Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Deuteronomy chapter 3 verses 18 through 22:
18 At that time, I charged you as follows: “Although the Lord your God has given you this land to occupy, all your troops shall cross over armed as the vanguard of your Israelite kin. 19 Only your wives, your children, and your livestock—I know that you have much livestock—shall stay behind in the towns that I have given to you. 20 When the Lord gives rest to your kindred, as to you, and they too have occupied the land that the Lord your God is giving them beyond the Jordan, then each of you may return to the property that I have given to you.” 21 And I charged Joshua as well at that time, saying: “Your own eyes have seen everything that the Lord your God has done to these two kings; so the Lord will do to all the kingdoms into which you are about to cross. 22 Do not be afraid, for it is the Lord your God who fights for you.”
Though I have not counted them myself, I have been told that in the Bible there are exactly 365 appearances of the words, “Do not be afraid,” — once for every day of the year. (If you count them and find another number please don’t tell me, because 365 preaches a whole lot better than 364!)
In any case, it’s pretty much true that every day of the year we need these words at least once to encourage us and give us strength: “Do not be afraid.”
At least since the early church Father Origen, the church has taught us to read the Old Testament allegorically. There is a lot of stuff in there — mass slaughter, pillage, enslavement of girls — that is literally repugnant. We simply cannot take those commands literally. For the letter of the law killeth”; and guaranteed anyone who says they follow the letter of the law literally only follows some of it — the part that confirms all their prejudices.
The Letter killeth, but the Spirit gives life.” And understood spiritually, or allegorically, we can read Scripture like the one we are given today and take the message to heart, again and again: “Do not be afraid.”
No, we aren’t called to go to war with the Midianites; and the Bible shouldn’t be used as pretext for war with anybody else either. But a guarantee is we do have a battle at hand. And we are called to fight the good fight. And the words from today’s Lesson still have something spiritually true to say to us today, and every day:
“Do not be afraid, for it is the Lord your God who fights for you.”
NOTE: Tomorrow’s Lesson will be from Deuteronomy chapters 5-7.
Wednesday, March 11, 2020
Tuesday, March 10, 2020
Daily Lesson for March 10, 2020
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Deuteronomy chapter 1 verses 6 through 8:
6 The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7 Resume your journey, and go into the hill country of the Amorites as well as into the neighboring regions—the Arabah, the hill country, the Shephelah, the Negeb, and the seacoast—the land of the Canaanites and the Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. 8 See, I have set the land before you; go in and take possession of the land that I swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.”
Have you stayed long enough where you are at now? Is it time to move on? Is it time to take a faithful step? Is it time to act?
The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. They were busy organizing, and planning, and setting down the Law. But they were also busy being scared. And they might still be there in the wilderness acting busy but really being scared, if God had not said, “It’s time; you’ve been here long enough. You gotta go.”
We can plan for 40 years. We can can plan for 40 more. Still, we may never feel like we’re really ready. But then God says, “Go.” And we get up, and we head out, and we trust that God is going with us . . .
NOTE: Tomorrow’s Lesson will be from Deuteronomy chapters 3 and 4.
6 The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7 Resume your journey, and go into the hill country of the Amorites as well as into the neighboring regions—the Arabah, the hill country, the Shephelah, the Negeb, and the seacoast—the land of the Canaanites and the Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. 8 See, I have set the land before you; go in and take possession of the land that I swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.”
Have you stayed long enough where you are at now? Is it time to move on? Is it time to take a faithful step? Is it time to act?
The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. They were busy organizing, and planning, and setting down the Law. But they were also busy being scared. And they might still be there in the wilderness acting busy but really being scared, if God had not said, “It’s time; you’ve been here long enough. You gotta go.”
We can plan for 40 years. We can can plan for 40 more. Still, we may never feel like we’re really ready. But then God says, “Go.” And we get up, and we head out, and we trust that God is going with us . . .
NOTE: Tomorrow’s Lesson will be from Deuteronomy chapters 3 and 4.
Monday, March 9, 2020
Daily Lesson for March 9, 2020
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Numbers chapter 33 verses 50 through 56:
50 In the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 51 Speak to the Israelites, and say to them: When you cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 52 you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their figured stones, destroy all their cast images, and demolish all their high places. 53 You shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess. 54 You shall apportion the land by lot according to your clans; to a large one you shall give a large inheritance, and to a small one you shall give a small inheritance; the inheritance shall belong to the person on whom the lot falls; according to your ancestral tribes you shall inherit. 55 But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those whom you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides; they shall trouble you in the land where you are settling. 56 And I will do to you as I thought to do to them.
Another difficult passage from the Old Testament.
