Month: May 2025

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Numbers 16 Listen: (6:59) Read: Galatians 5 Listen: (3:22)

Scripture Focus: Numbers 16.46-50

46 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer and put incense in it, along with burning coals from the altar, and hurry to the assembly to make atonement for them. Wrath has come out from the Lord; the plague has started.” 47 So Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly. The plague had already started among the people, but Aaron offered the incense and made atonement for them. 48 He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped. 49 But 14,700 people died from the plague, in addition to those who had died because of Korah. 50 Then Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance to the tent of meeting, for the plague had stopped.

Reflection: Forgetful Rebels

By John Tillman

Imagine people ignorant about nuclear radiation breaking into a nuclear power plant. They enter the reactor unprotected and start handling the fuel rods. In minutes, they suffer lethal radiation doses. In hours, they die. It’s a tragedy of ignorance. “If only they had known,” we might say.

Now imagine a group of nuclear scientists who are well-educated about radiation, yet demand to enter the reactor unprotected. Peers warn and plead with them but they persist and perish. We would recognize that something went wrong with the scientists, not the uranium. It is a tragedy, not of ignorance, but of denial, rebellion against reason, and stubborn refusal to submit to authority. We cannot say, “If only they had known.” We are left with, “If only they had believed.”

God is not an inanimate, radioactive object like uranium fuel rods. Uranium’s power is merciless. It will kill anyone. God’s power rarely breaks out to punish rebels. Yet, God is also not “safe.” As C.S. Lewis said, “He is not a tame lion.” In order for God to live among them, Israel had to respect the ceremonial system and the priesthood God provided.

Korah and the rebels are like those stubborn scientists who rebelled against knowledge and reason to enter the reactor. They knew the regulations. They knew Aaron’s sons died from improperly burning incense. They knew Miriam and Aaron were punished for opposing Moses’ authority. How did they rationally expect this rebellion to go?

In order for God to live among us, Jesus came and died, crucifying our sin and irradiating us with his healing righteousness. We are purified and set apart like the Levites but we can still become rebels against our high priest.

Like Korah, we rebel by forgetting or denying what we know. Do we forget that Jesus is among us as the hungry to be fed, the naked to be clothed, the stranger to be welcomed, and the prisoner to be visited? Do we demand he bless our lusts or greeds? Do we place our security and economic benefit over the sanctity of life for others? Do we presume upon his grace?

Let us not be forgetful rebels against Christ’s mercy and let us run, like Aaron, to save any rebels we can. No one is beyond hope. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; knit my heart to you that I may fear your name. — Psalm 86.11

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime

 by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Much Given, Much Expected

They ignored all they had just learned, and did things in an unauthorized way…To whom much is given, much is expected.

Much Given, Much Expected

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Links for today’s readings:

Read: Numbers 15 Listen: (5:09) Read: Galatians 4 Listen: (4:13)

Scripture Focus: Numbers 15: 32–36

32 While the Israelites were in the wilderness, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. 33 Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, 34 and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. 35 Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp.” 36 So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord commanded Moses.

Reflection: Atonement is Not Permission to Sin

By Erin Newton

Israel’s relationship with God was founded on the covenant. Much like marriage, this relationship was built on trust and fidelity.

Numbers 15 talks about the ritual required for sins committed unintentionally. These are sins that had no premeditation; they just happened. Determining the intentionality of sins was based on the motivation of the person. Was this due to forgetfulness or naivety? Or was this something that was openly acknowledged and then willfully ignored? Those would be called “intentional sins.”

Thankfully, God provided the people with rituals to enact when unintentional sins were committed. The guilty parties would offer the proper sacrifice and a clean slate would be issued.

The process of atonement seems like a way to guarantee forgiveness—a biblical get out of jail free card. The law is easy to measure and to judge oneself against. Any flaw could be erased. Any error could be corrected.

Sort of.

The problem of oversimplifying life under the law is that we risk using atonement as permission. Or as Paul said, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” (Rom 6.1).

Should we? Even before Christ, they had a way out for unintentional sin. But the law is clear about those who sin with a high hand. Such actions were the equivalent to breaking a marriage vow. The person who chooses to sin against God’s command is choosing not to be in covenant with him.

The man caught gathering sticks on the Sabbath has chosen to work when he was told to rest. (How many of us could fall prey to the spirit of the workaholic?) Taking a day off was more than observing self-care. For ancient Israel, it was specifically the sign that they were in a relationship with God, their Redeemer from slavery and their Provider in the wilderness.

The death penalty for such high-handed actions sounds harsh. The punishment fit the crime of treason (in this perspective, it was treason against their King).

