May the mumbling commence!
It is time to say goodbye to Leviticus. Some of those faithful chronological Bible readers will celebrate. Yes, Leviticus can be difficult to get through; but the laws for the priests have this underlying Spirit: so the God can make us holy. Where to now? Welcome to Numbers. Some of you may groan and think, “Out of the frying pan and into the fire.” Don’t worry. There are faith nuggets and rich truths even in Numbers…
That being said, I struggled through the first two chapters of Numbers today. There is nothing like a bunch of hard to pronounce names and a lot of numbers. For you math geeks out there, let’s think about the numbers for a while. According to Genesis 46:26-7, Israel totaled seventy men when they first descended upon Egypt. Fast forward four-hundred some odd years and Israel totaled 603,550 men capable of serving in the army. That number does not include women, children, or men too feeble to serve. That number also does not include any men from the tribe of Levi. How’s that for a population increase! I don’t know. Would that be a normal increase in numbers in a healthy growing community? Or does that qualify as a population explosion? Did the Lord work a miracle in this expansion? I seem to remember Pharaoh worrying about the increase of the Hebrew population…
And, you know me. I like to look for meaningful patterns. I see a pattern with great potential at the end of each chapter. “The Israelites did all this just as the Lord commanded through Moses (Num 1:54).” And, “So the Israelites did everything the Lord commanded through Moses (Num 2:34a).” Wouldn’t it be nice if following the Lord was always so easy, so cut and dried? But, even for Israel, there were struggles. Unfortunately, they did not always follow the Lord’s commands so well. So, we can take comfort when we fall short of what the Lord commands of us. God will not break covenant with us. Jesus is always waiting for us to return…
If there is a portion of today’s Scripture that I would like to focus on, it would be in chapter one starting with verse 47:
The families of the tribe of Levi, however, were not counted along with the others. The Lord had said to Moses: "You must not count the tribe of Levi or include them in the census of the other Israelites. Instead, appoint the Levites to be in charge of the tabernacle of the Testimony – 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. Whenever the tabernacle is to move, the Levites are to take it down, and whenever the tabernacle is to be set up, the Levites shall do it. Anyone else who goes near it shall be put to death. The Israelites are to set up their tents by divisions, each man in his own camp under his own standard. The Levites, however, are to set up their tents around the tabernacle of the Testimony so that wrath will not fall on the Israelite community. The Levites are to be responsible for the care of the tabernacle of the Testimony."
The Levites were not to go to war. They were devoted to the service of the Lord. They cared for and carried the Tabernacle of the Testimony. No one else could help them in this endeavor. When the camp of Israel was at rest, the Levites camped between the other people of Israel and the Lord’s Tabernacle so that wrath would not fall on the Israelite community. Caring for and carrying the Tabernacle would be quite a workload. I wonder why the others could not pitch in. What precluded the others from such holy work? And what would bring the wrath of God?
Could it be because the Levites did not go to war? In Chronicles 22:8-9, King David speaks to his people, “But this word of the Lord came to me: ‘You have shed much blood and have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my Name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight. But you will have a son of peace and rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side.’”
As a Christian, I feel strongly about Jesus’ call to love my enemies. Though war and killing seem to be the way of humanity, it is not the way of God. People of this day also need a group of Levite-like people to provide a buffer from the wrath of God. May I be a person of peace. I give thanks for the Word of the Lord today.
Enough mumbling for today…
Peace Out
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