Numbers 21

The Isrealites are closing in on canaan, and they vow to “totally destroy their cities”… so God says he’ll help them. [Aside: does anyone else read 'Negev' and think of Star Wars? What am I getting confused with?]

Then the Israelites start playing their old whining record about how much better off they were in Egypt, because they have to walk AROUND Edom, not allowed through it. God gets angry and sends venomous snakes…

Can I just say, God gets creative with his killing strategies. And with the cures to his killing strategies. Here, glance at this bronze snake and you’ll be cured!

The Israelites continue on their journey…

They go pretty close to around in circles/ovals from what I can figure out.

And then they start kicking butt. Beat the Amorites and “settled there” but in the next chapter their off again.

Chapter 22

God’s messenger, the pagan. I like it! Meet Balaam, the diviner who is known for, and called on to, curse people. Curses for Cash! And this guy talks to God, and God to him. Seems like Balaam is UNABLE to disobey God. Wow.

Then there’s the charming donkey shenanigans. I thought numbers was going to be as dry and heavy going as Leviticus. I could not have been more wrong.

God does a bit of a flip flop (yes, go with these men. No! Stop – saith sword-wielding angel of God. Okay, you can go, but make sure you do as I say)

My NIV bible notes assures me that God knew Balaam’s flip flop heart/motives. It was in fact Balaam who was going to flip flop, so God reminded him who was in charge… via a donkey. Well, if you’re going to say something, I suppose you might as well make it memorable!

Verse 28: “then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth”… and thousands of years later CS Lewis writes Narnia’s talking animals. So, here’s the question. What does it mean?? If animals mouths are “closed”… what does it mean?!

Chapter 23-24

Balaam’s oracles and King Balak’s response (mostly pissed off) – basically God blesses Israel so Balaam CANNOT curse it. Balaam then warns Balak what God/Israel is going to do to them (carnage).

Chapter 25

Meanwhile, back in the Israelite camp…

getting jiggy with the moabites and midianites. Apparently it was Israelite men and foreign girls. Sex inevitably led to worshiping their idols…? Okay then.

God sends another plague and 24000 die until good ol’ zealous Phineas (son of Eleazer, son of Aaron) ends it by killing a brazen Israelite man and his midianite girlfriend… by spearing them together like a kebab! What jumps out at me is that these two poor kebabed souls are named!

Chapter 26

They have to take a new census since so many people have died, the old one is out of date. Then land is divied up – fair share of land:population ratio. None for Levites.

Have to finish here as baby Louis is demanding my attention on threat of destroying the stereo. Sorry for spelling/grammar/theological errors. My bad.

When we went on holiday I brought my bible with me, but in the whole 3 weeks we were away, it didn’t get opened once.  Actually it hasn’t been open much since we’ve been back either.  One night while I was lying in bed (actually a few nights) I was thinking about this and started going through some of the memory verses that I’d learned while I was at Navs.  I started with the first set, which goes through the Navigators wheel.  As I was going through these verses, most of which will be very familiar, I started thinking about where I was at with all of these, and the results were not particularly heartening…

Christ the Center
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
I feel like the old appears to creep in reasonably regularly.  Looking at the context, it appears to be more about how we view others, which I don’t actually feel like I have a problem with.

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
I don’t really feel like my faith in Christ is at the center of my life in terms of the way I live or how much attention I pay to him.  In context, this verse is talking about being justified by faith, and not by the law, so again, I’m not sure that this is the point Paul was trying to make, but it has made me think a lot while I’ve been lying awake at night.

Obedience to Christ
Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
I need to get onto this somehow.

John 14:21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”
This appears to be saying that if we love Jesus, we will do what he says, and then he will love us back.  This reads differently to the whole Grace thing I’ve read and heard about elsewhere, but again, I’ve got some work to do here.

The Word
2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Verse 17 isn’t on the verse card, but I think it’s a pretty key part of the sentence.  I think this is where the 1189 project comes into play.  I think I need to put more effort into actually working what we read into my life though.

Joshua 1:8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
The memory verses helped here.  But I think the word needs to get back into my mouth.  I don’t spend much time talking or thinking about the word, or about God.  Yes, yes, I know… Move North.

Prayer
John 15:7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.
I need to do a lot more remaining.

Philipians 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Both of these passages are about asking for things.  I don’t really spend much time doing this because I don’t consciously lack anything day to day.  Maybe this is why I don’t spend much time praying in general, or maybe its because my life is comfortable and I don’t want to rock the boat.  I do the thanksgiving thing occasionally.  Life is pretty good in general, but I do feel like I’m languishing in my walk with God.

Fellowship
Matthew 18:20 For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”
Not much to say about this one.

