February 28

III. Laws of Special Crimes - Deuteronomy 5:17; A. Crimes Against the Person, 1. Homicide - Exodus 21:12-14; Leviticus 24:17, 21; Numbers 35:16-19, 35:29-31, 35:33-34; Exodus 22:2-3; Numbers 35:22-28; Deuteronomy 19:1-13; Numbers 35:9-15, 35:26-28, 35:32; 2. Feticide - Exodus 21:22-25; 3. Kidnapping - Exodus 21:16; Deuteronomy 24:7; 4. Mayhem - Leviticus 24:19-20; Exodus 21:26-27; 5. Rape - Deuteronomy 22:25-29; 6. Assault - Exodus 21:15, 21:18-21; Deuteronomy 25:11-12; B. Crimes Against property - Deuteronomy 5:19; Exodus 22:1-4; Deuteronomy 19:14

One of the images I got when I googled in "Act of God."

"However, if he does not do it intentionally, but God lets it happen, he is to flee to a place I will designate." [Ex. 21:13]

"God lets it happen"....  Today, we call it an act of God.  But I'm not always sure if it's God will or Satan's.  So how do we determine who we're being "blessed" by?  I think that the prevailing thought that if the blessing is, in deed, a blessing than this is from God and not the devil.  But I'm not always certain.  Take for example - riches. It all depends, doesn't it?  What you do with it and what it does with you.

"...with an iron object," "a stone in his hand;" and "a wood object in his hand"  [Num. 35:16-19]

Why is God so interested in what instrument a consumer uses to murder?  Did they legalistically  say that if you used this or that you weren't actually guilt of murder?  The iron object, the stone or the wood object were the murderers?  In other words, people don't kill people.  People with guns kills people without guns.

Make of it what you will.

Post from last year on this date.

February 27

II. Laws of Government - A. Concerning a King - Deuteronomy 17:14-20; B. Respect for Rulers - Exodus 22:28; C. The Judicial System - 1. Establishment of Courts - Deuteronomy 16:18, 17:8-13, 1:9-18; 2. Fairness and Justice - Exodus 23:3, 23:6, 23:8; Leviticus 19:15; Deuteronomy 24:17-18, 16:19-20; 3. Witnesses - Deuteronomy 5:20; Exodus 23:1-2, 23:7; Deuteronomy 19:15-21, 24:16, 25:1-3, 21:22-23

Zondervan invites 31,173 people from across the country to help handwrite the Bible through the Bible Across America project.

Such brief but powerful thoughts:

When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levities.  It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left.  [Deut. 17:18-20]

Wouldn't it be good for the leader of our land to take the time to write out the scripture and contemplate it as he takes office?  What if instead of just placing his hand on the Lincoln Bible to be sworn in, President Obama had written out the 13th Chapter of Corinthians or the opening to Genesis?  How powerful would that have been?  Do Presidents know about this passage?  What passage would you have President Obama write out in his own hand?  Unfortunately, if he'd done this, an industry would have sprung up immediately to emblazon decorative plates, t-shirts and beer koozies with the Obama verses.  Oh, well.

Hey, here's a "kustom" wedding beer koozie.  So the official koozie emblazoned with the Obama Inaugural Verses isn't so crazy.

"Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong.  When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd." [Ex. 23:2]

Standing against the crowd is such a lonely a place to be.  Even so, you do not stand alone when you stand for the right.

Post from last year on this date.

February 26

O. Persons Excluded from the Congregation - Deuteronomy 23:1-8; P. The Nazirite Vow - Numbers 6:1-21

Do not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother.  Do not abhor an Egyptian, because  you lived as an alien in his country.  The third generation of children born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord. [Deut. 23:7-8]

Israel wasn't the only chosen people.  God has a plan for everyone.  Israel was chosen for one thing, Edomite and Egypt for another.  

