Plymothian

God is a God of organisation.  He took the disorder of chaos in Genesis 1 and made a world.  Now he takes a people from slavery and organises them into a free army.  The Israelite identity is forged around a collection of tribes ordered by clans.  Those listed are fighting men, the women and children are still unnumbered.  Approximately two million people have been arranged by God to found a new Kingdom of the covenant.  the world was never to be the same.  Do you see God bringing order from chaos?

Numbers 2

¹ The LORD said to Moses and Aaron: ² “The Israelites are to camp around the Tent of Meeting some distance from it, each man under his standard with the banners of his family.”

 ³ On the east, toward the sunrise, the divisions of the camp of Judah are to encamp under their standard. The leader of the people of Judah is Nahshon son of Amminadab. ⁴ His division numbers 74,600.

 ⁵ The tribe of Issachar will camp next to them. The leader of the people of Issachar is Nethanel son of Zuar. ⁶ His division numbers 54,400.

 ⁷ The tribe of Zebulun will be next. The leader of the people of Zebulun is Eliab son of Helon. ⁸ His division numbers 57,400.

 ⁹ All the men assigned to the camp of Judah, according to their divisions, number 186,400. They will set out first.

 ¹⁰ On the south will be the divisions of the camp of Reuben under their standard. The leader of the people of Reuben is Elizur son of Shedeur. ¹¹ His division numbers 46,500.

 ¹² The tribe of Simeon will camp next to them. The leader of the people of Simeon is Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai. ¹³ His division numbers 59,300.

 ¹⁴ The tribe of Gad will be next. The leader of the people of Gad is Eliasaph son of Deuel. ^{[a] 15} His division numbers 45,650.

 ¹⁶ All the men assigned to the camp of Reuben, according to their divisions, number 151,450. They will set out second.

 ¹⁷ Then the Tent of Meeting and the camp of the Levites will set out in the middle of the camps. They will set out in the same order as they encamp, each in his own place under his standard.

 ¹⁸ On the west will be the divisions of the camp of Ephraim under their standard. The leader of the people of Ephraim is Elishama son of Ammihud. ¹⁹ His division numbers 40,500.

 ²⁰ The tribe of Manasseh will be next to them. The leader of the people of Manasseh is Gamaliel son of Pedahzur. ²¹ His division numbers 32,200.

 ²² The tribe of Benjamin will be next. The leader of the people of Benjamin is Abidan son of Gideoni. ²³ His division numbers 35,400.

 ²⁴ All the men assigned to the camp of Ephraim, according to their divisions, number 108,100. They will set out third.

 ²⁵ On the north will be the divisions of the camp of Dan, under their standard. The leader of the people of Dan is Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai. ²⁶ His division numbers 62,700.

 ²⁷ The tribe of Asher will camp next to them. The leader of the people of Asher is Pagiel son of Ocran. ²⁸ His division numbers 41,500.

 ²⁹ The tribe of Naphtali will be next. The leader of the people of Naphtali is Ahira son of Enan. ³⁰ His division numbers 53,400.

 ³¹ All the men assigned to the camp of Dan number 157,600. They will set out last, under their standards.

 ³² These are the Israelites, counted according to their families. All those in the camps, by their divisions, number 603,550. ³³ The Levites, however, were not counted along with the other Israelites, as the LORD commanded Moses.

 ³⁴ So the Israelites did everything the LORD commanded Moses; that is the way they encamped under their standards, and that is the way they set out, each with his clan and family.

Questions

1. What must the people camp by?
2. Which tribe is listed first?
3. Do you see significance in the order the tribes are listed?
4. How would this organisation change how a group of former slaves perceived themselves?
5. How has your self-perception been changed by God?

This chapter reminds me of the mustering scene in Lord of the Rings.  The Riders of Rohan come from all the corners of the kingdom to ride against Moria.  In Numbers 1 we see the marshalling of Israel’s strength as they move forward and God makes them into an army.  600,000 fighting men leads scholars to calculate a group of 2,ooo,000.  The provision of God as he takes them through the Red Sea and into the desert is miraculous indeed.  However, dissent is always on the horizon as God’s people are unable to fulfill their side of the agreement.

