Tag: levites

Rebellion In the Community (Numbers 16:1-19)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
Korah and His Company Refuse to Obey Moses, by Wheatfield Media

Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and certain Reubenites—Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—became insolent,and rose up against Moses. With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council. 

They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?”

When Moses heard this, he fell facedown. Then he said to Korah and all his followers: “In the morning the Lord will show who belongs to him and who is holy, and he will have that person come near him. The man he chooses he will cause to come near him. You, Korah, and all your followers are to do this: Take censers and tomorrow put burning coals and incense in them before the Lord. The man the Lord chooses will be the one who is holy. You Levites have gone too far!”

Moses also said to Korah, “Now listen, you Levites! Isn’t it enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the rest of the Israelite community and brought you near himself to do the work at the Lord’s tabernacle and to stand before the community and minister to them? He has brought you and all your fellow Levites near himself, but now you are trying to get the priesthood too. It is against the Lord that you and all your followers have banded together. Who is Aaron that you should grumble against him?”

Then Moses summoned Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab. But they said, “We will not come! Isn’t it enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? And now you also want to lord it over us! Moreover, you haven’t brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Do you want to treat these men like slaves? No, we will not come!”

Then Moses became very angry and said to the Lord, “Do not accept their offering. I have not taken so much as a donkey from them, nor have I wronged any of them.”

Moses said to Korah, “You and all your followers are to appear before the Lord tomorrow—you and they and Aaron. Each man is to take his censer and put incense in it—250 censers in all—and present it before the Lord. You and Aaron are to present your censers also.” 

So each of them took his censer, put burning coals and incense in it, and stood with Moses and Aaron at the entrance to the tent of meeting. When Korah had gathered all his followers in opposition to them at the entrance to the tent of meeting, the glory of the Lord appeared to the entire assembly. (New International Version)

By Bible Art

I must admit that, having been a church pastor for decades, today’s story sounds eerily like several parishioners I’ve known over the years. They, along with the story’s antagonist Korah, strike me as ungrateful and continually concerned about angling for more power and authority within the community.

Rebellions are nothing new. They happen everywhere, from faith communities to neighborhood associations, from local politics to national governments.

The Book of Numbers is a rather depressing part of the Bible, largely because of the nature of the Israelite grumblings, without much gratitude happening.

The murmurings turned to complaints, and then to outright rebellion. It seems to have been a pattern with the Israelites in the desert. The animosities were directed against God or Moses, and sometimes both.

In each one of the various stories of rebellion in the desert, the rebellious people died in various ways by means of a plague, a fire, or in a battle. We get the sense with today’s story that a whopper of a divine judgment is going to happen.

The punishments mentioned in the Old Testament are meant to highlight, with rather strong illustrations, that the political and religious systems set up through the covenant code were divinely originated and sanctioned. In other words, don’t mess with God’s authority.

So then, a rebellion against Moses and Aaron was, in reality, a rebellion against God. And it would bring divine wrath on the rebels.

Having been in various leadership capacities in my life, to me the most insidious kind of rebellion is the subtle sort. Authority is challenged indirectly, in passive-aggressive forms through gossip, back-biting, and building a coalition from false information.

I also think that those subtle forms of rebellion really upset God. Which is why the Lord extended divine wrath on such rebels.

Korah was a Levite, like Moses. But that is about all he had in common with Israel’s leader. Korah’s rebellion was precisely directed against the leadership of Moses (and Aaron).

Similar to many arguments I’ve encountered throughout my ministerial life, Korah framed his argument with pious sounding language – as if Moses was the problem the one opposed to holiness.

Lord, have mercy. I really do despise religious gaslighting.

Korah implied that Moses was raising himself above the others, that the entire Israelite community was holy, therefore, there’s no need for a leader like Moses. The people’s holiness is enough. That’s all anybody needs, right?

Apparently, no.

Neither Moses nor Aaron dealt with the argument. Rather, Moses was satisfied to leave the matter with God as to what to do with the rebels.

