Monthly Archives: February 2019

Daily Bible Study

February 19, 2019 Bible Study — The Israelites Rebel Against Moses Because He Would Not Follow The “Crowd”

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.

After their devastating loss when they entered the Promised Land against Moses’ and God’s command, the people were dissatisfied by Moses’ leadership.  A Levite by the name of Korah lead a rebellion to replace Moses as spokesperson for God.  He and three leaders from the tribe of Reuben led a rebellion against Moses.  It appears that the core of Korah’s rebellion was that he demanded that he and 250 of his followers be allowed to function as priests.  Perhaps Korah was also calling for all of the people of Israel to be acknowledged as able to function as priests. 

Actually, there seems to be two elements to the rebellion.  Korah and the Levites who followed him wanted to be able to serve as priests (and probably wanted the authority that went with that).  While the Reubenite leaders appeared to want to reject Moses’ authority to lead.  When Moses summoned Korah and his followers to the Tabernacle for a contest to demonstrate who had divine approval, the Reubenite leaders refused to come and take part.  This suggests to me that they believed that Moses had rigged the contest.  Despite their unwillingness to go before Moses and God to make their case, they died for their rebellion along with the rest of Korah’s key followers.  The passage tells us that the death of Korah and his leadership cadre was not enough to settle the grumbling against Moses and Aaron.  It took a plague stopped by Aaron’s intervention and the miraculous blossoming of Aaron’s staff to settle the discontent among the people.

 

Daily Bible Study

February 18, 2019 Bible Study — Do Not Let the Obstacles We See Diminish Our Faith

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.

I did not touch on the scouts who went into the Promised Land in yesterday’s passage. Two of the scouts, Joshua and Caleb, focused on the riches and goodness of the land. The other ten focused on the problems that the people would face in trying to take the land. One can easily learn the wrong lesson here. The fault of the ten was NOT that they saw difficulties. The problem was that they saw, and reported on, these difficulties as being insurmountable. They focused on why the people of Israel would not be able to possess the land. The people responded to their discouraging report and refused to listen to Caleb and Joshua. The same people who witnessed God’s action to obtain their exodus from Egypt, who had seen God part the Red Sea, were unwilling to trust that He would overcome these obstacles. How often do we do the same thing? Despite the miracles which God has worked in our lives in the past, we often fail to put our faith in Him going forward. It is OK to see the obstacles in the path to following God’s will, but we must not let those obstacles discourage us.

Daily Bible Study

February 17, 2019 Bible Study — One of the Israelite Leaders Was a Woman

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.

In yesterday’s passage we read about some people who were disappointed in not being able to celebrate the second Passover (and the solution which Moses gave them).  Today’s passage contains examples of how only a short time later the people began to complain about Moses’ leadership.  I was going to write about the people’s ungratefulness, but I realized that I want to focus on the lessons in leadership from this passage.  God told Moses to appoint 70 elders to assist with managing the people and their problems.  The passage gives us no idea how these 70 elders were chosen, but Moses summoned them to the Tabernacle.  Two of the 70, for reasons never disclosed, did not come to the Tabernacle.  Nevertheless, when God poured his Spirit out on the elders, those two received it along with those gathered at the Tabernacle and began prophesying.  Joshua, Moses’ assistant, wanted Moses to stop them.  Moses declined to do so.  What we learn is that these 70 elders had authority given to them from God, not from Moses.  Joshua wanted Moses to exert his authority to establish that these 70 were subordinate to him and were only acting on his authority.  Moses declined to attempt to supersede God’s authority by doing so.

Again I find myself going in a different direction from my original intention.  I had planned to connect the dispute between Moses and his sister and brother (Miriam and Aaron) to the above issues.  However, it struck me that this dispute gives us a lesson on women in leadership (although perhaps not the one you might think).  Miriam and Aaron were wrong in challenging Moses’ authority.  However, the important lesson is that Miriam, a woman, had sufficient authority in the first place to be able to challenge Moses.  Miriam was clearly one of the leaders of the people of Israel.  She had enough authority to challenge Moses for overall leadership of the people (although only with Aaron to act as her proxy).

As a side note, this is the second time where Aaron acted in a way which brought down God’s wrath where he did not directly suffer.  The first time was when he made the golden calf for the people to worship.

Daily Bible Study

February 16, 2019 Bible Study — The Second Passover

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.

When it came time to celebrate the Passover in remembrance of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt the first time (the first Passover was part of that deliverance), some of the Israelites were unclean and unable to partake.  They came to Moses to ask how they could celebrate this important occasion.  Moses recognized their sincere desire to worship God and celebrate His great power, so he told them to wait while he consulted with God.  The answer God gave Moses was that those who were unable to celebrate the Passover at its appointed time should do so one month later.  However, this special dispensation only applied to those who were truly unable to celebrate at the appointed time because they were ceremonially unclean, or were away on a trip.  It did not apply to those who found it inconvenient to celebrate the Passover at the appointed time. 

Daily Bible Study

February 15, 2019 Bible Study –Dedicating the Tabernacle

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 tribal leaders all gave gifts for the dedication of the Tabernacle and of the altar.  For the Tabernacle they banded together and gave six wagons and twelve oxen.  These were divided up among the Levite clans according to their duties regarding transporting the Tabernacle in order for them to transport their portion.  Those who were responsible for transporting the Ark of the Covenant and other sacred furnishings were not given any wagons because they were supposed to carry the items for which they were responsible. 

