A Little On the Dumb Side!

Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell the people of Israel to bring you twelve wooden staffs, one from each leader of Israel’s ancestral tribes, and inscribe each leader’s name on his staff.  Inscribe Aaron’s name on the staff of the tribe of Levi, for there must be one staff for the leader of each ancestral tribe.  Place these staffs in the Tabernacle in front of the Ark containing the tablets of the Covenant, where I meet with you.  Buds will sprout on the staff belonging to the man I choose.  Then I will finally put an end to the people’s murmuring and complaining against you.”  So Moses gave the instructions to the people of Israel, and each of the twelve tribal leaders, including Aaron, brought Moses a staff.  Moses placed the staffs in the Lord’s presence in the Tabernacle of the Covenant.  When he went into the Tabernacle of the Covenant the next day, he found that Aaron’s staff, representing the tribe of Levi, had sprouted, budded, blossomed, and produced ripe almonds!  When Moses brought all the staffs out from the Lord’s presence, he showed them to the people.  Each man claimed his own staff.  And the Lord said to Moses: “Place Aaron’s staff permanently before the Ark of the Covenant to serve as a warning to rebels.  This should put an end to their complaints against me and prevent any further deaths.”  So Moses did as the Lord commanded him.  Then the people of Israel said to Moses, “Look, we are doomed!  We are dead!  We are ruined!  Everyone who even comes close to the Tabernacle of the Lord dies.  Are we all doomed to die?”  Numbers 17:1-13

If there is one consistent theme in Scripture about the people of God it’s their inconsistency (with a few notable exceptions).  It’s like that New Year’s resolution you make about eating less, working-out more, and avoiding driving past Krispy Kreme; the vow lasts until the next temptation arrives.  And so it goes.

The next temptation for Israel was always grumbling about the way they were led; the target of their grumbling was all about the leader, Moses, a humble man. But over and again God had demonstrated Moses was the leader.  Even with a dead stick budding, blooming, and producing ripe almonds, all in the space of one night[1], demonstrating God’s leadership choice, God’s gracious miracle only produced fear in the hearts of the people.  And fear will destroy any faith!

Such is the point of this account.  Time after time God’s people were in a crisis and God rescued them from danger; each time there was immediate relief, but the return to fear and grumbling (with its accompanying unbelief, or lack of faith) arrived within nanoseconds. 

And so it goes…even today.

This problem is not a particularly Jewish thing; it’s endemic to humanity.  It started with the first sin in the Garden of Eden.  Adam and Eve took a bite, realized their separation from God, heard the Lord approaching, and they hid!  They hid because of their shame, knowing (as fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil suggests), that they were now less than they were created to be, and had separated themselves from God.  And what were they hiding from?  The Lord, the solution to their problem.  And what did they do about it when busted for their sins?  They offered excuses trying to deflect their responsibility to others:

      Eve:  The serpent tricked me 

      Adam:  Lord, the woman YOU made, gave me that bite.  And so it goes.

For You Today 

The question of the day (and of the ages) is…when we’ve seen how that worked-out for Adam and Eve, why do we join them in that foolishness?  All it produces is more fear and grumbling.  When fear arises, it kills your faith.  Wouldn’t it save a myriad of trouble and heartache to live in faith, and let it destroy your fears?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

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[1] It takes one year after a bush has matured (3-4 years) to produce the first crop – see Nav Athwal article Forbes