Hebrews 10:24-25 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Lets do some spurring and encouraging.

Witnessing
Matthew 4:19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”
Still need to work on the first part

Romans 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

On Sunday we went to Avonhead Baptist Church for the dedication of a friend’s baby and one thing I liked about the service was that they prayed a lot of scripture.  One passage stuck out to me:
Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
I think they may have started at let, and finished at the end of verse 2, but I think this passage is the one that I want to focus on for a while.  Also, I think we’re going to have some interesting discussions in a few years when we get to Hebrews…  It’s not particularly warm and fuzzy.

In conclusion, I think I’ve got some waking up to do and I need people to encourage me in the right direction and hold my focus in the right places.  Otherwise, I’m just going to get stuck in the day-to-day cycle of going to work, doing things that need to be done around home, hanging out with my family and filling any time that’s left with TV, internet and games.  And while all of these things are appealing, it doesn’t really feel like I’m running a race with my eyes fixed on Jesus.  Somehow, that focus has to come to underly the rest of my life.  I don’t want to say that I need to somehow integrate my faith into my life, because that feels like everything else stays the same.  I need to get to a point where I have a faith that is strong enough to shape my life and my actions to the point where I’m throwing off the things that hinder and the sin that so easily entangles.

We’ve been bashing around America for 3 weeks and I didn’t pick up my bible once the whole time… If I pick up where I left off I should be somewhere in the middle of Numbers, I guess. I’m not.

How’s everyone else going? Shall we do another re-start or should I get my nose in the book and catch up? I was about to continue on with my Leviticus summaries/thoughts but I’m not sure I’m not missing the point a bit with that: racing through just to get it over with and ticked off the to-do list.

I was reading a book this morning – ‘Think Orange’ by Reggie Joiner, about church and family becoming more in sync – and the writer talks about the highest purpose of church: to shine a light, a light focused on, illuminating Jesus and who he is. It goes on to say,

“Your programs are not sacred. Your church is not sacred. What is sacred is the mission of the church. You are called to shine a light and demonstrate God’s love and grace to those who need it.”

Love and grace. We need to show it, and we need to know it ourselves.

I don’t think God’s overly fussed whether I read the end of Leviticus or the beginning of Deuteronomy today. If I were to continue summarizing Leviticus it’d be because I want to finish what I started, because I feel I should. I’m not fond of ‘shoulds’ but I am fond of routines and discipline. Seems rather contradictory.

Instead, I’m going to keep reading. And next time something jumps off the page and slaps me in the face, or makes my heart race, that’s when I’ll post on here.

I would like to know where other people are at and how they’re feeling about this endeavour. There was momentum and motivation to be found in doing this with others, even if they are at the other end of the country (world?) – so say something! However brief… even just answer a question or two.

- where are you up to? (shall we take the average and go from there?)

- do you want to keep going? do you feel you should?

- what helps you keep going? what keeps the ‘shoulds’ at bay?

back to my reading… to own the truth: Leviticus 19. Good thing I have a nice old chair by the window, in the sun, while the snow melts outside the window. Luuk’s making dinner so I have some time. Thank you, lovely husband.

Chapter 8 is God’s commands to Moses pertaining to the ordination of Aaron and the priests. It starts with a good wash-up and then dress-up. Then they anoint the tabernacle and all its furnishings, and finally Aaron.

Next they present a sin offering (instructions repeated), a burnt offering (instructions repeated) and an ordination offering  - another ram slaughtered, blood on the right priest’s earlobes, thumbs, big toes… nice. ‘Fat portions’ and right thigh, plus a pancake, are held by the priests and they do a ‘wave offering’. Moses then burns it up. Moses bit is the breast – another wave offering. Then blood is sprinkled on altar, priests and clothes.

The priests cook up the meat at the entrance to the meeting tent and they have to burn up what they don’t eat. Then they stay there for 7 days and nights… or else they die.

Then they start their ministry – Chapter 9:

Everyone gets together to do a bunch of sacrifices – the priests so a sin and burnt offering, the lay people, a burnt and fellowship offering. God’s going to show up!

It then goes on to describe Aaron doing all the offerings/sacrifices… and then, verse 23:

“²³ Moses and Aaron then went into the tent of meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people; and the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people. ²⁴ Fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown.”

Holy cow. Well, no. Holy for sure though.

Chapter 10 tells us about two of Aaron’s sons that burn incense “contrary to [God's] command” and then they get burned up.

The guys’ brothers carry them out of the camp. Aaron, their father, is not allowed to mourn properly (he has to keep his hair and clothes nice…) but everyone else can. Aaron has to stay at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting – it doesn’t say for how long, but I’m guessing the period of mourning, since that seems to be the subject. This is confusing enough with the punctuation in… how’d anyone every make sense of it in language that has none?

