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Week 7  Deuteronomy 1

In the book of Deuteronomy Moses is reminiscing about the past 40 years and right away I notice one of the things he says: at that time I said to you, ‘I am not able to bear you by myself’.
I don’t think I’d have noticed the comment except that a couple of weeks ago I’d read in Exodus about Jethro. He told Moses: the thing (being a judge to Israel) is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone’.
So in Deuteronomy Moses was saying  the job was too big.
In Exodus it was Jethro who was saying it.
So because of the size of the job Moses said: I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and respected men, and set them over you as leaders: commanders for thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, and officers for your tribes.
But back in Exodus it was Jethro’s recommendation: you should select from all the people able men, God-fearing, trustworthy, and hating dishonest profit. Place them over the people as commanders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.
So in Deuteronomy Moses said that he reorganized the judiciary.
In Exodus it was Jethro’s recommendation.
It isn’t a huge problem for me but I wonder why Moses didn’t credit Jethro with the idea.
And like I wondered before: why didn’t Moses consult with the Lord first?

Note: quotes from Deuteronomy 1:9 12 15 Exodus 18:18 21 (ESV or CSB). See  January 26/25 ‘Jethro’

Week 6  Psalm 33

Verse thirteen says: the Lord looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man.
Verse fourteen says: from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth.
The two verses are slightly different in language but roughly equal in meaning.
There’s heaven and there’s earth.
There’s the Lord and there’s everyone else.
And the Lord (in heaven) is observing everyone (on earth).
One way to think of what the Lord is doing – David says he looks down & he looks out – is in a sinister way. Covertly from heaven the Lord is tracking my every move. Spying. Monitoring. Intruding. Looking for gaffs. Waiting to pounce. That’s one way.
But David says a couple of other things in the psalm that make me think twice.
He says that on the national level the Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
Then on the personal level the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him (and) who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death.
So the Lord (who is observing-people’s-deeds’ as it says in verses 13 & 14) is also assessing the situation and then taking action.
The Observing God observes. Not neutrally or impassively or without any rhyme-or-reason or without any good reason. He’s a Purpose-Driven Observing God. Watching is just one of the things he’s doing.

Note: quotes from Psalm 33:13-14 10 18-19 15 (ESV)

 

Week 6 Numbers 10

A few days ago I was thinking about a man named Jethro and today I was reminded that there’s  a bit of a name problem with Jethro.
Back in Exodus the story says that when Moses moved to Midian he met a girl named Zipporah & her sisters. They introduced Moses to Reuel their father. Reuel welcomed Moses and eventually Moses married Reuel’s daughter Zipporah. So that made Reuel Moses’ father-in-law.
But in the very next chapter – five verse later – it says: Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law. So that made Jethro Moses’ father-in-law.
A while later a man comes to Israel’s wilderness camp (just before the Ten Commandments chapter). He’s identified as Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law. So Jethro is Moses’ father-in-law
But then much later – about 75 chapters later when Israel is in the wilderness – a man named Hobab appears: Hobab the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in -law. So Reuel is Moses’ father-in-law.
That might mean that Reuel & Jethro were Moses’ fathers-in-law because Moses was married to two women.
Or…Reuel-Jethro was Moses’ father-in-law because Reuel-Jethro were two names of the same person.
I did a quick check of a couple of dozen bible versions. Most of them said: Hobab the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law – or something very similar.
At this point I’m thinking that Reuel & Jethro were one-and-the-same person.

Note: quotes from Exodus 2:18 2:21 3:1 18:1 Numbers 10:29 (NASB). See January 26/25 post “Jethro”

Week 6  Leviticus 18-27

In chapters 18-27 I found 10 separate passages/sections that contained rules – there were 214 individual rules by my count.
I wasn’t all that interested in the 214 specific rules. I was more interested in looking for underlying ideas – core explanatory values – that gave me some kind of sense of what’s behind the rules – what’s determining the rules. If the rule says that I can’t have sexual intercourse with my sister I might wonder: why not? What are my 214 rules resting on?
I found seven generic comments:
1. You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy
2. Keep my statutes and do them; I am the Lord who sanctifies you
3. You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy
4. Speak to Aaron and his sons…so that they do not profane my holy name: I am the Lord
5. Keep my commandments and do them: I am the Lord
6. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to…be your God
7. The people of Israel are…my servants: I am the Lord your God.
So I’ve got my set of 214 rules. And I’ve got the requirement to do them. But the second half of Leviticus has this repeater-idea giving a foundational idea – this lifting-the-curtain principle – I am the Lord.
There might be other practical and down-to-earth reasons for abiding by the rules. But in the end the rule are the way they are because the Lord is holy.

