Suspicious Minds

Why can’t you see what you’re doing to me

When you don’t believe a word I say

We can’t go on together with suspicious minds

And we can’t build our dreams on suspicious minds

Those words from the 1969 Elvis hit (which has been covered by everyone from Waylon Jennings to Dwight Yokum to Fine Young Cannibals to Clay Aiken) are rattling around in my head this morning… and it’s Moses fault. In Numbers 5, Moses gives instructions on what a husband is to do if he suspects that his wife has been cheating on him-- he has a suspicious mind but no witnesses or proof. What was a husband to do in a patriarchal culture in which he holds all the power if he suspected that his wife was guilty of infidelity? Well, in most ancient cultures, the answer was “Anything he wants.” But that was not the case in Israel. Later Rabbis would allow divorce for any reason where the husband found anything “displeasing to him” (Deut 24:1), but in Numbers 5, the mere suspicion of infidelity was not enough to cause a wife to be charged with adultery.

What Moses gives here is a complicated “trial by ordeal” involving the offering of a grain sacrifice, the mixing of holy water with dust from the tabernacle floor, a priest pronouncing curses over the women who is accused,  and the writing of those curses on a scroll over which the bitter water was poured.  Then the accused wife drank the bitter water-- and if she was guilty, her abdomen would swell and her thigh fall away (or her womb shrink or she would miscarry; the exact details aren’t so clear and vary by translation, though none seem very pleasant). If nothing happened after she drank the bitter water (other than wrinkling up her nose after she drank), then she was to be accepted by all-- including her husband-- as innocent.  In other words, God Himself would take care of punishing those guilty of hidden sin.

Does this “trial by ordeal” sounds barbaric?  Purity was extremely important in God’s order of things. Sin was not something committed only against other people; ultimately it was against God (see Deut 5:5-10). Adultery was a threat to the whole community and was an affront to the holiness of God, and for that reason, the man or woman convicted of adultery faced the penalty of death (Lev 20:10). But the mere suspicion of adultery was not the same thing as someone being convicted. So God included this “trial by ordeal” basically to protect women from being spuriously accused by their husbands. If they were guilty, God would decide their guilt through miraculous intervention.

 Interestingly, a similar (though completely different) “trial by ordeal” was used for women accused of witchcraft in the Middle Ages. The accused would be tied hand and foot and thrown into a river. If they floated, then they were guilty of witchcraft.  If they sank and drowned, then they were declared innocent… and dead. In other words, an accusation was a presumption of guilt.  In Numbers 5, there a presumption of innocence and a willingness to leave justice in the hands of God.

It would have been easy in ancient Israel for community gossip to cause a husband to suspect his wife of unfaithfulness. Gossip and innuendo can be dangerous and deadly in the modern church as well. Israel was taught to trust God to bring about justice… and we are taught the same thing (Rom 12:19). We don’t have an elaborate “trial by ordeal” ceremony. What we have is a cross and the grace of God that was extended to us… and that we are to extend to one another.

The Named and the Nameless

As we started reading the book of Numbers in our chronological trek through the Old Testament, we are immediately reminded why Numbers is called “Numbers.” Numbers 1 gives a detailed accounting of the census conducted of the Israelite men of fighting age a little more than a year after they left Egypt. Numbers 2 gives, also in great detail, of how the Israelite tribes were divided into divisions, how many men were in each division, and how they were to camp around the Tabernacle. OK, so Math has never been my favorite subject and I’m sure that I would make a lousy accountant. It was tempting to “observe the Passover” and skip over the numbers in Numbers this morning.

But then it dawned on me that Numbers isn’t really about numbers at all. It is about people; the numbers reported in the opening of the book represented individual people who were loved by God. These numbers represent unknown people to us, but they were known by God. Consider for minute the men who were named as leaders over the tribes of Israel in Numbers—

Elizur son of Shedeur (Rueben), Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai (Simeon), Nahshon son of Amminadab (Judah), Nethanel son of Zuar (Issachar), Eliab son of Helon (Zebulun), Elishama son of Ammihud (Ephraim), Gamaliel son of Pedahzur (Manasseh), Abidan son of Gideoni (Benjamin), Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai (Dan), Pagiel son of Okran (Asher), Eliasaph son of Deuel (Gad), and Ahira son of Enan (Naphtali).

