No War Game: Israel Pushes Into Canaan, Levels Jericho (Josh. 4-8)

SEAN - Led by Joshua, the ancient Israeli army leveled and set fire to the Canaanite cities of Jericho and Ai in the 1400's BC, not leaving any survivors. PIC: modern Israeli soldiers, apparently training for urban combat situations. Photo courtesy of Google Images.

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Based on ESV.com's Chronological Bible In a Year schedule. If anyone would like to join in, this blog's comments sections would be a good forum for sharing what you find.

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God Determines War and Peace

1. As Joshua son of Nun led Israeli soldiers into the land of Canaan, they were confronted with the commander of Yahweh's army (Josh. 5.13-6.2); this means that while Joshua and his men were climbing over rubble and slaughtering Canaanites, God was the real worker. His work was clearest in the crumbling of Jericho's massive walls (Josh. 6.20-21), and in giving Joshua the plan to that was used to ambush the people of Ai (Josh 8.1,18-19). God determined whether Israel conquered Canaan, just like He determines every other thing. Can a city fall, unless God does it? No. God is in control. He determines what succeeds and what fails - He makes it happen.

Get Right With Your Maker
2. If God controls the outcome of everything, we had better get right with Him before we do anything else. That's why Israel circumcised themselves before commencing military operations against Jericho (5.2-3), and observed the Passover (5.10). After that, Israel had God's blessing and stormed the city and burnt it to the ground. Israel couldn't conquer Ai either, until they had dealt with the sin of Achan (7.1-26) and made things right with God. Maybe that is why the Bible talks so much about praying in the morning - we make things right with God before we start our day, because He decides whether our day is productive or not. I've got to work harder on that, then.

God Determines, But We Still Act
3. God made the walls fall down from Jericho, and gave the strategic plan to ambush Ai. He also worked during the battle in unseen ways, making the arms of Canaanite soldiers feel heavy and tired, while giving Israel quick reflexes and strength. But Israel still fought the battle. So that should be a lesson for us - divine sovereignty and human responsibility. God is in total control (sovereignty), but we still have to do our part (responsibility). We can not just sit back, grab a bag of doritos, and sink into the couch while pleading through crumb-filled lips, "God, please (munch) fix my marriage (crunch)." The God who made you and me and created the universe is in complete control... but you and I still have to work. His total control does not equal our total lazinesss.

Summing Up the Post

• God is in control of everything. Nothing succeeds or fails apart from Him.
• Therefore, we've got to make things right with Him before we do anything.
• God is in control (sovereignty), but we still have to work (responsibility).

Does a lion roar in the forest,
when he has no prey?
Does a young lion cry out from his den,
if he has taken nothing?
Does a bird fall in a snare on the earth,
when there is no trap for it?
Does a snare spring up from the ground,
when it has taken nothing?

Is a trumpet blown in a city,
and the people are not afraid?
Does disaster come to a city,
unless the LORD has done it?

-Amos 3.4-6

The Barbaric/Progressive Bible (Deut. 17-20)

SEAN - We're looking at execution by stoning, and also environmental awareness, in Deut. 17-20. Israeli ethics seemed at once jihadist and oddly enlightened. The picture up top is of an Israeli man hugging a tree, apparently taking to heart the respect for nature that is laid out in Deuteronomy 20.19-20: 'When you besiege a city... you shall not destroy its trees... are the trees of the field human, that they should be besieged by you?'

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Based on ESV.com's Chronological Bible In a Year schedule. If anyone would like to join in, this blog's comments sections would be a good forum in which to share insights from the text.

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One Side of the Coin: The Barbaric Bible

What if I told you that at 6:00pm tonight, we were going to take a murderer out of jail and hand him over to be executed by his victim's nearest relative? How about if I told you that we were about to take a televangelist, bury him chest-deep in the earth, and crush his skull with stones for making a false prediction? Some of you might secretly think, "well, it's about time," but I'd bet most of you would be horrified. That is Taliban activity right there!

Well, those are some of the scenarios that might have happened in ancient Israel. Murderers were handed over to their victim's relatives for execution (Deut. 19.11-13); false prophets were killed for their efforts (Deut. 18.20). Although war is a reality for most countries, Israel  took their conquest of Canaan many steps further -at God's request!- by slaughtering pregnant women and little children without pity (Duet. 20.16-17). If these kinds of activities went on in this day and age, we would send soldiers to stop whatever regime was responsible. Actions like that are unconscionable. This is not the place to justify the more barbaric-sounding laws of Ancient Israel. The fact is that Ancient Israeli law had many features that our culture would condemn, and many others that we would approve of with enthusiasm.

Other Side of the Coin: The Progressive Bible

There are some more progressive strokes to ancient Israeli law, however - take war ethics for example. Israel can be faulted for committing genocide, but they also had a separate code of ethical rules for combat, which they used outside of Canaan (Deut. 20.10-15). The BBC history of war ethics doesn't mention any thought on the matter of war ethics before the Greek philosopher Cicero, and yet here was Israel 1,000 years earlier with a code of combat ethics enshrined in their national law, mandating that they offer terms of peace to enemies before engaging in war, and demanding Israel's army spare any women and children. during military conflict. There are also other more progressive laws that we could point to.