It's interesting that a land we think of as being so pagan - Egypt - played such a pivotal role in the history of God's people.  For there was one Pharaoh who listened to what God had to say to him in a dream and thought enough of a man of God to put him in charge of his country.

Post from last year on this date.

February 25

N. Purification - 1. After Childbirth - Leviticus 12:1-8; 2. For Leprosy - Leviticus 14:1-32; 3. For Discharges - Leviticus 15:13-15, 15:28-30; 4. Concerning Death - Numbers 19:10-22, 19:1-10

An engineer's view of men and women.

The Lord said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites: 'A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be ceremonially unclean for seven days.... If she gives birth to a daughter, for two weeks the woman will be unclean.... [Lev. 12:1-5, Emphasis mine]

Why?  Why the difference?  Would the cultural view of women been so insurmountable for God?  Could He not have put men and women on better footing and as equals by just treating them the same?  I wonder.  I wonder.

But some day we'll know.  But somehow in that day, I suspect, the answer to my question won't matter at all.  For what can compare to an eternity with Him?

Post from last year on this date.

February 24

K. Rules for the Priests - Leviticus 21:1-24, 22:1-16; L. The Sabbatical Year - Leviticus 25:1-7, 23:10-11; M. Year of Jubilee - Leviticus 25:8-34, 25:39-43, 25:47-55

Something that makes me happy; something that makes me hurt -- all in one reading.

I love the Year of Jubilee.  Imagine the man forced to sell everything he has - all of his land, his home, even selling his family into slavery.  Downtrodden, despairing, only to have his whole life given back.  Again and again, property and people are restored.  Played out again and again in miniature is the story of God freeing His people from Egypt.  Also the subtle reminder that nothing we own is truly ours.  It's God's.

Then there is a passage so difficult for me to fathom.  Why are the blemished, the disfigured, the deformed, not allowed to serve?  God could have gone against our nature of thinking those unlike us are somehow less than we are.  Does He do this as a nod to the times?  I thought He wasn't a respecter of persons.  All of this in a passage of the Bible that reminds us again and again: "I am the Lord, who make them holy." So why not make them holy instead of laying a foundation upon which man will stand to ridicule and disparage.  Why?  I don't know.  But I accept that He is God and God is love.  I trust something fantastic, unimaginable and eternal awaits those who were slighted during this brief fleeting bit of time we know as life on Earth.

I trust in what God has done because I know what He has prepared.  

Make of it what you will.

Posted last year on this date.

February 23

5. Guilt Offerings - Leviticus 5:14-19, 6:1-7, 7:1-10, 7:37-38; 6. Special Offerings - Numbers 28:9-15; Deuteronomy 21:1-9; 7. rules Pertaining to Offerings - Leviticus 22:17-30; Deuteronomy 17:1; Exodus 23:18, 34:25; J. Other Rituals - Leviticus 24:1-9; Numbers 6:22-27

Sometimes I feel there are elements of the Bible that sort of instigate man's legalism.  Certainly man is prone to it so why would God sort of push his buttons?  

For example, in today's reading, the elders and judges are to measure the distance from a body left by an unknown murderer.  They're to measure and see which town is nearest to the location of the body.  Doesn't that sort of thing just seem to invite legalism?  So did they pace it off?  Use a tape measure?  Can you see our leaders - religious or civil - stretching a tape measure, slowly measuring off the distance?  Even then there'd be disputes over where the edge of town really begins and do you measure around or across a pond or lake?

So why did God sort of seem to empower that with the explicit nature of his early laws?

It was nice to close the reading with a blessing given by the Lord.  So concise and poetic.  So memorable and, therefore, so oft quoted and sang.  Imagine being Moses and hearing this short verse roll of the Creator of the Universe's tongue.  God reciting poetry to Moses.

"The Lord bless you

and keep you;

the Lord make His face shine upon you

and be gracious to you;

the Lord turn his face toward you

and give you peace."  [Num. 6:22-26]

Post from last year on this date.

