Bible Devotion

Meditative Reflection
One Body in Christ

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Give this command to the Israelites and say to them: Make sure that you present to me at the appointed time my food offerings, as an aroma pleasing to me'.” (Num. 28:1-2)

I had not been brought up in the liturgical traditions of the Christian Church, and I did not celebrate any Christian festivals except Easter and Christmas in the early years of my faith. However, as I began to follow more closely the liturgical calendar of the Christian Church, I have gained a fresh appreciation of my spiritual walk with the Lord, a walk more in tune with the rhythm of the lives of other Christians around me. Indeed, I have come to appreciate that my faith is not just a personal faith only, but a communal faith as God has designed.

Chapters 28-29 of Numbers confirm God’s desires in this respect for His People as He sets out the annual Liturgical Calendar of all public festivals/feasts for Israel “In addition to what you vow and your freewill offerings” (Num. 29:39) which would be of a personal nature. Some of these festivals call for a sacred assembly (e.g. 28:18, 25, 26; 29:1, 7, 12), while some, like the daily offerings are simply offered on behalf of the entire community by the priests, but just the same, the people are drawn into it as one people presenting their sacrifices to the Lord.

As a result, this command was given not just to Moses and the priests, but “to the Israelites” (Num. 28:1). While we enter into faith in Christ personally, once entered, we are part of one people — God’s people and the Apostle Paul uses the term, “one body” to convey this reality (1 Cor. 12).

Meditative Reflection
Essence of Keeping the Festival Day

“Make sure that you present to me at the appointed time my food offerings, as an aroma pleasing to me… On the fifteenth day of this month there is to be a festival; for seven days eat bread made without yeast. On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.” (Num. 28:2, 17-18)

In reflecting on the various festival days that the Lord has commanded the people to observe, Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (c. 340 – 4 April 397) has this to say:

“This is indeed a full and perfect sacrifice, as the Lord tells us in speaking of gifts and contributions as His: ‘You will offer to me oblation in my festal days', sparing nothing and setting nothing aside, but offering a full, complete and perfect sacrifice. By ‘festal day’ is meant the Lord’s Day, a time appropriate to acts of perfect virtue. These acts are made perfect if our souls quell the anxieties of this world and the enticements of the flesh in a victorious struggle over hedonism. Thus the soul is free from the world and dedicated to God, departing not even in the slightest way from the path of good intentions and casting aside all distractions, whether of pleasure or of toil. The wise — and no one else — celebrate with due solemnity this festal day.” (ACCS, III, Cain and Abel, Book 2, Ch. 2.8)

Meditative Reflection
The Joy of Atonement

“On the tenth day of this seventh month hold a sacred assembly. You must deny yourselves and do no work… On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. Celebrate a festival to the Lord for seven days.” (Num. 29:7, 12)

As we read Numbers 29, we come to understand the importance of the 7^th month in the Liturgical Calendar of Israel, beginning with the first day being the Feast of the Trumpets, followed by the 10^th day being the Day of Atonement, ending with 7 days (which turned out to be 8 days) of extravagant celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles.

While the trumpets are obviously used to call people to assembly, the Feast of Trumpets that began with the blowing of the trumpets appeared to call the people to prepare for the two consecutive festivals that would follow in the month — the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacle.

We know how significant this Day of Atonement was as the High Priest, on the 10^th day of the month, dressed with all the pontifical garments, with the blood of the animal, approached behind the veil, the “Holy of Holies” only once a year, to atone for the sins of the people. It was such a solemn occasion that the people were commanded to “deny” or “humble” themselves (29:7) in contrition.

However, once their sins were atoned for, 7 days afterward, on the 15^th day of the month, all sorrows were turned into joy as they celebrated for 8 days, their Ingathering. They built and lived in tents, huts or impermanent structures to remind them of their 40 years of wandering in the desert. The public offerings made far exceeded any those of the other feasts, making this the major feast of the year — the number of rams and lambs was double that offered at the Passover and the feast of Pentecost, and the number of oxen was fivefold.

This is a powerful reminder of how complete God’s forgiveness is. If we are sincere in our repentance, it is God’s desire to fill us with joy — exceeding joy, overflowing joy!

Meditative Reflection
The Guilt of Unfulfilled Vows

“But if her husband forbids her when he hears about it, he nullifies the vow that obligates her or the rash promise by which she obligates herself, and the Lord will release her.” (Num. 30:8)

Leviticus 27 has extensively dealt with the many aspects of making vows to the Lord, and the Scriptures often remind us of the seriousness of vow making to the Lord and the need to fulfill it (e.g. Eccl. 5:4-7). Therefore, one wonders why the Lord chooses to give additional regulations governing vows made by women in particular.

Although modern men and women seek to dispute the biblical teaching of God’s creation order putting men as the head of a family, any honest reading of the Scriptures has to bring us to this realization which is clearly affirmed by the Apostle Paul (see 1 Cor. 11:2-16). However, these provisions in Numbers 30 clearly reveal to us that the exercise of “headship” carries with it great responsibilities and is also liable to abuse.

This passage recognizes that a woman could be prevented from the fulfillment of a vow (either a negative or positive vow) that she wished to make or had made to the Lord, by the father or the husband. With these provisions, she was relieved from her responsibility so that she would not carry any guilt for the rest of her life.

At the same time, this passage gives a woman the “go-ahead” to make and honor her vow to the Lord, even though the father or the husband fails to give any verbal consent; their silence would constitute their consent.

