Numbers 14:10b-45

Dear RTB’ers,

Today, the Lord’s response to the failure of the people to trust God for His Promised Land – and it seems a harsh response: forty years for forty days, one year for each day, death in the wilderness, and a plague consuming the unfaithful ten. It seems harsh, but again, God is God and I am not. Maybe God’s response to this failure on the part of the Israelites should tell us something about His feelings toward our own failures. That is, for us on this side of the Cross, His mercy overwhelms His rightful justice. That’s what Jesus has done for us. Thank you, Jesus.

Blessings!

---

See also: February 12 (2023) / Numbers 13-14

Numbers 13:1-14:10a

Dear RTB’ers,

When I think of the book of Numbers, it’s today’s story that comes to mind. It’s not the census of the tribes, not the tabernacle and the cloud and fire, not the grumbling – it’s the story of Joshua and Caleb and ten other heads (leaders) searching/spying out the Promised Land. We only get half the story today; we’ll get God’s response tomorrow.

It’s worth noting that the spies were asked to search out the land, not the people: (God speaking) “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel.”(v. 13:2a) Joshua and Caleb, in their report responded first and foremost to their observations on the land: The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. If the LORD delights in us, He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. (vv. 14:7b-8) Only secondarily did they give a positive report about the people in the land and God’s hand in dealing with them (Num. 14:9). And with all that, the people were ready to stone them! Rabble, again…??

All too often I’ve asked myself how I would respond to the ten vs. two, or how I would feel if I were one of the twelve. Am I confident in God’s ability to move His church forward? What part am I playing in that?

Stay tuned for God’s reply tomorrow.

Blessings!

Numbers 11-12

Dear RTB’ers,

Now the rabble that was among them… (v. 11:4a) Made me laugh. There was rabble among them, even among the Israelites, God’s chosen people. And Moses and Aaron had to deal with “the rabble”. Nothing’s changed!

Grumbling… Thankfully, Carol and I have not spent time in grumbling churches. Yeah, people often have their difficulties with this thing or that thing or with this person or that person, but mostly our chosen churches have been Spirit-filled, where difficulties present opportunities. By contrast, however, I have spoken with pastors and leaders in the USA and abroad, and it turns out that these leaders are often the recipients of much of the grumbling – not unlike today’s reading where Aaron and Miriam confront Moses. Maybe it’s time for us to thank our leaders instead! Thank you, Tom T. for your “good of the order” word yesterday!

Jesus once said, “The poor you will always have with you…” (Matthew 26:11a, NIV). He didn’t mention the rabble and the grumblers…!

Blessings!

---

See also: February 11 (2023) / Numbers 9-12

Numbers 9:15-10:36

Dear RTB’ers,

Sorry for the late post, folks, but what a day…! We’ve gone from a flooded, impassable driveway to skipped-church, JIT annual meeting, to a wonderful parish brunch, to a 7-hour, 450-mile drive! I am finally a bit unpacked and ready to post!

So you might be thinking – God really left no doubt as to where He wanted the Israelites to go and how long He wanted them to stay there (Num. 9:17-23). The word “command” is mentioned six times in these seven verses; “lifted” is mentioned four times; “set out” is mentioned nine times; and “remained” is mentioned four times. And then my mind races – why doesn’t the Lord speak as clearly to me as He did to Moses and the Israelites? I’ve thought about this for that full 7-hour, 450-mile drive. And I’ve come to a simple conclusion – Jesus, in His earthly person had no difficulty following His Father’s wishes. He was “led by the Spirit” (Matthew 4:1) and He communed (probably multiple times daily) with His Father: And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. (Mark 1:35) So if I’m not hearing from the Lord very clearly, it’s probably the case that I am not seeking Him as I should. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God…!

Blessings!

Numbers 8:1-9:14

Dear RTB’ers,

All priests were Levites, but not all Levites were priests. At Mt. Sinai and for many years afterward the priesthood was limited to Aaron and his descendants. [That had changed by the time that Jesus lived.] Scripture consistently distinguishes between Levites and priests. Recall Jesus’s parable of the Good Samaritan. He first had a priest passing by, then a Levite, then a Samaritan. (Luke 10:25-37) My Study Bible adds a good deal to the distinction between Levites and priests, in comparing the cleansing of the Levites to the ordination of the priests: “The priests were made holy, the Levites clean; the priests were anointed and washed, the Levites sprinkled; the priests were given new garments; the Levites washed theirs; blood was applied to the priests, it was waved over the Levites.” Now, if we go back to Numbers 4 we can see that Aaron and his sons, the priests, had specific duties with respect to the “most holy things” – specifically, packing them away. The Levites then were charged with carrying or carting them, but not handling them. Very distinct duties!

Blessings!

Numbers 6:22-7:89

Dear RTB’ers,

I’m sure that the verses that end chapter 6 are familiar to many of us:

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26)

If you haven’t made the connection, these words were put to music by our own Kerry Dorrell and we sing them at various times in our liturgy, including Baptisms – one of which we celebrated just last month. I often find myself singing Kerry’s “Aaronic Blessing” to myself, seldom knowing what prompted that song. Very sweet music…! Thank you, Kerry, and thank you, Lord!!

Blessings!