February 22

3. Peace Offering - Leviticus 3:1-17, 7:11-21, 19:5-8, 7:28-36, 17:1-7

How particular God is.  

"This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live:  You must not eat any fat or any blood." [Lev. 3:17]  I remember the no blood part but not the no fat.  My middle child would have been a perfect Jew.  Growing up he picked the fat off of everything.  Even bacon.  

But why no fat?  When it gives so much flavor?  Are God's dietary restrictions arbitrary or are they for the health of His people?  I don't think anything God asks of us is arbitrary or the busy work we suspected most of our teachers in Middle School had assigned to keep or energy channeled.

I believe God has a reason for everything He asks of us.  But I'm not always comfortable assigning that meaning and I'm equally not as comfortable assigning the most obvious meaning to it.  I do not pretend to know the mind of God.  I find knowing when it comes to God can be presumptuous.  And what you go down that path you feel that you know everything.  I think God prizes faith and obedience.  I think knowledge is way over rated.  Yes, we should study and seek to know God.  But I think it's more like knowing a person than knowing facts, like the why and how of God.

I read the Bible for hints and glimpses.  I read it with the knowledge that Jews had been searching and interpreting the scriptures for centuries and missed the coming of God's son.  

So what am I missing?  

Post from last year on this date. 

February 21

Sacrifices and Offerings - 1. Burnt Offerings - Leviticus 1:1-17, 6:8-13; Numbers 28:1-8; Leviticus 17:8-9; 2. Cereal Offerings - Leviticus 2:1-16, 6:14-23; Numbers 15:1-21

"It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the Lord." [Leviticus 1:9]

So much killing, so much blood.  I can't imagine the smell that must have welled up from the Tent of Meeting.  It must have reeked like a meat processing plant.  The stench of spilled blood and a disemboweled animal carcass wafting through the camp.

Is this a pleasing aroma to God?  

Or a reminder to man of the putrid stink of sin and the bloody mess it is to deal with. 

Post from last year on this date.

   

February 20

The Special Feasts - Exodus 23:14-17, 34:23-24; Deuteronomy 16:16-17; 1. Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread - Exodus 34:18; Deuteronomy 16:1-8; Numbers 9:13-14; Leviticus 23:4-8; Numbers 28:16-25; 2. Feast of Weeks - Deuteronomy 16:9-12; Leviticus 23:9-21; Exodus 34:22; Numbers 28:26-31; 3. Feast of Trumpets - Leviticus 23:23-25; Numbers 29:1-6; 4. Day of Atonement - Leviticus 16:1-34, 23:26-32; Numbers 29:7-11; 5. Feast of Tabernacles - Leviticus 23:33-44; Numbers 29:12-40; Deuteronomy 16:13-15

Two "booths" built for the Feast of Tabernacles - one Jewish and the other by Christians honoring the tradition and sharing in the realization that our place here on Earth is only temporary.

Wow, I wish we lived during the times of the great feasts to the Lord.  Well, four feasts and one fast.  Amazing, the parade of animals sacrificed (making even more amazing the release of one small goat, the scapegoat, alive) and two of the feasts are weeklong celebrations.  The Lord specifically commands the people to be joyful at two of the feasts and in another one the trumpets are to sound.  How could you not help but shout for joy when those trumpets sounded?!

Of course, we do have our feast.  

I think we've done communion a disservice by reducing it to a small fingertip-size bit of cracker and a thimble-full sip of grape juice.  Where's the supper in that?  It not only minimizes the portions but it also minimizes the celebration.

How about a Sunday morning where the entire church is dismissed at communion to the gym for a real Lord's Supper?

Of course, the Feast of Booths caught my eye.  Living outside the comforts of home, raising a temporary structure and remembering their time of wandering.  We are just camped out here on Earth.  Wouldn't it be amazing to do this with a church?  Have us all camp out to remind us that we are only temporary citizens on this Earth and that are real dwelling is with God.

