14– Moses and the New Nation of Israel
Numbers 9 With the tabernacle now constructed, and the priests ready to serve at its altars, the Israelites are about to begin a new phase in the history of their young nation. They are going to begin functioning as a nation under covenant relationship, with virtually every daily action influenced, if not directly prescribed, by law. During the next four decades God will give laws regulating diet and hygiene; laws of dedication and religious symbolism; civil laws and laws affecting political leaders, the army, and the court system; criminal laws and offenses against religion, society, and morality; and various family and estate laws. To start everything off, the Lord told Moses to celebrate the first Passover since leaving
Numbers 1 God ordered a census of all the fighting men - guess why this book is called “Numbers!” (Not to be confused with one of my favourite TV shows, Numb3rs, about how a genius professor uses math to help his brother solve FBI cases... I’ll save that for another day...) The Levites were the only tribe not to counted at this time, since they were responsible for the Tabernacle and worship.
Numbers 2 As if to illustrate how the Lord and worshiping him were to be the center of their world, God put the Levites at the center of the camp. No matter where the Israelites moved, the Levites and the Tabernacle were to be at the center. This is a good reminder for us in the 21st century. We may not be nomadic people in the same way as the Hebrews, but many of us move between houses, jobs, cities and even countries fairly often. Do we stop and think, when I am ordering my life, is God at the center? What decisions do I need to make to ensure that the Lord and worshiping him are truly the focal point from which I make the rest of my decisions?
Numbers 3 The Levites were then counted, and the seriousness of not approaching the tabernacle was reiterated - only those with the God-given responsibility were allowed. God wanted his people to understand holiness.
Numbers 4 The three individual tribes of the Levites were given different duties. The Kohathites were given the specific job of caring for the tabernacle articles, moving the ark of God, etc. In fact, it was a breech of these strict rules that led to the death of Uzzah years later when David was moving the ark. David acknowledged in I Chronicles 15 that it was because he didn’t have the ark moved in the proscribed way that Uzzah died, and he subsequently asked the Levites to do it!! Hopefully this will help us see the importance of each of our roles in God’s church. None of us in expendable. We all need each other. Let’s work together to move God’s people today! (Ok, it sounds a bit pep - talkish... but it’s true!) (Next entry on Feb 7th)
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ENTRY FIFTEEN – FEBRUARY 7,2008
15– Moses Dealing with Criticism Part 1: Some Quail, a Queen and Quitters Numbers 10-14
This entry covers two days of reading and covers topics such as GOD’S GUIDANCE, BEING CONTENT, LEARNING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SPEAKING UP TO AND SPEAKING BADLY ABOUT LEADERS, DEALING WITH DISSENSION, HAVING AN “OF COURSE” FAITH, AND LEADERS STAYING RIGHTEOUS.
Numbers 10 The silver trumpets were ordered. These were different from the ram’s horns, called the Shofar, which were used later by Joshua. But no matter what the trumpets were made of, I know that when God called for a meeting of his people, it was important!
Numbers 9 Moses was wise to ask Hobab, the seasoned local guide, to stay with them. This is another example of using each others’ talents to help the church. However, even though they had Hobab to lead them, the people still needed God’s guidance. Whether it was the cloud by day or fire by night, when God’s presence moved, the people moved. This is a great study of dependence on our heavenly Father. All the worldly wisdom on earth is no substitute for following God! Reminds me of the bumper sticker that says, “God is my co-pilot”.
Num 11 QUAIL - It is here that we see the beginning of dissension. The people had complained against God and Moses before, but somehow this time must have been worse, cause Moses took it very hard. The people were moaning about their hardships, and about only eating manna. They forgot how hard their lives had been during slavery, and only remembered the positive aspects of life in
Oh well, lesson one on dealing with criticism: don’t get into self-pity, don’t doubt God, and do get help from others! (No martyr complexes, please!)
Numbers 12 QUEEN - Now Miriam wasn’t exactly trying to be the queen, but it may have irked her that she was the one who originally risked her life to save baby Moses years earlier, and now her brothers were getting all the credit! IT IS EASY TO SIN WHEN WE FEEL UNAPPRECIATED!! I can totally imagine Miriam feeling that her opinion should be taken seriously as well, and how easy it would have been to want to win Aaron over to her side. Maybe she just didn’t like Moses’ new wife! But she was still in sin. She grumbled against Moses' leadership. Aaron did as well, but somehow it must not have been as bad as hers, cause only Miriam was punished (at least as far as we are told.) This is a great warning for all of us who are tempted to speak out negatively against our leaders. NOTE - speaking up TO leaders is different. If you need to put Matthew 18 into practice, please do so, and don't use the passage about Miriam to justify procrastinating.
