Sorry it has been so long...I was gone for five days with no Internet access or cell phone coverage. If you thought Leviticus was brutal, get ready for some of the longest chapters in the bible with a lot of mundane instructions and recitation of lineages! Remember, read through the chapters and try to mine the nuggets of truth...look for how God can speak to you even through lists of names and rules. Comment on how God spoke to you...I'm looking forward to what you find.
1:46 - There were 600,000 people only counting men over 20! You have to figure there were at least as many women, so you can throw in another 600,000 and what about boys and girls under the age of 20? Conservatively you could estimate another 2 million. So we could be talking about 3.2 million Israelites conservatively! That's a lot of people wandering in a desert looking for food and shelter. God had to be moving in their lives for them to even survive...it is a miracle that they could continue existing.
Chapter 2 - Why do you think the Israelites were spread out around the tabernacle and each tribe given different duties? I believe it was so that everyone would take part in protecting the honor of the almighty God. All the people participated, so all of them felt useful...they had buy-in as the people of God. This is a great church leadership strategy.
3:44ff - Why were the Levites all taken in place of the other firstborns from other tribes? Probably because the Levites were to be set aside as a holy priestly tribe - they became the sacrifice for everyone just as Jesus the high priest sacrificed himself for all of us.
4:15, 20 - To serve the most high God is a huge responsibility with serious implications. As part of the priesthood of all believers, we should never forget this!
5:27 - Though we no longer use this method of finding out if someone has been adulterous or not - the inner destruction of someone who has committed adultery is just as bad or worse. The guilt, the pain, the broken emptiness destroy a life from the inside out.
6:2ff - Why would someone choose to make a Nazerite vow? What was their motivation? Well, as we can see the text is fairly vague and unclear about it. What we do know is that anyone could choose to set themselves apart and make a special vow to God. Men and women of any age could choose to set themselves apart in God's service. I think this is yet another picture of the unique relationship God has with His people. It is not about who is the best...who is the most talented...who has been born into the right family with God. Anyone ca choose to offer themselves to God completely for special service. I hope you never forget that you have the God-given ability to serve God in ways that only you in all the earth could perform. You are different than anyone who has ever lived and God has a role for you in service to His kingdom if you choose to accept it. I hope you will.
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