Numbers 1

 ¹ The LORD spoke to Moses in the Tent of Meeting in the Desert of Sinai on the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites came out of Egypt. He said: ² “Take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one. ³ You and Aaron are to number by their divisions all the men in Israel twenty years old or more who are able to serve in the army. ⁴ One man from each tribe, each the head of his family, is to help you. ⁵ These are the names of the men who are to assist you:
       from Reuben, Elizur son of Shedeur;

 ⁶ from Simeon, Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai;

 ⁷ from Judah, Nahshon son of Amminadab;

 ⁸ from Issachar, Nethanel son of Zuar;

 ⁹ from Zebulun, Eliab son of Helon;

 ¹⁰ from the sons of Joseph:
       from Ephraim, Elishama son of Ammihud;
       from Manasseh, Gamaliel son of Pedahzur;

 ¹¹ from Benjamin, Abidan son of Gideoni;

 ¹² from Dan, Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai;

 ¹³ from Asher, Pagiel son of Ocran;

 ¹⁴ from Gad, Eliasaph son of Deuel;

 ¹⁵ from Naphtali, Ahira son of Enan.”

 ¹⁶ These were the men appointed from the community, the leaders of their ancestral tribes. They were the heads of the clans of Israel.

 ¹⁷ Moses and Aaron took these men whose names had been given, ¹⁸ and they called the whole community together on the first day of the second month. The people indicated their ancestry by their clans and families, and the men twenty years old or more were listed by name, one by one, ¹⁹ as the LORD commanded Moses. And so he counted them in the Desert of Sinai:

 ²⁰ From the descendants of Reuben the firstborn son of Israel:
       All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, one by one, according to the records of their clans and families. ²¹ The number from the tribe of Reuben was 46,500.

 ²² From the descendants of Simeon:
       All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were counted and listed by name, one by one, according to the records of their clans and families. ²³ The number from the tribe of Simeon was 59,300.

 ²⁴ From the descendants of Gad:
       All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families. ²⁵ The number from the tribe of Gad was 45,650.

 ²⁶ From the descendants of Judah:
       All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families. ²⁷ The number from the tribe of Judah was 74,600.

 ²⁸ From the descendants of Issachar:
       All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families. ²⁹ The number from the tribe of Issachar was 54,400.

 ³⁰ From the descendants of Zebulun:
       All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families. ³¹ The number from the tribe of Zebulun was 57,400.

 ³² From the sons of Joseph:
      From the descendants of Ephraim:
       All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families. ³³ The number from the tribe of Ephraim was 40,500.

 ³⁴ From the descendants of Manasseh:
       All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families. ³⁵ The number from the tribe of Manasseh was 32,200.

 ³⁶ From the descendants of Benjamin:
       All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families. ³⁷ The number from the tribe of Benjamin was 35,400.

 ³⁸ From the descendants of Dan:
       All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families. ³⁹ The number from the tribe of Dan was 62,700.

 ⁴⁰ From the descendants of Asher:
       All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families. ⁴¹ The number from the tribe of Asher was 41,500.

 ⁴² From the descendants of Naphtali:
       All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families. ⁴³ The number from the tribe of Naphtali was 53,400.

 ⁴⁴ These were the men counted by Moses and Aaron and the twelve leaders of Israel, each one representing his family. ⁴⁵ All the Israelites twenty years old or more who were able to serve in Israel’s army were counted according to their families. ⁴⁶ The total number was 603,550.

 ⁴⁷ The families of the tribe of Levi, however, were not counted along with the others. ⁴⁸ The LORD had said to Moses: ⁴⁹ “You must not count the tribe of Levi or include them in the census of the other Israelites. ⁵⁰ Instead, appoint the Levites to be in charge of the tabernacle of the Testimony—over all its furnishings and everything belonging to it. They are to carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings; they are to take care of it and encamp around it. ⁵¹ Whenever the tabernacle is to move, the Levites are to take it down, and whenever the tabernacle is to be set up, the Levites shall do it. Anyone else who goes near it shall be put to death. ⁵² The Israelites are to set up their tents by divisions, each man in his own camp under his own standard. ⁵³ The Levites, however, are to set up their tents around the tabernacle of the Testimony so that wrath will not fall on the Israelite community. The Levites are to be responsible for the care of the tabernacle of the Testimony.”

