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Monday 28 February 2011

Day 59: Healing for sickness

Things are at a low ebb for the Israelites. Can you imagine coming all this way to a new land, only to find that it’s peopled with your worst fears, and you daren’t go in there? What do you do? Where do you go?

From Mount Hor around Edom
Deuteronomy 21:1-12, Numbers 21:4, 33:41-2
The bronze snake
Numbers 21:5-9
To Oboth and Iye Abarim
Numbers 21:10-11, 33:43-44
Northward through Moab
Numbers 21: 12-20, Deuteronomy 2:13-18, Numbers 33:45
Victory over Amorites in Gilead (over Sihon)
Numbers 33:46-7, 21:21-32, Deuteronomy 2:19-37
In Bashan (over Og)
Deuteronomy 3:1-11, Numbers 21:33-35

The years are getting a bit vague here. Part of the story is told in Moses’ recollections at the end of his life, part in summary form as Numbers lists the placed they visited, part in a slightly more expanded way earlier in the book. There is the incident of the bronze snake - another example of the Israelites losing faith and complaining, and needing to turn to God for help. The sign of the snake, lifted up in their midst, brought them relief, and Jesus quoted this incident as he looked forward to his death: “I, when I am lifted up, will draw all people to myself.”
The wandering continues, the years pass, and at last the tide seems to be turning. Israel win some victories over Sihon and Og (immortalised in one of the Psalms, and I always smirk when I read Og’s name!) It seems that the time is nearly right to try again - most of the fighting men who had quailed before have died off, the new generation have some victories under their belt to give them confidence - perhaps the Promised Land isn’t so far away after all?

Sunday 27 February 2011

Day 58: Water from the rock

Life in the wilderness is hard.  God is uncompromising, the people are weak. This is not a picnic. I realise now I’d had a romantic idea about the wanderings of the Israelites in the wilderness. I didn’t think it was that bad, really. Actually, it must have been terrible.

Levite responsibilities
Numbers 18:25-32
Red heifer ordinance: instructions about dead
Numbers 19:1-22
Death of Miriam
Numbers 20:1
Water from Meribah
Numbers 20:2-13
Birth of Moses’ grandchildren
1 Chronicles 23:16-17
Permission to pass through Edom denied
Numbers 20:14-21
To Mount Hor
Numbers 20:22, 33:37
Death of Aaron
Numbers 20:23-28, 33:38-39, Deuteronomy 10:6-7
Mourning for Aaron
Numbers 20:29
Victory at Hormah
Numbers 33:40, 21:1-3

This is more of the same, in many ways. More instructions for the Levites, more wanderings, more complaining against Moses. But there is a sense of hopelessness in today’s readings. There is the reiterated warning that Moses and Aaron will not enter the Promised Land. There is the death of both Aaron and Miriam. There is the unkindness of the king of Edom, not allowing the people to pass through his land. The mood is bleak. There seems to be no end to this desert, and the hope of the Promised Land is receding.

Saturday 26 February 2011

Day 57: The people murmur

I’ve always thought it was a strange word this: murmuring. It’s used often in the Exodus story of the people’s complaints against Moses and God. But it sounds as though they never dare say it out loud, in case they’re heard. Perhaps it’s the history of being slaves - expressing dissent would have led swiftly to death. But today, there’s some complaints that get a little bit louder.

Korah contends for the priesthood
Numbers 16:3-11
The disobedience of Dathan and Abiram
Numbers 16:12-15
The glory of the Lord appears, and the intercession of Moses and Aaron
Numbers 16:16-22
The ground swallows up Dathan and Abiram
Numbers 16:23-34
The company of Korah consumed
Numbers 16:35-40
The people murmur and a plague is sent
Numbers 16:41-50
The budding of Aaron’s rod
Numbers 17:1-13
Levite responsibilities
Numbers 18:1-24

This is a substantial mutiny. Moses deals with it by falling face down. Earlier he was described as the most humble man (Numbers 12:3) But God responds more aggressively. Korah, Dathan and Abiram, together with their families, are swallowed up by the ground.
The belief then was that the underworld was the world of the dead, and this would have sent dread through the community. So God crushes the rebellion - without mercy?
He follows it up with a miracle to demonstrate that he has given Aaron his authority, the budding of his staff. The Israelites are cowed: ““We will die! We are lost, we are all lost! Anyone who even comes near the tabernacle of the LORD will die. Are we all going to die?”
James, who is reading along with me, has said to me how he feels that the God of the Old Testament is harsh and merciless, and reading Numbers 16, I find it hard to disagree.

