Monthly Archives: February 2017

Daily Bible Study

February 19, 2017 Bible Study –What Are Our Motives When We Question Leadership?

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 16-18.

    We tend to have this view of the people of Israel being led through the wilderness by God and Moses with only the occasional questioning of Moses’ leadership. We know this is not true if we actually read the accounts given in the Bible, but it generally does not sink in. It is clear that the people of Israel had the same jockeying for position that happens in any large organization. From time to time, various people acquired a power base and attempted to usurp leadership over the Israelites from Moses. The sin of Korah and his followers was not that they questioned Moses’ leadership. Their sin was that they did not seek God’s guidance before they did so. They did not oppose Moses because they believed that he was leading them in a direction contrary to God’s will. They opposed Moses because they wanted the people of Israel to follow their lead rather than his.

    This passage is a warning to us today about examining our motives when we question Church leadership. Do we question Church leadership because we genuinely believe that God’s will for the Church is other than the direction those leaders are leading? Or, are we questioning Church leadership because we think that we deserve to be in their position in their place? If we truly follow God’s direction and He intends for us to be leaders among His people, He will cause those He intends to follow our lead to follow us.

Daily Bible Study

February 18, 2017 Bible Study — Following God Where He Leads Us Today

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 14-15.

    Having heard the reports of the ten spies who reported that the people in the land of Canaan were too powerful for them the people of Israel were also afraid to go into the land. Instead they began plotting to select someone to lead them back to Egypt. They lacked the faith to trust God to overcome the obstacles in front of them, despite the many miraculous things which God had done for them, starting with the Plagues in Egypt. So God (through Moses) told them, “Fine, you do not want to go into the Land, I will lead you through the wilderness for 40 years and then lead your children to the Land after you have all died.” It was only after this that the people decided they were willing to go into the Land. However, by then God was no longer leading them and things went badly.
    There is an important lesson for us here. Sometimes the things which God guides us to do have an expiration date. If we do not take advantage of those opportunities when God first directs us to take them, He withdraws them. This is true of missions to which He calls us and of opportunities for advancement. If we refuse to take advantage of the opportunities when He offers them to us, they may not be there any longer when we change our minds.

Daily Bible Study

February 17, 2017 Bible Study –Focusing On What Has Gone Wrong

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 11-13.

    This passage is about how we as people tend to complain about our hardships rather than give praise for our blessings. The people of Israel complained because they did not have meat to eat, only the manna which God provided them. Moses complained to God about having to listen to, and being responsible for, all of the Israelites complaints. Miriam and Aaron complained because Moses had married a woman who was not an Israelite and was held in higher esteem than they themselves. The scouts, except for Joshua and Caleb, complained that the people living in the land God had promised to the Israelites were too powerful for them. In each case, those involved complained about what they did not like rather than seeking a solution to the lack. The Israelites did not ask God (or Moses) for meat to eat, they complained because they did not have meat to eat. Moses did not ask God for help bearing the burden of managing the people of Israel’s many problems, he complained that the job was too hard. The scouts did not ask God how they could overcome the obstacles they saw, they complained that the obstacles were too great. In each case, they complained because they did not have sufficient faith to believe that God could give them what they needed/wanted.

Daily Bible Study

February 16, 2017 Bible Study — Dedicating the Levites

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 8-10.

    I am struck by the logistics of the people of Israel as a nomadic people. In today’s passage the dedication of the Levites is described. The first step in that process was that someone (I read that someone as Moses, but it is possible that it was not limited to Moses) was to sprinkle them with the water of purification. We know from an earlier chapter that there were 22,000 Levite males one month and older. Even if the dedication only included the men between 25 and 50 years of age it was still a very large number of people. Another step in the process was that the people of Israel were to lay their hands on the Levites being dedicated. Again from earlier in Numbers we know there were over 600,000 fighting men among the people of Israel. The image of them all being assembled for this ceremony of dedication is overwhelming. Thinking about conducting a ceremony with this large number of people is mind boggling.

    When it came time to celebrate the second Passover, the first one in memory of the rescue of the Israelites from Egypt (the first Passover was part of that rescue), some of the men of Israel were ceremonially unclean. However, they still wanted to celebrate this event. So Moses went to God and asked what they should do. The answer Moses received was that those who were unable to celebrate the Passover for legitimate reasons at the appropriate time should celebrate it one month later. The interesting thing here is that these men did not view celebrating the Passover as an onerous ritual which they were glad to get out of. Rather it was something they wanted to do and were disappointed that they were unable to celebrate. We should have a similar attitude towards our various worship services.

Daily Bible Study

February 15, 2017 Bible Study — Maintaining Balance Between Groups

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 7.

    The leaders of each of the tribes of Israel(not counting the Levites), selected to help take the census of the tribes, got together and brought offerings for the dedication of the Tabernacle. The offerings from each leader was the same, despite the great disparity in the sizes of the tribes (there were almost 75,000 fighting men in the tribe of Judah, but only just over 32,000 from the tribe of Manasseh). This reflects the idea that each of the tribes was equal despite their varying sizes. There is an important lesson here for us in creating federations of smaller groups. If we want those smaller groups to each be equal in the larger group, they must each contribute equally to the larger group. The tribe of Manasseh could have claimed that because they were smaller, their share of the offerings of dedication should be smaller. However, if they had done that there would have been a perception that because they were smaller they counted for less. With each tribe giving the same offering of dedication for the Tabernacle it was established that each tribe had an equal share in the Tabernacle.