It’s always good to let God reaffirm God’s own way of doing things. It was God who raised up Moses, and it would be God to whom Korah would have to answer.

The reason these sorts of situations keep popping up in every generation of history is that they deal with a problem which all humans encounter. Every person, group, faith community, and nation must contend with the tension between authority and freedom.

Like so many arrogant demagogues, Korah believed he was the guardian of freedom – and that the people ought to follow him. Yet, even though many did, the most important person in the room, God, did not.

Give peace in our time, O good and gracious God, a peace which the world cannot give. To those who have taken up arms in anger or revenge, or even in the cause of justice, grant the grace of conversion to the path of peaceful dialogue and constructive collaboration. And to those who are victims of human cruelty, open wide your arms and enfold them in the embrace of your compassion, healing, and life. Amen.

The Need for Partnership and Participation (Malachi 3:5-12)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment

“So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty.

“I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty.

“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’

“Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.

“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’

“In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty. (New International Version)

Return To God

God and God’s people were at odds with each other. The Lord was weary of the people’s constant complaining. They had a wrongheaded notion that God was absent, just because circumstances were not going their way.

Yet it is important to keep in mind that belief in God’s presence and God’s inherent goodness is absolutely essential to a faithful and good life.

If you think God is absent, then the best place to find God is at the outskirts or margins of a society. The Lord is there to protect the weakest persons and those who have been neglected by others.

The needy in Israel were on the outside without any power or a voice, which is why the prophet Malachi called the people to repentance – to change and amend their ways. They should return to God.

But what does a return to God look like? Since the people generally did not think they were doing anything necessarily wrong, they didn’t have a clue how to do this returning to God. They didn’t have the sense to know they were on the outs with God – which is why the prophet Malachi was speaking to them.

To the people at that time, and practicing the injustice that they were practicing, God responded that they should return by stopping their robbery of God.

Tithes and Offerings

Specifically, the people should reinstate the full mandated practice in the law of tithes and offerings.

Please understand that these tithes and offerings have nothing to do with modern capital fund campaigns for building churches or establishing new ministries. Rather, these words have a specific context that we must pay attention to.

The “tithe” in Israel was the temple tax, paid to the Levites, because this was the tribe of Levi’s only source of income. (Numbers 18:20-30)

An “offering” is a general term, referring to all the sorts of sacrifices offered at the temple as a part of Israelite worship. And once again, the Levites depended upon these offerings in order to eat and live.

Thus, tithes and offerings in Israel had a synergistic purpose of providing the people an opportunity to worship God and center their communal life around the Lord; and also providing for the Levites, so that they could make their living.

And then, the priests who attended to all the temple functions would use funds from the tithes and offerings to help the poor and indigent in the community.

So, a failure to provide tithes and offerings was an injustice, because it was neglecting to care for fellow members of society who needed help.

People could starve and die without practicing God’s law concerning tithes and offerings. And that is why it angered God so much whenever people reneged on their duty toward the temple practices.

Cooperation, Not Competition

Therefore, repentance and returning to God would happen only when the priests and the people cooperated together. Then, God’s faithfulness could be made effective and manifest itself among the entire social structure of Israel.

The entire society was built upon a divine/human cooperative. It required both human action and divine blessing working together.

None of this was a contract or a deal in which people do the right thing, and then God automatically blesses, like some divine slot machine that persons put coins into.

Instead, it is a system in which the laity work together with the clergy; and then all the people work together with God. In other words, God’s ideal is partnership and participation.

God will bring a great produce. But the people would have to do the hard work of planting and harvesting the crops. This is very far from any sort of name-it-and-claim-it theology in which a person prays for whatever they want and God will give it to them. That is not how an abundant life is produced.

Abundance comes wherever there are partners who participate with each other. If that system breaks down, then people are in a world of trouble.

So, people must take the social justice of God quite seriously – with its specific requirements about caring for one another.

Although we may not have the same particular system of Levites and a Temple, God’s heart for justice, for people’s basic needs to be met and satisfied, has never changed. That value still stands the test of time throughout all of human history.

