Hi all! Welcome to the book of Numbers! You are officially two books down. How fast that seemed to have flown by. Number's seems like auditors dream as every little small detail is listed down the number. Similar with Leviticus, this may be dense material but there are still nuggets of absolute beauty in here. Let me know what sticks out to you. I'd love to keep the conversation going.
Scripture to Read
Audio Bible
Questions to Consider
What does this teach me about God?
What does this teach me about humanity?
What stuck out to me in the text this week? Why is that?
- My Thoughts -
I don't have too much to say about this one. Nothing quite stuck out to me but chapter 5 did make me chuckle. It reminded me of the Monty Pythons Witch Hunt and the absolutely silly things people would do to try and prove that a woman was a witch. To have a woman drink salt water mixed with some type of ink is absolutely going to cause her to swell and get sick regardless of her guilt or not guilt. That's just how the natural sodium potassium levels in your body work! It is silly to me that a man can make a "jealousy" offering based on his wife's supposed actions but she cannot do anything back to him, and, even if he is wrong in his accusation no punishment comes to him. Poor women must have had to guzzle down this salty mixture on a weekly basis. I do not believe Jesus would condone this as evidenced when he come across the women caught in adultery and simply strokes her cheek and tells her to go and sin no more.
There's a lesson here in retribution vs forgiveness that is sitting me with. Also, the idea of faith and reward seems to shine through in the Psalm. David celebrates his actions not because it is an act of worship of how God has changed him, but rather as a list of why God should bless him. The western culture of church often rewards the church that teaches a prosperity theology making us believe that God wants to bless us for our faith - but what does it mean to flip the script and bless God with our lives? What is sitting with you?
Prayer:
Thank you God for this day. Thank you for the almighty power of love and its ability to heal all wounds. Encouraged by the prophet Micah I will seek to love my neighbor as my self, to act with justice, to love with mercy, and to walk humbly with you each and everyday. Now and always let this be my prayer, amen.
A couple of things stuck out to me from the readings. First, it says to kill people who get too close to the tabernacle/sanctuary who aren't permitted to be there, later the church becomes sanctuary/protection for anyone who needs it, interesting.
Second, in the psalm David says that God takes no pleasure in offerings/sacrifices, which seems to go directly against what Leviticus just spent ages telling us.
I see it as a way to realize laws/practices evolved from the beginning of the bible to later on, something to keep in mind for following the word of the bible instead of the meaning (I say this for myself to remember, and possibly to bring up in discussions with literalists)