Friday 25 February 2011

Day 56: Wilderness Wanderings

Now the consequences of their lack of faith became clear. Today we will see how the Israelites face up to their failure.

Generation Cursed continued
Numbers 14: 31-38, Deuteronomy 1:34-40
Defeat at Hormah
Numbers 14:39-45, Deuteronomy 1:41-45
Repentance too late
Deuteronomy 1:45-46
Earliest Psalm
Psalm 90:1-17
Instructions: offerings
Numbers 15:1-31
Separation
Numbers 15:37-41
Man stoned for working on the sabbath
Number 15:32-36
The rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram
Number 16:1-2

With bitterness the people wept. They tried to mount an attack anyway, as if to say, “We’re not cowards” But God didn’t help them, and they were soundly beaten. I turn to Psalm 90 to see if it will give an insight into how Moses was feeling. It’s a Psalm that expresses great faith and confidence in God, yet realises that our humanity struggles to live up to him. “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow.” But it’s also a prayer that God will help us beyond our limitations: “Relent, LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants.”

Thursday 24 February 2011

Day 55:Turning Back from Canaan

And so the trouble hits. Today we read about the Israelites inability to trust God. Lack of faith means lack of direction and purpose, and it could spell the end of the Promise as well.

From Hazeroth to Kadesh-Barnea
Numbers 33:18-36, 12:16, Deuteronomy 1:19-20
From Kadesh-Barnea to Jordan crossing: spies sent out
Numbers 13:1-24, Deuteronomy 1:21-24
Spies return
Numbers 13:25-33, Deuteronomy 1:25-33
Unbelief of Israel
Numbers 14:1-24
Generation cursed to die in the wilderness
Numbers 14:25-30

NOOOOoooo! When they finally reach the edge of the promised land, and send some spies in, ready to moving in and possessing the land that God had promised them, Moses must have been breathing a sigh of relief. Done it! I’ve brought these ungrateful so and so’s through the desert and now we are about to get the milk and honey.
But their nerve fails them. Once again they grumble. Once again they hark back to Egypt, and even to the wilderness, saying “We’d rather die here than be killed by these fearsome tribes.” Caleb and Joshua, the only two spies whose confidence didn’t waver, try to remind them that if God had defeated the Egyptians, then a few Canaanite tribes should prove too hard. But it’s no good. Their nerve has gone. Their faith has failed once again.
Moses must have been crushed. God pronounces a terrible sentence: they will have to wander in the desert for 40 years, and he, Moses, will not get to see the Promised Land.

Wednesday 23 February 2011

Day 54: Journeyings continue

Well, I know in advance that the Israelites don’t get into the Promised Land this easily, so I know something’s going to go wrong. But I’m not sure what. There could be trouble ahead ...

Order of the divisions
Numbers 10:14-28
Cloud leads them
Exodus 40:36-38, Numbers 9:15-23
In Paran wilderness
Numbers 10:12, 29-32
Fire at Taberah
Numbers 10:33-36, 11:1-3
Arrival at Kibroth
Numbers 33:16
Murmuring about manna
Numbers 11:4-9
Moses complains
Numbers 11:10-15
Seventy elders chosen
Numbers 11:16-25
Prophecy in the camp
Numbers 11:26-30
Plague of quails
Numbers 11:31-34
From Kibroth to Hazeroth
Numbers 11:35, 33:17
Miriam’s leprosy
Numbers 12:1-15