Israel was more enlightened than even recent modern culture, in a lot of other ways: they had a volunteer military instead of a draft, 3000 years before the USA got rid of their own military draft  in 1973 (Deut. 20.8); long before the infamous Salem Witch Trials, Israel had a standard where allegations of serious crime had to be proven before a sentence was passed (Deut. 17.4); civil leaders were not able to gather massive wealth for themselves (Deut. 17.17); the death penalty for false prophets meant that religious leaders were made to tell the truth (Deut. 18.20-22); and finally, unlike in our own day in politically conservative areas of the West, a respect for nature was legislated (Deut. 20.19). And this is just in Deut. 17-20!

Making Sense of the Barbaric Side

Making heads or tails of some of the more backward-sounding laws of ancient Israel is somewhat tricky for me; one one hand, I want to stand apart from that and denounce it in no uncertain terms. On the other hand, I would call God's character into question if I did so. It is my legitimate belief that God is good and just. So there has to be some other way to deal with this - perhaps, as cruel as the bits about execution and genocide seem, they are just what's necessary to keep corruption and ethical decay out of societies? Some believe that the solution to our day's defective criminal law is to quietly relax it and focus on rehabilitation; perhaps, it is possible that we just haven't taken our legal punishment of criminals far enough. That does sound pretty barbaric, and I am just throwing it out there. But could it be true? I welcome your feedback in the comments section.

Other comments and observations can be found in the comments section! Join in!

Recap: Catching Up (Deut. 11-16)

OK, I just want to get these last couple of days out of the way, and then I'll resume with the next post:

Interesting Bits from Deuteronomy 11-16

11
-God keeps His promises (11.9)
-The promised land was dependent on rain (11.10-12, 14-15, 17)
-Loving God means following His commands (11.1)
-Short of love, the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom (11.2,5-6)
-Israel was supposed to saturate their lives with God's commandments (11.18-20)

12
-On entering the Canaan, Israel was to destroy all signs of paganism (12.2-4)
-Sacrifice was restricted to the Temple - to discourage idolatry? (12.13-14)
-Non-sacrificial slaughter was still alright in the towns, though (12.15)
-The Levites were taken care of by the people (12.19)
-Blood wasn't kosher. Eusebius wrote that this rule still applies. (12.23-24)
-Don't use pagan rituals to worship God - meditation, solstice festivals, etc. (12.30-32)

13
-False prophets were to be tested and then executed (13.1-5)
-If a whole town went astray, it was to be burnt down (13.12-15)
-God experiences 'fierce anger' but has mercy and feels compassion (13.17)
-Even "the wife of your embrace" and "your friend who is as your own soul" were not to be spared if they tried to lead you into heresy; your hand would throw the first stone (13.6-10)

14
-Israel was called 'sons of the LORD' and 'Holy to the LORD' (14.1-2)
-The food laws show up again in 14.3-21. Connection to 14.1-2?
-Every year the people were to bring their tithe to Jerusalem (14.22-23)
-But every THIRD year, that tithe went to the poor in your town (14.28-29)

15
-'There will be no poor'/'If there are...'/'There always will be...' (15.4,7,11)
-'Open wide your hand to the needy & poor in your land' (15.11)
-Hebrew servants got to be set free with a fat bonus in the 7th year (15.12-14)

16
-Chapter 16 describes requirements for the festivals, but doesn't get into what they are all about. For that, check out Leviticus. There are also forbidden forms of worship in 16.21-22

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Based on ESV.com's Chronological Bible In a Year schedule. If anyone would like to join in, this blog's comments sections would be a good forum in which to share insights from the text.

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We Are Broken (Deut. 8-10)

SEAN - Israel was not chosen because it was righteous, beautiful, mighty, or intelligent. Same with us. The Gospel is as good as the words unconditional election; God chooses us (election) to be His people even if we aren't the most amazing people ever (unconditional). We come to Him humbled and broken, and He lifts our chins and grants us pardon. God is totally kind.

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Based on ESV.com's Chronological Bible In a Year schedule. If anyone would like to join in, this blog's comments sections would be a good forum in which to share insights from the text.

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Not Because of Your Righteousness

In Deut. 9 God tells Israel that He didn't choose them because of their righteousness - actually, Israel had been super stubborn and difficult in the desert. Moses is recorded as saying, 'you have been rebelling against God from the first day that I knew you!' (9.24). Then comes this lengthy list of all of Israel's worst moments; a highlight reel of shame. All of the complaining and testing and immorality and faithlessness comes back to show them how corrupt they've been and how good God has been regardless.

The Golden Apis
Israel was never off to a great start. The worst example was the Golden Calf incident. Moses was gone up a mountain for just 40 days, and that was all it took for them to make a cow statue and start bowing down to it. That golden statue could have actually been an image of Apis [pictured at the top], the Egyptian bull-god, but we don't know that for sure. What we do know is that despite this God still blessed them and led Israel into the promised land. What better way to let everyone know that ''Yahweh is merciful"?

