Musing About Moses' Ministry

Wednesday evenings we have been slowly working our way through the Book of Numbers. I am beginning to feel that we have spent more time in Numbers than the Israelites did! (To make matters worse several church members have been grumbling saying it would have been better to have died in Egypt than continue this study.) I jest....mostly.

Last night we looked at Numbers 20, the episode where Moses strikes the rock instead of speaking to the rock, whereby losing the privilege of leading the people into the Promised Land. The discussion was quite lively as several folks speculated exactly what had been Moses great sin and why it mattered so much. It seems to be one of those passages we are just drawn to trying to fill in the blanks.

From a ministry point of view, what caught me was despite Moses' disobedience/lack of faith/anger/over identification with God the rock brought forth water. The people and their livestock were provided for. A miracle occurred. To the naked eye, you would not even notice a problem. But God did.

I wonder how often God works in spite of me. How often do I strut around as if I accomplished something noteworthy when God was really just working around me! How often I have pointed to results to validate my ministry when in reality it was just me making noise?

May my obedience increase. May my pride be adjusted. May I remain useful to the Master.

Teaching The Books of Numbers -- Update

Several weeks ago I shared that I was starting a new midweek teaching series on the book of Numbers. We are still in the earlier chapters and have not yet encountered much narrative (ok, none at all so far). But the book has provided a wonderful emphasis on the centrality of God amongst His people.

The sections concerning regulations do not quite preach with the ease of say Philippians or James. For instance chapter 5 spends quite sometime describing what amounts to an "adultery smoothie". If a woman is suspected of unfaithfulness she is to take a drink that has been prescribed by the priest. If she is innocent, nothing will happen. However, if she is guilty.....let's just say it is not good.

What does this mean? For one thing the husband is to bring his concerns and suspicions to God and not deal with them himself. But what I found interesting was that while we think of sexual immorality as a thoroughly modern problem brought on by "Sex in the City" mindset of our day, it turns out that promiscuity is "old school", requiring entire chapters of the Bible even for the veil and head covering set.

There is nothing new under the sun. All the more reason for us to build our lives with God at the center.

Teaching The Book of Numbers

The Amazon delivery man came by the church today. This always brightens your day when your community’s leading bookseller is....Walmart. Today he brought me three new commentaries.

Numbers: God's Presence in the Wilderness (Preaching the Word)
Iain M. Duguid (Author), R. Kent Hughes (Series Editor)

The Book of Numbers (New International Commentary on the Old Testament) Timothy R. Ashley (Author)

Numbers (The Tyndale Old Testament Commentary Series) Gordon J. Wenham (Author)

As some of the blogosphere’s sharpest minds you have likely deduced that I will soon be teaching on the book of Numbers (midweek Bible study).

Numbers has some wonderful narrative and really speaks to life between “where we have been” and “where we are going”. I preached through the book about twelve years ago and I enjoyed looking over my old notes earlier this week. (Does anyone else read their old sermon notes and think… “why can’t I preach that anymore”?)

Not that anyone is asking me, but if I ever write a commentary on Numbers myself I am going to try to come up with a better opening paragraph than this one from Iain Duguid --

"Before I began work on this volume, I had little exposure to the book of Numbers. I had never preached on a text from Numbers, nor, as far as I know, had I ever even heard a sermon on the book of Numbers."

Not the most confidence inspiring introduction I have ever read.

If you have preached from Numbers recently I would love to hear some of your approach. What resources did you find useful?

Tim