February 28

Exodus 21:12-14; Leviticus 24:17, 21b; Numbers 35:20, 21, 16-19, 29-31, 33, 34; Exodus 22:2, 3a; Numbers 35:22-25; Deuteronomy 19:4-6; Numbers 35:9-15; Deuteronomy 19:1-3, 7-10; Numbers 35:26-28; Deuteronomy 19:11-13; Numbers 35:32; Exodus 21:22-25, 21:16; Deuteronomy 24:7; Leviticus 24:19, 20; Exodus 21:26, 27; Deuteronomy 22:25-29; Exodus 21:15, 18-21; Deuteronomy 25:11, 12, 5:19; Exodus 22:3b, 1, 4; Deuteronomy 19:14

Again, I'm imagining God telling all of this to Moses and then He gets to the part where He says, "Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death.  However, if he does not do it intentionally, but God lets it happen, he is to flee to a place I will designate." [Ex. 21:12, 13]  So here's God admitting that He lets it happen.  I wonder if Moses thought, "God, what if you didn't allow accidents like this just happen?"  Because I wonder that.  For some reason, it's something we're meant to deal with.

Note:  It's not just an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  It's also a burn for a burn and a wound for a wound and a bruise for a bruise and, in the March 1st reading, a fracture for a fracture.  [Ex. 21:23-25] 

February 27

Deuteronomy 17:14-20; Exodus 22:28b; Deuteronomy 16:18, 17:8-13, 1:9-18; Exodus 23:8, 3, 6; Leviticus 19:5; Deuteronomy 24:17, 18, 16:19, 20, 5:20; Exodus 23:1-2, 7; Deuteronomy 19:16-21, 15, 24:16, 25:1-3, 21:22, 23

We're getting into more specifics regarding God's law for his people and the system of justice they're suppose to have.  Overall humility and truth, as expressed here, are so important to the Lord.  And, they go hand in hand.  Without an honest view of ourselves we cannot see the truth.  And so kinds shouldn't be too separated from the people by wealth or wives.  We are to be truthful in offering witness and testimony and judgment.

Did you see where God tells the future kings to write out the words of His law themselves, in their own hand?  "When he [the future king] takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites.  It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his brother and turn from the law to the right or to the left." [Deut. 17:18-20a]

I actually typed the complete manuscript of a book into my computer once -- The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammet (that's a story for another time).  I noticed then that you become very intimate with the text when you do that because you're not only reading it carefully so that you can write it or type it out but you're also committing it to the muscle memory of your hands.  Imagine a king or president or leader whose first official act was to write out in their own hand God's Law?  I've often wanted to write out the Bible in my own hand and in my own words.  Ok, don't cringe.  I understand the problem of a paraphrase by non-scholar and Hebrew and Latin illiterate.  But it would be for me... to read all the days of my life so that I may learn to revere the Lord my God and follow carefully all the words of this law....

February 26

Deuteronomy 21:1-8; Numbers 6:1-21; Leviticus 27:1-34; Deuteronomy 23:21-23; Numbers 30:1-16; Leviticus 19:1, 2, 19b; Deuteronomy 22:9-11; Leviticus 19:19c, 19a

Several things in this reading reached out to me.  I believe that, while God is setting an example with individuals for the good of society, He will deal justly (or show love and mercy as is His nature) with the individual.  Public punishment or separation from the assembly doesn't translate into personal separation from God or eternal damnation.  These societal pronouncements do not eclipse or counter the individual relationship that God craves.  And God does make exceptions.  He makes rules to show his power by breaking them.  He says we will die and then some of us don't -- Enoch.   But He is telling us something for our own good.  There is a reason we should marry  into the faith.  It is easier for us to keep our one true love -- Him -- if we surround ourselves with people traveling in the same direction.

Note, it's better to marry an Egyptian than a Moabite.  Perhaps the Pharaoh who dealt so justly with Joseph earned some credit with God for generations of Egyptians.  Or maybe it's there were so many Egyptian people who did good by their Hebrew slaves.  [Deut. 3:3-8]

Speaking of a personal relationship with God, we make such a big deal about how New Testament Christians have direct access to the Father while the Old Testament Jews had to work through the priests and Moses, etc.  But look at their personal striving after God with the Nazirite vow and the dedication of people and animals and land and houses.  They understood their relationship to things and to God and didn't let things get between them and their Lord.  Do we really enjoy a more personal relationship with Him?  Or do we just brag about the opportunity?

It does continue to disturb me how much God bows to the culture of the day.  Here, with the valuation of men and women, women being valued lower [Lev. 27:1-8].  Later, God will allow for kings and divorce.  I'm amazed.  Of course, this is in the light of our rage for political correctness today.  And in that rage, are we blind to the evils of our own generation that another generation will point to one day and say, "Can you believe that they actually thought and did this?"  So I probably shouldn't get overly caught up in things that seem so obviously problematic and wrong now.  What sins of my own society and culture and self do I just accept today as the course of things?  That God is into real estate and so wants churches to build bigger and bigger barns rather than pool some of His real estate and take care of the widows and fatherless?  Shoes of the Fisherman is a great movie.  