Although we are no longer under the law, we are still bound to God in the same relationship of trust and fidelity. “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life” (Rom 6.12-13).

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus taught us, saying: “Everything now covered up will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear. For this reason, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in hidden places will be proclaimed from the housetops.” — Luke 12.2-3

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime

 by Phyllis Tickle

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Read more: Wandering Sin

We don’t get to say, “I didn’t intend this” or “I didn’t do that.” We are connected to these sins and must confess them.

Wandering Sin

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Numbers 14 Listen: (6:15) Read: Galatians 2 Listen: (3:44)

Scripture Focus: Numbers 14.17-23

17 “Now may the Lord’s strength be displayed, just as you have declared: 18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’ 19 In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.” 20 The Lord replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked. 21 Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, 22 not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times—23 not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it.

Reflection: What is God’s Strength?

By John Tillman

At the border of Canaan, Israel openly rebelled against God and Moses. Moses asked God to display his strength. What did Moses mean by God’s strength?

Did Moses picture military victories against the Amalekite and Egyptian armies? (ref) No.

Did Moses picture the miraculous provision of manna from the morning dew, quail from the sky, and water from a rock? No.

Did Moses picture signs, wonders, and mighty plagues that humbled Pharaoh? No.

Moses’ picture of God’s strength came from being hidden in the cleft of rock as God passed by revealing his nature—compassion, grace, patience, faithful love, and forgiveness paired with establishing justice by punishing the guilty. (Exodus 34.6-7)

This is also the picture of God we see in Jesus. On the cross, we see both Christ’s loving forgiveness and his upholding of justice. Like Moses was hidden in the rock, we are hidden in Christ, united with him in his death on the cross and his resurrection. That is where we see his glory, his strength, most clearly. From the cross, Jesus says “forgive them” and “you will be with me.”

Some think compassion and forgiveness are weaknesses, but they are God’s strength demonstrated in Jesus. Some think compassion and forgiveness mean approval, endorsement, or the removal of consequences, but Jesus also establishes justice and punishes evil.

God forgave the rebellious Israelites, Jesus forgave the rebel on the cross, and he forgives us in our rebellions. However, the consequences of sinful choices often persist. None of those who rebelled entered the promised land and their children suffered decades in the desert before claiming the delayed promise.

The consequences to future generations for our sins are unknown. However, we know God will keep his promises and remain true to his nature.

God will not become a lax, anything-goes buddy-god, indulging hungers, lusts, or fears. Our rebellions and sins are serious and so are any wrongs or harms done to or by us. God takes sin seriously.

God will not abandon his plan. Our progress can be delayed by our hardhearted stubbornness, but if he has to lead us through the desert multiple times, he will deliver us into the true promised land of his presence.

Let us remind ourselves, our communities, and the Lord, that we rely on his forgiveness and cry for his justice. Let us not treat either the Lord’s forgiveness or his justice with contempt.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

May God be merciful to us and bless us, show us the light of his countenance and come to us.

Let your ways be known upon earth, your saving health among all nations. — Psalm 67.1-2

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime

 by Phyllis Tickle

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God came near and extended his hand to us. And his arm was not too short to save.

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Whatever his people choose, God is making a choice, too. God knows Israel will be unfaithful. He’s going to be faithful anyway.

He Is Faithful When We Are Not

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Numbers 12-13 Listen: (5:53) Read: Galatians 2 Listen: (3:44)

Scripture Focus: Numbers 12.1-2

1 Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite. 2 “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?” they asked. “Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” And the Lord heard this.

Reflection: Complicit Silence

By John Tillman

The most personal and insulting complaint in the desert came from within Moses’ family. His sister and brother, Miriam and Aaron, complained against him. They challenged Moses’ leadership “because of his Cushite wife.”

In our culture, ethnicity often gets flattened out to just three groups: White, Brown, or Black. We shouldn’t sloppily assign modern labels to the people in this story; however, in the Bible, Cush refers to what we call Ethiopia, and a Cushite would be darker-skinned than most Israelites. Miriam and Aaron’s disapproval seems to be ethnically based. Moses was in an interracial marriage, which caused Miriam and Aaron to oppose him.

God heard this and called all three siblings to stand before him. Anyone with siblings knows that when parents call all their children to stand before them, someone is in big trouble.

God focused the punishment on Miriam. Perhaps it was because she was the eldest or a prophet. Perhaps she was the instigator and main critic.

Regardless of why God singled her out, her punishments seemed related to her offenses. She spoke against someone based on ethnicity or skin color, and God made her skin leprous—“white as snow.” She spoke against someone because she considered them outside the community of Israel, and God forced her to spend seven days isolated from that community.

