Cover-to-Cover – Week 9

Josh Ritter – Change of Time

I can’t imagine the pressure that Joshua must have felt when he took the reins from Moses. Passing the baton of leadership is rarely a smooth process and in the case of Joshua and Moses, I would think that the potential for things to turn out poorly was multiplied several times over. These are the sorts of things said about Moses…

Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth. Numbers 12:3

No prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the LORD sent him to do in Egypt. Deuteronomy 34:10-11

The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Exodus 33:11

When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. Exodus 34:30

Needless to say, Moses would be a tough act to follow.  And that less than enviable privilege lands squarely on Joshua’s shoulders.  I’ve sometimes wondered what it was that God saw in Joshua.  Was he a fearless leader?  Probably not.  Otherwise, God wouldn’t have needed to remind him repeatedly to not be afraid.  By my count, he’s had to tell him twice so far.  He will hear it again at least another half dozen times.

We aren’t told of his wisdom or intelligence.  Nor do we hear about his having a magnetic personality.  No mention of his skill in battle.

What we do know is that he had faith.  He took God at his word.  He and Caleb believed God would come through on his promises back at Kadesh Barnea, and apparently that faith stuck with him into the future.  In short, what qualified him to stand in the large shoes vacated by Moses was a belief that God would carry the day.

I suppose there are times when that is all it takes to be set apart from the crowd.

Cover-to-Cover – Week 8

The Morning Benders – Pleasure Sighs

As we’ve been spending some time in Deuteronomy this week, you may be thinking…

“Didn’t we already cover this?  Why are we getting all the same stuff again?”

So it might be helpful to know that while we are getting it all again, the group that Moses is addressing is in some ways hearing it for the first time.  Moses is addressing the Israelites who are about to cross over into the Promised Land.  None of whom were of age the first time it was given back at Sinai.  These are the sons and daughters of the generation of Israelites that were told they would wander in (and die in) the wilderness.

Which raises the follow up question…  why didn’t Moses just say, “and we read all of the Law to this generation as well?”  Again, there must have been some purpose for this Second Law (which is what Deuteronomy means).  Hard to know exactly why, but my take away is that each generation needs a comprehensive explanation of God’s word.  It isn’t enough to simply assume that they’ll just sort of figure it out along the way.  That godliness doesn’t just happen by a process of osmosis or by just hanging around parents who believe.  Each generation needs the Word of God presented afresh.  Deuteronomy is the detailed account of this generation’s choice to re-affirm the way of life to which God has called them.

That’s all I’ve got.

Cover-to-Cover – Week 7

The American Dollar – Anything You Synthesize (HT: Taylor Hall)

We have covered a lot of ground in Numbers this week.  Kadesh Barnea.  The earth swallows Korah, Dathan, and Abiram’s households.  Miriam Dies.  Aaron Dies.  Strange incident with snakes.  Balaam’s talking donkey.  Joshua is chosen as Moses’ successor.   Sprinkle several more offerings and a census in there are you’ve got a full week.

However, I was particularly drawn to two other episodes.

The first is when God and/or Moses calls forth water from a rock.  It is the “and/or” that seems to be of issue here.  God tells him to speak to the rock and it will happen.  Moses chooses to hit it twice with his staff.  And for this seemingly minor change of plan, Moses is told that like most of the rest of Israel, he himself won’t cross into the Promised Land.  The passage isn’t very explicit on what Moses’ sin was.  God does tell Moses that he did not trust Him enough to honor Him in the sight of Israel.  It appears that in doing what God had directed, Moses sought to draw attention to or honor himself rather than God.  An ever present danger for people doing “God’s work.”

But the other thing I loved in this section was Zelophehad’s daughters.  You remember them.  They were five daughters whose father had died son-less.  And so they pose the question, “to whom will his property go?”  And God tells Moses that it should go to them.  In a culture that was notorious for treating women as second-class citizens, we see God affirming their right to own property.

Now, I’m not pretending that this is the magic wand that makes all the other troubling passages we’ve read about women any easier to palate.  No less than three chapters later, we discover that a woman’s vow isn’t as good as a man’s.  But reading about Zelophehad’s daughters helps to balance the others out a bit.

I’ve had a few interesting conversations this week about God’s accommodation to culture.  There is certainly a sense in which it appears that God accepts/condones/commands behavior that we would find immoral today.  Tough stuff to work out, but perhaps there is a sense in which God meets people – entire cultures in history – on their terms or in ways they could understand.  Don’t hurt yourself thinking too much about that last thought.  I’m not even sure it is right.

Cover-to-Cover – Week 6

Two Door Cinema Club – This Is the Life

So we’ve learned some interesting things this week. Like…

A silver offering dish weighs 130 shekels. Not more. Not less.

Being a Levite has its pros and cons. On the downside, they are required to shave their whole bodies. On the upside, they retire at age fifty.

In addition to being The Creator and Author of Life, God is also The Accountant.