Ok, I'm not even going to touch the mutilation of gentiles.  Except to offer this illustration from the Block Testament.

Finally, this reading closes with a series of things that we are not to join together -- different crops in the same field, ox and donkey, different species or weaves of fabric. [Deut. 22:9-11]  I take this as an object lesson that God is holy and pure and we must be holy and pure.  Either that or He has a problem with mules and cotton blends.

February 25

Leviticus 12:1-8, 14:1-32, 15:13-15, 15:28-30; Numbers 19:11-22, 19:1-10

Ok, things get gross here -- post-childbirth, acne and worse, male and female discharges, touching dead bodies.  This God will talk about anything!  No subject is off limits.  So what are the things we're too embarrassed to admit to anyone?  God knows.  And it isn't anything He hasn't seen before.  We can be clean again.  

Interesting, too, that ashes were used in the cleansing water.  Water and ashes.  Poetic.  We think of ashes making us dirty.  But God sees things differently.  We arise from the ashes clean.

February 24

Leviticus 21:1-24, 22:1-16, 25:1-7; Exodus 23:10, 11; Leviticus 25:8-34, 25:39-43, 25:47-55

Another troubling passage -- No Levite with a defect or disfigurement or disability could come near and present an offering or approach the curtain or altar.  How do we reconcile this with the Lord who is no respecter of persons?  Was this more because of us than for God?  We make a big deal about the disabled now but it hasn't been that long ago we kept them hidden away.  Still this passage seems to reinforce that old way of thinking.  The personal cruelty and shame of it make my heart ache.  No matter what God intended this to mean, it is the nature of man that we would infer from this scripture that the disabled are outcasts.  It's just our nature.  God, forgive us.

"The Lord said to Moses, 'Say to Aaron:  "For the generations to come none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God.  No man who has any defect may come near:  no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; no man with crippled foot or hand, or who is hunchbacked or dwarfed, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles.  No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect is to come near to present the offerings made to the Lord by fire.  He has a defect; he must not come near to offer the food of his God.  He may eat the most holy food of his God, as well as the holy food; yet because of his defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar; and so desecrate my sanctuary.  I am the Lord, who makes them holy."'  So Moses told this to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites."  [Lev. 21:16-24]

I can only confess I don't know the mind of God.  There is understanding and reason there beyond my ability.  Thankfully, their disability did not keep them from communing with God and eating the holy bread.

But then I'm heartened by the slaves who were given the special privilege conferred to the Levities and were told to eat of the sacred offering -- "No one outside a priest's family may eat the sacred offering, nor may the guest of a priest or his hired worker eat it.  But if a priest buys a slave with money, or if a slave is born in his household, that slave may eat his food."  [Lev. 22:10-11]

I also like the concept of the Year of Jubilee discussed in this reading.  Every 50 years is the Year of Jubilee, a time when the fields are rested, everyone returns home, the land returns to its former owners, inheritances are returned and slaves are set free.  It had to be a time of celebration for many and a reminder to all that we don't own anything.  We're tenants here.  In the Year of Jubilee, no matter our situation -- whether slave or rich -- we will give it up and return home.

February 23

Leviticus 5:14-19, 6:1-7, 7:1-10, 7:37, 38; Numbers 28:9-15; Deuteronomy 21:1-9; Leviticus 22:17:30; Exodus 23:18, 34:25; Leviticus 24:1-9; Numbers 6:22, 27

All I can figure is that the Levities must have either weighed 800 lbs or they were bulimic.  What are the qualifications of a priest?  They must be of the tribe of Levi and one part butcher, one part glutton, and one part pyromaniac with an aversion for bacon and golden veal.  Just think of all the Israelites and all of the sacrifices, these guys had to know how to chow down.

I'm intrigued by the poetic symbolism of the offering for the unknown murderer and murdered and the idea that all of us in a community are libel and in need of atonement for the murder of anyone in our midst.

"If a man is found slain, lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you to posses, and it is not known who killed him, your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distance from the body to the neighboring towns.  Then the elders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer that has never been worked and has never worn a yoke and lead her down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and where there is a flowing stream.  There in the valley they are to break the heifer's neck.  The priests, the sons of Levi, shall step forward for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister and to pronounce blessings in the name of the Lord and to decide all cases and dispute and assault.  Then all the elders of the town nearest the body shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, and they shall declare:  'Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done.  Accept this atonement for Your people Israel, whom You have redeemed, O Lord, and do not hold Your people guilty of the blood of an innocent man.' And the bloodshed will be atoned for.  So you will purge from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the Lord."  [Deut. 21:1-9]

Think of the trouble they went to in order to atone for this murder victim -- they sacrificed a valuable piece of property, they had to journey away from the city a good ways to find an unplowed field in a valley and it was the work of the most important people in the community:  the elders and the Levities.  

