Numbers through chapter 21

I am truly amazed at the Isrealites. My frustration with them grows with each chapter. They have these truly amazing acts occurring before their eyes and the next day they complain that Moses is killing everyone.
Everyone warned me that I would tire of the laws of Leviticus and it would test my perseverance but Numbers is testing it far more. I find myself rolling my eyes (it's uncontrollable for me) with each new complaint from the Isrealites.
Numbers 19 discusses in more detail clean and unclean. I love these laws of cleanliness. I appreciate them. However, dead bodies making people unclean. Well, I can see this. If one dies from a plague or disease it aids in sanitation to encourage a little quarantine for those that touched the body. I appreciate the washing however 3 days after touching the body seems like a while to wait.

I prefer to wash that night when I get home from work after some of the dead bodies I touch. While I have never realized I was "unclean" for the next 7 days I will admit it probably takes me about 7 days to stop thinking about it. In nursing a prehospital work dead bodies are a guarantee. I've seen alot of them. They occasionally bother me. Some more than others. The very few scary movies I have seen have stuck with me. So, it takes me about 7 days or so for the random flashes from the latest dead body to stop popping in my head. Does this happen to every nurse or paramedic? I don't know but it happens to me. I can't guarantee that it's 7 days....I said about. The bad one's stay there a lot longer.

Numbers highlights and scrolls

Continuing our journey through Numbers today. I have been sick for several days and today I'm starting to have more energy to resume my study of the bible. I have been reading my assigned readings daily but have not been able to research, cross reference and ponder the readings as usual. So I've been going back and reviewing, researching, and reading my multitude of resources about my transitions from Leviticus to Numbers. While this is not a dedicated summary of my readings for the past few days it is a list of things I've learned or key items/versus that I enjoy.
I have been referencing my wonderful Archaeological Bible (which if you don't already own this bible...hop to Amazon and order it...I'll wait)
I will also be referencing the "People of the Covenant. An Indroduction to the Old Testament" which I have borrowed from our hospital chaplain. (Also highly recommended)

Highlights and things I've learned

1. Numbers....doesn't mean Numbers like counting numbers or we are counting people...Numbers is hebrew for "in the desert"

2. God has an amazing amount of patience with the disobedient and whiny Isrealites.

3. It is believed that the numbering system was different then based on the numbers provided and all those math minded people trying to figure it out. There may have been translation or terminology variations with regard to the actual number of people in the desert.

4. OK...This is really cool....
"In 1979 archaeologists unearthed a burial site at Ketef Hinnom just south of Jerusalem, near the Biblical boundary between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Excavated from within a burial repository were two small, rolled plaques of thin, pliable silver, each about the size of a credit card. When unrolled, they revealed delicately etched inscriptions that included a shortened version of the priestly benediction recorded in Numbers 6:24-26. One section has been translated as follows:
The Lord bless and keep you;
The Lord make his face shine upon you and give you peace.


Archaeological and Paleographic evidence dates these plaques to the late seventeenth century BC, thereby making them the earliest written citations of Scripture." The Archaeological Bible.

5. It is interesting that despite the frequent disobedience God still remains with these people in the desert, guiding them, speaking to Moses frequently and creating the laws for their culture.

Verses I love:

Numbers 6:24-26 "The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord life you up His countenance upon you, And give you peace."
Numbers 10:9 "When you go to war in your land against the enemy who opresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the Lord your God, and you will be saved from your enemies. Also in the day of your gladness, in your appointed feasts, and at the beginning of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be a memorial for you before your God: I am the Lord your God."

Finishing up Leviticus and starting Numbers

We are through Leviticus and I've gotta tell ya...not bad. Everyone warned me that it would be a challenging read and boring and potentially would bother me with all the rules but really it was entertaining in parts. I do have to say as a nurse a big thank you for those rules about cleanliness and frequent washings especially with regard to drainage/discharge. Although, it is apparent that some people have not read the bible and do not follow this rule. I honestly can say I'm not surprised at the correlation. Yet another reason we need to focus a little more on religion in our society. CLEANLINESS!!

Leviticus 26:44 "yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, nor shall I abhor them, to utterly destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God."

I like this because it shows God's nature that even though he can be very harsh and has his expectations if you are in need he is always present. He will not turn you away.

Numbers - the census and continuing in laws (according to the little summary at the beginning of my Chronological Study Bible)

So it seems according to the numbers that there are possibly 603,550 men of age to fight in a war. So between the ages of 20 and above. It doesn't specify to what age and considering the amount of travel thus far and the living conditions in Egypt. I can't imagine they have a long life span. Anyway...thought it might be interesting to see where the Isralei military is now. 2000+ years later.
Here's their numbers according to my ever faithful Wikipedia. 187,000 active personnel and 565,000 reserve personnel, all isralei citizens male and female are required to join the military at age 18 unless there is a reason for them not to go such as being Arab, religious preference, physical or psychological reasons. Women are required to serve for 2 years and men 3 years. They have a very large number of "available for military service" numbers that can be utilized if necessary.

OK back to Numbers. The Levites were not counted in this census because they were assigned by God for a different task. They were to care for the Tabernacle of the Testimony, over all it's furnishings and all things related to it. While I'm sure war is not an appealing option nor is the wrath of God if you put one of those fiber vails in the wrong place.

After the census it just amazes me that all these people are just hanging out in the desert. They have to take up a lot of room even if this is the desert. That's a lot of people to stick in the desert to go unnoticed. How did Moses communicate with all these people. There weren't t.v's,newspapers, nothing. How did they all know that they were in the desert for a reason. A good reason and just keep hanging out. Surely they didn't all know that all the sacrificing of animals was going on...all 600,000 and that's just the men of war age...
How would they know anything that was going on. Was someone blogging all this??? Yep, that's how we ended up with the bible right?

idols

I'm reflecting today. Well, I'm continuing my chronological journey through the bible but I had a wonderful day yesterday. I spent the entire day with my husbands cousin who is an absolutely wonderful person. She is extremely knowledgeable about the bible. She has had amazing faith and religious structure since age 9! We had so many fun conversations yesterday I'm not sure where to start.
We discussed so much regarding my journey thus far and my understanding (or lack of understanding) of so many different aspects of the bible.
We discussed idols at length because that has been plaguing my brain for quite a while.
Exodus 20:4 states “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments."
Exodus 20:23 "Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold."

In reading these statements I wonder why do we have crosses? Why do we have images of Jesus. Especially if Jesus is the son of God or in an image of God or...well. Can you tell I'm confused?
So these seem like idols to me. Should we not have crosses in the front of churches, should we not have crosses around our necks, hold rosary's with a crucifix on them.

These are symbols yes, but is a symbol an idol?


So according to Dictionary.com an

Idol is
noun
1. an image or other material object representing a deity to which religious worship is addressed.
2. Bible .
a. an image of a deity other than god.
b. the deity itself.

Symbol is
noun
1. something used for or regarded as representing something else; a material object representing something, often something immaterial; emblem, token, or sign.


Well according to this it would seem that these things (crosses, etc) are not ok.
I'm just going to put the rosary with a crucifix that is in my car in a drawer until I continue with my readings in the bible to see what else it says about the subject.

I will be posting more later as I continue my journey through Leviticus and Numbers.