…they must abstain from wine and other fermented drink and must not drink vinegar made from wine or other fermented drink. They must not drink grape juice or eat grapes or raisins. As long as they remain under their Nazirite vow, they must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, not even the seeds or skins. – Numbers 6:3-4

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 30, 2021): Numbers 6

Poet T. S. Eliot argued that “most of the evil in this world is done by people with good intentions.” Maybe they don’t recognize the evil that they do. Or perhaps they play a little too close to corruption and get caught up in its embrace. But either way, they do evil, and they cause pain. In the church, it is present sometimes in our decision not to accept people who don’t believe exactly as we do. It is the story of good people doing evil.

One concept that we don’t seem to understand in our contemporary society is the idea of staying away from even the appearance of evil. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, argues that “we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of man” (2 Corinthians 8:21). Often our argument seems to be that if we are right in the sight of God, that is all that matters. But Paul raises the stakes. Don’t even come close to evil, and don’t let even the appearance of evil destroy your reputation.

In Israel, a man or a woman could make a vow to live life as a Nazarite. A Nazarite voluntarily separated from society for a certain length of time. The only record we have of people who were Nazarites for life were Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist. Theologian John Joseph Owens argues that a “Nazirite .... is spelled with exactly the same consonants as separate, and is thus closely related to the idea of separation.” But just because no one was forced to be a Nazarite doesn’t mean that the commitment should be made lightly. If a person decided to make the vow to separate, the person would fulfill certain practices for the length of the vow, and one of those practices was to abstain from wine or any other fermented drink.

But the restriction went further than just wine. The community would know if you decided to live as a Nazarite. And so, the one keeping the vow would abstain from all products of the grape. If you didn’t have anything connected to the grape, no one could see you and think it was wine when it wasn’t, and it also eliminated the excuse that you drank wine, but you thought it was just juice. It helped the Nazarite to refrain even from the appearance of breaking the vow, which would be evil. A lesson which we need to try to understand and apply to our own lives.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Numbers 7

May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries." "'Then the woman is to say, "Amen. So be it." – Numbers 5:20

Today's Scripture Reading (November 29, 2021): Numbers 5

Platonic Philosopher Plutarch (c. 46 – c. 119 C.E.), argued that "The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled." I love the imagery. A fire burns, it can keep us warm on a cold night, but it can also burn out of control, threatening to destroy all we have built. And that is the power of a fire. Under control, it can be a positive force, but fire is too powerful to ever believe that it is totally under control.

And the same goes for our minds. Our minds are more powerful than we often give them credit. They have the power to make us believe anything. The mind has the ability to heal, but it can also make you very sick. And don't think that it is just the weak or the unstable that cannot control their minds. It is a danger for all of us. Our minds can make us believe anything, even when all of the evidence points the other way.

The Mosaic Law prescribes a unique penalty for marital infidelity. The idea is that if a woman is accused of adultery, she would drink the bitter water. If she were innocent of the charge, then nothing would happen. Interestingly, rabbis believed that if she was guilty and her husband was also guilty of an affair, the water would also have no effect. But if she were guilty, the abdomen would swell, and if she were pregnant, her womb would miscarry. Rabbis also believed that when the woman drank the water, if she were guilty, the man with whom she had committed adultery would get sick as well. Scholars have been at a loss to explain this bitter water, other than to say that it is part of a supernatural act of God. But it might not have been all that supernatural.

All of this could have been a powerful trick of the mind. If the person believed their guilt, the mind could have been the instrument that projected the person's guilt into the body. They knew that they were guilty, and therefore, they displayed the expected guilt to anyone who might have been watching. Of course, if the person knew that they were guilty, they may have admitted the fault rather than going through the ordeal of drinking the bitter water.

But the admission of guilt was the point of the process. The idea was that jealousy should not be present in a marriage, and the bitter water gave a way of proving guilt or innocence. If the woman were innocent, then there would be no reason for the jealousy. If the woman was guilty, then it brought that guilt out into the knowledge of both partners so that the couple could deal with it.

One note, the law only mentions the woman. But the Mosaic Law was intended to be case law, which means that it set out the model in general, which then those in positions of leadership would extend that law to the particular. Although a woman is used in this example in Numbers, there is no reason to believe that if a man were accused of unfaithfulness, the same procedure would not be followed to ascertain his guilt or innocence.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Numbers 6

At the LORD's command through Moses, each was assigned his work and told what to carry. – Numbers 4:49

Today's Scripture Reading (November 28, 2021): Numbers 4

One of the great lies of our society is that you can be whatever you want to be. It just isn't true. Over the years, I have had contact with people who wanted nothing more than to be a pastor or lead a church, but that would be something that they would never be able to accomplish for varying reasons. And that is not something that I say lightly. After all, a few decades ago, that was something that I was told that I would never become.

