Leaders like to complain that it’s lonely at the top. We think a leader is a one-man band. A single conductor leads the entire orchestra. A single quarterback leads his team. A single pilot flies a plane. A single teacher leads a classroom. Nations are often led by a single executive, whether king, president, or tin-horn dictator.
But we knew as long ago as the days of Moses that leadership works better as a shared responsibility. Moses gave up trying to do it all himself. His father-in-law saw him struggling to judge every dispute that came up among the nation of over a million people. Jethro told Moses he would wear himself out and advised him to delegate—to enlist wise men to carry some of the burden. Years later, Moses recounted the story in an address to the nation:
“I spoke to you at that time, saying, ‘I am not able to bear the burden of you alone. The Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are this day like the stars of heaven in number. May the Lord, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand-fold more than you are and bless you, just as He has promised you! How can I alone bear the load and burden of you and your strife? Choose wise and discerning and experienced men from your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads.’
You answered me and said, ‘The thing which you have said to do is good.’
So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and appointed them heads over you, leaders of thousands and of hundreds, of fifties and of tens, and officers for your tribes. Then I charged your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your fellow countrymen, and judge righteously between a man and his fellow countryman, or the alien who is with him. You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not fear man, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.’ I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do” Deuteronomy 1:9-18.
Leadership is not a one-man band. It is a team effort. Moses may have led the nation, but he was propped up by the support of a team of leaders: leaders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. This was a hierarchy not unlike a modern army with its generals, colonels, majors, captains, lieutenants, sergeants, corporals, and privates.
There is a need for gifted leaders who can lead hundreds or even thousands. But there is a greater need for those who will lead only ten. As Moses describes it, for every man who leads a thousand, a nation will need a hundred men who can lead ten men each[1]. The result is a leadership team.
Leadership is not meant to be the solitary experience it was for Moses. A single conductor may lead the entire orchestra—but he is supported by assistant conductors, rehearsal directors and others. A single quarterback may lead his team on the field, but he is supported by not only a head coach but a team of coaches and players who serve as team captains.
A single pilot flies a plane—but many pilots are supported by co-pilots. And where would teachers and professors be without the support of an administrative team of principals, presidents, department heads, deans, and more? Nations may be led by a single executive, but kings, presidents, and even dictators rely on a large supporting cast.
If you are a leader, never be too proud to enlist good helpers—and use them. Rely on them. Find some people who are not YES people. Leaders need people who will hold them accountable, ask hard questions, and say NO sometimes.
If you are not a leader, be willing to play a supporting role. Maybe you are not called to lead thousands. But can you lead ten? Such a servant role is an essential part of any leadership team.
Dear God, teach us how to lead and how to follow. Give us the humility to listen and gain wisdom from those around us. Remind us that leadership and roles and titles are not the point. We want to serve you. We are available. Use us to provide Biblical, Godly wisdom to whatever organization or circumstances we may find ourselves in.
AΩ.
[1] If a population needs one leader for every thousand, one for every hundred, one for every fifty, and one for every ten, then over 13% of the people will be required to participate in leadership.
Just before the Israelites moved into the Promised Land, a group of tribal leaders came to Moses with a question. All had agreed that the daughters of Zelophehad would inherit the land that was to have been assigned to their father. But the leaders of their tribe feared that if those daughters should marry outside their tribe, then at death, the land they inherited would become the property of another tribe. Such a result would permanently reduce the land of the tribe of Manasseh. Moses took this complex problem to the Lord:
“Then at the Lord’s command Moses gave this order to the Israelites: ‘What the tribe of the descendants of Joseph is saying is right. This is what the Lord commands for Zelophehad’s daughters: They may marry anyone they please as long as they marry within their father’s tribal clan. No inheritance in Israel is to pass from one tribe to another, for every Israelite shall keep the tribal inheritance of their ancestors. Every daughter who inherits land in any Israelite tribe must marry someone in her father’s tribal clan, so that every Israelite will possess the inheritance of their ancestors. No inheritance may pass from one tribe to another, for each Israelite tribe is to keep the land it inherits.’ So Zelophehad’s daughters did as the Lord commanded Moses” Numbers 36:5-10.
When I was a child, I remember talking to my friends about the tribes and cultures around the world. We wondered why some people lived in huts, others in castles. Why do some people have cars, electricity, and antibiotics, and others run through the jungle barefoot and naked, killing each other with spears and blowguns? Are the people in the civilized cultures smarter? Or more talented? Or do they have a better religion? Or does their language give them a more adaptable way of thinking about the world? Racists and eugenicists argue it’s DNA—that some races are drawn toward imperialism, building things, and long life, and others are content to raise their children in trees, and die at 35. (I disagree: there is only one human race.)
Cynical thinkers often suggest the very notion of “civilization” is itself just makeup or whitewash, a costume we use to hide our savagery. Filmmaker Werner Herzog has said, “Civilization is like a thin layer of ice upon a deep ocean of chaos and darkness.”
Some are convinced our world of universities and hospitals, skyscrapers and voting machines, is no better than the darkest jungles of the Amazon. Some argue we are all evil monsters and our wealthy, complex society is merely a mask to hide our true selves. In fact, the popular notion of the “noble savage” takes the idea even further, arguing civilized societies are actually the evil ones*, and simple, aboriginal cultures are good and noble and deserve to be imitated.
But you will not convince me that every advance humanity has achieved is meaningless.
If society and its achievements were meaningless, then God would not have gone to such great lengths to show us how to live.
After all, the Bible is filled with advice on what to eat and not eat, how to handle wild animals, human waste, dead bodies, diseases of all kinds, and mold and mildew on the walls of your houses. God stepped into the life of Israel and taught them how to educate their children, how to run a government, how to punish crimes, how to adjudicate lawsuits, and so much more.
Civilization is what happens when people decide to stop killing each other so often and so quickly. Civilization is what happens when someone chooses patience.
Consider the film “End of the Spear.” The movie tells the story of Ecuador’s Waodani people. These people living in the Amazon jungle are locked in a cycle of revenge killings. Every time one of the members of the tribe is killed, an avenger kills a member of the rival tribe. Soon, both tribes have killed so many that they face extinction. They are committing a sort of genocide, one enemy at a time. Until they stop. And they do stop. And that is the moment when a civilization is born.
By contrast, consider the story of Enrico Fermi. Fermi was the greatest physicist in Italy in 1938, and was, in fact, one of the greatest on earth. But when Mussolini’s Italy became an ally of Nazi Germany, Fermi was in trouble. His wife was Jewish and she and their children were suddenly at risk. So when the family traveled to Stockholm to accept the Nobel Prize in Physics, Fermi never returned, instead immigrating to the United States.
Once here, Fermi led the team that was the first to achieve a sustained nuclear chain reaction, proving the potential of nuclear physics. Then Fermi joined the Manhattan Project, building the bomb that–for all its controversy as a killing machine–stopped the killing of World War Two, because it stopped the war. Fermi then went on to enjoy a career in academia.
For purposes of this discussion, consider the position of Italy. The nation has done the unexpected: produced one of the greatest physicists in the world. But Italy loses him forever because the war drives him to the United States. In fact, the war caused Europe to lose thousands of scientists, scholars, musicians, artists, and more to the United States and other safer places. War will do that. Institutionalized killing will do that. When killing and death move in, civilization and life move out.
As I said, civilization happens when people slow down the killings. Personal convictions against killing are a good place to begin. But if a society can enact laws against killing, and create institutions that will punish killers, then the amount of killing will drop dramatically.
But what does killing have to do with civilization?
