Contemplative Bible Reading

Numbers 14:17 (New Living Translation)

17 Please, Lord, prove that your power is as great as you have claimed…

This is probably one of the stupidest things every said by any person at any time.

It is part of the (hi)story of the people traveling the desert after escaping Egypt and entering the land promised by God. The scouts returned with tales of a land that could not be conquered. The people wanted to kill a couple of scouts who said God would deliver the land despite the challenges.

Everyone is in an uproar. This is a full-fledged riot and coup. God appears in a cloud. Moses, a humble and devout servant, opens his mouth and says, “Come on God, prove yourself to me.”

Are you kidding? A person telling God to prove God’s worth? What kind of stupid is that? It is the kind of stupid that marked an otherwise great man. Moses was the almost perfect servant of God. Moses did the impossible through faith in God. Moses stood up to the most powerful ruler of the most powerful nation on earth. Moses walked by faith, not by sight. Moses endured. On and on I can write about the worth and accomplishments of Moses.

Yet Moses stands here and says this.

Fatigue wins again. Moses was tired physically, mentally, and emotionally. Fear wins again. This was a riot and a coup. The crowd would kill Moses in its frenzy. Frailty wins again. Sometimes us humans succumb to being human. We just can’t do it.

Yet, God stays with me. Blessed be the Lord. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Numbers 13:31 (New Living Translation)

31 But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!”

This is part of the (hi)story of the people entering the land God promised them. Scouts surveyed the land and reported back to Moses and the people. Above is what most of the scouts reported. The people in the land were stronger than God’s people. God’s people didn’t have a chance against them.

That was a correct report.

Everything in the land was of advantage to the occupants. They had lived there for generations. They knew the territory and how to defend it. They had interior lines of logistics. They had defensible cities. They were rested, not having traveled through the desert. They had greater numbers, greater industry, greater everything.

The majority of the scouts gave a correct report.

The majority of the scouts, however, lacked faith in God. A couple of the scouts told the people that Jehovah God was with them. The people of the land could not defeat Jehovah God. Those two scouts had faith. Combining facts and faith produced a second report that was also correct.

Facts versus faith. Gosh, do we have to choose? I don’t think so. The example was facts and faith gave the more correct (correcter?) answer.

Odd thing about faith. I can believe that something will happen when I cannot see any reason why it should. But then again, I can see reason. I can look at history and see many examples of how faith prevailed. Hence, I always have facts to combine with faith. But then again, I don’t.

This can be confusing. Faith and facts. God didn’t create fools, but God created faith as well as facts. Yes, this can be confusing. God, help me in my unbelief.

Ruth 4:9-10 (New Living Translation)

9 Then Boaz said to the elders and to the crowd standing around, “You are witnesses that today I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Kilion, and Mahlon. 10 And with the land I have acquired Ruth, the Moabite widow of Mahlon, to be my wife. This way she can have a son to carry on the family name of her dead husband and to inherit the family property here in his hometown. You are all witnesses today.”

Boaz was a good man. He showed kindness to many people beyond what was required in the law. He was kind to Naomi, a widow with no sons and a daughter-in-law widow from Moab.

As shown above, Boaz married Ruth the Moabite widow. How good is that? Well, Ruth was a Moabite. The Moabites showed disdain of the people as they came out of Egypt. Moabites were prohibited from entering the Temple.

Boaz married an outsider.

Was that wrong? Many people could have considered it wrong. It was probably wrong for Naomi’s sons to marry Moabite women. God chose the people and wanted them to avoid entanglements with other people, i.e., outsiders.

Good came from this marriage. King David descended from this marriage. That was good. Still, Boaz did something that was questionable. Who am I to judge? Who am I to judge the actions of a person I see today? I don’t know the future. I don’t know what might happen in four generations. I have plenty of worries in my own life.

Boaz is kind to the widow Naomi and the widow Ruth. Pray that good comes of it. Same advice today.

Numbers 13:30 (New Living Translation)

30 But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!”

This is part of the (hi)story of the people leaving slavery in Egypt and going to the land that God promised them. A group of men went into the land to see what and who were there. Many of these men reported the abundance of agriculture in the land, but also the abundance of people who had easily defended positions. The people could not invade and conquer.

Caleb, one of the men sent, says the above. “We can certainly conquer it!” he boasted with great confidence.