Our reality is that there are some things for which we are designed. We are gifted to do certain things, but we are not gifted to do everything. Part of God's design was that we would have to depend on the people around us who know what we can't do. And what can be frustrating is having someone in our circles of influence who is gifted in one area but refuse to recognize that gift. Instead, they put away the area in which they are gifted to chase after a task that requires different talents.

The Book of Numbers States that God's instructions are diligently carried out just because God instructed them to do it. And sometimes, I wonder if it was really that simple. It is maybe one of the things with which we struggle.  Okay, it is the one thing with which I have traditionally struggled.  I often seem to want to argue with God about why something can't be done differently. And I sometimes wonder if there was ever a Gershonite in ancient Israel who secretly wished he was a Kohathite.

The secret of living a God-dominated life is in being ready to do what God has commanded, for no other reason than God seems to be leading you in that direction. Because God said so, I will trust him, and I will do what it is that he wants me to do.  The problem is that we want to know all of the reasons so that we can follow logically. God has never been interested in our logic; he is interested in our faith.

You may not understand all that God places in front of you this week.  But meet it in faith – because God has commanded you.  And know that he is there with you every step of the way.

I am praying that you hear his voice today!

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Numbers 5

Bring the tribe of Levi and present them to Aaron the priest to assist him. They are to perform duties for him and for the whole community at the tent of meeting by doing the work of the tabernacle. – Number 3:6-7

Today's Scripture Reading (November 27, 2021): Numbers 3

When I was young, I loved to watch a television show called "The A-Team." The show was about a team of misfits, all former members of a fictitious military group called "The United States Army Special Forces," who were hired to correct things in this world that no one else seemed to be able to fix. The team was led by John "Hannibal" Smith (George Peppard), the brains of the operation. Hannibal was supported by Lieutenant Templeton "Faceman" Peck (Dirk Benedict) and Captain H. M. "Howling Mad" Murdock (Dwight Schultz). Murdock was a character who was both the pilot for the team as well as a member that they continually had to break out of mental hospitals so that they could go on their missions. Sergeant First Class Bosco "B. A." or "Bad Attitude" Baracus (Mr. T) rounded out the group, and adding to the drama was the fact that B.A. was afraid to fly, maybe especially if it was Howling Mad Murdoch that was the one doing the flying. The missions were hard, but somehow the team always came through to save the good and punish the bad. At the same time, the" A-Team" themselves were being pursued by the government for some imagined crimes. At the end of most of the episodes, after accomplishing the impossible, Hannibal would sit back, light a cigar, and speak his famous tagline; "I love it when a plan comes together." But what they accomplished, they always accomplished together.

The New Testament speaks about the Body of Christ and how we are different, and yet we fit together to get the job done. We are different from each other, we have different strengths and weaknesses, but you are not less important. We are all important, but we are all called to do something different. In the Body of Christ, we all have a part to play if we are going to accomplish the goals that Jesus has set in front of his people.

Where the body is the strongest, it has many members working in the same direction.  We are not doing the same thing, but a strong body works together to accomplish the mission. We are the family of God, and like the A-Team, we are working together to achieve something to make this world a better place, and we are doing it together.

What I love about this passage is that it has the same intent as that New Testament truth. And to accomplish the task, the responsibility rests not on the individual but rather the family. If the job of the priests was going to be successful, it was because the whole tribe, the family, was part of the process. Yes, we might be called to work at the mission differently, but it is fun when the family gets to do something together that accomplishes the task.  And we can't lose this idea in the Christian Church. What we do as a family is for the benefit of the world, just as what the Levites worked toward was for the benefit of the nation of Israel.

Do we always get it right?  No.  But sometimes, well, as an old A-Team fan, let me quote Hannibal Smith, "I love it when a plan comes together."

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Numbers 4

The tribe of Issachar will camp next to them. The leader of the people of Issachar is Nethanel son of Zuar. His division numbers 54,400. – Numbers 2:5-6

Today's Scripture Reading (November 26, 2021): Numbers 2

Nineteenth Century poet and playwright, Oscar Wilde, once said that “you can never be overdressed or overeducated.” I am not sure that the Christian Church would agree. It is not the overdressed comment with which we seem to have an issue, it is the overeducated. I first ran into the education bias of the church when I was working toward my Master’s degree. It started with students who seemed to disagree with the position of some of the professors at the seminary. Their theological positions were sometimes written off as a product of their overeducation. But since then, I have had the education argument thrown at me. If you disagree with me, it might just be because I have too much education.