Civilization takes time! It takes so much time to create roads and bridges and castles and infrastructure. It takes thousands of people, a massive labor force to raise crops, to feed a nation, and to create homes and clothing and tools and labor-saving devices, and inventions of all kinds. As long as being killed remains a constant threat, everyone is forced to focus on killing enemies and protecting allies. You are so busy sharpening your sword, there is no time to repair your plow—much less, build a hospital or school or church or any of the hallmarks of civilization.
Perhaps taking one rare positive lesson from the relatively civilized nation of Egypt (the ruling civilization of the time), Ancient Israel was more civilized than bloodthirsty. Did they fight in wars? Yes. Did they kill? Of course. But the Hebrew nation was not as bloodthirsty as many. Speaking of revenge killings, God led the nation to establish sanctuary cities were even the designated avenger could not take a life. Israel outlawed murder and revenge killings and the number of killings slowed to a crawl, allowing time for God to begin giving the people laws and lessons.
Consider the problem of women inheriting land in the passage above from Numbers 36. In another nation, land moving permanently from one tribe to another would be stopped.
By killing.
But the leaders of the tribe of Manasseh took the problem to Moses and a solution was found in advance. That’s what civilizations do.
Civilization happens when a culture anticipates conflict and resolves it in advance**.
Civilization happens when a society creates laws that replace murder with due process, with some form of objective or blind justice that treats disparate parties fairly and resolves conflicts equitably.
But for such a system to work, the majority of the citizens must respect the process and be willing to abide by the court’s decisions. Creating a respected judicial system is no easy task! It is complicated. Civilized societies are highly specialized, highly complex. But such societies also created modern medicine, better fertilizers, and have increased global wealth (and global energy output) immeasurably.
Is this business about female heirs not marrying outside the tribe complex? Yes. Do we have more laws in the United States than we can count? Yes. But we also have an average life span that is longer than nearly every society in history. Do we require children to attend school for a dozen years or more? Yes. But we also live in one of the wealthiest nations that has ever existed.
There is a direct correlation between the reduction in killing and the opportunity for a society to build itself into a great civilization.
Do passages in the Bible ever strike you as overly complicated? If so, consider: to one degree or another, civilized societies have exchanged murder and war for complexity.
The Bible contains highly complex passages on Old Testament law, and on New Testament doctrine. But the specialized modern world we enjoy owes its existence to the law and legal system created in the Old Testament, and to convictions about grace and restoration taught in the New Testament. In some sense, our wealthy, healthy, educated, and peaceful lives owe everything to the sixth commandment:
“Thou shalt not kill” Exodus 20:13.
Dear God, may we always be grateful for the blessings we enjoy. Thank you for peace. Thank you for Your word that has taught people right and wrong for centuries. Thank you for our imperfect but well-intentioned governments that have built legal systems that allow us to pursue interesting, creative lives free from the constant threat of death. Help us every day to better understand the way your word has enriched our lives—even the most complicated passages of that word! May we love it more every day.
AΩ.
* Those who believe civilization itself is evil create for themselves an inverse sort of religion, one consisting primarily of sins: the rich are evil, corporations are evil, capitalism and free trade are evil, factories are evil, plastic is evil, petroleum is evil, carbon emissions are evil, paper is evil, big-pharma is evil, the medical industry is evil, medicine is evil, cars are evil, shipping is evil, trains are evil, trucking is evil (but Amazon is okay!), pre-packaged food is evil, fast food is evil, junk food is evil, eating meat is evil, farming is evil, governments are evil, automobiles are evil, and so on. These ideas have become so deeply rooted, it can be difficult to perceive that they do not add up and are, in fact, irrational.
** Some will argue that many civilizations have thrived while also killing millions. And it is easy to list examples. What empire has not been famous for its efficient killing? Some kill outsiders. Some kill their own people. Some kill both. But yes, the reign of death among otherwise successful, even world-dominating empires is unchallenged. But my point is not that civilizations do not kill, only that most advances in human life have happened during peacetime. When people are occupied with killing or escaping killing, they have no time for creativity, for invention, discovery, or raising the standard of living. Those things happen at other times and in other places. They happen before, after, and away from the killing. Again: civilization happens when people decide to stop killing each other so often and so quickly. Civilization is what happens when someone chooses patience.
Painting: the Prayer at Valley Forge, by Arnold Friberg.
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Command the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter Canaan, the land that will be allotted to you as an inheritance is to have these boundaries: … Your southern boundary will start in the east from the southern end of the Dead Sea, cross south of Scorpion Pass, continue on to Zin and go south of Kadesh Barnea. Then it will go to Hazar Addar and over to Azmon, where it will turn, join the Wadi of Egypt and end at the Mediterranean Sea.
‘Your western boundary will be the coast of the Mediterranean Sea …
‘For your northern boundary, run a line from the Mediterranean Sea to Mount Hor and from Mount Hor to Lebo Hamath. Then the boundary will go to Zedad, continue to Ziphron and end at Hazar Enan …
‘For your eastern boundary, run a line from Hazar Enan to Shepham. The boundary will go down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain and continue along the slopes east of the Sea of Galilee.Then the boundary will go down along the Jordan and end at the Dead Sea. This will be your land, with its boundaries on every side’” Numbers 34:1-12.
Stop and think about God’s Story. He chooses a man. Abraham. Calls him his friend, makes a unilateral covenant (meaning God is obligating Himself, though Abraham can offer Him nothing in return). Then God promises to make Abraham the father of a great nation. He gives the man a son when he is 100 years old.
Generations later Abraham’s descendants find themselves a nation of slaves, trapped in a highly “civilized,” supposedly well-educated land but a land of idol worshipping pagans. They are slaves. They have no money. No possessions. No real estate. No freedom. What do they have? They have a God they are not too sure about, and a loosely defined religion of monotheism.
In fact, the Jews were the world’s first and only monotheistic religion, a notion the rest of the world found not only crazy, but irreligious.
Gods were possessions to be collected and shown off to others, the way some of the fabulously wealthy collect cars. Having only one God meant your religion was weaker than the religion of those with many gods.
These children of Abraham, these impoverished slaves, could not even take worldly pride in their God, or carve idols of Him to show off and bow down to. They did not understand everything about Him, but they knew He was not that kind of God. He would not be reduced to an engraved (or “graven”) image.
Then God chooses another man. Moses. And God sends Moses to Pharaoh, demanding he set God’s people free. Pharaoh refuses ten times and ten times God sends devastating plagues, miracles of God’s wrath that prove God’s power and God’s truth and God’s character to not only the Egyptian idol worshippers, but to God’s own people.
These slaves were going to have to step up their game. Soon they would be free. Autonomous. They would have to make their own decisions. They would have to worship God and follow the laws He would give them. They would have to create courts and a government and leaders of all kinds. They would need farmers and craftsmen and artisans and physicians and teachers and soldiers and generals and all the trades that build a nation.
So God rescues the people from the hand of Pharaoh. And he gives them such favor in the eyes of their former captors that the Egyptians shower them with gifts so valuable that the Bible says the Jews “plundered the Egyptians” Exodus 12:36.
Then the former slaves find themselves in the wilderness, a traveling band of over a million nomads.
For forty years, God sustains them with food and water. Though it is easy to overlook, this is an unparalleled miracle of logistics.
It is phenomenal. Can you name another miracle that was ongoing—for forty years? God provided manna six days a week for forty years including a double portion on Fridays so no one would have to collect food on the sabbath. That pattern was repeated week-in, week-out for four decades. On top of that, their clothes did not wear out, Deuteronomy 29:5. Their clothes and shoes lasted forty years!
