Summer Series: #7 - A Family Matter?

In Exodus 3 Moses marries Zipporah, a Midianite woman. In Exodus 18 we see Jethro, Moses' father-in-law and the priest of Midian, offering Moses some valuable advice. In Numbers 10:29-32 Moses asks his Midianite brother-in-law to come with the Israelites as a guide. As far as I am able to tell Moses had a very good relationship with his Midianite family. Imagine, then, how difficult is would have been for Moses to hear these words from God:

"Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites. After that, you will be gathered to your people."
(Numbers 31:2)

Moses heeds God's word and commands the Israelites to fight the Midianites and to kill every one of them. Imagine the pain that this must have brought Moses and his family. I wonder if this passage can shed any light on the words of Jesus in Luke 14:26:

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple."

Summer Series: #6 - Moses and Leadership

What would it be like to lead over a million people through the desert? I'm guessing it wouldn't be very easy. Yet, this is what God had Moses do. A recent TV mini-series The Ten Commandments did a good job of portraying how hard this would be. Moses finds himself asking God, time and time again, what he is being punished for. Perhaps this is punishment murdering the Egyptian? The Bible also gives us insight into how Moses was feeling. Numbers 11:10-15 gives an account of Moses asking the Lord why he had to bear this burden. Verses 14 & 15 portray his struggle particularly well:

"I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now..."

God's response is to select 70 of Israel's elders to help carry the burden. This teaches us an important principle of leadership: We do not need to bear the burden alone. We should turn to trustworthy people for the wisdom and strength that we need to lead.

That sounds good in principle, but then I remember Exodus 18. In this story Moses had already appointed judges in an attempt to make his load lighter. Yet, that didn't seem to prevent the problem in Numbers 11 from happening. As I look ahead, I also see that the problem doesn't necessarily seem to get any better after the appointing of the 70 elders. Anyone have any thoughts on why this might be the case?

Summer Series: #5 - Family

As I read through the Pentateuch I am continuously struck by the way I see God's care for the less fortunate. The laws of the Old Covenant aren't just pointless rules. They were created to give us a taste of God's Shalom, the way things were intended to be. Leviticus 25 is full of examples of God's concern for social justice. What really stood out for me, though, is the responsibility of family:

If one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells some of his property, his nearest relative is to come and redeem what his countryman has sold. -Leviticus 25:25

While society as a whole is charged to care for the poor, it is the family in particular that bears this responsibility. The word "some" in this verse makes me ask some questions. If a family member loses all of their property than it makes sense that I should help them out; but if they lose only part of it, it appears that God still expects me to step in and help out. What implications, if any, does this have for us today?

Summer Series: #4 - Grace and Wrath

It appears as if God has a tendency to use people even though they make mistakes. Already in the Pentateuch we have seen him use Noah, even though he later got drunk. He used Abraham, even though he lied about his wife. He used the deceiver Jacob. He used Moses after he killed an Egyptian. Leviticus 8-9 gives another example of this. Here Aaron is ordained as the high priest. He is set apart from the rest of the community and becomes the only person who is allowed to enter the Holy of Holies. This doesn't seem remarkable until you consider that this is the same Aaron who made a golden calf for the Israelites while Moses was on the mountain. Despite this horrible mistake, he was given an important position by the God whom he had disobeyed. Truly we do have a forgiving God.

We should take this in contrast with Leviticus 10 where two of Aaron's sons offered incense to God when they weren't supposed to. This time God sent down flames to burn them to death. God is forgiving, but he also makes it very clear that we shouldn't test his grace by purposely disobeying his commands.

Summer Series: #3 - A Heavenly Song

I love music. There are many days, often the busy ones where I am up to my eyeballs in homework, where I think that without music I probably couldn't survive. It turns out that God loves music too. Following the parting of the Red Sea the Israelites sang a song of the great wonders that God had done. This song was so powerful that, even today, Jews continue to recite it every morning at worship.

Do you know what is even more interesting? God wrote a song! I could hardly believe it when I read it, but its true. You can read the lyrics in Deuteronomy 32:1-43. Doesn't this just make you wonder what it sounded like? What style was it? Would I like it? If God wrote it then it must sound good; or does personal taste still play a factor? Although we will probably never know the answers to these questions, we can know something about the purpose of this song. In our culture when we want kids to remember the alphabet we have them learn the alphabet song. Likewise, when God wanted the Israelites to remember the covenant and the blessings and curses that went along with it, he created a song.

Summer Series: #2 - Social Justice

Deuteronomy 24:19-21
When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow.

The opportunities I have had to work with the poor while attending Bible College have raised all sorts of question about social justice. What is the best way to care for the poor? If we feed the less fortunate, are we simply making them reliant on us? Do our caring actions just make the problem worse? If so, what is the best way to show our love to these people? It's interesting to see the different ways that God answered these questions in his Torah. The passage above talks about how the Israelites were told to leave some of their crops in the fields so that the aliens, the fatherless and the widows would have something to eat. Notice, however, that these people still had to work for their food. The Israelites didn't go back and collect what was left over and then give it out. Instead they made those who were in need come and get it for themselves.

Summer Series: Thoughts from the Pentateuch

Last semester I took a class on the Pentateuch. One of our assignments was to write weekly blog posts about our observations from our text book and the Biblical text. Over the next two months or so I'm going to re-post a few of these blog entries here (with a few modifications). I hope you enjoy!

In a recent class we had a discussion about capital punishment. One of the concerns with it is that a person might be wrongly accused of a crime and then killed for it. I'm wondering if Deuteronamy 19:16-19 has something to add to this discussion:

"If a malicious witness takes the stand to accuse a man of a crime,
the two men involved in the dispute must stand in the presence of the
LORD before the priests and the judges who are in office at the time.
The judges must make a thorough investigation, and if the witness
proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against his brother, then do to him as he intended to do to his brother."

So if someone falsely testified that a person was a murderer, they themselves would be subject to capital punishment. It seems a little harsh at first, but I'm sure it would help dissuade people from making a false accusation. I certainly don't think this answers all of the questions regarding this issue, but its something to think about.