Matthew 17:22-27 - Fish and money

Jesus gives the second prediction of His death. Maybe Jesus told them this again in case the glory of the transfiguration caused them to overlook what Jesus had said earlier. The disciples were filled with grief, demonstrating that they did not understand what resurrection was all about. We need to appreciate that the resurrection was a totally unexpected event as far as the disciples were concerned.

Next comes another question, this time addressed to the disciples about whether or not Jesus paid the temple tax. Peter says yes, then goes to Jesus. Jesus seems to say that actually He had no need to pay the tax, but would do so in order to avoid causing unnecessary offence. The money is then obtained miraculously.

These teaches us several things:

• The church should not be about exploiting the children of God. People in church are not mere "members", we are children of the living God. This should affect all sorts of aspects of our relationships.
• While Jesus was not shy to cause offence when necessary, He did not go looking to cause trouble.
• Sometimes it seems we have to carry an unnecessary burden (paying the temple tax in this case), we should not fret about these times, but just get on with it. God will provide what is needed.

Matthew 17:14-21 - Faith to move mountains

After the "high" of the transfiguration we immediately come to the "low" of the disciples failure to heal a boy.

In fact there is a sequence of highs and lows. There is John's death, the religious leaders attacks on Jesus, great miracles, the realisation that Jesus is the Messiah, the foretelling of His being handed over to the religious leaders, the transfiguration. In all this Jesus remains the same. He remains Lord of All, He remains calm, He continues in obedience to His Father. 

In looking at life we often wish everything would go smoothly. This is not a path to peace. True peace lies in becoming like Jesus, in continuing to walk in faith and obedience whatever happens.

A man's son had frequent seizures and ended up falling into the fire or water, and was suffering greatly. The disciples had failed to heal him.

Jesus issues a rebuke. It seems to be a general rebuke, rather than just directed at the disciples. Jesus rebuked the demon and the boy was healed.

There are a number of lessons to be learnt here. The first is that Jesus expected, or at least hoped, that the people would have had their own faith by now. There seems to be an expectation that they should have believed God would heal the boy. We spend a lot of time on giving excuses for people not being healed. Now we need to be careful, for there are charlatan healers working under the name of being Christians, and there are well meaning, but over-claiming, healers as well. Moreover, people do still get ill (including apostles) and die in the NT. However, even so, it seems clear from the gospels that Jesus would much prefer it if we had a greater level of faith, that we should be able to overcome many more things than we do by faith.

The second lesson is the relationship between the demonic and healing. It is quite clear that in this instance there was a demonic root to the illness. Jesus' solution was not to have an inquest in how to the demon got there, but simply to drive it out.

In private the disciples asked Jesus why they could not drive out the demon. Jesus tells them plainly that it is because of their lack of faith. If they had faith as small as a mustard seed they could move mountains.

Lord, give us more faith.

Matthew 17:1-13 - Transfiguration

The last verse in chapter 16 is rather enigmatic and there are two main interpretations. One is that it refers to the post-resurrection reign of Jesus. The other is that it refers to the transfiguration. The fact that Matthew follows it immediately with the transfiguration does favour the latter interpretation, though I must admit I am not really convinced by this.

Jesus led Peter, James and John up the mountain. There He was transfigured and appeared as a brilliant white. Now why did thus happen? Imagine how the disciples would be feeling. They know Jesus is special, they even know that He is the Messiah, yet He has just told them that He will be handed over to His enemies and killed. (Note that they evidently did not pick up on the "rise again" bit, this would actually mean very little to them at this stage.) They would have been feeling pretty confused and possibly depressed.

What happened on the mountain was a confirmation that Jesus was indeed special, was chosen by God, was the fulfilment of the Old Testament Law and Prophets.

Peter offered to put up three shelters, one each for Jesus, Elijah and Moses. This was not the most sensible suggestion, but what else can one say in such a situation.

Then they hear the voice of God declaring His pleasure with Jesus, and that they should listen to Him. The cross was God's plan, and they would only find true life by following the way of the cross. The disciples fell down in fear, but Jesus told them to get up and not be afraid.

He also instructed the disciples to keep quiet about this until after the resurrection. 

The question about Elijah was prompted by the traditional belief that Elijah had to come before the Messiah. Jesus tells them that John the Baptist had fulfilled the role of Elijah. His death also prefigured what would happen to Jesus. This is a warning against overly literal interpretation of prophetic/apocalyptic scriptures.

Matthew 16:21-28 - Denying ones self

Having just made a great statement Peter now gets it completely wrong. This should serve as a warning to us all. One moment we may well do something that is very Christlike, or receive some wonderful insight from the Lord. This most definitely does not mean that we will not put our foot in it the next minute, it most certainly does not mean that we have insight on all matters. We need to maintain an attitude of humility and trust at all times.