Napoleon is credited with an expression that points out the challenge of logistics:
An army marches on its stomach.
It is true. George Washington’s troops nearly lost the war because they were short on food, boots, and blankets during the harsh winter of 1777-78. The modern U.S. Army spends billions paying private contractor KBR to provide food, water, and shelter to soldiers during operations in Middle Eastern deserts.
Wartime logistics is one of the greatest challenges any army faces. Sure, you have weapons. You’re good at death. But can you keep your men alive in a baking desert or a frozen wasteland? Can you keep your army healthy during months on the road?
God did it for forty years.
And then He gave them land. The slaves, the children of slaves—they marched into the Promised Land and God gave it to them. The people living there had made themselves odious in God’s sight, worshipping idols and engaging in heinous acts of sin including sacrificing their own children. Finally, they “filled up the full measure of their sin” (Genesis 15:16) and God rid the land of them. Some were removed by hornets, Exodus 23:28. And some would be removed by war (see the book of Joshua). After all, if Israel were going to be a nation, it would need to be able to defend itself. It would need an army with experience.
But my point here is the LAND. God gave these slaves a land of their own. It was 150 miles long and 50 miles wide—some 7,500 square miles—not the largest nation at the time, but large enough. And a small but well-watered fertile land is so much more valuable than a large, dry land.
The Promised Land was a good land, a “good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey” Exodus 3:8.
God is the great GIVER. As my grandfather used to say, “they ain’t makin’ no more land.” But God made land for Israel.
Matthew Henry notes two things in his classic commentary: This may be a small land, relatively speaking. But it’s not a desert. It’s a garden:
“This was the vineyard of the Lord, the garden enclosed; but as it is with gardens and vineyards, the narrowness of the space was made up by the fruitfulness of the soil.”
Henry adds an interesting point of application. Do you ever feel poor? Does it ever seem God has given you less than others, less even than the lost?
Henry notes that God’s people often have fewer possessions or less wealth than the lost.
“See how little a share of the world God gives to his own people. Those who have their portion in heaven, have reason to be content with a small pittance of this earth. Yet a little that a righteous man has, having it from the love of God, and with his blessing, is far better and more comfortable than the riches of many wicked.”
Remember: Heaven is your real home.
God, thank you for Your amazing story! Thank you for giving Your children a land and a home. May we be more grateful every day for the way You provide for us. And when we struggle with little, help us remember the paradise to come in Heaven! We don’t need cars or mansions on earth. We have Jesus and He is preparing a place for us. Thank you!
“Breakfast Table Political Argument” by Norman Rockwell, on permanent display at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum. (The husband and wife appear to be arguing over the 1948 presidential race in which Harry Truman (right) defeated Thomas Dewey in an upset. My mother reports that 1948 was the first year her widowed mother voted Republican (for Dewey), my grandmother apparently being one of the first southern Democrats to change parties.)
“Well, Steven, how did you like church this morning?” my Uncle Bob asked me over Sunday dinner. Our family was visiting from the big city and would be driving back to Houston after lunch.
“I liked how small and quiet it was.”
That came out wrong. I was in the eighth grade; most things came out wrong.
“Well, not every church can be as big as yours!” My aunt Gwynne reminded me. She sounded quite insulted. Fortunately, I picked up on her tone and immediately launched into an explanation:
“No. I loved it! What I mean is, the kids were all nice to me! It’s not like that at our church because it’s so big. There are thousands of kids. You get lost in the crowd even when you know them all. But today everyone was like ‘Oh, you must be a Wales. I can tell by the way you walk and the way you talk. What’s your name?’ It was incredible! Can you imagine anyone saying that to me in Houston? No, you gotta understand—I LOVED it!”
I went on and on trying to make sure my aunt was not sore at me.
Have you ever upset someone you thought the world of? We have all done it. Sometimes it happens unintentionally. And even then, it can be hard to smooth things over. It takes humility, patience, and conflict resolution skills.
In Numbers 32, several of Israel’s tribal leaders offended no less an august personage than Moses himself. Can you imagine? Who would want to upset Moses?
Just when the nation was about to engage in a series of battles over the Promised Land, the leaders of three tribes (technically 2.5 tribes) came to Moses and asked if they could remain east of the Jordan River, a grassy land they had decided was ideal for raising their many herds and flocks. Moses considered this an outrageous, sinful request.
“The Reubenites and Gadites [and the half-tribe of Manasseh] said, ‘let this land be given to your servants as our possession. Do not make us cross the Jordan.’
“Moses answered the Gadites and Reubenites, ‘Should your fellow Israelites go to war while you sit here? Why do you discourage the Israelites from crossing over into the land the Lord has given them? This is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land. After they went up to the Valley of Eshkol and viewed the land, they discouraged the Israelites from entering the land the Lord had given them … The Lord’s anger burned against Israel and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years … And here you are, a brood of sinners, standing in the place of your fathers and making the Lord even more angry with Israel!‘” Numbers 32:1-14.
How do you like that? These men went to Moses with a creative proposal—one that would actually leave more land for the other nine-and-a-half tribes—and Moses got angry and accused them of being as faithless as the spies who were afraid to enter the land forty years earlier. Then he called them a brood of sinners and accused them of bringing God’s wrath on the nation.
So what could they do? They could retreat meekly and say no more about it. Or they could get angry at Moses and make it personal, perhaps shouting at him that he always turns everything into an argument or something. Or they could accuse him of not listening or charge him with arrogance and say he has lost touch and no longer belongs in leadership.
But that’s not what they did. Even though Moses leveled serious allegations, even though Moses appears to have completely misjudged them, the tribal leaders were patient and did not become upset. They were patient, they remained humble. They knew their place and respected their leader.
The men immediately forgave Moses and offered additional details, explaining that they had every intention of joining their brothers in battle. But when the war was over, they wanted to raise their flocks of sheep and herds of cattle in the land east of the Jordan:
“We will arm ourselves for battle and go ahead of the Israelites until we have brought them to their place … We will not return to our homes until each of the Israelites has received his inheritance. We will not receive any inheritance with them on the other side of the Jordan, because our inheritance has come to us on the east side of the Jordan” Numbers 32:17-19.
And with those reassurances, Moses was pacified.
So what can we do when we upset people? What can we learn from these leaders who managed to raise the ire of Moses?
First, in times of conflict, do not give up and go away in silence.
Sometimes we do that, particularly when we have upset someone in a position of authority. But if the men had said nothing further, Moses would have never realized that their intentions were not bad. Moses would have continued to believe the men were guilty of cowardice and betrayal. But they defended their position. They spoke honestly and clearly. They knew better than to clam up and say nothing. Clear communication is important. If you can talk it out—free of anger—you have a better chance of being understood. There is a time for talking*.
Jesus said, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother” Matthew 18:15.
I am not suggesting Moses sinned—this was better characterized as a misunderstanding. But the men humbly explained to Moses that he had misunderstood, and by doing so, they won him over. They “gained their brother.”
Second, in times of conflict, avoid responding in anger.
So often when anyone becomes angry at us, we respond by matching their anger. Most of the time that is a mistake.
“A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” Proverbs 15:1.
If these men had raised their voices with Moses, the leader of the nation would probably have grown even angrier. But they kept their cool and controlled their words and their tone, which helped Moses see past his own anger and examine the merits of what they were proposing.
Finally, in times of conflict, be patient.