How do we atone for the homeless person murdered under an overpass or bridge?  What do our elders and Levities do?  What do we do?  Do we even notice?  How often do we watch the news and hear about unsolved murders and don't even consider that we're connected to that death in some way?  I remember when our children were young how my wife, Mariana, would stop and pray with them every time an ambulance passed and how she'd pray during the newscast for a victim or family touched by crime.  It hurt me to see her pain during the evening news.  For I time, I turned off the news and just wouldn't watch it.  I have always been awed by her deep sensitivity of heart and her empathy for strangers' pain.  I think I see a bit of Jesus' empathy in her.  Lord, forgive me my hard heart.

If nothing else, this passage should tell us how sacred every, every, every life is and how we are all connected.

February 22

Leviticus 3:1-17, 7:11-21, 19:5-8, 7:28-36, 17:1-7, 4:1-35; Numbers 15:27, 28; Leviticus 5:1-13, 6:24-30; Numbers 15:29-31

I'm sorry. I have always had a more romantic notion about what God and Moses talked about face to face. I imagined the Lord speaking in poetic utterances. Something out of Psalms or Revelation or Isaiah or even Song of Solomon. But, wow, this is all really, really mundane detailed-oriented, day-to-day, losgistical-how-to, step-by-step, where-to-drip-and-dripple-the-ox-blood stuff.

How did Moses get it all straight? Did he take notes? Did he ever ask God to slow down because He was talking to fast or to repeat something or did you say "loins" or "liver"? Or was it all just "ready recollection"? [Sorry to you non-C-of-C-ers, inside joke.]

Did Moses feel like the Lord's stenographer? Did he ever say, "God, God, let's just talk about the meaning of love or how bumble bees fly or what's behind the patterns in the stars?" Or, "Why if you love us so much do babies die?" Or, "Why don't you accept priests with physical deformities?" Or, "About that Egyptian I killed...where is he now? And the first born children that died?" So many soul-searching questions. But God rambles on about how to be forgiven of unintentional sins and where to pour the blood and what to do with the fat and what to eat and what to burn.

Forgive me, God, but these first rattle on like a Jewish mother.

But then, aren't we more concerned about the minutia of life? Aren't most of are arguments with spouses over little things? Aren't more how-to books sold than works of poetry?

Why did the Lord lower himself to talk endlessly on these mundane subjects? God knows.

I hope. I pray. Moses and God had a little time to walk and talk about things that interested them...and not just what we needed to hear.

Finally, in Leviticus 17:1-7, it's noted that the Israelites couldn't just go off on their own and make a sacrifice. "Any Israelite who sacrifices an ox, a lamb or a goat in the camp or outside of it instead of bringing it to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting to present it as an offering to the Lord in front of the tabernacle of the Lord -- that man shall be considered guilty of bloodshed; he has shed blood and must be cut off from his people." We can't worship God alone. Not then. Not now. We must come together. Come to Him for forgiveness.

February 21

Leviticus 1:1-17, 6:8-13; Numbers 28:1-8; Leviticus 17:8-9, 2:1-16, 6:14-23; Numbers 15:1-21.

It seems like such a waste of all the good unblemished animals and birds and grain and bread sacrificed as offerings.  Burning all of this up. When it could have all been put to good Godly use.  But I suppose it's a lot like the woman anointing Jesus' feet with expensive perfume that His disciples thought could be sold and the money put to good use.  But is anything given to God ever a waste?  No.  But, much that we give to God is wasted on ourselves to make it easier and more entertaining for us to worship, to believe, to be comfortable as we study.  If the classroom or parking lot isn't big enough, the preacher not entertaining enough, the song service not dynamic enough, we have a problem.  But does God have a problem?

In a world where so many go to such lengths and suffer such discomfort to find God, we seek to make it so comfortable and easy.  Would we commit our mission funds to a country where so much was spent with so little return?

I remember a time when as a brotherhood we criticized our fellow Christians -- the Catholics -- for spending such lavish amounts on cathedrals.  At least, those buildings were constructed as monuments to glorify God with airy spaces and lofty ceilings to communicate His grandeur and power to the simplest of people.  But then, today, we spend lavish amounts on gyms and stages and kitchens and technology that we claim will glorify God and point people to Him.  Are we so different from that which we once criticized?  Do we ask ourselves these questions?  Do we have enough institutional memory to remember what we once criticized and now embraced?  Or do we just go with the flow?  We're just doing what man has always done.  And God is in the exception and the exceptional.

Today we preach about our membership's credit card debt and love of stuff and then we decorate our church with flat screen televisions and hire an art director and invite listeners to download the sermon on their ipod and go into debt and wonder why they're not doing what we say when they're too busy doing what we do.*  

I, personally, already spend too much on myself and too little on others.  So, I certainly don't want to go to church only to find they're spending what I give them on me.

Are we wasting on God?  Or are we wasting on ourselves and saying we're giving it to God?  God forgive me.  God forgive us.

*This list of church stuff is not a composite of several congregations or made up...but I wish it was.

