Tag Archives: Numbers

Sinkholes, Fire, Plagues, and Me

In Numbers 16 and 17 the story of the people grumbling against Moses, Aaron and God continues.  Repeatedly in these stories the people complain about how they are being treated, God decides to be done with them, Moses begs for Him not to do it, and they are spared.  But several thousand of them still suffer for their disobedience.  God sends a plague to kill some, fire comes from the Tabernacle and burns up 250 priests, and the ground opens up and swallows two families.  It’s crazy stuff.

Moses keeps begging God to forgive and save the people.  He really is a foreshadowing of Jesus to come.

Here is my question for the day, though.  How are we, how am I, acting like the Hebrews?  Where am I grumbling before God, complaining about my blessings, choosing to see my past and my present through distorted lenses?  Where am I deserving death?  Yeah, I know, that’s harsh.  But true.  I don’t want to live in such a way that I am ungrateful before God, and cause Him the stress that the people of Israel caused Him. 

I look at their story, and I get disgusted with them.  I think that they are hopeless, foolish, selfish, idiots.  I want God to destroy them.  But that’s the point.  We are supposed to feel like that.  And when we do, the Spirit whispers in our ears, “Are you really all that different?”

I’m not different at all.

I have so much to be thankful for, and I’m so quick to complain to God about what I don’t have.

I’m sorry God.  I really am.

Help me, help us, to be grateful.  You deserve it.

And thanks for not opening up a huge hole in the earth and swallowing my house. 

That I am definitely grateful for.

Anchors In the Desert

In Numbers 14, we see the story of the spies returning from Canaan, and the people decide that they won’t trust God after all.  They want to call it quits and go back to their slavery.  God gets mad with their lack of faith, and wants to destroy them right then and there.  Moses prays for them, and God forgives them.  But then He says they will all die in the wilderness, and their children will inherit the land instead of them.  He curses them to wander around in the desert for 40 years until that whole generation passes away.

Here is what hit me as I was reading this.  Imagine in year 39 that you are the last one left of your generation, and all of the kids are waiting on you to die so they can get out of the desert.  Man!  That’s a lot of pressure.  It’s one thing to not be wanted, but it’s another to have a million people waiting on you to die so that they can get on with their lives!

I don’t want to be that person.  I fully realize that God hasn’t declared that type of curse on us today.  But, I don’t want to be a person who is holding back God’s plans for a group of people.  I don’t want to be a dad that holds back my kids because of my sin.  I don’t want to be a husband who holds back my wife because of my lack of faith.  I don’t want to be a friend who holds back my friends because I’m afraid to trust God.  I don’t want to be a pastor who holds back my ministry because I want to be comfortable and do things the way “they used to be”.   I don’t want to be that person.  I don’t want to be an anchor in my community, dragging along, holding us back from God’s blessing.

What in your life needs to change so that you are following close on Christ’s heals, leading the way, instead of holding everyone around you back?

Are We Going Up, or is He Coming Down?

In the Old Testament, it’s a big deal that people can’t see God’s face directly.  Over and over again, we are told story after story about how someone was allowed to talk to God, but not to see His face, or they would die.  It all was symbolic of how Holy God is, and our sin.  He is so amazing, we are not His equal, and we don’t get to look Him in the eye and talk to Him like someone we are equal to.  It makes sense.

So, I was wondering, when God tells the priests a blessing to pray over the people in Numbers 6, why did He tell them this one? 

24 “ ‘ “The Lord bless you
and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.” ’ 

If they aren’t supposed to see God’s face, how is praying that God will turn His face towards them a blessing?  It sounds like a prayer for the people to die, in a way.  

As I was wondering about this, I think it’s all about the subject of the sentence.  I know, I know, I’m pulling grammar and English out on you.  Sorry.  But think about it.  We are told not to look at the face of God, or we will die.  (Again, remember, God is spirit.  He doesn’t have a “face” the way we think of it.  It’s all a symbol.  Okay, back to our regular scheduled programming.)  But in this prayer, they call out for God to turn His face towards us.  To show grace to us.  To make us pure.  To come to our level.  It’s not that we ascend to be like God.  It’s a prayer that God will descend to be like us.


That’s crazy!  This prayer of blessing, which the priests prayed daily from that point on, was pointing to the need for God to come for us, not us getting to Him.  I LOVE it!!


So, yeah, today here is my prayer for you:


“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” 

May He come for you today.

God was Banksy before Banksy was Banksy

Today, as I read through Numbers 3,4 I had to stop and think.  It’s all about how God sets aside certain parts of the Levite tribe to be his servants in the temple.  It’s a lot of numbers (hence the name of the book), and assignments for who is supposed to carry the poles to the tent, and who is supposed to cover what piece of furniture, and how much cloth they are supposed to use. 

So, I had to stop and ask, “God, what’s in this that I need to see?”

He’s so funny.  When you ask Him that kind of stuff, He’ll answer it.  He’s so funny.

Anyway….

Here’s what I saw.  God tells Moses to set aside the tribe of Levi to serve Him.  They would be a kind of sacrifice from the nation to God.  Instead of God asking everyone for their first born son to come and serve Him, He would just have the tribe of Levi stand in for them and be a sacrifice for the whole nation. In fact, the Bible says they count how many Levites there were.  There were 22,000 even.  Then they count how many first born sons there were.  Want to guess?  22,273.  So God lets the nation pay a cash payment for the other 273. 

He asks for the Levites as this unique kind of national offering.  He doesn’t want to kill them.  He wants them to be a living sacrifice. 

Hmmm….

So God appoints people to be a living stand in for the rest of the group, as this sacrificial group serves Him, the rest of His people are declared okay and equal, and everything is good.

Do you see it too, or is it just me?

The Levites, being set aside as a substitute for every first born son, is a lead up to God giving up His Son to be a substitute for the people.  It’s the story of Jesus, thousands of years earlier.  Levites = picture of Jesus.

God is painting the picture way before anyone is even looking for it.

I love that!  I love how He works over thousands of years, even though we think in terms of minutes.  He paints huge murals across history telling His story, and leaves them there for us to look for.  One big treasure hunt.  That’s awesome.  That’s how creative He is.  That’s how awesome our God is.  That’s how much our dad loves us.

He’s so funny that way….