Other Interesting Notes
This isn't just a history of Israel, though; it's an example. Humanity has always turned its back on God. The Church has always turned its back on God. As Christians we are totally aware of our sin and our hypocrisy - and we also know that God is good and forgiving and kind. If we come to Him in shame and repentance, then He will accept us every time.

Other comments and observations can be found in the comments section! Join in!

The Best Rules Ever (Deut. 5-7)

SEAN - You don't like rules? Fine. I'll remember that when someone breaks your rule and jacks your car. But yours is a good rule - and God's are even better. The picture up top is of a group of young Orthodox Jews. These men love the commandments of the Old Testament, and recite the Shema (6.4-5) every day in their prayers. They "delight in God's statutes" (Psalm 119.16).

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Based on ESV.com's Chronological Bible In a Year schedule. If anyone would like to join in, this blog's comments sections would be a good forum in which to share insights from the text.

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Learning the Ten Commandments

Quick: without checking, name all of the ten commandments. How did you do? I made it through other gods (5.6-7) and idols (5.8-10) before I stumbled over taking God's name in vain (5.11) and jumped straight to honoring the Sabbath (5.12-15) instead. For a lot of people the Big 10 are a lot like the Nicene Creed - everyone claims to follow it but no one remembers the contents; I'll often hear non-Christians say "I don't believe in God, but I'm a pretty good person, I follow the ten commandments." Really? You do? You worship the God of the Bible and you don't put anything else before Him (5.7)? That's a pretty astounding feat for an Agnostic.

The Most Important Commandment

First, Jesus calls the shema (6.4-5) the most important commandment in the entire Bible (Matthew 22.36-38) - so sit up and take notice! The commandment goes like this: 'Hear, O Israel: Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one. You shall love Yahweh our God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.' In the Old and New Testaments, loving God means keeping his commandments (11.1; John 14.21). Second, there is a little theological dispute between Jews and Christians that comes up in this passage: non-Messianic Jews say that 'Yahweh is one' rules out the Trinity (it doesn't say, 'Yahweh is three!'), while Christians and Messianic Jews say that 'Yahweh is one' in roughly the same sense that Adam and Eve became one flesh (Genesis 2.24) - there's more than person involved, but they are somehow still one being. My Messianic beliefs, and a wide range of other parts of the Bible (from both Old and New Testaments), tell me that the second option is the right one. I'll send you some research if you ask for it in the comments section. Freebie: the word for 'God' in the Old Testament is actually a plural noun - it's actually the word 'Gods'. But the pronouns are all singular; it's like saying "Seans (plural noun) went to the store and he (singular pronoun) bought some milk." That kind of language shows there is something that's more-than-one, and yet there is still only one.

A Chosen People
God's commands are a blessing and a privilege. For Israel, these commands were signs that God had chosen His people and loved them - 'we got our rules straight from the Creator of the world!' - and for us they are a sign that God cares for us and hasn't left us to fend for ourselves. He's given us eternal wisdom in just 66 letters, poems, and short books, all wrapped up together into this bigger thing that we call the Bible. If you are holding one in your hand right now, it is a sign of God's faithfulness and care.

Other comments and observations can be found in the comments section! Join in!

A Bigger God Than Giants (Deut. 3-4)

SEAN - If the gods of the Ancient East were football players, Yahweh (God) would be the one making the sun shine down on them and giving them air to breathe. Ancient Eastern gods were small, regional, bit players in the world, of which God was the only real Creator and King; Israel's God was Lord over heaven and earth, and divided the borders of nations, and decided the outcomes of wars, and was unknowable, and yet He made Himself known.

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Based on ESV.com's Chronological Bible In a Year schedule. If anyone would like to join in, this blog's comments sections would be a good forum in which to share insights from the text.

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The Inside Scoop on Yahweh

In the Ancient Near East, this was how you would picture a god: he or she would be one of many others; it would reign over only a town or over one element of nature, and had a physical form. Then along comes Yahweh. This God of Israel is supposed to be the only god (4.35), reigns over all the heavens above and the earth below (4.39) -even over nations which 'belong' to other gods (3.2; 4.34)- is so incomprehensible that it is an insult to represent Him with idols (4.15-18), and yet is still merciful (4.31) as well as close (4.7) and personal (4.24)to His people. Not only that - He controls the outcome of battles (3.3)! He makes the arm strong, the muscle weak or firm, confuses the strategies of armies or makes them succeed and loads the outcome in every detail. If the gods of the nations were football players, God would be the one making the sun shine on them and giving them air to breathe; He would be sustaining the very laws of gravity and of friction that make the game possible. This was a God who was completely different.

I Can't Help But Worship Him
So it's within that framework that I find Yahweh (God) so amazing. The Hindus claim to have a really transcendent deity in Brahman -a god who is so 'other' that it is effectively nothing at all; supposedly unified, but also fractured into the same contradictory polytheistic mess of gods as all of the other ancient religions- but this god of the Israeli tribes is so completely other and yet so near that I can't help but worship Him. The other gods of the Ancient Near East are spiritual bit players competing over some land; In Yahweh, we have a real deity at work. This God is truly bigger than a giant King Bashan (3.11) and all of his petty little idols. By the new standard, He is actually the only real God at all.