These men were singled out by God and appointed as leaders over the tribes of Israel. Think about the implication for these real flesh-and-blood people—they were chosen by God and given the responsibility to lead the people of God at this critical juncture in their history. These are just 12 names out of the 603,550 names compiled during census that gives Numbers its name. These were all real people with real stories. They are also really obscure.

That’s the point that struck me. The only time these men are mentioned in the rest of the story of Israel is in Numbers 7 and 10 as they do ceremonial tasks as the leaders of the tribes of Israel. Well, Nahshon is mentioned several times in genealogical lists because he is from Judah and was an ancestor of David... and of Jesus. And Eliab is mentioned in Numbers 16 only because his two sons Dathan and Abiram joined with Korah in an ill-fated revolt against Moses. But these leaders of the tribes aren’t mentioned in the failure of Israel to enter into Canaan. They aren't mentioned in any of the stories of the complaining and rebelling during the wilderness wandering. In other words, though they were appointed as leaders in Israel, they provide no real leadership for the people of God. They became just names that represent the nameless 603,548 men (all but Joshua and Caleb) who died in the wilderness because they would not trust God to lead them into Canaan.

God knew each of these 603, 550 men by name. He called a few of them by name serve in specific ways.  He called all 603, 550 of them to faithfulness in following His leadership.   And yet they all remain for us "the nameless" because they refused to trust God and follow where He was leading. Maybe if we try really hard, we can find a lesson somewhere in this for ourselves?

Sometimes the Best Thing We Can SaySometimes the Best Thing We Can Say

Sometimes the best thing we can say in the face of disaster, suffering and heartache is… nothing. In Job, a tornado killed all of Job’s children.  That was actually only one of the disasters that befell Job, but that was  certainly the most devastating. Job's friends showed up to comfort him, and they sat silently with him for a week without saying anything (Job 2:13). When they started talking, they started accusing Job of doing something to deserve God’s wrath. They should have kept quiet; they were true friends when they kept quiet.  Sometimes the best thing we can say in the face of pain and heartache is nothing.

This past week, the heartland of our country was devastated by a series of 90 tornadoes that cut a wide swath of death and destruction-- 39 people dead, entire families killed and some small towns almost completely destroyed. The country’s attention was captured by a toddler who had been dropped alive into the middle of a cornfield after her entire family had been  killed, but sadly 15 month old Angel Babcock later died from her injuries. There were other “miracle” stories (like the mother who lost both legs protecting her kids), but there wasn't one for little Angel. Why? Why do such tragedies happen? Why didn't God step into prevent such loss and heartache?

Sometimes the best thing we can say in the face of disaster and pain and heartache is nothing. Sadly, too many Christian “experts” were much too quick to speak up and say something. Not only were their words not  helpful; they were hurtful.

John Piper, a leading Calvinist preacher and scholar, suggests that God sent the storms for his own purposes. He wrote, “If a tornado twists at 175 miles an hour and stays on the ground like a massive lawnmower for 50 miles, God gave the command.” He quotes several passages in the Bible where God used winds, and then suggests that God used the tornadoes to bring death and suffering in rural America to teach a lesson to the rest America. “Jesus rules the wind. The tornadoes were his.”

Pat Robertson took a different tact in dealing with the storms. He said that God is not to blame for the storms… people are. God set up an orderly world with certain metrological laws that act as “release mechanisms” that show themselves in storms like tornadoes and hurricanes. People are hurt by these storms because “people decide they want to build their houses on the edge of an ocean. It’s their fault, not God’s fault.”

