Mattot/Massei/tibes/journeys
Numbers 30:32-36:13
Isaiah 66:1-24
New King James Version 3 Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’” 1 Samuel 15:3
Kind of funny place to start talking about the love of God…
When I saw that the haftorah portion this week was Isaiah 66, I was excited about all the possibilities of insight in those verses, but I felt the Lord’s emphasis for me was to remain in Numbers and explore a bit of His heart there. At first, I didn’t even want to read the verses in Numbers (30:2-36:13); it was a lot to read, and I wasn’t sure what I might ‘find’ there; and besides, Isaiah 66 was like fishing in a ‘stocked pond’; full of impressive truths!
To begin with, Numbers is full of ‘numbers’ and the tendency, at least for me, is to skip over all those names and enumerations. One day I realized that those ‘numbers’ represent lives of people that were captured by God’s love into His story; and I wanted to note their names and be willing to have my heart be moved by Holy Spirit, in case He had something to say. The Holy One of Israel begins preparing the people to get the land of their inheritance with an eye on vows, borders, and boundaries. So, it seems to me He doesn’t just want bodies occupying space in the land, but the posture of their hearts and a recognition of His plans to give them a land that may presently be occupied by others; but ordained by heaven for them. Unfortunately, they don’t just get to pray their way into their boundaries, but it may take physical force to take over. (How inconvenient!) “Wait a minute here, God! We have been slaves for over 400 years, we aren’t soldiers!” “I have given you the land!”, God. First off, vows like they may have said, need to go into the ‘heap of unbelief’ that will defeat them and cut them off from God’s purposes and promises and then they need to take a deep breath and begin to realize that He really means it! He not only means it; it’s a lot of land with a lot of people in the way and these folks are unwilling to have a ‘going away parade’ as they leave.
Before I wrap up, I want to comment on the I Samuel passage I began with: a number of years ago I came upon this verse and was personally challenged by the idea that God is love and all He does is love. So how could He expect these people, His first born, to do something so horrific in His name, and learn to rule and live in His kind of love? So rather than search the internet for some commentaries to help me navigate this conundrum, I stopped for a moment and asked Him. The ‘answer’ came as a kind of picture or video in my mind (?), suddenly I saw what I could only describe as a great waterfall; even mightier than Niagara Falls! The ‘water’ was actually made up of millions of people’s faces that came rushing by in such a blur that it seemed like water. Then I saw the One True God, Who lives outside of time; take each person’s face into His ‘hands’ and with love unimaginable, stare into their eyes, with tears in His; as they were individually sentenced to death…I know these words can’t adequately communicate the emotion of that moment; but it helped me realize that even what may seem harsh and unloving from our perspective, can be carried out with unending love, on the part of our Father. All that He does is love and He doesn’t have to set that love aside to move in other emotions or actions!
So back to taking the land: what could that mean for us today? Let’s look at the “borders and boundaries” that our Lord may have uniquely in mind for each of our lives and trust Him to accomplish some of that with our personal actions on earth; in these bodies; with the people and circumstances surrounding our lives. Maybe we could begin with some of our “vows” that seem so reasonable in helping us avoid the discomfort of that ‘Godly disruption’ to our plans… Or, “God, forbid!” we might have to “kill every man, woman and child” in our circumstances! He has “given us the land”, and maybe we need to be reminded of the extent of the ‘boundaries’ that He has in mind and prepare to take that land and glorify God with our lives. by john eisner
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