Other Interesting Notes

• Deuteronomy 4.1-40 is basically an explanation of the first two commandments.

• The Bible is a superior law. These rules are so righteous that they speak for their own divine origin - anything other than this is doomed to fail (4.8).

• King Bashan (3.11) was a giant. That's not impossible. Among normal human beings, you still get the odd giant. Sun Mingming -in the picture, up top- is a modern Chinese basketball player who is almost 8 feet tall. There's also a report of a Pakistani farmer who is 9 feet tall.

Other comments and observations can be found in the comments section! Join in!

The Right Hand of Judgment (Deut. 1-2)

SEAN - This is Ancient Israel 101, from their refusal to enter Canaan all the way to the genocidal campaign against the Ammorites - starting with King Sihon. These stories are much more upsetting (for the the modern reader) than what is supposed to be happening in Israel-Palestine these days. For the believing Jew, Messianic Jew, or Christian, though, Deuteronomy 1-2 is the noble history of God taking a rebellious people and making a nation for Himself out of them. Yahweh is the direction behind the nations' rise and fall.

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Based on ESV.com's Chronological Bible In a Year schedule. If anyone would like to join in, this blog's comments sections would be a good forum in which to share insights from the text.

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The Nation Made in God's Image 

The doctrine of imago dei tells us that God made homo sapiens (humans) in His own image - meaning that we represent Him upon the Earth. That's what we carry inside of us as individuals. As a God's chosen nation (Deuteronomy 1.31) Israel carried that in them as a group: God made His judgments of the people known through Israel's leaders (Deuteronomy 1.17) and brought a reckoning to the Canaanites through Israel's armies (Deuteronomy 2.34-36) - Israel was the right hand of God's judgment, the expression of His decisions about the nations. In that respect, God made Israel in His likeness, after His own image. Whether that is still true of modern Israel is a whole different discussion, and a complicated one. But it seems to have been true in Old Testament times, as King Sihon of Heshbon found out (Deuteronomy 2.24).

God Remains Faithful 
This will get covered later in the book (I think), but Israel is still a nation in God's image even when they are disobedient and unbelieving. God disciplines them so severely because of His love for them, not in spite of it. Although they disobeyed (1.26-33) God still chose to work through that nation (2.25).

Assorted Interesting Bits

• The picture [top] is of the brook of Zered (2.13-14)
• The site in 1.1-2 is super detailed - memorial site?
• The Anakim were giants (1.28). Not impossible. See next post.
• Yahweh is still the true God of Edom, a Pagan nation (2.5)
• Yahweh also fights for Pagan nations (2.20-23)
• The conquest of Canaan started before Jericho (2.31-33)
• God hardened Sihon's heart; even free will is His to revoke (2.30)
• Israel slaughters women and children - commits genocide (2.34)

Other comments and observations can be found in the comments section! Join in!

Cities of Refuge/Women & Property (Num. 35-36)

SEAN - Israeli rules about manslaughter were more liberal that Canada's, sort of. That, and women could inherit property if they married within their own tribe. Even in the middle of a male-dominated culture, where the they also had the death penalty and used it, attempts at fairness were made. We might not like all of the rules that God laid down, but He has His reasons; this is our chance to step back and realize that God loves women and even criminals, though sometimes it looks like He doesn't.

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Based on ESV.com's Chronological Bible In a Year schedule. If anyone would like to join in, this blog's comments sections would be a good forum in which to share insights from the text.

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The Cities of Refuge, and the Death Penalty

Straight up, Yahweh (God) believes in the death penalty. He blesses it here and uses it there, commands it here and here and here. So I can't apologize for that - I trust Him too much; I know He's making the right decisions. What I can point out is that in the case of killing someone, if it turned out to just be manslaughter, the one at fault didn't have to rot in jail for 5 years over a stupid mistake. In God's Israel, that man could serve out his sentence in a community surrounded by temple workers at one of the Cities of Refuge (Numbers 35.6), moving around freely and having a relatively normal life. God is about justice - but fair justice. Manslaughter is not the same as murder. So God judges accordingly and doesn't just punish for the sake of punishing.

Women Can Inherit Property
For an ancient man-dominated culture, Israel was progressive. In a family of daughters and no sons, the women could inherit their dad's property. That wasn't even the case in our culture up until recently - remember Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice? The women in that novel had to find husbands before their father died, or they would be out of a home; only the nearest male relative would inherit the house. That's how the world was 200 years ago. And yet 3400 years ago in Israel, the women could inherit property in that situation. Yes, God made rules that favored men. But within all of that - well, God showed that He still has a soft spot for the ladies. Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice couldn't have been written in ancient Israel, because God brought the culture so much further along than it was in Jane Austen's day.

A Tiny Little End Note
Like I said, much of the Bible will offend you. The death penalty is there - and God made no apologies for it, He even enforced its use. Rules that favor men are there too, and even in the New Testament some pretty chauvinist-sounding things get said ("man is the image of God, but woman is the image of man," anybody?). When you get offended, please don't box God into these categories of chauvinism or hard-on-crime, God is bigger than that. And when He makes rules you don't like, just think, He knows all things and He created the universe. I would say that He knows better than you or I do.

