God: The Ultimate Lie Detector

I started the book of Numbers recently and I’ll be honest, I was not super excited.  Talk about a lack-luster introduction… God says, “Hey Moses, go count all the people.”  And thus, we hear names and numbers for the rest of the first chapter.  I thought to myself, I could just skip Numbers – the details about how the Israelite camp should be set up and the duties of the priests and the number of the clans – and no one would know.  I’ll move onto something more exciting and if anyone asks, I’ll just say I skimmed it.

Here’s the thing: God knows E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G.  I mean, it’s not like I will get points for reading it or not reading it, but when I stumbled onto Numbers 5, I learned that God is actually the inventor of the first ever “lie-detector.” This is stunning.  Ok, please take 3 minutes and go read Numbers 5:11-31.

As it turns out, people have been lying about their activities since nearly the beginning.  God and Moses are talking and God says, “Hey Moses (They talk like friends do.), if a man thinks his wife has cheated on him with another man and if she’s all like, I didn’t do it and denies it…  well then, here’s what you do...”  God tells him to mix of a potion of bitter water that includes the holy water AND dust from the floor of the tabernacle (tasty!).  Well, you’ve already read it so you know the process God explained.  Here are verses 27-28:

“If she has made herself impure and been unfaithful to her husband, this will be the result: When she is made to drink the water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering, it will enter her, her abdomen will swell and her womb will miscarry, and she will become a curse.  If, however, the woman has not made herself impure, but is clean, she will be cleared of guilt and will be able to have children. (NIV)”

God says, have her drink the water and what happens next will tell you whether she’s lying or not! There’s nothing to measure the heart-rate or the sweat production.  There are no wires to hook up or plug in…  Just good old-fashioned God running every detail of the universe to reveal the truth. 

People, we have been trying for years and, often times, we are able to get our lies by the people around us.  If we’re really good at it, we can keep them for a really long time (even from the people closest to us) and it’s almost like they are true (after a while anyway)! But Numbers 5 is a great reminder that God knows all.  We can’t lie to him.  I mean, we can try to keep on the mask, but he knows just how dusty water will affect us when we drink it.  We’ll be exposed for the sinners we are.

And so, Romans 5:6, 8 & 11 shine brightly into this dismal situation:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly….God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us… More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Jesus Christ is ALWAYS good news.  He is Gospel.

So, I’m hooked on Numbers now.

Boxers or Briefs: God Has An Opinion!

So I’m just reading through the Old Testament these days, trying to learn from the characters and their situations.  There has been some amazing stuff: Amazing deliverance from God, amazingly little faith from the Israelite people in the midst of deliverance, amazing grace over and over again, and amazing details.  In these details is where I found myself in mid-Exodus the other day.

I’ve never thought of God as a clothing designer, but you hit Exodus 28 and you find out that He is.  And you find out whether He prefers boxers or briefs for his priests! Details, man!

In verses 3-5, God gives the general description of what Moses should have made for Aaron and his sons:

“Tell all the skilled workers to whom I have given wisdom in such matters that they are to make garments for Aaron, for his consecration, so he may serve me as priest. These are the garments they are to make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a woven tunic, a turban and a sash. They are to make these sacred garments for your brother Aaron and his sons, so they may serve me as priests. Have them use gold, and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and fine linen.”

Now God had given wisdom “in such matters” (as clothing) to skilled workers.  If I was God (excellent that I’m not!), I would have left it at that and let “the Spirit move” these folks to make something nice. After all, they did have wisdom in such matters.  I’d be thinking, I’ve got 66 books to tell the entire world that I love them, that I want them in relationship with me, that I’m willing (and did) send my only Son to be punished in their place for the wrongs they’ve done, that if they believe and trust in me they will find rest for their souls – the rest they’ve been longing for. Gonna be honest, I wouldn’t waste a whole chapter on priestly garments.  But God didn’t waste the chapter.

The rest of the chapter is a detailed description of the stones and metals to be used, the order of the stones on the breastplate, the way that the ephod should connect to the breastplate, what the tunic should be made of, oh, and don’t forget to put an opening in the middle of the tunic for the head! (v.31). Duh. There is instruction on the turban, the sash, the caps, even the undergarments (read Exodus 28:42-43 to find out if they were boxer-like or brief-like!). In some cases, he explained why he wanted it like he did (as a memorial to the Lord or to remind the priests of the 12 tribes of Israel, etc…), but often he did not give his reasoning. 

Why did God spend so much time in the details? Even as I began to write this, I wasn’t sure.  But think about this: God is infinite.  He is not constrained by tiredness, hunger, time, ability, headaches – like we are.  And one of the big reasons that I overlook or delegate the details is because I JUST CAN’T DO IT ALL.  Ah-ha! That’s it: God can do it all. He can run the universe, move storms to where he wants them, throw large amounts of snow on the upper Midwest, name stars, put rulers in place, take rules out of place, and provide for orphans all while also being incredibly deep in the details.  Put boxers on my boys or they’ll die!  (It really says that - go read Exodus 28:42-43!)