February 20

Exodus 23:14-17, 34:23; Deuteronomy 16:16, 17; Exodus 34:24, 34:18; Deuteronomy 16:1-7; Numbers 9:13, 14; Leviticus 23:4-8; Numbers 28:16, 17; Deuteronomy 16:8; Numbers 28:18-25; Deuteronomy 16:9-12; Leviticus 23:9-14; Exodus 34:22; Leviticus 23:15-21; Numbers 28:26-31; Leviticus 23:23-25; Numbers 29:1-6; Leviticus 16:1-34; Numbers 29:11; Leviticus 23:33-43, 29:12-38; Deuteronomy 16:13-15; Leviticus 23:37, 38, 44; Numbers 29:39, 40.

A priest, it seems, was one part butcher and one part pyromaniac.  And that pleasing aroma to God -- the smell of burning flesh and animal hair.

Building on a thought from the last reading, again God makes allowance for the non-Hebrew, the "aliens."  During the Passover, "An alien living among you who wants to celebrate the Lord's Passover must do so in accordance with its rules and regulations.  You must have the same regulations for the alien and the native-born."  [Numbers 9:14]  Those who wanted and who want to follow Him can.

For some reason, I didn't know that the Feast of Weeks, Harvest or First Fruits was the Day of Pentecost.  But this make sense.  After the sacrifice of God's only son, the church is born as one of this sacrifice's first fruits.

The idea of the scapegoat as an offering for the attonement of sins is interesting.  We talk so much of scapegoats. It's interesting to see its religious roots and to realize that Christ is our scapegoat.  Presented alive to the Lord, the scapegoat is sent into the desert to die.  It will die under God's direction as will Christ.

The Day of Attonement is the only feast that's not really a feast.  It's a fast and a time of confession.  All of the other feasts are celebrations of what the Lord has done for us.  Only this one is a confession of what we've done.  I think most of our lives, most of religion, most of following and glorifying God should be a joyous celebration of what He has done.  

Are the percentages of celebration to confession presented by the character of these feasts to be followed in our lives?  Maybe only one part of our walk should be acknowledgement of our sin and confession so that guilt doesn't overtake us.  We should only feel one part guilt and that guilt should be overcome by the overwhelming celebration of God's grace and guidance.  

February 19

Leviticus 19:26, 31, 20:6-8; Deuteronomy 18:9-14; Exodus 22:18; Leviticus 20:27; Deuteronomy 13:1-5, 18:15-22, 5:11; Exodus 22:28; Leviticus 24:10-16, 23; Exodus 22:29b, 30, 34:19, 20, 22:29a, 23:19a, 34:26a; Deuteronomy 15:19-23, 18:1-8, 14:22-29, 26:1-15; Leviticus 19:23-25; Exodus 23:12, 35:1, 2; Leviticus 19:3; Deuteronomy 5:12-15; Exodus 31:16, 17; Leviticus 19:30, 26:2, 23:1-3; Exodus 35:3, 34:21, 31:12-15; Numbers 15:32-36.

There are laws in this reading regarding true and false prophets.  Yet, how to distinguish between the two is less than obvious.  You're, obviously, to listen and obey the words of the true prophet and put to death the false prophet.  But how do you tell the difference?  "If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken." [Deut. 18:22]  Still they missed Jesus.  Why?  Well, not everything Jesus said came true in His lifetime on earth.  Some of His words spoke about His death.  He was put to death a false prophet and His death proved Him to be a true prophet.  

We find that the tithe given at the end of every three years is for "the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows...." [Deut. 14:28]  Then again later in this same reading the writer says, "When you have finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give it to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied." [Deut. 26:12]

We often hear sermons preached on the biblical principle of giving a tithe but seldom do we hear the biblical principle preached about what that tithe is collected for.  It's my observation that we tend to focus more on the Levites with our tithes (and things that benefit the believers) than on the other three categories listed.

I'm fascinated, too, by the aliens this scripture mentions.  God is concerned with those outside His chosen.  He was and is the God of all who follow Him.

February 18 - The Laws of Moses. The scripture list is too long to post in the title. Look below.

Deuteronomy 5:5-10; Exodus 22:20, 23:13, 34:17; Leviticus 19:4, 26:1; Deuteronomy 16:21, 22; Leviticus 20:1-5, 18:21; Deuteronomy 14:1, 2; Leviticus 19:27, 28; Deuteronomy 12:29-31; 13:6-18, 17:2-7, 12:1-15, 1:17-22, 1:26-28.

God seems really worried as they come into their inheritance in the Promised Land that the people He has lead and fed will forget him and turn to other gods.  He worries for good reason.  He knows they will.  They will be influenced by the culture they are entering.  Although the people will be cleared from the land, their stuff and idols will still be there to tempt the Israelites.  The blessing of entering the Promised Land will be turned into a curse because even in the reward is a requirement to continue to seek God, to never cease traveling after God and looking for the Promised Land.  They will struggle as we do not to let blessing change their focus and direction.  To not stop when  you come upon the blessing.  To keep going.