---

See also:

• February 9 (2023) / Numbers 5-6
• February 10 (2023) / Numbers 7-8

Numbers 5:1-6:21

Dear RTB’ers,

Two major topics today, separated into two chapters – the test for adultery and the Nazirite vow. The Nazirite vow is fairly straightforward – a man wishes to put himself under a vow in order to seek the Lord more fully. We have two New Testament occasions where Paul seems to be connected to this Nazirite vow, the first in which he seems to have put himself under the vow: At Cenchreae he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow. (Acts 18:18) In the second, he is responding to the Jerusalem leaders’ concerns that Jewish Christians are suspicious of Paul. On the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present… And they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed. They are all zealous for the law, and they have been told about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or walk according to our customs… Do therefore what we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow; take these men and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses, so that they may shave their heads. Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also live in observance of the law.”… Then Paul took the men, and the next day he purified himself along with them and went into the temple, giving notice when the days of purification would be fulfilled and the offering presented for each one of them. (Acts 21:18-26, edited) So, the Nazirite vow…

As for the test of adultery… I suspect that many of us have some level of outrage at the way women are treated in this test. A man has a sense of jealousy, justified or unjustified, and his wife is brought forward, either innocent or guilty. There are no witnesses, except for her adulterous partner if she is guilty, and he is certainly remaining silent. So the “burden of proof” in testing this man’s jealousy lies with the physical “deformity” of the woman’s body if she is guilty or her “cleanliness” if she is innocent. So, your thoughts on this test of adultery…??

Blessings!

Numbers 3-4

Dear RTB’ers,

Ideally you’ve got a Study Bible or a commentary or an online source that explains things. If not, it’s a bit difficult to follow the Levitical assignments by just reading through the text. So, for the sake of clarity…

Levi had three sons – Kohath, Gershon, and Merari. (v. 3:17) Kohath had four sons (v. 3:19), one of whom was Amram, who was the father of Aaron and Moses (I Chronicles 6:3). There is a generational challenge in linking Aaron and Moses all the way back to Levi, who was one of the twelve sons of Jacob at the start of the 430 years that the Israelites were in Egypt. People seemed to have lived longer back then – Joseph lived to be 110 (Genesis 50:22, 26) and Moses was 120 when he died (Deuteronomy 34:7).

But solving that generational problem is not our issue. What we need to know is that the Kohathites became the more prominent of the three sons of Levi and that Aaron had descended from Kohath and Amram. It was Aaron and his sons who had charge of the disassembly of the most holy things (vv. 4:5-14) and the rest of the Kohathites were charged to carry these items. The families of Gershon and Merari had other disassembly and carrying chores.

Blessings!

---

See also: February 8 (2023) / Numbers 3-4

Numbers 1-2

Dear RTB’ers,

Numbers. My favorite book of the Bible?? Not really, but people joke with me about that, having to do with my love for numbers and number “families”! And no doubt, I’d rather be reading Numbers than going back to Leviticus!!

After those many days of a small number of verses to read in Hebrews, today and twice more in the next three days we have some long readings, the smallest of those three being 88 verses in today’s reading, but many of those verses are repetitive, so not so difficult to follow.

If you have Study Bibles and you read the introductory material, you will see that there is substantial controversy about the tribal and total numbers of Israelites that are setting out from Mt. Sinai. And it is mind-blowing to me – with 603,550 men …from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war in Israel… (v. 45b), there would likely be a similar number of women and another similar or larger number of children, so there would be a total number of people on the order of two million. But just staying with the 603,550 men – let’s go back to Leviticus and imagine all these men, maybe in groups of two to ten (or even hundreds) by family, coming to the tabernacle (tent) to offer sacrifices according to the requirements laid out in Leviticus. That would be a lot of animal slaughter and a lot of Levitical labor. I truly wonder whether those numbers have been inflated in various translations or transcriptions over time. But let’s not fuss over the numbers. It’s the larger content (and context) that’s important.

One item worth noting – you probably noticed that both of Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh are included in the numbering of the Israelites. That would make for thirteen tribes! However, the tribe of Levi is not included in today’s count. We’ll see why tomorrow when they are numbered.

Blessings!

---

See also: February 7 (2023) / Numbers 1-2

Dear RTB’ers,

The STS authors list “Revision” instead of a Scripture reading for today’s assignment, but “Review” is probably a better word. And that’s mostly what we did at yesterday’s RTB gathering, looking at the whole of the book of Hebrews. Mostly the group lauded our STS authors for putting Leviticus and Hebrews back-to-back. We compared Jesus’ sacrifice to the animal sacrifices set forth in Leviticus – which were still ongoing in Jesus’ time. We looked at Jesus as our High Priest compared to the Aaronic high priests. And we spent a good bit of time analyzing Jesus as a priest “according to the order of Melchizedek.” All in all, a really good session. Looking ahead, we’ve tentatively got March 9 as our next RTB gathering. I’ll have to clear that with Sharon, but for now, let’s get it on our calendars!

As to the STS questions, I would seriously encourage all of us to look at their second question, asking us to look at the positive exhortations in those specific verses that they list, included here for your benefit –

• Hebrews 2:1
• Hebrews 4:1,11,14,16
• Hebrews 6:1
• Hebrews 10:22-24
• Hebrews 12:1,28
• Hebrews 13:17,22

A good exercise…!

Now on to Numbers for the rest of the month!

Blessings!