Two things really caught my eye in today's OT reading. Firstly, the whole redeeming of the firstborn of Israel and God sort of "buying them back" by selecting the Levites to be His special servants.
I think it's so cool how God works things out so precisely. When a census is taken, the difference between all the firstborn males in the twelve tribes and the number of Levites eligible for tabernacle service is only 273. We talked yesterday about the approximate population, and when you take into consideration that there was very possibly somewhere between two and four MILLION people, 273 is too close to be coincidental! The money used to redeem the difference was effectively Aaron's first paycheque, since the Levites weren't to own land or livestock, but rather rely on gifts from the other tribes. As far as I'm concerned, I think that's a sure sign that this was very carefully planned and scripted by our God. Amazing.
Then we move on to the dividing up of the Levite tribe into three smaller sub-tribes named after the sons of Levi, and their different assigned duties, and we come to the second thing I found really interesting. I know I must have read this passage at least twice before in recent years, and yet I still found myself wondering recently how the elements inside the Holy Place and The Most Holy Place would have been packed up, transported, and unpacked, since God was so explicit with who was allowed to enter there and use the various items. And voilà, here in Numbers 4 we read exactly how it was to be done!
Aaron and his sons had to first go in and thoroughly cover everything up, COMPLETELY concealing each item in the tabernacle, before the others could touch them and carry them. Even just a tiny glimpse of one of the tabernacle items would have meant instant death. (Boy, you'd hate to be the one responsible for a shoddy packing job!!) Here again, we see God's concern that the people understand holiness, and the reverence and obedience they needed to approach a sovereign, holy God.
And then we jump over to Mark where again, we see Jesus making the religious leaders of the day look bad ~ I love how v. 37 says "the large crowd listened to him with delight"! Seems the religious leaders weren't really very well liked by anyone!! I think it also means that people were naturally drawn to Him because He spoke eloquently and powerfully, yet with humility and grace. He spoke with authority and while I'm sure the religious leaders spoke with authority ~ or at least, tried to SOUND like it ~ the people seemed to be able to see through that. It's mentioned several times in the gospels that Jesus spoke with authority, so it must have stood out a little against the way the leaders of that day were speaking. Maybe it was just obvious that Jesus not only clearly knew what He was talking about, He wasn't full of Himself and trying just to be famous by out-doing everyone else with His knowledge. He cared that people understood the message and showed it by caring for their physical needs as well as their spiritual ones.
I always like the story of this one teacher of the law whom Jesus proclaimed to be "close" to the kingdom of God. I love his forthrightness with Jesus, even how, after Jesus' answer, the man tells Jesus He's right and complimented Him on having a good answer! It seems a little ridiculous and very audacious, and yet for someone who maybe didn't quite believe Jesus was Who He said He was, this is a big step. I see this man as being truly curious and wanting to know Jesus better. He seems to have all the right ingredients for a relationship with Christ, except he's still working on the faith decision. I hope he didn't wait too long to make it.
There's a saying in Low-German that I often heard spoken in my home growing up and it fits perfectly here. Roughly translated, it goes: "almost isn't nearly."
Close isn't nearly good enough; it's still a far cry from actually attaining the goal. "Not far from the Kingdom of God" is still FAR too far away to be of any assurance.
Tomorrow's passages: Numbers 5-6; Mark 13:1-20
7 comments:
I was struck by exactly everything you mentioned too!
The only other thing that stuck out to me as well, was that other than that 273 number (which is totally cool how close it was), all the other numbers in the census always ended in a 0. Just thought it was interesting.
That happens almost every time a census is taken in the OT, so I often wonder if they reported rounded numbers, but then we get the very precise 273 here, so I just don't know!!
Great post, Tammi. I noticed the same things in the OT reading, although I didn't pick up on how ridiculous it sounds for the teacher to tell Jesus he was right. Of course he was right!
"the large crowd listened to him with delight"
They did not have 24 hr access to Jesus (the Word) like we do. Do we listen (read) with delight?
I think we have truly lost touch with the "reverence and obedience [we] need to approach a sovereign, holy God" by having the free access that Jesus provided for us. It almost seems surreal to think that someone could die by just looking at tabernacle items.
Pam, I agree. I think that's why we struggle so much to accept the story in 2 Sam. 6:6-7/1 Chron. 13:9-10 where Uzzah dies the instant he touches the ark, even though it was not likely deliberate disobedience, but rather an instinctive reaction to prevent it from falling. (even though it should never have been on a cart in the first place. I guess he was still the only one who actually touched it with his hands)
I thought of this story a few passages back where we saw how important it was for the Israelites to make sacrifices to pay for even their accidental and inadvertent sins. Sin is still sin, even if it isn't deliberate or intentional. God had specifically told the people looking at and touching His holy items was strictly forbidden and if accidental sins are still sin, even passing glances count, as hard as that is to accept!
How true. I guess accidental sin is still sin.
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