The problems that afflict the Israelites at first are internal divisions. Listen to the account of them all marching out by tribes, and it sounds very orderly. But if we dig beneath the surface, there is trouble. the people are fed up with eating manna, Moses is fed up with leading them. When he shares some of his authority with others, people get jealous on his behalf. Even his own family get jealous - Aaron and Miriam complain against him.
God’s reaction is surprising - he gets angry, he threatens, he punishes. Why? Surely he know this isn’t the way to encourage people. We’ve seen it in Egypt, how Hosni Mubarak threatened and cajoled people rather than listening to them. Did he get his way? Surely God knows this, surely he knows- that bully boy tactics don’t work.
I wonder if this was the only way the Israelites could imagine God behaving? Every ruler they had known had treated them harshly. The idea that God loved them, that he had rescued them out of his compassion and mercy, never really took root in their hearts.

Monday 21 February 2011

Day 53: Getting ready to move

Well, I certainly touched a nerve with yesterday's post! My stats reached a new high as I let rip and said that I wanted to, er, rip that page out of my Bible. It's going to prompt a post about coping with difficult bits of the Bible, but it'll take a day or two to write, and today is meant to be a day off, so it wont get done today.
Anyway - onwards and upwards!
A year has gone by, and no doubt the Israelites were keen to get going. There was a promise to be fulfilled, a land waiting for them, and they wanted to get on and possess it. Let’s see what happens!

Preparations for leaving Sinai: Numbering the people
Numbers 1:1-54
General arrangement of the camp
Numbers 2:1-34
Journey to resume
Numbers 33:1-6
Moses reminds the people
Deuteronomy 1:6-18
From Sinai to Kadesh-Barnea: journey starts
Numbers 10:11 & 13

Here’s the reason for the name of the book: Numbers. It’s census time, and a whole lot of statistics are gathered. Doesn’t make for exciting reading. The biggest tribe is Judah, the smallest (not counting the half-tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh) was Benjamin.
So off they go. Deuteronomy 1 warns them that there is fighting ahead - they’re heading towards the territory of the Amorites, and I doubt they’ll calmly move over ad let the Israelites in.

Day 52: The Second Passover

So the Israelites have been in the wilderness for a year! How time flies. I guess this would have felt quite a triumph. To have survived away fro home (even though home in Egypt was pretty grim). To have won some battles, got through some scrapes, had their wobbles and worries, and still be there...pretty good going. They deserve a celebration.

Requirements for animals to be sacrificed
Leviticus 22:17-33
Death penalties: blasphemy
Leviticus 24:10-16, 23
Murder
Leviticus 24:17-22
Camp laws explained
Numbers 5:1-10
Law of jealous husband
Numbers 5:11-31
Vow of Nazirites
Numbers 6:1-21
The priestly blessing
Numbers 6:22-27
God reminds Israel to keep Passover
Numbers 9:1-4
Passover held in Sinai
Numbers 9:5-14

I love Aaron’s blessing in Numbers 6. May the Lord’s face shine upon us all as we read his word this year, and give us peace.
But ....
Numbers 5. Now I’ve read something that I simply can’t agree with. The test for an unfaithful wife is to make her drink something designed to make her abort a pregnancy. If she drinks and is unharmed, then she was innocent and her husband was a jealous fool. If she was guilty of adultery, then she’ll lose her baby and be disgraced. I find this unacceptable for several reasons: it’s only the woman who has to undergo this test, not the man; it is condoning abortion, something I struggle to accept, and the whole test reminds me of the medieval tests for witchcraft. (Put her on a ducking stool: if she drowns she was innocent, if she survives she’s a witch so burn her).
I want to explain this away, not accept it, and take a pair of scissors and cut it out of the Bible.
There, I’ve said it.
As a “Bible believing Christian,” I’ve just reached the point where I don’t believe a bit of the Bible. This could be quite a landmark.

Sunday 20 February 2011

Day 51: A Time of sanctification

Here’s a key verse in the book of Leviticus: “Be holy, because I am holy.” (19:1) God is busy trying to build a nation of people who will be different from everybody else - he’s trying to make them in his image. His image has been in us all from Creation, but it’s been somewhat smudged. These people are going to be more like him - holy, like he is.