Amid all the mention of Asherah poles and sacred stones and metal images, they are called to worship one Name in one Place.  Worshipping God will not be as convenient and as easy as calling a rock sacred or raising a pole on a nearby hill.  Worshipping the Lord requires a relationship and journeying to His place and knowing His name.

February 17 - Deuteronomy 9:1-11:32

We think we win because we are righteous.  Think again.

"After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, 'The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.'  No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you.  It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Understand, then that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people."  [Deut. 9:4-6]

We like to keep score with outward manifestations of our own righteousness, to believe that the things we think are good are from God and the things we think are bard are from the devil.  It's not that easy.

We don't have a good handle on what is good and what is bad.  Satan offered Christ in the wilderness things we'd perceive as good -- riches and power -- but Christ rejected them because He knew it wasn't from the Father.  Sometimes bad things happen for good reason and to good effect.  

Are the material blessings we enjoy from God or satan?  Are they blessings or a curse?  Is God glorified because of it or are you glorified?  There's your answer.

We are not born into America because we are righteous.  We were born here for a purpose.  God's purpose.   

February 16 - 4:44-49; 5:1-5, 23-33; 6:1-25; 7:1-26; 8:1-20

Some interesting texts in this reading:

It was not with our fathers that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today. [Deut. 5:3]  The Lord's relationship is with us, not our family or congregation.  His promise and presence in our life is a thing of the present and not a thing of the past.  It is with all of us who are alive here today.

The Lord spoke to you face to face out of the fire on the mountain.  (At that time, I stood between the Lord and you to declare to you the word of the Lord, because you were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain.) [Deut. 5:4, 5]  Wait a minute.  They may very well have been afraid, but weren't they commanded not to come up into the mountain while Moses spoke with God?  ["...the Lord said to him [Moses], 'Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the Lord and many of them perish....'  Moses said to the Lord, 'The people cannot come up Mount Sinai, because you yourself warned us, "Put limits around the mountain and set it apart as holy."'"  Exodus 19:21, 23]   I'm not sure about this.  If you have some idea about this perceived discrepancy, please post me.

The Lord will keep you free from every disease.  He will not inflict on you the horrible diseases you knew in Egypt.... [Deut. 7:15]  But doesn't the Lord end up inflicting His people with several fatal plagues that we've pointed out in previous readings?  Ok, maybe those plagues weren't precisely the diseases they knew in Egypt.  But is God really that legalistic?  Perhaps He's only talking about the people truly doing their best to follow after HIm.  They're not the ones touched by plagues in earlier chapters.  Only those who don't follow or obey who are killed by disease.

Another interesting and overlooked miracle that announced God's presence in their lives is not only did God lead them and feed them while they wandered in the wilderness but also "Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years."  [Deut. 8:4]  Now that would be a daily reminder that the Lord is with you.  Of course, most teenagers and maybe a good number of adults might get tired of wearing the same thing whether it wore out or not.  Our son John gets attached to his clothing so he might like this particular miracle.  Above is picture of what David Skidmore calls John's Canaan shoes...[because "the soul never dies"].

February 15 - Deuteronomy 1-4:40

Moses bows out with a long speech.  For someone who said he couldn't speak in front of the people, he certainly preaches an awfully long sermon.  He's changed.  He's seen and heard and witnessed the power of God and now he can't help but speak.  He was afraid to speak before because he had nothing to say.  Now he has plenty to say.  Moses has become more than he'd imagined but not more than He'd imagined.  

Moses' speech reads pretty much like a presidential farewell address, recounting the happenings under his watch.  He begins his history at Sinai and the Lord's sending out the people to the border of the Promised Land.  the Lord sends them out, saying "You have stayed long enough at this mountain."  We love to stay in the high place with God.  But our purpose here on Earth is to venture out in the world and do battle.

The Israelites aren't the only ones with a covenant with God.  They are not to provoke the Edomites, the descendents of Esau because God had given them the land.  They are not to fight the Ammonites because they were the descendents of Lot.  We think we're the only ones, like Israel.  There are others the Lord looks on favorably.  Even though they are not one of us, they are one of His.

Of all the things Moses mentions in his farewell address, why is he so fascinated with the size of Og, king of Bashan's, bed (or sarcophagus)?  It's 13  feet long and six feet wide.  I guess it was king size.  Sorry, couldn't help myself.  Sort of funny that facts like this are committed to holy scripture.  Or is it just Moses showing through?  Is it his personal fascination with opulence or does Moses simply have a predilection for trivia?

Perhaps Moses is shining through again, later in this reading, in his explanation of the change of leadership -- "But because of you, the Lord was angry with me and would not listen to me."  Wait, wait, wait -- He can't go in to the Promised Land because of them?  I thought he wasn't allowed to enter because he [Moses] struck the rock instead of talking to it.

February 14 - Numbers 27:15-23, 32:1-42, Deuteronomy 4:41-43, Numbers 33:50-56, Deuteronomy 25:17-19, Numbers 34:1-29, 35:1-8

All of the people who can't enter the Promised Land have finally died out.  So those left are prepared to enter.  Some go through years of struggle only to miss their reward.  Others go through years of struggle and claim their reward.  The difference is faith that God will do what he says he will do.  Even the face of what he think are giants.