"From that time on ..." Why did Jesus "from this time on" start to explain about His need to suffer? Two reasons (at least). The disciples had realised that He was the Messiah, but they did not realise what this truly meant. Secondly, the time of His death was approaching and they would need to have some understanding of what was going on. Though this would largely be of benefit to them after the resurrection, as they understood precious little before the cross.

Jesus always knew that He came to die and rise again. Sometimes people talk about Jesus becoming aware of what was going to happen to Him. The Bible actually never indicates that Jesus did not know what was going to happen. Note that it says "must go", "must be killed". The events of Easter were not a series of unfortunate events, but part of carefully designed plan.

Peter objects to this. How could the Messiah die? Human understanding mixed with a little revelation is a dangerous thing. Jesus knew that Satan was working through Peter. Human understanding is strictly limited.

Following Jesus involved denial of self. Now note that all this is given in the context of reward. If we think following Jesus is going to be one of triumphalism then we are very much mistaken. But we are equally mistaken if we think it is one of sacrifice upon sacrifice. It does involve suffering, it does involve a cost, but it is suffering for a purpose, not for its own sake.

When we truly follow Jesus we find life.

Matthew 16:13-20 - Who do you say I am

This is one of the best known passages in Matthew's gospel, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?".

Jesus addresses this question to the disciples. Why does Jesus do this?

Whatever the reason, the people had various theories on who Jesus was. Some thought he was John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. No one realised who He really was. The Elijah reference was prompted by Malachi 4, where it says that Elijah must come before the end. 

Jesus then asks the disciple who they think He is.

Peter replies immediately: "You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God".

Jesus declares Peter blessed, because it was the Father who revealed the truth to him. Human reasoning and wisdom cannot lead anyone to Christ, we need revelation from God. 

"This rock" refers both to Peter and to the revelation. The church us built on the revelation of who Jesus is. It is not built on tradition, it is not built on wealth, it is not built on human wisdom and human plans. It is built on the revelation of who Jesus is.  The gates of Hades. This does not say gates of hell. Hades is the realm of the dead, and death will not defeat the church.

The church has great authority. "Will be loosed" can be translated "will have been loosed". The church has authority when it acts in accordance with the will of God.

Matthew 16:5-12 - Worry about the right things

The disciples forgot to take bread with them when they crossed the lake. Jesus made a comment about yeast. This bore no relation to the lack of bread, but was a reference to the teaching and attitudes of the Pharisees and Saducees. However, the disciples were convinced that Jesus was angry with them for not bringing any bread.

This reveals a lot about human psychology. If we feel guilty about something then we are very sensitive to anything that might possibly be construed as being related to that area. The disciples assumed Jesus was annoyed with them.

It also contains teaching on daily needs. The feeding of the 4000 and the 5000 (and, by the way, this comment by Jesus confirms that they were two separate incidents) shows that immediate lack of food is not a problem. We very easily let concerns  about daily needs distract us from what really matters. They can consume our minds, making it impossible for us to think straight.

The disciples then did understand what Jesus was really talking about.

As an aside, just because you feel guilty about something, does not mean that God is getting at you on that matter. He may be concerned about something altogether different.

Matthew 16:1-4 - Unbelievers

The Pharisees and Saducees actually hated each other, but they came together for the purpose of trying to trap Jesus. They demanded a "sign from heaven" that He truly had authority.

Now, as we often see in the gospels, Jesus turns the tables on them. They thought they were putting Jesus to the test, but they were the ones who were on trial. Exactly the same applies today. The question is not whether we can convince Richard Dawkins that God exists. God has absolutely no need to prove Himself to Dawkins or anyone else. But Dawkins does need to respond to Christ. God is God and Christ is Lord regardless of what Dawkins says, but Dawkins' eternal destiny depends upon whether or not he will believe in Jesus Christ. 

Remember this when any atheist or humanist berates your faith. They are the one who needs to respond to Christ, not Christ to them. Do not do this in a proud way, but with love.

Jesus mocks the Pharisees and Saducees. They could read the weather, but failed (or refused) to read the obvious signs of what Jesus was doing. 

When people demand a sign they are usually not looking for proof so that they can believe, but looking for an excuse to justify not believing.

Matthew 15:29-39 - Feeding the 4000

We now have the lesser known, but equally amazing, feeding miracle, the feeding of the 4000. Some try to say this is just a retelling of the 5000 story, but they only day that because they don't believe in miracles. The gospel clearly presents it as a distinct event, and so it is.

