Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 19-21.

I want to touch on a couple things from today’s passage.  I find it interesting that when Miriam died, the passage records where she was buried, but no such record was noted for Aaron.   When Aaron was about to die, Moses, Aaron, and Aaron’s son Eleazar went up Mount Hor and left Aaron’s body there when he died.  While the place where Aaron’s body was left is as closely documented here as where Miriam’s body was buried, all of the Israelites at the time knew where Miriam’s body was, but only Moses and Eleazar knew where Aaron’s body was left.   I am convinced that God had them do it this way so that the Israelites would not make a shrine out of Aaron’s grave.  I am not sure why a similar precaution was not thought necessary for Miriam’s grave.

I also like thinking about the differences between the kings the Israelites encountered in today’s passage.  First, when the Israelites approached Edom, they requested permission to pass through Edom’s lands and the king of Edom (who is unidentified) refused them permission and mustered his army to repel them.  However the king of Edom did not attack the Israelites.  Then the king of Arad (also unidentified) attacked the Israelites and took some of them captive (probably as slaves).  The Israelites destroyed the cities and towns of Arad, but did not occupy the territory, although they would do so after the conquest under Joshua.  Finally, we have the kings, Sihon and Og.  These last two attacked the Israelites to prevent their passage through their lands.  The Israelites defeated them and settled in their lands.  I have always wondered what would have happened if Sihon and Og had reacted the same way that the king of Edom had.  The Israelites sent a request to Sihon similar to the one they sent to the king of Edom.  Rather than reply with a “No”, Sihon chose to attack the Israelites.  When Sihon was defeated and the Israelites started to move towards the land which Og controlled, Og attacked them without waiting for them to send him a message.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 16-18.

This is my third attempt at starting to write today’s blog.  Yesterday, I wrote about the danger of taking a position just because the majority of the “experts” on the subject take that position.  And then trying to silence those experts who argue against that position without listening to their arguments.  Today’s passage contains a warning about rebelling against God’s chosen leader(s).  Korah attempted to usurp Moses’ authority by claiming that all people were equal (and therefore the people should follow him instead of following Moses).  Dathan and Abiram refused to make their case against Moses before the people, arguing that Moses had no authority to demand that they do so.   In a way, this rebellion was much the same as the one I discussed yesterday.  Those in the wrong appealed to emotions and feelings, refusing to make their case with reason and logic (although in today’s case, they refused to stand before God and the people and ask God to make His will known between them and Moses).

I would like to expand on this by taking note that I often seek to see if there are natural explanations for miraculous happenings in the Bible (not that I do not believe in miracles, merely that God often chooses to use the laws of nature to display His power).  In this case, I often wonder if this rebellion started with Moses telling those involved not to camp on the area which they chose, and their rebellion initially resulting from their belief that he had no right to tell them where to camp.  Moses had spent about 40 years as a shepherd in the Sinai region and I could easily see him knowing that the ground upon which they camped only appeared to be stable, that it would collapse under the weight of their numbers and goods after a short period of time.  When Moses told them to move their camp they got angry because, being a busy man, he did not take to time to explain and show them why it was not safe to camp there.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 14-15.

In yesterday’s passage Moses sent twelve men, one from each tribe, to explore the land of Canaan.  Ten of those explorers reported that while the land was indeed rich, the people living there were too powerful for the Israelites.  Caleb and Joshua disagreed.  The people were so frightened by what the other ten explorers reported that they began planning to appoint a leader to take them back to Egypt.  When Joshua and Caleb continued to argue that God could deliver the people of the land into their hands, the people started talking about stoning the two of them.  The people of Israel listened to their experts, to the people who knew the land they were about to enter.  Over 80% of those experts agreed invading the land of Canaan would be a bad idea.  When the remaining experts tried to explain what the other experts were overlooking, the people attempted to silence them for spreading “misinformation”.  The majority of the experts told them they should be afraid, so they were afraid.  They did not listen to the arguments Joshua and Caleb made as to why they should not be afraid and evaluate whether those arguments were valid or not.  Most of the time, the advice given by the majority of those who have studied the situation will be correct, but sometimes, as in this situation, they will be disastrously wrong.  You cannot tell which it is unless you listen to the arguments the dissenters make explaining why they disagree with the majority.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 11-13.

Today’s passage recounts several occasions where trouble broke out among the people of Israel.  Before today I never noticed that the passage indicates that a part of the fault for these problems belonged to Moses.  First, some of the discontent among the people resulted from Moses failing to set up a system for the people to resolve conflicts and report their discontent.  When the people began complaining about the lack of variety in their diet, Moses recognized that he could not carry the burden alone and cried out to God for help.  God answered Moses by pouring His Spirit out on 70 leaders of the people chosen by Moses.  Then we have an incident where Miriam and Aaron complain about Moses getting all of the credit for leading the people (complaints which the passage tells us came about because Moses had married a non-Israelite).  The writer chooses this point to tell us that Moses was a very humble man.  I read this as telling us that Moses was hesitant to shut down arguments for another course of action after a decision had been reached.  Now I want to be clear, I do not think that Moses was to blame for these incidents, merely that there were things he could have done differently which may have ameliorated the discontent.  For example, Miriam and Aaron, who complained about Moses getting all of the credit for speaking with God, could have stepped up and established a team like the 70 leaders whom Moses appointed when things got to be too much for him.   For that matter, the people could have appointed a team like that to report to Moses.  So, while Moses could have done things better as a leader, those who followed him are to blame for not making up for his shortcomings (and when I say “shortcomings” I do not mean that someone else would have been better, every human being has ways in which they fall short of this sort of leadership task).

