Thought to Guide Your Reading
Moses—the greatest non-Jesus prophet ever—disobeyed God out of frustration.Summary in 100 Words or Less
God instructed Aaron that his descendents were the only ones allowed to work with the Tabernacle's sacred object. The Levites would receive a tenth of all Israel gained instead of land.The ash of a heifer was used to reinstate a person who had touched a dead body. If anyone did not follow the rituals they were excommunicated from the community.
Moses and Aaron angrily struck a rock to produce water instead of speaking to it as God commanded; therefore, God barred them from entering Canaan.
Edom would not allow Israel to cross its borders.
Aaron died on Mount Hor.
How Today’s Reading Contributes to the Gospel: God is Setting All Things Right
God wanted the Levites to be full-time diplomats between the Israelites and God.
God did not want the Levites to have split priorities. So he offered them the ability to not work the land and become His priests. In return, they would receive 10% of the entire crop. God required only 10% of that to be given to Him (1% of the country's total). God wishes to have His Chosen People fund full-time, dedicated workers for Him.Moses' frustration with the people comes out by disobeying God.
With all that had happened since the scouts were sent into Canaan, it is almost understandable why Moses would be so upset that he either forgot or purposely disobeyed God. These people are scum compared to Moses and they do not learn anything from God. But this mistake costs Moses and Aaron dearly. They are a cautionary tale for leaders. When leaders act out of frustration, they cannot set things right.Edom does not allow Israel to enter both because of its lack of hospitality and its fear.
This is a difficult text. On the one hand, Israel did not have a great relationship with the Egyptians and word has mostly likely passed to the Edomites. They are also a huge group of people who could wipe out Edom's resources for the entire year. On the other, Edom must show hospitality to others. Since Israel was willing to not trespass off the roads and repay anything eaten or destroyed they should have allowed the people to pass through their land. This will come back to haunt them in the future. Those who are hospitable set things right.Have you not set things right when you were frustrated? Leave a comment in the section below or on the Sonoma Mountain Parkway Church of Christ Facebook page.
If you missed a reading or want to go to a specific date, type the link as follows:
http://grahambates.blogspot.com/2013/mm/dd.html
That will take you to the reading for that day.
http://grahambates.blogspot.com/2013/mm/dd.html
That will take you to the reading for that day.
I appreciated this post today above others from you recently for a couple of reasons. You're bright enough to probably know exactly why and so I will not go into them here. Perhaps God may not accept what we perceive as a difference between frustration and raw, blind rage as we struggle with and it's harder to slow down and control the latter. A particular sentence in here resonated with me this morning. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jason. I'm glad you were comforted with this post.
Delete