There is something called the “wave offering” that involves waving certain unmentionable body parts before the Lord as an acceptable form of worship. Am I the only one who finds that amusing? That text hasn’t come up in our current series on worship. I think maybe I’ve been hanging out with middle-schoolers too much.

On a slightly (and only slightly) more mature level, I love what is affirmed there in the middle of Numbers 9. God instructs that an alien (i.e. a foreigner or outsider to the convenant) can participate in the Passover…

‘An alien living among you who wants to celebrate the LORD’s Passover must do so in accordance with its rules and regulations. You must have the same regulations for the alien and the native-born.’

There is no favoritism with God. And while at times, it looks like God is being exclusive, there are also hints like these which reveal His open welcome to all.

There is more to say… much more. But I think we’ve covered enough ground for one day.

Cover-to-Cover – Week 5

Animal Collective – In the Flowers

Leviticus.  What’s to say?

Weird.

Seriously weird.

So let’s keep this short and sweet.

The detailed instructions concerning the various sacrifices has God looking a bit OCD.

The laws concerning skin diseases, mildew, and “discharges” has Him looking like a germ-o-phob.

And then there is chapter 18 from today’s reading.  Once again… really?  They had to be told this stuff?  Baffling.

So what is going on?  There is tons one could say, but suffice it to say, “Leviticus is all about God’s holiness.”  It is stated outright in 11:44-45, and underscored by nearly every other verse in the book.  Everything about the book is saying that God is set apart.  Different.  Not common.

Even the chapters that seem to be about God’s “health plan” for the Israelites are really about contamination.  On the surface, it is about physical contamination.  But just below the surface is the idea of spiritual contamination as well.

How about all the sexual taboos?  They are preceded by injunctions against doing what people do in Egypt or in Canaan.  This too is all about “set-apart-ness”.

“Be holy, because I am holy.”

God is distinct, different from anything else in their experience.  They too are meant to be distinct and different.

deja vu

Lissie – Everywhere I Go

I was going to wait until next week, but seeing as we’ve just wrapped up Exodus, maybe now is the time to talk about it.

What’s the point of chapters 36-39?  Why does Exodus’ author feel the need to repeat nearly every word from 25-28?  Wouldn’t it have been enough to simply say “The Israelites had done all the work just as the LORD had commanded Moses” (Exodus 39:42)?

Bear in mind that whatever writing materials they might have used (tablets or papyrus/parchment) would have been costly and so each words counts.  Why not a little more detail back in Genesis on Jacob wrestling God?  Or some more explanation of Abraham’s near sacrifice/murder of Isaac?

Instead, we have a painstaking account of Israel meticulously constructing the Tabernacle in a way that exactly corresponds to the instructions God had given them.  And I suppose that’s the point.  Moses (or whoever wrote it) wanted future generations to understand that God’s instruction is not something to be spurned lightly.

We live in a religious culture that goes to great lengths to emphasize it isn’t what you do in relation to God that matters, but how you feel about God.  As long as our hearts are right, then all the external stuff called religion really isn’t of consequence.  In fact, it may be detrimental.  I’m not sure we can read too much into this, but my guess is that the Israelites felt that God needed to be heeded…  even in the details.

Cover-to-Cover – Week 4

The Postmarks – No One Said This Would Be Easy

Ok, so here we are four weeks in, and I’m guessing no one is loving me too much for the Cover-to-Cover challenge.  What sounded so well-intentioned, pious, and worth-while on the front-end is starting too lose its luster in a hurry.

If you are on track, you will have read through Exodus 36 today.  Not the most inspirational reading by anyone’s reckoning.  It would be the exceedingly rare person who finds the detailed instructions for building the Tabernacle inspiring.  More on this next week.

However, I think a word or two is in order concerning the ‘miscellaneous’ laws or what is sometimes known as ‘civil’ law.  I know that it seems like God is actively promoting retribution, but you should know that God isn’t trying to institute some detailed process for revenge.  These laws are actually meant to curtail an excess of revenge.

So for example for when it says things like, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” while gruesome sounding to our ears, could be read, “an eye and no more.”  You can’t kill someone for knocking out your tooth.  All you are entitled to is an equal measure of retribution.  Same goes for bulls goring and accidental deaths and so on.  The Law says, “you may be entitled life for life, but you can’t out of revenge kill off the offender’s entire family.”  Societies both ancient and modern left to their own tend towards barbarism.  It is the Judeo-Christian tradition that steers people towards more humane ways of being human.

Another example of humanity’s drift towards sub-human existence is the commandment that says, “Anyone who has sexual relations with an animal must be put to death.”  Now apart from getting the middle-schoolers at church giggling, what purpose does this verse serve?  Does it seem as strange to you as it does to me that people need to be told that sex with animals is a departure from God’s plan for human sexuality?  Was it a widespread problem at the time?

Who knows.  The point is they had to be told…  Don’t do this.  This is wrong.  Again, society left to its own will sink to the lowest levels of human depravity.  It is God, his Word, and ultimately his Spirit that elevates human beings to their role as image-bearers of God.