Numbers 16-18

God’s message to me: God makes His choice quite clear. The rod of Aaron was a sign to the people that he and his descendants were to be the priests. God made that choice clear to Aaron by speaking to him directly beginning in Numbers 18:8. While Aaron had been High priest and Done much of the speaking for Moses, God rarely spoke to him directly. God spoke to Moses and Aaron trusted it was God’s word when his brother passed along the message.

Promises: God will not be mocked. He will not allow those he has chosen to lead and to serve Him to be undermined. He will not tolerate the arrogance of those who would take demand positions and authority that do not belong to them. Nor will he allow the humble nature of His servants and their desire to serve others be used to weaken the positions He has given them.

The bible repeatedly calls Moses meek and humble. When others stood against Him, and even threatened his life, he not only tried to appease them but begged God to forgive them and not to harm them. When the leaders among the Levites tried to supplant him as ruler and Aaron as High Priest, Moses pleaded for life. His plea resulted in God granting time for others to get out of the way before He killed the leaders and their followers. When the people of Israel rose up against Moses and Aaron the next day, blaming them for the death of the 250 rebels, God sent a plague that killed 14,000 before Aaron was able to make atonement for their rebellion so that God would stop the plague. While Moses pleaded for their lives, Aaron placed himself in the path of death to protect them.

God chose them to lead. He didn’t allow their servants hearts to undermine them in the face of rebellion. Having a large group of leaders disagree couldn’t take them from their positions. Having the congregation rebel could not remove them. Even the sins they committed in anger or arrogance was not enough to remove them from the job God chose them for. They had to atone for their sins and a later act in anger would keep Moses from entering the promised land but, God would not allow them to be removed from their posts. Unrepented sin and unwillingness to stay in the job God has chosen are the two consistent reasons for public failures of ministries. Some fail when the person takes a job God didn’t intend for them but such failures normally come long before it can become a public spectacle.

Commands: The tithes and some of the offerings are the payment for the priests. They, in turn, offer their tithe to God(in the tabernacle some was as burnt offering)to serve the tabernacle/church. Supporting your church is proper and supporting your pastor/minister/priest is commanded. It is his duty to serve the congregation. Asking him to do so while holding an outside job to feed himself and his family takes from his ministry and is against God’s command.

Timeless principles: People do not want to hear God directly because they can’t ignore him as the do men.
God chooses people to do a job and no one can take them from that job once it is done.
Trying to do so subjects them to God’s wrath.
Rebellion against our spiritual leaders is rebellion against God.
Support your spiritual leaders financially, it is God’s command.

How can I apply what I’ve learned: Pay my tithes and offerings and never rebel against the payroll of my pastor. It is God’s command to support the church leader. Stewardship of the building and items dedicated to God’s work is the job of the Pastor hand those who serve as the Levites did. Whether they do the job right is between them and God.

more to learn for in-depth study: At the beginning, God spoke to the people of Israel from the cloud. They fell down in fear and insisted Moses and Aaron speak with Him for them. They claimed to be afraid to hear from Him directly. Like many, they understood that it was easy to discount the words of a man on God’s behalf than to ignore God’s direct words. This first passage reiterates this point.

People ignore their preacher and say “he’s just a man”. They let their bibles gather dust. They ignore their conscience, they do all these things so that they can continue to live as they wish and call it good. They do not want to acknowledge God’s word because, if they do, they have to change. As the Israelites chose Moses to be their spokesman with God, many leave it to their pastors to act as their spokesman. In this way they don’t hear God’s word directly and feel safer in ignoring it. If they read their bible and listened to the Holy Spirit they would be to afraid to continue in their path so, they replace those methods of communication with just listening to their spiritual leaders. Then they ignore them. They act as though they are rebelling against a man when they are rebelling against God.

It is both useful and dangerous to seek a sign. God is more than willing to give proof of His choice but, ignoring that proof becomes more dangerous than ignoring the choice without the proof. God chose Moses and Aaron. The Israelites accepted that choice and begged them to speak with God alone out of fear when they heard His voice directly. When they ignored the choice they made God angry and those who rebelled against the choice died. God gave the sign of Aaron's rod as a warning against further insurrection.

tomorrow: Numbers 19-21