I don’t really believe that. I have always believed that everyday life gives us the opportunity to learn something, and I believe that every day I we need to take advantage of that opportunity and learn something. Learning something and thinking critically through the biblical record does not mean that I am not a person of faith. I think it actually indicates that I take my faith very seriously.

As God begins to list where the tribes are to set up camp, the second tribe that is mentioned is Issachar. Issachar was the ninth son of Jacob; his mother was Leah and he was the fifth son out of the six that were born to Jacob’s first wife. As such, he would not have been one of the more influential of the sons of Israel. But the tribe was given the honor of being the second one mentioned as the tribes were instructed as to where they would place their tents and also the second tribe to bring to bring the offering of dedication for the tabernacle (Numbers 7:18-23). And the reason they were given this honor was likely that they were the most educated of the Tribes of Israel. Issachar is thought to have been a tribe that was made up of scholars, to which the Book of Chronicles seems to allude when it describes the Tribe of Issachar as consisting of “men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do” (1 Chronicles 12:32).

According to Rabbinic literature, the Tribe of Issachar was made up of scholars. Babylonian Rabbi Abba ben Joseph har Hama (c. 280 – 352 C.E.), also known as Rava and writing on a passage in Deuteronomy, argues that “You do not find a young Torah scholar who gives halakhic instruction (instruction pertaining to the Jewish law and jurisprudence) unless he comes from the tribe of Levi or from the tribe of Issachar” (Yoma 26a). Of all the tribes outside of the Tribe of Levi whose fundamental task was to know the law, Issachar was the best educated, and for that they found honor from God.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Numbers 3

Instead, appoint the Levites to be in charge of the tabernacle of the covenant law—over all its furnishings and everything belonging to it. They are to carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings; they are to take care of it and encamp around it. – Numbers 1:52

Today's Scripture Reading (November 25, 2021): Numbers 1

It is always a good idea to know who is responsible for doing what whenever you go on a road trip. That way, hopefully, nothing gets missed. When I was in my late teens, I went on a road trip with twenty-some other teenagers and a few adults. The road trip would last almost two weeks and involved traveling on a big yellow bus. The Bus driver was my pastor, someone with whom I loved to spend time. His job was to drive the bus. Most of us were just along for the ride; maybe our job on the road trip was just not to get into too much trouble.

But we overlooked one thing. And looking back on that trip, it is something that I cannot believe that twenty-some teens would forget. No one brought any music. Can you imagine a two-week road trip with a bunch of teens and no music? Yeah, it sounds like a definition of hell. Actually, that is not quite true. Among all of us who traveled on that yellow bus, there was one cassette tape. It happened to be a decade-old release by B. J. Thomas, you know, that guy who sang "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head." In fact, "Raindrops" was one of the songs on the tape. Throughout the road trip, we got to hear B. J. Thomas singing "Raindrops keep fallin' on my head, and just like the guy whose feet are too big for his bed, Nothing seems to fit," over and over and over again. That road trip is over forty years in the past, but I still can't listen to anything that is sung by B. J. Thomas.

Israel was about to embark on a road trip that would last for the better part of the next forty years. And if it was going to work, everyone had to understand for what they were responsible. The leaders of the tribes needed to know how the camp needed to be set up, along with where the tribes were to pitch their tents. But everything was to be organized around where the tabernacle would be set up. And when it came to setting up the tabernacle, it was the Levites who would be totally in charge. They would carry the various pieces of the tabernacle, they would be the ones to find the place to set the tabernacle up, and they would be the ones to do the work. No one else would help them; it wasn't their job. The Levites were the ones who understood what needed to be done and the ritual involved in setting up the tabernacle. The Levites understood how every piece of the tabernacle needed to be treated to show respect for God. This was their job and their responsibility. Levites would lead the way by setting up the tabernacle in a particular place, and then the rest of the tribes would follow their lead and set up their tents as had been prescribed by Moses. For the road trip to be a success, everyone needed to understand their responsibility, and devote their efforts to making their duty, their priority.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Numbers 2

If anyone making the vow is too poor to pay the specified amount, the person being dedicated is to be presented to the priest, who will set the value according to what the one making the vow can afford. – Leviticus 27:8

Today's Scripture Reading (November 24, 2021): Leviticus 27

In 1960, William F. Claxton directed a movie entitled "I'll Give My Life." The story follows a father and his son, John and Jim Bradford. John expects Jim to join him in the engineering firm that John Bradford had built when he was old enough. But instead, Jim decides to attend seminary and is then assigned to a mission in New Guinea. It is a decision that John struggles to understand.