The people prepare to enter with Joshua to lead them.

The tribe of Reuben and Gad want to remain where they are and not go into the Promised Land although they've committed to helping the others secure the Lord's inheritance through battle. 

So what does this say?

That we can alter God's plan?  Or, at least, His announced plan.  We can pick what we want even though He has something better prepared for us?  And He'll allow us that choice and our perception of what's best.  God's leniency amazes me.  Even in the Old Testament.  He prescribes just what animal and how many and when.  But on something as big as where to settle and live, He allows the people latitude.  Literally.  

Or does this story suggest that at church we should follow the lead of the elders and win what they perceive the battle to be?  Even if in our hearts, we are living someplace else?

Or, on the other hand, does it indicate that we don't need to follow the lead of the majority.   That as long as we fight for the common good, we can choose to go in another direction?  That we can be at different places and still fight for the same God.

Or is all of the above or maybe something more, something I haven't thought of yet.  And that God will make the meaning clear to me in another reading, in another time of my life.

February 13 - Numbers 26:1-65

In the last reading we learned that 24,000 die of the plague, but no one dies in the war.  Isn't that strange?  Or should I say miraculous.  Maybe not.  When God is in charge, miraculous things happen.  When we seek to live our own lives without Him, we invite death.  The difference between dying in a plague or living through a war is God.

So many have died in the various plagues.  All of those who were forbidden to enter the Promised Land have died out.  It's time to start fresh.  So they start by numbering the people.  It probably shouldn't be a surprise that the tribe of Judah is greater in numbers and is, in fact, the largest of the tribes.  It also should probably be no surprise that Rueben and Simeon are fewer.  What is it that the Bible said in an earlier reading?  Punishment will be visited on the third and fourth generation.  Does that mean our direction as a family as parents and as children sets the tone and begins the cycle for the next generation of young people.

To this layman's simple understanding, there doesn't seem to be a major revelation in this reading.  Or, at least, no major revelation at this time in my life.  I've learned the Bible has a way of speaking to people in different ways...depending on where you are in life.

There is one thing I'm sort of curious about.  Amid the list of so many sons and fathers, they mention a couple of women.  Is it just that Zelophehad and Asher didn't raise any sons and so their daughters are mentioned instead?  Or is it because these women were extraordinary in some regard?  The Bible doesn't say.  Just mention their names.

Did you notice that one of Zelophehad's daughters was named Noah?  I guess Noah was a girl or boy's name.  He also had a daughter named Hoglah.  Let's hope they didn't shorten that one.

February 12 - Numbers 25:1-18, 31:1-54

Ok, apparently Balaam's plan is to have the Moabite women seduce God's people (or, at least the men).  Maybe Balaam realizes that the only way his people will defeat God's chosen people is to separate them from their God and sexual immorality would do this.  Balaam wasn't counting on forgiveness.  God won't turn his back on His people.  He will forgive but His forgiveness comes at an extremely high price (as forgiveness always does).  It requires blood.  Another plague will visit Israel and 24,000 die.  Such a waste of life.

Great, your name gets in the Holy Bible.  That would normally be a really, really cool thing.  Unless your name is Zimri and Cozbi.  Zimri is from the family of Simeon.  Apparently Zimri wasn't familiar with the family history.  Simeon had a problem with foreign men marrying his sister.  Now, one of his descendants is punished for a relationship with a foreign woman.

Now Israel fights and kills the five kings of Midian and all the men.  But they spare women and children.  Eleazar will correct this.  Note that 24,000 die due sexual immorality but not one man dies during the battle.

Time and time again, Israel will be directed to utterly destroy every one and every thing in a land that they're conquerer.  Why such senseless killing of innocents at the urging of a loving God?  We'll discover in a few readings from now that it's not because of Israel's righteousness that they win against nations like Moab.  Israel is the instrument for punishing the other nations.  The Moabites must have been responsible for something exceedingly wicked.

And so we're left to trust that God is God and He knows what He's doing.

February 11 - Numbers 22-24:25

Do you have a problem with God speaking to Balaam?  Does it bother you at all?  He's not one of the Chosen People and he practices divination.  Deuteronomy seems to suggest that God has major heartburn over folks who practice divination.  Not only does God speak to Balaam, but Balaam doesn't seem particularly surprised by it.  Like this isn't the first time.  [Of course, this is the guy who's not surprised when the donkey starts speaking to him either.  Balaam has obviously seen some weird mojo.]

Given Balaam's reaction and the fact that he obeys God, I tend to think this isn't the first conversation Balaam has had with God.  Maybe that's why he has a reputation for having the power to bless or curse and have it stick.  Maybe Balaam gets his power from God.  I know we have a problem with Balaam's profession.  But God often speaks and deals with people outside our comfort zone.  He interacts with thieves on the cross, prostitutes, lepers, the insane, even Republicans (Oops, sorry, I meant publicans).  God speaks to and saves who He will.  Let's never presuppose what God will do.  Odds are we'll guess wrong.

