R.P. Nettelhorst's Blog, page 14

Priestly Misconduct

A man of God came to Eli and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Didn’t I reveal Myself to your ancestral house when it was in Egypt and belonged to Pharaoh’s palace? I selected your house from the tribes of Israel to be priests, to offer sacrifices on My altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod in My presence. I also gave your house all the Israelite fire offerings. Why, then, do all of you despise My sacrifices and offerings that I require at the place of worship? You have honored your sons more than Me, by making yourselves fat with the best part of all of the offerings of My people Israel.’

“Therefore, the Lord, the God of Israel, says:

‘Although I said

your family and your ancestral house

would walk before Me forever,

the Lord now says, “No longer!”

I will honor those who honor Me,

but those who despise Me will be disgraced.

“‘Look, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your ancestral family, so that none in your family will reach old age.’” (1 Samuel 2:27-31)

Eli thought he loved his sons. But his choices showed he loved neither them nor God. Eli did nothing to change things. He criticized his sons and told them they should change their behavior, but he did nothing more than talk. Though he had the power to strip them of their position and to replace them with others, he abdicated his responsibility as a priest and as their father. He allowed them to continue serving.

God therefore told Eli that he would do what Eli wouldn’t: he’d remove Eli’s sons from their positions. This couldn’t have come as a surprise to Eli. Two of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, had died simply for offering “unauthorized fire” (see Leviticus 10:1-2). Eli’s sons were guilty of far worse: greed and idolatry.

Although God had promised Aaron’s grandson that his descendents would always serve as priests, God was forced to make a modification to his promise. Although God’s gifts, his promises are irrevocable (see Romans 11:29), the contracts he makes, like any contract, can be modified. There were other descendents of Aaron, others who could be priests. Just the one piece—Eli’s piece—of Aaron’s family would be cut off.

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Welcome to Your Execution

Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Joshua son of Nun. When Moses had finished saying all these words to all Israel, he said, “Take to heart all these words to which I give witness today and urgently command your children to put them into practice, every single word of this Revelation. Yes. This is no small matter for you; it’s your life. In keeping this word you’ll have a good and long life in this land that you’re crossing the Jordan to possess.”

That same day God spoke to Moses: “Climb the Abarim Mountains to Mount Nebo in the land of Moab, overlooking Jericho, and view the land of Canaan that I’m giving the People of Israel to have and hold. Die on the mountain that you climb and join your people in the ground, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and joined his people.

“This is because you broke faith with me in the company of the People of Israel at the Waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin—you didn’t honor my Holy Presence in the company of the People of Israel. You’ll look at the land spread out before you but you won’t enter it, this land that I am giving to the People of Israel.” (Deuteronomy 32:44-52)

Moses would have to die before he could visit Israel. The Israelites ran out of water at a place called Meribah Kadesh. Previously, Moses had gotten water from a rock by hitting it with his staff. But this time, God told him to just talk to the rock. Instead, he angrily whacked at it while he yelled at the Israelites. The water had still come out: God intended to take care of his people regardless. Getting water from the rock wasn’t magic that required just the right incantation. The water came from God. But Moses had not obeyed God. He’d let his temper get the better of him.

Because of his disobedience, God decided to punish him by not allowing him to reach the Promised Land. God told Moses exactly where and when he would die, as if he were a prisoner on death row being led to the gallows. God would let Moses see the Promised Land, but not enter it alive.

Years later, on the Mount of Transfiguration, together with Elijah, Moses finally visited the land he’d been barred from in life, when he met with Jesus on a mountain near the Sea of Galilee (see Luke 9:28-36).

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Fraternizing

Then an Israelite man brought to his family a Midianite woman right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear through both of them—through the Israelite and into the woman’s body. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped; but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.

The LORD said to Moses, “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites; for he was as zealous as I am for my honor among them, so that in my zeal I did not put an end to them. Therefore tell him I am making my covenant of peace with him. He and his descendants will have a covenant of a lasting priesthood, because he was zealous for the honor of his God and made atonement for the Israelites.”

The name of the Israelite who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, the leader of a Simeonite family. And the name of the Midianite woman who was put to death was Cozbi daughter of Zur, a tribal chief of a Midianite family. (Numbers 25:6-15)

Giving into temptation doesn’t lead to happiness. Balak, the king of Moab, had asked Balaam to curse the Israelites. Instead, Balaam offered Israel repeated blessings. But he had told Balaam that he could harm Israel by sending women to seduce the Israelite men into idolatry (see Numbers 25:1-3, 31:15-16, Revelation 2:14).