These chapters in Numbers give instructions on what to do with the nations which lived in the Promised Land before the Israelites arrived. Depending on which scholars you read, it is either a story of dispossession and genocide or civilizing conquest. Justifications can be made: the Land was first promised to Abraham, the former inhabitants filled the Land with war and slavery. But in whatever case there were 7 nations driven out in all to make way for the 12 tribes of Israel.
Which leads me to an interesting New Testament point. Almost everyone remembers Jesus fed the 5,000 and there were 12 baskets of bread left over, symbolic of the twelve tribes of Israel. But a lot of people forget another large feeding — 4,000 people — in which 7 basketfuls were left over. And the really interesting thing is that the feeding of the 4,000 happened in a Gentile area where many of the descendants of the nations which were supposed to have been eradicated from the Land by the Israelites had taken refuge.
It is an interesting point. Like maybe the Bible is saying that a new vision must be embraced, and that former command about dispossession and annihilation must be replaced with a new command of salvation and provision.
And the latter word is greater than the former . . .
Tomorrow’s Lesson will be from Deuteronomy chapters 1 and 2.
50 In the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 51 Speak to the Israelites, and say to them: When you cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 52 you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their figured stones, destroy all their cast images, and demolish all their high places. 53 You shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess. 54 You shall apportion the land by lot according to your clans; to a large one you shall give a large inheritance, and to a small one you shall give a small inheritance; the inheritance shall belong to the person on whom the lot falls; according to your ancestral tribes you shall inherit. 55 But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those whom you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides; they shall trouble you in the land where you are settling. 56 And I will do to you as I thought to do to them.
Another difficult passage from the Old Testament.
These chapters in Numbers give instructions on what to do with the nations which lived in the Promised Land before the Israelites arrived. Depending on which scholars you read, it is either a story of dispossession and genocide or civilizing conquest. Justifications can be made: the Land was first promised to Abraham, the former inhabitants filled the Land with war and slavery. But in whatever case there were 7 nations driven out in all to make way for the 12 tribes of Israel.
Which leads me to an interesting New Testament point. Almost everyone remembers Jesus fed the 5,000 and there were 12 baskets of bread left over, symbolic of the twelve tribes of Israel. But a lot of people forget another large feeding — 4,000 people — in which 7 basketfuls were left over. And the really interesting thing is that the feeding of the 4,000 happened in a Gentile area where many of the descendants of the nations which were supposed to have been eradicated from the Land by the Israelites had taken refuge.
It is an interesting point. Like maybe the Bible is saying that a new vision must be embraced, and that former command about dispossession and annihilation must be replaced with a new command of salvation and provision.
And the latter word is greater than the former . . .
Tomorrow’s Lesson will be from Deuteronomy chapters 1 and 2.
Friday, March 6, 2020
Daily Lesson for March 6, 2020
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Numbers chapter 30 verses 1 and 2:
1Then Moses said to the heads of the tribes of the Israelites: This is what the LORD has commanded. 2When a man makes a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
In ancient Israel vows were extremely important and to be taken very seriously. Any promise made to or before the LORD in the solemn act of a vow was absolutely binding.
Later, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount said a person’s word ought to be his or her bond even if they don’t make a solemn vow. A yes ought to be a yes and a no ought to be a no — regardless.
So how are we living out our promises? Have we done what we said we would do before God and each other? Is our word our bond? Can our pledges, and our promises and our yeses be counted on? Or are our yeses really nos, or maybes, or we’ll sees, if nothing more exciting comes along . . .
NOTE: We’re reading the whole Bible this year. Monday’s Lesson will be from Numbers chapters 31 through 36.
1Then Moses said to the heads of the tribes of the Israelites: This is what the LORD has commanded. 2When a man makes a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
In ancient Israel vows were extremely important and to be taken very seriously. Any promise made to or before the LORD in the solemn act of a vow was absolutely binding.
Later, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount said a person’s word ought to be his or her bond even if they don’t make a solemn vow. A yes ought to be a yes and a no ought to be a no — regardless.
So how are we living out our promises? Have we done what we said we would do before God and each other? Is our word our bond? Can our pledges, and our promises and our yeses be counted on? Or are our yeses really nos, or maybes, or we’ll sees, if nothing more exciting comes along . . .
NOTE: We’re reading the whole Bible this year. Monday’s Lesson will be from Numbers chapters 31 through 36.
Thursday, March 5, 2020
Daily Lesson for March 5, 2020
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Numbers chapter 27 verses 1 through 11:
The he daughters of Zelophehad son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Makir, the son of Manasseh, belonged to the clans of Manasseh son of Joseph. The names of the daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milkah and Tirzah. They came forward 2 and stood before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the leaders and the whole assembly at the entrance to the tent of meeting and said, 3 “Our father died in the wilderness. He was not among Korah’s followers, who banded together against the Lord, but he died for his own sin and left no sons. 4 Why should our father’s name disappear from his clan because he had no son? Give us property among our father’s relatives.”
