Balaam and Balak are our two new characters, I like to picture Balaam as Shrek since he's the one with the talking donkey (or...I'm so sorry, I have to say it.....the one with the talking ass)
So, who are these peeps anyway? Balaam, son of Beor, was a prophet from Penthor, on the Euphrates River, and Balak, son of Zippor, was a king of Moab.
God speaks through Balaam, and Balak isn't really feelin it. Balaam speaks of the impending destruction of Moab, and Balak didn't like that, indubitably.
When we go back to our lowly Israelites we find them at it a gain. ONCE again they are misbehaving....I'm not totally sure I think these people are smart enough to do much of anything. But I will tell you what I'm beggining to think. What if we just CAN'T be that good all the time. Like, I've said many times before, these people actually hear the voice of God. God is leading them, he is giving them water out of rocks and bread from the sky. He has parted an entire sea, he has opened the Earth and swallowed them, he has sent serpents and fire. All of this and these people still mess up, go against Him and his rules, they desire, they complain, they covent. Am I being cynical in saying, If THEY can't do it....NO ONE can?
Meet our new hero: Phinehas who is a grandson of Aaron.
He's an up and coming star of the priesthood. Phinehas great act involves these two folks Zimri and Corzi. Phin sees that Zimri has brought a Midianite woman, Corzi into the camp and he totally turns the two into a big, giant, sin filled human shish kabob.
The Lord simply loves this and assures Phinehas he shall have everlasting priesthood. Then he tells Moses to go pick a fight with the Midianite....
We have then a bunch of atonement stuff and finally we find out that Moses may be getting a little break soon. God has him put SOME of his honor and authority upon Joshua, son on Nun.
I'm off to see the Wizard...Happy 4th
16 comments:
I don't think it's a matter of the Israelites can't obey, they just choose not to. I think maybe because they're kind of "spoiled" seeing and communicating with God so much that they take it for granted and become numb to the whole thing. Definitely spoiled.
Furthermore, I think this is no different than nowadays in many respects. There are signs and miracles performed by God everyday..great and small, but we choose to ignore them and explain them away as coincidence, or give credit to other gods like Buddha or Hindu gods or Allah, etc, or even give the credit to ourselves. We "worship" material things, and think we do great things as a result of our own independent abilities and greatness, basically declaring ourselves gods on earth. All of creation, as explained by scientific and mathematical FACT supports design (and therefore Designer), but we choose to ignore it and attempt to create (ironic) THEORIES to explain the world, and in doing so constantly contradict ourselves and even mute the very stance we try to make in naturalism/materialism. And we do all of this, utlimately, so we don't have to be held accountable or responsible (to a Higher Power) which is becoming a predominant trend in every aspect of our society whether it's welfare, criminal punishment, and even how we raise our kids. It's all about "I'm ok, your ok", "do what feels good", "you're your own god", etc. All of these views share one important aspect or lack thereof...accountability.
You also notice that God tell Moses that the Israelites have endured enough from the Midianites. As I've said before, Jesus says in the N.T. to turn the other cheek, but God only gave us two of those...there is a time when Christians do not have to be pushed around anymore.
We also see a glimpse of some women's rights here. God says they do have a rightful place in the inheritance line. Sons, daughters, uncles, next of kin. So for those who think Christianity allows for no women's rights, that's not true, and we'll see more later.
Moses is such a great man that even upon his approaching death, he's worried about the Israelites, and asks God to provide for them a military/domestic and spiritual leader. He doesn't complain and say what about me? Look at all I've done. wah wah wah! It's about God's will and His people.
The reading for tomorrow (Tues) is Num 28-32. Sorry, the holidays and traveling got us a little off track.
SO here's where I'm confused based on everything you've told me thus far; you say we should not think we do great things based on our independent ability. Which I assume you mean it is God we should give thanks to for allowing us to do great things. But, you also said that God doesn't so much bless the folks that don't believe in him or believe that he gave his only begotten son for them (this was at the beginning when I said I had a great life and felt very blessed, you said "not so fast, sister).