For in the day of trouble

He will keep me safe in his dwelling;

He will hide me in the shelter of His tabernacle

And set me high upon a rock.

Psalms 27:5

We get too comfortable, too permanent, too caught up in the culture of we are where we live and what zip code we can afford to live in and what neighborhood in that zip code we call home.  We take such pride in something that won't last.  It's a bit silly, isn't it?  Lavishing such time and attention and pride in something that will just melt away in the face of the Son.  

Lord forgive me.

Post from last year on this date.

February 19

Religious and Ceremonial Laws (Continued) - B. Laws Against False Spiritualists - Leviticus 19:26, 19:31, 20:6-8; Deuteronomy 18:9-14; Exodus 22:18; Leviticus 20:27; Deuteronomy 13:1-5, 18:15-22; C. Laws Regarding Blasphemy - Deuteronomy 5:11; Exodus 22:28; Leviticus 24:10-16, 23; D. Laws Requiring Dedications - Exodus 22:29-30, 34:19-20, 23:19, 34:26; Deuteronomy 15:19-23, 18:1-8, 14:22-29; F. Special Instructions for Conquest - Deuteronomy 26:1-15; Leviticus 19:23-25; G. Law of the Sabbath - Exodus 23:12, 35:1-2; Leviticus 19:3; Deuteronomy 5:12-15; Exodus 31:16-17; Leviticus 19:30, 26:2, 23:1-3; Exodus 35:3, 34:21, 31:12-15; Numbers 15:32-36

Oops, for get the Temple and Tabernacle -- God's Dwelling Place...is a Woman's heart.

"Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name...." [Deut. 14:23]

"...The place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name" appears several times in today's reading.  I'm sure they wondered where this place would be.  An altar?  A pile of rocks?  A pole on a hillside?  Beneath the shade of a tree?  A plastic figurine tacked to the dashboard of their car?  The other gods had their places.  Where would their God's place be?  What place would be big enough for this God who comes in the guise of a pillar of fire or a column of smoke?  This God who lights up the summit of an entire mountain for 40 days?  What one place would be worthy and as eternal as He is eternal?  

In time that place will be the City of Jerusalem.  But only for a time...  

Today the place "He will choose as a dwelling for His Name" is inside those who wear His Name.  His Name is written on the  human heart.

How incredible to think that we - no matter how blemished or broken or handicapped or damaged - we are His Place, His Body, His Church.  We are His Tent and Tabernacle.  And so we should value every person on the Earth.  For they are the place God calls home.

My post from last year on this date.

February 18

The Laws of Moses - Introduction to the Laws - I. Religious and Ceremonial Laws - Deuteronomy  5:5-10; Exodus 22:20, 23:13, 34:17; Leviticus 9:4, 26:1; Deuteronomy 16:21-22; Leviticus 18:21, 20:1-5; Deuteronomy 14:1-2; Leviticus 19:27-28; Deuteronomy 13:6-18, 17:2-7, 12:1-15, 12:17-22, 12:26-31

All of us pray for blessings on our children.

Ok, we've reached that part of the Bible that is just straight out laws.  Makes for dry reading, right?  Certainly no gems here, right?  But I pause at that part in the reading when the Lord says:

"...I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments." [Deut. 5:9-10]

I pray often that the sins of this father will not impair the lives of my children.  And I thank the Lord for the blessing of my father and grandfather's devotion to God.  I wonder how much of what I am blessed with and what my children are blessed with are because of the lives of my fathers before me.  We have an obligation not only to our children but to our children's children. Let's not just save the Earth for them.  Let's save their souls.

Today is the birthday of my youngest child, Sawyer.  He's 18 today.  May his life and the lives of all my children and your children, reader, be blessed down through the generations.

My post last year on this date.

February 17

The Lawgiver Urges Obedience (Continued) - Deuteronomy 9:1-29, 10:1-22, 11:1-32

A drawing done by a German artist during the Second World War, Kathy Kollwitz, of a woman who's lost her husband.