Note: quotes from Leviticus 19:2 20:7-8 20:26 22:2 22:31-33 25:38 25:55 (ESV)

 

Week 5  Psalm 28

Verse one says: to you, O Lord, I call; my rock…be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit.
There’s a couple of things here about the Lord’s silence: a) it’s undesirable and b) it’s like being in-the-pit. One thing I wasn’t sure about was whether going down-to-the-pit just meant being dead or if it also implied descending into hell. Which would mean that if the pit is hell then hell (among whatever-all things are going on there) is a silence place.
I’d hesitate to say that hell will be a place of complete silence. There could be audible noises – maybe the background din of activities going on. Or there could be verbal interaction among people there. But what there’s not going to be is any communication from the Lord. Dead silence.
A couple of days ago I read: the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Currently – in the living world – there’s some kind of celestial proclamation being produced. But I think it’s safe to say that in hell that type of signal will be lacking. There’ll be no heavens declaring the glory of the Lord in hell. There might be a bunch of inconsequential noise. But a selective silence.
Which I realize is pretty speculative. But a concern if it’s true.

Note: quotes from Psalm 28:1 & 19:1 (ESV). Reading report: 145 of 1189 chapters read as of January 31 .

Week 5  Leviticus 1-16

If someone asked me what book of the bible I thought was the hardest one to sit down and read through I’d say Leviticus.
One reason Leviticus is such mind-numbing and terrible read is that it kind of buries me with details that are of no interest & no value & no relevance to me.
So this year my approach to reading Leviticus was to a) accept that i have to read the uninteresting & valueless & irrelevant content but b) process it by mentally dismissing those parts (not exactly ignoring them…but not letting them dominate my thinking). The point was to see if I could locate anything hidden-in-the-weeds – useful generalities among the non-useful specifics (so for instance I disregarded details about animals (blood skin kidneys fat liver entrails). I’d look for usable content behind those details.
Here’s some examples of basic ideas I found. Sacrifice. Offerings. Guilt. Atonement. Forgiveness. Unfaithfulness. Holy. Consecrated. Clean. Purification. I found a few others but this looked like a pretty good starter list.
One intriguing example is a triad of linked values in chapter 5: if anyone sins…he shall bear his iniquity. He shall bring to the priest…an offering, and the priest shall make atonement for him…and he shall be forgiven. It is a guilt offering; he has indeed incurred guilt before the Lord.
Sin > iniquity > guilt > offering > atonement > forgiveness.
Seems like slim-pickings for 16 whole chapters. Still…the ideas are about as fundamental as I’m going to find.

Note: quote from Leviticus 5:17-19 (ESV)

Week 5  Psalm 23

This one is known as the Shepherd Psalm because it starts out talking about a shepherd & sheep (although David makes it clear who-is-who in the psalm. The shepherd is the Lord. The sheep is me).
David only talks about regular-sounding shepherd-&-sheep things (green pastures and still waters) for a couple of verses. Then he moves on to other things: the shepherd restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness (the bible I’m reading says paths of righteousness = in right paths).
If I had to pick a focal verse in the Shepherd Psalm that would be it. The Lord a) restores my soul and b) leads me along the right paths.
It looks like there are two kinds of souls: restored souls & unrestored souls.
And two kinds of paths: right paths & wrong paths.
Given the choice my personal preference would be a restored soul & a right path.
One obvious concern for me is that David didn’t tip me off about getting my soul restored. Didn’t spell out how I stay on the right track. I could complain about David’s lack of details. But I’m guessing that he might just say “well keep on reading! You’ve got another 127 psalms to go”.
I think the psalm’s main objective is to remind me about what my objectives are – what I’m aiming at.

