Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 19-21.

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It took me a bit to figure out how to get started on talking about what went on at Meribah.  When the Israelites got there, there was not water for them to drink, or for their flocks and herds to drink.  The people of Israel got angry with Moses and Aaron over this, despite the fact that Moses had resolved this issue for them on the previous time they were here shortly after they left Egypt (described in Exodus 17).  Moses and Aaron prostrated themselves before God, and then Moses took the staff (I am assuming this is the same staff from the previous time) and gathered the assembly of the people before the rock.  Moses struck the rock with his staff twice and water came out of the rock.  However, this time God had told Moses that he was to just tell the rock to yield its water.  The point being that God’s miracles are not the result of magic spells.  We can’t just follow an ritual and get the results we want from God.  We need to do as God commands.  God showed His love for Israel by releasing the water, despite Moses not following His instructions, but as a result of Moses not following instructions God told Moses he would not enter into the Promised Land.  Sometimes God will grant us our requests when we do not follow His commands, but we will suffer consequences.  It is always better to do things as God instructs, even if our way works.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 19-21.

I have always found the account of the bronze serpent which Moses made confusing, especially considering that Hezekiah later destroyed it because the Israelites were worshiping it.  However, Jesus suggests that it foreshadows His crucifixion.  Which means we need to look at what this account tells us about our relationship with God.  So, let’s look at the context of this event.  Aaron had died shortly before this and the Israelites were being forced to go around Edom.  By going around Edom it seemed like the goal of the Promised Land was even further away.  They began to feel like they would never get there and they lost their patience with Moses and with God.  They became focused on their hardships rather than with what God had done for them so far.  They stopped thinking about the ways in which God had cared for them and focused on their lack of good things.  In a way, they had forgotten how bad things had been in Egypt and were thinking they would have been better off if they had remained in Egypt.  In fact, they seemed to feel like things could not be worse.  Then things got worse.  The people immediately realized their mistake, repented, and asked Moses to pray for them.  Moses prayed and God told him to make the bronze serpent and put it on a pole.  When people looked  up at it, they were healed from snakebites.  The bronze serpent caused people to look up and think about God rather than continuing to look down and think about their problems.  Let us look up and think abut God, rather than about our problems.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 19-21.

Today’s passage starts with the instructions for making and using the water of cleansing.  The description here sounds like the water of cleansing was used ceremonially.  However, depending on how you interpret the amount of ashes used and the amount of water sprinkled, it may have had some antiseptic properties.  From there the passage goes on to describe a series of encounters which the Israelites had with the nations through whose territories they were passing.  First, they sought permission to pass through Edom, but were denied.  The Edomites brought forth their army, and the Israelites turned aside.  Next, a king of Arad attacked the Israelites and took some of them captive.  The Israelites responded by calling on God before going to war against that king and completely wiping out his people. However, they did not settle in any of the lands of that Canaanite king (at least, not at this time).  From there they went on to the border of Moab and the Amorites.  They requested permission to pass through the land of the Amorites, but they denied them, just as the Edomites had.  However, the Amorites were not content with mustering their army as a deterrent to the Israelites.  They attacked them and the Israelites went to war and wiped them out.  Og, the king of Bashan, followed the example of Sihon, the king of the Amorites, and suffered the same fate.

This passage contains three different ways in which nations dealt with the perceived threat of the Israelites marching near them.  The Edomites mustered their army, but as long as the Israelites stayed out of their territory they left them alone.  The king of Arad thought he could profit by raiding the Israelites, but when he did so, they turned on him and destroyed his nation.  Sihon and Og each preemptively attacked the Israelites, seeking to destroy them before they could enter their lands.  Instead the Israelites conquered and settled their lands.  In none of these instances did the Israelites initiate the conflict, and the one case where the hostile nation did not do so either a peaceful resolution was acheived.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 19-21.

There is a lot I could write about in today’s passage, but I want to think about Moses’ striking the rock.  When the Israelites arrived in the Desert of Zin, there was no water for them there.  Which immediately led the people to once again to protest against Moses’ and Aaron’s leadership.  Moses and Aaron immediately do the right thing and appeal to God.  God tells Moses to speak to the rock in front of all Israel and it will begin providing them with water.  Now, the previous time a situation like this had arisen, God had instructed Moses to strike the rock to get water from it.  So, this time Moses once again strikes the rock, but that was not what God had told him to do.  God had told Moses to just speak to the rock.   The first problem with what Moses did is that he acted like he brought forth water by striking the rock, when it was God who brought forth the water.  By striking the rock, Moses acted as if it was the act of striking the rock which caused it to bring forth water, making his action similar to witchcraft.  God does not perform miracles because we follow the correct ritual.  The second problem with what Moses did was that he did not have enough faith to believe that God would bring forth water from the rock if he only spoke to it.  Both of these are problems common to the human condition.  We all struggle with thinking that if we can just find the correct ritual God will have to do what we want.  And we all struggle with having enough faith to do as God instructs and trusting Him to take care of the rest.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 19-21.

I want to touch on a couple things from today’s passage.  I find it interesting that when Miriam died, the passage records where she was buried, but no such record was noted for Aaron.   When Aaron was about to die, Moses, Aaron, and Aaron’s son Eleazar went up Mount Hor and left Aaron’s body there when he died.  While the place where Aaron’s body was left is as closely documented here as where Miriam’s body was buried, all of the Israelites at the time knew where Miriam’s body was, but only Moses and Eleazar knew where Aaron’s body was left.   I am convinced that God had them do it this way so that the Israelites would not make a shrine out of Aaron’s grave.  I am not sure why a similar precaution was not thought necessary for Miriam’s grave.

I also like thinking about the differences between the kings the Israelites encountered in today’s passage.  First, when the Israelites approached Edom, they requested permission to pass through Edom’s lands and the king of Edom (who is unidentified) refused them permission and mustered his army to repel them.  However the king of Edom did not attack the Israelites.  Then the king of Arad (also unidentified) attacked the Israelites and took some of them captive (probably as slaves).  The Israelites destroyed the cities and towns of Arad, but did not occupy the territory, although they would do so after the conquest under Joshua.  Finally, we have the kings, Sihon and Og.  These last two attacked the Israelites to prevent their passage through their lands.  The Israelites defeated them and settled in their lands.  I have always wondered what would have happened if Sihon and Og had reacted the same way that the king of Edom had.  The Israelites sent a request to Sihon similar to the one they sent to the king of Edom.  Rather than reply with a “No”, Sihon chose to attack the Israelites.  When Sihon was defeated and the Israelites started to move towards the land which Og controlled, Og attacked them without waiting for them to send him a message.

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

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 19-21.

Today’s passage describes the way to make the water of purification and how it was to be used.  Reading the recipe for the water of purification reminds me of how soap is made.  It does not seem quite like it would work, but I wonder if that is a result of bad translation from the Hebrew.  In particular, Ancient Hebrew had a very limited vocabulary relative to modern languages.  In addition, the meaning of certain procedures change over time.  As an example, I have some friends who take recipes they have found from pre-1600 and attempt to figure out how to prepare the food described in them.  They have discovered that the word for certain food items refer to a different item today than they did when the recipe was written (sometimes because we know that the food item referred to by that word today was not known in the area where and when the recipe was written).  They have also discovered that the term used for certain cooking methods meant something different when the recipe was written (sometimes because the method referred to today was not technologically possible then).  So, that being said, the ingredients listed for the water of purification are the ingredients for making a soap with antiseptic properties,