I imagine these tribal leaders listening to Moses in silence, and only after he stopped talking and his anger was spent did they look at one another, take a deep breath, and slowly begin to offer a mild rebuttal. I imagine them speaking both more slowly than Moses and more quietly than Moses. He was angry, and he was God’s chosen leader who had earned their deep respect. Yet he was mistaken, and these humble, quiet men patiently articulated the facts to provide the great prophet a better understanding.
“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires” James 1:19-20.
These men were quick to listen to Moses. They were slow to respond (but not afraid to respond carefully and thoroughly). And they did not allow themselves to become angry.
Dear God, bless us with conflict resolution skills. Make us humble. Help us forgive. Give us patience, kindness, and the courage to talk things out when necessary. Fill us with a deep love for people, particularly for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Remind us to never allow disagreements to fester into bitterness and unforgiveness.
AΩ.
* There is a time for silence as well. Sometimes you upset someone, they respond, and silence or silent assent is probably the best response, particularly if you realize that you are in the wrong. When we are wrong, silence is good and a quiet admission/apology is often better. But there are exceptions to everything. A professional context, a business relationship, or an argument between two opposing attorneys–these situations can be tricky and must be navigated with wisdom, skill, and professional experience. Still, you can’t go wrong if you begin with Biblical guidance: humility, patience, forgiveness, grace, and carefully chosen words that demonstrate that the personal relationship is as important as the subject of the argument.
“If my sixteen-year-old son goes to the Ford dealership and convinces them to sell him a Ford Mustang on a payment plan, there may be problems. What are some of those problems?
“First of all, as a tenth grader, Marshall doesn’t have any money. But what if he does? What if he can make payments of $600 a month? Now Ford has entered into a contract with a minor. Is that legal? Yes.
“Ford has entered a questionable contract. But they can’t get out of it. As a minor, the contract can be voided by Marshall. But as long as he makes timely payments, Ford Motor Credit, LLC, cannot void the contract. If the contract can be voided by one party but not the other, that contract is called a VOIDABLE CONTRACT.
“A voidable contract is a formal agreement between two parties that can be rendered unenforceable by one of the parties.”
The Bible contains an interesting passage that reminds me of voidable contracts:
“When a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said. When a young woman still living in her father’s household makes a vow to the Lord or obligates herself by a pledge and her father hears about her vow or pledge but says nothing to her, then all her vows and every pledge by which she obligated herself will stand. But if her father forbids her when he hears about it, none of her vows or the pledges by which she obligated herself will stand; the Lord will release her because her father has forbidden her” Numbers 30:2-5.
God takes vows seriously. “Do not make rash vows!” Ecclesiastes 5:2. Numbers 30 begins by saying that men who make vows better fulfill them. “He must not break his word, but must do everything he said,” Numbers 30:2. A vow made by a man cannot be broken.
However, there are exceptions for the vows of women. The vow of a young woman still living in her father’s house is voidable by her father, Numbers 30:5. If a married woman makes a vow, that vow is voidable by her husband, Numbers 30:8 and 30:12. But if a woman is divorced or a widow, her vows are not voidable.
This passage may seem to equate women with minors, as though the ladies lacked sophistication in some way. Given the fact that women in Biblical times were given less education and had less experience with matters of business and money, this may not be entirely false. However, this is also a matter of authority or headship.
Vows are made between an individual and God.
You cannot make a vow to do what the law already requires you to do. So vows are promises to exceed normal expectations in some way.
You might make a vow to offer a specific sacrifice at a specific time, or to read or memorize some scriptural passage, or to perform some voluntary act of service at the temple or for the local priest or the local poor.
And any activity taken on by a daughter, wife, or mother, may mean less time for her family. A father or husband may hear about a vow and conclude it will require too much of the woman’s time or too much of the family’s resources. And because the man is the head of the family, his objection means that the woman is released from her vow. (She can still perform the act, but the man’s objection frees her from the duty.)
This is the way authority and headship works. The husband and father may be no better able to make such decisions than his wife or daughter. But only one person can drive the bus—and men drive the family bus. The women are in no way less-than the men. But someone must be the leader and God chose to place family leadership on the heads of the men.
This truth is reinforced in the middle of the chapter. “Any vow or obligation taken by a widow or divorced woman will be binding on her” Numbers 30:9.
Is a widow or a divorced woman somehow more sophisticated than a married woman or a woman who has never married? No. But a widow is no longer covered by the authority of her father or her husband. There is no one left to void what might otherwise have been a voidable vow. In other words, widowed and divorced women no longer have an authority over them who can deliver them from their vow.
There is no indication husbands are wiser than their wives or daughters in this area. The worst Bible stories about rash vows are the stories of men, including Saul’s rash vow in 1 Samuel 14, David’s vow made in anger in 1 Samuel 25:22, and Joshua’s treaty with the deceptive Gibeonites in Joshua 9. The worst example is the rash vow of Judge Jephthah in Judges 11:30-40. Jephthah vowed to sacrifice whatever came out of his house first if God would help him defeat the Ammonites. Jephthah won the battle and his daughter was the first thing to walk out of his house.
The key to remember is the serious nature of making a vow to God. CHOOSE YOUR WORDS CAREFULLY.
“Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few” Ecclesiastes 5:2.
Leviticus 5:4-7 provides that sometimes we will make rash vows and God has provided a way out of those vows.
Even better, consider this. I ran across a writer online calling himself lateral_mind who says his favorite chapter in the entire Old Testament is Numbers chapter 30. (Huh? Seriously?) That’s what he says. Because in his eyes, Numbers 30 is a picture of the gospel. He puts it this way:
“Read Numbers 30 with the idea that we Christians are the Bride of Christ. Jesus is the Betrothed Husband, and God is our Father. We, who are in Christ, are released from the rash vow of [promising in Exodus 19:7-8 and 24:7 to perfectly uphold the Law] because Jesus bore our guilt.”[1]
God takes our words seriously. If you make a vow, you keep it! But God understands human frailty too. Sometimes we mess up.
“He knows our frame. He is mindful that we are but dust” Psalm 103:14.
God knows we make rash vows, and He provided a way out for most women in Numbers 30 and a way out for the rest of us (with a little extra work) in Leviticus 5:4-7. God will forgive. Under the New Covenant, He offers a way out when we trap ourselves with our own words—go to Jesus. He offers forgiveness, grace, and restoration.
Dear God, remind us to choose our words carefully. May we balance the need for total openness in prayer against the importance of taking words seriously. Remind us to come to You in awe and reverence and to let our words be few. Thank you for authority and headship, that so many of us, for so many years are guided by the authority of a wise husband or father. Make the men among us devoted and wise stewards of the incredible responsibility of guiding our families. And in all things, we lean on Your amazing grace. Thank you for washing away our guilt, from rash words or otherwise.
President Lincoln was one of many lawyer-politicians. But Lincoln did not become a lawyer because he had his eye on a career in politics. Instead, Lincoln actually hung out a shingle, becoming a small business owner, a day-in, day-out lawyer for some twenty-five years, handling both civil and criminal trials, debt, slander, divorce, mortgage foreclosures, even murder. That’s why the most controversial decision of Lincoln’s presidency remains his suspension of habeus corpus during the Civil War—that is, Lincoln allowed the Union to arrest men suspected of being spies or enemies of the state and hold them in jail for months without due process.
Lincoln, the experienced criminal defense attorney, defended the decision, arguing that acts illegal in peacetime might be necessary “in cases of rebellion,” when the nation’s survival was at stake.
Every president since Lincoln is aware of what Lincoln did and will use it to justify war-time actions that have a chilling effect on dissent and deny the liberties of U.S. citizens.