When Phinehas, one of Aaron’s grandsons, witnessed an Israelite man taking a Midianite woman into his tent, he took direct action and killed them both with a single blow. The Midianites were allied with the Moabites. God praised Phinehas for his zeal and rewarded him with a promise: his descendents would always be priests before God.

Phinehas’ actions might seem disturbing to us, but as a priest, he was acting not as a vigilante, but as a representative of the people. The Israelites had made a contract with God that they would worship him alone and obey his regulations. The consequence of disobedience was severe. In fact, it was just this sort of disobedience that would lead God, a few hundred years later, to send Israel into captivity in Babylon. Phinehas was working to try to keep that from happening, just as a police officer might use deadly force if necessary to keep a criminal from harming someone.

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Among the Gods

God has taken his place in the divine council;

in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:

“How long will you judge unjustly

and show partiality to the wicked? Selah

Give justice to the weak and the orphan;

maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.

Rescue the weak and the needy;

deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

They have neither knowledge nor understanding,

they walk around in darkness;

all the foundations of the earth are shaken.

I say, “You are gods,

children of the Most High, all of you;

nevertheless, you shall die like mortals,

and fall like any prince.”

Rise up, O God, judge the earth;

for all the nations belong to you! (Psalm 82)

Kings have no divine right to their thrones. Sooner or later, the unjust ruler will suffer God’s certain wrath. The kings of all the nations around Israel were more than just arrogant and self-absorbed. They actually believed—and the people of their nations believed—that they were, in fact, incarnations of their gods. The Pharaoh of Egypt believed himself to be the incarnation of the Sun god, Ra. The king of Babylon believed himself to be the incarnation of Marduk.

In this Psalm, the one true God addresses them sarcastically, asking them that if they really are gods, then why don’t they act like it? Instead of being righteous, they are wicked. Instead of dispensing justice, they create most of the oppression and injustice that existed in their lands.

Therefore, God told them that he was going to execute judgment against them; despite what they might think about themselves, they were mere mortals and would die like anyone else. Though they might not offer justice to their people, though they might lack mercy, God would be merciful to their people and give their evil oppressors what they deserved at last.

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Picking Up Sticks

“But if it’s just one person who sins by mistake, not realizing what he’s doing, he is to bring a yearling she-goat as an Absolution-Offering. The priest then is to atone for the person who accidentally sinned, to make atonement before God so that it won’t be held against him.

“The same standard holds for everyone who sins by mistake; the native-born Israelites and the foreigners go by the same rules.

“But the person, native or foreigner, who sins defiantly, deliberately blaspheming God, must be cut off from his people: He has despised God’s word, he has violated God’s command; that person must be kicked out of the community, ostracized, left alone in his wrongdoing.”

Once, during those wilderness years of the People of Israel, a man was caught gathering wood on the Sabbath. The ones who caught him hauled him before Moses and Aaron and the entire congregation. They put him in custody until it became clear what to do with him. Then God spoke to Moses: “Give the man the death penalty. Yes, kill him, the whole community hurling stones at him outside the camp.”

So the whole community took him outside the camp and threw stones at him, an execution commanded by God and given through Moses. (Numbers 15:27-36)

God’s judgment sometimes seems like an overreaction. But God is good, God is love, and God is just.

In the New Testament, Jesus points out that the reason the Sabbath was designed to benefit people: “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27) But in the time of Moses someone worked on that day and was put to death for it. Nowhere else does there seem to be a death penalty associated with violations of the Sabbath. Why such a harsh judgment this time?

God made a distinction between those who sinned deliberately and those who didn’t. A deliberate choice to violate God’s command was harshly punished, while the inadvertent sinner could find mercy. The sin of this unnamed individual was a conscious, willful action, a kind of rebellion against God—not just someone who wasn’t thinking, or someone that decided his need for firewood justified his behavior.

The violation of the Sabbath by working in this case was merely a symptom of a far greater problem. Years later, when Saul disobeyed God, Samuel told him: “rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.” (1 Samuel 15:23)

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God’s Lying Spirit

Then Micaiah told him, “In a vision I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, like sheep without a shepherd. And the LORD said, ‘Their master has been killed. Send them home in peace.’ ”

“Didn’t I tell you?” the king of Israel exclaimed to Jehoshaphat. “He never prophesies anything but trouble for me.”

Then Micaiah continued, “Listen to what the LORD says! I saw the LORD sitting on his throne with all the armies of heaven around him, on his right and on his left. And the LORD said, ‘Who can entice Ahab to go into battle against Ramoth-gilead so he can be killed?’

