Month: December 2022

Numbers 12:10-11 And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she became leprous. And Aaron said unto Moses, Alas, my lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein we have acted foolishly, and wherein we have sinned.

The response of Aaron to the cloud departing and Miriam becoming leprous was to admit sinning and acting foolishly, to repent, to beg forgiveness, and to ask not to lay the sin upon them. He was enabled to clearly see the effects of sin in the cloud and the leprosy. Seeing the consequences of sin and making the connection drove him to repent and ask forgiveness.

We don’t always make the connection between our own sin and guilt and the consequences of it. We need the Word of Law to connect the dots, to convict of sin, and to feel the guilt. The Law shows us our Sin and the Gospel shows us our Savior. We see; then we admit the sin and ask forgiveness. The Holy Spirit moves us to repent and believe and God grants life.

Aaron saw that he acted foolishly after he saw the effect. At the time it didn’t seem foolish, but reasonable. He might not have acted so foolishly at the time if he could have seen the sin for what it is. And so it is for us: we are deceived, and we can come up with many excuses and supposed reasons for our behavior, until God reveals the sin, its cause and effect. Then we admit guilt. It goes better for us when we are often in the Word, repent instantly, and believe unceasingly. Foolishness and leprosy may be avoided by early and often repentance.

Numbers 12:1-2 And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman. And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it.

The brother and sister of Moses himself spoke against Moses, the man of God. In doing so, they rebelled against God and against the authority placed over them by God. It is a sin to speak against anyone (8th Commandment), and also to rebel against authority (4th Commandment).

Moses had married Zipporah, a Midianite, but she was called an Ethiopian (Cushitic), which simply meant a foreigner. Moses did not have much choice since he was away from his people for 80 years. But whether he did something good or bad is not the point. The point was that Miriam and Aaron spoke from a jealous spirit against the Lord’s anointed. As a result, Miriam became leprous, though eventually Moses prayed and she was healed.

When David had an opportunity to kill his bitter enemy, Saul, he refused, saying, Touch not the Lord’s Anointed. Although it might seem to the world that he had the excuse of self-defense, David would not defy God’s representative authority.

Submission and obedience to God and to God-given authority is the godly response to the grace and salvation of God. Life runs better when children, citizens, servants, employees, and laymen submit to the authorities chosen and placed by God. Jesus submitted to the will of the Father, and saved our souls.

Numbers 11:25 And the Lord came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease.

The Lord took of the spirit that was on Moses and gave it to the 70 elders. Their response to the moving of the Spirit upon them was that they prophesied. This was apparently the visible evidence of an invisible occurrence. The burden of leadership was heavy upon Moses, so some of the responsibility was shifted to the 70 elders. The Lord qualified them for the job by giving the Spirit. How would the people know? They prophesied.

To prophesy is to speak the words of God to people. God uses the prophet as a mouthpiece to say what He wants said. We do not know what they said or did in this instance. We do not know what Samuel and the school of the prophets said when they prophesied. We do not know what Saul said when he prophesied among the prophets. We do, however, know what the 120 said on the Day of Pentecost when the Spirit was poured out in all flesh. Acts 2:11: “we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”

This is most likely what prophesying is: telling about God, or proclaiming the gospel. When the Spirit moves us we are moved to talk about God and tell others what He has done. We can expect that in certain situations the Holy Spirit will give us words to say. This kind of response is what Spirit-filled believers will do. They will do whatever is needed to support the proclamation of the gospel through the local church or through mission work.

Numbers 11:20 But even a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: because that ye have despised the Lord which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt.

Even after the people complained and God sent manna from heaven to eat, they still complained that they didn’t have meat to eat. The Lord ended up sending more quail meat than they could use, so that they were stuffed. Their response to the Lord’s kindness and provision was even more complaining: they despised the Lord and wept.

To despise someone is to think badly of, or even to think lightly of, the Giver and the miraculous gifts He gives. Christians don’t know that they are showing hatred toward God when they ignore Him by just setting aside thoughts of the Lord in their lives on a daily or weekly basis. Christians don’t know that absenting themselves from worship is displaying hatred toward God by “despising preaching and His Word.” Thus the Word reveals to us what is really going on with our responses to the Gospel.

Israel complained, “Why did we come out of Egypt?” Christians sometimes have wondered why their lives haven’t gotten better since they were saved. They need God’s Word to show them what they have really been saved from, and how great and good is God and His Gospel. Then the lifestyle response is one of trust and thanksgiving. And life is good, no complaints.

Numbers 11:1-2 And when the people complained it displeased the Lord: and the Lord heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the Lord burned among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp. And the people cried unto Moses; and when Moses prayed unto the Lord, the fire was quenched.

Complaining is a common response to the frustrations of life and the problems of sinful earthly existence. Israel complained ten times in the wilderness. We respond to life by complaining daily. Someone or something is always going wrong, and implicitly God gets the blame. It is the outward symptom of unbelief and distrust. Everyone around us, ourselves included, God included, feel worse when complaining takes over. No one is edified or blessed by it.

The Lord is letting us know how serious and how dangerous He considers complaining, though it may seem trivial to us. He sends fire into the camp. God is serious about our relationship with Him.