Jim is in love with Alice, John's secretary, and after he proposes marriage, she agrees to join him in New Guinea. Jim and Alice expand their little family with the birth of their two children, and everything is going well in the Jim Bradford family until Jim contracts a life-threatening illness. When John finds out that his son is ill, he flies to New Guinea because he wants to be with him as Jim's life enters its final phase. And while John is there, he discovers his son's journals. As John shares the end of his son's life, he journeys through Jim's journals, trying to understand the meaning and purpose to which Jim has dedicated his life, the thing to which Jim had given his life.

We often flippantly declare that we will give our lives to some purpose, but we don't really mean it. The words are often a simple declaration of what we believe to be important and what we want to spend our time doing as we journey through this life. But, unlike Jim and a few others in this world, we don't actually give all that we have toward that intended purpose. We don't really intend to give our life. The phrase is more aspirational than it is literal.

In Israel, people could vow that they would give their lives to pursue the things of God. But the Law recognized that pledging something is one thing; following through on that vow is completely different. And so, the person who vowed his life was allowed to purchase that life back. It was a way of dedicating a life to God yet continuing to live life in a more secular way. Every life was assigned a price, and the vowed life could be purchased back or redeemed by paying that price back to God.

But if the person was too poor to pay the assigned price, the priest could decide on a lower price that was more in keeping with the financial reality of the worshipper. The idea was that anyone could dedicate their lives to God, regardless of their financial position. Pastor David Guzik sums it up this way. "Everyone can give their life to the LORD; there are none who are too small, or too insignificant, or too useless. God wants to use each and every one (David Guzik – italics his).

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Numbers 1

Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it. I am the LORD your God. – Leviticus 26:1

Today's Scripture Reading (November 23, 2021): Leviticus 26

What is your foundational belief? You know, that one belief that you will not violate no matter what the circumstances might be in your life. For many in our contemporary society, that foundational belief is in the power of our money. We believe that if we have money, we can do anything and get through anything. Our addiction to lottery tickets is a result of this foundational belief. And often, we rebel against anything that threatens our money. Or, maybe, your foundational belief is in the importance of family. Some of us hold family above everything, and we would never do anything against the family. No matter what happens, family is sacred, and we will never violate our fundamental belief in the importance of family. The truth is that we all have a fundamental belief, or sometimes a set of foundational beliefs, and our behavior reveals whatever that belief might be because it is one thing that we will maintain in good and hard times.

Leviticus 26 begins the conclusion to this section of the Law, and it is an extraordinary chapter that promises blessings on Israel for their obedience and curses for their disobedience. But it opens with the foundational belief that Israel is to follow. Everything else will build around this one idea. You are to worship God. Not a carved image, not a sacred stone, not a ritual, but God. The passages differentiate between the things we like to set up as our gods and the real God who demands our respect and worship. Do this, and everything that God desires from you will follow. But fail in this foundational belief, and your life will be nothing but a struggle.

Jesus understood this concept when he said that the greatest commandment was that we should "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Matthew 22:37). His message, directed at his audience, was that if you get this foundational belief right, then everything good will follow. But the problem is that this broken world conspires against us getting it right, making it easy to violate this fundamental idea.

And that is precisely what Israel discovered over their history. Time and time again, they got it wrong. A good example of Israel's temptation to the wrong happened following the division of the nation after the reign of Solomon. At that time, Israel became the Northern Kingdom under Jeroboam's rule, and King David's grandson, Rehoboam, ruled the Kingdom of Judah in the south. Jeroboam's foundational belief seemed to be that his portion of the country needed to be wholly separated from the House of David. As a result, Jeroboam's foundational belief seemed to be that his people needed to be wholly separated from the House of David. What stood in the path of that foundational belief was that Judah possessed the Temple, the center of religious life for the children of Israel. But, Jeroboam didn't want his people traveling to Judah to fulfill their religious expectations. And so, he set up two golden calves, one at Bethel and the other at Dan. And he told the people, "Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt" (1 Kings 12:28b). Jeroboam's actions directly violated the foundational belief of the nation stated at the beginning of Leviticus 26. And as a result, the history of Israel was nothing but a struggle from one king to the next until the nation completely disappeared in the last portion of the eighth-century B.C.E.

