Almond Staff

Num 17:13-24         11/25/2017

Moses was directed by God to gather the staffs of the twelve tribal leaders. Each wrote their name on their staff. Moses put the staffs before the Ark of the Covenant. The next day, Aaron’s staff had budded, formed leaves and flowers and produced mature almond fruit.

A sign.

The people could not believe that Moses and Aaron had things right with God. The Israelites believed in God (under the circumstances it would have been hard to deny) but they couldn’t understand how things kept going so wrong.

Every man’s way is right in his own eyes.

The Israelites felt like they were doing what they had been commanded. They were sure the problem was elsewhere.

Israelite Logic: So if the problem isn’t the Israelites, and it’s not God, then it must be Moses and Aaron.

The logic of self-justification.

Of course, this whole logic doesn’t work with Jesus. I can’t really hold to the belief that He is God, and that He is the high-priest who mediates between men and God the Father through His atoning sacrifice, and also claim that I am justified by my behavior.

But I’m still reluctant to change my behavior. In fact, through some strange metaphysical gymnastics, I like to imagine that my behavior doesn’t actually matter because I am justified by grace.

Every man’s way is right in his own eyes.

Cheap Grace. Bonhoeffer coined the term but it wasn’t unique to his experience.

Ripe almonds from a walking stick remind me that God has established order.

The call is to own my failings and work to get better. I commit to stop blaming others for my problems.

If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing. 1 John 1:9

 

Plague of Wrath

Num 17:3-12         11/24/2017

The Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron because of the horrible deaths of Korah, Dathan and Abiram and their families. As the community began to assemble against them, God sent a plague. In response to the outbreak, Moses sent Aaron to run amongst the people with atoning incense to stop the plague.

Anxiety is an anticipation of impending doom in the absence of an immediate threat. It is a foreboding sense that things are going wrong. It is not rational. It is driven by our sense and feeling, limbic brain.

Anxiety causes a reaction. A community of anxious people might do almost anything.

The Israelites had made Moses into a sort of mad scientist who was trying desperately to control a nuclear chain reaction. God had become little more than a bomb waiting to go off.

Yet this God they abhorred was still the God of all creation. The God of Adam and Eve; the God of Noah; the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. All of these people knew God. They enjoyed relationship with God.

And He with them.

How do we reconcile all this death and fear and anxiety?

Even now I cower at the prospect of meeting God. Saved as I am. Saved as I may be. I left for a long time because of this desperate fear – this cosmic anxiety.

Yet in the silence of listening I have begun to imagine my God; a Person – who wants to whisper a Word into my life. And even alone, this is a comfort. This is my freedom. This is my everything.

A plague cannot kill those who are already dead.

He is not God of the dead but of the living. You are greatly misled.” Mark 12:27

Earth’s Mouth

Num 16:26-17:2         11/23/2017

The Lord directed the people to separate from the tents of Dathan, Abiram and Korah. The earth opened and swallowed the men, their families and all their possessions.

Wrath.

At God’s command, the earth had become an untrustworthy, carnivorous beast.

Just reading this vignette is disturbing because the earth is doing something so un-earth-like. Whether I think about it or not – I count on the earth to not move.

The earth is not supposed to move. That is the deal that I’ve made with the earth. It doesn’t move and I depend upon it.

I suppose it is little more than a curious scientific fact that the earth is actually always moving. The motion is for me imperceptible, but it is real.

And I’m OK with science as long as it doesn’t affect me – as long as I don’t perceive the earth moving.

Noticeable quaking, however, is unacceptable. It lays waste every assumption of stability that I have. I have my heuristics. I don’t like to be challenged in this way.

I really don’t like to be challenged in this way.

I encounter God once again. Every time I do, He turns out to be a little bigger and a little more powerful than I imagined.

“Who is like the LORD our God” Psalm 113:5

God Clarifies with Fruit

Num 16:12-25         11/22/2017

Korah assembled 250 leaders from all of Israel. Unlike the two Reubenites (Dathan and Abiram), he met Moses’ challenge to assemble before the tent of meeting. The Lord descended in glory and threatened to wipe out the community. Moses and Aaron prevailed upon the Lord to spare the assembly.

Korah’s challenge was directed against Aaron. They were cousins from the tribe of Levi. Korah believed he should also be able to minister as priest before the Lord just as Aaron did. He saw in Aaron’s priesthood an implicit and unwarranted nepotism.

The great challenge of my personal, moral failures is that they invariably effect other people. In contradiction to modern libertarian thinking, there really is no such thing as strictly “personal” sin. Others in the community are always touched by even my most private sins.

Solomon once threatened to divide a child in order to reveal the motives of two contentious women. The fruit of each woman’s actions revealed what was good and true and beautiful – and what wasn’t. It couldn’t have happened another way. The fruit of their actions had to be revealed.

This is the wisdom of God.

Korah’s indifference to the good of the community was manifest in his fearless approach to the tabernacle with priestly incense. My indifference to the good of community is manifest in my ruthless pursuit of success and power with indifference to the meaning of the work I do or the people around.

May heaven help us.

“By their fruits you will know them” Matt 7:16

You Go Too Far

Num 16:1-11         11/21/2017

Korah led a faction of Levites challenging Moses and Aaron’s authority as high priest.

Korah was frustrated with Aaron and Moses and their claims for authority.

Envy – this powerful weakness that seems almost baked into our human disposition. Not something recent or even the result of conditioning – Augustine saw it in the face of an infant twin waiting on his brother for the breast.

