Sunday School Lesson 16: I cannot Go Beyond the Word of the Lord

Numbers 22:3 And Moab was sore afraid of the people, because they were many.  How the tables have turned.  When the Israelites were here previously, they were terrified of the inhabitants of the land.

Numbers 22:6 For I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed and he whom thou cursest is cursed.  This is a really interesting way to describe Balaam.  He was a man who had the ability to bless and curse.  What do we know about him, really, though?  Apparently he actually spoke with God. Several versions of the old testament apparently translate his people as Ammon. Apparently in Hebrew literature, he is one of seven Gentile prophets (others included Job and his friends, and Balaam's father, Beor). They also have a folklore story about him that indicates that when God gave the 10 Commandments to Moses, the earth shook and the kings asked Balaam what it was and he told them that it was God's voice giving the law to the Israelites.

I like the story of Balaam. He is invited twice to go curse someone and the Lord says, "no" both times, but on the second time, indicates that a third invitation should be answered.  Perhaps he was too eager, perhaps he just assumed it would come, perhaps he was just greedy, but he went before the third invitation was issued.

On the way, the angel stands before him with a drawn sword and his donkey saves his life 3 times and is yelled and and beaten for it.  Then comes the exciting part of the story.  The donkey starts talking.  Oddly, the donkey has great logic, and what he says reminds me of the professor in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. He asks Balaam if he has been a bad donkey up to this point in his life, to which Balaam is forced to answer, "Um, no. In fact, this is completely out of character for you." And the donkey is thinking, "No, saving your sorry neck is completely in character for me, so why don't you stop beating me for being a good donkey?"

Most people seem to think that the donkey probably didn't actually speak, but rather, Balaam had some kind of spiritually guided internal dialogue where he or the spirit filled in the voice of the donkey.  I like the idea that the donkey is perfectly capable of frustration, logical reason, and a clear understanding of loyalty, and that if God permits, he is also perfectly capable of expressing that verbally.  It makes me consider the role of animals in creation, and my own treatment of them.

So, Balaam goes up and from 3 different locations is instructed to curse the Israelites but from all three, he blesses them.  Balak (the king who called him) gets more and more frustrated with him, and finally they both just go home.  However, at some point in their conversation, he apparently advised him that the way to overcome the Israelites is not to fight them, but to seduce them away from Jehovah (see Numbers 31:16 and Revelation 2:14). It is for that piece of advice that he is listed among the false prophets and teachers by Peter, John, and Jude in the new Testament, who was motivated by greed.

It's still an odd story, though, and if you didn't continue on to chapter 31 or the New Testament, you might be left wondering what was wrong with Balaam.  The thing that I don't get, is if he was doing the wrong things, why was he receptive to the word of the Lord anyway?  What exactly was his authority and how was he receiving revelation regarding the inhabitants of the promised land if he was a false teacher?  Can a person enjoy a spiritual gift like revelation or prophesy if they are using it to amass personal wealth? If they can't, why did the Lord clearly speak to Balaam repeatedly in this story?

I read an interesting article comparing Balaam's interaction with his donkey to marriage: Balaam to the husband and the donkey to the wife.  You have an impatient, greedy inconsiderate husband who jumps to conclusions about the wife--assumptions completely inconsistent with his interaction with his wife, saying that when we do not understand why our wives are doing or saying something, we should immediately jump to the conclusion that they have a really great and solid reason for doing or saying what they did, rather than assume they are suddenly acting out of character with all the loyalty and love they have demonstrated in the past.

Sunday School Lesson 15: Look to God and Live

Numbers 11:5-6 We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers and the melons, and the leeks , and the onions, and the garlick: But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all beside this manna, before our eyes. First of all, what odd things to remember - two different kinds of onions and garlic? Wow.

Side note: I heard a public radio broadcast about marketing once that talked about how sometimes a product comes along and is marketed so well that it creates a need for itself by inventing a problem that it solves.  Listerine was one of the examples.  The report claimed that Listerine didn't invent fresh breath, but rather, it defined halitosis. Prior to Listerine's marketing, halitosis was as normal a part of life as rain--sometimes it happens, and there's nothing you can really do about it.

Back to their weariness of manna. I can't say I really blame them.  I've thought this.  If you had to pick one food that would magically be imbued with all the nutrients you need to survive, what would you choose?  You might say something like chocolate for the flavor but I would pick something like carrots.  You are going to get sick of whatever you choose, so I would go for convenience, knowing that no matter what, you'll hate eating it after a while.  I'm considering things like packing it around, needing to worry about it melting or spilling, bruising, rotting, preparation, etc.  Regardless, I came to the same conclusion the poor children of Israel did: eating the same thing every day sucks.  And they had to eat nearly a gallon of the stuff every day.  Yuck.  imagine dumping over a quart of bread-crumbs in a bowl three times a day. I can't say I blame them for getting sick of it.  Still, go hunting or something. Whining isn't going to get you any cucumbers.

Numbers 11:7 And the manna was as coriander seed, and the colour thereof as the colour of bdellium. The picture of coriander seed on wikipedia indicates coriander seed is about 4-5 mm in diameter.  Bdellium is either resin used to make myrrh or a round gem-stone, and the color is apparently indeterminate, with supposition including white, light yellow or resin, and gray.