Other comments and observations can be found in the comments section! Join in!

Crossing the Jordan (Num. 33-34)

SEAN - When you're on the edge of life's next horizon, it's good to look back on what God taught you during the last life-stage. Numbers 33-34 is that horizon. This post should be a little less controversial than the last one. The one chapter (Numbers 33) lets us look back on Israel's time in the wilderness; the other (Numbers 34) lets us look forward with them to a new life behind the borders of Canaan. We look back in history with the full knowledge of what Israel would become, but these Israeli people were unaware and full of excitement and anticipation. This is Israel getting to leave the desert that had been their home for 40 years.

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Based on ESV.com's Chronological Bible In a Year schedule. If anyone would like to join in, this blog's comments sections would be a good forum in which to share insights from the text.

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This Side of the Jordan: The Kindness and Severity of God

Numbers 33 is just a list of all the places that Israel had camped at over the years. It helps us figure things out chronologically ("what order did these things happen in?") but the names of these places were also memories: Marah was where Israel tested God; Elim was a desert oasis which Israel found after nearly dying of thirst; Kadesh was where Moses lost his chance to enter the Promised Land; Mount Hor was where Aaron died. God had alternately cared for and judged and taught Israel in that desert for their entire lifetime up until that point. The children born in that desert were now middle-aged men. It was all they knew.

Stuck In the Middle: Reflecting and Looking Forward
Israel was now in the middle of two radically different stages of life - the world they knew was going to radically change. If I put myself in their sandals, there would have been a lot of reflection on what had happened up to that point and a lot of anticipation about entering Canaan. It's like that with every major life change. Don't we feel the weight of these changes when we move from being dependents to living on our own, for example? How about from single to married? How about becoming a parent? There is this unsettling and exciting and disturbing feeling that nothing will ever be the same again. And during that packing process, or engagement, or pregnancy, you have nothing but time to think about where you've come from and where you're going. Something is on the horizon, and all we can do is look at the map of our (now former) lives and say "that's where I was - I remember that" and then trace our finger down, "and that's where I'm going."

That Side of the Jordan: God Will Be With Us
Numbers 34 is a document telling Israel where its borders were going to be - really, telling them which nations to wipe out: nothing beyond the border of Edom, the Great Sea, Mount Hor, or Shepham. Israel would never be the kind of ever-expanding empire that always conquered the areas around it. The borders were firm and set and the limits were made public. Not only was God saying "I will be with you - you will be able to do this," but He was also saying "I will set the borders of the nations" and "I am God over other nations too - don't conquer Edom." The important part is where God says He will be with Israel. That's important for anyone to hear -"I will be with you"- as they move forward in the journey God has for them. To the one packing He says "I will be with you." To the one planning their wedding God says "I will be with you." To the one with a child on the way God says "I will be with you." And to an Israel on the edge of the Promised Land, getting ready to literally face down the giants, God said I will be with you.

Those are comforting words. For today, we remain with Ancient Israel, in the middle, full of reflection on what has been and excitement at what's to come.

Other comments and observations can be found in the comments section! Join in!

A Return to Jewish Customs (Num. 28-30)

SEAN - Our Holidays (even the Christian holidays) have turned into the worship of wealth and capitalism. The Jewish holidays point the way to something deeper. This is a chapter-by-chapter run through of the major Old Testament holidays/rites and what they mean. By the way, the picture at the top is a modern Samaritan Passover sacrifice. I think that's a lamb on the fire.

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Based on ESV.com's Chronological Bible In a Year schedule. If anyone would like to join in, this blog's comments sections would be a good forum in which to share insights from the text.

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Numbers 28: Day, Week, and Month

The Priests were told to offer sacrifices to Yahweh every day, week, and month. The Daily Offering was one lamb in the morning and one at night, showing that we are to offer prayers and thanks to God at least every morning and every night. The Weekly (Sabbath) Offering had double the amount of lambs and shows us that we should make an even more demanding effort once a week to pray to God and thank Him. The Monthly Offering was a grand spectacle with sacrifices of bulls, lambs, one ram, and a goat - showing that every month we should make a still more strenuous effort in our prayers and thanks to God. (For those of you who are engaged, by the way, all of the marriage books that I'm reading say we should check in with our spouses every day [regular], week [bigger deal], and month [very big deal]... I guess our prayer life goes the same way, as the Jewish sacrifices suggest.)

Numbers 29: Israeli Holidays and Festivals
The Jewish holidays have some special significance: The Passover is about God 'passing over' Israel's firstborn sons during the killing of the firstborn in Egypt; for Christians, Jesus is our Passover Lamb and God 'passes over' our sins because of His sacrifice. Pentecost was a day to thank God for providing that year; for Christians, it is the day when God provided the gifts of the Holy Spirit to His Church. Trumpet Day was the beginning of 10 days of repentance before The Day of Atonement when the High Priest would enter the Most Holy Place of the Temple to make a sacrifice for Israel's collective sins. The Feast of Tents was about remembering how God made Israel stay in tents during 40 years in the desert - also a good reminder that we are wanderers on the earth, and a good chance to remember that for 30+ years Jesus wandered the earth right along side us.