Caleb was correct. History showed that the people conquered those defensible positions held by the people in the land.

Caleb was sort of correct. History also showed that initial invasions into the land were military disasters.

Caleb and the other spies of the land forgot God. Without God, invasion failed. With God and with 40 years of wandering around the desert, invasion succeeded.

Note that Caleb did not mention God in his confident boast of success. Perhaps something is lost in the translation. The people were in a bad situation facing large armies in defended positions. Military scientists can explain why invasion would fail.

What about God? God enables all that God endorses. Things happen that defy explanation; that is why they are called super-natural.

Let’s not forget to mention God in our boasts and fears. Sure, our sentences will be longer, but we will be stating the truth based on faith and past events.

Deuteronomy 6:25 (New Living Translation)

25 For we will be counted as righteous when we obey all the commands the Lord our God has given us.

This is from Deuteronomy or the second telling of the law to the people. Their ancestors died in the wilderness due to disobeying the commands of Jehovah their God. These new generations are being told the law. This is the promise: They will be righteous when they obey Jehovah.

I looked for the definition of righteous in several places. The common theme is “morally right or justifiable.” Consider these commands:

• Eat this animal, not that one.
• Do this activity on this day and don’t do that activity on that day.
• Love and worship one god, Jehovah the God of this chosen people.
• Tell the truth, always.
• Be faithful to your spouse, always.
• The list goes on for quite a ways. These are sufficient examples.

A person is justified in these actions. They don’t have to spend days arguing with philosophers on the decisions involved.

What freedom this brings. What time and energy it saves. Blind and ignorant following of some old stuff? Gee whiz didn’t God give people brains to think about things?

Oh, yes, God gave us brains to think about stuff. And God let us plenty of things and time to think, imagine, invent, pursue, etc. There are many days when the people wished they had more commands so that decisions wouldn’t be so complicated. I have many days when I wished I had more commands so I wouldn’t have so many complicated decisions.

Deuteronomy 20:5-7 (New Living Translation)

5 “Then the officers of the army must address the troops and say, ‘Has anyone here just built a new house but not yet dedicated it? If so, you may go home! You might be killed in the battle, and someone else would dedicate your house. 6 Has anyone here just planted a vineyard but not yet eaten any of its fruit? If so, you may go home! You might die in battle, and someone else would eat the first fruit. 7 Has anyone here just become engaged to a woman but not yet married her? Well, you may go home and get married! You might die in the battle, and someone else would marry her.’

These sentences are about raising an army from the people to serve God. “Wait,” says God, “there are some fellas who shouldn’t be in the army just yet.” The sentences list those who can stay home this year. There will be a next year.

HOLD IT! There are too many loopholes. I mean, I can just go out and plant a new vineyard and skip the army. And there is that loophole about getting engaged. I can get engaged, skip the army, break the engagement, and do it all again next year and never serve in the army. I am so clever, right?

This entire thing is not practical. How can anyone have an effective army with all these loopholes?

That’s the point. From a human perspective, this just isn’t practical. This just won’t work. It would be a miracle for such a thing… Ooooops. Miracle. That would mean divine intervention in recruitment and execution of military operations. That would mean God would be…

Wait a minute! You think? Really? Yes, really. Of course God creates an impractical situation. It would take faith in God to use such a situation and have an effective fighting force. Perhaps that is the point of the entire set of loopholes. Faith in God is required. This was yet another situation in which God said, “I know this won’t work, but believe in Me and it will work.”

Believe in God, and it will work. Gee whiz. I would rather have some practical and provable situations so I don’t have to stretch so much. Gee whiz. No.

God wants faith, instead. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Leviticus 26:6 (New Living Translation)

6 “I will give you peace in the land, and you will be able to sleep with no cause for fear. I will rid the land of wild animals and keep your enemies out of your land.

This is a promise from God to the people if they “follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands.” It is a night’s rest with no fear.

Oh, what a promise. I confess that I long for restful sleep. I have bad dreams on too many nights and awake just as tired as I was when I went to bed. Sigh.

God’s promise here in the Old Testament is from a time when neighboring kingdoms would go to war in the spring of each year. It was the annual seeking of land and goods that someone else owned. Peaceful sleep with no cause for fear wasn’t as common as it is today in rich America.

