Will The Real Donkey Please Stand Up?

If I started to talk to you about a talking donkey, you might think I'm referring to the movie "Shrek". But no. (Nor am I referring to "Shrek 2"!)

I'm referring to a story of a man named Balaam (BAY lum).

He was a prophet. (And a rather curious choice at that. Most of the references to him in the New Testament are unflattering, to say the least.) But for whatever reason, God sends His word through Balaam with some regularity, for a time.

In this story, Balaam is being summoned to go and speak to a king. The king is an enemy of the people of Israel. And the king wants Balaam to prophesy a curse upon the Hebrews.

Balaam goes, (even though God initially says NOT TO go). However, Balaam's having transportation trouble. Not with his car or his bike. But with his donkey. His donkey doesn't want to run (or walk).

Apparently, the donkey sees something in the way. (Spoiler Alert: it's the Angel of the LORD in the middle of the road, standing there with a drawn sword.) Good 'ol Balaam doesn't see it, can't understand why the donkey won't move, and gives the donkey a beating.

This happens 3 times. (Balaam apparently is a slower learner than the donkey. However, as you'll soon see, he's NOT the slowest, most stubborn person in the story.) Finally, God opens the donkey's mouth and she asks Balaam, "What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?...Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?"

Eventually, Balaam sees the situation for what it is, and goes on to the king, with the firm conviction that he can only pronounce blessing upon the king's enemies, which INFURIATES the king.

Several times, the king (who seems even more obtuse and stubborn than Balaam), tries to coerce the prophet to say what would benefit the king (and thereby hurt God's people).

Balaam's response every time is something like this: "Didn't I tell you I must do and say whatever the Lord says?" The prophet can't just make things up or simply say them because the king will pay the prophet to say them.

The king moves the prophet to different locations, hoping the surroundings will change the prophet's word. But no.

The king promises tons of money and riches, hoping this will change the prophet's word. Again, no.

Finally, the prophet has had enough (and apparently, so has God). Because the fourth oracle the prophet gives to the king, not only includes blessing for the enemies. It includes destruction of all of Israel's enemies in this story, and that is what happens shortly. The king just doesn't get it.

It makes me wonder: Who's the donkey in this story?

But that's the easy way out. If I'm to let this story do it's work, I must ask another question: Where, in my life, am I stubborn, rebellious, and just not getting it?

It seems like this would be a great time to pause, and ask God for insight. Then, ask for forgiveness. Finally, this would be a good time to ask for help, strength, and wisdom to learn from my mistakes and not be the donkey in my life's story.

Grace & peace

250,000 Snails?

Did you hear the story about the guy who tied a string around his finger to remember something and then couldn't remember why he had that string around his finger?

It reminds us of a fact: we are forgetful. And we need help remembering.

(One of my favorite descriptions of the Bible is that it is the collective memory of the Church. To remember, we need to read it.)

God was so concerned about people remembering that He gave us reminders. The Sabbath, 1 day out of every 7, remind us that this is all God's creation, that He owns it, and we are only stewards. In the New Testament, the Christian Church began to celebrate Sabbath on the Lord's Day (or Sunday), to be reminded of Christ's resurrection from the dead.

Numbers 15:37ff tells about another specific reminder: tassels on garments. Specifically, BLUE tassels.

The tassels were dyed with blue dye.

According to one commentator, "the blue dye was extracted from the gland of the Murex trunculus snail and was very costly." He goes on to tell us that "one chemist estimated that a quarter of a million snails would be needed to produce one ounce of pure dye"(IVPBBCOT).

If 250,000 snails were needed to help turn your tassels blue, you'd remember it, right?

And every time you looked at those tassels, you'd think, "SOMEBODY wants me to remember this."

Remember what? "Remember all the commands of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by going after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes...(R)emember...I am the LORD your God, who brought you out Egypt."

So my question to you is this: What reminders do you have in place to help you live the life God created you to live? What new "tassels" might you sew into your life today?

Grace & peace

I Wish I Had a Cloud

Have you ever watched the clouds? Maybe it was a bright, sunny day, with lots of blue sky, and you laid down in a field of green grass, with your hands folded behind your neck, gazing at the formations.

Maybe it was traveling down the road in the backseat of a car, watching the shapes move and change as you sped along.

I remember sitting on the porch of a house in Durango, Colorado. There was a hill just beyond the house where we were staying. And our elevation was so high up, that it seemed the clouds just barely snuck over the top of that hill, surprising me with each second, as they continued to roll overhead.

