Numbers 21-23. Narrative continues. In 21:5 we see the recurring theme of the Israelites losing hope and wishing they were back in slavery: "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food."
How do you feel about a God who punishes by sending a plague of snakes? Is this really the way God is? Is this how the writer of Numbers thinks God is? Is this how the Israelites thought God acted? When we say that the Bible is true and reliable, does it mean we must also agree that God punished the Israelites by sending poisonous snakes?
But this passage is important for the imagery of the snake lifted up on the pole, upon which "everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live"--which Jesus borrows in John's Gospel to speak about his own "lifting up," which will draw all people to him.
And in this passage, we see the Israelites on the move through the region on their way to their goal. They defeated Sihon, King of the Amorites, when he refused them passage through his land. In fact, according to the text, "Israel took all these towns, and Israel settled in all the towns of the Amorites" (21:24-31). So in a sense the wilderness wanderings appear to be coming to an end little by little. There is no absolute line of demarcation, though Moses' speech as the Israelites get ready to cross the Jordan is the formal "grand opening" of the Israelites' return to the land promised to Abraham.
Numbers 22 and following introduce the character, Balaam. He was a prophet, but you wouldn't know that from the way he is introduced in Ch. 22. You have to see what he is asked to do by King Balak of Moab. Balaam is often held up as an exemplar of unfaithfulness, or disobedience. Yet as I read this text, all I see are obedience and faithfulness by a foreign/Gentile prophet who somehow knows that the LORD is the real deal. He's asked to curse the Israelites, but he can only bless. And this costs him considerably among his own people.
The story of the donkey and the angel is one of the most delightful in the Torah.
What's wrong with a guy who says: Whatever the LORD says, that is what I must do"? (23:26, among other places)
Psalm 47 On mornings like this one--sunny and warmer after two days when we were greeted with slushy snow on the ground--I want to follow the words of this psalm to:
Clap your hands, all you peoples;
shout to God with loud songs of joy" (47:1)
Romans 8 One of the most important passages in all of St. Paul's writings. It was absolutely central to the scholars and pastors whose work brought about the Protestant Reformation. I have a dozen commentaries on my shelves devoted to the Letter of Paul to the Romans. If you don't remember anything else from this chapter, perhaps hide the climactic summarizing verses in your heart:
For I am convinced that
neither death,
nor life,
nor angels,
nor rulers,
nor things present,
nor things to come,
nor powers,
nor height,
nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation
will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)
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