Conduct of God’s people
Leviticus 19:1-8
Laws concerning neighbours, the land, and foreigners
Leviticus 19:9-37
Punishments for disobedience
Leviticus 20:7-26
Instructions for priests
Leviticus 21:1-9
Concerning the High Priest
Leviticus 21:10-15
Physical requirements for priests
Leviticus 21:16-24
Priests and the holy things
Leviticus 22:1-16

After beginning chapter 19 with this trumpet call: “Be holy,” the rest of the chapter fleshes it out. Some of it is common sense, honest, straight dealing - don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t bear a grudge. Other stuff seems plain odd - don’t cut the hair on the sides of your heads, don’t tattoo yourself. Presumably commands like these prohibit practices that were common amongst the Canaanites. I can’t see that trimming the edges of your beard is such a sin (if it is, I’m in big trouble!) but anything that people do in imitation of other groups is likely to encourage them to imitate practices that are less innocent, such as worshipping false gods.
The standards for priests are even higher, some of them strange. I particularly struggle with the idea that only perfect physical specimens are acceptable in God’s presence. If you have a physical defect, you are barred from priestly ministry. I don’t get this at all.

Saturday 19 February 2011

Day 50: The feasts of Israel

As well as being about offerings, and health and safety, Leviticus is about celebrations. I need to remind myself that the people are still camped around mount Sinai, still listening to the instructions of God, conveyed through Moses. We’ve been here a long time. God is now planning out their festivals.

Regulations concerning marriage
Leviticus 18:1-30
Idolatry and child sacrifice forbidden
Leviticus 20:1-6, 27
The Feasts of the Lord
The Sabbath
Leviticus 23:1-3
The Passover; the Feast of Unleavened Bread; the Offering of Firstfruits
Leviticus 23:4-14
The Feast of Weeks/Pentecost
Leviticus 23:15-22
The Feast of Trumpets
Leviticus 23:23-25
The Day of Atonement
Leviticus 23:26-32
The Feat of Tabernacles
Leviticus 23:33-44

Festivals are the way you learn about other religions at school. They’re colourful and joyful, so a good way in. God didn’t just want dour obedience from his people, he wanted joy and celebration. It seems a bit odd to see it written down as a command: “rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days.” (23:40)
It’s quite a helpful way of getting a grip on Leviticus too: there are five offerings, five feasts (not counting the sabbath) as well as laws of conduct and health and hygiene.
It’s interesting also reading chapter 18, with its prohibitions on sexual immorality and child sacrifice. It uses the language of disgust, which is a very effective way of influencing behaviour. Different cultures have different behaviours that are viewed with disgust, and anyone indulging in them is ostracised. God is employing cultural pressure to enforce standards of morality which are different from those of the Canaanite nations they are to displace.

Friday 18 February 2011

Generation Web

On Tuesday night, I gave a presentation on young people and the internet at Hertford Heath School.
It was aimed at parents who may be aware that their children know more about the online world than they do, and attempted to offer some helpful hints about how to keep children safe.
I'm sure it raised as many questions as it answered, and this post is an invitation to use the comments as a way to keep the discussion going.
Briefly, while I raved about how great the internet is, I did point out four dangers that young people in particular face, not all of which are going to be at the forefront of their minds when they go online.
These are the four dangers, followed by my thoughts on how to help.
Privacy
It is possible to give away more than you should online, and to suffer the consequences. As an example, CEOP have produced a hard hitting video of the dangers of sexting.
What to do? I suggested that as parents we should:
  • Make the effort to learn about privacy settings on sites like Facebook
  • Encourage our children to use strong passwords, and different ones for each site. Change them often.
  • Restrict the personal information you give out
  • Never meet an online friend that you don't know in real life by yourself
Pornography
Porn is much more accessible now than ever. We can expect our youngsters to have found it, either accidentally or on purpose, by the time they are 11.
What to do?
Prepare your children. Explain to them from an early age that adults view porn as a "fantasy" and that real life sex isn't like that
With young children, make sure they know what to do if something comes up that they weren't expecting.
Don't let internet use becoime a secret. Find out how to check your browsing history, and check where your children have been on the internet. Play fair, show then your history too. Encourage openness.