During World War One, Americans passed the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act, restricting the freedoms of speech and of the press. During World War Two, the nation rounded up Japanese Americans and placed them in internment camps to ensure they could not act as spies for the Empire of Japan. Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001, the nation passed the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act, enlarging the definition of “terrorism,” allowing for the “indefinite detention of non-citizens,” and greatly expanding the federal government’s power to “spy on the private lives of American citizens” through warrantless surveillance and so-called “secret searches.”[1]
The Roman statesman Cicero summed it up:
Inter Arma Silent Leges.
That means, “amid arms, the law falls silent.” In other words, during war, government leaders ignore the laws[2].
Lincoln knew it. Wilson knew it. Roosevelt knew it. And perhaps Moses knew it. Before Israel began a war to secure the Promised Land, God took the time to repeat the law to a new generation.
Knowing war was coming, God did not remind the nation merely to be strong or to have courage. God reminded the people of His commands, and of the essential nature of worship. God reminded them that what a nation at war needs is not more swords and missiles, but more sanctuaries and sacrifices. God reviewed with Israel the entire calendar, pointing out once again the many animal sacrifices required and exactly when and how to perform them.
Think of that. War is coming, first with the Midianites (as recorded in Numbers 31), then with the seven evil nations living in the Promised Land (as recorded throughout the book of Joshua). The young men are in a frenzy. Every nineteen-year-old has signed up with a military recruiter, and every sixteen-year-old little brother is plotting to lie about his age, afraid he will miss out on his chance for glory and heroism.
The families are worried, but proud. A surge of patriotism is sweeping the land. Flags and bunting hang from every front porch rail, yellow ribbons circle every oak tree, and then God interrupts the pre-war national pep rally to say, Slow down. Worship. Spend time with Me. God lays out in detail the communal sacrifices required of the nation.[3]
DAILY
God begins with the daily sacrifices: “This is the food offering you are to present to the Lord: two lambs a year old without defect, as a regular burnt offering each day. Offer one lamb in the morning and the other at twilight, together with a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with a quarter of a hinof oil from pressed olives” Numbers 28:3-5.
So every day, Israel would present two lambs in a sacrifice with flour and oil, along with a fermented drink offering to be poured out with each lamb (Numbers 28:7).
WEEKLY
Every week on the sabbath day, the number of sacrifices would double: Two lambs with flour and oil and a drink offering, in addition to the two already required every day, Numbers 28:9-10.
MONTHLY
“‘On the first of every month, present to the Lord a burnt offering of two young bulls, one ram and seven male lambs a year old, all without defect … Besides the regular burnt offering with its drink offering, one male goat is to be presented to the Lord as a sin offering” Numbers 28:11.
The monthly sacrifice was expanded to include two bulls, one ram, seven male lambs, and a male goat as a sin offering, each presented with flour and oil, and a wine offering to be poured out with each bull (Numbers 28:14).
ANNUALLY ON THE PASSOVER
“Present to the Lord a food offering consisting of two young bulls, one ram, and seven males lambs a year old, all without defect … Include one male goat as a sin offering to make atonement for you” (Numbers 28:19-22) and flour and oil (Numbers 28:20).
ANNUALLY ON THE FEAST OF FIRSTFRUITS
Again, two bulls, one ram, seven male lambs, and one goat for a sin offering, and the customary flour, oil, and wine for a drink offering, Numbers 28:26-31.
ANNUALLY ON THE FEAST OF TRUMPETS
This time it is not two but one bull, one ram, seven male lambs, and one goat for a sin offering, along with flour and oil, Numbers 29:2-5.
ANNUALLY ON THE DAY OF ATONEMENT
This one is the same as the above: one bull, one ram, seven male lambs, and one goat for a sin offering, along with flour and oil, Numbers 29:8-11.
ANNUALLY ON THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES
This eight-day festival raises the stakes:
DAY ONE: 13 bulls, two rams, 14 lambs, one male goat for a sin offering, and fine flour and oil, Numbers 29:13-16.
DAY TWO: 12 bulls, two rams, 14 lambs, one male goat for a sin offering, fine flour and oil, and drink offerings for each bull, ram, and lamb, Numbers 29:17-19.
DAY THREE: 11 bulls, two rams, 14 lambs, one male goat for a sin offering, fine flour and oil, and drink offerings for each bull, ram, and lamb, Numbers 29:20-22.
DAY FOUR: 10 bulls, two rams, 14 lambs, one male goat for a sin offering, fine flour and oil, and drink offerings for each bull, ram, and lamb, Numbers 29:23-25.
DAY FIVE: Nine bulls, two rams, 14 lambs, one male goat for a sin offering, fine flour and oil, and drink offerings for each bull, ram, and lamb, Numbers 29:26-28.
DAY SIX: Eight bulls, two rams, 14 lambs, one male goat for a sin offering, fine flour and oil, and drink offerings for each bull, ram, and lamb, Numbers 29:29-31.
DAY SEVEN: Seven bulls, two rams, 14 lambs, one male goat for a sin offering, fine flour and oil, and drink offerings for each bull, ram, and lamb, Numbers 29:32-34.
DAY EIGHT: One bull, one ram, seven lambs, one male goat for a sin offering, fine flour and oil, and drink offerings for each bull, ram, and lamb, Numbers 29:35-38.
This is another one of those cases where the Biblical text seems to call for a spreadsheet. This time I prepared one.
What is going on here? For one thing, God is taking the time to teach a new generation His laws. The generation that might have remembered the first time Moses taught on sacrifices—forty years earlier—died in the wilderness. Before bringing the nation of Israel into the land of Israel, God needs to teach them about proper worship throughout the entire calendar year.
Secondly, God is reminding the people that worship is important—more important even than going to war.
They serve God, after all. He delivered them from Egypt, has led them through the wilderness for almost 40 years, and He is the One Who will give them victory in battle. Worship and prayer are critical. The people must slow down and spend time with God.
Finally, a word of application:
I relate to the young men anxious to go to war. I remember the crazy, eager feeling of being a young man whose nation is under attack. We even felt the same way standing on the edge of fights that turned first into brawls and then riots in high school: there is a magnetic frenzy that can suck a young man into a fight like nothing else.
In that moment, the most difficult thing is for cooler heads to prevail. Reporters and onlookers refer to such a moment as a tinderbox, a tiny box of dried fire starter—introduce a single spark and everything will explode into flame instantly.
This is the sort of feverish ADD/ADHD that many of us think we are experiencing when we read passages like Numbers 28 and 29.
It is SO HARD to focus on the boring stuff!
It can be SO HARD to slow down and read or study some of the tough parts of the Bible.
But if God asked the young men of Israel to step back from the brink of war and concentrate on the details of the sacrificial system, perhaps we too can slow down, calm our distractable attention span, and focus.
Remember, this is the Word of God. The Creator of the universe prepared this book for you! Turn off the phone, the TV, the music, settle yourself, and FOCUS. Read the Bible! You can do this!
Dear God, teach us to concentrate on your amazing, rich, rewarding word! Help us to settle our minds, to clear our thoughts, and to hear from You! And bless our efforts with new insights and a greater dose of Godly wisdom. We love you!
AΩ.
[1] Every nation does it. When we are under attack, many would invite the government into our private business if we thought it would keep us safe. Benjamin Franklin commented on the willingness of worried citizens to surrender their freedom to the government: “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
[2] I gleaned this insight from an online version of the Matthew Henry Commentary. The Presbyterian minister penned a six-volume commentary on the old and new testaments, in spite of his death at the age of 51. Three hundred years later, his commentary remains one of the most highly regarded.