Monument in Japan to the war widows.  The two countries America defeated during WWII both have art honoring the pain and sorrow of widows.  But does the great victor of WWII have a memorial to widows?  I don't know of one...do you?

"He [the Lord] defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.  And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt." [Deut. 10:18]

God has a heart for the fatherless, widows and aliens -- the overlooked and disenfranchised in society.  Widows and aliens sure aren't very glamorous causes.  And we seem to take more offense that show compassion to aliens.  We think they will come in and take what is ours.  Ironically, like the Israelites, we came into this country and took it from others.  We are aliens here.  Yet we fear others will do what we've done.

What right do we have to claim for ourselves what is only God's to give?

In today's reading, Moses warns the Israelites that they are not taking possession of the land because of their righteousness.  Why is it we always think we're due the blessings we have?  Why do we think we'd never commit the sins the Children of Israel did?  

The only difference between them and us that I can see...is grace.

My post from last year on this date.

February 16

The Lawgiver Urges Obedience - Deuteronomy 4:44-49, 5:1-33, 6:1-25, 7:1-26, 8:1-20

I used this picture last year on the post for this date.  It's a favorite of mine.  My son John likes to wear his shoes until they fall apart.  Our friend Skidmore calls them his Canaan Shoes...you know, Canaan, "where the soul of man never dies."

This is Moses' second farewell address.  And he's really stressing obeying and honoring God and avoiding the idols and false gods of the people they will conquer to take the Promised Land.  It's as if he knows what will and does happen.

Once again, I'm take by their physical closeness to the Creator of the Universe.

"These are the commandments the Lord proclaimed in a loud voice to your whole assembly there on the mountain from out of the fire, the cloud and the deep darkness; and He added nothing more.  Then He wrote them on two stone tablets and gave them to me.

"When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, all the leading men of your tribes and your elders came to me.  And you said, 'The Lord our God has shown us His glory and His majesty, and we have heard His voice from the fire.  Today we have seen that a man can live even if God speaks with him.'" [Deut. 5:22-24]

Besides Moses, Joshua and Caleb, the only ones listening to Moses who were alive when God gave the 10 Commandments were just children at the time.  The others have died off in the wilderness.  I wonder how they remembered the voice of God now so many years later?  It astounds me to realize that people once actually truly clearly heard the voice of God, experienced in a physical way His presence and could have even traced His penmanship in the tablets of stone.  There was no questioning whose commandments these were.  I long to hear and see and feel.

It's kind of ironic now that this one bit of Biblical literature that traces back to the voice and hand of God is the one that men fight to have banned from public display.

They marveled that "a man can live even if God speaks with him."  But I wonder that a man can live without God speaking to him.  This dialog, this relationship is real life.

Then there is the mention that as they wandered "Your clothes did not wear out...." [Deut. 8:4]  What an amazingly mundane sort of miracle.  But an interesting little detail -- their clothing didn't wear out during their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.  Imagine it?  Kind of frightening for the fashion conscious and the fashion industry.  But I wonder what the people's response to this miracle was? Instead of rejoicing, I wonder how many complained?  Nothing but manna and quail, manna and quail, and sometimes quail and manna for 40 years.  And, on top of that, the same pair of goofy shoes and the same old outfit you've been wearing for the last 40 years.  

"Say, didn't you wear that yesterday...and the day before that?" 

The clothing didn't wear out...but did it smell?  And I wonder how this wear-resistant attire accommodated expanding waistlines?  Is manna fattening?  High in sodium and cholesterol?  Chalk full of niacin and riboflavin?  Brimming with antioxidants?  Carbohydrate and cavity and steroid free?  One wonders.

My post from last year on this date.      

February 15

Moses Reviews History and Purpose - Deuteronomy 1:1-46, 2:1-37, 3:1-29, 4:1-40

"The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands.  He has watched over your journey through this vast desert.  These forty years the Lord your God has been you, and you have not lacked anything." [Deut. 2:7]

As he ends closes his moment in history as the leader of Israel, Moses speaks to the people.  