 ⁵⁴ The Israelites did all this just as the LORD commanded Moses.

Questions:

1. How was the census organised?
2. Which people were counted?
3. Which tribe was not counted?
4. How is God’s faithfulness shown in this passage?
5. If God took a census of spirit-filled warriors, how many would he have?  Would you be included?

Leviticus could be an outline of the marriage ceremony between God and Israel.  The first years of marriage were no honeymoon.  As the wife ran off and did her own thing, the husband gave more and more warnings until his patience was worn out.  Numbers does have two accounts numbering the people of Israel.  However, the alternative name for the book places the people of God in the desert.  This is the bridging book between Mt. Sanai and the Promised land.

Read an introduction to numbers in a commentary or study Bible.

^{The firstborn of a family always belong to the LORD.  However, it was possible to dedcate more than the first born of a family to the LORD.  It was even possible to show by a sacrificial act of giving that you considered your house to be God’s house.  How do you show that you are set apart for God?}

^{Leviticus 27}

¹ The LORD said to Moses, ² “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If anyone makes a special vow to dedicate persons to the LORD by giving equivalent values, ³ set the value of a male between the ages of twenty and sixty at fifty shekels ^[a] of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel ^[b] ; ⁴ and if it is a female, set her value at thirty shekels. ^{[c] 5} If it is a person between the ages of five and twenty, set the value of a male at twenty shekels ^[d] and of a female at ten shekels. ^{[e] 6} If it is a person between one month and five years, set the value of a male at five shekels ^[f] of silver and that of a female at three shekels ^[g] of silver. ⁷ If it is a person sixty years old or more, set the value of a male at fifteen shekels ^[h] and of a female at ten shekels. ⁸ If anyone making the vow is too poor to pay the specified amount, he is to present the person to the priest, who will set the value for him according to what the man making the vow can afford.

 ⁹ ” ‘If what he vowed is an animal that is acceptable as an offering to the LORD, such an animal given to the LORD becomes holy. ¹⁰ He must not exchange it or substitute a good one for a bad one, or a bad one for a good one; if he should substitute one animal for another, both it and the substitute become holy. ¹¹ If what he vowed is a ceremonially unclean animal—one that is not acceptable as an offering to the LORD -the animal must be presented to the priest, ¹² who will judge its quality as good or bad. Whatever value the priest then sets, that is what it will be. ¹³ If the owner wishes to redeem the animal, he must add a fifth to its value.

 ¹⁴ ” ‘If a man dedicates his house as something holy to the LORD, the priest will judge its quality as good or bad. Whatever value the priest then sets, so it will remain. ¹⁵ If the man who dedicates his house redeems it, he must add a fifth to its value, and the house will again become his.

 ¹⁶ ” ‘If a man dedicates to the LORD part of his family land, its value is to be set according to the amount of seed required for it—fifty shekels of silver to a homer ^[i] of barley seed. ¹⁷ If he dedicates his field during the Year of Jubilee, the value that has been set remains. ¹⁸ But if he dedicates his field after the Jubilee, the priest will determine the value according to the number of years that remain until the next Year of Jubilee, and its set value will be reduced. ¹⁹ If the man who dedicates the field wishes to redeem it, he must add a fifth to its value, and the field will again become his. ²⁰ If, however, he does not redeem the field, or if he has sold it to someone else, it can never be redeemed. ²¹ When the field is released in the Jubilee, it will become holy, like a field devoted to the LORD; it will become the property of the priests. ^[j]

 ²² ” ‘If a man dedicates to the LORD a field he has bought, which is not part of his family land, ²³ the priest will determine its value up to the Year of Jubilee, and the man must pay its value on that day as something holy to the LORD. ²⁴ In the Year of Jubilee the field will revert to the person from whom he bought it, the one whose land it was. ²⁵ Every value is to be set according to the sanctuary shekel, twenty gerahs to the shekel.