Neither of these statements is helpful. Sure, God did sometimes use winds in the Bible to accomplish His will, but that does mean that every wind comes from Him. The tornado that blew down the house that killed Job’s children came from Satan, not God. Jesus said “The wind blows wherever it pleases” (John 3:8).  Ecclesiastes sees the blowing of the wind as proof that the world is random and “meaningless” (Eccl 1:6). To attribute every wind that blows to the direct and intentional will of God is simply wrong.

It’s also both wrong-- and heartless-- to suggest that the people in places like Maryville, Indiana are somehow to blame because they chose to live in the path of the storm. Storms happen. Where in world can one live to never at risk of suffering the “wrath of nature” in some form? To dismiss suffering by suggesting that the sufferers brought in on themselves is certainly not the heart of Jesus!

Sometimes the best thing we can say is nothing. We can’t always understand why bad things happen. We don’t know why God chooses to answer some prayers and not answer others... or rather, to answer them by saying “No."  All we can do is to move close to the ones who are suffering and do what we can to help. Anything we say in times of suffering is likely to be the wrong thing. Sometimes the best thing we can say is nothing.

Sad But True

Last week, the state senate of Maryland by a voted to recognize homosexual marriage by a 25 to 22 margin. Gov. Martin O’Malley has said that he would sign to sign this bill into law, which makes Maryland the seventh state to legalize homosexual marriage. To win passage in the House of Delegates, there was a compromise that allows opponents to place the new law on the November ballot, leaving the possibility for opponents to repeal it. Polls show that Maryland is almost evenly divided on this issue, so the November referendum means that it will not be politics as usual in Maryland this fall.

This will likely prove a difficulty for President Obama. The president has been soliciting support from the gay community in his reelection campaign, but he has stopped short of fully embracing marriage rights In the last election, Obama expressed opposition to gay marriage, but now he has hinted that his views are “evolving.” Supporters of the bill will likely pressure him to weigh in on the referendum in November, and that is a problem for him. African-American church leaders in Maryland have led the charge opposing the measure. It is those church leaders who are expected to encourage grass-roots Democratic support. The Washington Post suggests, “If the debate in Maryland’s legislature is any guide, the mixture of emotions among African Americans over gay marriage will not be an easy issue for Obama to navigate.”  Politics is often the practice of being able to say with a straight face, “I have friends on one side of this issue and friends on the other side of this issue… and I always stand with my friends!” It seems like it is going to be hard for the president to stand with his friends on this one!

We need to decide where we are going to stand here.  It seems to me that part of being created in the image of God is being created male and female (Gen 1:27). That statement of our unity with God and diversity of gender because the foundation of marriage, not only for Adam and Eve, but for all time. Paul argues in Romans 1:26-27 that same gender sex is a violation of the natural created order—

For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed in their passions for one another. (NET)

Bible doesn't say nearly as much about homosexuality as it might appear given all the rhetoric these days.  But what the Bible does say is very consistent from the Old to the New Testament. Not everyone weighing in on this issue cares about the Bible' not everyone who cares about the Bible reads it the same.  But because of how I read it, I am left with little choice on where to stand.

To be perfectly honest, the Bible isn't any more clear on homosexual marriage as it is on heterosexual divorce.  In fact, the Bible is probably clearer on divorce.  So why are the no political movements by evangelicals to outlaw divorce? Why are the very politicians who speak the loudest of protecting marriage often the biggest offenders when it comes to divorce? It is a sad but true fact that many Christians who see homosexual marriage as a great threat to the institution of marriage look at divorce among us as a sad but true fact! I’m personally just not too interested in hearing people scream about the sin of homosexual marriage unless they are equally opposed to heterosexual divorce, not in the way they vote but in the way they live with their husbands and wives.

Nadab, Abihu and Strange Fire

Today’s chronological Old Testament reading from Leviticus 10 is undoubtedly the best known part of Leviticus for those of us who grew up "in the church."  The story of Nadab and Abihu was as large part of why I saw myself as different from members of other “Christian” groups. (And why I felt the need to use quotation marks when using the word “Christian” in that context). Nadab and Abihu offered the unauthorized sacrifice of “strange fire” before God, and they were destroyed... just as Noah would have been destroyed if he would have used  any other wood than gopher word. Our church offered only authorized worship to God— we sang without musical accompaniment, baptized only by immersion “for the remission of sins,” and observed communion every first day of the week. Any deviation from that (and other forms and formats) would be the strange fire that burned Nadab and Abihu to a crisp. (Of course, the church down the street condemned us for introducing the strange fire of Christian camps, orphans homes and eating in the church building, but that is just silly).

