PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2023-2024

We have in this chapter one more round of sacrifices that are to be made on specific festival days.  Let’s lift up the festival of booths which begins in vs.12 and takes us all the way to the end of the chapter.  This is a religious celebration that was supposed to last 8 days, and each day had its own specific sacrifice that was to be made to commemorate the festival of booths.  Remember, this was a festival when they were to remember the time that they lived in the wilderness as wanderers in a foreign land.  The reference to this is also found in Leviticus 23.  But God commanded the people of Israel to live in booths during this time to remember their time in the wilderness.

It is interesting because Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday was right on the heels of the festival of booths and it is thought that the people were able to get the palms from the roofs of the booths that the people were living in during this festival.  But remember, these verses in Numbers would predate that event by millenia so the two are not related, except by the fact that in Jesus’ day they still celebrated this festival.

I remember when I was at Swarthmore that during this festival of booths time period there were students who would observe it and build their booths and spend time in them to meditate and pray and to remember that they were called by God to take the time in their Jewish heritage and faith to remember this time in their historical and religious background.  It always impressed me the faith and the willingness for these students to do something on campus which pointed directly at their faith even in the midst of an institution of higher learning which tended to be somewhat adversarial to any faith in general which demanded action that could be interpreted as defying reason.  But isn’t that the nature of faith in general?  

So here is a chapter that you are probably wondering what does this have to do with anything in my life?  I don’t take part in any sacrifices and these types of animal offerings are not a part of my religious life or my faith in any way, shape, or form.  You would be correct in making all of those statements.  This is a chapter that teaches the people of Israel how important it was to be disciplined in the offerings which were given to the Lord and that these offerings needed to be consistent and needed to be taken seriously.  Each one was different as each season and each festival of the year was considered unique and had its own offering.

Christians have never taken part in animal, much less human, sacrifices.  We believe, as Hebrews 10:1-18 states clearly that “we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all (vs.10).”  We do not have to offer any other sacrifices in order to satisfy God or in order to purify ourselves because the single sacrifice of Christ was sufficient to redeem us from our sins and to cleanse us from our unrighteousness.  Those are powerful and heady theological truths that we have received as children of God.  

So what we have before us is a reminder of the way that things used to be.  What we have in front of us in Hebrews and all of the New Testament, is the new covenant which no longer requires those sacrifices which are described.  But it is good to know our past in order to understand how we have arrived at where we are today.

We begin this chapter with an occurrence in the history of Israel which was very important and also very unique to the people of Israel.  Go back to chapter 26:33 and you will find a man named Zelophedad son of Hepher.  His claim to fame was the he had five daughters and their names were: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.  We pick up their story again in the first verses of this chapter.

Their father died and left behind no sons so if one were to interpret the laws which Moses was told to follow in regards to the distribution of the land, these five sisters would be without land because there were no brothers who were able to inherit it.  They appeal to God and ask that they would be able to inherit some of the land of their uncles and count it as their land since it was their father’s land.  God agrees and so the law is changed to accommodate those families that did not have sons in order to make sure that all families and their names would be able to be carried forward.  That is pretty remarkable for Old Testament stuff.

From there we move to the appointing of Joshua as Moses’ successor.  Notice in vs.18-21 where Moses is told to lay his hands upon him in the company of all the people so that all the people would be able to see that Moses was approving and imparting his power and the presence of God which used to be in him, upon Joshua.  It was a very powerful ascendancy ceremony which left no doubt as to who the new guy would be once Moses left office.  We  find in vs.23 that Moses commissions him in front of the whole congregation by laying hands on him.  

We find ourselves once again in a list of genealogy, but there is something that I want you to notice about this list that we haven’t seen in the previous lists.  This list contains historical insights into which tribe did what, and each of these insights normally includes a moment in the family’s history when they were not faithful to what the Lord required of them.  Look at vs.9 which speaks of the earth swallowing up this family.  This scene we already looked at in chapter 16.  We also see in vs.61 the recounting of the scene where Levi’s sons offered unholy fire before the Lord.  The result of these historical occasions inserted into these census numbers, were the reduction of the size of the family.

It is also interesting to see a comparison of this census to the one that was taken in chapter 1 before a whole lot of shaking went on.  Remember we have lost a bunch of Israelites to the earth opening up, to battles, to plagues, to serpents and so on.  The number given in this chapter is 601,730 compared to chapter 1 the number was 603,550.  