They all wanted to bring their offerings for the dedication of the altar at the same time (so that none of them were seen to have been lax in their giving).  However, because some of their offerings were going to be sacrificed on the altar, Moses instructed them each to bring their offerings on a separate day.  As a result, the dedication of the Tabernacle and its furnishings was a twelve day festival.

Daily Bible Study

February 14, 2019 Bible Study — Hockey Players and the Vow of a 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.

It is at this point where I start looking forward to getting to the end of the Pentateuch.  I really dislike the procedure described for determining if a man’s jealousy about his wife is justified or not.  However, if one truly believes that God will divinely intervene in human affairs, then one can believe that He will intervene to protect an innocent woman unjustly accused by her husband.  Interpreted in light of the later instructions concerning divorce it puts a different light on those instructions: “No, you cannot divorce your wife just because you are convinced she has been unfaithful.  You must have proof.  If you have been unable to catch her being unfaithful, you can follow this procedure.  No, it’s not free.  You need to make an offering along with the request.”  I really don’t think much of a man who puts his wife through such an ordeal.

I have never fully understood the vow of a Nazirite.  What is its purpose?  Moses here describes what one needs to do in order to fulfill such a vow, but makes no mention as to why one would do so.  It appears that Samson’s mother vowed that he would be a lifelong Nazirite before his birth.  The men whom Paul accompanied to the Temple when he was arrested appear to have been completing a vow of a Nazirite.  So, I did a little research and found that most people took the vow of a Nazirite in response to being healed of some great affliction, or in response to receiving something greatly desired (such as the birth of a child).  The example of Samson suggests that some people took the vow of a Nazirite as part of a commitment to God, and a request for His aid, to work towards some godly goal.  As a hockey fan it reminds me of the playoff beards that most (maybe all) hockey players grow.  For those of you who do not follow hockey: NHL players typically stop shaving when their team enters the playoffs and do not shave (and usually do not even trim their beards) until their team has been eliminated.  They do so as a sign of their dedication to winning.  Modern Christians would be well served to have similar traditions to signify our dedication to serving God, or to signify our gratefulness for what He has done for us.

Daily Bible Study

February 13, 2019 Bible Study — Redeeming The Firstborn

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.

Having completed a census of the men of fighting age from the rest of the tribes of Israel, Moses counted the number of Levites.  However, for this count he counted every male one month old and older by their clans.  He also counted all of the firstborn sons of Israel.  The Levites were to be dedicated to God to redeem the rest of the firstborn sons of Israel.  What strikes me here is that the number of firstborn sons of Israel exceeded the number of Levites by 273.  What strikes me about that number is its arbitrariness.  If this was a made up story I would expect these numbers to have some significance, or for it to have worked out that there were exactly the same number of Levites as there were firstborn sons.

Daily Bible Study

February 12, 2019 Bible Study — Organizing 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 the Israelites had left Egypt, Moses organized them.  I suspect that the organization had begun before this, but that at this point was far enough along to formalize it.  The first step recorded here was appointing leaders over each of the tribes.  Followed by a census of all of the fighting men of the twelve tribes.  Once the count had been obtained, Moses formalized where each tribe would camp relative to the Tabernacle and where they would march when the people moved on.

It seems likely to me that the leaders of each of the tribes emerged over the course of the time they were camped at Mt. Sinai.   The same would likely have been true of where the tribes camped relative to the Tabernacle.  Over the course of the time they were camped at Mt Sinai, the people would have become more organized.  We could certainly debate the degree to which this organization was top down (God to Moses to the people) vs bottom up (the people organizing themselves and acknowledging certain people as leaders).  I suspect it was a bit of both, with some of the later rebellions against Moses being led by people who had gotten followers during this process but who were not part of the formalized leadership which emerged here.

Daily Bible Study

February 11, 2019 Bible Study — Actions Have Consequences

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.

Today’s passage outlines the blessings which God will give to a people who obey His commands, and the punishments which He will mete out to a people who disobey them.  These blessings and punishments are the consequence of obedience or disobedience.  People often complain about God punishing people for disobeying His arbitrary commands.  What they fail to realize is that God’s commands are not arbitrary.  The blessings are the result of living according to God’s commands, but not just the letter of the commands.  To get those blessings you must live according to their spirit.  The punishments are the consequence of disobeying God’s commands.  I like to compare this to putting oil in your car.  You may not like oilt.  You may think it is dirty and messy, but if you do not put it in your car’s engine your car won’t run very long. 

As I read this passage there seems to be two sorts of dedication to God being described.  The first involves paying an amount to the priesthood/Temple in order to dedicate someone to God.  The second involves giving something to the priesthood/Temple with the option to buy it back.  I started to write this because I hoped that by doing so I would come to a better understanding of this.  However, while I understand what the words mean, I do not understand what principle is being presented here.

Daily Bible Study

February 10, 2019 Bible Study — Giving People a Fresh Start

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.

I struggle with the Jubilee Year as described here.  It seems impractical.  The hard part would be keeping track of to whom ownership should revert when land was sold the year after the last Jubilee.  Forty nine years later, the person who sold the land has likely died.  To which of his children should the land be returned?  Having said that, I think that the idea of the Jubilee has merit.  The idea that we offer people an opportunity to “reset” from the bad decisions which they, or their parents, made has value.  Or, perhaps it was not the result of bad decisions.  Perhaps people were forced into economic hardship by circumstances beyond their control and now do not have the resources to recover.  The point of the Jubilee Year was to periodically give people an opportunity for a fresh start.  We should do what is within our own ability to help those in misfortune start over.