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 8-10.

I never thought about it before, but today I was struck by the mention that the gold lampstand in the Tabernacle was made of hammered gold.  Why say “hammered gold” and not just “gold”?  Later in today’s passage it describes the trumpets as being made out of hammered silver.   The writer clearly thinks it was important that his audience know that not only were these things made out of gold and silver, but that they were hammered into shape, not cast.  When I started writing this, I was not planning on saying any more about it than that.  However, as I wrote the above I started trying to determine what the significance could possibly be.  So, I did a little Internet research and discovered that hammered precious metals  are generally stronger and more durable (I am oversimplifying a little bit by phrasing it that way) than when the same metals are cast into shape.  So, the writer was telling his readers that these items were made as durable as possible for the tasks for which they were created.  So, what does that mean for us?  So, just as the lampstand and the trumpets were hammered to make them stronger in their service to God, we too will be hammered from time to time to make us stronger in our service to God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 5-6.

The procedure laid out in today’s passage to be followed if a man believes that his wife has been unfaithful, but has no evidence supporting that belief, may be problematic.  However, whether or not it is problematic depends on what one believes about God’s power to miraculously intervene in this world.  If you do not believe that God can, or will, intervene to alter natural processes, this procedure will be deeply troubling, because, in that case, some innocent women will surely suffer terribly just because their husband is an insecure jerk.  On the other hand, if you do believe that God can, and will, intervene to alter natural processes when it suits Him, this procedure is of little concern.  If you believe that, you know that the innocent women will suffer no harm, and the husbands who unjustifiably are jealous will be revealed to be the jerks that they truly are.   There is a further thing to be realized about the culture this practice was introduced into.  Without this procedure, a husband could bring harm to his wife and claim he was justified because “she was cheating on him”.  His inability to provide any evidence to that effect would not conclusively prove that she was not.  However, with this procedure established, he would have no excuse for not seeking this remedy for her unfaithfulness, the failure of this procedure to bring any harm to her would be proof that she was innocent of his suspicions.  The mere existence of this procedure would take away a husband’s excuse to bring harm to his wife for unfaithfulness since it provided a way for him to prove his suspicions.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 3-4.

Having conducted a census of all of the tribes of Israel, except the Levites, where he recorded the names of all of the men over the age of 20, Moses conducted a separate census of the males of the tribe of Levi.  However, for this census, Moses counted the males a month and older, recording their numbers according to their clan membership.  When this count was completed, Moses also counted the firstborn males of the entire people of Israel a month and older.  The Levites were dedicated to God’s service in place of the firstborn sons of the rest of Israel, whose lives had been spared when God struck down the firstborn of Egypt.  The census of the other tribes formed the basis of the Israelite army.  The census of the Levites was not conducted to identify the number of workers, since only those from thirty to fifty years of age worked in and around the Tabernacle.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 1-2.

This passage is one of the reasons which leads secular historians to dismiss the Exodus account as untrue.  They are convinced that the Sinai Peninsula could not support this many people.  In my opinion they are making two mistakes in dismissing the Exodus account on this basis.  The first mistake is that they are assuming that the Sinai Peninsula was no more capable of supporting human life several thousand years ago than it is today.  It would not be at all surprising if a marginally more fertile Sinai Peninsula had been turned into the hostile wilderness it is today by the passage through it of a large group of nomadic people with their flocks and herds.  The second mistake they are making is that they are dismissing God’s ability to provide sustenance to His people in a miraculous manner.   Some variation on the preceding thoughts goes through my head every year when I read this.  However, today I was struck by the fact, a fact I must have seen before, but never noticed, that not only did Moses conduct a census wherein he counted all of the Israelites older than 20 years old, but he also recorded their names and genealogies.  We give little thought to what a daunting accomplishment such an endeavor would be.  Of course the fact that they registered them by clans and families would have allowed for verification that each person they registered was who they said that they were, since the other members of their clan and family would know whether or not they belonged.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 34-36.

Some see great significance in the borders of Israel as laid out here by Moses, and I will not say that they are mistaken.  However, I have never been able to see it that way.  On the other hand, I find significance in the way in which Moses instructed them to divide up the land.  Moses laid out a procedure to ensure that the division was fair, and was seen by everyone as fair.  The land was to be divided up by lot (I have always assumed that they used the Urim and Thummim) by Eleazar and Joshua with a witness from the leadership of each tribe.  I am sometimes surprised how often we see examples in the Bible which demonstrate that decisions must not only be seen to be made with integrity, but must be made so that everyone can tell that they were made with integrity.  I want to reiterate.  It is just as important that people perceive that leadership makes decisions with integrity as it is that leadership make those decisions with integrity.  If people perceive that leaders made a decision with impropriety it does not matter if the leaders had actually made the decision without any impropriety.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.