| NUMBERS 7–8; PSALM 39 | Week 8, Day 1 |
Most of us would confess, after reading Chapter 7, that we would have been content if the writer had settled for the summary at the end rather than giving us the detailed, identical lists, which take up 72 verses. Rabbinical commentators felt that repetition was intended to show the stately solemnity that marked these gifts, and also to indicate that none of the princes wanted to outrank the others but that by their identical gifts they would show unity and harmony of spirit. According to tradition, Nahshon was chosen to lead the way because when the Israelites were pursued by the Egyptians at the Red Sea, the tribes hesitated to enter the waters; and while each urged the other, Nahshon plunged in, fearlessly trusting God.
I like also to think that this repetitious list shows that each gift matters to God, and that each one—even if identical!—is singular in heaven’s eyes. Each gift is a product of some person’s devotion, and each is given with the mark of the spirit of that individual. Therefore, each has its own glory and its own limitations.
Some stories need to be retold. When the Levites are consecrated to service, we are again reminded (8:14-19) that they are a special people because they take the place of the firstborn. But special as they are, they still must be cleansed and presented with a particular offering. Serving God is an awesome calling, whatever the level, whatever the task.
PRAYER: I give myself anew to you this day, O God. I am this one-of-a-kind person, and I want to be yours; in Jesus’ name. Amen.
What significance do you find in the fact that the people placed their hands on the heads of the Levites (Numbers 8:10) in the consecration process?
| NUMBERS 9–10; PSALM 40 | Week 8, Day 2 |
I never cease to marvel at the way biblical religion balances the spiritual and the commonplace. These chapters offer two examples.
The first has to do with what may seem to us a picayunish question, because we can’t fully sense the exalted significance of the Passover festival. But some Israelites were worried; what if some unavoidable circumstance prevented their participating in this once-in-a-year event?
Moses felt the gravity of the question and respected the earnestness of the inquirers. His answer preserved the sanctity of the occasion while also caring for the concern of the individual.
The other instance has to do with divine guidance. Israel was led by a cloud that hovered over the tabernacle by day and by “the appearance of fire” by night. They trusted this provision implicitly, whether moving frequently or at long intervals. Yet when Moses’ brother-in-law Hobab was going to leave, Moses pleaded with him to stay because he needed Hobab’s special skills: “You know where we should camp in the wilderness, and you will serve as eyes for us” (10:31).
Some might assume that direct divine guidance was enough. Moses recognized that God uses human beings. Spiritual as he was and accustomed as he was to dealing with God directly, Moses nevertheless was ready to seek human assistance. God has not left us alone in this world, and we ought not to act as if he had. Our cloud and fire may be a person.
PRAYER: Help me see your goodness in both the extraordinary and the commonplace, and to hear your voice through others. Amen.
Reflect on how, in your own life, God uses both the cloud and fire and the human (Hobab) to guide you.
| NUMBERS 11–12; PSALMS 41–42 | Week 8, Day 3 |
We expect so much from some experiences—adulthood, marriage, career, for instance—that when we come upon the hard places, we may not deal with them well. So it was with Israel and their freedom. There had been a certain kind of security in slavery that was missing in freedom, and Israel responded with murmuring.
This time their murmuring got the best of Moses. “Why have you treated your servant so badly?” he challenged God (11:11). When God promised a miracle, Moses answered in the fashion of the disciples when they found themselves with a hungry multitude (Luke 9:12-17). Although he had seen God’s provision in the past, his faith was a bit low just now.
But the more I see of Moses, the more I respect him. When God offers a remedy with a committee of seventy who will receive some of Moses’ spirit, Moses doesn’t cling to his power. And when Eldad and Medad begin to prophesy, Joshua is jealous for Moses; but Moses wishes only that “all the LORD’s people were prophets” (11:29). Then Moses is attacked by his own kin, Aaron and Miriam, and still he keeps a right spirit. When judgment falls on Miriam (since she alone was punished, it seems she led the way in this rebellion) and she is smitten with leprosy, Moses pleads to God on her behalf. Moses shows himself to be human enough but remarkably strong in an often thankless job.
PRAYER: If I, like Israel, complain of my life, hold me back from such murmuring as would destroy me; in Jesus’ name. Amen.
List, from these two chapters, the instances of Moses’ troubles or complaints and God’s ways of responding. What do you observe about people and about God?
| NUMBERS 13–15 | Week 8, Day 4 |
The church committee is at least as old as this story in Numbers 13. The plan was good: Get one representative from each tribe to search out the land and bring back a report. And they seem to have done their work well. But collected data is no better than the committee that interprets it, and in this case a large majority saw the data negatively. They confessed readily that it was a good land, flowing with milk and honey. But the towns were fortified, the people strong. How strong? “To ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them” (13:33). The sequence in their analysis is right, of course; when we see ourselves as grasshoppers, others will soon see us the same way.
Ten people felt that way. But Caleb spoke for himself and Joshua: “Let us go up . . . we are well able” (13:30). The difference in their points of view came from an intangible factor, as it so often does. Caleb and Joshua were confident of God’s help: “The LORD is with us; do not fear them” (14:9).
But the nation believed the negative report, not simply because it came from the majority, but because it is almost always easier to retreat than to move forward. So the Lord declared that none of that adult generation except Caleb and Joshua would enter the promised land. This is a rule of life; those who live in doubt, despair, and reluctance are sure to miss the best that God has for them.
PRAYER: Save me, O Lord, from seeing myself as a grasshopper. I want to enter into your promised land! In Jesus’ name. Amen.
The twelve spies were all working with the same data. How do you explain the different responses of the majority and the minority?
| NUMBERS 16–18 | Week 8, Day 5 |
Few things are so intoxicating as power. Three Levites, who already enjoyed a position of influence, decided they wanted more. Their argument seemed logical; “all the congregation,” they said, “are holy” (16:3). But in their grasping for power they failed to recognize that, though all were holy, all didn’t have the same calling.
Moses’