As always, great crowds followed Jesus, bringing all sorts of sick people. Jesus healed them. Now it is quite likely that most of these people's primary reason for coming after Jesus was the desire to get healed. No doubt Jesus knew this, and knowing this He healed them. The healings were a demonstration of the reality of the kingdom of God.

This time the people had been there some three days. We might wonder how could this be, but with truly wonderful healings occurring no one would want to leave. Again, Jesus had compassion upon them. 

The disciples had learnt nothing from the previous feeding miracle. Jesus adopted a similar approach to the previous time. Made use of what was available, gave thanks to God, and then got the disciples to get on with the job. Everyone was fed, and several baskets of leftovers were collected. Jesus then sent the crowds away and went off in a boat.

In all situations we should give thanks for what we have, make the most of it, and sometimes we may see a miracle occur.

Matthew 15:21-28 - Prayer is a conversation

Next we have the incident of the Canaanite woman. The placing of this incident here is significant, for she was a Gentile. To make matter worse she was a Canaanite. Now remember that the Israelites had to expel the Canaanites from the land when they took over the Promised Land. Finally, and worst of all in the eyes of some, she was a woman. Jesus has just been taking apart the pseudo religiosity of the Pharisees, now He commends a person who the Pharisees would despise for a host of reasons.

The woman's daughter was demon possessed and in great agony. At first Jesus said nothing. This silence apparently did not deter the woman who kept on calling out. However it did annoy the disciples, and they urged Jesus to send her away.

Jesus' words "I was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel" were presumably addressed to the woman. What is Jesus doing here? he is drawing out more faith from the woman. Sometimes (often!) Jesus seems to remain silent when we pray, and then, initially at least, does not seem to give the "right" answer. We should not be discouraged. God always responds to faith.

The woman humbled herself before Jesus and asked for help. Jesus next answer seems to be no kinder than the previous one. The woman then contradicts Jesus, then Jesus commends her faith and her daughter was immediately healed. 

Prayer is not a slot machine, it is about a relationship with the Lord. We can learn a lot from this woman.

Matthew 15:10-20 - It is what is inside that is the problem

Now Jesus turns to the crowd. This pattern of criticising the Pharisees and then giving a wider lesson to the crowds occurs several times in Matthew's Gospel.

The key truth Jesus wants to get across is that external observance or ritual does not change a person. We do not become good or bad by what we eat. Observing or not observing some ritual does not make us acceptable nor unacceptable to God. It is not the problem. The problem lies with what is within us. 

The disciples must have noticed that the Pharisees were offended when they heard Jesus teach this. Jesus instruction to the disciples is not to overly concern themselves with the Pharisees. God would take care of uprooting bad plants at the right time. This is a lesson to us. There can be a sort of comfort in finding fault with others, with focusing on other groups or individuals who are "doing things wrong". This is a false comfort. They may well be wrong, but we should not waste our time concerning ourselves too much with this. There is positive work to be done in the kingdom and we need to get on and do it.

The disciples still did not really understand what Jesus was saying and Peter voiced this concern. So Jesus has to explain things even more explicitly. What we eat and drink goes in to our stomachs.  The way we live and speak reveals what is in our heart. It is our hearts that need to be dealt with.

Matthew 15:1-9 - Truly honouring God

The Pharisees now start to criticise Jesus' disciples. Since the Babylonian exile the religious leaders had added lots of rules designed to ensure that the Law was kept. The good point behind this was that they realised that their disobedience of the Law was the reason  for the exile. The bad side was that people cannot be made good by making lots of laws. These rules were passed on in oral form, and it was about two hundred years later before they took written form in the Mishnah. It was neglect of ceremonial washing before eating that the disciples were being criticised for.

Jesus responds by asking why they focus saw much on their own rules, yet ignore the heart of the law of God, in particular honouring of ones parents. We see here how corrupt the heart of man is, and how rules can never ensure that we honour God. For the corrupt human heart will always end up using rules to get our own way and to do evil. The Ten Commandments were perfectly clear that we should honour our parents, yet the "rules" allowed someone to avoid caring for their parents by declaring that some money was devoted to God.

We too need to be careful on this point. For we can use "loving God first" as an excuse not to look after our families. Now we must love God above all else, and if push comes to shove, we must choose God over parents, wives, children etc. But there are many more instructions in the Word on loving our families than there are on putting God first before our families, and the issue most of the time is that we do not love our families enough or properly.

Never turn loving Christ into a system or a set of rules, this has been tried time and time again and every single time it results in a horrible mess.