[3] Note that no single family is required to sacrifice hundreds of animals a year. Numbers 28 and 29 concern the sacrifices of the nation: “Numbers 28 – 29 is communal offerings. Those were done by Temple priests and funded by everyone’s annual half-shekel dues. (In fact, the Talmud’s tractate Shekalim is all about said public funds. These communal sacrifices must come from public monies!) The average family was responsible for a Passover lamb (which they could “go in on” with other families if needed), and some kind of offering at each pilgrimage. If someone wasn’t wealthy, those could be lambs too, so we’re talking four lambs. (Even then, the Passover lamb was mostly eaten by its owners.)” From– https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/124356/in-the-yearly-cycle-how-many-offerings-tithes-and-sacrifices-would-an-israeli#:~:text=For%20example%2C%20Numbers%2028:3,a%20hin%20for%20each%20lamb.
Under Old Testament law many things could render you ceremonially unclean, including childbirth, skin diseases like leprosy, certain bodily discharges, and contact with unclean animals. To be unclean was to be unfit to participate in temple worship. Various ritual washings were required to restore a state of cleanliness.
Being ceremonially unclean was not necessarily sinful or even the result of sin.
There were circumstances such as leprosy that would render the innocent unclean—though innocent. But uncleanness did share some characteristics with sin, one of which was that it could be measured in degrees.[1]
Some types of uncleanness lasted only until dusk on the same day. Others multiple days. And the one that lasted the longest and required the most elaborate efforts to restore a person to a state of ritual cleanliness was the uncleanness caused by contact with dead bodies.
Numbers 19 begins by explaining how to prepare the sacrifice of a red heifer, burn its carcass, and mix the ashes in water to create a ritual cleansing water with which to wash those who have touched the dead. (This became a water that, something like the yeast in a batch of sourdough bread, could—and did—last for centuries. The priests simply added new water to the old, and historical records indicate a thousand years passed before the sacrifice of a second red heifer. More on that below.)
“The one who touches the corpse of any person shall be unclean for seven days. That one shall purify himself from uncleanness with the water [from the ashes of the red heifer] on the third day and on the seventh day, and then he will be clean; but if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean. Anyone who touches a corpse, the body of a man who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from Israel. Because the water for impurity was not sprinkled on him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him.
“This is the law when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean for seven days. Every open vessel, which has no covering tied down on it, shall be unclean. Also, anyone who in the open field touches one who has been slain with a sword or who has died naturally, or a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean for seven days” Numbers 19:11-16.
Why was contact with the dead the most severe type of uncleanness? Why was it that he who touched a dead animal was unclean for only one day, but he who touched a dead man was unclean for a week? And why was this uncleanness contagious: why did it render unclean those in the room with the dead even if they did not touch the body? Why did the uncleanness of death contaminate everything that was later handled by those who first handled the body? And it infected open dishes in the room. Clothes. All sorts of things had to be cleaned. Why?
Why were dead bodies the most unholy defilement on earth?
For one thing, God is teaching His people the importance of hygiene some thirty centuries before microscopy would lead to the discovery of germs. It is a valuable lesson: everyone who touches the dead, even bones long dried in the sun, must wash and avoid various activities for seven days. And today we know: dead bodies can spread infection and death. As noted in the book, NONE OF THESE DISEASES, there is a hygienic purpose to passages like this one. But there is also a spiritual purpose.
Why were dead bodies the most unholy defilement on earth?
Because death was the greatest, most grotesque consequence of the sinfulness of man. “You shall surely die” Genesis 2:17.
Uncleanness—while not caused by sin (after all, the living have no choice; we MUST handle the dead)—uncleanness is a picture of life on this earth. Death is all around and so is sin, and we are touched by both every day. We do not live in a state of holiness, nor are we surrounded by holy people.
The red heifer is a picture of Christ. It must be perfectly red. A single white or black hair will disqualify the animal–and the rabbis check the hairs with a magnifying glass (pictured–see also the discussion of recent red-heifer news in the footnotes).
The red heifer is the Bible’s only sacrifice for which a color is designated. Many believe the red color is symbolic. The Hebrew word for red is related to the word for “earth.” This prefigures Jesus: because He became a Son of Man, a son of Adam, “the Second Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45) and Adam was crafted from clay, Genesis 2:7.
Also the red heifer was female to set it apart from the Egyptian practice of sacrificing red bulls. And the red heifer was slain outside the camp—the only animal sacrificed outside the camp, as Jesus would be slain outside the city walls. And the heifer would be slain not by a priest, but by a layman—the only animal sacrificed by a layman. Similarly, Jesus was crucified by the Romans, not by the Jews.
Finally, in a symbolic sense, the sacrifice of a single red heifer lasted for all time. The red heifer was the only animal sacrificed “once for all time.” Unlike other rituals and sacrifices, this single death would provide cleansing for thousands of people for as many as a thousand years. By one count, only nine red heifers were ever sacrificed. The one sacrificed in Numbers 19 by Eleazar, son of Aaron, was burned and its ashes could be added to water for cleansing for the next thousand years, from the days of Moses until the days of Ezra.
Maimonides, the great Jewish rabbi of the eleventh century A.D., reports that nine heifers were sacrificed during Israel’s entire history, “and,” he predicted, “the tenth will be sacrificed by the Messiah himself.” Of course, Maimonides might be surprised to learn that the tenth red heifer sacrificed to cleanse us from the defilement of death WAS the Messiah, and when Jesus prayed “not my will but Thine be done” (Luke 22:42), the Messiah, in a very real sense, did sacrifice Himself. As Jesus said, He came to “give His life as a ransom for many” Mark 10:45.
This is not an easy passage.
We Christians living thousands of years after Moses, must learn everything backwards by a sort of reverse engineering**: we are familiar with the story of the crucifixion, and only when reading Numbers 19 do we encounter this strange story about a cow slaughtered outside the camp to purify those living in a world of death.
But to the Jews living in the time of Christ, it was the story of the red heifer that was familiar, and the crucifixion of Jesus was the mysterious event that would only begin to make sense later.
But it would make sense. Because they understood uncleanness. The Jews were familiar with the sacrifice outside the city. They knew how desperately they needed cleansing, and they longed for a once-for-all-time sacrifice, rather than the daily flow of blood under the Old Testament system.
And that was Jesus, the great sacrifice, not only the last sacrifice, but in a sense, the ONLY sacrifice—because all others were mere types, mere symbols. All other sacrifices looked forward to the sacrifice of Christ, the One and only sacrifice that mattered.
“But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God,” Hebrews 10:12.
Like the red heifer, Jesus is the Only Sacrifice that was slain outside the city walls.
Like the red heifer, Jesus is the Only Sacrifice that was slain by laymen instead of priests.
Like the red heifer, Jesus is the Only Sacrifice that was slain once for all time.
“For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify and cleanse the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Hebrews 9:13-14.
Dear God, thank you for the way the Old Testament set the stage for the coming of the Messiah. Thank you for the sacrificial system and the scarlet thread running through the entire Bible so we might see that the entire story leads to our dramatic rescue when Jesus spilled His own blood outside the city as a ransom on our behalf.
AΩ.
[1] A dimmer switch has both an on/off switch and a dial to dim the light by degrees. Both sin and ritual uncleanness can be compared to a dimmer switch. That is, the two function first like regular light switches with on/off settings: a given act is either sinful or it is not, and at any given time a person is either clean or unclean. Your action is either sinful or holy. But there is also a dial to turn things up or down. The Bible indicates that some sins are worse than others and will be more severely punished both in this life and in the life to come. Similarly, some types of ritual uncleanness are more severe and last longer than others—the handling of a dead bodies being the most unclean, and the handling of a dead human body the most unclean of all.