Interesting how differently we mourn now: we wear nice black clothes, formal wear, essentially, to funerals. It would be disrespectful to have messy hair and rough-up your clothes. But for this time and place in history it would have been disrespectful to the dead/their family to be dressed nicely.

So we’re up to verse 8, and God decrees that the priests aren’t to drink any alcohol in the Tent of Meeting – or they’ll die. (I bet no one ever accused God of being soft on crime. Spot the reference.) He then tells them to distinguish between holy and common, clean and unclean, and to teach the Israelites all of God’s decrees.

Then there’s more about offerings – that they should eat a grain offering, and the breast and thigh of the burnt offerings are the priest’s share – for them and their children to eat.

Despite all the instructions, the goat of the sin offering gets all burned up – they’re meant to eat the sin offering… but then Aaron argues their case – after all that has happened he does not think God would be pleased by his eating the sin offering on this day. Moses is satisfied by this explanation.

If we were to principalise… (naughty but kind of fun)

- do it God’s way or the highway (where you’ll meet the highwayman, presumably, and then you will die.)

- the high priest can discern when to bend  the rules – he can figure out when God would want things done a bit differently. He doesn’t get the highwayman treatment.

I always give up reading in Leviticus. I’m determined it won’t beat me this time! Been catching up on my reading and thought I’d post chunks/sections of summary and my thoughts. Also, to give you guys an opportunity to share your thoughts without having to take on the daunting task of a proper post. (Seth: you’ve set the bar so high.)

This post is about: “the regulations for the burnt offering, the grain offering, the sin offering, the guilt offering, the ordination offering and the fellowship offering” (7:37)

Chapter 1: The burnt offering

- Must offer perfect, young, male herd/flock animal.

- Details as to which things individual and priests do in slaughter, skinning, chopping up, washing and cooking of bits of animal… (bloody Leviticus, indeed)

- chapter 6 adds: offering stays on the alter all night, fire burning all the while. Then the priest, wearing linen underpants&clothes, removes ashes. Then change clothes and take ashes to ceremonially clean place outside camp. Altar fire must not be allowed to go out!

Chapter 2: The grain offering

- offer fine flour. mix with oil and incense.

- if you offer pre-baked grain, don’t use yeast.

- part of either is burnt on altar. Priests get the rest. “…it is a most holy part of the offerings made to the LORD by fire.” [Q: do the priests eat it or burn it?]

- don’t forget the salt. For heaven’s sake stay away from yeast!

- chapter 6 adds the answer to my question. Nice. They eat it. In a holy place. Not with yeast (duh). Any male descendant of Aaron may dig in. Sucks to be girl. All the best figuring out which bits of this are from the bible and which are my thoughts. Anything that touches these guys is holy.

- chapter 6 also adds: on the day they’re anointed the priests bring a tenth of an ephah of fine flour (half in the morning, half in the evening) and mix it with oil, cook on griddle, present in broken pieces. “The son who is to succeed him as an anointed priest shall prepare it.” (v22) Priests grain offerings must be burnt completely, not eaten. (I have added “ephah” to the dictionary)

Chapter 3: The Fellowship offering

- male or female perfect animal

- burn innards, fat, tail – “as an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD.” [Q: what happens to all the nice cuts of meat? Am I skim reading too skimmy?]

- don’t eat blood (or fat? really?)

- chapter 7 adds: if offering in thankfulness, offer cakes of unleavened bread. Also make some with yeast. Offer one of each to the Lord. These belong to the priest who sprinkles the blood of the fellowship offering. The meat must be eaten on the day of the thanksgiving offering – all of it.

- chapter 7 also adds: if it is an offering of freewill or because of a vow, you can leave some of the meat and eat it on the next day. Any left on the 3rd day should be burned up. Hey, it’s early health and safety standards! Luuk, pay attention. 3 days is enough. Verse 18:

“If any meat of the fellowship offering is eaten on the third day, the one who offered it will not be accepted. It will not be reckoned to their credit, for it has become impure; the person who eats any of it will be held responsible.”

Also, burn, don’t eat, any meat that touches anything ceremonially unclean. As for the rest of the meat, anyone ceremonially clean can eat it. If you eat the fat or blood you must be cut off from the people. [Luuk, you'd be in trouble.] Go ahead and use the fat for any other purpose, just not for lunch.

- Chapter 7 also adds: “bring the fat, together with the breast, and wave the breast before the LORD as a wave offering.” This makes me think of Firefly/Serenity: a wave. Never mind. The priests get the thigh and the one priest who splatters the blood gets the thigh. The thigh and the breast are the good cuts, aren’t they? I think a butcher/meatworks worker would get a lot more out of this book.