Cyberbullying
Our children deserve a safe place where a bully can't get at them. If you allow tech in their bedrooms, then there's nowhere they can escape a cyberbully. My advice is seriously consider banning tech from bedrooms. That's what we do. It has the valuable side effect of encouraging reading - after all, who's going to want to read a book if they can play on the playstation? But, if the technology's downstairs, they'll read in bed.
We also have a no secrets policy. every once in a while, we all sit down, swap phones and read each others' texts. The aim is to create a mindset that mobiles aren't a secret place. They're open.
If your children are on Facebook, get on it yourself,. Insist that they friend you. Then you can check what's happening to them from time to time.
If you must have internet-enabled devices in your children's bedrooms (or can't face the outcry of removing them) why not have an open door policy? Find reasons to walk past their door, do the hoovering, put the socks away, whatever it takes, again so that it's not a private activity.
This isn't snooping, it's caring.

Grooming
Much of what I've said above applies here. Just keep it open. A paedophile is gong to cultivate secrecy while he is building a relationship with a child. Make your child a tough target and he'll move on somewhere else.

My final bit of advice was not to neglect building strong real life relationships. Young people will take refuge online if life is tough offline. Keep the rewards high in your family life, and their online life will be kept in balance.

The internet's great. Enjoy it.
But with your eyes open.

Thoughts, ideas, questions? Please use the comments!

Day 49: The problem of leprosy

More about leprosy today. It must have been a real scourge in a camp. If it got hold, hundreds, if not thousands could die. So God sets things up carefully to keep that particular problem at bay.

The treatment of lepers
Leviticus 13:45-46
Concerning the leprosy in garments
Leviticus 13:47-59
Declaring the leper to be clean
Leviticus 14:1-9
The sacrifices to be offered by him
Leviticus 14:10-32
Leprosy in a house
Leviticus 14:33-53
Summary of the law concerning leprosy
Leviticus 14:54-57
Laws concerning ceremonial uncleanness
Leviticus 15:1-33

There must have been great joy if someone recovered from leprosy. Perhaps they saw it as a miraculous healing, or evidence of God’s mercy. But the detailed sacrifices that are described, and indeed prescribed to be offered, must have been a real occasion of celebration. Someone who had the tinge of death about them has been welcomed back into the community. Almost a resurrection.
I remember a colleague and friend of mine whose housegroup once bravely took on studying Leviticus. She professed to enjoy it, and spoke with a gleam in her eye about mildew! Well Sue, that memory has helped me through today - so thank you. If God blessed you and your group when you studied mildew in Leviticus, he’s blessed me again today. May your house forever remain free of the defiling mould!

Thursday 17 February 2011

Day 48: Atonement for sin

On the day after I heard bad news about a young friend, I am reading about sin. This is such a hard word for our society to swallow - I’m tempted to say that we’re in denial about it. But the truth is a little more complicated, I feel. There’s a sickness in our society, that puts intolerable pressures on us, especially the young. I think I’m going to find that the Israelites were given a short way of dealing with this sickness.

The sin offering for the whole congregation
Leviticus 4:13-21
The sin offering for a ruler and for any of the people
Leviticus 22:35
Concerning the sin offering
Leviticus 6:24-30
Concerning various sins
Leviticus 5:1-13
Concerning sins against the Lord
Leviticus 5:14-19
Concerning sins against our neighbour
Leviticus 6:1-7
Concerning the guilt offering
Leviticus 7:1-10
Instructions to Aaron and his sons about offerings
Leviticus 10:8-20

Leviticus 4 makes it abundantly clear: if you sin unintentionally, you are guilty. “It’s not my fault,” is no defence. You have incurred a debt, and it must be paid off as soon as possible. Take an animal to the altar.
There is great emphasis on the holiness of the sacrifices. Aaron and his family are allowed to eat certain of them; no one else is. These transactions between the priests and God are sacred, they must be carried out precisely and carefully.
It makes me think about our banking system. Why? you are probably asking. There’s no room for error in a financial transaction When you sign a cheque, or tap your PIN into a little machine, you need to know that precisely the right amount of money is moved between precisely the right two bank accounts. There is no room for error. Similarly with the sacrifices. They are almost financial in their exactitude. Aaron and his sons have got to get it right.