This passage also safeguards the woman in case the husband who at first remains silent later on seeks to void her vow. In this case, “he is responsible for her guilt” (30:15).

Although it is true that women under these circumstances in the O.T. were not free to make and honor vows as they wished, ultimately God is a God who looks at the heart. Her desire to make a vow to Him and her willingness to honor it is what really counts.

Meditative Reflection
The Command to Kill Every Man

“They fought against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and killed every man.” (Num. 31:7)

Although the Bible states that the Israelites had killed every single man of Midian, as commanded by the Lord, we have to understand that the Midianites were associated with many other peoples in the Old Testament — the Ismaelites, the Moabites and the Amalekites etc. Those killed in the battle of Numbers 31 were likely related to the Moabites and the Midianites from another region continued to be a problem for Israel (see Jdg. 6-8).

However, God’s command to kill every man in the battle seems to be out of the character of Yahweh. Allow me to briefly share with you the insight of Timothy Ashley in this respect:

“It is clear that his law was given for the kingdom of God in national form (Israel), that this kingdom was intended to be a theocracy, and that this theocracy was in the ancient Near East. First, for Christians, the kingdom of God is no longer a national entity, else the NT is a meaningless document. Rather, the kingdom now extends over all national boundaries to embrace all who accept the Lordship of Christ. Second, the kingdom as such is still a theocracy, but the successor to Israel is the church, not a national entity (Gal. 6:16; 1 Pet. 2:9-10). No nation has the automatic right to assume these rules of war for itself as if it was the successor to Israel’s mission. Third, the modern world, which has enough force to annihilate the planet many times over, is very different from the ancient Near East, with its limited possibilities for human destruction.”
(NICOT, Numbers, 590)

Meditative Reflection
Instant Repentance

“So we have brought as an offering to the Lord the gold articles each of us acquired—armlets, bracelets, signet rings, earrings and necklaces—to make atonement for ourselves before the Lord.” (Num. 31:50)

As we read the Book of Numbers, we cannot help but get a sense that these Israelites were a “brood of sinners” (32:14) who were bent on rebelling against the Lord. As a result, when I read about how they routed the Midianites, killing all their kings, killing “every man” and even Balaam the sorcerer, I was immediately taken aback by these words, “The Israelites captured the Midianite women” (31:9). I smelled trouble right away. Were these not the women who led them astray? Were they not leaving themselves room for sliding back into sin?

No sooner did I have these thoughts than I read that Moses was angry with them, charging them with exactly the same sins! (31:15-19)

Certainly, they had no choice but to obey Moses’ command and put every woman to death as well, except those who have never slept with a man (31:17-18).

My only question then was: Did they really repent from their sins? And this was answered clearly by their action as their officers went to Moses and said, “So we have brought as an offering to the Lord the gold articles each of us acquired — armlets, bracelets, signet rings, earrings and necklaces — to make atonement for ourselves before the Lord” (31:50).

This was clearly not a thanksgiving offering, although they were certainly thankful that “not one (of their soldiers) was missing’ (31:49). They made it clear that it was to make atonement for their sin which pointed back to the rebuke by Moses earlier. In other words, they were truly sorry for their action, and they had repented.

However, the atonement might also have been meant for the census. God has made it a stipulation that every time they took a census, they had to “pay the Lord a ransom for his life at the time he is counted” (Exod. 30:12). The census taken in Numbers 26 did not mention about the paying of the ransom to the Lord, and their offering of all the gold articles that they had looted could well have satisfied this stipulated ransom as well.

Meditative Reflection
God is not Legalistic!

“'If we have found favor in your eyes', they said, 'let this land be given to your servants as our possession. Do not make us cross the Jordan'.” (Num. 32:5)

As first sight, the coming forward of the Reubenites and Gadites to ask to stay on the east side of Jordan, without accompanying the other tribes into the Promised Land, was totally outrageous and unthinkable:

- Were they not in blatant violation of God’s word in that “the consistent biblical definition of Canaan (the Promised Land) was limited to the territory west of Jordan” (NICOT, Numbers, 606)? See also Genesis 12:5; 23:2, 19; 35:6; 48:3, 7; 49:30 etc.

- The size of their adult male populations of 43,730 and 40,500 (Num. 26:7, 18) were certainly not the largest among the 12 tribes, so the size of their herds and flocks should not be either.

- Forty years of wandering were certainly a long time, but what right did their women and children have over the rest in having the privilege to rest first.

Moses, and indeed all the rest of Israel, should be angry at their request. As it turned out, not only did Moses consent to their request, but so did the rest of the Israelites. In this incident, we have come to see the following:

- God is not a legalistic God who is only keen on enforcing the letters of His Law. As much as the “Promised Land” was consistently referred to as the land west of Jordan, it is never meant to be a fixed territory as we learn from the subsequent history of Israel. As long as they did not shirk their responsibilities in being united with their brethren and in joining them in taking the rest of the land, God indeed is willing “to satisfy their desires with good things” (Ps. 103:5);

- These two tribes (subsequently joined by the other ½ tribe of Manasseh) were men of their words as they did not only take the risk of leaving their women and children behind, but they stayed to fight for their brethren for a long time. While the length of the conquest is not certain, Willmington’s Guide to the Bible estimates that “It covers a period about twenty-five years.” (p. 86).

- The consent of the other tribes gives us a glimpse of unity that marked the ensuing period under Joshua’s leadership — a rarity in the history of the people of God.