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It starts early in life. “You’re not the boss of me,” we petulantly tell our parent, sibling, teacher, or other authority figure. From the beginning we want to be the one calling the shots, directing others around us to serve our needs, getting that shot of pride that feeds our ego.

The reading today concerns a story that serves as a reference for a number of Old and New Testament passage, Korah’s rebellion. It’s a tough lesson about leadership and how God’s kingdom is not a democracy!

Korah was a Levite, but he wasn’t happy about the task that he had been given. He appears to have been among those who were growing weary of the wilderness wanderings and wanted a regime change. He had persuaded a couple of other vocal individuals to help him whip up more opposition to Moses — 250 leaders from among the 12 tribes. They were the “Return to Egypt” party.

After an exchange of words, Moses told the 250 leaders to come to the Tabernacle with incense burners. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram — the ringleaders — refused to come with the others. Moses warned the other Israelites to get away from their tents, and after people Israel had complied, God opened up the earth to swallow Korah, Dathan, and Abiram and their families! At the same time, the 250 men who had gathered at the Tabernacle were consumed by fire from Heaven. Moses was told by the Lord to take the incense burners of these 250 (which, of course, survived the fire) and hammer them onto the altar of sacrifice as a clear reminder and warning to Israel ever after against opposing God and His leadership. The warning still applies.

But people still try to usurp God’s leadership. There are those who call themselves Christian who prefer the traditions of men (Mark 7:1-13) over the word of God. There are those who call for the leadership and authority of men over the kingship and authority of Jesus, because it is, after all, 21 centuries old. There are those who call for women’s leadership over men’s leadership in the church. There are those who call for egalitarianism in the home. And those who call for revolution, just because.

“Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.” Romans 13:1-7, NAS95.

God calls for order (1 Cor. 14:33) and He has assigned leaders among mankind (e.g., 1 Tim. 2:14ff). And as has been said already in these books of Moses a number of times already, grumbling against God’s leaders, when they are following God’s will, is really grumbling against God Himself. The truth is that as much as we like the idea of democracy, God’s kingdom is not now, will never be, and never has been a democracy.

God is the rightful boss of me. I have no right to replace Him with me or anybody else. In fact, I am foolish to even attempt to do so. Not only is it actually impossible; it is absurd — like replacing Socrates with a simpleton.

See you tomorrow, Lord willing.

Today’s reading takes on silver trumpets, a beginning-of-the-day & end-of-the-day prayer, and not just one but two examples of greed (and how God responds to it). So, let’s dive right in.

Chapter 9 commands Israel to make, how to make, and how to use silver trumpets. On the surface of it, there doesn’t seem too much here for NT readers to learn; but doesn’t it teach us something about the need for God’s people to act in a unified way? There were over 600,000 men capable of going to war (not even to mention the women, children, and enfeebled) and coordinating that many people without modern technology would have been much worse than the proverbial “herding cats”. The trumpets and their appropriate signals were absolutely necessary to orchestrate the Israelite multitude. And the lesson I draw from it for myself is how important it is always is for God’s people to act or respond in accord with leadership — God’s or the congregational leaders’. American culture is so independence minded that we often feel completely un-obliged to follow or cooperate with the group or the leadership, unless it is totally convenient for us. There is great power — on many different levels — in unity. Remember, God actually said about the people of Babel, “…Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.” Genesis 11:6, NAS95.

And did you notice the “opening” and “closing” prayer of Moses during times when they were following the cloud of God’s presence through the wilderness? There’s a song in many of our hymnals that comes from Numbers 9:35, “Let God Arise”. Wouldn’t that be a great way to start your day? Give us a little pep to our step, a little more courage to meet the day’s sometimes challenging events? But it works, of course, only if we’re actually going to follow Him through the day — like Israel followed Him through the wilderness. And then, at the end of the day, we could breathe the prayer, “Return, O LORD to the myriad thousands of Israel.” And by the way, “Let God arise…” takes on special meaning, when we consider that Jesus arose and defeated (scattered) the last enemies, sin and death.

But the reading today goes on to talk about a couple of incidents of greed — the people’s and Aaron’s and Miriam’s. In both cases they wanted to “look a gift horse in the mouth” — in the case of Israel, they wanted better food, and in the case of Aaron and Miriam they wanted more status and power. God had adequately provided for them, but God’s provision just wasn’t “good enough”, it wasn’t Egyptian cooking.

A friend of mine asked his girl to marry him and he gave her a ring. Not a really rich young man, he provided as nice a ring as he could afford. The young woman accepted his proposal, but later talked him into getting a better ring. My friend went along with it, but her greed definitely hurt his feelings.

This is not to say that God resents it when we ask Him for things; He invites us to offer Him our petitions. Nor does God want to discourage ambition or success; He expects us to use our talents to their best effect. But we, especially in America, have learned greed and even come to believe that it is sort of our right to get “better”, “more”, and “keep up with the Jones'”. On the other hand, Jesus taught contentment.

Finding the “sweet spot” between contentment and appropriate ambition takes more than a little discernment a lot of times, but we should take warning that if our “ambition” turns us to either do what God has forbidden (including covetousness or lust) or not do what God has positively commanded us (becoming, for example, too busy to come to church), we’ve crossed the line — it’s greed.

What things did you see in these chapters today?

See you tomorrow, Lord willing.

Wow, if you add up all the gifts that were brought to the Tabernacle by the leaders of the tribes of Israel, it’s enormous! Eighty-nine verses dedicated to offerings which were — unless I missed some detail — exactly the same every time. But whenever I see apparent redundancy I’m moved to wonder why. The Bible is usually very efficient in its verbiage. So why is chapter 7 so long-winded? I don’t know for sure, but perhaps it was to insure that no tribe would be able to boast more of an investment in the Tabernacle, and thereby have a greater claim on the Tabernacle, than another. Maybe it was simply to demonstrate the generosity of the people toward the Lord’s sanctuary — which was impressive and substantial. Maybe it was both. Maybe it was something that I’m missing altogether. What are your thoughts?