 ²⁶ ” ‘No one, however, may dedicate the firstborn of an animal, since the firstborn already belongs to the LORD; whether an ox ^[k] or a sheep, it is the LORD’s. ²⁷ If it is one of the unclean animals, he may buy it back at its set value, adding a fifth of the value to it. If he does not redeem it, it is to be sold at its set value.

 ²⁸ ” ‘But nothing that a man owns and devotes ^[l] to the LORD -whether man or animal or family land—may be sold or redeemed; everything so devoted is most holy to the LORD.

 ²⁹ ” ‘No person devoted to destruction ^[m] may be ransomed; he must be put to death.

 ³⁰ ” ‘A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD. ³¹ If a man redeems any of his tithe, he must add a fifth of the value to it. ³² The entire tithe of the herd and flock—every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd’s rod—will be holy to the LORD. ³³ He must not pick out the good from the bad or make any substitution. If he does make a substitution, both the animal and its substitute become holy and cannot be redeemed.’ “

 ³⁴ These are the commands the LORD gave Moses on Mount Sinai for the Israelites.

Questions

1. What things may be set apart for God?
2. Why can’t firstborns be set aside?
3. Why do you think it costs less to show that a girl is dedicated to God?
4. How do you show that your family is set apart for God?
5. How much money would you give to God to illustrate the worth of each person in the family?  Would you work it out by their earning power?

Slavery is a hot issue.  Blacks in America have yet to fully emerge from being a suppressed underclass.  Many indiduals like Barak Obama are exceptions to the rule, but the thinking and the prejudice developed through years of oppression still hold some sway.  The slavery of Israel was not such a slavery.  in fact, every few years slaves needed to be released to complete freedom.  If you physically hurt a slave in any way they were to be freed.  Still, it was slavery.  Did God sanction slavery?  The answer to that can be seen in the progressive development in the Bible relating to social institutions like marriage and slavery.  In Genesis a man marries his sister without penalty.  By the time of Moses that kind of act is forbidden.  By the New testament God institutes monogomous marriage for his followers.  God allows certain evils as he moves us away from them to something better.  The same can be said of slavery in the Bible.  God never sanctions it and progressively reveals his desire for equality for all.

Leviticus 25

¹ The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai, ² “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the LORD. ³ For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. ⁴ But in the seventh year the land is to have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. ⁵ Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest. ⁶ Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you—for yourself, your manservant and maidservant, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, ⁷ as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.

The Year of Jubilee

 ⁸ ” ‘Count off seven sabbaths of years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years. ⁹ Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. ¹⁰ Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. ¹¹ The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. ¹² For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.

 ¹³ ” ‘In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to his own property.

 ¹⁴ ” ‘If you sell land to one of your countrymen or buy any from him, do not take advantage of each other. ¹⁵ You are to buy from your countryman on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. And he is to sell to you on the basis of the number of years left for harvesting crops. ¹⁶ When the years are many, you are to increase the price, and when the years are few, you are to decrease the price, because what he is really selling you is the number of crops. ¹⁷ Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the LORD your God.

 ¹⁸ ” ‘Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land. ¹⁹ Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live there in safety. ²⁰ You may ask, “What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?” ²¹ I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. ²² While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in.

 ²³ ” ‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants. ²⁴ Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land.

 ²⁵ ” ‘If one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells some of his property, his nearest relative is to come and redeem what his countryman has sold. ²⁶ If, however, a man has no one to redeem it for him but he himself prospers and acquires sufficient means to redeem it, ²⁷ he is to determine the value for the years since he sold it and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it; he can then go back to his own property. ²⁸ But if he does not acquire the means to repay him, what he sold will remain in the possession of the buyer until the Year of Jubilee. It will be returned in the Jubilee, and he can then go back to his property.

