Feb 9: Leviticus 26:14 – 27:34, Numbers 1: 1 – 41
Wow
– today’s reading starts off with a serious warning about what will happen if
the Israelites don’t uphold their part of the covenant. There is no doubt that
God is willing to punish them for disobedience (and if you’ve read the Old
Testament before you know most of this prophecy comes true). AND YET, verses
26:40 – 45 show that God is ever gracious and will uphold his side of the
covenant no matter what. What emotions did you feel when reading chapter 26?
Chapter
27 was a bit confusing to me, so I did some research. People could dedicate a
person (or themselves) to the Lord, by either providing full time service to
the priests and/or temple (like we’ll see Hannah do with Samuel in a few
chapters) or they could dedicate them by paying a fee instead. The person was
still considered holy because of the vow, but didn’t have to provide service.
Land could be dedicated to the Lord, most often when there wasn’t a descendant
to inherit it, in the same way. It was a bit disappointing to me to see that
women were valued less than men, but since they were unclean for 7 days out of
the month they weren’t able to serve full time. Apparently not many people were
dedicated and redeemed – 50 shekels, even at the reduced sanctuary shekel
weight, was a significant investment. 50 shekels would be close to $400 in USD.
Might not seem like much to us but if you are living in the desert with no real
job opportunities it was a significant amount.
Then
we start the book of Numbers. Anyone who doubts that God is into the details or
that he doesn’t’ know our names should look at this chapter – he even named the
people who were to help Moses with the census. The Israelites had been in the
desert for 14 months. Did you see which tribe had the most men of fighting age?
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