SO following that logic, non-christians who do great things, such as Einstein, do actually do them all on their own? Or what about the atheist who accomplishes great things, or not even GREAT thing but just has a happy, fulfilling life. How does that happen?
As far as the raising kids with no accountability, telling them to do what feels good, I know a lot of non-christian people and none of them are raising kids this way. I'm not sure how to even respond to that one. I think judging the way people raise thier kids is a dangerous thing either way. I would never pretend to know what goes on in someones house. I guess I could comment on the pictures we see of children dressed in "god hates fags" t-shirts. But I won't because I know those are extremist people. Just as I imagine people who tell thier kids to do whatever feels good and not hold them accountable.
I don't know, this all seems to be getting very interpretive. It's what you see in the words. I just wonder if other people see the same things?
no they don't see the same things, which is why you see people like Jamie condemning the Catholics and Mormons and 7th Day Adventists, etc, etc, etc.
The reason they all interpret the mind/character of God differently is the mind/character of God exists only in their minds, and as a result is a subjective entity.
The moment my eyes opened this morning my mind went strainght back to you, dear blog. Luckly my laptop was beside my bed and with the sandman's sleep still in my eyes I type.
I want to know about Oskar Shindler, who saved over a thousand Jews, was that God who helped him do that? And if so, why would he if they were destined to burn in hell anyway? And what about Miep Gies? Did He help her hide the Frank family for four years just so Anne would be a little older when she was sent in her hand basket to hell?
If we stay on that track wouldn't Hilter's incinerators just be a means to an end?
And the Jews weren't the only ones on my mind as I awoke this morning. The Dalai Lama and all the Tibetan monks, who live thier lives so peacefully, so honorably. For that they deserve hell? Who's helping then achieve this level of goodness? These are great men; who made them that way?
When a non-christian succeeds, without the help of God (because he isn't blessing us) then does that make them indeed gods on earth, if it is our own independent ability and greatness?
I'm not saying I agree with that logic, but according to what you said wouldn't it stand to reason?
Ah ha, but you're going to say that God created us with the gifts we have so still we should give him credit.
God all knowing and all powerful, creates the Buddhist, creates the Jew, creates the atheiest.
You will say, no these people choose this path.
So a newborn baby born to a Jew chooses her path?
What about an Indian villager who lives so isolated that he has never heard of Christ. However, he lives and breaths to support his family. He cares for the elderly of his village. He tends to the sick. He feeds the widows. He is a great man, a success in life.
Who is blessing him? Who has created him?
I have to stop......its my daughter's birthday, it's 7:30 in the morning and I've given myself a headache.
Can we get Jamie to open more blogs with skeptics reading so that we can remove any possibility that they become Christian as well?
You are TOTALLY misconstuing what I said. We have God given talents and abilities (whether Christians or not) that we can use to do good or bad. I wasn't, in any way, implying that we can't take credit for things cause God is operating puppet string on us. And I wasn't implying that non-Christians can't do whatever or claim whatever they want. You asked me to do this blog cause you wanted to know why I, and many other (not all) Christians, think like we do; yet, you apparently have let other people whisper in your ear and you've began to get away from what YOU said was the purpose of this. Instead of trying to understand another's viewpoint, you're questioning why the story isn't going the way you would have wrote it, I guess. It's funny you don't give up on Jane Austen or Darcy in chapter four of P n P, but God and Christianity you are ready to throw out the window after only a couple of books. You know better understand God now, then you did Darcy in the early going. And as I've explained numerous times, Christians think, according to the Bible, that it's not good enough to just be good and/or do good works; you must 1) acknowledge you're a sinner, 2) believe that Jesus was the Son of God and that He died on the cross for your sins (past, present, and future), and 3) accept Him as your personal saviour. If you don't do that, regardless, of whether you're a Buddhist monk and you chant peace from now til Kingdom come, you will go to Hell; because that's what God's Word says. Now, if you don't like that and/or don't believe that, then you are not a believer. And last I checked, you were not.