Another major change was that in the past when God had promised the land flowing with milk and honey each family got a certain size of land based upon the preference of the Lord.  Now we find in vs.52-56 that the land which the new generation will inherit once the old generation has died off, is based upon the drawing of lots and not upon preference.  That is also a big deal and quite different from before.  We are reminded of the fact that only Joshua and Caleb will be able to enter the promised land from the old school.

I am somewhat conflicted with the question of whether or not people should marry those of different religions.  I have had many discussions with folks about this, but Scripture, in both the Old and the New Testament seem to prohibit it.  There is an incredibly practical side to this which reminds us that when you are “unequally yoked” then what ostensibly should be the most important thing to you you do not have in common.  It is hard to overcome that barrier.

That was happening in Israel.   The Israelities were marrying Midianite women and things were not going well for the Israelities.  It was easier to follow along with what everyone else was doing, worshiping other gods, than to try to follow what just the Israelites were doing, worshiping only one God.  Moses calls the people together and as they are about to start the meeting some dude sneaks in with a Moabite woman to make things happen in his tent.  Everyone saw it, and maybe they thought it was no big deal and just let it slide.

That didn’t happen.  The grandson of Aaron, Phineas who was a priest at this time, saw this and he could not take it.  He took a spear and went into their tent and drove the spear into both of them at once.  This is not something they teach you in seminary, how to kabob your enemies.  But somehow he was able to do it.  This sign of zeal for the Lord impressed the Lord so much that God stopped the plague that was invading the camp because of their unfaithfulness.  

There is something about being filled with the zeal of the Lord which allows you to do things you didn’t think you would be able to do.  Now, we, of course, have to be exceptionally careful to not condone violence in the name of the zeal of the Lord.  That simply is not something we can ever imply especially in this 21st century.  But what else could we do in the name of the zeal of the Lord which would please God?  What could you do today in the name of the zeal of the Lord which would please God, and also not harm your neighbor? 

The story of this relationship with Balaam and Balak comes to an end this chapter, and it doesn’t end well for Balak.  Balaam does wise up and refuses to follow along with Balak for a third and final sacrifice to try to convince the Lord to turn his eyes favorably upon Moab.  Instead Balaam turns aside and see the soldiers of Israel and seems to be smitten with admiration for them.  He speaks an oracle, not because of the coaxing of Balak but of his own free will, and that oracle speaks well of what will happen with the people of Israel in this situation. 

As you can imagine Balak is furious.  I’m the one who hired you to speak on my behalf and here you go by yourself and bless my enemies.  I promised that I would make you rich, well you aren’t going to get a single penny from me.  Balaam is undisturbed by this and reminds him that he had already warned him that he could have offered all the wealth of his house but it would not persuade him to speak words which did not reflect what the Lord wanted him to say.  He could only say what God wanted him to say.

But don’t worry, he goes on, I will give you an oracle about Moab.  You can almost see Balak hesitate and wanting to say: Nah, that’s okay, I’m good.  The oracle is not good.  It speaks of the destruction of Moab and the rise of Israel.  After Balaam is finished then we simply have each of them going their separate ways.  You should not be able to convince a disciple of Jesus Christ to join your side with either money or power.  It is a lesson that is so powerful for us today as it seems that some within the Christian church in our country have sold their messages of prophecy for a seat at the head table.  

If at first you don’t succeed, if you are going against the Lord, then don’t try again!  What a chapter of futility that we find here.  So we continue  the story of Balaam, who is favored by God, and Balak, who is the king of Moab.  Balak is looking to overcome Israel which is encamped ready to take him on in battle.  He sets up 7 offering places hoping to get a positive review and a positive oracle from God which would place him in a good position to conquer Israel.  But when  Balaam comes down and tells Balak what God told him about what would happen, it was all good news for Israel and bad news for Moab.  

Maybe I was in the wrong location and God saw too many of the troops and got frightened.  Let’s go to a different location where God won’t see as many of the troops and maybe this time he will curse Israel and bless Moab.  The same thing happens and in fact this time God is somewhat insulted that Balak would think that God would change his mind so quickly.  “God is not a human being that he should lie.”we find in vs.19.  That isn’t quite starting off the way that he would like.  But the king doesn’t give up.  Let’s go up one more mountain and do 7 more sacrifices and see if this time the Lord is going to be on my side.