Daily Bible Study

February 14, 2017 Bible Study — The Vow of the Nazirite

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 5-6.

    Every time I read about the vow of the Nazirite I wonder why one would take such a vow. It is not that it is such a hard vow to keep, or even all that demanding. I just struggle to see what goals would be furthered by taking it. Having said that I started thinking about the types of things for which it might be helpful. It would be a helpful reminder for pledges to accomplish a task that requires a minimal amount of effort sporadically applied, such as setting aside a certain amount of money over time, or paying a certain number of visits to shut-ins. It would also be useful as a reminder to oneself about a vow to take advantage of a certain type of opportunity the next time one occurred. Basically, the vow of the Nazirite serves as a discipline to remind one to practice some other discipline, or intermittent activity. There is one other purpose for the vow of the Nazirite, one that can be both good and bad, it reminds those around you that you have made a promise to do something in the service of God. The good part is that it may inspire those around you to encourage you in what you have promised. The bad side is that some people would use it to show others how much “holier” they are than most. The latter is a form of self-righteousness which is the opposite of holy.

Daily Bible Study

February 13, 2017 Bible Study — The Levites Are Given to God

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 3-4.

    The Levites were left out of the count of fighting men, but nevertheless they were counted. On the first Passover, God had declared that all of the first-born sons of Israel were His, since He had spared them when He killed the first-born of Egypt. However, it was impractical to raise all of the first-born sons to serve the Tabernacle. So, God chose the Levites as substitutes for the first-born sons of the rest of Israel. There is a lesson here for us that I am having trouble articulating. In part it is the idea that in every generation some of our children should be raised up to enter into the ministry. Yet, it is more than that. Another piece of it is that we should give back to God from the first of what we receive, whether it is material goods, children, or even our time.

Daily Bible Study

February 12, 2017 Bible Study — Organizing the Camp of the Israelites

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 1-2.

    A year after leaving Egypt, Moses took a census of all of the fighting men among the people of Israel. He did not include the Levites in the count because they were responsible for transporting and defending the Tabernacle. Once the census was completed, the tribes were divided into four groups of three tribes with each group assigned one of the cardinal directions to camp around the Tabernacle (one group camped North of the Tabernacle, one group East, one South, and one West). When the Israelites broke camp they would set out in order based on where they camped. Reading through this gives me a greater appreciation for what an undertaking it was for the people of Israel to move from place to place. The count of just the fighting men, not counting the tribe of Levi, was 603,550. That means that the total number of people counting women, children, and the elderly was between 1.5 and 2 million with flocks and herds. It is hard for me to picture a group of nomads that large.

Daily Bible Study

February 11, 2017 Bible Study — The Consequences of Doing Right and of Doing Wrong

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Leviticus 26-27.

    The book of Leviticus ends by telling us the consequences of obedience and of disobedience. Obeying God’s laws will lead to peace and prosperity. Disobeying His laws will lead to calamity. This is one of those passage which has both a literal meaning and a figurative meaning. It speaks of God blessing us for doing right and punishing us for doing wrong. This is true, God will intervene in our favor if we do right and He will punish us when we do wrong in order to teach us to do right. However, it is also true that blessings are a natural consequence of doing right and doing wrong will result in unpleasant consequences without God intervening. Doing right or wrong is an individual decision, each one of us must decide on their own to do right or to do wrong. This passage discusses what happens when the majority of the people do right or do wrong. Our decision to do right or wrong can, and will, have consequences for the people around us. If I choose to do what is wrong, it is not only I who will suffer, those around me will also suffer, especially those I care most about.

Daily Bible Study

February 10, 2017 Bible Study –Sabbath Year and the Year of Jubilee

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Leviticus 24-25.

    Today’s passage speaks of the Sabbath Year and the Year of Jubilee. The Sabbath Year encourages the people to allow the land to lie fallow every seventh year. This practice keeps farmers from draining all of the nutrients out of the soil, although there is more to it than just good land management. It is from this that we get the idea of the sabbatical, where certain types of professionals are encouraged to take a year off to “recharge” every seven years.

    The Year of Jubilee lays out a rule for maintaining social justice in a society. The biblical record suggests that the Israelites never truly implemented this law and I am not sure how you could do so in an established society. Nevertheless these rules lay out a principle of allowing people to recover from their economic mistakes over time. Slavery was not permanent (I am aware that these laws only applied to those who were Israelites to begin with). Selling your land was not permanent. In the Year of Jubilee, land would return to its original owners, or their heirs, and slaves would be freed. In between the Years of Jubilee, those who sold their land would have the right to buy it back at any time if they could raise the funds, relatives would have the right to buy the freedom of those who had become enslaved. In addition, there were instructions to the people of Israel to aid their brethren who had fallen into poverty and could not care for themselves. Those of us with the means should provide what we can to our fellow believers in need.