“There were many suggestions, and finally a spirit approached the LORD and said, ‘I can do it!’

“‘How will you do this?’ the LORD asked.

“And the spirit replied, ‘I will go out and inspire all of Ahab’s prophets to speak lies.’

“‘You will succeed,’ said the LORD. ‘Go ahead and do it.’

“So you see, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all your prophets. For the LORD has pronounced your doom.” (1 Kings 22:17-23)

Ahab was an evil king, guilty of leading his people to worship false gods and for abusing his power. The death of a tyrant is not just a judgment against that man, it is also a relief to those he had oppressed, an answer to their prayers for mercy.

Naboth had a vineyard near Ahab’s palace in Samaria. When Naboth refused to sell it, Jezebel, Ahab’s wife, conspired to kill Naboth so that Ahab could seize the property (see 1 Kings 21). God, through Elijah, proclaimed judgment against Ahab: the place where Naboth’s blood had been licked up by dogs was the same spot where Ahab’s blood would be licked up.

Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah then visited Ahab. Ahab asked him to join him in his plan to take a city, Ramoth Gilead, that had fallen some years previous to the Arameans. Jehoshaphat suggested that they should ask God first. Ahab’s prophets all predicted success. Jehoshaphat was unimpressed, since none of them were prophets of God. Reluctantly, Ahab called upon God’s prophet, Miciah, who predicted a disaster orchestrated by God.

Ahab did not believe Micaiah; for that matter, neither did Jehoshaphat. So they went off to war against Aram. Micaiah’s words came true and Ahab was mortally wounded in battle. God’s judgment against him happened just as God had predicted—and planned.

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Only One God

Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

“You shall also say to the sons of Israel:

‘Any man from the sons of Israel or from the aliens sojourning in Israel who gives any of his offspring to Molech, shall surely be put to death; the people of the land shall stone him with stones.

‘I will also set My face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given some of his offspring to Molech, so as to defile My sanctuary and to profane My holy name.

‘If the people of the land, however, should ever disregard that man when he gives any of his offspring to Molech, so as not to put him to death, then I Myself will set My face against that man and against his family, and I will cut off from among their people both him and all those who play the harlot after him, by playing the harlot after Molech.

‘As for the person who turns to mediums and to spiritists, to play the harlot after them, I will also set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people. (Leviticus 20:1-6)

Molech was a god worshiped by sacrificing children to him. Often they were sacrificed in the Hinnom Valley near Jerusalem. Child sacrifice happened regularly from the time the people of Israel entered the land until the Babylonian captivity.

God warned the Israelites against the practice in the very earliest Mosaic legislation, where the worship of other gods and seeking out mediums and spiritists was compared to prostitution. The image of adultery would later be used by the Hebrew prophets as a metaphor for Israel’s unfaithfulness to God. Mediums and spiritists sought aid from those who had died. Like idolatry it was forbidden, but the Israelites freely ignored God’s prohibitions. Even Saul, Israel’s first king, wound up consulting a medium at the end of his life (1 Samuel 28:7).

God promised judgment against those who worshiped other gods or sought guidance that should only come from God. It was not just jealousy that motivated God’s prohibition. It was a mercy: the other gods did not exist. Mediums and spiritists could not contact the dead. Putting faith and trust in that which does not exist is both a waste of time and ultimately dangerous, akin to trusting in sugar pills when only an operation can save you.

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Expandable Space Module

Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

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Interstellar Flight

Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration.

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A Nice Meal With God

And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you according to all these words.”

Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity. But on the nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay His hand. So they saw God, and they ate and drank.

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.” (Exodus 24:8-12)

There is a way to see God and not die: look at the Son! Nadab and Abihu, like their father Aaron, were priests. Together with Aaron’s brother Moses and seventy other Israelites, they all went up on a mountain. There, they saw God and suffered no ill effects for it. What they saw was something that Isaiah and Ezekiel would later see as well: God on his throne (Isaiah 6:1-4 and Ezekiel 1:22-28). How can this to be reconciled with God’s statement that no one can see him lest they die, and the New Testament statements that no one has ever seen God? (John 1:18, 6:46) They saw God the Son, rather than God the Father.

Joel 2:32 says that “anyone who calls on the name of Yahweh will be saved.” Both Peter (in Acts 2:17-21 ) and Paul (in Romans 10:13 ) applied the passage to Jesus, thereby equating Jesus with the God of the Old Testament. After all, Paul says that the Son created the heavens and the earth (see Colossians 1:15-17).

The Father was merciful to his people. He let them see him in all his glory: his Son.

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