Writing #9: Exodus & Numbers

The people at my church are engaged in a month long adventure to read through the Bible in a mere 31 days. These writings have been designed to be encouragement along the way. I prefer an honest look at what I read and the way life works. This is, after all, a blog about the way I see life and its myriad of varieties. But, I have a confession to make which I will get to in a moment or two.

I am a big fan of literature. I love to read--oh, and I love books. I think the proper term is bibliophile. To make matters worse, with very few exceptions, I'll read just about anything that consists of words: advertisements, books, essays, scholarly papers, novels, commentaries and magazines. To further complicate matters, I will read just about any genre of literature: Scientific papers, history, literature, poetry, opinion--whatever. If I thought I could get away with it, I would be a reader for a living; oh, wait--I am. But I have a confession to make. My love of books and my greater love of the words printed inside of books does not make it any easier to trudge through the books that have come to be called Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers.

Now, I must be fair. Within those books there are, I noticed especially in Numbers, periodic episodes for the rote recitation of law is interrupted by grumbling, complaining, stoning or outbreaks of plague. I suspect that these episodes were inserted in the text for the express purpose of relieving the unmitigated boredom of reading who gave what, how much, when and how many of 'them' there were and where 'they' camped along the way. Let me give you an example from Numbers 7:

The one who brought his offering on the first day was Nahshon son of Amminadab of the tribe of Judah. His offering was one silver plate weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, and one silver sprinkling bowl weighing seventy shekels, both according to the sanctuary shekel, each filled with fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering; 14 one gold dish weighing ten shekels, filled with incense; 15 one young bull, one ram and one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering; 16 one male goat for a sin offering; 17 and two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five male lambs a year old, to be sacrificed as a fellowship offering. This was the offering of Nahshon son of Amminadab.

This is not so bad. Until you consider that these verses are repeated, word for word, twelve times for a total of 89 verses. Our modern ambitions would be a little less monumental: Ditto. And that is only one example. Another is in chapter 29 where we learn about the Feast of Tabernacles and the offerings that are to be made during the feast. There we are treated to a description of all the offerings that are to be made during the eight day period of feasting:

" '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. 13 Present an offering made by fire as an aroma pleasing to the LORD, a burnt offering of thirteen young bulls, two rams and fourteen male lambs a year old, all without defect. 14 With each of the thirteen bulls prepare a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil; with each of the two rams, two-tenths; 15 and with each of the fourteen lambs, one-tenth. 16 Include one male goat as a sin offering, in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain offering and drink offering.

" 'On the second day prepare twelve young bulls, two rams and fourteen male lambs a year old, all without defect. 18 With the bulls, rams and lambs, prepare their grain offerings and drink offerings according to the number specified. 19 Include one male goat as a sin offering, in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain offering, and their drink offerings.

One the third day, the number of young bulls to be offered drops to eleven. On the fourth day, ten; and so on and so forth. It is an interesting chapter. I mean that sincerely. But if you think about it, at all, you soon come to realize that in the Book of Numbers there are a lot of sacrifices that have to be made. Everything the Israelites did involved sacrifice. Blood was shed for everything under the sun. There were even sacrifices that were simply called 'morning' and 'evening' sacrifices. Some animals ver even got to live because they were firstborn and belonged to the Lord: They could not be redeemed; they were born, they were killed (sacrificed). There were supplemental offerings, offerings for unintentional sins, sacrifices for the cleansing of water, Sabbath offerings, Monthly offerings, Passover offerings, Day of Atonement offerings, Trumpet offerings, Offerings for Vows and it seems to never end. It got me to wondering: how did they keep it all straight.

Then the answer became clear. The only way to keep all these and many more rules and commandments and sacrifices straight was to be reading the book of Numbers and Exodus and Leviticus every single day, every single minute of every single day to see what the Lord prescribed. Imagine that: they had to read the Bible every day. It's no wonder the priesthood was so important and so exempt from everything but tabernacle/temple duties. They had to be involved in the Word so that they knew what the Lord was prescribing each day. If a day went by where they were not in the Bible it seems altogether too likely they would mess up and forget something thus incurring the Lord's wrath.

This says something to the Christian too. If the Word of God is a Double Edged Sword, if it is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, if it is like the Rain and Snow which are sent forth with a purpose, if the Word of God is our only rule of faith and practice--if all these things are true, then does it not behoove the Christian to be reading that Word every day to see what God has said to us about Himself, about sin, about righteousness, about the Gospel, about His Son Jesus and more? This month has been a challenge for me because I have put on hold most all reading projects (mostly the books) in order that I might concentrate entirely on reading the Bible. What I have found is that I am no less informed about the world than if I read the paper every day. No, in fact, I believe I am actually more informed, better educated, and more in step with God from having done so and I am only 17 days into the adventure.

I saw what happened to Israel when they got away from the daily preparation and sacrifice of reading the Bible: they fell into apostasy. They were so uninformed that God said this to them, "Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. For forty years--one year for each of the forty days you explored the land--you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you." (Numbers 14:33-34) Later, it was as a celebration when under Josiah's leadership the Law was found and read. And, later than that, it was Ezra who came back from captivity, well versed in the Law, and made a daily habit of reading to the people God's Holy Word. I just wonder what would happen in the Church if we spent more time reading the Bible than reading Joel Osteen, Rick Warren or Max Lucado. Not that I have anything against these fellas, but I think even they would confess that their words pale in comparison to God's.