So, lesson two on dealing with criticism: don’t pray for the people criticizing you to be struck with leprosy (even though it can be tempting), do deal with the criticism directly and with the help of others (since we are rarely objective about the people who are attacking us!) In Moses’ case, he had God helping him, but we don’t have the luxury to have God intervening IN PERSON, so we must go to those whom God has put in our lives for help.
NUMBERS 13 QUITTERS - In the beginning of the Spying out the Land episode, we see Moses with faith and the Israelites with none! In Moses' mind, OF COURSE God would do what he promised. OF COURSE we should attack in
Do you have an “OF COURSE” faith? Or are you like the Hebrews - “we see the benefits of entering
NUMBERS 14 Again, there are complaints about returning to
Numbers 14:1-4 “That night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, "If only we had died in
Of course, it was a big mistake (back in verse 3) for the Israelites to use their children as an excuse for not putting God first (ahem, ahem):
Numbers 14:31-32 As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, Iwill bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. Bu t you-your bodies will fall in this desert.
Back in the early section of the chapter, Joshua and Caleb were scared - not for their lives, but for the people, because of their rebellion and unbelief. And o nce again, God spoke of destroying all the people and starting over from Moses. Tempting - but no one is perfect. No wonder God had Paul write this a few thousand years later: As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." (Romans 3:10) Rebellion, even from fear, is still a sin, because it is refusal to obey God. Moses' heart is so big. He forgives but he also knows how to rebuke. And he had to suffer the consequences of his people's sins - he landed 40 years in the desert because of their unbelief!!
Sadly, the leaders were removed permanently. Numbers 14:36 So the men Moses had sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble against him by spreading a bad report about it-3 7 these men responsible for spreading the bad report about the land were struck down and died of a plague before the LORD.
There are two insights for me here. First, when leaders don’t repent, God will remove them. Leaders must be righteous, and when they are not, they must at least be transparent. Part of being righteous means having faith and trusting God. When we as leaders no longer trust God, it is time for us to get out of the way. O God, help me to be a faithful, righteous, and transparent leader of your people, and to find new young people to care for the flock. Secondly, when people try to stop God’s church, God will also remove them. I have heard some say that this episode was the Old Testament equivalent of an “Open Forum”. I have seen many wonderful changes in our ICOC, but I haven’t heard anyone say that they felt the Open Forums were done in a Christ-like manner. Maybe there were some. I don’t know. But I haven’t heard of any. We know how the open forum in Numbers 14 ended – badly! Let’s make sure that we learn the lessons we need to learn from this sad section of Scripture! Amen. (Next entry Feb 9th)
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ENTRY SIXTEEN – FEBRUARY 9,2008
16– Moses Dealing with Criticism Part II- Korah's Rebellion (also known as, “A Dissection of a Rebellion ”) Numbers16 -20
When our fellowship of churches went through an upheaval early on in the 21st century, it became clear that, amidst our many strengths, one of our glaring weaknesses was that we, as a collective body and also as individuals, had very little idea on how to deal with conflict and differences. Because of the book of Numbers’ emphasis on dealing with conflict, I decided to devote two entries in a row to that topic, and I am examining Numbers 16-20 with a fine tooth comb, in one day’s worth of bible reading (if you are following my “read the bible through in a year” scheme.)
Numbers 16
Rebellion against (notice that I didn’t say “disagreeing with”) leadership is sinful. Yes, I know that I am on the staff so it's easy for me to say, but forget about that for now
NOW FOR THE DISSECTION:
The bible says that Korah and Co became “insolent ”, which Merriam-Webster defines as, “insultingly contemptuous in speech or conduct, overbearing. Also, exhibiting boldness or effrontery. Synonyms: impudent and proud.” While it is true that some leaders would use the “Proud” card in the past when they didn't know what to do or how to answer someone (or when someone had an original thought), it doesn't follow that now we should never identify someone as being “proud”. Korah was insolent/proud, and God wasn't ashamed to label him as such.
First let's examine the facts:
- Moses did not choose to be the leader - God choose him. He tried to argue his way out of it (remember entry six). (In our current set-up, no one has the “power” to set anyone up as a leader – they have to be chosen by a local leadership group, right?)
- Moses had worked so hard leading that it hurt his family life and his father-in-law had to correct him. (Exodus 18)
- God had wanted to destroy the Israelites several times, and start over with Moses, but Moses had lovingly intervened.
- The same leaders who were siding with Korah were leaders back when no one wanted to go into
- Those men were Levites and had already been chosen to serve in the Tabernacle - they were already leading in some capacity, they just weren't satisfied.
Korah's EMOTIONAL appeal - v3 “The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the LORD's assembly?"