Matthew 14:22-36 - Walking on water

We saw earlier that Jesus made time for the crowd, despite His own need to be alone with the Father. Now we see that he dismisses the crowds, and sends the disciples on ahead so that He can have that time. So we see a great balance in Jesus. We so easily make the mistake of either letting people walk all over us, or neglecting people's needs. 

Jesus had gone up a mountain, while the disciples went across the lake. They were encountering fairly rough weather. 

"Jesus went out to them". This is said so casually! What He is actually doing is walking on the water. The disciples were terrified, they knew full well that such things do not normally happen! 

Jesus told them not to be afraid. Peter, as always, goes one step ahead and wants to join Jesus on the water. Jesus calls him and Peter starts to walk on the water. Then he sees the wind and waves and starts to sink. Jesus gently rebukes him. Before we start joining in with the rebuking we should remember that none of the others had got out of the boat.

This illustrates that we can do the things that Jesus did, it is lack of faith that stops us. We should also note that Peter never walked on water again (as far as we know). So he did not take this as a sign that he should develop a ministry of water walking!

The disciples worshipped Jesus, and then the crowds came again with many healings.

Matthew 14:13-21 - Feeding of the five thousand

The feeding of the five thousand is one the most famous miracles. The total numbers involved were actually much greater than five thousand as this was just the number of the men.

On hearing the news of John the Baptist's death Jesus withdrew to a solitary place. There are times when we need to be alone with God to ponder on things that happen in life. However, Jesus was to get no peace. The crowds heard where he was and they chased after Him. 

Jesus' reaction is very different from what our reaction (or at least my reaction) would have been. Instead of getting frustrated and angry, He had compassion on the people. So He healed all the sick people. We see in all this that heart and power go together. If Jesus did not have a heart of compassion then there would have been no miracles here.If he did not have power, there would have been no miracles here.

Evening approached and the disciples saw a big problem. Now the disciples did react in the way that we (or at least I) would react. Send the problem away! This was actually an eminently reasonable solution, for there was no way they were going to be able to feed thousands of people, so the sooner they cleared off the better for all concerned.

Jesus saw things differently. He makes the utterly ridiculous suggestion that the disciples should feed the people. Naturally they reacted that this was not possible. Jesus gave them instructions. The disciples carried out the instructions and the miracle occurred.

There are various things to note here:

• This all happened out of the blue, with no hint of preparation or planning leading up to it. 
• The disciples had all sorts of doubts and were not "emotionally prepared" for the miracle. However, despite all this they still obeyed Jesus and so the miracle happened.

Matthew 14:1-12 - the cost of integrity

The tale of John the Baptist shows the cost of discipleship that may sometimes be asked. John faithfully preached the word of God, this included telling authority figures when they were acting against God's word. Because he did this he ended up in prison, and then paid with his life. So we see here how one man acted with integrity throughout, and this does not always lead to a reward in this life.

Next there is Herod. He displays many emotions and attitudes. First was fear. He knew that killing John the Baptist was wrong, he knew his sexual affairs were wrong. Killing John did not get rid of the fear, so when Jesus was around he feared that John had come back to life to haunt him.

Herod also feared the people, which is why he had not killed John sooner than he did. In fact he only killed John when it he would lose face if he did not, after having made a stupid promise to the daughter of Herodias.

Technically Herod had power, but in reality he was at the mercy of all sorts of forces. 

We need to be people of integrity, but need to be aware that there could be a price involved.

Matthew 13:44-58 - Motivated by joy

Now we get two parables that teach us about the attitude that we should have towards the kingdom of God. In short we do everything we can to get hold of it. Note that the man who sold all he had did so with joy. He was not making a sacrifice, rather he had found something of great worth, and so was delighted to be able to buy it.

If at times we find being a Christian a burden, then we should ask the Holy Spirit to fill us anew with the joy of the Lord. The human way of religion is to get people to do something our of a sense of guilt or fear, the Holy Spirit's way is to motivate us by joy.

The final parable in this section tells a similar lesson to that of the weeds and wheat. All sorts will be brought into the kingdom of God, but their will be a final sorting out at the end of time. Again we get the message that the final sorting out is upto God.

The disciples claimed to have understood all that Jesus had taught. Then Jesus says that a disciple of the kingdom will bring out new and old treasures. Those who preach and teach in the kingdom should not be merely repeating "learnt" teachings. Now there should be consistency, but we should also be teaching from the heart.

While His disciples accepted Him, many in His hometown did not. They were offended that a mere carpenter's son could be doing such things. Jesus does not seem worried about this, but seems to treat it as a fact of life.

Matthew 13:24-43 - A growing kingdom

There now follow a batch of three parables that tell us various things about how the kingdom of God works in the world. It is important that we get a grasp of this, otherwise we will try to see it in worldly terms and will get things wrong.