Like everything else God has provided, ethnicity is a gift. However, like the Israelites, we sometimes reject or misuse what God has provided. Every ethnicity will be present in eternity, praising Jesus as Lord. (Revelation 7.9) We are to show “no favoritism.” (Acts 10.34) We are to treat “foreigners” as native-born. (Leviticus 19.34) Do we live like this?

If Miriam was the instigator, it would have been easy for Aaron to say, “I’m not like her!” The best thing in this story is that Aaron didn’t try to excuse himself by blaming Miriam. He confessed “we” have sinned.

Perhaps we aren’t blatantly racist. But do we imply that our race has a corner on God’s ear, good theology, orthodoxy, or leadership? Or do we tacitly endorse such talk? Do we go along with leaders or peers who display racism?

Like Aaron, we must confess any degree to which we participate in racism, including failure to oppose it. Like Miriam, we can repent and be healed. Like Aaron, we must pray for, correct, and restore the repentant. We should not, however, be silent. God hears our complicit silence. (Numbers 12.2)

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

God looks down from heaven upon us all, to see if there is any who is wise, if there is one who seeks after God. — Psalm 53.2

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

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Even if we are not like Haman, many of us are like Xerxes…We have allowed racism to rise wearing a mask decorated with other concerns.

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Links for today’s readings:

Read: Numbers 9 Listen: (3:20) Read: James 4 Listen: (2:25)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: Numbers 10 Listen: (4:11) Read: James 5 Listen: (3:01)
Read: Numbers 11 Listen: (5:22) Read: Galatians 1 Listen: (3:05)

Scripture Focus: Numbers 9.4-11

4 So Moses told the Israelites to celebrate the Passover, 5 and they did so in the Desert of Sinai at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. The Israelites did everything just as the Lord commanded Moses. 6 But some of them could not celebrate the Passover on that day because they were ceremonially unclean on account of a dead body. So they came to Moses and Aaron that same day 7 and said to Moses, “We have become unclean because of a dead body, but why should we be kept from presenting the Lord’s offering with the other Israelites at the appointed time?” 8 Moses answered them, “Wait until I find out what the Lord commands concerning you.” 9 Then the Lord said to Moses, 10 “Tell the Israelites: ‘When any of you or your descendants are unclean because of a dead body or are away on a journey, they are still to celebrate the Lord’s Passover, 11 but they are to do it on the fourteenth day of the second month at twilight. They are to eat the lamb, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

Reflection: Second Passover

By John Tillman

“We’ve had one Passover. But what about second Passover?”

Lord of the Rings jokes aside, Numbers 9 tells us about the second Passover Israel celebrated in the desert and a “second chance” Passover for those unable to celebrate.

The first Passover in the desert went perfectly. This time, there were problems. A group of people was ceremonially unclean because of a dead body. Being ceremonially unclean was not sinful. The most likely cause was that a relative had died, and they buried them. However, to celebrate Passover, one had to be ceremonially clean.

The people brought the problem to Moses. Moses took the problem to God. God’s solution was a “second chance” holiday.

Many of us have probably had “second chance” holidays. When we can’t be with family on the exact day of Christmas, an anniversary, or a birthday, we commonly celebrate a second time when the family can see one another. We’ll celebrate a “birthday week” or even a “birthday month.” God instituted a “Second Passover.” This was a delayed celebration, one month past the original date, for those traveling too far away or those ceremonially unclean and unable to celebrate.

We don’t have a cultural concept similar to being ceremonially unclean because of outer things. No one would bar you from Easter services for having buried your family member. In fact, we’d be likely to encourage you more than anyone else to be there.

However, our inner lives often make us feel unable or unworthy to celebrate or participate in worship as expected. Our feelings of “uncleanness” are related to our inner emotional state. We don’t feel happy, blessed, or peaceful, so we shut down and hope no one notices.

When you feel like you are in the desert, unclean, unhappy, unable to connect to worship, God’s word, or the Holy Spirit, remember these things:

Do not call unclean what God calls clean. (Acts 10.14-16) Your emotions, whether caused by outer things, like a financial loss or physical trauma, or inner things, like depression or anxiety, do not make you unclean in God’s eyes.

Take a second chance to celebrate when you can. When healing, cleansing, or recovering takes time, there is grace for you. Celebrate when you recover. Worship on your way to healing and when injuries are behind you, leap for joy.

Our God is a merciful, problem-solving God. He’ll be there for you at your “Second Passover.”

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus taught us, saying: “In truth I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” — John 3.3

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

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Christ is the bird that dies in our place. We are the living bird, baptized into water and Christ’s blood and then set free.

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