Notice what tricks he is using:
- “The LORD is with them.” - Who said the LORD wasn't with them???
- “Why then do you set yourselves above the LORD's assembly?" - Did Moses set himself above anybody? NOOOOOO!!
- “The whole community is holy, every one of them.” - There is a difference between being loved by God, holy by virtue of God allowing the blood sacrifices to cleanse one's sins and being handpicked by God to be the leader!!
These are common tactics of disgruntled, rebellious, insolent, bad-mouthing troublemakers:
- they bring up a non-issue and make it seem like the leaders had been against it.
- they blame leaders for things that were ok unless it is “spun” in a distrustful way.
- they try to come across as an advocate for the little man, the voice of the people, and standing up for the weak.
However, the bottom line issue is that these people can't stand it when someone else is over them. They don't like to “not be first!!” There have always been people like this and there always will be.
In the New Testament, we see an example of this in 3 John v9 where John wrote, “I wrote to the church but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us.”
One has only to study the scriptures on unity, plus on dissensions and factions, etc, to see the problems involved. No leader is perfect, but tearing him down is not usually helpful!! I have very strong feelings about this having seen how the ICOC was torn apart over the past few years, and some of the damage was done because of this exact kind of behaviour!! Many wonderful things came out of the changes, but some of the churches I have visited over the past few years were absolutely left desolate, with many hurting people, many who may never know God again...very sad. In the past, when I was struggling at times under leaders who I thought were not exactly “righteous”, I would read the book A Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards. Keeping the focus off of the leader and on God is sometimes the only way to keep our sanity and spirituality. Let's keep reading....
Numbers 16:15-19 Then Moses became very angry and said to the LORD, "Do not accept their offering. I have not taken so much as a donkey from them, nor have I wronged any of them." Moses said to Korah, "You and all your followers are to appear before the LORD tomorrow-you and they and Aaron. Each man is to take his censer and put incense in it-250 censers in all-and present it before the LORD. You and Aaron are to present your censers also." So each man took his censer, put fire and incense in it, and stood with Moses and Aaron at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. When Korah had gathered all his followers in opposition to them at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the glory of the LORD appeared to the entire assembly.
Wow! Moses was humble enough to let God settle it for him. He didn't draw his own sword. When you have lived righteously as a leader, you can be confident in your leadership, but you can never claim innocence. (See Paul’s attitude in I Corinthians 4... just because he thought he had a clear conscience didn’t mean he was innocent.)
Numbers 16:20-22 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Separate yourselves from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once." But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and cried out, "O God, God of the spirits of all mankind, will you be angry with the entire assembly when only one man sins?"
Here is yet another example of Moses pleading for the lives of the very people who are against him. He is so humble and compassionate and gracious. Lord, help me to be even HALF the leader that Moses was.
In verses 23-30, Moses made a prediction about how those about to face God’s wrath would die, thinking that this would help the Israelites see who was following God. We cannot make this kind of prediction today, but we can “prophecy” that people who sow discord and divide churches and leaders will end up having a big mess to deal with on their own at a later time! That has been proven by history.
Numbers 16:31-35 As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households and all Korah 's men and all their possessions. They went down alive into the grave, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. At their cries, all the Israelites around them fled, shouting, "The earth is going to swallow us too!" And fire came out from the LORD and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.
HOW SAD that people who had started out as leaders ended up dying a horrible death and even bringing death on their families because of their pride! No wonder Solomon later wrote in Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” In 36-40, we see that God commanded Moses to build a monument of gold just to remind everyone not to repeat this mistake - an everlasting reminder not to be divisive!!!
You may be asking, “What is the solution if you disagree with your leader, think he is in sin, or have an issue with him? Practice Matthew 18!!! Matthew 18:15-17 "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.” And, if you still don't feel satisfied (as in, if you think the process got stuck in the second step), then keep bringing things up to the right people in a respectful way. But don't sin yourself!!
Numbers 16:41-50 The next day the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. "You have killed the LORD's people," they said. But when the assembly gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron and turned toward the Tent of Meeting, suddenly the cloud covered it and the glory of the LORD appeared. Then Moses and Aaron went to the front of the Tent of Meeting, and the LORD said to Moses, "Get away from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once." And they fell facedown. Then Moses said to Aaron, "Take your censer and put incense in it, along with fire from the altar, and hurry to the assembly to make atonement for them. Wrath has come out from the LORD; the plague has started." So Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly. The plague had already started among the people, but Aaron offered the incense and made atonement for them. He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped. But 14,700 people died from the plague, in addition to those who had died because of Korah. Then Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, for the plague had stopped.