In chapter 9 there is an interesting ordinance for those who could not observe the Passover feast due to some sort of uncleanness (e.g., burying a relative) or being away on a journey; it is known as “The Little Passover”. It underscores the importance of the Passover celebration to God. But there’s also something interesting in 9:13 in relation to the observation of the “Little Passover” — you can’t choose to postpone celebrating Passover because of negligence or inconvenience. In a bulletin article I read years ago, a parallel between this principle and Sunday morning church attendance was made. Sometimes folks find worshipping with the whole church on Sunday morning inconvenient — they’d rather sleep in and just go to church at the evening service, when the Lord’s Supper will be offered again. I’ve always thought that the writer — whoever he may be — had a point. Laziness, especially in connection with the practice of faith or religion,  is never countenanced in Scripture; we ought to take warning.

See you tomorrow, Lord willing

The last three chapters of Leviticus have an awful lot of great information that you want to make sure not to read over too quickly. There’s the root meanings of redemption here, there’s Jubilee here, there’s a prophecy about the Jewish exile that is amazingly accurate, and other interesting references that turns up in the New Testament later. Where do we begin?

It’s just hard to stay away from the idea of Jubilee, so I guess that’s what I’ll ramble on about. It’s just such an awesome idea that God came up with. People sometimes became so poor — poor without a social safety net — that selling the farm, selling one’s family so they could eat, and even selling oneself was the only option available to sustain life. Since almost everyone was a farmer in these times, selling the farm, the family, and oneself was getting into a situation in which financial recovery was almost impossible for generations, if ever — unless you might have a close relative rich enough and willing out of family devotion to bail you out. This happened (see the book of Ruth), but not often. So every 50 years (seven sabbath years plus one) all Jewish slaves were released, all debts were forgiven, and all farms returned to the original family — in other words the chalkboard of mistakes, tough breaks,  and heartaches got erased. Going back to one’s inheritance, freedom, the light of hope breaks over the horizon, family reunion, and the former poverty is in the rearview mirror! No wonder the term Jubilee came to mean a major celebration!

And there’s a Jubilee coming for us, too, as Christians. A day when all the mistakes, tough breaks, heartaches, slavery, and troubles will be alleviated by the Lord’s return. Freedom, inheritance, family reunion, and the riches of Heaven! And, wow, the celebration that will break out! Heaven’s Jubilee!

See you tomorrow, Lord willing.

God is not just like anyone else. His honor is not to be taken lightly; His gifts to the priests were not to be given away to an ordinary person; men’s gifts to Him were not to be anything but the best; His holy days were not to be celebrated casually; and His Name was to be used with respect, never to be cursed.

Among the things that you are likely to notice in the book of Leviticus is this emphasis on holiness. In the 21st century western world, where casualness and egalitarianism is the rule and the norm, we are likely to think that Leviticus is indulging in a little exuberant hyperbole — until we see those who treat God too familiarly, too lightly, receive the death penalty. He was quite serious about it, and since God’s nature doesn’t change, we would do well for our soul’s sake to also treat Him as the holy being that He is. He is not like men, even like a king or other political dignitary — He is greater, nobler, higher, and worthier. He is not like the other so-called “gods” of the world who are supposedly due great honor and respect and get it from their worshippers — He is higher, greater, more powerful, and due the greatest of honor and respect, because He is real!

So, when the Lord tells us that gifts He has given to His priests ought not be squandered on the vulgar or common, we can reap the principle that the gifts He gives us should be stewarded well. When we read how God should not be given anything that is blemished or lacking, we need to reap the principle that He is deserving of our best efforts, our best time, our best products, our first fruits — our best, period. When we read of the holy days that He commanded Israel to observe with their correlated Sabbath observances, we should harvest the principle that we need to give God full attention in worship times. When we read of how severely an angry usage of His name received the sternest of consequences, we need to take warning regarding our own words.

We’d like to make God our buddy, but He is not. He has condescended to allow us to call Him Father, to call us His sons, to allow us to approach His throne through Jesus His only begotten Son, to invite us to unburden ourselves on Him in prayer, because He cares for us — but He is still holy.

Today’s reading continues to deal with the sort of behavior expected from the priesthood, both personally and religiously. Wedged in here and there, however, are sections about law for the general nation of Israel. We can learn things from both.

In chapter 19 we can read something that sounds more like something we’d have expected to hear in the New Testament rather than the Old:

“You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.” Leviticus 19:17, 18, NAS95.

But there it is. Love toward a neighbor was not new with Jesus, despite what we may have understood Him to have said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” John 13:34, NAS95. What Jesus is saying is not merely that we should love one another (as important as it is), but that we should love one another as He loved us. That’s the new part. And that’s food for plenty of thought. It’s one thing that God should tell us to love one another; it’s another to see how that’s done! It’s why Jesus is also called (in the Gospel of John) the Word.

But the Old Testament passage calling for love also lines out for us how we are to respond when we have differences — revenge and grudges were forbidden. Grudges are the condition of the heart from which revenge comes. It continues to think about and ponder and review the offense. It considers “what would teach ’em” or what would “suit them”. And the revenge that wants to emerge from the grudge doesn’t seek justice; it wants justice “plus”. Even in extremis on the cross Jesus kept the law without blemish being the perfect example of this command as He prayed for God’s forgiveness of those who were killing Him.

See you tomorrow, Lord willing.