Numbers 30: When Women Make Vows
Men have to keep their rash oaths, but women get to have a way out - their father (for a minor) or husband (for a mature woman) could overrule their oaths. Widows, with no strong male figure in their lives, did not have that kind of protection. This points to God's relationship with us in the same sense that marriage and parenting always points to our relationship with God.

Other comments and observations can be found in the comments section! Join in!

Crunching Numbers, Making Plans (Num. 26-27)

SEAN - From the new census, to property laws, even to new leaders, Israel became prepared for a new life in the Promised Land. This post is about preparation. At this point everything was a generation removed from the Exodus: Moses and Aaron gave way to Joshua and Eleazar, the census revealed a brand new army of soldiers, and children were claiming their fathers' land. This was Israel getting ready to storm Canaan.

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Based on ESV.com's Chronological Bible In a Year schedule. If anyone would like to join in, this blog's comments sections would be a good forum in which to share insights from the text.

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What Comes After Your Goals?
So you know where you want to live, what you want to do for work, and you've got a decent Five Year Plan outlining how to get there. Awesome. What comes after that? You see, when Israel was about to enter the Promised Land (Numbers 27.12), they had to think further ahead than just 'win the Battle of Jericho.' Israel had to figure out how many people they had to work with (Numbers 26), who was going to be their leader (Numbers 27.18-21) and who would be able to own property (Numbers 27.7-11). You know what, maybe you're not even in the five year planning stage; that's okay, just as long as you work on getting a five year plan. When you do get one, take some time to figure out what you'll do with all of your accomplished goals.

Some Good Things to Plan For:

Leadership - who are you going to be accountable to? Ancient Israel had civil leaders (Joshua) and spiritual leaders (Eleazar), and so do we. Civil Government: Do you want to submit to the leadership of your town, province, or country? Can't do it? Go somewhere else. Spiritual Authority: What church are you going to attend? Running your own? Who is your coach going to be? This was the concern of Numbers 27.18-21.

Property - Are you going to rent or purchase a home? When you pass away, who is going to get your house? You've got the options of handing it off to one of your kids, getting tenants and doing a sort of rent-to-own deal, just a lot of different options like that. This was the concern of Numbers 27.7-11.

People - From reading the census, this came out as a major concern: what about the people factor? For us, this could be everything from figuring out how many friendships you can manage while doing all your other responsibilities, to whether you want to live in a big city (lots of people) or a little city (not as many people), to how many children you are planning on. The concerns of Ancient Israel were a little bit different, but the People Factor was still a concern in Numbers 26.

I think that, as I'm just about to get married, these are the types of things that I'm starting to think about. I'll be honest here: I have just barely gotten working on some of these things. I'm learning more than anyone else just by writing this (I literally backed up after I wrote 'figure out what to do after you've accomplished your goals,' I thought yeah Sean, you should do that). Anyhow, feedback is always welcome.

Other comments and observations can be found in the comments section! Join in!

Balaam Eats His Own Words (Num 22-25)

SEAN - Yahweh (God) tends to speak to us through other people - but how can we tell who the fakes are? From a passage (usually) used to defend false prophets. Balaam and his donkey are often cited as examples of God speaking through Pagans and dumb animals, but God does neither one in these chapters. Satan uses bogus prophets to confuse God's most naive followers.

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Based on ESV.com's Chronological Bible In a Year schedule. If anyone would like to join in, this blog's comments sections would be a good forum in which to share insights from the text.
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God Doesn't Speak: Through Pagans or Donkeys
God doesn't speak through people who don't believe in Him or people who misrepresent Him. If He did, He would be giving credibility to other religious traditions and to frauds. That would be horrible. Anyway, the tests for a prophet include never getting a prophecy wrong (Deuteronomy 18.22) - so you know that crazy guy on your street who yells that the world is ending tomorrow? When you wake up tomorrow, you've got nothing to fear from him anymore. He's a fake. Some confused Christians from certain traditions think that God speaks through non-believers and fakes because He spoke through Balaam and his donkey, but that's not what happened. (A) The donkey spoke for itself, not for God; (B) Balaam calls Yahweh 'my God' in Numbers 22.18, so he isn't entirely a Pagan.

Testing A Prophet: Successful Predictions
Since Balaam was actually one of Yahweh's followers, and one of His prophets, he was able to make some successful predictions about the future: the whole Old Testament history was spoken by Balaam before the people had even reached the Promised Land (Numbers 24.17-24), from the rise of David to the invasion of Greek forces during the brief period before Jesus' life (after the last book of the Old Testament was written). For emphasis: one of the tests of a true prophet is successful predictions of the future. The Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Muslims can't honestly lay claim to having fulfilled that requirement.