Sin and ritual uncleanness can also be plotted on a Venn diagram: the two circles overlap. On one side there are sins that do not render the person unclean. In the center there are sins that do result in uncleanness. And on the other side are actions like contracting leprosy or touching a dead body that are NOT sinful, but result in uncleanness nevertheless.
* Believe it or not, as obscure as this ancient passage from Numbers 19 may be, the red heifer has been in the news recently. (Crazy, right?) Both Jews and Muslims living in Jerusalem believe/fear a Talmudic prophecy saying that the Messiah will come, sacrifice a red heifer outside the city, cleanse the Jewish people, and take them back into the city to rebuild the holy temple–on a site presently held by the Islamic temple known as Al-Aqsa and the nearby Dome of the Rock. To that end, in 2022, some Israelis imported from Texas a small herd of red heifers (I don’t think they purchased any bulls), and this action was cited by Hamas as reason for its attack on Israel of October 7, 2023. https://theins.ru/en/society/269112
When men enter their most bitter conflicts, how do they resolve them? When men fight over land, religion, power, and money, what tool do they use to determine the winner?
DEATH.
We’re talking about war, of course. Yes, we try to negotiate. We try to work out our differences. The worst of tyrants will often offer “terms of peace,” though the terms are often less like peace and more like naked theft. Before invading Poland, Adolf Hitler asked only a few things, notably the city of Danzig. You know, the old, Give me this one city, or I will take the whole nation. Countless tyrants have done the same. Such “peace terms” are nothing more than a land grab. The tyrant is met with armed resistance, and war is inevitable.
That is the way powerful old men settle their differences—by killing each other’s sons.
Men use DEATH to settle their differences. God uses LIFE.
When the Israelites rebelled against God’s leaders, accusing Moses of thinking too highly of himself, they were rebelling against God. The people shook their fists at God in a manner so egregious, the earth opened up and swallowed the worst of the rebels (Number 16:31-34), and others were consumed by fire (Numbers 16:35).
Then those who remained dared to blame Moses, saying “You have killed the people of the Lord!” Numbers 16:41. At that point, God was fed up and told Moses to step back. Suddenly a plague broke out, but Moses begged God for mercy and God stopped the plague. When the dust cleared, some fourteen thousand were gone. Some swallowed up by the earth, some killed by fire, and some killed by plague, Numbers 16:49.
This must look like an odd story to illustrate that unlike men, God does not use death to resolve conflicts or to settle differences. We will get to the conflict resolution. As for the dead, Numbers 16 is not a story of God waging war against His people. God is not an earthly general and He does not use death to force a vanquished nation to surrender. God is Holy and sovereign. He knows human hearts and He is motivated by love. Numbers 16 is a story of God, in His holy wisdom, removing from Israel the deeply evil influences who were spreading dissension and discord.
Once that was done, God offered conflict resolution to those who remained. The conflict was about leadership. People had begun to question whether Moses was really God’s man for the job. Of course, God had chosen Moses. Remember the burning bush? Remember Pharaoh and the miracles and the plagues? Remember the Passover? The parting of the Red Sea? The Ten Commandments?
But sometimes there is no convincing people. This is one of those cases where God’s people had rejected wisdom and common sense.
They would not listen to reason—and these were God’s people. (That is something to think about.) No amount of logic could persuade them. Not only that, even the earth swallowing up the rebel leaders did not convince them. Fire coming down from heaven did not convince them. The plague that killed 14,000 people in a matter of minutes did not convince them.
Death could not convince God’s people to trust Moses. Only life could do that.
God had a plan. He told Moses to collect one rod from each of the tribes of Israel. The leader of each tribe was to write his name on his rod.
“‘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, 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.’ …
“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, 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.’” Numbers 17:3-11.
Can you imagine life blooming out of an old wooden staff? Aaron’s rod came from Egypt. It had once turned into a snake in front of Pharaoh. This was nothing more than a dried-up old stick. A walking stick. For years, Aaron had been leaning on one end and punching the other end into the rocky ground. And then one night he carves his name into it and hands it over to Moses.
The next day, the worn-out old stick had grown branches, leaves, flowers, and fully ripe almonds! What an incredible miracle! What a miracle of LIFE! And no one questioned the leadership of Moses and Aaron again. The old dead stick that grew almonds convinced everyone.
Aaron’s “rod that budded” did what an earthquake, fire from heaven, and a plague could not. The rod that budded settled the conflict. God sent LIFE to win this argument. God settled a dispute with life, not death.
Later Jesus crafted this into a principle for sorting false teachers from true: look for people who create and nurture life. Look for those whose lives bear fruit.
You will know them by their fruit.
“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?” Matthew 7:15-16.
Who better to give us a principle about fruit than Jesus? He bore fruit every day, bringing healing and wholeness to thousands.
He raised issues with the Pharisees, then resolved those issues with life.
He healed on the sabbath.
He restored life to Jairus’s daughter.
He raised Lazarus from the grave.
He healed crippled hands and crippled feet, and blind eyes and deaf ears.
He healed leprosy.
He restored life and sanity and peace to the demon possessed.
He traveled the length and breadth of Israel, bringing life everywhere He went.
His ministry was a ministry of life. And He promised life to the thief on the cross. And He returned from death, “the firstborn among many brethren.” His own resurrection was the ultimate example: He settled conflicts not with death, but with life. With His own LIFE.
And we are part of that. We are to bear fruit.
Does your life bear fruit?
Do you abide in the vine, drinking of the Living Water so God can bear fruit through you? Just as He says about false teachers above, Jesus again compares life to a rich, healthy grapevine, and death to a dried-up branch, good for nothing but the fire:
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned” Matthew 15:4-6.
Dear God, show us how to abide in the vine—how to abide in YOU. May we bear fruit for Your Kingdom every day. May we bring life wherever we go. Use us to nourish and nurture, to plant seeds, water seeds, and reap the harvest for Your Kingdom. And God, grant us discernment, so that we truly will ‘know them by their fruits.’ Protect us from false teachers and wrong ideas. Sharpen our ability to sniff out Your life, Your truth among the opinions around us every day. And show us how to use life to resolve conflict. May we be ministers of life every day. Be glorified in us.
“Hey, Jim! Where have you been?” I asked my neighbor. He was entering his apartment as I was leaving mine.
“Oh, you know. Working.”
“But I haven’t seen you in weeks!”
“Well, I’ve been working a lot.”
“Every day? I mean, you’re not even around on the weekends?”
“Oh, yeah. I work every day.”
“Seriously? How long have you been doing that?”
He had unlocked the door to his apartment, but he stopped to think about my question.
“I guess it’s been about five months.”
“Five months since you had a day off?!”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “Thereabouts.”
I was stunned.
“You have worked an unbroken string of days for five months?”
“Pretty much.”
“Man! What does that do to your mental health?”
He looked at me. “You know what? It takes a toll. It does. But I gotta do it.”
It has been thirty years, and I still think about that man. I just cannot imagine what that’s like.
What is the Purpose of the Sabbath Day?
Do you “remember the sabbath day”? Are you good at obeying the fourth commandment? Unless you are Jim it’s probably hard to say for sure. We know whether or not we commit adultery or murder. But whether or not we are properly honoring the sabbath day is not an easy question. First of all, exactly what duty does this Old Testament law impose on New Testament Christians?
Are we simply supposed to take a day off every week?