In the book of Numbers, chapter 9, Moses and the Hebrew children were out in the middle of nowhere. God broke the slaves out of Egypt. That was what everyone had wanted.

But now what? Where do we go from here?

And beginning in verse 15, God guides them...by a cloud. When the cloud moved, the people moved. When the cloud stayed, the people stayed. It became their compass and their guide.

Neither Moses nor his people really knew exactly where they were going. But they DID have the cloud. And if they would keep their eyes on it, God would make sure it would take them where they were supposed to go.

"I wish I had a cloud." These were the words of one of my children. They were responding to a conversation we had regarding making decisions, sensing divine leading, and knowing which path to choose.

(Or maybe those were just the thoughts of a teenager who thought the idea of God sending a personal cloud was really cool, really mystical.)

Do you ever wish YOU had a cloud?

Let me ask you: If you KNEW God was going to send a sign, a sense of His leading, clues to the way you should go, what would you do to find it? How hard would you look to piece things together?

Would you pick up your Bible and work through those ancient words, seeing if they really might come alive?

Would you spend a few minutes in quiet meditation, waiting for thoughts to come into your mind, or impressions upon your spirit?

Would you be willing to seek out other like-minded people who are also looking for the mystical clouds in life? Would you be willing to spend time with them, even if they're in a church!?

What if you already have clouds around you, and you just have to open your eyes and expend a little energy for them to be able to do their work?

May God send clouds into your life today. And may you have eyes to see them.

Grace & peace.

Lamp Snuffers

It was as if God told Moses to take a big, bright, fluorescent, highlighter, and instructed him to mark it on the priest's Job Description.

The oil that was used, according to several commentators, was the best oil available. It would burn for a L-O-N-G time. And that was important because they provided the ONLY light in the holy place.

"(B)ring...oil...for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning continually."

Three times in a span of 4 verses, (Leviticus 24:1-4) Moses is commanded to have the priests keep the lamps lit and tended to CONTINUALLY.

Seems like one of the more basic jobs of the keeper of the holy things: KEEP THE LIGHTS ON!

Seems like it would go without saying, right? Nobody can come in if the lights are off.

Seems like it would be priority one: Nobody can see anything if the lamps aren't lit.

It is true in a church, both literally, and figuratively. If the Light is not shining, if the grace and goodness of God are not evident in us, if the Power and Person of God aren't present, nothing else matters. If the Holy One isn't at the forefront of all we do, if the Holy One isn't being reflected in our everyday lives, nothing else matters.

The same is true in your life and mine. We let so many other insignificant things crowd out the first thing. If the light goes out, who cares how comfortable I am? If my light goes out, what difference does it make how much money I am making? If my light goes out, who cares if my car is new or five years old?

Sometimes the things that snuff out the light are subtle. Gossip (talking about others behind their back), anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, and greed are examples of "lamp snuffers".

In the New Testament, Paul tells us that "You are the temple of God."

So my question is this: What are you doing to keep the lamp burning in your life? What are you doing to fan into flame that which God has started in you?

Grace & peace

Intentional Compassion

Leviticus is book of instructions. It instructs the Hebrew people how to worship. It instructs them how to remind future generations of their heritage and how God has worked with them in the past. It instructs God's people how to live uniquely in the world and how to be holy.

Within those instructions is an interesting phrase that appears multiple times. When picking grapes in the vineyard (19:10) or harvesting the land (19:9 & 23:22), the instruction is to not wipe the place clean, don't pick up every grape or every single head of grain. Instead, "leave them for the poor and the alien".

Rick Warren has gained international attention with his book "The Purpose-Driven Life". I like the book. I especially like the title.

But before Warren was around, Leviticus was instructing us to be compassionate on purpose.

Our culture rewards the biggest box-office hit, the largest crowds, the most-watched tv shows, most-read books. Restaurants copy the "super-sizing" of meals. Costco and Sam's Club package everything in bulk so we can get the most for the least.

In the midst of all that, I wonder: when do we intentionally leave some behind? Do we ever build into our lives the idea of leaving some for those less fortunate?

This week we had an ice storm in Michigan. Many households lost power. A friend of mine was telling me that they had opened up their home to 2 families, in addition to their own, to share electricity, warmth, food, and hot water. Intentionally compassionate.

Seems like something the people of God ought to be, don't you think?

Grace & peace.

What's This Have to Do with Me?