False Prophet: The Prophet Can Fall Away After
So if Balaam was such a great prophet of God, then why does a quick Bible Search turn up so many nasty references to him from Joshua, Peter, Jude, and John? The answer is that he was responsible for The Sin of Peor in Numbers 25. He got greedy, and his salvation wasn't of a really lasting quality, so he advised the Midianites to get Israel to worship their gods - if you can't beat 'em, have 'em join you (Numbers 31.16). The false prophet works for a following, recognition, and money. That's the sort of prophet that Balaam became. Note: You can go from being a 'real prophet' to a 'false prophet,' but you can't go back again. Satan uses false prophets/teachers to harm the Church from within. If you come to church, and they do words of prophesy there, try to test out whether they've got the real thing. If they do then have them pray over you.

Other comments and observations can be found in the comments section! Join in!

Jesus Is the Bronze Snake (Num. 21)

SEAN - Surrounded by snakes and about to die, Israel was given a chance to be saved: look at the bronze snake and live, or perish. For us, Jesus is the snake. God sent His Son that we might believe in Him, and not perish but have eternal life. That's the John 3.16 Gospel right there.

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Based on ESV.com's Chronological Bible In a Year schedule. If anyone would like to join in, this blog's comments sections would be a good forum in which to share insights from the text.

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First Comes Guilt: Our God Is A Consuming Fire

A lot of non-Christians don't like it, and a lot of Christians are too scared to offend by admitting it, but God hates those who sin (Psalms 5.5) and lots of people are really going to Hell (Matthew 25.41). Not only did Israel deserve to get slaughtered by a crap-load of snakes in Numbers 21.5-7, but you and I deserve to go to Hell. I mean it. We slap God in the face every day when we turn our backs on Him, and there is nothing saying that He has to be kind about it.

Then Comes the Fire: Snake Bites, Darkness, and Torment
The Israeli tribes were attacked by poisonous snakes in today's reading (Numbers 21.5-9), which were sent by God to punish His people for speaking against Him. But that was just a death sentence. After death, in Hell, the punishments are much worse. Some of the pictures are there in the Bible to give us an idea: it is like burning alive forever (Matthew 25.41), being trapped in darkness (Matthew 8.12) and fed on by maggots (Isaiah 6.24), so that you want to commit suicide but you can't because you're already dead (Revelation 9.6). It has been written, it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10.31). While some Christians say that Hell is a place where God isn't present, the Bible says the damned will be 'tortured in the presence of The Lamb [Jesus], and the smoke of their torment will go up forever and ever' (Revelation 14.9-11). This isn't a Saw-like fascination with torture here; I'm trying really hard to make sure that you -whether you're a stubborn unbeliever or a cowardly Christian- know what's at stake here. This isn't so much the strong approach as it is the honest approach.

Then Comes Grace: Jesus Is the Bronze Snake
Numbers 21 does not end with people being slaughtered by snakes, and our story doesn't have to end with us going to Hell. In Numbers 21.8-9 God made a way out: Moses made a bronze snake and had it lifted up, and anyone could live if they just looked at it. For those of us who are in danger of going to Hell, or those of you who are Christians and need a reminder of how your friends can be saved, God did this: he sent His Son [Jesus] so that anyone who believes in Him might not perish [got to Hell] but have eternal life [go to Heaven] (John 3.16). The way out is just as easy as it was in the Old Testament - for Israel it was 'look at this snake and believe,' and for us it is 'look to Jesus and believe.' You would be crazy not to take that offer.

Other comments and observations can be found in the comments section! Join in.

Aftermath of Korah's Rebellion (Num. 18-20)

SEAN - After Korah's rebellion was squashed by Yahweh (God), it was time to re-emphasize the role of priests. Also, frustration ended up bringing Moses down. For those just tuning in, Korah was a Levite man (temple worker) who wanted to be a priest, but Yahweh had said that only Aaron's sons could be priests. Korah demanded to be made a priest, and had all of Israel's popular support, so God opened a giant hole in the earth under Korah's tent, which killed him. The end. God chooses to give certain roles to some and not to others, and ignoring those boundaries was/is apparently dangerous for one's health.

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Based on ESV.com's Chronological Bible In a Year schedule. If anyone would like to join in, this blog's comments sections would be a good forum in which to share insights from the text.

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What Priests Really Do In the Tent of Meeting
You know what a priest really did in the tent of meeting? Everything. If a normal Levite even tried to get in, he died (Numbers 18.3). The Levites could collect a tithe and guard the tent of meeting (Numbers 18.21-22) but they could not get into the tent of meeting.* After Korah (a Levite) started a rebellion against Moses and Aaron (a Priest), these ground rules had to be laid down again for emphasis. So the real point is knowing your place. I think the whole debate of "can regular Levites be Priests?" is kind of like today's "can women be pastors?" argument. There is nothing that makes Aaron's sons better than other Levites, and nothing that makes men better than women. But God has laid down His wishes (1 Timothy 2.11-13) and anything else is just falling into the same sin as Korah.

Follow Something Explosive With Something Routine
Moving on from the explosive and (potentially) offensive words about Levites -and women- in Numbers 18, we get back into the regular business of temple work. It's almost like this is the "and now that we have established the ground rules and offended everybody, let's get on to business" part of today's reading. The kind of thing that this chapter covers is the most routine and regular part of temple work imaginable: purification from uncleanliness. Special Note: one of the sacrifices is a red cow. These aren't terribly common, but The Temple Institute has found one in Israel after much searching, and they're ready to tear down the Dome of the Rock and start rebuilding the Temple. The red cow was supposed to be sacrificed outside of the city, just like Jesus was when He got crucified for our sins.