Note: quote is from Psalm 23:3 (ESV). Some people might prefer verse six to verse three. I’d admit that it’s a good one too.

Week 5  Exodus 18

There’s only one Jethro in the bible: Jethro the priest of Midian.
Jethro was Moses’ father-in-law. After Moses had escaped from Egypt he settled in Midian and married a woman named Zipporah – Jethro’s daughter. By chapter 18 Jethro already had a long connection with Moses. I’ve thought for a long time that Jethro was an okay guy. Recently though I’ve had a niggling doubt.
The thing is this: Jethro observed his son-in-law’s work regimen and figured he’d burn out. So he advised Moses to offload some of his responsibilities. And Moses did just that: Moses listened to his father-in-law and did all that he had said.
What surprises me is that Exodus says nothing about the Lord authorizing the organizational change.
Was it bad or dangerous advice? I don’t think so.
Was Jethro a friendly & believing advisor? Sounds like it (he had told Moses that: now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods).
Was Moses reprimanded for taking independent action? Doesn’t look like.
Is there any law against taking some personal initiative? Not really.
So here’s the thing.  I don’t necessarily think that Jethro’s advice was not good. From outside appearances it was realistic practical sensible & efficient. But that’s not my concern. My concern is that there’s no hint that the advice came from the Lord. And good advice not endorsed by the Lord could end up being questionable advice.

Note: quotes from Exodus 18:1 24 10-11 (NASB)

Week 4  Exodus 3

When the Lord met Moses in the wilderness and told him to return to Egypt to free Israel he also told him: I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
The reason I stopped reading at that point was because I remembered that the Lord had promised Abraham: to your offspring I give…the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.
The lists aren’t duplicates but there’s plenty of overlap. Both name the Canaanites Hittites Amorites Perizzites & Jebusites. I’m not too worried about the discrepancy since we’re talking about the same geographic region.
When Abraham first arrived in Canaan the Canaanite tribes lived there. But the Lord promised him that that exact land was for Israel. Not yet. But eventually all the tribes would be displaced (although eventually took a long time coming).
So there was a land tenure system in place with a land-owner and land-users. The Lord owned the land. The local tribes used it.
The tribes got to occupy the land for centuries (long enough that they figured it was theirs). But the land-owner had plans to eventually shift the right of land-use to Israel.

Note: quotes from Exodus 3:17 & Genesis 15:18-21 (ESV). I posted on the tribes on January 3 & 4 2025: ‘an unexplained curse’ and ‘a nasty development’

 

Week 4  Genesis 47

Jacob emigrated to Egypt as an old man. When the Pharaoh asked him how old he was Jacob said he was 130. The king didn’t ask for a quality-of-life assessment but Jacob went on to say: few and unpleasant have been the years of my life (the note in the margin said that unpleasant literally meant evil).
I checked a couple of dozen other versions. Quite a few used the word evil. Others said things like hard. Difficult. Sad. Troubled. Bad.
I paged back to do a quick review of Jacob’s story:
• he ripped-off his brother Esau. Twice
• Esau wanted to murder him (so Jacob bugged-out)
• Jacob married the girl-of-his-dreams (after marrying the girl-of-his-nightmares)
• got a couple of excellent promises from the Lord
• worked like a dog & got rich
• eventually mended-fences with Esau
• his daughter was raped (so his sons killed the rapist)
• the love-of-his-life died
• his father died
• his favourite son was killed
• his favourite son wasn’t dead – he miraculously resurfaced in Egypt.
If I drew up a two-column table of Jacob’s life there’d be some bad & sad things in Column A. Column B would show some definite upsides & pluses to Jacob’s life. Column A Evils. Column B Goods.
There aren’t many bible characters bigger than Jacob. He was one of the great & famous patriarchs of the whole Jewish race. But getting near the end he figured that he’d lived a pretty dismal Column A life.

Note: quote from Genesis 47:9 (NASB)