And although Einstein may not have been a Christian, he did believe in a higher power, a Designer(Creator).
As far as the Indian villager who you says doesn't know. Later (again, the story isn't over) we'll read that ignorance is no excuse. Now, I know you're sitting there thinking that's not fair, but you'll see why. It's about that internal moral code that God has placed in all of us. You act as though you don't understand why Christians don't believe that Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, etc. if they're good people will go to Heaven. CAUSE WE'RE CHRISTIANS! If we believed that we wouldn't be Christians, we'd be I'm ok, your oks.
Jamie,
Please don't take advantage of Crystal by insinuating that Einstein had the same faith as you. He merely intimated that "God" was the label he put on the shape, beauty, and structure of the universe.
He, in no way, shape, or form, felt that it came about as a result of a Personal god. In fact, he believed that everything you believe in was a load of hogshit, which it is.
Here is an excerpt from one of the last letters he wrote, before he died: (The letter up for sale, written to philosopher Eric Gutkind in January 1954, suggests his views on religion did not mellow with age.)
"The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish."
"For me," he added, "the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions."
You are a liar and a fraud, don't put words in Einstein's mouth.
Jamie,
We can't just blindly accept each of your interpretations and then magically "believe" at the end. Convincing arguments don't work that way. Each step has to make sense or the final conclusion will not be valid.
How many ways can you interpret genocide? How many ways can you interpret God requiring people to kill women and children and being mad at them when they had the good sense to question this horrible command?
If you believe a loving, all powerful God requires the death of innocent people who just happen to be in the path of his "chosen" people, then what won't you believe? What kind of horrors won't you be able to justify?
Its unfair to me to claim I'm allowing people to sway me one way or another. I have my own mind and these are my personal concerns. Yes I started this to understand the way Christians think. But, I was not prepared for all of this. I'm not giving up I've just hit another speed bump and I want clarification.
you say this:
"As far as the Indian villager who you says doesn't know. Later (again, the story isn't over) we'll read that ignorance is no excuse. Now, I know you're sitting there thinking that's not fair, but you'll see why. It's about that internal moral code that God has placed in all of us. You act as though you don't understand why Christians don't believe that Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, etc. if they're good people will go to Heaven. CAUSE WE'RE CHRISTIANS! If we believed that we wouldn't be Christians, we'd be I'm ok, your oks."
and to this I think "HOW CAN YOU BE A PART OF THAT!!!!!" This is what the blog if for. Its easy to explain the Josephs, and that stuff I didn't ask any more about. It's THIS stuff that I NEED to understand in order to fully understand Christianity. "Because the Bible says so"?, I can get that answer from any body walking down the street.
And most people nowadays, including some "Christians", do teach their kids whether out right, or indirectly, the I'm ok, your ok junk. All you have to do is not be blind and you can see that. With violent video games, and how they relate to the opposite sex, using foul language, listening to music they shouldn't be listening to, etc. etc. The get caught with a little weed, and the parents just say, Oh, it's just a little weed. And although they might ground them for a week, they act as thought it's no big deal. This is how many parents raise their kids. Letting them "experiment" with homosexuality as well as sexuality...allowing their boyfriends/girlfriends to sleep over, etc. This is common knowledge. It absolutely is true that people are raising their kids to think that as long as their "good" the rest doesn't matter...when it absolutely does (for Christians).
And the last thing is that Satan has the power to bless people as well. In fact, in the N.T. when Jesus is on the mountain top for 40 days ( i know, again with the 40), Satan tells Him to worship him and he'd give Jesus the entire Earth (which is silly of course, being that Jesus is a part of God and has much more than that). Satan doesn't care if you're Buddhist, atheist, or a Muslim extemist, he will bless you, too. He is trying to see his own will done over God's. He has lots of tricks up his sleeves. If you've ever seen the biography of Hitler you know how much he was blessed by Satan and errantly claimed that it was God.
