NUMBERS 17
This chapter contains one of my favorite Bible verses. But I doubt it’s one that makes the usual "Top Ten" list of most-quoted Scripture: "The next day Moses entered the tent and saw that Aaron’s staff, which represented the tribe of Levi, had not only sprouted but had budded, blossomed and produced almonds." (vs 8)
NUMBERS 15
Have you heard the story of the kindergarten teacher who was having trouble getting a little boy to sit down in his chair? After a long battle, the boy finally plopped down into the chair with his arms crossed, glaring at his teacher. After a moment, he said, "I may be sitting down on the outside, but I’m still standing on the inside!"
Photo © Wikimedia Commons/Laurent de La Hyre
It has been said
that Abraham was crazy,
that the voice he heard
asking him to sacrifice Isaac
was not God's,
that God would never ask a father
to sacrifice his son—
even to prove a point.
I don't buy it.
Not because I'm so convinced
God would use such a method
to make such a point,
but because I'm pretty sure
that any man who obeyed the voice
which asked him to cut off the tip of his
— you know what —
would recognize that voice
if it ever spoke to him again.
NUMBERS 14
As I read this chapter of Numbers, it occurred to me that it contained a fabulous example of how God’s forgiveness doesn’t equal salvation. I was just about to write that this was a fabulous example of how God’s forgiveness doesn’t have anything to do with salvation. But I don’t think that’s entirely true. If God wasn’t a forgiving Person, we would have no opportunity for salvation in the first place. So, forgiveness and salvation are linked in that way.
NUMBERS 12
There is so much going on in this chapter. There were a lot of different things I could have highlighted. But I decided to go in the direction I did because it goes along with one of my favorite hymns, "Praise to the Lord." My favorite line from this hymn says: Praise to the Lord who prospers your work and defends you.
NUMBERS 10
And so, the Israelites left Mount Sinai: "On the twentieth day of the second month of the second year, the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle of the covenant law. Then the Israelites set out from the Desert of Sinai and traveled from place to place until the cloud came to rest in the Desert of Paran. They set out, this first time, at the Lord’s command through Moses." (vs 11-13)
Photo © Unsplash/Geran de Klerk
Eve
enticed
Adam to
stomach the fruit.
Sarah expertly
bent Abraham to her
will — "Get rid of that woman!"
Hagar summoned (with desert-hot
tears) Jehovah Almighty Himself.
Who says Biblical women were bridled?
Etheree: A poem consisting of 10 lines of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 syllables, respectively.
NUMBERS 9
This chapter of Numbers detailed how the Israelites mapped out their travel through the desert... they didn’t. "Whenever the cloud lifted from above the tent, the Israelites set out; wherever the cloud settled, the Israelites encamped... Whether the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for two days or a month or a year, the Israelites would remain in camp and not set out; but when it lifted, they would set out. At the Lord’s command they encamped, and at the Lord’s command they set out." (vs 17, 22-23)
NUMBERS 8
At the beginning of Numbers 8, God instructed Aaron on how to set up the lampstand in the sanctuary: "The Lord said to Moses, 'Speak to Aaron and say to him, "When you set up the lamps, see that all seven light up the area in front of the lampstand."' Aaron did so; he set up the lamps so that they faced forward on the lampstand, just as the Lord commanded Moses." (vs 1-3)
Photo © Unsplash/michael podger
Abraham, Abraham,
Judge of Gerar:
Always a tangled web you're weaving,
dependent, as you are, on your deceiving.
Abraham, Abraham,
Judge of Gerar:
You searched Abimelek's soul and found no respect for God—
or so you thought.
You concluded that you were in danger
since nobody in that land, you thought, would ever listen to God.
Were you including yourself in the count?
Abraham, Abraham,
Judge of Gerar:
As between you and Abimelek,
he was revealed as the one with ears open.
Your judgment was wrong.
Yet your judgment was right.
It wasn't so much that your conclusion was wrong,
just the person to whom you applied it.
Perhaps Jesus said to be careful with judging,
because others can be more of a mirror than we think.
Abraham, Abraham,
Judge of Gerar:
In misjudging others,
you judged yourself.
You imagined that no one in Gerar would respect God
...because you didn't.
NUMBERS 5
Women didn’t always have it so good in Bible times. Especially women with jealous husbands. Treated as "property," the majority of women were at the whim of their husbands. I suppose it is still like this in many, many countries around the world. So, it’s no wonder that we find this elaborate "test for an unfaithful wife" in Numbers 5.
NUMBERS 4
I’m intrigued by the idea that the tabernacle where God dwelt was a symbol of our bodies, which are called the temple of the Holy Spirit. In 2 Corinthians 5:1-5, Paul said this: "Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."
NUMBERS 3
Here’s what struck me from this chapter: "The Lord also said to Moses, 'I have taken the Levites from among the Israelites in place of the first male offspring of every Israelite woman. The Levites are mine, for all the firstborn are mine. When I struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, I set apart for myself every firstborn in Israel, whether man or animal. They are to be mine.'" (vs 11-13)
NUMBERS 1
So, in the first chapter of the book of Numbers, God has Moses take a census of the Israelites. And the tally of men over the age of 20 was 603,550. That’s just men over the age of 20 (who are able to be part of an army). So, when you figure in women, children, and elderly men, scholars estimate that the total size of the Israelite community at this time was between 2 and 3 million people.