(See this older post, which I had forgotten about, for a similar discussion.)

One problem with our rather narrow use of this story of Aaron's oldest sons is that we read the story and fail to read the whole context. In Leviticus 8-9, Aaron and his sons were ordained as priests. Very meticulous and somewhat strange (see 8:22-29) instructions were given for the ordination process, and these instructions were carried out to the letter. In chapter 9, Aaron begins his priestly ministry, and the first time he carried out a burnt offering, sin offering and fellowship offering as high priest, the ritual is interrupted (or rather completed) by fire coming from presence of God to consume the sacrifice (Lev. 9:23-24). That wasn’t normally part of the sacrificial procedure, and it must have been impressive. But evidently it was not impressive enough.

The tenure of Nadab and Abihu as priests wasn't very long— about two verses (Lev. 10:1-2). The text says that they offered “unauthorized fire” (NIV) or “strange fire” (NET) before the Lord. The word here is the same word for "stranger" or "foreigner" (see Deut 25:5, 32:16, etc.). A similar expression occurs in Exodus 30:9 when it condemns “other incense” ("other" is the same word as "unauthorized"). In Numbers 6, the command is given to keep the fire on the altar burning perpetually (6:12-13), but here Nadab and Abihu bring the fire for the sacrifice in their censers from some other place. Remember, the last fire on the altar  had fallen from God himself, so did they get busy or distracted and allow that fire to go out and then try to cover their sin by introducing “strange fire?”

Or did they get drunk?  Immediately following the death of Nadab and Abihu, instruction is given that priests are not to drink before serving as priests (Lev. 10:9-11). Is that a coincidence? Or does it seem probable that alcohol had clouded Nadab and Abihu’s judgment and led them to fail to "distinguish between the holy and the common." (Lev 10:10).  Whatever the case, one would think that Aaron, Eleazar and Ithamar (Aaron’s remaining sons and replacement priests) would have been very careful about sacrifice procedure from that point on.

Or maybe not?  At this point, the story gets even more interesting. Aaron and the two replacement priests were told not to mourn publically but to continue their duties as priests. When Moses checks up on them, he discovers they have not eaten their portion of the sin offering in the Tabernacle as they were required to do. Remember what happened to Nadab and Abihu when they free-lanced with the sacrificial procedure? Well, Moses comes charging in screaming, “What are you doing?” (a rather loose translation of Lev 10:17-18). Aaron replies (with a lump in his throat, we can imagine), “Today they sacrificed their sin offering and their burnt offering before the LORD, but such things as this have happened to me. Would the LORD have been pleased if I had eaten the sin offering today?” (Lev 10:19, NLT).

Aaron and his sons had not publicly mourned the death of Nadab and Abihu as they had been commanded. They had gone on with their priestly duties as they had been commanded. But they could not bring themselves to eat after witnessing their sons/brothers dying in such a horrible way. They weren't rebelling against God’s commands. It was just that human weakness and frailty would not allow them to eat. Moses was satisfied with that explanation. The absence of fire falling from sky indicates that God recognized the difference as well.

The story of Nadab and Abihu makes it very clear that it is not small thing to ignore what God has commanded and authorized. They story of Eleazar and Ithamar makes it very clear that God sees human weakness and frailty differently than willful disregard. These stories also make it clear that it is God and only God who decides between these two types of failures and whether or not the fire will fall from His presence. We would do well to take seriously both sides of this story.