Perhaps, I need to rethink the wandering in the wilderness as punishment.  

Yes, they wandered because they didn't have enough faith to believe God would fight their battles for them as they entered the Promised Land.  But maybe this punishment was really opportunity.  The chance to see God.

What we believe to be punishment God really means as blessing for His people.  God can make all things good just as Satan can and does make good things bad.  As I look at it now, the wandering was a time to see God caring for them in such intimate ways.  Is there a more intimate portrait of the Lord than this:

"The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as He did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the desert.  There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a  father carries his son all the way you went until you reached this place." [Deut. 1:30-31]

How poetic and intimate a picture.  Just think of it - God carrying us like a father carries a small child on his shoulder.  I can't help but remember the time my Grandpa Eddy took me home in the middle of the night because I was so homesick.  I feel asleep before we got there - finally at ease and still in the knowledge he was taking me home - and he carried my body, unaware, to the door of my parent's trailer house.  I didn't even know it when it was happening.  But my request had been answered.

"What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?" [Deut. 4:7]

"...the Lord your God, who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go." [Deut. 1:32-33]

God knows life is all about location and direction, where we are and where we're going.  And He takes us there so often unaware or taken for granted.  

This reading is a satisfying one to me...except for one thing.  Why does Moses blame the people three times for his not being able to enter the Promised Land?  Did he truly feel it was their complaining and whining that caused him to disobey God.  Or, in the midst of this beautiful oration, does he show in his final public act that he is as human as the people he sought to lead?  None of us are truly worthy to step into Promise.

But the Lord provides.

My post last year on this date.

February 14

Joshua Named as Successor - Numbers 27:15-23; Two-and-a-Half Tribes East of Jordan - Numbers 32:1-42, Deuteronomy 4:41-43; Preparations for Conquest and Settlement - Numbers 33:50-56, Deuteronomy 25:17-19, Numbers 34:1-29, 35:1-8

A Joshua Tree.

How did the Joshua tree get its name?  The story goes that the Mormon pioneers thought the Joshua Tree's limb look like the upstretched arms of Joshua leading the Children of Israel to the Promised Land.

After so many years and miles and memorable moments with Moses as the leader, Joshua is made his replacement in just a matter of verses.  I wonder if the people felt the suddenness of the transition?  Sort of like moving from Bush to Obama.  Remember Bush?  

It makes me pause and wonder.  Such an important change handled with such brevity in scripture.  Joshua steps into a very different job than the one Moses had.  He doesn't have Aaron to speak for him.  He doesn't have a Miriam's female influence.  It's just Joshua.  The wandering is done.  The people don't need the same type of leadership.  

It's time for war and not wandering.

My post from last year on this date.

February 13

Israel's Second Numbering - Numbers 26:1-65

(Zelophehad son of Hepher had no sons; he had only daughters, whose names were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah.) [Numbers 26:33]

(Asher had a daughter named Serah.) [Numbers 26:46]

Two parenthetical mentions of daughters in a culture so dominated by men.  Tucked away in the long lists of men.  Like whispered asides.  Almost apologetic.  But so remarkable that they can't be hidden or suppressed.  I imagine these women were exceptional to merit some mention here.  

Lest we think our God is a respecter of persons, a sexist, a number of extraordinary women are step from the pages of the Bible as prophetess, leaders, teachers, warriors, lovers, disciples, witnesses, blessed.  We use far fewer text for scriptural authority to pay preachers or abstain from instrumental music in the worship.  

Women have a role worthy of mention.  And so the Bible does.  Again and again.

My post from last year on this date.

