Archive for October 2007
Numbers
Chapter summaries in Numbers.
Numbers 1 – Moses and Aaron take a census of Israel’s warriors, except for the tribe of Levi, which is to serve with and guard the tabernacle.
Numbers 2 – God describes the arrangement of the camp, with all tribes surrounding the tent of meeting.
Numbers 3 – The sons of Aaron. God claims the Levites instead of the firstborn, who must be redeemed; each Levite clan is assigned responsibility for part of the tabernacle.
Numbers 4 – God gives further detailed assignments for some of the clans of Levites.
Numbers 5 – God sends lepers out of the camp, establishes a pattern of confession and restitution for sin, and provides a test for adultery.
Numbers 6 – Laws concerning a Nazirite vow of separation to the LORD; “the LORD bless you and keep you…”
Numbers 7 – The leaders of Israel give offerings and sacrifices at the consecration of the tabernacle.
Numbers 8 – The Levites are cleansed for service to God; Levites are to serve from ages 25 to 50.
Numbers 9 – Israel keeps the Passover; the Passover is to be kept even by those who are unclean; God’s cloud covers the tabernacle and leads Israel.
Numbers 10 – Silver trumpets are made for signaling and celebration; Israel sets out into the wilderness for the first time.
Numbers 11 – The people complain and God provides meat, but strikes some down. God sets his Spirit on seventy men to serve Moses.
Numbers 12 – Miriam and Aaron oppose Moses, and God sends leprosy upon Miriam.
Numbers 13 – Spies are sent into the land, returning with its fruit, but inciting fear.
Numbers 14 – Israel complains, God is angered and Moses intercedes. God sends Israel into the wilderness for forty years, and those who try to enter the land lose the battle.
Numbers 15 – Reiteration of laws for offerings and unintentional sin; a sabbath-breaker is executed; God commands the wearing of tassels to remember the law.
Numbers 16 – Korah, Dathan and Abiram rebel, along with 250 other Levites; God destroys them and sends a plague on Israel. Moses and Aaron intercede.
Numbers 17 – God demonstrates his choosing Aaron by causing Aaron’s staff to bud.
Numbers 18 – The responsibilities, sacrificial portion, and inheritance of the Levites.
Numbers 19 – Laws for uncleanness and purification.
Numbers 20 – Miriam dies; God produces water from a rock, but Moses strikes the rock in unbelief; Edom refuses Israel’s passage; Aaron dies.
Numbers 21 – God sends fiery serpents to discipline impatient Israel, but provides a bronze serpent for healing; God grants victory over Arad, Ammon and Bashan, and Israel settles in Ammon and Bashan.
Numbers 22 – Israel camps in the plains of Moab; Balaam is sent to curse Israel but is diverted by God.
Numbers 23 – Balaam blesses Israel twice.
Numbers 24 – Balaam blesses Israel and prophesies against the Canaanite nations.
Numbers 25 – Israel is enticed to Baal worship by the women of Moab and Midian; God orders the Baal worshipers destroyed.
Numbers 26 – Moses and Aaron take a census of Israel’s fighting men, and the land is to be divided proportionally. All who had rebelled in the wilderness are dead except Caleb and Joshua.
Numbers 27 – The daughters of Zelophehad are to receive an inheritance; Moses commissions Joshua to lead Israel.
Numbers 28 – Instructions for daily food offerings, Sabbath offerings, monthly offerings, Passover offerings, and offerings for the feast of weeks.
Numbers 29 – Instructions for offerings for the feast of trumpets, the day of atonement, and the feast of booths.
Numbers 30 – Laws concerning the inviolability of vows, and a father’s or husband’s right to repudiate a woman’s vow.
Numbers 31 – Israel executes vengeance on Midian at God’s command.
Numbers 32 – Gad and Reuben and half of Manasseh take land east of the Jordan, but must help conquer Canaan.
Numbers 33 – A record of Israel’s wilderness journey; God commands Israel to drive out all the inhabitants of Canaan.
Numbers 34 – God establishes the borders of Israel and gives instructions for dividing the land.
Numbers 35 – Forty-eight cities apportioned to the Levites; six of these are cities of refuge.
Numbers 36 – Land is not to be inherited across tribal boundaries.
Sanctification's dying
Everything worth keeping, it comes through dying.
— Caedmon’s Call, “Ten Thousand Angels,” Overdressed (Limited Edition)
The one thing that is “not good” in the original creation is Adam’s loneliness. And how does God go about addressing that imperfection? He puts Adam into deep sleep, tears out a rib from his side, closes up the flesh, and builds a woman from the rib. The solution to what is “not good” is something like death, and something like resurrection.
That’s always the solution. When God sees that something is “not good” in us, in our life situation, He tends not to ease us into a new stage. He kills us, in order to raise us up again. That has to happen, because it is a universal truth that “unless the seed go into the ground and die, it cannot bear fruit.”
— Peter Leithart, “Radical Solution”
I gotta have my orange juice. 