“Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods." ~ Edmund Burke
NUMBERS 30, 31
1The Lord said to Moses, 2“Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites. After that, you will be gathered to your people.”
The Israelites attack the people of Midian
7They fought against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and killed every man. 8Among their victims were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba—the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword...
13Moses, Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the community went to meet them outside the camp. 14Moses was angry with the officers of the army—the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds—who returned from the battle.15“Have you allowed all the women to live?” he asked them. 16“They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck the Lord’s people. 17Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, 18but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
MARK 9:30-50
33They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” 34But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.35Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
42“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. 43If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. [44]b 45And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. [46]c 47And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48where“ ‘the worms that eat them do not die,and the fire is not quenched.’d
JOURNAL
Well so much for Balaam obeying God. Here we find that he did not do it the overt way but actually got the Midianite women to entice the men of Israel to sleep with them. As a result a plague breaks out, kills several thousand but then God has the Israelites attack and everyone but the female virgins are killed.
Then in Mark we find the disciples arguing about who is the greatest among them. I can just see them all jockeying for position in what they believe is going to be an earthly kingdom. Jesus of course turns all this upside down and then gives them the warning to not let anything cause others to fall and to not let anything, even your own body to stand between them and God.
Reading these passages I am horrified as to how casually I have treated the Gospel. For most of my life I have used it as help guide instead of the authentic word of God. So often I have dismissed whole sections as parts I can ignore because it did not seem to fit my particular circumstance in the way I wanted it to fit. I realize more than ever that the Gospel is not something to casually read and use when I need help. I am guilty of minimizing God and completely dismissing his word. I have spoke of things I did not understand, I have acted in ways that never considered God or his word. I have questioned God because of things that seemed unfair...I have acted in ignorance and scoffed at the creator.
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