Sigh. I wish I knew more about Hebrew culture, language, and speech. I get so frustrated as I read. I know I don’t understand so much of it! For example, I’m reading Numbers 17. It’s after the rebellion and destruction of Korah. They’ve been swallowed up, the plague has killed thousands of Israelites in minutes. Here’s the question that started it: Numbers 16:3 They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord ?” To resolve the questions about Moses’ authority, God had Moses collect the staff of every tribal leader and place them in front of the altar. One staff, Aaron’s, sprouted into an almond tree. This was a sign that God had chosen Aaron’s house, the Levites, to serve Him and to carry the iniquity of the people. Here’s where I get lost. The staff was a sign to remember the rebellion. It was also a warning for the people to stay away from the “testimony” (which I’m not certain about). Then the people freak out and start crying that they’re all going to die! How do they figure that? God simply said it was a reminder and that they should stay back from the testimony (perhaps this is the ark?). If they break His boundary they would die because they are unholy treading on holy ground. And then He goes on to say that Aaron’s house has been chosen: Numbers 18:1 So the Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your father’s house with you shall bear iniquity connected with the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you shall bear iniquity connected with your priesthood. Iniquity is absence of moral value, wickedness. How is iniquity or an absence of moral value connected with the sanctuary? And how is it connected to the priesthood? And why are the Levites carrying it? Yet, somehow this bearing of iniquity is a positive thing because the Levites are responsible for caring for the Sanctuary and the Holy Place behind the veil. It’s a “covenant of salt” between them. Sigh… so much I don’t know or understand. Need more study!
I was reading a note on Skip’s website regarding some of the crazy things that have happened lately – mainly that everything has broken this month (and really, it has) and has been incredibly expensive to fix (and it has to get fixed). It’s things like that that pull at my heart and make me want to do something or give something. And it’s so frustrating because right now we have nothing to give, no comfort other than words that I hope are encouraging. I realize that God knows what He’s doing. He is HOLY. He is sovereign. He reigns over all those details. And they’re important to Him because He knows they’re important to us. But that doesn’t make it any easier when we’re in the middle of it all. I hope that some day my family has enough financial freedom that we can be an extension of the hand of God and pour back a little of the blessing that He’s given us.
Leviticus 20:7 Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I [am] the LORD your God. Separate. Set apart. Viewed as holy. That’s how we are to be. Our God is holy. He made us. And He tells us to be separate and set apart, regarding ourselves as holy. That doesn’t mean we should all go and start a commune. But it does imply that our lives should be different from the world around us. We should be like the verse at the beginning. It’s made up of letters, but it’s set apart from the rest of the text. It’s italicized, too. I do that so it’s easy to tell the verse apart from everything around it. If it were in the middle of this post it would still be easy to pick out because it’s different from the surrounding text. That’s why we have bold-faced fonts and italicized fonts. We should be like those fonts. Easy to pick out, emphasized, the place where the eyes go because things that are italicized or in bold fonts are usually important. As Christ-followers, we should stand out. Our lives should draw others’ eyes. Our lives should proclaim that it’s not we who are important or noteworthy, but rather the One True God whom we serve. It’s really easy to blend in. It’s pretty hard to look around my work place and pick out the people who Christ-followers. We tend to blend in. I know that I tend to be every bit as whiny as my other coworkers. I don’t think I stand apart in any way at all… except maybe my way of teaching. If we actually did stand out in a crowd, or at least it was easier for the crowd to see our lives were different, I wonder how much of a difference that would make. We should reflect God’s desires. His desire should be first and foremost in everything, and if I obey the things He asks of me and put His desire before mine, I’d imagine there would be many ways where I would be set apart. And that would be good.