Fully manifest – it is sometimes said that we lose sight of God. Our conscious awareness forgets that God is purposefully sovereign in every circumstance – a fundamental Christian claim.

We see the man, or woman, or child or other in possession of something. We judge; it’s not warranted – undeserved.

It’s the obvious injustice that we can’t stand. This other does not deserve what they have; their circumstances, their possessions, their power, their appeal – none of it is deserved.

The conscious temptation is to doubt God – but never to blame God. My piety intuitively avoids blaming God. It’s the other that has made God’s good plan a farce.

In my moment of envy I find the problem. It’s Moses. It’s Aaron. It’s Saul. It’s David. It’s Ahab. It’s Jeremiah. It’s Jesus. It’s Paul. It’s Ambrose. It’s the pope. It’s John of the Cross. It’s Bernadette. It’s Pio. It’s my boss. It’s my wife. It’s my rival.

But no matter what I tell myself, Moses heard it right from the beginning. This rejection has nothing to do with Moses or Aaron or anyone else. It is anger and hatred toward God. My envy is hatred of God. Hatred of the circumstances that He allows in my life. It is the total objectification of the original person.

I have to own that.

It’s a sickness.

I have to own that in order to get better.

“The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice.” Matt 23:2-3

Tassels

Num 15:28-41         11/20/2017

The Israelites sometimes forgot the laws and precepts given by God through Moses, resulting in deadly errors. God instituted tassels on the fringe of the Israelites’ clothing as a way of remembrance.  The tassels were supposed to help  keep the laws and precepts in the forefront of their individual and collective consciousness.

It’s the forgetting that leads to error. I forget God. I forget that He’s in the situation (no matter what the situation is). I forget that my priority is to serve my Creator and Savior. I forget that God is somehow in my brother and sister on earth. I forget that God loves my brother and sister on earth. I forget that God loves the earth He created.

Tassels on my cloths – The tassels thing isn’t working for me.

Maybe it should. Maybe my memory is too short. Maybe my conscience is to too calloused.

“Be ye perfect…” He says.

“It’s too much. I can’t do this. It’s impossible!” My pitiable response.

I’m suddenly struck by how much my lament sounds almost verbatim as when my twin three year old sons struggle to pull up their pants.

I’m not sure if this is hopeful or not.

Jesus looked at them and said, “For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” Matt 19:26

Purification and Sacrifice

Num 15:16-27         11/19/2017

God gave Moses a rite of sacrifice to be performed for purifying the community.

One law for the native and for the resident alien.

One forgiveness for the native and for the alien.

A universal claim.

There is one law because there is one God.

Even from its earliest inception, the community of God is the Authentic Community – a community of people who seek to know and serve the one, true God.

“Then they laid hands on them and they received the holy Spirit ” Acts 8:17

On Offerings

Num 15:3-15         11/18/2017

Instruction: The animal sacrificial offerings should be made with the stuff of bread and wine. A meal.

Shared experience. Abram offered the three strangers a meal. He prepared it in their presence. He begged them to stay in hospitality.

Jesus had no home. He took no thought for eating or drinking – trusting that all that was needful would always be available.

He lacked for no good thing. He shared the food of those who offered – those who showed him hospitality. The offerings of his hosts and hostesses were unwitting sacrifices made to the God of all creation.

He said, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’

So – I can’t say that I don’t know what to do.

“Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels” Heb 13 :2

Too Late

Num 14:36-15:2         11/17/2017

The ten scouts who had given the discouraging report died. God directed Moses to turn away from Canaan and head out to the wilderness. Realizing their mistake in not obeying the Lord, men from the tribes made the decision to go ahead and fight the Amalekites and Canaanites in order to enter into the promised land. Moses refused to participate and the effort was defeated.

Time is a strange thing. People say: There’s always time for that…It’s never too late…There’s always time for repentance. It’s sobering when I reflect on the fact that it’s clearly possible to be too late.

The temptation: To do God’s will my way. To do God’s will in my time.

What would have been an act of faithfulness yesterday is an act of impudence today. It’s not the act. It’s not the action. It never was.

It’s the response. More specifically: It’s the one being responded too.

It’s all about the present. It’s about now; this moment – this instance.

To not see God’s hand in the ordinary circumstances of life – in this moment – is a denial of the truth. I become blind. In the absence of truth I wander aimlessly, re-living in the past; wishing that I had chosen differently. And so, the only thing I see clearly is a past opportunity missed.

The Way of Givenness isn’t really optional.

“Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” 2 Cor 6:2

Pronouncement

Num 14:25-35         11/16/2017

God responded to the Israelites’ faithlessness by condemning the first generation to death in the wilderness over the course of forty years of wandering. Also, He promised that the second generation would survive to enter into Canaan.

Caleb and Joshua. The exceptions. The exceptional scouts. There’s always a remnant. The few faithful amongst a generation that has proven itself faithless. God always provides for a remnant.

But I’m not Caleb or Joshua. I’ve been faithless. I have been frightened. I have been filled with pride, and envy and wickedness, and every kind of moral failing. What do I have to do with remnant?

How can I not be beyond saving?

God is the God of eternity, but He is also the God of moments. Epics come from episodes. A journey comes from many steps.

God is the God of eternity but you are only given moments. You are gifted with a new episode. Today you have the opportunity to take another step – whether you deserve it or not.

This is what it means to receive as given.

No matter every step that has already been taken; No matter every story about you that has already been written; No matter every moment that has already been missed; in grace God continues to give.

“a dimly burning wick he will not quench” Isa 42:3