I understand that, but you said you wanted to go through this verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book, but as soon as you have some kind of dream or something you wake up questioning the whole enchilada, even though you know we just started (as I've said). So, again, the ignorance thing will be addressed in the New Testament by Paul, I think. So, do you wanna go book by book or jump around?
Jamie,
What was the point of the Devil tempting Jesus/God? Wouldn't the Devil know that God is all powerful and therefore unbeatable?
This brings up another question. How do we know the Bible wasn't written by the Devil? He's a pretty crafty guy, you know.
Also, can you please answer Crystal's concerns directly instead of going off on tangents that have no bearing on the issue at hand?
You implied that you don't like the, "because the Bible says so answer", but that makes no sense. Afterall, Christians believe what they believe because of what the Bible says. So when non-Christians make out like that answer isn't good enough or is some how a cop out, is totally ludicrous. I mean, if you asked a physics teacher a physics question and they referenced the laws of physics in the text book you wouldn't say that was a cop out or a bad answer. Well, the Bible is God's book of moral law. So why shouldn't a Christian reference it in defense of their beliefs. So to answer your question more specifically (although I think I already did), it says in the New Testament that it is not enough to just be good and do good works, you must do those three things I listed earlier. Just like Christians don't believe in homosexuality because the Bible says it's wrong. The difference between many skeptics and believers in all of this is that believers are willing to accept God's Word that things are bad or good, and skeptics question why things are declared bad or good by God.
Jaime,
Once again you're being intellectually dishonest or else you're deluding yourself.
You said:
"if you asked a physics teacher a physics question and they referenced the laws of physics in the text book you wouldn't say that was a cop out or a bad answer."
The difference here is obvious.
Physics is a science with real, measurable effects. (Gravity, Speed of light, etc) The laws and theories of physics have been repeatably tested and found valid by people of many different religious, ethnic and educational backgrounds.
On the other hand, Christianity is only valid to those who first accept the Bible as fact without evidence (e.g. Faith) and then apologetically try to "prove"it when challenged by non-believers.
And as we've seen in the comments of this blog, the Bible is easily refuted by anyone who studies it objectively.
Jamie is getting upset, and for that, I can't apologize and hope that I played a role in him getting upset, because in turn, he may critically analyze and examine his beliefs.
Crystal and friends...ask yourself this simple question: Why, when you read the Bible, are you not left in awe?
Why doesn't a book written by an omniscient being leave you with a sense of wonder and amazement?
If you are reading a book written by the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving creator of the universe, wouldn't you expect to be stunned by the brilliance, the clarity and the wisdom of the author?
Wouldn't you expect the author to tell us things that scientists have not been able to discover yet?
Yet, when we open the Bible and actually read it, we find it is nothing like that at all. Instead of leaving us in awe, it leaves us dumbfounded by all of the nonsense and backwardness that it contains, and Numbers is a great example of that awe-inspiring ridiculousness.
If you read what the Bible actually says, you find that the Bible is ridiculous.
The entries this week barely even scratch the surface of the Bible's numerous problems. If we are honest with ourselves, it is obvious that an "all-knowing" God had absolutely nothing to do with this book.
The reason why the Bible contains so much nonsense is because God is a man-made construct.
The Bible is a book written thousands of years ago by primitive men.
A book that advocates senseless murder, slavery and the oppression of women has no place in our society today.
Crystal, I hope that you don't let Jamie bully you into hiding your thoughts.
They are different than mine, and we disagree on many things philosophical and spiritual...but I'd never dream of telling you the things you believe or the doubts you express are worthy of eternal damnation.
That's the way a broken, sick mind works.
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