So what surprises me more than anything is not that Balak comes up with the idea of going to God a third time, but that Balaam agrees to go along with him and be the person who would hear what God would say.  This is true especially after God said that he isn’t going to change his mind.  He cannot curse his people the Israelites so you are wasting your time.  Let’s see what happens next chapter.

This is a story that leaves you scratching your head because in vs. 21 we have God telling Balaam to go ahead and go see Balak, the king of Moab, even though he had told him not to go previously.  Wait, first let’s set the stage.  Israel is striking fear in all the people that it comes across.  It’s next target was going to be Moab and the king and people of Moab were terrified because Israel was about to come up against them.  So the king looks out and tries to find allies.  He finds Balaam who was kind of a David figure, someone well respected as a soldier but didn’t really have nation under his care.  This would be David before he became king, of course.  

Balak, the king of Moab, approaches Balaam and tells him of the danger of the Israelites and that he will pay him if he were to come to his aid.  As result Balaam starts out to see what proposal he is offering.  God stops him and tells him to turn around in vs.13.  So he does.  Then later God tells him to go ahead with the people of Moab to visit the king just to see what he wants in vs.21.  So he does.  But then we read in vs.22 that God is pretty upset because Balaam decided to go, so somehow there is a disconnect here.   Balaam didn’t get the second message that he should not go, but he is about to get that message.

Balaam, a donkey, and an angel walk into a bar…  I know, that sounds like a bad joke but that is where we find ourselves in this chapter as God reveals himself through an angel but not to Balaam, but rather to his donkey.  Stay with me on this one.  The donkey sees an angel stopping its path, but that angel is not able to be seen by Balaam.  

There is an incredible interchange between the donkey and Balaam that is worth looking at.  At a certain point, after he had been beaten three times by his master, he says to his master (yes, we have a talking donkey in this story).  “Have you ridden me all your life?”  “Yes”.  “Have I ever acted in this way before?” “No”.  “Then don’t you think something peculiar is happening now that maybe, just maybe you should investigate?”  Then Balaam has his eyes opened and he is able to see the angel guarding the way.

It seems like we often forget to give people the benefit of the doubt, especially people that we have known all of our life to be reliable and dependent, but then it only takes one strike and they are out.  It only takes one time and we stop trusting them or thinking that they are the same people.  This is a strong call to us today to not only give people the benefit of the doubt but ask questions when things seem to go in a direction that is not normal, or not usual from what you would expect from an individual.

Israel is making its way through the wilderness in a roundabout kind of way and destruction is left in its wake.  The path that they are taking is a result of Edom refusing to let them pass.  So they try a different way.  While they make their way across the wilderness they come to the borders of other tribes and we find that they refuse to let them pass, but they just overcome them and lay waste to their territories and to their people.  

In the midst of the battles we find a couple of poetical intrusions.  Not sure why I call them intrusions, because they do seem to come from a place that is not unusual.  For example when the Egyptians were defeated Hannah sang a song and that was included.  It is not unusual for the Israelites to break out in song after a significant victory.  As a result we find two songs in this chapter.  There were a few significant victories in this chapter.  

We find the actual words of God which forbade Moses and Aaron and the people of Israel from entering into the promised land.  Once again, like an old record that keeps repeating itself, we see that the people of Israel complain.  This time the complaint is about not having water and the complaint goes something like this: you don’t really love us, if you did love us then you would have given us water to drink.  You would rather us die in the desert, if not you would have kept us in Egypt to live.  

We have heard this before where the Israelites complain and God reacts.  Well, this time his reaction is found in vs.12 after he performs the miracle through Moses of bringing water out of a rock.  The punishment is a result of the people of Israel not trusting in the Lord, and so because of that: “you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”  But it just kind of sits there and there is no real reaction from the people or from Moses.  That is a bit strange.

The chapter then transitions to Edom refusing passage for Israel, and Israel just being willing to take that.  And then it transitions to the death of Aaron and the passing on of his high priest responsibilities to his son Eleazar.  A lot happens in one chapter which will impact the future of the people of Israel.