February 12

Israel Sins in Moab - Numbers 25:1-18; Destruction of the Midianites - Numbers 31:1-54

A really thoughtful art installation where every person on the Earth is represented by one grain of rice.  It's by James Yarker and is called "Of All the People in the World."  I wonder how the 24,000 grains of rice representing the Israelites killed by God through the plague (or for that matter all the people killed by an "Act of God") compares to all of the people killed by other men.

"'Your servants have counted the soldiers under our command, and not one is missing.  So we have brought as an offering to the Lord the gold articles each of us acquired -- armlets, bracelets, signet rings, earrings and necklaces -- to make atonement for ourselves before the Lord.'" [Numbers 31:50]

Isn't that just the way it is?  Isn't it?!  In today's reading, 24,000 Israelites die because of their sin, but not a single man goes missing in a war that brings total annihilation to the Midianites.

It's not what we fear will kill us that kills us.  It's the things we do every day that slowly rob us of this life and the next.  We see the death totals daily from Iraq and mourn for the parents and spouses and children while all around us greater misery and destruction and devastation goes on without notice or acknowledgement.  

We fear our children going off to war.  Never seeing that they're already in the middle of battle.

My post from last year on this date.

February 11

Blessings and Prophecy of Balaam - Numbers 22:1-41, 23:1-30, 24:1-25

Popular culture's adaption of Balaam and the talking ass?

God doesn't act the way we would have Him act.  He doesn't choose for His purposes the people we would have Him to choose.  Take for example this curious character called Balaam.  He's a seer and oracle who practices divination.  And yet, this outsider calls upon the Lord and is heard.  In some ways, Balaam seems more faithful to God's wishes than the children of Israel do.

"I will bring you back the answer the Lord gives me."  [Num. 22:8]

"But Balaam answered them, 'Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything great or small to go beyond the command of the Lord my God.'" [Num. 22:18]

"I must speak only what God puts in my mouth." [Num 22:38]

"Perhaps the Lord will come to meet with me."  [Num.23:3]

"The oracles of Balaam son of Beor, the oracle of one whose eye sees clearly, the oracle of one who hears the words of God, who has knowledge from the Most High, who sees a vision form the Almighty, who falls prostrate, and whose eyes are opened." [Num. 24:15-16]

We try to explain it away - Balaam's power to curse and to bless.  And why does God care if Balaam blesses or curses Israel?  Would his curse actually take without the Lord empowering it?  Can he curse or bless on his own or with help from some other power?  

God even meets with Balaam! [Num. 23:4]  Not reveal Himself to him or thunder on him or strike him with fear at the Glory of the Lord.  He meets with him.

I think Balaam honestly believes in the power of this God.  Enough so, that he will forego riches from the King.  He will defy the King and obey the Lord, blessing instead of cursing Israel.  

His story might have been completely different if he'd not schemed and found another way to attack God's people.  If he believed in the God of Israel, how did he ever think he would get away with tempting Israel to sin?  Lord knows.

My post last year on this date.

February 10

From Kadesh to Moab - Numbers 20:1-29, 21:1-35; Moses' Journal of Israel's Trek - Numbers 33:1-49

Memorial on the road....

"At the Lord's command Moses recorded the stages in their journey." [Numbers 33:2]

As a hiker and a writer, I couldn't help but note Moses' hiking journal.  A pretty succinct read for 40 years of wandering around.  I can't imagine living in a tent and being on the move for that long.  Even on a good day hike, I'm usually ready to see trail's end.  While I love God's nature and experiencing it on a Smoky Mountain Hike, I'm as anxious to end a trek as I am to begin it.  It's having experienced something and savoring it in your ease that's as rich as the experience itself.  

God's for hiking, for living in a tent and for writing.  I like this God.

One of the first scenes Moses' journal of the journey paints is a chilling one -- "They marched out boldly in full view of all the Egyptians, who were burying their firstborn...." [Numbers 33:3-4]

How could you ever forget that?  One moment shared by two peoples with two very different responses.  The Israelites march out upright in promise and celebration and possibility.  The Egyptians are bent over in defeat and mourning and the death of so many dreams for their children.  How could they not remember that moment when times got tough and know that God was with them?  All of the death and mourning and wailing of mothers who've lost a child as you walk out and into life.