Almighty God, who created us in your own image: Grant us grace to fearlessly contend against evil, and to make no peace with oppression. Enable us to reverently use our freedom, in the establishment and maintenance of justice in our communities and among the nations, to the glory of your holy Name. Amen.

Keep the Rule of Law (Numbers 17:1-11)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment

The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and get twelve staffs from them, one from the leader of each of their ancestral tribes. Write the name of each man on his staff. On the staff of Levi write Aaron’s name, for there must be one staff for the head of each ancestral tribe. Place them in the tent of meeting in front of the ark of the covenant law, where I meet with you. The staff belonging to the man I choose will sprout, and I will rid myself of this constant grumbling against you by the Israelites.”

So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and their leaders gave him twelve staffs, one for the leader of each of their ancestral tribes, and Aaron’s staff was among them. Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the covenant law.

The next day Moses entered the tent and saw that Aaron’s staff, which represented the tribe of Levi, had not only sprouted but had budded, blossomed and produced almonds. Then Moses brought out all the staffs from the Lord’s presence to all the Israelites. They looked at them, and each of the leaders took his own staff.

The Lord said to Moses, “Put back Aaron’s staff in front of the ark of the covenant law, to be kept as a sign to the rebellious. This will put an end to their grumbling against me, so that they will not die.” Moses did just as the Lord commanded him. (New International Version)

Issues of power – who has it, and who doesn’t, and how it is used – has been with us throughout all of human history.

And the issues of power are always tied to values, morals, and ethics. It ultimately comes down to who is truly in control, and whether that control is good or bad, moral or immoral, ethical or unethical.

One way of looking at the whole of the Bible is that it is a collection of books about power, control, and authority – mostly between God and humans, but also between one another as people.

If we fail to consider power issues, then a society will devolve into injustice, power inequities, and the few controlling the many.

In today’s Old Testament lesson, there were people questioning the authority system, and who had the power to act as a religious priest in the nation of Israel.

The covenant code, handed down from God to Moses on Mount Sinai, and then to the people, included only the tribe of Levi acting as priests. The other eleven tribes could not have a priestly class of people.

Specifically, only the Levite Aaron and his descendants could serve as a priest. And this structure did not sit well with some of the Levites from clans other than Aaron’s, as well as some of the other tribes.

Among all the tribes of Israel, the Lord chose the tribe of Levi. And among the Levites, Aaron is to alone be the priest, with his descendants serving after him in history.

A lot of grumbling in the tents of the Israelite tribes was happening. And God heard all the murmurings under their breath.

Therefore, God instructed each tribe to bring the symbol of their tribal authority – the staff – to Moses. They were all left overnight before the Lord, in front of the altar in the tent of meeting.

In the morning, the Levite’s staff with Aaron’s name alone engraved on it, was the only one that budded and sprouted almonds – all in a single night.

God was clarifying that Aaron was the divine choice as priest in Israel. The staff was then stored and kept as a continual reminder that when the Lord makes a choice, that is exactly what is going to happen.

The purpose of displaying the tribal staffs was to stop the incessant complaining of people about the Levites, and Aaron in particular, holding the power and authority of handling and officiating the sacrificial system in Israel.

Only Aaron could approach the tabernacle of God – and only then with detailed prescriptions of how to do it – and anyone else who would try to act as only a priest could, would die. The authority structure was that serious in Israel.

Nobody gets to do whatever the heck they want to do, when it comes to authority structures and systems of power. The rule of law is important; it’s serious business.

God bestowed an honorable privilege and responsibility on the family of Aaron. In doing so, their work, worship, and ministry was meant to contribute to the public welfare of all Israelite families.

And that is the case for all of us, when it comes to possessing any sort of authority. An authoritative position is never meant for personal use, but to be a public service for the good of everyone in the community, and in the leader’s constituency.

I suppose there will always be persons who arrogantly believe they ought to be in charge, or in some position of authority in order to wield power. They will, unfortunately, rarely examine their motives for wanting power; or consult wise persons who could help direct them.