Even the Humble Man Has Limits
Korah's rebellion was the biggest that Moses faced between the Exodus of 1441 BC and his death 40 years later, but it wasn't the only one. It seems like the first Israelites only stopped complaining long enough to eat, sleep, or have sex with pagan women (see Numbers 25 - it's coming). Understandably, Moses broke as recorded in Numbers 20.10 and yelled at Israel and called them names before smashing rocks with his staff to make water come out. For that sin, God took away Moses' chance to lead Israel into the Holy Land - for smashing the rock instead of speaking to it, revealing a lack of faith that God would come through and show Himself as holy before Israel (Numbers 20.12-13). This seems to be a recurring pattern: lack of faith kept Moses from the promised land, just like lack of faith keeps us from heaven. Faith is really the deciding factor.

Other comments and observations can be found in the comments section! Join in!

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*the whole tabernacle is called a tent, but the Levites only serve in the courts, not the Tent of Meeting itself. That should sort out any confusion for those of you who clicked the link.

You, Me, Censers At Dawn (Num. 16-17)

SEAN - We're looking at Korah's rebellion. All men are created equal, but God only chooses some men to lead - and those men (like Moses) take a 'kicking. Wow. Moses stops God from torching the rebellious Israeli camp in a few situations where I would have just said "That sounds like a brilliant idea. Could you do it slowly, please?" Instead Moses asks his critics to step up, prays for his people, gives it to God, and documents the victory.

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Based on ESV.com's Chronological Bible In a Year schedule. If anyone would like to join in, this blog's comments sections would be a good forum in which to share insights from the text.

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Misdirected Criticism of Your Evil, Long-Lost Twin
Most times criticism doesn't make sense. Moses was accused of pride, incompetence, intolerance, and even murder - none of which was even a bit true and most of which went against basic known facts. How could Moses be accused of arrogance when he let Aaron have most of the public duties? Why was Moses called a murderer when it was totally God who opened up a hole in the earth to swallow Korah and his buddies? My one real brush with opposition bears this out: while leading a Bible study, someone said I wasn't "a servant leader" even though I was doing weekly 32 hour stretches without sleep (between overnight shifts) to be there for the young adults in that group every weekend. I was also criticized for kicking a pedophile out of the group - by his victims! All of that was just absolutely insane, and I could share more. The point is that a lot of the time the criticism leaders get is unreal and undeserved.

The Kinds of People Who Lead These Rebellions
As much as you might like, not all people who oppose you are going to be slick, grease covered pedophile losers. (1) Some of them are going to be likeable men or women with good families and great marriages. Numbers 16.27 tells us that just before the earth opened to swallow them, a couple of the leaders of this rebellion came out of their tents and stood together with their "wives, sons, and little ones". So we have maybe some self righteous ringleaders who let their good image go to their heads. I find that the super-confident guys and the depressed guy with weak self-esteem are just as likely to start something: one does it in order to feel good about himself; the other does it because he feels good about himself. (2) Some of these guys are acting from conviction -like Korah, who in Numbers 16.18-19 was willing to show up with censer in hand and put his incense where his mouth was- and some are just oppose-for-the-sake-of-opposing types like Dathan and Abiram who wouldn't even show up to back up their words (Numbers 16.12).

The Good Leader Seeks Revival, Not a Barbecue
Even when God offered over and over to barbecue Israel on the hot flame of divine indignation and spare Moses, the old Law Giver did not let himself take advantage of the offer. He did not want to see this difficult, whining, rebellious, and God-dishonoring group of Israeli wanderers come to an end -which brings us to point #3: the good leader prays for his people, not against them. As a confession, I often prayed against people who were making things difficult for me in the Bible Study that I just mentioned. I must have memorized Psalm 109 or something. You would be surprised how easy it is for you to give up hope for somebody and just start praying that God would take them out. But Moses is a real example here. He was given this option twice in one day (and how horrible do you have to be to have God consider wiping you out twice before supper time?), and instead he chose to plead on behalf of his people. That's a hero.

Let God Do His Job (Yahweh Will Judge)
Moses repeatedly lets God defend his ministry - he and Aaron never took a defensive stance, but they did ask God to make Himself known. When it came to the censers, the appearance of the glory of the LORD, and the budding of Aaron's rod, that was all God. At no point in these two chapters does Moses start arguing with his critics. That would have only fed the controversy. So, if we take Moses' lead, we can step into that tradition and do what Moses did. By the way, when God vindicates you, document the whole thing. From the covering that Moses made out of the censers, to the visual reminder of Aaron's budded rod, we have examples of Moses and Aaron documenting the controversy and God's judgment in order to remind future critics what happened the last time something like this went down. Picture the scene with me - Moses standing in front of the next Korah wannabe and pointing to this bronze object made from melted censers: "before you start getting everybody riled up... well, would you like to know where these bronze censers came from??"

Other comments and observations can be found in the comments section! Join in!