What have I to fear? Not much at all. Why do I have restless nights? Because I have many flaws. The good news, the best news, is that God accepts me with my flaws. God also promises me more if I will just get out of my own way and fully accept the gift of grace. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Leviticus 17:7 (Christian Standard Bible)

7 They must no longer offer their sacrifices to the goat-demons that they have prostituted themselves with. This will be a permanent statute for them throughout their generations.

And now we have the goat-demons. It appears that God’s people had been offering sacrifices to these goat-demons. The people had done this enough and with such fervor that God mentioned this practice specifically and prohibited it.

Other translations use the phrase goat-idols or goat-gods instead of goat-demon. My Google research points me to the Wikipedia article on Pan (god). This was a combination of thing with human hind legs standing up with a head with goat horns and beard and such. It was something like a fertility god that went about causing mischief and lots of things that were just plain wrong.

It appears that God’s people were just going along with local customs of fertility gods. What’s the harm in that? Sort of like the Easter bunny? Well, maybe not like the Easter bunny. I don’t know that we sacrifice livestock to the Easter bunny.

Do we have other gods? Some say, “Yes.” I usually say, “No.” Sure, Super Bowl Sunday is almost a religious observance to some folks. We set aside special food, drink, and guests for that day. We don’t, however, attribute supernatural powers to that day.

“We will have a bad economic year if we don’t observe Super Bowl Sunday.”

I’ve never heard anyone say that. Perhaps I have turned a deaf ear to such.

Regardless, what’s the harm in sacrificing livestock or a few hours to a local custom. Well, it appears that there was great harm in it. Let’s be mindful.

Exodus 2:11-12 (New Living Translation)

11 Many years later, when Moses had grown up, he went out to visit his own people, the Hebrews, and he saw how hard they were forced to work. During his visit, he saw an Egyptian beating one of his fellow Hebrews. 12 After looking in all directions to make sure no one was watching, Moses killed the Egyptian and hid the body in the sand.

Here we have Moses, the man God chose to speak to Pharaoh and bring the people out of slavery, murdering someone. Slavery was horrible. The people were reduced to work as slaves. Anything that would end slavery would be justified. Why hold Moses…

Let’s pause a moment in our justification of the situation: Moses killed this unnamed Egyptian. Moses saw an Egyptian beating a fellow Hebrew. That was cruel. Was it unjustified? Was it illegal? We don’t know those things. What the text tells us is that Moses saw this, paused, looked in all directions to make sure no one was watching, killed the Egyptian, and hid the body.

Doesn’t sound like an act of righteous indignation. Sounds like someone trying to hide what they are doing. Perhaps hiding an act can be righteous. Perhaps not.

We later read than when the act of Moses was revealed (Moses wasn’t too good at ensuring that no one was watching), he fled and stayed away for decades.

Again, doesn’t sound like an act of righteous indignation.

Moses had flaws, plenty of flaws. Sounds like Moses was like me. Murder? This reads like Moses was a murderer. I don’t like that as it goes against the narrative of Moses being a humble and God-following man. Still, that’s how the text reads.

Leviticus 20:8 (Christian Standard Bible)

8 Keep my statutes and do them; I am the Lord who sets you apart.

The people of God are different. They were different in the Old Testament times and, I believe we are different from the rest of the people in the world today.

Note, I am not writing that us followers of God today are BETTER. I am writing that we are DIFFERENT.

We read here that we are different because God makes us different. The translation I quoted uses the words “sets you apart.” The world, according to God, is over there while we are over here. We are separated or apart.

Another translation uses the word sanctify. God sanctifies us. That is a word that we don’t use outside of church. It simply means to take something and set it aside for a special purpose. God sets us aside for a special purpose in God’s plans for creation.

Another translation uses the word Holy. That is another special church word that we don’t use elsewhere. One meaning of Holy is separate or different. A Holy item is one that is different from all the others.

Followers of God are apart from the rest of the people in the world. God put us apart from everyone else because we accepted God in our hearts. This is simple, yet too complex to describe in words (at least I’m not smart enough to describe it in words).

Better? No. Different? Yes. God set us apart to be different.

Different in what ways? Well, if we had a few minutes or a few lifetimes, we could have that discussion. More to come one day on that.