Instead of complaining, we can respond by praying. This is what Moses did; he took on the role of intercessor. And this is what Jesus does for us: intercedes with God and continues to pray. The Lord is displeased with our complaining, but pleased with our prayers in Jesus’ name. In any situation we have a choice of response. It’s easy to see the better way.

Numbers 5:2 Command the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper, and everyone that hath an issue, and whoever is defiled by the dead.

The Books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers is all about the holiness of God. A human being may not even dare to approach the Lord without first being ritually cleansed, purified, and made holy. All the laws and rituals about clean and unclean, purity and defilement, and others, are given to remind us that God is holy, and we are not.

The people are to respond to this truth by putting out of the camp anyone who is ritually unclean or defiled. Having leprosy or an issue, or touching the dead makes one defiled and he cannot remain in the camp where God dwells. Other than contagion issues, there is nothing inherently wrong with these defilements. They are unclean because God says so.

The NT Christian also responds to a Holy God in his life by putting sin out of his life. We do this by daily repentance and faith, confession and absolution. Just as the Lord has provided a ritual way for the unclean to renter, so He provided the Blood of His Son as the way to come into God’s Presence. Repentance puts away the sin, and faith receives the right of access.

Numbers 2:34 And the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses; so they pitched by their standards, and so they set forward, everyone after their families, according to the house of their fathers.

After spending a couple years at Mt. Sinai receiving the Covenant from God with all its laws and stipulations, and after taking a census counting the number of Israel, the Lord was ready to lead the people forth on their journey to the Promised Land. So they set out, in the order, the way, and the time that God commanded.

All went well as long as they did according to all that the Lord commanded. The people responded well, in trust and obedience. Of course, we know the rest of the story: what could have been a journey of a couple months turned out to be 40 years because of unbelief and disobedience. However, they started out well. Trust and Obey. God led them and provided for them.

We don’t always see the cause and effect connection, but the Word reveals to us the truth, how life really is. When we trust and obey life goes better; unbelief and sin makes life more difficult. The world deceives us into thinking that money, pleasure, and power, or control, will make life easier. And we believe the lie.

God’s honest truth is that life is better, more blessed, and more fulfilling when we do as God commands. Faith in Christ that produces good fruit, and being led by the Spirit to simply do as God commands, makes a good life. We may start out well, but soon we will stumble and fall. God’s Grace in Christ forgives us, picks us up, and restarts a new life every day.

Leviticus 26:40 If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me.

The consequences of walking contrary to the Lord are indeed terrible, and sin makes life miserable. However, He gives us opportunity to return to Him by means of confession of sin. This is what happened to the people of Israel: after going into exile as a consequence of their sin and rebellion, God gave them a way to mitigate the suffering of sin and death: confess. Then the Lord will remember the covenant and the land.

Confession is the response to the condition we find ourselves in on account of our own sin and guilt. Confession admits that I was wrong and God was right. Confession also embraces a second part: receiving absolution, and the confession that God forgives because of Christ. It is repentance and faith in the Gospel.

It doesn’t have to take centuries of unbelief, and then losing everything in exile. Confession can be made any time and all the time as a way of life, And the Lord is always there to remember His Covenant in the Blood of Christ. The Lord in continually restoring us to Himself. “If we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Leviticus 26:3, 14-15 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them….But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant….

Leviticus 26 lays out the blessings and the curses that will come into our lives as consequences of keeping or not keeping the covenant commandments. These are the only two possible human responses to the Covenant Promise God makes with us: keep the Law perfectly, or break it completely by offending in only one part. The resulting blessings or curses are natural consequences; they are not rewards and punishments as such.

The major truth is this: it is black and white, with no variations or gradations in between Sin and Holiness. The major problem is this: no one can keep or obey perfectly. Therefore, the curses come into effect for everyone; the blessings are unobtainable. So the Gospel is our only hope, our only way out: Jesus kept the Law perfectly for us, died under the curse of our disobedience, and earned and gave the Holiness and Righteousness of God to us by grace.

Our faith is counted as righteousness. By faith Jesus’ response becomes our response. Therefore, in Christ we claim the blessings of the covenant and avoid the curses. We receive life in place of death. We respond with thanks, for life is good.

Leviticus 24:2 Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually.

The people responded to the Lord’s Salvation Event by preparing the Tabernacle and all it’s furnishings, so that there would always be a special Holy Place for the dwelling of the Presence among His people. A part of this response was to bring olive oil for the lighting of the lamps in the Tabernacle. The lamp was to burn continually and never go out.

All of these elaborate preparations for the Presence of God among His people is a symbolic foreshadowing of faith in Christ. We also respond to the Gospel by preparing the heart for the reception of Christ. Jesus takes up residence in our lives when we believe and are baptized. A reading of Leviticus inspires us not to take this lightly, nor to take it for granted. The Almighty, Holy, Transcendent, Creator God loves us so much He wants to come to us and live in us. Faith prepares the place in the heart, and God is here. We pray, “Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come.”

Faith prepares the oil and the lamp, symbolic of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says, “You are the light of the world. Let your light shine.” We respond in prayer and song: Give me oil (Holy Spirit) in my lamp (heart), keep me burning.

The only difference in the analogy is that we do not bring the Spirit. The Spirit comes through the gospel to create faith and a holy place to live.