The privilege of Scripture
Week 7 Days 3 & 4: Leviticus 20:1-Numbers 3:51 - God of order
Ash Wednesday service meant that practically yesterday although I had read the passages I decided to combine the two days’ readings in one post for Days 3 & 4 of week 7. It works well in any event to complete Leviticus and move into Numbers.
Numbers is another book I know very little about and have not read through: though I have sung the famous Rutter anthem from Numbers 6. It’s not a giveaway for the tone of the book and entirely different from the beginning chapters so I prepare to have my knowledge expanded further.
Day 3: Leviticus 20:1-25:55
There is, again, much law here and I don’t plan to write in detail on it suffice to say that as I sat in church last night I had a few minutes just to meditate on the fact that we are no longer burdened by the law. What a burden it would have been. All the sacrifices; all of the rules. The same God. But our approach and lives and truly, our freedom in Christ is vastly different. Perhaps we can appreciate our freedom more after reading through all of this.
The references to Molek are truly horrific, and if we wonder who the Israelites were to be distinct from, here is one example. We need not wonder quite so much about why God wanted his people to be so distinct.
Day 4: Leviticus 26-Numbers 3:51
I feel these verses are a balm, after all that has gone before:
“‘Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it. I am the Lord your God.
2 “‘Observe my Sabbaths and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am the Lord.
3 “‘If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, 4 I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit. 5 Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.
6 “‘I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove wild beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country. 7 You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. 8 Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.
9 “‘I will look on you with favour and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you. 10 You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new. 11 I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. 12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. 13 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high.
Leviticus 26:1-13
As we begin Numbers we read of the census of the people, and the numbers of those men counted as being over 20 and able to serve in the army, are astounding. The instructions for the encampments under the standards are astounding. It does seem as though order has come from the chaos of the leaving of Egypt.
Continuing to read on in Numbers will include some flipping back and forth of the Bible, and extra research and questions to be answered for a deeper understanding. It is certainly detail we do not normally go into in our everyday walk with the Lord, I am guessing.
But every word in the Bible is there for a reason, and to skip these passages and just go for “the Lord bless you and keep you” does not honour the treasure and privilege that we have in our Bibles; people are still martyred for reading or owning a Bible.