 ²⁹ ” ‘If a man sells a house in a walled city, he retains the right of redemption a full year after its sale. During that time he may redeem it. ³⁰ If it is not redeemed before a full year has passed, the house in the walled city shall belong permanently to the buyer and his descendants. It is not to be returned in the Jubilee. ³¹ But houses in villages without walls around them are to be considered as open country. They can be redeemed, and they are to be returned in the Jubilee.

 ³² ” ‘The Levites always have the right to redeem their houses in the Levitical towns, which they possess. ³³ So the property of the Levites is redeemable—that is, a house sold in any town they hold—and is to be returned in the Jubilee, because the houses in the towns of the Levites are their property among the Israelites. ³⁴ But the pastureland belonging to their towns must not be sold; it is their permanent possession.

 ³⁵ ” ‘If one of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, help him as you would an alien or a temporary resident, so he can continue to live among you. ³⁶ Do not take interest of any kind ^[a] from him, but fear your God, so that your countryman may continue to live among you. ³⁷ You must not lend him money at interest or sell him food at a profit. ³⁸ I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

 ³⁹ ” ‘If one of your countrymen becomes poor among you and sells himself to you, do not make him work as a slave. ⁴⁰ He is to be treated as a hired worker or a temporary resident among you; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee. ⁴¹ Then he and his children are to be released, and he will go back to his own clan and to the property of his forefathers. ⁴² Because the Israelites are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves. ⁴³ Do not rule over them ruthlessly, but fear your God.

 ⁴⁴ ” ‘Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. ⁴⁵ You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. ⁴⁶ You can will them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.

 ⁴⁷ ” ‘If an alien or a temporary resident among you becomes rich and one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells himself to the alien living among you or to a member of the alien’s clan, ⁴⁸ he retains the right of redemption after he has sold himself. One of his relatives may redeem him: ⁴⁹ An uncle or a cousin or any blood relative in his clan may redeem him. Or if he prospers, he may redeem himself. ⁵⁰ He and his buyer are to count the time from the year he sold himself up to the Year of Jubilee. The price for his release is to be based on the rate paid to a hired man for that number of years. ⁵¹ If many years remain, he must pay for his redemption a larger share of the price paid for him. ⁵² If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, he is to compute that and pay for his redemption accordingly. ⁵³ He is to be treated as a man hired from year to year; you must see to it that his owner does not rule over him ruthlessly.

 ⁵⁴ ” ‘Even if he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children are to be released in the Year of Jubilee, ⁵⁵ for the Israelites belong to me as servants. They are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

Questions

1. What is the name given to the seventh year?
2. What is the name of the 50th year?
3. When does a slave serve until?
4. Can a person today be owned by another?  Where and when?
5. What is a Christian response to poverty and slavery?

When someone does something unpleasant to me I have visions of them being repayed in kind.  Today’s passage has the well known “eye for an eye” passage.  I wrestle with the concept of revenge.  Popular culture supports it.  We cheer when a wronged person repays people for the injustice that is done to them.  However, Jesus takes us beyond revenge to mercy and grace.  With Jesus we learn to turn the other cheek.

I have had daydreams today of the cop who pulled me over yesterday being pulled over for the mereist infraction.  He did not necessarily do me wrong.  Something in my psyche wants to see payback.  However, Jesus moved beyond payback to kindness, gentleness, and self-control.  It is that path that I choose to follow.

Leviticus 24

 ¹ The LORD said to Moses, ² “Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning continually. ³ Outside the curtain of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron is to tend the lamps before the LORD from evening till morning, continually. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. ⁴ The lamps on the pure gold lampstand before the LORD must be tended continually.

 ⁵ “Take fine flour and bake twelve loaves of bread, using two-tenths of an ephah ^[a] for each loaf. ⁶ Set them in two rows, six in each row, on the table of pure gold before the LORD. ⁷ Along each row put some pure incense as a memorial portion to represent the bread and to be an offering made to the LORD by fire. ⁸ This bread is to be set out before the LORD regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath, on behalf of the Israelites, as a lasting covenant. ⁹ It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place, because it is a most holy part of their regular share of the offerings made to the LORD by fire.”

