August 6

Lev 27 – Vows made to the Lord were to be made verbally / out loud. There is more import when stated this way v.s. simply thinking of it.  Plus there is a testimony factor and accountability from others hearing it as well.  When a gift / offering was given to the Lord, there were stipulations.  An offering may be an animal, a residence, a plot of land.  The priest was involved in the receiving of the gift.  There may be negotiation, assessment of value, matters of the calendar factored against the coming Year of Jubilee – all this was weighed out and calculated.  Try not to become weary in hearing this process through. We have plenty of venues that are just like this in our current culture where all kinds of brain power is required and nonchalant attitudes are unacceptable.  Think of Christmas time and gift purchases at an extended family gathering.  There are so many countering relative issues to factor in: ages, gender, preferences to consider, emotions that ebb and flow like seasonal tornadoes. needs are weighed against wants, wishes are compared to desires, there’s “necessity v.s. greed”. There is fairness to be mindful of.  Try telling people to just ‘buy whatever’ and try telling disconcerted young children to just be happy with their broken,

re-gifted, 15 year old toy.  Not o.k. !!  Yea, Well try being sloppy with God.  Is HE less important? The teaching of the tithe was taught again before Leviticus ends. It was not new. Abraham was tithing more than 600 years prior. Tithing kept people mindful of God and His Presence every step of life.

Numbers 1 – It was census time.  Moses was to count the number of men.  There were just under 2/3 million men and they were fastidiously counted out.  It is not that the women “did not count”. It was that were there to be “a call to arms”!, for instance, the women were to be protected and an immediate ‘head count’ of the men was needed in a moment.  There had to be a current and constant count of the men ready. This was done; they were numbered, –> in Numbers 1.  There was another census taken 38 years later in Numbers 26 – we’ll read that on October 1. The comparison of the two census’ is intriguing how the number changed after 38 years of pounding sand because they were too fearful to enter into God’s best for them..

#’s 2 – There was a precise “military style” order that was to be followed when the Israelites were encamped.  The Tabernacle was in the middle and the 12 tribes were arranged on all four sides with three of the tribes each per side.  The crowd was vast and they were to do things in an orderly manner such as this.  It was not proper for things to become haphazard and have the procedures get reduced to madness like what happens at large scale concerts today [[[[where Christendom is the last thing on anyone’s mind!]]]].  There was a pattern to be followed when camping and a matching [though not identical] pattern to be followed when marching to a new location.  God laid it out for them.  There was not time or even the capability to experiment with trials and errors that could become dangerous stampedes on accident. Just do as God says.