First come the wheat and the weeds, and this is given a full explanation by Jesus in verses 36-43. Good seed is planted, but then someone comes along, later identified as Satan, and bad seed is sown among the good seed. Now this sounds terrible, and the obvious reaction is to dig up the weeds. However, Jesus says that the separation will not happen until the last days. We need to be aware that God is prepared to allow a certain amount of bad things to carry on for a time. This does not mean that we should not be vigilant, but we must not make "rooting out evil" the primary goal. History contains many examples of churches that become so focused on being "pure" and purity of doctrine that they themselves become evil in their pursuit of good. God is the only perfect judge and the only one with perfect wisdom.

Then Jesus tells of the mustard seed. It starts out small, but becomes significant. Likewise the kingdom of God will often start to influences things in a small way, but its effect will grow.

Finally we get the yeast illustration. Often yeast is used as a symbol of bad influence, but here it is used in a more positive sense. The kingdom influence can spread throughout the world. We can see the effects of this on how the gospel has spread from tiny Israel to influence most of the world, and the spread is not yet complete.

Matthew 13:16-23 - Good soil

Having spoken about the blindness of most, Jesus now declares the blessed position of the disciples. As I said yesterday, this cannot be because of any inherent great insight and wisdom the disciples had, for they were masters at getting the wrong end of the stick. The difference was that they were with Jesus, with the Son of God. Our great privilege is that we are filled with the Spirit of God. We are known by God and we can know God.

So often men think that if we gain enough knowledge then we will know God. This is entirely the wrong way round. The more we get to know God, the more He will give wisdom and insight to us.

Jesus then explains the parable of the sower. Sometimes people take a lesson from this that we should make sure we sow on good soil. Well maybe, but that does not seem to be what Jesus is saying here. Rather He is describing how things work, how and why we get totally different, and sometimes frustrating responses, to the word of God.

First there are those who the good news has zero effect on. As soon as they hear it they reject it. Some past event, some hardness of heart, some distraction, something ensures that it is snatched away.

Others receive it gladly, but it has no long lasting effect, because it does not take deep root. So as soon as any difficulties arise they lose faith. We need to let the word take deep roots in our life. We can also be sure that things will occur that test our faith. There will be storms in life.

Next there are those where other concerns and worries in life crowd out the word. We need to "seek first the kingdom". It cannot be one among many concerns, it has to be the concern. We need to be careful what we allow our lives to be filled up with.

One might think that all this is very depressing and discouraging, but finally we come to the good news. When the word does take deep roots in good soil it produces a harvest beyond anything that can be imagined. Note that they key is the heart of the person. As it says in Proverbs 4:23, we need to guard our heart above all things for it is the well-spring of life. 

Occasionally this 30, 60 , 100 fold increase is applied by some to money. Now God does make a difference to our finances, but this passage is not talking about money. It is talking about life in all its fullness, about kingdom life.

Matthew 13:1-15 - Parables

We now encounter a batch of parables. The first one is one of the most famous, the parable of the sower.

A farmer went out scattering seed, with variable results.

The interpretation of the parable comes later, but first the emphasis is on why Jesus used this method of teaching. Why did He not just give it to them straight?

Jesus' reply is that the message had been given to the disciples, but not to them (presumably the crowds). Now this seems rather strange, for in the gospels the disciples are not noted for their quickness of realising what Jesus was on about. So what is the difference between them and the crowds? The difference is that they were following Jesus, and Jesus explained the true meaning of the parables to them. The key difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is knowing Christ, having a personal relationship with Him. 

The key is not how much you know, but how much you are willing to let Jesus teach you.

Jesus saw in all this a fulfillment of Isaiah 6:9,10. Many people heard and saw Jesus, they heard Him teach and saw many miracles, but it did them no good. The natural condition of our hearts is one of being closed and blinded to the word of God, we need Jesus to open our minds.

Numbers 34-36 - The land

The Lord set out clearly delineated boundaries for the land that the Israelites would have. It is a general principle that God sets boundaries for our lives. We have tremendous freedom (and responsibility) within those boundaries, but enter danger when if we move outside those boundaries. 

The land was then assigned to the various tribes by lot. This may seem strange in some ways, but there come a point beyond which no guidance is received from the Lord. So in one sense we then free to make that decision in any way we chose. Sometimes one way is not better than another, and casting lots is as good a way as any.

The Levites were to be given towns to live in from the general inheritance.

In addition six cities of refuge were set aside. These were to act as a refuge for people who accidentally killed someone. This applied to both Israelites and to foreigners. 