 ¹⁰ Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke out in the camp between him and an Israelite. ¹¹ The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse; so they brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri the Danite.) ¹² They put him in custody until the will of the LORD should be made clear to them.

 ¹³ Then the LORD said to Moses: ¹⁴ “Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. ¹⁵ Say to the Israelites: ‘If anyone curses his God, he will be held responsible; ¹⁶ anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. Whether an alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death.

 ¹⁷ ” ‘If anyone takes the life of a human being, he must be put to death. ¹⁸ Anyone who takes the life of someone’s animal must make restitution—life for life. ¹⁹ If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him: ²⁰ fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured. ²¹ Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, but whoever kills a man must be put to death. ²² You are to have the same law for the alien and the native-born. I am the LORD your God.’ “

 ²³ Then Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him. The Israelites did as the LORD commanded Moses.

Questions

1. Where did the Egyptian’s son go?
2. What did he say?
3. What was his punishment?
4. How was personal injury to be repayed?
5. How did Jesus move us beyond these principles of personal injury?

The passage outlines rules for how we are to enjoy ourselves.  In taking time off of work, we are refreshed – rejuvenated.  God’s rules are meant to bring us life.  They are guidelines which enliven us by telling us how our lives should be lived.

However, the McHenry Police reminded me this morning how a strict observance of rules shows us the bitterness that comes with goodness.  I wouldn’t consider myself a libertine.  However, even though I thought I had stopped at the intersection two blocks from my house the policeman that came to the junction at the same time informed me that I had not.  The policeman took my insurance card and informed me that it had expired at the end of last month.  I told him that the new one was on the desk two blocks away.  For my crime he took my I.D. and informed me that I have to miss a day of work in two weeks time to attend court.  I will probably have to take two tests (CDL and regular) when my license is renewed.  This is the law.  When the policeman wrote me two tickets the policeman was not being bad – he was being good.  He was enforcing the letter of the law without grace or mercy.  To my entitled mind it seemed petty and vindictive.  However, having studied Leviticus a powerful thought hit me:  a perfect and good lawgiver who lived with us would not be a source of joy.  Just as the police had the right to take my I.D. and order me to court for inching over the line, God is well within his rights to kill us horribly for inching over his lines.  Without mercy and grace the world is a cold and dangerous place.  The good can leave us hating their righteousness.  God did not smile at our misfortune and utter an infuriating, “Have a nice day.”  He saw my predicament, issued the tickets, and then he payed them.

This is why many people hate the Old Testament and love the New.  They do not see that, unlike the McHenry Police force, God has provided mercy and grace in the light of his excruciating goodness and the laws that flow from them.  Just as I feel more alienated from the police the longer I live in McHenry, IL. , so we would be driven into the darkness to escape the searing holiness of a good God.

Leviticus 23:23-44

 The LORD said to Moses, ²⁴ “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts. ²⁵ Do no regular work, but present an offering made to the LORD by fire.’ ”

 ²⁶ The LORD said to Moses, ²⁷ “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, ^[d] and present an offering made to the LORD by fire. ²⁸ Do no work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the LORD your God. ²⁹ Anyone who does not deny himself on that day must be cut off from his people. ³⁰ I will destroy from among his people anyone who does any work on that day. ³¹ You shall do no work at all. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. ³² It is a sabbath of rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to observe your sabbath.”

 ³³ The LORD said to Moses, ³⁴ “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the LORD’s Feast of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. ³⁵ The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work. ³⁶ For seven days present offerings made to the LORD by fire, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present an offering made to the LORD by fire. It is the closing assembly; do no regular work.

 ³⁷ (” ‘These are the LORD’s appointed feasts, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies for bringing offerings made to the LORD by fire—the burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings required for each day. ³⁸ These offerings are in addition to those for the LORD’s Sabbaths and ^[e] in addition to your gifts and whatever you have vowed and all the freewill offerings you give to the LORD.)