Chapter 4-5: The sin offering(s)

- For unintentional sin:

- If it’s a priest: offer a perfect, young bull.

- If it’s the whole Israelite community: offer a perfect, young bull.

- If it’s a leader: offer a perfect male goat.

- If it’s a member of the community: offer perfect female goat or lamb.

- Burn kidneys, liver and all that fat, etc on altar or burnt offering. Burn hide and flesh, head and legs, offal, etc. outside camp at ceremonially clean (not for long) place.

- chapter 6 adds: use the same altar as burnt offering. The priest who offers it shall eat it, in a holy place. Any thing that touches the flesh is holy. Any bloodied garment must be washed in a holy place. Break a clay cook-pot but just wash/scour a bronze one. Verse 29-30 adds:

“Any male in a priest’s family may eat it; it is most holy. But any sin offering whose blood is brought into the tent of meeting to make atonement in the Holy Place must not be eaten; it must be burned up.” [This distinction is confusing to me.]

- Examples of unintentional sins (chapter 5) – that’s what NIV says this is:

1. If you don’t speak up if you know pertinent info in a trial (of sorts) [How is this unintentional?]

2. if you touch something ceremonially unclean or human uncleanness.

3. if you thoughtlessly take an oath [Surely this is thoughtless not unintentional.]

- If you can’t afford a sheep/goat: 2 doves or pigeons is fine. Or if you can’t afford that, a 10th of an ephah of fine flour (minus the oil/incense)… according to a quick search this is about 2.7kgs of flour. An ephah is similar to a bushel. Thanks wikipedia. I know what a bushel is. Now I do, anyway.

- Intentional sin: The Guilt offering…

- bring a perfect ram (of proper value in silver. No skimping)

- make restitution for offenses + 1/5 of value goes to priest to make atonement. In chapter 6 it lists some offenses and says the 1/5 of value goes to the person wronged on the day you make the guilt offering.

- then it says:

““If anyone sins and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD’s commands, even though they do not know it, they are guilty and will be held responsible. ¹⁸ They are to bring to the priest as a guilt offering a ram from the flock, one without defect and of the proper value. In this way the priest will make atonement for them for the wrong they have committed unintentionally, and they will be forgiven. ¹⁹ It is a guilt offering; they have been guilty of^[e] wrongdoing against the LORD.””

So, I guess the guilt offering is not so much for intentional sin as for offenses against God – which covers all intentional sin and any unintentional sin against God… but surely all sin is against God. Isn’t that the/a definition of sin? Anyone else a little baffled?

Anyone else wondering how much it really matters if I understand this? I’m already feeling pretty thankful that I am free from this particular rule book. Is my time/mind better spent trying to fathom other wonders/aspects of God?

- chapter 7 adds: slaughter where the burnt offering is slaughtered. Burn all the fat, kidneys and liver. All male priests can eat it (meat and grain offerings), in a holy place. Offerings are “most holy”. The same goes for sin/guilt offerings. The priest is allowed to keep the animal’s hide.

I read yesterday that the rabbis, when teaching children, would begin in Leviticus, “so the pure studied the pure” – wow. That is cool. We forget that Adam and Eve, Noah – these are stories for grown-ups. They deal with the corruption and humiliation of mankind.

But Leviticus drives toward Holiness and Purity. Lets begin with our children here.

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“Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings.”

It nice to read this as a gloss on “you are the salt of the earth.”

Henry notes that

It is called the salt of the covenant, because, as men confirmed their covenants with each other by eating and drinking together, at all which collations salt was used, so God, by accepting his people’s gifts and feasting them upon his sacrifices, supping with them and they with him, did confirm his covenant with them.

The alters is God’s table. We come to him to beg forgiveness, but, when the atonement is given, to feast.

“You are the salt of the earth”

You are proof that I desire your salvation and your company; your perfection and your presence.  The prodigal son missed celebration with his father because he was away sinning – the other son missed the celebration because he was away being holy. Both missed the meal, both forgot “the salt of the covenant”. That the target is the table where we feast. Christ’s disciples were proof that God wanted to befriend us.

God is the answer to the many questions but perhaps the most profound is “Guess who invited us to dinner?”

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“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt”

Living sacrifices need salting too.

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Henry on the fire..

The fire denotes the fervency of spirit which ought to be in all our religious services. In every good thing we must be zealously affected. Holy love to God is the fire by which all our offerings must be made; else they are not of a sweet savour to God. The frankincense denotes the mediation and intercession of Christ, by which all our services are perfumed and recommended to God’s gracious acceptance. Blessed be God that we have the substance of which all these observances were but shadows, the fruit that was hid under these leaves.

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