Deliberate killing was to be given the death penalty.However, accidental death was treated differently. The law recognized that sometimes things go terribly wrong. In such cases the wronged person may well still be overcome by emotion and not act rationally, so the cities of refuge provided protection. However, the person was only protected if they stayed with in the city limits. There were limits to the protection that could be afforded.

Bloodshed was dealt with very seriously.
The book closes with a return to Zelophehad's daughters. Earlier that had come to Moses saying it wasn't right that they would not get an inheritance, so Moses agreed, after receiving wisdom from the Lord, that they should indeed get an inheritance. Moreover, this was to apply more generally to any family where there were no male heirs. 
Now we get a further development, we also see the reason why there was this "preferential" treatment of male heirs. The concern was that the inheritance might move out of the tribe if the daughters married outside the tribe. So the concern was that the inheritance should remain within the original tribe.
An interesting point is why didn't God give all these regulations to Moses in the first place on Mount Sinai, instead of waiting for Moses to raise the matter? Maybe we can take this as a warning against attitudes that view all church practices as static and unchangeable. There are fundamental truths that do remain unchangeable, but there are other areas where we develop and adapt.

Numbers 32, 33 - On the verge of entry

Two of the tribes thought the land they were already in was very suitable for them as they had large herds and flocks. Moses' first concern was that they would then avoid fighting with the rest of the Israelites. Moses reaction was deeply affected by what had happened the first time they were on the verge of entering the Promised Land.

It is not clear whether the tribes of Reuben and Gad actually were seeking to avoid a battle, but whatever the case, they went to Moses and said that they would join the battle with the rest of the Israelites.

Moses then agreed to their request as long as they were fully engaged with helping their fellow Israelites. In all this it is not clear whether this was something the Lord approved of or not.

Chapter 33 then gives a detailed listing of the route that the Israelites took. As has been said many times, the journey was a lot longer than it needed to be.

When they entered the Promised Land they were to rid the land of all of its idols. The land was to be distributed among the tribes and clans in accordance with the size of each group.

Numbers 31 - Defeating the Midianites

The Lord gave Moses one last task to do. Remember the situation, Moses knows that he will not be allowed to enter the Promised Land, yet he carries out this task faithfully. We have a habit of getting all upset if it looks like we are going to miss out on some blessing or benefit here on earth. Instead of getting upset we would do well to adopt the attitude that Moses had.

So what was the difference Moses? The difference is that he had an eternal perspective. He saw his life and how it fitted in with God's great plan. Time and time again he had intervened in prayer for the Israelites because he saw their salvation as the key issue, not his own personal advancement. So the fact that he personally would not go into the Promised Land was not as important to him as we might think. In our self-centred, self-fulfilment oriented world we can learn a lot from Moses. 

Paradoxically adopting such an attitude will actually bring us greater fulfilment. As Jesus said, he who loses his own life for the sake of the kingdom will find it. We will also find that it saves us an awful lot of stress. 

Moses sent an army into battle. Among those killed was Balaam.

There are also things that are very difficult to take. Moses is angry (his temper was a problem to him) because the commanders had not killed the women. We can understand upto a point his contention that it was the women who had led the Israelites astray (though the Israelites did not have to give in to the temptation), but then Moses says they should kill all the women and the boys, but could save the virgin girls for themselves. 

So what can we say? Well one thing is that it was Moses not God who commanded this, beyond that it is difficult to say anything other than that it is very difficult. The following links might be helpful Is God a Moral Monster and Hagiographic Hyperbolic Interpretation

Numbers 28-30 - Various rules

Numbers 28 and 29 contain a repeat of some of the religious rules that had been given earlier. Why are they given again here. We tend to think "we read about these in Exodus and Leviticus. They weren't very interesting then, why do we need to hear about them again?"

However, we need to remember that the community would have relied a great deal on oral communication, and it had been close to forty years since the regulations had first been given. So they would have needed to hear about them again. They also marked continuity between the leadership of Moses and Joshua. Although the leader had changed, it was the same God.

Chapter 30 then gives instructions on vows. Vows were taken very seriously. A woman was under the authority of her husband or father, so the man could override the vow if he saw fit.  Otherwise the woman was bound by the vow. A key principle here is that God recognises the human authority we are under, and takes account of this.

A widow or divorcee was bound by any vows that she made, she was no longer under authority of a man.

Numbers 26, 27 - Preparing to enter

A second census is now taken, some 38 years after the first one. As we can see, the telling of what happened between then and now has been quite condensed. We have read of several incidents, some of them very dramatic, but they were spread over a  38 year period. Most of the time they would have just been trudging through the desert.