God speaks to Balaam and he obeys.  How many of us can say that?

Even when Balaam attempts to push God a little and see if he can accept some of the riches he's being offered, God corrects him instead of killing him.  That's significant.  I don't think God is just using Balaam to achieve His purposes.  There's something more here.  Balaam has the courage to speak out for God when it's not popular.  He defies the king's wishes when he speaks for God and curses the Moabites.  He does it three times.  God even puts a prophecy of Christ's coming in Balaam's mouth.

All of this makes it even odder when, in the readings yet to come, Balaam will plot to seduce God's people.  What happened to Balaam?  He knows how powerful God is.  He's had a brush with one of the Lord's angels and has prophesied to the King regarding God.  So why does he try to go against the Lord?  Is Balaam the prototype preacher gone bad?  What was he thinking?

February 10 - Numbers 20:1-29, 21:1-35, 33:1-49

Miriam and Aaron die. Moses and Aaron will not be allowed to enter the Promised Land because they [actually Moses] struck the rock instead of just speaking to it as God commanded.  Again, I think it's more a matter of the heart.  Because Aaron is punished, too, and he didn't even strike the rock.  It's not the act but what the act betrays about the actor's heart.  In this case, perhaps the two got a little holier than thou.  One of the pitfalls of leadership is pride.

I wished I could have been present at Aaron's death.  Other than walking with God and being no more, Aaron's death seems a good way to go.  The manner of his death seems to underscore my conviction that even though God may punish people on this earth, it's not necessarily an indicator of our ultimate destination and judgement.  There is such a sense of peace about Aaron's passing.  Moses goes with his brother into the mountain.  I imagine the whole community watching as they ascend.  Aaron in his priestly garments.  Those garments are ceremonially stripped from him and his son Eleazar is arrayed in them.  I'm certain that Aaron was proud to see his son literally assume his father's mantel.  To fill his shoes.  Interesting that Aaron probably falls because of pride and is rewarded by seeing his son take his place and his fatherly pride sustained.  

Did Aaron feel some sense of sadness and regret along with the joy of seeing his son take his place?  Sad that he would not join his people in the Promised Land after so long a journey and so many obstacles overcome?  Or did he understand, accept God's judgement and, then, that very day make the journey to the ultimate Promised Land in heaven?  Aaron is laid to rest.  Moses and Eleazar descend the mountain together.  I wonder what they talked about?  Did Moses tell Eleazar what Aaron was like growing  up?  How well did they actually know each other since Moses was raised in Pharoah's household?  But I hold on to the fact that Aaron saw his son take his place.  And so it's not sad at all.  there is an overwhelming sense of peace to it.

Once again the people murmur about the food and water.  You'd think they'd figure out what was in store by now.  But then, aren't we just like them?  We forget what all the Lord has done for us and how we should be so happy.  Venomous snakes are sent by God and the people are bitten and many die until the bronze snake is lifted up.  Is this Plague 5?  A visitation of poisonous snakes?

Then we have Moses' journal of the nation's travels as commanded by God.  so, God's into journaling.  Well, we know he loves the word.  So His interest in journaling only makes sense.

February 9 - Numbers 16:1-50, 17:1-13, 18:1-32

There are those who challenge Moses' leadership.  I don't know how God could be more obvious that Moses is His guy.  The people overhear God talking to him.  Moses' face glows with God's glory.  Hey, there's a pillar of smoke over the Tabernacle.  What does it take?  We believe what we want to believe no matter how obvious the signs are around us.  

The rebels learn Moses is God's guy the hard way.  They're swallowed up by the Earth.

Plague 4 -- God's wrath is evident in the death of those who try and oust Moses and Aaron.  A total of 14,700 die because of this plague.

February 8 - Numbers 12:1-14:45

Miriam and Aaron are rebuked by God for not showing respect to Moses.  They didn't approve of his Cushite wife.  Typically, God wasn't excited when you took a foreign wife.  Were Miriam and Aaron jealous?  Where they doing that thing we do when we think it's unfair that someone is put in authority when they're so obviously fallible?  Leadership is not about perfect but how a failed person deals with their failure.  It's not about our sin.  It's about God's grace.  Our leaders are not perfect.  But the God they follow should be.  

Moses leadership is not because he's perfect.  It's because he has a relationship with someone who is.  And God reaffirms that this relationship is different.

He says, "When a prophet of the Lord is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams.  But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house.  With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord."

Is God inferring here that His relationship with Moses is superior to that of the dreamer Joseph?  

You know, we'd think it was pretty awesome of God spoke to us in dreams.  Many of us long for that kind of communication with the Father.  But there's something superior to visions.  There is plain sight.  Moses had a relationship that was more direct, more personal and less mystic.  He had a face to face relationship with God.  So what did the Lord's face look like to Moses?  Is looking at the face of God like staring up into the skies?  And what's it like to see your reflection in His eyes?

God's Eye -- The Helix Nebula.