Numbers 11:2 vs. 11:11-15.  Moses and the Lord seem to go back and forth on who wants to kill the children of Israel the most.  In verse 2, the Lord is sending fire among them to consume them for their sins and in 11-15, Moses is crying because it's too much to take.

Numbers 11:19-20 Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days; but even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: because that ye have despised the Lord which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt? That seems a little petty. However, pettiness is not a godly attribute. So, how is this merciful?

Numbers 11:31 Speaking of the quail the Lord sent so they could eat "flesh." And he that gathered least gathered 10 homers. 10 homers is 3644 liters or ~965 gallons.   Here's a picture of a 1000 gallon tank with a man standing beside it and a pickup truck in front of it for reference.

Numbers 12:3 Now the man moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the Earth. Wow.  That's a statement, and on that I don't typically think of with Moses. I should probably reevaluate my thoughts on Moses.  He just seems to whine a lot, and that irritates me, but I should probably remember that he was extremely quick to forgive, and apparently very meek. The Lord makes a clear distinction between him and a normal prophet in verse 6-8.

Numbers 14:18 The Lord is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression. I love it when I find verses in the Old Testament that reaffirm the New Testament version of the Lord.  It often seems that there are two different Gods--the vengeful, angry, and sometimes petty God of the Old Testament and the kind, forgiving, turn the other cheek God of the New Testament. The thing to remember, is the Gospels run for 3 years, while the Old Testament is highlighting a couple thousand years of interaction. 

Numbers 14:15-16 as contrasted with 45.  When the Lord is about to kill all the children of Israel, Moses asks him not to, saying that all the nations are aware of how the Lord brought them out of Egypt and promised them the land of Canaan. He says that if the Lord kills them there, the people will all assume that the Lord killed them because he couldn't come through on his promise to give them the land.  And yet, in verse 45, you have them getting beat down as they tried to enter the land and then they turn around and head back into the wilderness. How did Moses miss that the people will think the same thing after beating them back as they would have if they had all been killed?  Nobody's going to believe they're all bad if they can't even cross the border, regardless of whether they run away scared or were killed by their god.  Either way, he didn't bring them into the land. 

Sunday School Lesson 14: Ye Shall be a Peculiar Treasure Unto Me

Genesis 15:1-19 Moses and Israel sing a new song unto the Lord, praising him for delivering them from Egypt.  Who wrote it?  Moses has previously claimed he isn't good with words, making him unlikely, and how did all the Israelites know the words? It's not as though most of them could read.

Genesis 16:7 Then ye shall see the glory of the Lord; for that he heareth your murmerings against the Lord.   This seems backward to me.  We frequently talk about how the Lord wants to bless us and help us but that we need to demonstrate faith and obedience first, yet here, we have the Lord responding to a group of whiners.  Would we get faster answers to our prayers if we just whined all the time? Probably only if we could whine directly to a prophet.

Genesis 16:24 And they laid it up till the morning...and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. I love the strength of the Sabbath throughout the Old Testament.  Throughout the Old Testament, the Sabbath is the defining difference between the Lord's covenant people and everybody else, and when they stop observing it, that's when they seem to get in the most trouble.

Genesis 17:2 Wherefore the people did chide with Moses. and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? Wherefore do ye tempt the Lord? Sometimes I am on Moses's side, and sometimes on the Israelites' side.  Here, for example, what did Moses expect them to do for water? They don't start murmering until after they "chide" with him (whatever that means) and he blows them off.  What did he think a million plus people are going to do when there's no water and he's telling them where to put their tents?

Manna rejects capitalist philosophy.


16:17-18 And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack
As I understand Capitalism, the premise is that you work hard at something you are good at, thereby producing more than someone who is either not as good at it or not as hard-working. By producing more, you accumulate more and your affluence increases. Success is measured by the relative degree of accumulation, as compared to others in a given aggregation of people, most frequently, a geographic proximity.

Manna, on the other hand, required no hard work to gather. It required simply that you go out each day and gather. It didn’t matter how much you gathered, or how little, and the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack (Exodus 16:17-18). Basically, if you went out and gathered, you came back with a full portion. If you worked harder, organized labor gangs, got up early, it didn’t matter. You still came back with only an omer, and if you tried to save some for tomorrow, it rotted, destroying the principle of accumulation and private ownership. You didn’t own Manna, you ate it.

Manna was symbolic of spiritual strength. It requires simple daily actions. You can not work hard at spirituality for 10 or 15 years and then retire from spiritual effort. It’s not a job where efficiency is valued, or accumulation compared and used as a measure of success. If there is a measure of success with Manna, it is that you are fed today or not. If you gathered Manna and ate, you have succeeded.

The double portion on the Sabbath came as a surprise
 
16:22 And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, "Tomorrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord.
 
As mentioned previously, they all came in with whatever they had gathered, and measured it, and no matter what, it was an omer (almost a gallon). Suddenly, on the sixth day, they're looking down at 2 omers and saying, Uh, hey, Mo! Looks like something funny's going on!