Is God teaching us to have some “margin” in our lives? Is that the purpose of the day? To have a rhythm, six days on and one day off? Is mental health the issue or could it be something more?
Historically, most Americans—and the laws of most U.S. jurisdictions—honored the strict “Puritan Sabbath” (by law, nearly everything was closed: no opera, no theater, no movies, no blood sports, no ball sports, no hunting, no fishing, no horseracing, no gambling, and no work), while a largely German immigrant class held to the more liberal “Continental Sunday,” a slippery slope which saw things devolve to the present status quo. As more and more businesses and activities opened up on Sundays, one clergyman complained (generations ago) “Now the [Sunday laws are] so confused, that one’s conscience does not know what to do.”[1]
Truer words have ne’er been spoken. How are we supposed to remember the sabbath? In fact, what is the purpose of the sabbath day?
Few of us can speak confidently about the duties of Christians vis-à-vis the sabbath. But when all else fails, read the instructions, right? God provided legislation—a statute—when He gave Moses the Ten Commandments:
“Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it” Exodus 20:8-11.
God rested on the sabbath. But God also “blessed the sabbath and hallowed it.”
Neither rest nor mental health is the purpose of the sabbath day. God called the day holy, yet rest alone is not holy. “Holy” means different. Separate. The sabbath day is a different kind of day. It is not like the others. There is something more going on here, as we shall see below.
The legislation is straightforward. But for enforcement, consider a passage in the book of Numbers:
“And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. And they … brought him to Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they put him in the ward because it was not declared what should be done to him. And the Lord said unto Moses, ‘The man shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.’ And all the congregation brought him without the camp and stoned him with stones and he died, as the Lord commanded Moses” Numbers 15:32-36.
Although this is the only Biblical record of a sabbath violator being sentenced to death, it should get our attention. We are talking about a man’s life. God expects His commands to be taken seriously.
And whatever the exact meaning of the rule, or the purpose behind it, I am confident of this: few Christians take the sabbath day seriously.
That being said, I would like to suggest two points with regard to the purpose of the sabbath.
First, the prohibition against working on the sabbath day is not about work, but about remembering the Lord. It is a day for worship.
“The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God” Exodus 20:10. This is God’s day. And keeping it holy means remembering that our activities on that day should allow us to worship God and to create a family—and to the degree that we can, a society—that has both the time and the inclination to worship God.
Consider Chick-Fil-A. The restaurant has remained closed for thousands of Sundays. Add up the number of franchises multiplied by the number of Sundays each has been closed, and you would be looking at years and years–centuries–of “sabbath rest.” Yet the restaurant could not be more profitable. God has honored them for creating an environment in which their employees can easily attend church.
Second, the prohibition against working on the sabbath day is not about work, but about a tithe, an offering not of money but of time.
Consider the pattern: God gives us a harvest, but we give back the first fruits. God gives us an income, but we give Him the first ten percent. God gives His people animals but the first born from each womb belongs to Him as a sacrifice. God gives Israel twelve tribes of children, but the tribe of Levi is given back to God. God gives Israel annual harvests, but every seventh year was to be a sabbath year in which the land would rest. Consider the sabbath day in this context. God gives us a lifetime of days, but asks that we give back to Him one day out of every seven.
The purpose of the sabbath day is not simply that we do not work. The day is holy. It is a tithe, an offering to God.
The purpose of the sabbath is to set aside one day every week in which we restrict our activities so that we can honor God and worship and serve Him. The positive impacts of rest and improved mental health are beneficial results, but they are not the purpose of the sabbath. The sabbath is a day that belongs to God.
We give God one seventh of our time just as we give Him one tenth of our money.
Grace remains.
The life of every Christian should be characterized by grace. But we are to fear the Lord. And we should honor Him by giving Him the first day of every week. Not simply by staying home from work, but by attending worship. By singing. By teaching. By serving. By making the church a habit. By involving our children in joint worship. By taking on some responsibility at the church as God leads.
Give God the day. And walk in grace as you wrestle with competing distractions–from youth sports to entertainment to fishing trips to whatever.
Remember: the purpose of the sabbath day is not mental health. If it were, you could ignore it for years as long as you felt mentally healthy.
The purpose of the sabbath day is to give God one day of the week as an offering, and to fill that day up with activities that honor Him and help you and your family to know Him better.
AΩ.
[1] I’ve explored the question of the history of Sunday sports and particularly youth sports here. Historical information from BAT, BALL & BIBLE: BASEBALL AND SUNDAY OBSERVANCE IN NEW YORK, by Professor Charles DeMotte.
My wife and I are experiencing the most unexpected coincidence. This year both our places of employment have been acquired by larger institutions. We are each reading a raft of emails about all the changes. The meetings are constant. Our workplaces are moving. I am moving out of my office this week; she will move out of her classroom at the end of the school year. Our house is filling with office overflow and everything is disordered and discombobulated.
Moving is hard. Change is hard. But you can approach it with order and faith, or you can fly by the seat of your pants and watch the anxiety increase.
Moses approached moving and change in an orderly, systematic fashion. We can learn from his example. After choosing an “advance team” to travel the Promised Land, a criss-crossing journey of some 500 miles, Moses organized a plan for them.
“And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, ‘Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain and see the land, what it is, and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many, and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad, and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strong holds. And what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage and bring of the fruit of the land” Numbers 13:17-20.
God told Moses to send twelve men to spy out the land, Numbers 13:1-2. But Moses used his own leadership to articulate the specifics of the assignment. What were the instructions Moses gave the men?
Go up the mountain and get an overview. Look at the big picture. “Go up into the mountain and see the land,” Numbers 13:17.
Find out about the people: Are they strong or weak? Are they few or many?
Find out about the land, is it good or bad?
Find out about the cities, do the people live in tents or strong holds?
Find out about the farms: Is the land fat or lean (does it grow healthy crops?). Are there forests?
Be of good courage. Don’t lose heart! Keep your eyes on God! Moses told them “be of good courage” in Numbers 13:20, but I missed it the first time I typed this list. I missed it! Do you know who else missed it? Ten of the twelve spies—and their lack of courage, ultimately a lack of faith—cost the young nation forty years! Keep the faith. Be of good courage! When you are facing change, keep your eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfector of the faith, Hebrews 12:2.
Bring back some examples of the fruit.
Someone once said, “the only constant in life is change.” Change is all around us, and it is coming for you, whether you welcome it or not. And change always brings stress—sometimes challenging and fun stress, like a vacation or a meal in a new restaurant, and other times challenging and not-so-fun stress, like an audit by the IRS.
Change is hard, but you can prepare for it by tackling it with an organized plan and a bit of common sense.
“Moses decided what information was needed before the people could enter the Promised Land and he took careful steps to get that information. When you are making decisions or assuming new responsibilities, remember these two important steps. Ask yourself what you need to know about the opportunity and then obtain that knowledge. Common sense is a valuable aid in accomplishing God’s purposes.”[1]
Are you facing change? Applying for a new position? Considering a move? Preparing for a big purchase? Remember: Do your homework. MAKE A PLAN. Ask yourself what you need to know and then obtain that information. And most importantly, be of good courage. Talk to Jesus about the change. Never lose faith!
“Faithful is He who calls you and He will also bring it to pass” 1 Thessalonians 5:24.
If God is calling you to go through change, He will bring you through it. God is faithful! He will take care of you!
AΩ.
[1] Chronological Life Application Study Bible, KJV, Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, 2004, p246, note on Num. 13:17-20. (Once again, study Bible notes are an excellent source of application points.)
Household Words: 