I love this God, don’t you?

In Good Company

Moses is just fascinating me lately.  Here’s a guy who survived a holocaust at his birth by being miraculously hidden in some river weeds.  He grows up in Pharaoh's household and then identifies with his people, the Hebrews, and begins to be treated like they were – slaves.  Oh, he kills a guy.  Then flees to a distant land and gets married.  While he is there, God meets him in a burning bush and tells him that he (Moses) is His (God’s) chosen instrument to make His Name great among the Egyptians.  Who comes up with these journeys?!

Fast Forward to after God powerfully delivers the Israelites out of Egypt… (btw, here’s a thought… the Red Sea isn’t a barrier to getting out of Egypt. There are tons of land routes!  Jacob’s sons went between Egypt and Canaan a few times without ever having to cross this path.  God literally led them to this place where only His Power could save them…  whoa.)

Exodus 17.  The Israelites had grown to a group of about 1 million strong… and Moses was the leader of this crew!  So, picture this, 1 million people in a hot, dusty, sticky, shadeless desert. Oh but it gets better: They have wives, children and livestock too. So 1 million people plus families and livestock in a desert wilderness.

Now, sometimes it’s hard to lead people even when times are good, right? Moses had 1 million+ people following him in a desert.  The end of Exodus 17:1 introduces the obvious problem here: “but there was no water for the people to drink.” I mean, wouldn’t a “good” leader sort of expect this and plan ahead?  It appears that’s what the people of Israel thought… verse 2 Therefore, the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”  Dude, you brought us here – where’s the water?!  (For those of you who wondered, like me, if a generation had passed or died off since the Rea Sea crossing – no way, that was like a month ago!)

It’s evident as you continue reading in chapter 17 of Exodus that Moses is becoming frustrated. (Like in verse 4) But, as God often, nay ALWAYS, does, He’s got this.  He instructs Moses to strike a stone and makes water flow from it for the people to drink.  Deliverance. Again. How good is God!

And so we see this pattern that tends to emerge… in my life too… and most likely in yours… of God delivering us from death, hunger, cold, loneliness, fill in your blank, and then we grumble and wonder if He’s really with us, only to have him deliver us again.  And this cycle of deliverance/grumble/deliverance continually peppers our journeys.  

It’s beneficial for me to see that we are in good company with God’s chosen people!

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. – 1 Corinthians 15:57

Alive.

This one phrase says it all, “And the people became impatient on the way.” Numbers 21:4 begins the narrative of the people as they wandered through the desert in the Middle East. The next few verses of the chapter describe what happened as a result of their impatience:

And 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 loathe this worthless food.” Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.  And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”  So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

The people of Israel, much like myself, had become impatient along the way and began telling God just how it should be.  They were breaking a number of the commandments He had given them as protection.  They were selfish.  They were honoring themselves above God.  They were not thankful.  They were sinners.  And they saw it.  Verse 7 says that they admitted their sins to Moses and desired to be free from them. 

God, in mercy, devised a way for them to live!  He had Moses make a fiery serpent (seems pretty easy, right?  Let me just go whip up a fiery serpent!) and raise it up on a pole.  Whoever looked on the serpent would live.

Fast Forward.

John 3:16… the most known verse of the Bible starts: “For God so loved the world,” I’d be willing to bet the “so” here isn’t like “so much” (though He does love us so much). It’s more like… “In this way, God loved the world” or “This is how God loved the world”… and it’s connected to verses 14 and 15 previously, which say, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

Jesus is our serpent.  We are sinners.  Every single one of us.  But God loved us.  He made a way for us to live.  John 3:14 says that Jesus was lifted up (hung on a tree-like cross) that whoever “looks on him” (read: believes in him) will not die, but live.

This is the best, most freeing news in the world!  Let the glory of Christ on that tree dying your death sink into your heart today. When we admit that we are sinners and ask Jesus to save us, believing in Him, He will deliver us from our sin and the death it brings.

And you, who were dead in your trespasses …, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.  Colossians 2:13-14 ESV

Happy Easter everyone!

On Overcoming Adversity

The scene is strange.  Eleven men found themselves dining with a stranger in a strange land.  Their father had sent them to Egypt to acquire grain from them during the drought.  The last time they were here, they were given grain, but also their money back in their grain sacks. Now, a trip to Pharaoh’s palace for a meal with a high-ranking official… what’s going on here?

And then, the master of the feast draws them to himself and says,

I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt!  And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.  For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt. Now hurry back to my father and say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don’t delay. You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me—you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have.

                                                        Genesis 45:4-10 

“So it was not you who sent me here, but God.”  

As Joseph’s brothers began to understand who this benevolent stranger was, they began to see the deep faith he had in God’s plan. He held no bitterness towards them for selling him into slavery.  He saw the bigger picture. He had an eternal view.

And that’s one of the things I learned from Joseph in Genesis.