This is a morning where I am feeling a lot overwhelmed. My husband found out yesterday that he was let go by his company. Although it’s a bit of a shock, it’s not completely unexpected, especially in light of the new health care requirements. Faced with providing benefits for him and others in his position, there’s a chance that it was easier to reduce the number of employees rather than cut the profit margin. We don’t know because they didn’t say. I’m a little scared because we have two little boys, one of whom has autism and has a lot of medical needs and another that is on a breathing treatment so he is able to breathe and so his lungs don’t get all scarred inside. When I stop and consider them numbers and try to figure out how those numbers are going to work out, I almost start to hyperventilate. We don’t use credit cards, so that’s not an option (and I really don’t want to get into debt again). It all comes down to what David says in Psalm 22: Yet, You are Holy! “Yet You are holy” is the phrase that keeps echoing in my head as I try and wrap my head around everything that’s happening. I know that John is INCREDIBLY relieved on one hand and INCREDIBLE concerned on the other. In some ways it’s like being a baby bird and getting kicked out of the nest to practice flying. It’s inevitable, but that doesn’t make it less intimidating. Yet You are holy, Lord God, Jehovah, Adonai, Provider, Protector, Creator, Love. Somewhere in the swirl of thoughts, I remember that God is good and loves me, that He knows my children and their needs, and that this is a huge opportunity for Him to glorify Himself through our weakness. And, it’s not about where we’re going. Only He knows that. It’s about where we’ve been. Looking back I see that He has always provided for us. And just as the Israelites remembered how He had provided for and cared for their forefathers, I need to remember how He’s provided for and cared for me. So with that in mind, with every breathe, I pray “God help! Yet You are holy!” Psalm 22:3 (HNB) But you are holy, You who inhabit the praises of Yisra’el. Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted, and you delivered them. They cried to you, and were delivered. They trusted in you, and were not disappointed.
As I’m listening to Skip Moen’s Living the Biblical Worldview and my world is being shifted from under me, I found this article about Biblical translations called “Reading the White.“ Ultimately, it says, it doesn’t particularly matter what translation is being read. The point is to “read the white,” letting the Holy Spirit express the meaning of the text. Instead of focusing so much on the black, printed words that time and translation have touched and changed, read the white – let the Holy Spirit speak Truth into your life because Jesus is the WORD of God. It’s a long article, but it’s an interesting read. One of the things Skip talks about in his teaching is the 22nd Psalm. This is the Psalm that Jesus referred to when he cried, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” What Skip notes is that, because we don’t know our Old Testament as well as the early church and the Jewish society, we don’t realize that this is part of a longer Psalm. When Jesus mentions this part of the Psalm, the Jews of this time would immediately know and recall the rest of the Psalm… which mostly speaks about victory over judgement… and is one of the prophetic chapters that foretells the death of Jesus. So, he’s not asking why His Father turned away, but rather proclaiming the beginnings of victory. Very cool. Also, the first two verses ask God where He is when the author is going through a difficult time. The response is, as Skip points out, quite typical for a person who thought in the Hebrew manner: “Yet you are holy. The praises of Israel surround your throne” (vs. 3). No matter what the circumstances, God is holy. Truly, that’s the beginning and the end of the argument. He is Holy. He is Righteous. He is perfect. He is Good and Trustworthy. All these things are to keep me aligned with Him and to mold me into His likeness. So, even in my current circumstances, Yet God, You are holy!
Then we might discover His unfathomable mercy wrapped around His infinite holiness. This quote is from Skip Moen’s blog entry this morning. I thought it was beautiful. I think there’s a tendency to either see God’s mercy or His holiness, not both at once. But Skip makes the point that even when God has every right to demand things of us, He often chooses to ask gently. I wonder how often he chooses to discipline gently instead of throwing the book at us… Here’s the post. You might want to go back and read yesterday‘s post, too, to understand the first part of the verse.
Ezekiel 44:19b They must leave them in the sacred rooms and put on other clothes so they do not harm the people by transmitting holiness to them through their clothes. I have to admit, this is pretty strange to me. First, I didn’t know holiness could be transmitted through clothes. Second, I didn’t know it could be harmful. But, I think it’s like Moses after he received the ten commandments. His face shone with the holiness of God and the people were frightened. His face transmitted the holiness of God. That can be an overwhelming thing, and if the people were not prepared it could be deadly, maybe… Remember how the priests would die if they went into the holy place without offering a sin sacrifice and being ritually clean? The ordinary people of Israel weren’t clean. They didn’t have the salvation through Jesus that we have today… so to be in the presence of such utter and true holiness could have been deadly. Even the glory shining from a person who had been in God’s presence was too much. Moses had to cover his face because he was so shiny. Similarly, the priests had to leave their clothes behind because they would be too much to behold. I wonder if they shone when they came out of the presence of God the way Moses did? If their clothes transmitted holiness, did their faces and hands transmit it, too? And ultimately, it leaves me with the question: do I transmit holiness after I spend time in the presence of God? I am blessed with His Words and His presence all the time (sometimes it’s more physical than others). Do I transmit holiness?