Moses: The True Servant

Alright, I’ll admit it: I’ve fallen a little behind in my reading.  Based on crude calculations I should be around page 315/320 if I’m on pace to finish in exactly a year, but unfortunately I’ve only reached page 259.  But what’s more important: finishing in exactly a year, or making sure I absorb and learn from what I read?  Exactly.  So cut me some slack, ok??

Anyway, I just finished up Deuteronomy. It contains Moses’ final address to the Israelites before they enter into Canaan and the covenant that is established between Israel and the Lord.  At the end of the book, Moses appoints Joshua as his successor to lead Israel into Canaan, then dies on top of Mount Nebo in Moab.

Back in Numbers, Moses and Aaron broke faith with God in the Desert of Zin when instead of speaking to a rock to bring forth water, he struck it with his staff.  The Lord says, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”

Before Moses dies, the Lord allows him to look out and see Canaan, but not to enter into it.

Wait, Moses didn’t get to go into the Promised Land!?  After everything he did??  Nope.  And this is something I want to address.  I’ve been tossing it around in my mind for about 20 minutes, so apologies if the theology is a little rough around the edges.

Moses did a lot for the Lord.  He brought Israel out of Egypt, presented the Ten Commandments, led them through the desert for forty years, communicated Jewish law, and much more.  When he died, Deuteronomy calls him, “the servant of the Lord.”  Shouldn’t he get to cross the Jordan into the Promised Land, too?

I think the notion that, “I did X for God, I deserve to get Y in return” is a poisonous and far-too-commonly held belief.  Prosperity gospels spouted by false teachers like Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer have been embraced by millions of lost souls who are going to be disappointed when a Ferrari doesn’t show up in their driveway after they get home from church.

We’re called to be servants of the Lord.  Instead of wondering when he’ll give us a break, when we’ll get a bonus at work because “I’ve put a lot in the offering plate this year,” lets put our heads down and joyfully do the work he’s called us to do.  The best break, the biggest bonus, the greatest gift will be when we meet Jesus and he smiles and says to us, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

Good Is God

I’ll be frank: Numbers was not easy to read.  It documents the forty years Israel spends wandering through the desert as punishment for the disobedience and lack of faith of the previous generation.  Once the generation dies off, the Lord lets Israel into the Promised Land.  A lot of the events that take place are, for lack of a better word, downers.  We see examples of God loving and providing for Israel, but also many examples of His wrath on those who sin against Him.

Similar to Leviticus, Numbers for me was less about directly applicable stories and more about seeing who God is.  His anger burns (justifiably) against Israel numerous times throughout Numbers, and they are punished accordingly.  What I really want to address in this post are all the times I said to myself, “Wow, that’s kinda harsh.”

A couple weeks ago I wrote about God’s provision for Israel in the form of manna.  Well after eating manna every day, for every meal, for a long time, the Israelites had lost their appetite for it.  They complained to Moses, claiming that they ate better in Egypt.  According to Numbers, the Lord became “exceedingly angry” and said, “you will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the Lord.”

The Lord piles quail in Israel’s camp up to three feet high and as far as a day’s walk in any direction.  “While the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed” God unleashes a severe plague upon everyone eating the quail.  The place is named “graves of craving” because of all who died from craving the meat.

Later Balak, king of Moab, summons a powerful sorcerer named Balaam to put a curse upon the Israelites.  Balaam refuses, saying that the Lord has forbid him from doing it.  When Balak’s representatives return to ask again, God says to Balaam, “Since these men have come to summon you, go with them, but do only what I tell you.”  Two sentences later Numbers says, “But God was very angry when he went and the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose him.”

Balaam’s donkey sees the angel and will not go near it, but since Balaam can’t see the angel he becomes angry and beats the donkey.  Eventually the Lord reveals the angel to him.  “I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one” said the angel, “If (the donkey) had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now.”  Balaam says, “ I have sinned.  I did not realize you were standing in the road to oppose me.  If you are displeased, I will go back.”  The angel tells him to go with the men, but speak only what it tells him to.

Soooo Balaam followed the Lord’s instructions but the Lord became angry with him and almost killed him.  When the angel speaks with Balaam, he tells him to do what he was originally going to do in the first place.  Something doesn’t make sense…

I mention these two stories because they are part of several stories in Numbers that leave me scratching my head saying, “Why did God do that?  That doesn’t seem right.”  Well the reality is that everything God does is right, purely because He does it.

See, God isn’t subject to what we define as “good” and “just.”  In fact it is quite the opposite.  Goodness and justice are derived from Him, and He can’t do anything that is not good.  It’s important that we avoid judging God’s morality from within our tiny, simplistic, narrow-minded frames of reference of right and wrong.  What do we know?  In recent American history it was considered perfectly acceptable to buy and sell people as property!

Seeing the aftermath of the typhoon in the Philippines is hard.  Seeing a child wasting away in a hospital bed from cancer is hard.  We don’t understand it.  “If God is so good, how can He let these things happen?”

Francis Chan puts it this way: “Do you ever even consider the possibility that maybe the Creator’s sense of justice is actually more developed than yours?  And that His love and His mercy are perfect and that you could be the one that is flawed?”  He goes on to point out that when we say things like, “well God wouldn’t do that” we’re putting God’s actions in submission to our reasoning.

The Bible is full of things that don’t make sense to us.  But we need to be assured that everything God does is good.  Goodness is inseparable from Him.  Good is God.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Manna

I recently watched Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, so naturally when I read that God said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you” I imagined it accompanied by T-bone steaks and ice cream.  Although that didn’t happen, what did happen was just as amazing.

A little backstory: the Israelites were freed from Egypt and were being led by Moses through the desert when God hardened Pharaoh’s heart and caused him to give chase.  God divided the Red Sea, led Israel through it on dry land, and released the waters back on the Egyptians.  Exodus says, “And when the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him.”

As we’ve come to expect with the Israelites, the praise and trust didn’t last long.  Less than a page after they sing, “Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?” they begin grumbling.  “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt!  There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”

As we’ve come to expect with God, He provided.  He gives them quail and forms thin flakes of bread on the desert floor.  There are stipulations, though.  The Israelites have to gather the bread every morning and only gather enough for that day (with the exception of the sixth day, where they get double so that they rest on the Sabbath.)  If they keep the bread until the next morning it starts to smell and becomes infested with maggots.  Exodus says the Israelites ate manna for forty years until they reached the border of Canaan.

I once heard manna used as an illustration of how our walk with Jesus should be.  How every day we should be diving into His Word, praying with Him, pondering Him, seeking Him.  We can’t store up a bunch of Jesus for later, it doesn’t work like that.  He needs to be our daily sustenance just like manna was for the Israelites.  There are 1440 minutes up for grabs every day…lets use 30 of them to be alone with Jesus.  I can guarantee we have time, and I can guarantee there’s no better way to spend it.