This time it will be a list of those who go in. The total numbers are about the same (a small decrease from 603,550 to 601,730), but some tribes (Reuben, Simeon, Gad and Ephraim) had experienced a decrease.

By this time all the men from the first census, except Caleb and Joshua, had died.

In chapter 27 we read of Zelophead's daughters. There were no male relatives left, so under the inheritance system of the time they would not get an inheritance in the land. So they asked Moses that they be allowed to take the inheritance. The Lord told Moses that they should indeed get an inheritance, and as a general principle, if only daughters were left, then they should get the inheritance.

Next we read of God taking Moses to see the Promised Land, but He reminds Moses that he will not be allowed to enter because of his earlier sin. Note that Moses does not react with bitterness, but continues to be concerned for the nation and asks God to appoint a successor. The Lord appoints Joshua, and Moses is to pass his anointing on to Joshua.

Numbers 25 - Downfall

Israel had started conquering various nations. Balak had tried to defeat them using "spiritual" power in the form of Balaam's curses. This had failed and had only resulted in Israel being blessed. So we might think that everything was going OK now, but no. Israel was about to fall.
The Moabites seduced the Israelites, so they indulged in sexual immorality and idol worship. So the judgement of God came upon them. You see, we do not need to fear outside opposition, it is the Lord we should fear. It is not attacks from without, but those from within that are the most serious. Problems of health, finance, etc are not the biggest dangers, it is the state of our own soul. In all situations we need above all else to guard our hearts, for it is the well spring of life (Prov 4:23). In difficult situations our top priority should be to guard our attitudes and actions, to ensure that we still live righteously. If we do so then we can be sure that we will see God's salvation, if we do not we are asking for trouble.
The judgement had come against them in the form of a plague. The plague was stopped as a result of the righteous actions of one man, Phinehas, for he was zealous for the honour of the Lord.  The zeal of one man or woman can have an enormous effect.

Numbers 23,24 - More oracles

Balaam gave Balak instructions, which he carried out. Remember that it is Balak who is the king, he had gone to Balaam to fulfil hos own purposes. However, if you consult the occult then you will quickly lose control and come under the power of something else.

The Lord gave Balaam a word. This surprises us, for why did God give this pagan man a word? 

Balaam declares that he cannot curse the Israelites, and instead declares that they will be exceedingly numerous. Man is not in control of the spirit realm, but neither are demons. God is the one who is in ultimate control.

Balak is not best pleased with this outcome! Now they thought in those days that gods had authority over particular areas, so he takes Balaam to another place, hoping that Balaam will be able to curse the Israelites from there. 

Not surprisingly, this made no difference and Balaam declared another blessing on Israel, in fact a greater one than before if anything. 

One thing we can definitely learn from this is that if we trust in the Lord we need have no fear of spiritual forces, for they are all subject to God's authority.

Balak still did not give up, but Balaam seems to be learning and this time just turns to the Israelites expecting to be given a blessing to declare over them. And so it happened. However, Balaam is also becoming proud (see 24:3,4).

Balak is furious, but Balaam tells him that he had warned him what would happen. Balaam goes on to declare several more oracles, then returns home. In the oracles he declares destruction of various nations, except Israel.

Numbers 22 - Balaam

News of Israel's victories had reached Balak and filled him with fear, so he sought to take steps to stop Israel. He called Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on Israel. Curse here is used in the pagan sense of putting a spell on someone. When the Bible speaks of God putting a curse on someone or something it means God's judgement on sin.  

Balaam had a mixture of Jewish and pagan practices and was not a man of God as such, but was in some way open to God. So in response to Balak's request he sought the Lord. If he had truly known the Lord he would have refused the request point blank, but he saw his "powers" as a means of making money.

God did speak to Balaam and told him not to put a curse on the Israelites. Balaam passed this message on to Balak's messengers. Balak sent seven more officials to Balaam to try and get a different answer, offering to reward him handsomely.

Balaam tells Balak that he cannot overrule God, but also says he will consult further with the Lord. The Lord appeared to him and told to go with Balak's men.

So Balaam went with the men. God then became angry with Balaam and spoke to Balaam through a donkey. Now all this seems rather strange because on the one hand Balaam seems to be acting in response to God's word, and on the other, God is angry with him. Then when Balaam realises that God is opposing him he repents, but God continues to tell him to go with the men.

Perhaps the point of all this is to make sure Balaam realises that God is on the side of the Israelites.

Numbers 21 - Journey

Having been refused passage by the Edomites, the Israelites faced further opposition from the Canaanites. They were attacked and some of the Israelites were captured. For once the Israelites responded with faith. They approached God and made avow to Him. They then gained victory over the Canaanites.