Satan's Traps and the Cross

Several years ago, radio personality Paul Harvey told the story of how Eskimo hunters kill a wolf. The process is grisly, yet it offers fresh insight into our struggle with sin. Harvey says this—

First, the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. Then he adds another layer of blood, and another, until the blade is completely concealed by frozen blood. Next, the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with the blade up. When a wolf follows the scent and discovers the bait, he licks it, tasting the frozen blood. He begins to lick more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare. Feverishly now, harder and harder the wolf licks the blade in the arctic night. So great becomes his craving for blood that the wolf does not notice the razor-sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue, nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his own warm blood. His carnivorous appetite just craves more-- until the dawn finds him dead in the snow!

Like the Eskimo in Harvey’s story, Satan has set his deadly traps that play to our selfish appetites. Intellectual arrogance feeds our pride. Moral relativism encourages our appetite for pleasure. Materialism and greed drives our hunger for more money and things. Our culture falls for Satan’s traps with reckless abandon, and like the wolf, people are destroyed by their own appetites.

If we are not very careful, we may also find ourselves licking the knife. The siren song of the world can be overpowering. Without realizing or desiring it, we can find ourselves believing the lie. How do we keep ourselves centered? How do we miss Satan’s traps? We avoid the traps when we focus on what is at the center of our faith-- the cross. Christianity is at the same time a philosophy, a lifestyle and a mindset. Yet all of these derive their power from a single story (1 Cor. 15:2-4, NLT)

And it is this Good News that saves you if you firmly believe it—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place. I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me—that Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said.  He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, as the Scriptures said.

We can stress a lot of things and call them all “Christian.” But when all is said and done, the part that matters most is the message of the cross. But that message is not simply that Jesus died to save us from the guilt of our sin; the cross is also the power that saves us from being entrapped by our sin. We have been “crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20) so that “the body ruled by sin might be done away with” (Rom 6:6). Because we belong to Christ we “have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24). The cross frees us from sin’s guilt and sin’s power over our lives. We can avoid Satan’s traps when we focus on the story that is at the center of our faith.

Seed Faith

Years ago, one of our members decided that I needed a garden. I guess he figured that if I learned how to grow my own food, then the church wouldn't have to pay me so much! So he tilled up a little area in back of the church building, and came into my office a told me that I was to tend it. I didn't. So he then planted a few things for me and told me all I needed to do was water and weed it. I didn't. So he took care of my little garden for me right along with his own. Next think I knew, there were grocery sacks of vegetables sitting outside my office door. I decided that this gardening thing was pretty easy!

Of course, it isn't really easy at all. But then, God does the really hard part, right? He places the real power of growth in the seeds we plant. Sure, we plow and plant, water and wait, but God takes care of the growth. In Mark 4, Jesus used several different parables drawn from farming. The first of these, the Parable of the Sower, stresses the need for the soil to be prepared to receive God's word.  The next two parables stress that the power of spiritual growth is always God's.

• The Growing Seed (Mark 4:26-29). Jesus here uses the mystery of the growing seed to emphasize the power of God's word. The farmer does not have to understand how a seed germinates and grows; all he has to do is to trust the process. The power is in the seed, not the farmer. All by itself, the seed brings forth life. In that sense, every seed is magic. In the same way, we don't have to understand how God bears fruit in our lives. All we have to do is trust the process.
  
  
• The Mustard Seed (Mark 4:30-32). The Jews accepted as proverbial that the mustard seed was the smallest of all seeds. But the plant produced such a large shrub that birds could mistake it for a tree. What starts out very small can grow very large. Our experience in the faith may have a very humble beginning. But that small start can give rise to something very large. The seed that looks so tiny and small has the potential to grow large and strong in each one of us.

Both of these parables stress the power that the power in spiritual growth is God's. Faith grows all by itself from a small beginning into something that is very large and very strong. We don't have to understand or chart and diagram the progress. What we have to do is trust God. The process of spiritual growth can seem overwhelming. We look at where we are in our walk with God in relationship to where we need to be, and we can despair that we will ever become what God calls us to become. But there is power in the seed within us, the power to change and grow. We don't have to understand the process. All we have to do is look to the Lord of Harvest and keep watering the seed that He has placed within us.