Wednesday 16 February 2011

Day 47: Laws for the people

Last night's presentation went well, I think. I'll be posting about it later. But for now...
‘Elf and safety today! Laws about hygiene, diseases, food poisoning, and stuff like that. How contemporary will this sound?

Food: clean and unclean animals
Leviticus 11:1-47
Ceremonial purification: cleansing after childbirth
Leviticus 12:1-8
Directions to the priest concerning leprosy
Leviticus 13:1-17
Further directions
Leviticus 13:18-44

By and large, these laws seem sensible to me. Of course I am not an expert, but it seems to be a simple way of telling apart animals that are less likely to harbour diseases from those that it might be more dangerous to eat. As for the regulations for cleansing after childbirth, it does seem unfair that the period of uncleanness is twice as long for a girl as it is for a boy baby. Sorry God, but I can’t see what that’s all about.
The directions about leprosy and skin diseases again are simple, common sense precautions for looking after the community. They appoint the priest as the doctor, and he enforces isolation in the case of infectious diseases. It’s great that, if you get better, you are re-admitted, so if the priest got it wrong, you’re not condemned for good. And 13:14 is a relief: “A man who has lost his hair and is bald is clean.”
I remember when I was at theological college one of my fellow students had a placement with a GP surgery. He remarked that the doctor functioned like the priest of the community. At the time I wasn’t sure what he meant, but today I’ve read an example of it working the other way around. It is a good system - you need someone that you can invest trust in, who is the gatekeeper, who keeps disease outside. It’s healthy for everyone.

Tuesday 15 February 2011

Day 46: The Offerings

 Another full on day today. I'm doing a presentation tonight on my sabbatical research into young people and the internet. I was up late last night finishing it off (still not finished!) and as soon as I've finished my Bible reading I've got to crack on with final preparations.
Nothing but the best will do. I’ve experienced this as a tension in my Christian life. I sometimes call myself a musician (although I’ve got no real ability to justify the name) and when I offer music to God in church, it isn’t that great, to be honest. So should I shut up and let the experts sing? Or should everybody be allowed to bring their offering, whether it’s in tune or not? Let’s see if today’s readings shed any light...

The meal offering of flour
Leviticus 2:1-11
The offering of first fruits
Leviticus 2:12-16
Concerning the meal offering
Leviticus 6:14-23
The fellowship offering of the herd
Leviticus 3:1-5
The fellowship offering of the flock
Leviticus 3:6-17
Concerning the fellowship and wave offerings, and food prohibitions
Leviticus 7:11-36
The sin offering of ignorance for the priest
Leviticus 4:1-12

Everybody in the community is required to make an offering of grain - a loaf of bread or similar, the staple food. This isn’t something for experts only, it’s for everyone. There are other offerings that the priestly caste make on behalf of everyone, but there is something here for us all to do. I’m encouraged by this - it avoids the danger that I’m sometimes aware of - that people kind of expect professional Christians to be holy for them: “say one for me, vicar!” You go and be religious on my behalf, then I don’t have to bother.
I’m happy to be paid to have the time to pray for others, but not happy if people use that as an excuse not to have their own relationship with God.

Monday 14 February 2011

Day 45: Laws about sacrifice

I'm late posting today - I had a shock last night when I checked my diary and saw that I'd agreed to take an assembly for a colleague this morning. Snce I'd forgotten all about it, I had to sacrifice my early morning Bible reading time for some frantic assembly writing.
So, somewhat belatedly - Happy Valentine's Day, everyone.


Today we are thinking about the heart of Israelite worship. Very different from ours - it was all about killing animals. Seems weird. But then, our worship seems weird to outsiders - we’re either singing soppy songs or victorian hymns, sometimes reading Elizabethan words to each other, and all in a funny pointy building.
The Israelites were giving up their currency, their treasure, their future, every time they killed an animal. Especially while they were in the desert. This took faith, courage and real dedication.