If one has been elected – either by the people in a lawful election, or by God in a divine decree – then to murmur and grumble about that person who was chosen comes from a dark place in the complainer’s heart.

An unwillingness to submit to the rule of law only brings harm to others, and eventually to oneself. And it raises the ire of God.

Through the covenant law handed down to the Israelites, God intended to provide human justice, protect human rights, promote a good and just society, establish a fair economy, curb human sin and corruption, and bring peace and security to all the tribes of Israel.

If the power structure is unjust through an abusive individual, that’s another thing altogether. But if a good rule of law is in place, and appropriate people are serving the community, then it is our place and our duty to be properly submissive, obedient, and supportive.

It’s a question of being helpful or harmful to what is going on. And we always have a choice about how we are going to respond.

So, how will you use your own personal agency?

Almighty God, save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and make us one united people who are mindful of the rule of law.

Give the spirit of wisdom to those in the authority of government, so that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to your law, we may show forth your praise among the nations of the earth.

In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in you to fail. Amen. 

A Prayer of Confession and Contrition (Nehemiah 9:16-25)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment

But they—our own ancestors—acted arrogantly.
They became stubborn and wouldn’t obey your commands.
They refused to listen.
They forgot the miracles you performed for them.
They became stubborn and appointed a leader
to take them back to slavery in Egypt.
But you are a forgiving God,
one who is compassionate, merciful, patient,
and always ready to forgive.
You never abandoned them,
even when they made a metal statue of a calf for themselves
and said, ‘This is your god who took you out of Egypt.’
They committed outrageous sins.
But because of your endless compassion,
you didn’t abandon them in the desert.
The column of smoke didn’t leave them during the day,
but it led them on their way.
The column of fire didn’t leave them during the night,
but it gave them light to see the way they should go.
You gave them your good Spirit to teach them.
You didn’t keep your manna to yourself.
You gave them water to quench their thirst.
You provided for them in the desert for 40 years,
and they had everything they needed.
Their clothes didn’t wear out, and their feet didn’t swell.

You gave kingdoms and nations to the Israelites
and assigned them their boundaries.
So they took possession of the land of Sihon,
the land of the king of Heshbon,
and the land of King Og of Bashan.
You made their children as numerous as the stars in the sky.
You brought them into the land you told their parents to enter and possess.
Their children took possession of the land.
You defeated for them the Canaanites, who lived in the land.
You handed the Canaanite kings and their people over to them
to do whatever they wanted with the Canaanites.
The Israelites captured fortified cities and a rich land.
They took possession of houses filled with all sorts of good things,
cisterns, vineyards, olive trees,
and plenty of fruit trees.
So they ate and were satisfied and grew fat.
They enjoyed the vast supply of good things you gave them. (God’s Word Translation)

The Jewish people had experienced the Babylonian Captivity. The walls of Jerusalem had been torn down, and the Temple was ransacked and destroyed.

Years later, the Persians overthrew the Babylonians, and many of the Jewish captives were allowed to return to Judea. One of the returning groups was led by Nehemiah, who was a cupbearer to the king.

Nehemiah engaged in an ambitious project of rebuilding Jerusalem’s wall and securing the city. It was a large undertaking. Yet, even more daunting was restoring the Jewish people’s worship of Yahweh, and following the Torah, God’s law.

Today’s Old Testament lesson takes place in the fifth century B.C.E. Nehemiah, along with the religious leader Ezra the scribe, organized a public assembly. The people listened to the Torah being read, and were fasting, confessing, and repenting of the ways they had neglected God’s law.

A group of Levites (the priests) stood up and said a long prayer of confession. Our verses for today are a part of that extended time of confession of sin and profession of faith. The people’s past history was very much a part of their present circumstances.

The Levities emphasized that it is God’s nature to be full of faithfulness and steadfast love. So, the Lord preserved the Israelites and rescued them out of Egyptian slavery through a series of miraculous wonders.

While their ancestors were out in a desert sojourn, anticipating entry into the Promised Land, God was faithful to provide for the Israelites both physical and spiritual food – Torah and manna.