Unfortunately this improved behaviour did not last and they soon started complaining again, largely because they had to take the long way round because of the Edpmites.  They also started complaining about the food again. 

The Lord sent poisonous snakes among them. The people admitted their guilt and Moses prayed for them. God told Moses to make a bronze snake, if anyone had been bitten by a snake they were to look at the bronze snake and they would be healed. There are obvious parallels here with Jesus and the cross. Jesus was lifted up on the cross, and we need to look to Him for forgiveness. Moreover, He became sin for us.

The Israelites then continued on their journey. Sihon offered further opposition, but Israel defeated them. They also faced further opposition, but also overcame this.

They key point to note from this is that Israel is now starting to win victories, and this will have an effect on the attitude of other nations to her. This prepares the ground for what happens in the next chapter.

Numbers 20:14-29 - Edomites

Edom was a nation that had grown out of Esau, that is why Moses says "this is what your brother Israel says".

Moses reminds them of Israel's history, and asks for permission to travel through the land. He makes a very reasonable request, promising not to be a burden to the Edomites at all.

Despite this Edom refused, and threatened to attack them. Moses appeals again, saying they will pay for any food or water that they take. Edom still refused, so the Israelites turned away. This reminds us of Jesus words to the disciples when He sent them out. If a place refused to welcome them they were just to leave. We do not need to make everything into a big battle. Sometimes we just have to accept the answer no. If someone says no when they should have said yes, then that is their problem.

At the beginning of the passage we read of the death of Miriam, now Aaron dies. Aaron was held responsible along with Moses for what happened at Meribah. Aaron's careers so far had had far more "blotches" on it than had Moses'.

The Old Testament often speaks of someone being "gathered to his people", as it does here with Aaron. There is a hint here that death is not seen as the end. A successor was appointed to Aaron and the whole community mourned for thirty days.

Numbers 20:1-13 - Acknowledge Me as holy

This section seems to contain one of the harshest judgements ever. Remember what Moses had done so far. He had led the Israelites out of Egypt. Numerous times they had grumbled and complained against God and against Moses. On several occasions Moses had intervened between the people and God, denying himself and pleading with God to be merciful to the people. The people had shown no gratitude, no maturity, no development in faith. Now let's see what happens here.
There was no water, so the people complained. Remember that on at least two previous occasions there had been a water shortage and God had provided. The people complained that Moses should never have brought them up out of Egypt.
As before, Moses went to the Lord and fell face down before Him. The glory of God appeared to Moses and He said "take your staff ... speak to the rock and before their eyes it will pour out its water". So once again the Lord is going to provide them with water.
Moses took the staff. Moses gathered the people, rebuked them then raised his staff and struck the rock twice. Water gushed forth. 
Next the Lord says to Moses, "because you did not trust in me enough to honour me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them".
The first question is "what did Moses do wrong?". Well he struck the rock when he had been told to speak to the rock. 

The second question is "why such a harsh judgement?". First we need to look at why Moses struck the rock. Well, he had done this before and it had worked. He was also acting out of anger. Now both these reactions are eminently understandable, and none of us is in a position to consider ourselves better than Moses, but we need to trust in God completely.  While we are considering this, we should remember that Moses did appear with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration, so though Moses was not allowed into the Promised Land, he did not lose his salvation. We need to fear the Lord.

What we can learn is that if we are to receive all that God has for us here we need to be very careful to honour Him as holy before men. We need to guard against times when our flesh rises up, whether it be through anger, fear, anxiety or whatever. We need to pray for the grace and strength to honour God as holy before the world.

Numbers 19 - Dealing with death

Chapter 19 contains a list of regulations about uncleanness after coming in contact with a dead body. This is a further illustration of the fact that uncleanness did not equal sinfulness. What are we to make of this as it all seems rather irrelevant to us? Well, note that there is an emphasis on the person becoming clean again. If someone we are close to dies, then it will affect us. For a time we may find it difficult to get close to God because of the emotional effect of the death. For a time we do not function as usual. This is normal. In these times God is still taking care if us and, in time, will draw us back to Himself. 

I remember a time several years ago when someone close died. I had never felt so devastated. It was also a time when God was incredibly close. It happened at Easter time, and that was the most precious Easter I had ever had. At the Good Friday service one of the readings was from John 20:11-18. The key verse for me was "Do not hold on to me.." I had to let go of the person who had died, and doing this brought a great release.

A few days later God gave me a picture of a bridge. Now when a bridge is built sometimes temporary works have to be put in place whilst the construction is completed. I felt God saying to me that while my emotions had been all over the place, He was still holding my life together until His restoration work was completed. 

God knows how to enable us to get through times of bereavement.