Day of Atonement
Leviticus 16:1-34
Necessity of blood sacrifice
Leviticus 17:1-6
Offerings described
Leviticus 7:37-38
The burnt offering from the herds
Leviticus 1:1-9
The burnt offering from the flocks and the fowls
Leviticus 1:10-17
Concerning the burnt offering
Leviticus 6:8-13

“Scapegoat” is a word that we use today. And here is its origin. On the head of a goat were laid the sins of the whole community, and it was led away into the wilderness and released. Far, far away, taking the people’s sins with it. A graphic picture of atonement.
But most of the animals brought to the tabernacle were to be burnt. God obviously likes the smell of roasting meat! It was all to be done here, no crafty sacrificing an animal anywhere else, to any other gods that you might think of. And God invests great significance in the blood. It was the essence of life, in people’s thinking, and life was God’s gift in the first place - he had breathed it into his creation. So people couldn’t take it for themselves. Thy weren’t to drink it, or eat meat with the blood still in - as another reminder that life came from God, and returned back to him.

Sunday 13 February 2011

Day 44: Priestly Ministry

So now for the priests. I expect to feel ambivalent about this subject. First of all I am one, secondly I am not. I don’t want to be a priest like this - a mediator between people and their God. I want to get out of the way so people can see God. Also, I’m not a butcher. Aaron and his sons had to be. Thank God I don’t have to offer sacrifices!

Moses hears God’s voice
Numbers 7:89
Aaron’s sons’ ministry described
Numbers 3:1-3, Leviticus 7:35-36
Consecration of Aaron
Leviticus 8:1-36
Ministry of priests begins
Leviticus 9:1-24
Unauthorised fire of Nadab & Abihu
Leviticus 10:1-7, Numbers 3:4

With great care and scrupulous detail, the ordination of Aaron and his sons is described. All goes well, until at the very end of the week long process, Aaron’s two eldest sons do something out of turn, offering unauthorised fire. For this they die. Again I’m reminded of God being dangerous, and if he is not approached with care, lives will be lost. But it seems such a trivial error - there is no sense on the text that their motives were wrong, they simply made a mistake. Three little words hint at Aaron’s feelings; “Aaron remained silent.” (Leviticus 10:3) What was he thinking? I’m reminded of Judah, one of Jacob’s sons, who lost his own son and nearly lost his way. Later, Judah showed sympathy to Joseph’s plight, because he knows how a bereaved father feels.
Aaron, join the club.

Saturday 12 February 2011

Day 43: Tabernacle Completed

The title for today suggests that the instructions for the worshipping civil service are nearly finished. I hope so. People say that you can tell how important a subject is by how many column inches are devoted to it - if that’s true of the Bible, then the Israelites were very anal indeed. I don’t want to be rude about the law, I know how precious it is to Jews, but it isn’t as exciting for the casual reader as a good blood and guts story. I suppose I’m not exactly a casual reader, I’m trying to get meaning from these words. Obviously if I was descended from one of these tribes, it would be thrilling to hear my ancestral name. But I’m not, so it’s hard to connect.

Moses performs all as directed
Exodus 40:16-33
Aaron lights the lamps
Numbers 8:1-4
Cloud covers tabernacle
Exodus 40:34-35
Gifts and offerings brought at the dedication of the Tabernacle
Numbers 7:1-88

“So the tabernacle was set up on the first day of the first month in the second year” Exodus 40:17) That’s pretty quick work - assuming they’re dating their calendar from the Exodus event itself, which I seem to remember they are, then within a year, they’ve built this thing, and got the system up and running. Impressive organisation. Beats Wembley stadium.
When the Tabernacle was dedicated, the cloud of God’s presence filled it, so that Moses couldn’t go in. This symbol of God’s presence will be repeated in years to come, when the Temple is built.
Numbers 7 details (lovingly!) the offerings made by the head of each of the tribes. All carefully choreographed, they bring forward identical amounts of the finest things they possess. It’s not just the English who can do pomp and circumstance - the Israelites got there first!