5 So Moses brought their case before the Lord, 6 and the Lord said to him, 7 “What Zelophehad’s daughters are saying is right. You must certainly give them property as an inheritance among their father’s relatives and give their father’s inheritance to them.
8 “Say to the Israelites, ‘If a man dies and leaves no son, give his inheritance to his daughter. 9 If he has no daughter, give his inheritance to his brothers. 10 If he has no brothers, give his inheritance to his father’s brothers. 11 If his father had no brothers, give his inheritance to the nearest relative in his clan, that he may possess it. This is to have the force of law for the Israelites, as the Lord commanded Moses.’”
Here is the beginning of equal rights in Israel.
In ancient Israel, property rights were passed down patrilineally. But that system showed its imperfection when there was no male to inherit the property. The alternatives were for either the property to be given to close clan groups, thus dispossessing the descendants, or for the property to actually be handed down through, gasp, a woman.
And when the LORD spoke to Moses about this the word was woman.
It was not equal. Sons were still privileged over daughters; but it was a beginning to the long, hard road we’re still walking towards what is know as equal rights for all sexes and genders. And we wouldn’t be watching “The Crown” on Netflix without it . . .
NOTE: I’m reading the whole Bible this year. Tomorrow’s Lesson is from Numbers chapters 28-30.
The he daughters of Zelophehad son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Makir, the son of Manasseh, belonged to the clans of Manasseh son of Joseph. The names of the daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milkah and Tirzah. They came forward 2 and stood before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the leaders and the whole assembly at the entrance to the tent of meeting and said, 3 “Our father died in the wilderness. He was not among Korah’s followers, who banded together against the Lord, but he died for his own sin and left no sons. 4 Why should our father’s name disappear from his clan because he had no son? Give us property among our father’s relatives.”
5 So Moses brought their case before the Lord, 6 and the Lord said to him, 7 “What Zelophehad’s daughters are saying is right. You must certainly give them property as an inheritance among their father’s relatives and give their father’s inheritance to them.
8 “Say to the Israelites, ‘If a man dies and leaves no son, give his inheritance to his daughter. 9 If he has no daughter, give his inheritance to his brothers. 10 If he has no brothers, give his inheritance to his father’s brothers. 11 If his father had no brothers, give his inheritance to the nearest relative in his clan, that he may possess it. This is to have the force of law for the Israelites, as the Lord commanded Moses.’”
Here is the beginning of equal rights in Israel.
In ancient Israel, property rights were passed down patrilineally. But that system showed its imperfection when there was no male to inherit the property. The alternatives were for either the property to be given to close clan groups, thus dispossessing the descendants, or for the property to actually be handed down through, gasp, a woman.
And when the LORD spoke to Moses about this the word was woman.
It was not equal. Sons were still privileged over daughters; but it was a beginning to the long, hard road we’re still walking towards what is know as equal rights for all sexes and genders. And we wouldn’t be watching “The Crown” on Netflix without it . . .
NOTE: I’m reading the whole Bible this year. Tomorrow’s Lesson is from Numbers chapters 28-30.
Wednesday, March 4, 2020
Daily Lesson for March 4, 2020
Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Numbers chapter 25 verses 1 through 9:
While Israel was staying at Shittim, the people began to have sexual relations with the women of Moab. 2 These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. 3 Thus Israel yoked itself to the Baal of Peor, and the Lord’s anger was kindled against Israel. 4 The Lord said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people, and impale them in the sun before the Lord, in order that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.” 5 And Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you shall kill any of your people who have yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor.”
6 Just then one of the Israelites came and brought a Midianite woman into his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the Israelites, while they were weeping at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 7 When Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he got up and left the congregation. Taking a spear in his hand, 8 he went after the Israelite man into the tent, and pierced the two of them, the Israelite and the woman, through the belly. So the plague was stopped among the people of Israel. 9 Nevertheless those that died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.
When we read the Bible we have to understand that we are witnessing a kind intra-textual debate and even sometimes outright fight between the varying schools and factions who wrote the Bible.
The Lesson today is a disturbing one. It represents the worst in religion and ethnic clannishness. As Christians it is imperative to note that this was exactly the kind of ethno-religion Jesus rejected. How sad then that so many Christians have used this passage or ones like it to justify the evils Jesus abhorred!
But look also at the text. Apparently, Moses had misgivings about this kind of brutishness also. In the text Moses refuses to carry out the order to kill all the chiefs of the people who had consorted with foreign women. This became a point of derision in the power play between the later followers of the Moses school and their rivals in the lineage of the priest Aaron, whose grandson Phinehas carries out the butchery of the Israelite and his foreign wife without even a hint of squeamishness in the story.