But it didn't have to be that way. If they had followed the foundational belief given to them in the Mosaic Law, then the nation would have received the blessings that God had promised to them. But they didn't, and the direct result was a struggle.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Leviticus 27

If one of your fellow Israelites becomes poor and sells some of their property, their nearest relative is to come and redeem what they have sold. – Leviticus 25:25

Today's Scripture Reading (November 22, 2021): Leviticus 25

We live under the belief that what a nation does should be for the benefit of the people who live in the country. Every government should be able to make decisions that will help the citizenship. But that is not the way the world often works. Politicians often become indebted to the corporations who helped them get elected, and in return, they tend to do things that benefit them instead of the people of the nation.

Foreign-owned and multi-national companies, especially in developing nations, can exert enormous pressures on the political system to benefit the company's desires over the needs of the people. And that effect can become exaggerated by the phenomenon of foreign ownership. The problem of foreign ownership was a circumstance of which the Mosaic Law was aware. Under the demands of the Law of Moses, when Israel moved into the land that was promised to them, it would be divided up according to tribe or family unit. But the law also recognized that people would fall on hard times and that one way that they might be able to get out of that trouble would be to sell their land. And it was possible that, in many instances, the buyer would be from outside the tribe or family, and through this process of foreign ownership, the tribe would gradually lose control over the area in which they lived. And so, the law specified that when an Israelite became poor and needed to sell the property, the one who should buy it would be someone from the family, the nearest relative. In this way, the property remained in control of the tribe, and the influence of people from outside of the tribe was minimized.

It is the theme of the story of Ruth. As Naomi falls on hard times, Boaz, a close relative of Naomi's, is invited to save Naomi and Ruth by purchasing the land. But in a plot twist, the redemption of the land seems to include Ruth, something that is not in the Mosaic Law, and Boaz isn't actually the nearest relative. Before Boaz can redeem the land and marry Ruth, the closest relative has to pass on the arrangement. In Ruth, this nearest relative is called a kinsmen or guardian-redeemer. And, in the story, he is willing to redeem the land but not marry the girl, and so that pleasure falls on Boaz, who redeems the land and marries Ruth, in the process keeping the land, and the girl, in the family, and fulfilling this aspect of the Mosaic Law.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Leviticus 26

The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse; so they brought him to Moses. (His mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri the Danite.) – Leviticus 24:11

Today's Scripture Reading (November 21, 2021): Leviticus 24

An unknown speaker offers this pearl of wisdom; "A tongue has no bone, but it can break a heart, so be careful with your words." The point of this proverb opposes the lie that most parents like to tell their children; "Sticks and stones may break my (or your) bones, but names will never hurt me (or you)" Actually, the reverse is often true. The wounds you might inflict on my body by beating me with a stick or throwing stones at me will eventually heal. But the scars I receive because of your words I will carry for the rest of my life; I might never recover from what you say about me. I don't think that any of us have any trouble bringing up in our memory the way that we have been verbally abused in the past. And sometimes, and I admit that I am one of these victims, the result of those words is that we suffer from a form of post-traumatic stress disorder, and there are things that we will do that will bring the words back to us as if they were just spoken, and there are some things that we just can't do.

Sometimes we struggle with the idea of blasphemy, but essentially blasphemy just indicates that we have verbally abused someone. And Leviticus is concerned with the circumstances when we are tempted to abuse God verbally. At the heart of the issue is that verbal abuse causes real damage. When we verbally abuse each other, we bring great harm to the other; a punch might be a kinder blow. But when we verbally abuse God, we cause damage to the personhood of God, and we steal away God's ability to move and work in our midst.

Ancient Jewish Rabbis have attempted to fill in the back story for the conflict described in this passage. According to the rabbinical legend, this man was not just one of the many people of mixed race who left Egypt with the Israelites during the Exodus; he was the son of the man Moses had killed decades earlier for physically beating up on the Israelite. This man was raised by his Israelite mother and came to Identify, at least partially, with the Children of Israel. At this moment, he was trying to pitch his tent among those belonging to the Tribe of Dan, his mother's tribe. But someone recognized him, and didn't want this child of one who had physically abused an Israelite anywhere near their tents. They believed that he was not worthy of being part of the Exodus. A fight ensued, and during the struggle, this man had blasphemed or verbally abused God.

If there is anything to say in the man's defense, it might be that the Egyptians regularly verbally abused their gods. But that was part of the problem. The man did not recognize the God of Israel as anything special. He was just another god, no different from the pantheon of gods that had existed in Egypt. So, he blamed God for his struggle among the exiles just as he would have blamed the Egyptian gods for his struggles back in Egypt. And it was this belief that was at the heart of the problem; it was for this lowering of the name of God that this man would have to pay a very significant price.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Leviticus 25