "the main thing the main thing."  Like the horse, the rider and the dog in the image above, these structures herded His people down that road that lead to their true Home.  We Christians are no longer bound by the specific year long structures of the OT.  We have the Lord's Day of course... but we also have other religious celebrations that help us in the same fashion.  What we must embrace is the principle of the thing.

If our religious practices devolve into mere habitual external rites... things we do... and we are not using them as God intends them to be used... to shape us into more spiritual beings with a deep sense of belonging to Christ, then the "main thing" is the main thing no longer to us.  It's time to do something about that.