See there is a debate going on within the text, a struggle and outright fight. Whoever the Aaronide-School writer of today’s Lesson was clearly had a more narrow and harder-edged version of what Israel should be than he thought the Moses tradition could tolerate. He thought the Moses tradition would lose the nation’s sense of itself through too much toleration. So, he gave the people this story to justify what we might today call ethnic cleansing.
So what is the point? Again, beware of those who use sacred texts for the purposes of violence. For even the clearest of sacred texts there is often nuance, and disagreement, and a context in writing, and perspective of authorship.
But woe unto those who dare to say and believe that it was the LORD and not human beings who gave the command to kill.
NOTE: We’re reading the whole Bible this year. Tomorrow’s Lesson will be from Numbers 26-27.
While Israel was staying at Shittim, the people began to have sexual relations with the women of Moab. 2 These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. 3 Thus Israel yoked itself to the Baal of Peor, and the Lord’s anger was kindled against Israel. 4 The Lord said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people, and impale them in the sun before the Lord, in order that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.” 5 And Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you shall kill any of your people who have yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor.”
6 Just then one of the Israelites came and brought a Midianite woman into his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the Israelites, while they were weeping at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 7 When Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he got up and left the congregation. Taking a spear in his hand, 8 he went after the Israelite man into the tent, and pierced the two of them, the Israelite and the woman, through the belly. So the plague was stopped among the people of Israel. 9 Nevertheless those that died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.
When we read the Bible we have to understand that we are witnessing a kind intra-textual debate and even sometimes outright fight between the varying schools and factions who wrote the Bible.
The Lesson today is a disturbing one. It represents the worst in religion and ethnic clannishness. As Christians it is imperative to note that this was exactly the kind of ethno-religion Jesus rejected. How sad then that so many Christians have used this passage or ones like it to justify the evils Jesus abhorred!
But look also at the text. Apparently, Moses had misgivings about this kind of brutishness also. In the text Moses refuses to carry out the order to kill all the chiefs of the people who had consorted with foreign women. This became a point of derision in the power play between the later followers of the Moses school and their rivals in the lineage of the priest Aaron, whose grandson Phinehas carries out the butchery of the Israelite and his foreign wife without even a hint of squeamishness in the story.
See there is a debate going on within the text, a struggle and outright fight. Whoever the Aaronide-School writer of today’s Lesson was clearly had a more narrow and harder-edged version of what Israel should be than he thought the Moses tradition could tolerate. He thought the Moses tradition would lose the nation’s sense of itself through too much toleration. So, he gave the people this story to justify what we might today call ethnic cleansing.
So what is the point? Again, beware of those who use sacred texts for the purposes of violence. For even the clearest of sacred texts there is often nuance, and disagreement, and a context in writing, and perspective of authorship.
But woe unto those who dare to say and believe that it was the LORD and not human beings who gave the command to kill.
NOTE: We’re reading the whole Bible this year. Tomorrow’s Lesson will be from Numbers 26-27.
Tuesday, March 3, 2020
Daily Lesson for March 3, 2020
Today's Daily Lesson comes from Numbers chapter 21 verses 4 through 9:
4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. 5 The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” 6 Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.
It is our deepest fears which must be faced square on as we make our way through the wilderness of life. Otherwise what hides in the holes of our subconsciousness manifests itself in anger and resentment and all kinds of displaced forms of negative energy. It can even literally make us sick inside. Our lives become snakebite and we, like the Israelites, get stuck, wandering around and around but not really getting anywhere and alienating all our friends and allies. This is sin at work.
The way out of this wilderness is to dare to take a look at our anxieties and fears and hold it up before ourselves. A good therapist or pastoral counselor can help us with this. It's scary to think about; but it's really the only way to wholeness. We have to see the serpent on the way to salvation; and the snake that poisons us must become the symbol that sets us free.
NOTE: We’re reading the whole Bible together this year. Tomorrow’s Lesson will come from Numbers chapters 23-25.
4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. 5 The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” 6 Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.
It is our deepest fears which must be faced square on as we make our way through the wilderness of life. Otherwise what hides in the holes of our subconsciousness manifests itself in anger and resentment and all kinds of displaced forms of negative energy. It can even literally make us sick inside. Our lives become snakebite and we, like the Israelites, get stuck, wandering around and around but not really getting anywhere and alienating all our friends and allies. This is sin at work.
The way out of this wilderness is to dare to take a look at our anxieties and fears and hold it up before ourselves. A good therapist or pastoral counselor can help us with this. It's scary to think about; but it's really the only way to wholeness. We have to see the serpent on the way to salvation; and the snake that poisons us must become the symbol that sets us free.
NOTE: We’re reading the whole Bible together this year. Tomorrow’s Lesson will come from Numbers chapters 23-25.
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