The people don't have confidence that they can conquer...even with God.  They're looking for another way.  They're looking for something that doesn't require as much commitment, that doesn't force  you into looking into the eyes of God.  Only Caleb and Joshua give a good report and plead with the people to heed God.  (Oh, and by the way, Caleb is from the House of Judah.)

Plague 3 -- The spies who came back and gave a negative report are visited by a plague and die.

February 7 - Numbers 10:1-34, 9:15-23, 10:35-36

Ok, another thing to chalk up for Judah being the favored tribe -- as they set out traveling, "the divisions of the camp of Judah went first, under their standard...."  They're the point tribe.

Hobab is asked to guide the great multitude as they travel.  This is the original brother-in-law job [literally].  How much leading does he really do?  Isn't God as a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night actually doing the leading?  So what's Hobab really doing?  

Oh, I think we go that way.  Why Hobab?  Because that's the way the pillar of fire is traveling.  Gotcha.

  

Hobab is a great symbol of how it's really God that does any job we take credit for.  You think Hobab took pride and bragged at all that he was leading the camp?  Everyone around him would have been rolling their eyes because they all know God is really doing the work whether Hobab gives Him the credit or not.  It sounds absurd given God's leadership was so obvious and dramatic.  But was Hobab any more absurd than we are today?  God is obviously leading us and blessing us and empowering us and we take pride in what we've accomplished.  Father, forgive us.

Plague 2 - God is visiting plague's on the people as they doubt and grumble and show such little faith.  Do these plagues remind them of the plagues He  rained down on the Egyptians to free His people?  Are these plagues intended to free them, too.  How many plagues will there be and will they parallel in any way the plagues in Egypt.  We'll have to take a look and see.  Here, the Lord strikes them with a "severe plague" because of their grumbling about manna and their desire for meat.

February 6 - Numbers 3:14-39, 4:1-49, 3:40-51

Unlike our family packing to move, the Israelites have a system.  Each tribe is responsible for packing and moving something different.  Whole lot of sea cow being used to wrap things here.  I've posted a sea cow here if  you're wondering.  It's like a manatee.  So where did they get a hold of sea cow skin in the desert?  Someone have a pond and farm-raising sea cows?  

I wonder how the Merarites felt about their duty.  Nothing exciting about what they're lugging.  No warnings that if they touch it they'll die or anything.  They're in charge of tabernacle infrastructure.  You know, the frames and crossbars and posts and bases and tent pegs and ropes people.  They're sort of responsible for the behind-the-scenes stuff.  [You know, it takes a tribe to build a tabernacle.]  They probably had to wait until all of the curtains and stuff were taken down before they even could get started on what they were doing.  

Do you think all of these tribes help one another even though they were assigned different things?  Or were they legalistic or like a labor union in Chicago:  "I'm sorry we can't help you with that.  You'll have to get the Gershonites for that.  We're Merarites.  All we do is frames and crossbars and posts and bases and tent pegs and ropes and such.  That's what we do."  Or, maybe, they just said, "Sorry, can't help you.  That's not my gift."

February 5 - Numbers 9:1-12, 1-2:34

The tribes of Israel are numbered in this reading.  Guess which one is the biggest?  Well, at least, has the most men 20 years and older with 74,600?  Judah.  I wonder if it's because Judah was one of Jacob's more admirable sons?  He comes back to see if he can get Joseph out of the pit only to discover he's been sold.  He tells Jacob to hold him and even his children accountable if Benjamin is not returned.  His will be the line from which a savior will arise.

Judah's blessing is more than descendants.  This tribe is shown favor in other ways.  Judah is encamped  East of the tabernacle:  "On the east, toward the sunrise, the divisions of the camp of Judah are to encamp under their standard." [Numbers 2:3]  More ways than one, Judah is encamped toward the sunrise.  The sun [or son] will shine on this tribe first.  

Note too that Joseph and Benjamin's descendants are camped together.

February 4 - Numbers 3:1-13, 8:5-22, 7:1-8:4

Ok, so why is this recorded in the Bible?  A good deal of this reading describes the various tribes' offerings.  And it's pretty redundant since all of them, except the Levites, brought the exact same thing.  Maybe it's not written for us.  I'm sure in early Hebrew time it was interesting.  Or maybe these scriptures will  help prove something a thousand years from now just like there are scriptures today that we have a greater understanding of then they did in the day they were written.  Like the verses that tell us the Earth hangs on nothing.  They wouldn't have understood this.  We do.  Or maybe an archeologist will find something -- one of the silver sprinkling bowls weighing seventy shekels (according to the sanctuary shekel) and filled with fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering -- and it will just be one more indicator among so many that the Bible is true.  But without these verses that silver sprinkling bowl wouldn't have any significance.

Who knows?  Well, God knows.  And He knows why these verses are here. 

Toward the end of today's reading, Moses hears God's voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim on the ark.  God's appearance varies.  He's in the pillar of smoke and the pillar of fire.  He appears as a being to Abraham and Jacob.  He's in the burning bush.  He takes on so many visual identities.  But Moses would have known him from His voice.  He's the voice in scripture.  Jesus is the word.