Readings for today: Numbers 25-28
Most of us really struggle to read and understand the Bible. We are too culturally removed from the actual events. We have a hard time deciphering ancient authorial intent. The way ancient people wrote their histories is foreign to us. Take what happened at Peor with the Moabites as an example. The reaction of God to false worship seems extreme, if not downright unjust and evil. Executing every single leader who participated in the pagan rituals? Phineas driving a spear through a man and his wife in their tent? Declaring war on the Midianites and striking them down? Over the years, I’ve heard several atheists claim this episode, like many others found in Scripture, as one of the primary reasons they can’t believe in God.
This is where we have to check our own cultural biases at the door. We have to be self-aware as readers and interpreters of the Bible of what we bring to the table. We are not blank slates. We come with all kinds of prejudices and assumptions baked in. For example, religion for us is a private affair. It’s highly individualistic. It’s something we believe we have a right to choose or not choose. In our minds, religion is often a philosophical idea. It’s a set of abstract beliefs or principles. It’s a theological system. Furthermore, there are no real consequences for “wrong beliefs” because there is no such thing as absolute truth. All religious belief is subjective and therefore dependent on the person. This is not what the writers of Scripture believed nor is it what the ancient peoples of the world believed. Worship was a declaration of allegiance. God or the gods were perceived to be kings in their own right. Endowed with ultimate authority over the world and every single person in it. Religious belief was not a matter of personal choice. It was a matter of life and death. Worship the “wrong” deity and the rains wouldn’t fall. Worship the “wrong” deity and your children died in childbirth. Worship the “wrong” deity and your tribe would be wiped out by their enemies. Why? Because God was real. He was not just an idea. Not just an abstraction. Not just a principle. He was as real as you or me and He held real authority over the world. So to defy God was to commit treason and the punishment for treason, as always, is death. And that’s why conflict in the ancient world always had a religious component to it. The ancient people didn’t separate “church from state” like we do. All of life was submitted to and under their deity’s control.
So where does that leave us today? What do we take away from these chapters? Is there anything we can learn that applies to our own time? Here’s where we look to Jesus. Jesus paid the ultimate “sinner’s” price in our place. He was condemned to death for sedition and treason against the Roman state and the principalities and powers of this world. Jesus laid down His life to save us from condemnation and judgment and by His grace, won the allegiance of our hearts. This is why we worship Him and ascribe to Him the name that is above every other name.
Readings for tomorrow: No readings on Sundays