I recently saw a billboard that read,

"If you're an educated person, you have read the Bible"

Do you agree? Is that a classic on the must-list for literature?

Right now I'm walking through the Bible in a year with some of my friends. This week we're in the book of Leviticus.

Leviticus is not one of the easier books to read or apply for someone who is simply curious about the Bible, about Christianity, or newer to understanding Judaism.

Along those lines, this week's blogs may be a little different from some of the others. They'll include some background information before we get to the application (see the "What's This Have to Do With Me?" section at the bottom).

There are several things that make Leviticus seem foreign to us. One of the major difficulties is the idea of sacrifice.

The first 7 chapters of this book all have to do with sacrifices or offerings.

Offerings were common among many different religions during this period. However, several ideas the Hebrews had about sacrifices distinguished their ritual from those of other religions.

One such idea was that for some religions, the purpose of sacrificing food to the gods was to provide the gods with sustenance. If your god was hungry, he needed you to bring a sacrifice so he could eat.

Hebrews didn't believe this. (Do we really think the One we worship, the One who created world and all that is in it, needs food from us to feed Him? See Psalm 50:12-13)

What was the purpose of the offerings? Each offering had a different purpose:

BURNT OFFERING - serves as a means to make a request to God. Mercy, victory, forgiveness, purification, or any number of other things the worshiper was getting ready to ask for, would be preceded by the Burnt Offering. If you're getting ready to ask for something, this would be an offering you'd include.

GRAIN OFFERING - "The rabbis considered this to be a substitute of the Burnt Offering for poor people" says one source. It was a "gift" or "tribute" where respect or honor are intended. If you're simply wanting to acknowledge the exceeding nature of God, you're overwhelmed with gratitude, this would be appropriate.

FELLOWSHIP OFFERING - this would often go hand in hand with the Burnt Offering. The Fellowship Offering was primarily to indicate or underscore the covenant, the relationship the worshiper and God are in.
Promises have been made. Allegiances have been sworn. This sacrifice is the worshipers pointing to the covenant and saying, "I remember this. You are my God. I am your person."

This offering also comes with a NO FAT clause: "All the fat is the LORD's" (This offering also prohibits the worshiper from consuming meat with blood still in it).

PURIFICATION or SIN OFFERING - Interesting to note that this section begins with "When anyone sins unintentionally..." (in 4:2, as well as vv 13, 22, 27). This offering restores the relationship between the worshiper and God (and other people, when they have been offended as well.)


GUILT or REPARATION OFFERING - This sacrifice is "designed to address particular categories of offense: breach of faith and sacrilege (desecration of sacred areas or objects)."

(The IVP Bible Background Commentary, Old Testament)

What's This Have to Do With Me?

1. Our Hebrew parents remind us that coming to worship is not something we do nonchalantly or thoughtlessly. It involves preparation and intention.

Do I enter into worship with a sense of planning and preparation or haphazardly and at the last minute? Does God deserve my intentionality or does He simply receive whatever is leftover of my mental, emotional, or social resources?

2. Worship is costly for the Hebrews because more often than not, something has to die, blood has to be spilled. (And even in the Grain Offering, something of value is given away.)

Do you treat worship as something that costs you time and energy and finances and priorities? Or do you try to find a way to worship that doesn't cost anything?

May Leviticus challenge you to examine the way that you worship.

Grace & peace.

Whose Kid R U Anyway!?

It happened again just this morning.

"I can't believe your children are such slobs!" one of us said to the other.

"My children? No, no, these are your children."

We had been moving furniture around and as often happens at such times, we found a few...um...missing items. You know how that is right? An unmatched sock, a remote control, a stray crayon, crumbs, wrappers, etc.

Occasionally in a moment of frustration, we'll try to pawn our offspring onto the other spouse, claiming no responsibility whatesoever. Right.

But did you know sometimes God tries to pawn His kids onto someone else?

Exodus 32:7 shows God abruptly ending a meeting with Moses up on the mountain. "Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt."
They had made an idol and begun dancing around it, bowing down to it, and praying to it. God tells Moses that Moses' people are about to be extinguished from the face of the earth.

But Moses was not so easily persuaded. In verse 11 he responds to God, "Why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?" Moses argues that if other people hear how God wiped out God's people, they'll think it was for an evil intent that God rescued them in the first place.

All this makes me wonder, am I living in such a way that God wants to claim me?

Is my life a living, breathing, walking, talking sacrifice to the One who made me and has reclaimed me?

Or would God like to pawn me off on someone else?

Grace & peace.