 ³⁹ ” ‘So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the LORD for seven days; the first day is a day of rest, and the eighth day also is a day of rest. ⁴⁰ On the first day you are to take choice fruit from the trees, and palm fronds, leafy branches and poplars, and rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. ⁴¹ Celebrate this as a festival to the LORD for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month. ⁴² Live in booths for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in booths ⁴³ so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.’ “

 ⁴⁴ So Moses announced to the Israelites the appointed feasts of the LORD.

Questions

1. What instrument signals the festival on the first day of the seventh month?
2. What is the punishment for anyone who breaks God’s law and goes to work?
3. How often have you broken God’s laws and worked seven days a week?
4. What do you deserve for breaking a ‘trivial’ law like stopping to work and having a rest?
5. How did people become so incredulous about the God of the Old Testament

Post Script:  The interaction with the McHenry police was at 5:30 a.m.  At 7:45 I was stationary and a Pathfinder reversed into my Mini and smashed the front.  The front started smoking and the brakes ceased working leaving it undrivable.  The other driver was issued a ticket for backing into me.  He was told by the police officer that it would benefit him to go to court and have the ticket thrown out as long as I didn’t contest anything.  I told him that I would not be there.  I wanted to go beyond the righteous goodness that I had received earlier that day.  I desperately wanted to see some mercy.

I remember growing up thinking that Sunday was the dullest day of the week.  I hadn’t learned to fully appreciate the family times together, I didn’t appreciate the formal prayers of the Brethren, and I wanted to play soccer or ‘kerbie’ with the children of the neighbourhood.  Why would God ordain one day of mindless, boring torture a week?  However, I am now a lot older.  I see the fatigue and the burn-out of those who compromise and don’t set aside a sabbath.  I long to have a little more time relaxing with family.  I actually miss the tradition of a roast lunch and a high tea that I used to have.  Stopping and resting once a week leaves me refreshed.  I now rest through church, soccer, and family time and my workweek is the better for it.  Are you resting?

Leviticus 23:1-22

 ¹ The LORD said to Moses, ² “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the LORD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.

 ³ ” ‘There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the LORD.

 ⁴ ” ‘These are the LORD’s appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times: ⁵ The LORD’s Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. ⁶ On the fifteenth day of that month the LORD’s Feast of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. ⁷ On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. ⁸ For seven days present an offering made to the LORD by fire. And on the seventh day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.’ ”

 ⁹ The LORD said to Moses, ¹⁰ “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. ¹¹ He is to wave the sheaf before the LORD so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. ¹² On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the LORD a lamb a year old without defect, ¹³ together with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah ^[a] of fine flour mixed with oil—an offering made to the LORD by fire, a pleasing aroma—and its drink offering of a quarter of a hin ^[b] of wine. ¹⁴ You must not eat any bread, or roasted or new grain, until the very day you bring this offering to your God. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.

 ¹⁵ ” ‘From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. ¹⁶ Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD. ¹⁷ From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the LORD. ¹⁸ Present with this bread seven male lambs, each a year old and without defect, one young bull and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the LORD, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings—an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD. ¹⁹ Then sacrifice one male goat for a sin offering and two lambs, each a year old, for a fellowship offering. ^{[c] 20} The priest is to wave the two lambs before the LORD as a wave offering, together with the bread of the firstfruits. They are a sacred offering to the LORD for the priest. ²¹ On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.

 ²² ” ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.’ “

Questions

1. Which feats and days of rest are mentioned here?
2. What must the people do during festivals?
3. What kind of God ordains partying?
4. Do you party with God?
5. Do you rest with God?

When all else fails, we turn to God.  We are not afraid to give God $5 that we have left over.  The clunker that we have finished with we give to the church.  The first of our time, energy, and resources we dedicate to ourselves.  Of course, this chapter throws all of that to the wind.  The israelites were to give the best that they had to the LORD.  Is God the first one we set aside time, energy, and resources for?

Leviticus 22

 ¹ The LORD said to Moses, ² “Tell Aaron and his sons to treat with respect the sacred offerings the Israelites consecrate to me, so they will not profane my holy name. I am the LORD.