And yet, despite the incredible rescue from Egypt, and miraculously escaping through the Red Sea, the people were rebellious. Their disobedience to God in the golden calf experience prevented that generation from entering into the promised rest. (Hebrews 3:16-19)

Every generation has its “sinners,” those who seem to have a bent toward selfish behavior, and refuse to see the needs of the entire group. They only serve God if it serves their own self-centered purposes. And they stubbornly refuse to bend to anyone’s wishes, including God’s.

Unfortunately, that sin of pride and arrogance gets passed down to the next generations. It’s not only, in some ways, taught; this sort of stubbornness also appears to have a genetic component, as well. Whenever our minds and hearts are rewired with injustice toward others and disobedience toward God, that wacky wiring gets passed down to the next generations.

It is quite likely that past trauma has a lot to do with skewed minds and hearts.

Epigenetics is a scientific field which investigates how environment influences our genes. Trauma does not alter our actual DNA sequence; but it does impact how that sequence is read and utilized in our body.

When an individual experiences trauma, their body may adapt by adjusting gene expression, and some of these changes can be passed on to their children. It’s like passing on genetic notes to our progeny – which means that these notes can be rewritten (and rewired) by our own life experiences and actions.

I am not a genetic scientist, yet this may be something akin to the divine warning about generational sin, arising from a generation’s trauma experience, after being enslaved and mistreated for 400 years in Egypt. In giving the Law to Moses, God then said:

“The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6-7, NIV)

Whether any of us knows anything about genetics and epigenetics, or not, there yet remains the need for a prayer of confession. It is necessary to acknowledge our own sins, as well as the sins of our ancestors.

In their prayer of confession, the Levites in Nehemiah’s time acknowledged and confessed their own guilt, and the guilt of their ancestors, of being the following:

  1. Obstinate. They stubbornly presumed God would be with them, then obstinately did whatever the heck they wanted.
  2. Stubborn. They were “stiff-necked” and refused to obey God when they didn’t want to.
  3. Forgetful. Not an accidental forgetting, but a purposeful neglect to remember what God had done for the people.
  4. Idolatrous. It was the people’s impatience with waiting for Moses on Mount Sinai that led to the golden calf idol disaster. Failing to accept God’s timetable will always lead to a bevy of bad behavior.
  5. Disobedient. The most sinister form of this is obeying halfway, and believing that you have completely done your duty for God, i.e. the sin of one person, Achan, affecting the entire community. (Joshua 7:1, 10-12, 20-26)
  6. Complaining. Murmuring and grumbling is the dissatisfying attitude and speech of ingrates. When directed at God, it is a failure of faith, replaced with a belief that God is mean and/or capricious.

Confession and repentance are the remedies to both individual and communal guilt. And that is exactly what Ezra and Nehemiah organized the post-exilic Israelites to do, publicly.

Not only did they offer a prayer of confession and repentance, but they also acknowledged and believed God’s faithfulness and mercy to forgive, renew, and restore.

Indeed, God’s grace is greater than all of our sin.

The Levites were not simply offering a mechanical liturgical formula for corporate confession. They were crying out with heartfelt confession to the God they believed was listening and would respond.

As the Levites led the people in confession and repentance, they pointed to the following attributes and activities of God which they put all of their trust in:

God forgives.

He made known his ways to Moses,
    his deeds to the people of Israel:
The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
    slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse,
    nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
    or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
    so far has he removed our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:7-12, NIV)

God guides.

He guides me along the right paths
    for his name’s sake. (Psalm 23:3, NIV)

God provides.

He has caused his wonders to be remembered;
    the Lord is gracious and compassionate.
He provides food for those who fear him;
    he remembers his covenant forever. (Psalm 111:4-5, NIV)

God sustains.

I lie down and sleep;
    I wake again, because the Lord sustains me. (Psalm 3:5, NIV)

When all is said and done, the centrality of God is humanity’s ballast. As we orient all of life around the Lord, this is what makes all the difference in coming to grips with our past, present, and future.

May it be so, to the glory of God.