When I read the section above, I cried, because I couldn't believe that the people could be so hard hearted that they could still grumble against Moses after Korah and his co-conspirators were swallowed up! I am scared that my heart or the hearts of people I love may get hard like this. No wonder we are admonished in the scriptures to guard our hearts! (Hebrews 3:12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness! And Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.)
Numbers 17:1-10 God says that the budding staff kept for the future will “put an end to their grumbling against me”. This signals to me that when we grumble against leaders, we are grumbling against God. Now, it is not exactly the same today, because leaders aren’t necessarily “hand-picked” by God. We (since I am on staff, I will include myself) might be frauds, doing the ministry for some weird motive. Over the past 26 years of my life as a Christian, I can sadly say that I have seen many liars and rip-off artists in the ministry, both from our church and from other denominations. What I have also seen, however, is our very powerful God taking people out when they had no business being there. Sometimes he took longer than I wanted him to, sometimes it was after many had spoken up and sometimes it was when no one even knew that there was a problem, but God is no fool - you cannot claim to live and work for him and be a fake and hope to get away with it for long - God will out!! !!! (And sometimes a perfectly good leader needs to step aside for new blood, which is different than sinning your way out. I will discuss this later when Moses hands over the baton to Joshua.) How do I know that someone isn’t hoping that I am one of the ones God wants to remove? I don’t! That’s why it is so important for leaders to get input and have people around them who will tell them the truth. Hopefully that is happening in my life... (I think it is – ok, friends, you know who you are – are you telling me the truth?)
Num 18 When reading the passage below, I couldn't help but think - God has very specific ways that he wants to be worshipped. We are not to be cavalier or flippant in our attitude toward him. I also felt that he really made sure that the Levites and priests were cared for very well.
Unfortunately, in the next passage we read about even MORE GRUMBLING !!!
Numbers 20:2-5 Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. They quarreled with Moses and said, "If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the LORD! Why did you bring the LORD's community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here? Why did you bring us up out of
Notice that there is this common theme about going back to
Numbers 20:6-10 Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the LORD appeared to them. The LORD said to Moses, "Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink." So Moses took the staff from the LORD's presence, just as he commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, "Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?"
Moses had been so patient with these people for Years! But he was finally fed up!!
Numbers 20:11-13 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them." These were the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarreled with the LORD and where he showed himself holy among them.
The challenge of leadership is that, even when the people are in sin, you are not supposed to sin as well... .a hard lesson to learn and Moses had gone beyond the call of duty for years, considering what he had been up against. But another one of my mom’s standards is, “Two wrongs don't make a right.” I think it is almost impossible to not feel sorry for Moses, but I think that God had to teach Joshua that you are not to sin next time, no matter what, and he didn't want Joshua to use Moses' sin as an excuse. That's just my opinion, by the way!
The argument can also be made that when God gives specific direction, it is for a reason. The first time that God told Moses to get water from a rock, back in chapter he told him to hit the rock. This time God said, “Speak to it.” So, one more example of how we should pay attention to God's word! (More to come Feb 10.)
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ENTRY SEVENTEEN – FEBRUARY 10, 2008
17– Moses and The Nation of Israel
This entry covers one day’s reading and contains topics such as PATIENCE WITH GOD’S TIMING, GRATITUDE, not GRUMBLING (in case you didn’t get it from the previous two entries), and LOOKING FORWARD TO JESUS.
Num 21 The people were wandering in the desert because of their sin, and yet they still became impatient. Sometimes we get impatient during God's detours...have you ever done that? I find that one of the reasons I have trouble sticking to a diet is that, now that I am older, it takes so long to see results. (I realize that this is a pathetic excuse). Then I think, what's the use... .and give in to my sinful nature. Hopefully this year I will not do that!! Please pray for me!!
Anyway, when the Israelites got impatient, they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of
Numbers 21:8-9 The LORD said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.
Why on earth did God want them to look at a bronze snake? We can ask him that in heaven!!! But look at the way that Jesus took this famous story from the Old Testament and used it to make a spiritual point.
John 3:14-21 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
I’ll repeat what I have heard in various sermons over the years: the Israelites were saved by God's grace – it was grace that God let them live when they deserved to die. However, they still had to LOOK at the snake or else they couldn't reach the grace. In the same way, we are saved by grace through faith in the blood of Christ. But we have to get in touch with that grace, in our case, we have faith that we will reach the blood of Christ which takes away our sin by faith at the point that we repent and get baptized.
At the end of Numbers 21, there is a victory ballad that celebrates the battles with Og and Sihon. These battles were a big deal cause these were their first few victories! The people were exhilarated. King David would still be celebrating these victories hundreds of years later when he penned Psalm 135 and 136.
Num 33 is interesting because it shows that Moses kept a journal of