 ³ “Say to them: ‘For the generations to come, if any of your descendants is ceremonially unclean and yet comes near the sacred offerings that the Israelites consecrate to the LORD, that person must be cut off from my presence. I am the LORD.

 ⁴ ” ‘If a descendant of Aaron has an infectious skin disease ^[a] or a bodily discharge, he may not eat the sacred offerings until he is cleansed. He will also be unclean if he touches something defiled by a corpse or by anyone who has an emission of semen, ⁵ or if he touches any crawling thing that makes him unclean, or any person who makes him unclean, whatever the uncleanness may be. ⁶ The one who touches any such thing will be unclean till evening. He must not eat any of the sacred offerings unless he has bathed himself with water. ⁷ When the sun goes down, he will be clean, and after that he may eat the sacred offerings, for they are his food. ⁸ He must not eat anything found dead or torn by wild animals, and so become unclean through it. I am the LORD.

 ⁹ ” ‘The priests are to keep my requirements so that they do not become guilty and die for treating them with contempt. I am the LORD, who makes them holy. ^[b]

 ¹⁰ ” ‘No one outside a priest’s family may eat the sacred offering, nor may the guest of a priest or his hired worker eat it. ¹¹ But if a priest buys a slave with money, or if a slave is born in his household, that slave may eat his food. ¹² If a priest’s daughter marries anyone other than a priest, she may not eat any of the sacred contributions. ¹³ But if a priest’s daughter becomes a widow or is divorced, yet has no children, and she returns to live in her father’s house as in her youth, she may eat of her father’s food. No unauthorized person, however, may eat any of it.

 ¹⁴ ” ‘If anyone eats a sacred offering by mistake, he must make restitution to the priest for the offering and add a fifth of the value to it. ¹⁵ The priests must not desecrate the sacred offerings the Israelites present to the LORD ¹⁶ by allowing them to eat the sacred offerings and so bring upon them guilt requiring payment. I am the LORD, who makes them holy.’ “

Unacceptable Sacrifices

 ¹⁷ The LORD said to Moses, ¹⁸ “Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites and say to them: ‘If any of you—either an Israelite or an alien living in Israel—presents a gift for a burnt offering to the LORD, either to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering, ¹⁹ you must present a male without defect from the cattle, sheep or goats in order that it may be accepted on your behalf. ²⁰ Do not bring anything with a defect, because it will not be accepted on your behalf. ²¹ When anyone brings from the herd or flock a fellowship offering ^[c] to the LORD to fulfill a special vow or as a freewill offering, it must be without defect or blemish to be acceptable. ²² Do not offer to the LORD the blind, the injured or the maimed, or anything with warts or festering or running sores. Do not place any of these on the altar as an offering made to the LORD by fire. ²³ You may, however, present as a freewill offering an ox ^[d] or a sheep that is deformed or stunted, but it will not be accepted in fulfillment of a vow. ²⁴ You must not offer to the LORD an animal whose testicles are bruised, crushed, torn or cut. You must not do this in your own land, ²⁵ and you must not accept such animals from the hand of a foreigner and offer them as the food of your God. They will not be accepted on your behalf, because they are deformed and have defects.’ ”

 ²⁶ The LORD said to Moses, ²⁷ “When a calf, a lamb or a goat is born, it is to remain with its mother for seven days. From the eighth day on, it will be acceptable as an offering made to the LORD by fire. ²⁸ Do not slaughter a cow or a sheep and its young on the same day.

 ²⁹ “When you sacrifice a thank offering to the LORD, sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf. ³⁰ It must be eaten that same day; leave none of it till morning. I am the LORD.

 ³¹ “Keep my commands and follow them. I am the LORD. ³² Do not profane my holy name. I must be acknowledged as holy by the Israelites. I am the LORD, who makes ^[e] you holy ^{[f] 33} and who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD.”

Questions:

1. Where must impurity which represents mortality never be brought?
2. How must a sacrificed animal die?
3. Who may eat most holy portions and who may eat holy portions?
4. How does this passage foreshadow Jesus?
5. Do you give God the best?  When?  How?