My post from last year on this date.

February 9

Challenge to Leadership - Numbers 16:1-50, 17:1-13, 18:1-32

What were they thinking?  Korah and the "250 well-known community leaders?"  This isn't a nameless or faceless mob.  It's not a bunch of rabble or rebels.  It's the leadership challenging Moses' authority.  Why?  They saw him lead them through the Sea on dry land.  They've witnessed him in God's presence.  Yes, they lost the battle Amalekites and Canaanites.  But that wasn't Moses' fault.  It was their own because they listened to the statistics.  They listened to what 10 out of 12 had to say rather than the One God.  

So why are the leaders doing this?  Are they using Moses as a scapegoat because of their own shortcomings?  Has the power gone to their head?  Well...they're about to get in over their heads...literally.  One of the toughest things for a group of men to do is to consider that they might be wrong.  And when they've found themselves to be wrong, to acknowledge it.  Why don't people come forward or open up and ask for prayers and admit their weakness?  Because they are not lead to...only told to do it.  

Leadership isn't telling.  It's doing.

"Ahhh, everyone take a step back from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, please."  

The wives and children seems a little excessive, don't you think?  Unless some of the wives badgered their men into taking a stand.  Now, I'm not saying they did.  But I wonder.  I don't understand the taking of innocents?  It seems on the surface like a total disregard for human life made in the Creator's image.  That's what it seems like to me on the surface and, Lord knows, that's as deep as I can fathom or see.  But I have faith even when I don't see.  

So the 250 leaders are dead.  

Then the people complain about what happened to the people who complained and a plague kills another 14,700.  What irony.  Those that the Lord's plagues had freed are now claimed by the Lord's plagues.  

And so the distance between God and man continues.  First we walked with God in the Garden.  Then He made personal appearances with the tribal leaders.  He had a meal with the Children of Israel's leadership on the mountain.  Then He was in the smoke and in the fire and at the Mercy Seat and His glory shown at the Tent of Meeting for all to see.  Now He wants the people to take step back.  Our sin is destroying His desire to be close to us.  

"From now on the Israelites must not go near the Tent of Meeting, or they will bear the consequences of their sin and will die." [Numbers 18:22]

Another sad sentence in the history of man's dealings with God.  Forgive us, Lord.  Thank you for drawing near when we were powerless to be worthy of your company.

My post last year on this date.

February 8

Moses Rebuked by Miriam - Numbers 12:1-16; The People Lack Courage - Numbers 13:1-33, 14:1-45

From the beginning, God has been with us, close enough to touch and always reaching.  This is not just a Christ thing.  It is the loving nature of our Father.

The Lord comes down twice in this reading and both times to respond to a crisis of leadership.

Miriam and Aaron murmur against Moses apparently because they didn't approve of his marriage choice.  Looks like their disappointment was racially motivated.  They question Moses' authority and God is quick to move to reestablish it.  He comes down.

"Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud; He stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam." [Numbers 12:5]

Of Moses, he reminds them that to prophet's he appears in visions and dreams but to Moses "I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord."  [Numbers 12:8]

Then again, the leaders of the Twelve Tribes who go into the Promised Land to spy come back with a fearful report [except for Caleb and Joshua] and God is quick to respond.

"Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the Tent of Meeting to all the Israelites." [Numbers 14:10]

Moses deflects the Lord's anger over these leaders' lack of faith by using the very fact that God is among these people as a reason not to destroy them.  He says that the Egyptians "have already heard that You, O Lord, are with these people and that You, O Lord, have been seen face to face, that Your cloud stays over them, and that You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night." [Numbers 14:14]

God is.  And He has always been for us and with us.  His presence among us is a constant and the greatest display of His love and caring.

My post from last year on this date.