Sunday 25th August
Read Psalm 71
If you don’t have a bible at home you can find the readings on a website such as www.biblegateway.com or an app such as YouVersion
This Psalm contains a multitude of thoughts, prayers, petitions and praise and needs to be read slowly and meditatively. Some of it will undoubtedly speak personally to you. Rev George Philip of Sandyford Henderson Church in Glasgow spoke once of the elderly lady who said that many verses in scripture were like sweeties – “you have to tak’ them and sook on them” – to get the best out of them. That will certainly be true in this Psalm.
For those in senior years let us remember v18,
“Even when I am old and gray,
do not forsake me, my God,
till I declare your power to the next generation,
your mighty acts to all who are to come.”
Read, meditate, and share.
READINGS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD
Monday Numbers 19:1-10
These verses about the Red Heifer have a very important place in the Bible and in contemporary Judaism. A red heifer without blemish, and never having been yoked, was to be taken outside the camp, be slaughtered and its blood was to be taken to the tent of meeting and sprinkled seven times in front of the tent. The priest was to return to where the heifer was sacrificed and to watch as it was burned. Cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet wool was to be thrown onto the burning heifer with the ashes being gathered up and kept securely. These ashes were to be used in the water of purification, water poured over the ashes and kept in a container. There use will be exemplified in the following verses.
Purification is necessary for relationship with God thus the importance of these ashes. The tent of meeting was purified by the ashes and in the New Testament this ritual was given a Christological meaning which we can see in the writer to the Hebrews who says, “For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb 9:13)
According to rabbinical tradition there were 9 red heifers sacrificed from Moses’ time until the destruction of the 2nd Temple in A.D. 70. Maimonides said that when the tenth red heifer came it would indicate the time of the Messiah and the building of a third Temple. Some modern Orthodox Jews together with certain strands of Christian thought believe that the present day is near that time of the Red Heifer. Five red heifers arrived in Jerusalem in September 2022 and many believe this was a fulfilment of prophecy and a precursor of the building of a third temple. Regardless of what we think, these Old Testament passages are looked at with current value and interest today.
Perhaps Handel’s Messiah is a good place to end about purifying. Listen to “And He shall purify”
The next verses are about the use of the water of cleansing and it begins with those who have been in touch with a dead body. Anyone who has been in such a position would be unclean for seven days, this meant that they had to stay apart from the congregation of the people, you couldn’t worship God in an unclean state. This wasn’t sin in that it could and would occur in day to day living, for example in dealing with a dead body. Reading down the verses we see that death comes out strongly in things which cause uncleanness and in order to be readmitted to the worshipping company of the congregation one had to be purified by means of the water of cleansing which was water that had been poured over the ashes of the slain red heifer.
Handel in the Messiah has Malachi 3:3, referred to above, pointing to Christ who comes to purify. Like the red heifer which was taken out of the camp to be slaughtered so Christ was taken out of the city to the hill of Golgotha where he was crucified and where his blood, mixed with water, ran down onto the ground.
Thus Christ is not only the Paschal Lamb sacrificed for our atonement but also the Red Heifer sacrificed for our purification.
In Chapter 20 Miriam’s death is remarked upon. Miriam, Moses’ wife, had led the people in dancing and song after the escape from the Red Sea during which Pharoah’s troops had all drowned. Although Aaron, Moses brother, was often linked with Moses Miriam was also an important figure amongst the people.
Immediately after this, the beginning of the Chapter is given to a crucial incident in the life of Moses, one which will seal his future as not being able to enter the promised land. It starts with a quarrel, the people grumble, yet again, in opposition to Moses and Aaron for leading them to this Desert of Zin where there was no water and harking back to their time in Egypt when things according to them were better.
The following account has given rise to many explanations as to what Moses did wrong that resulted in his exclusion from the promised land, but it is certainly given as something important. It is seen as a difference in the command of God and the action of Moses. He is told to speak to the rock whereas, copying what he did 40 years before, he struck the rock. In the earlier case (Exodus 17:6), just after they had left Egypt, the striking and provision of water for the people nothing seems to have been amiss, the only difference here is that he fails to follow God’s command to speak to the rock. His failure, speaking harshly to the people (he calls them rebels) also includes words to the effect that he speaks of himself and Aaron performing the act instead of God (v10). However God’s condemnation of him is that he doesn’t trust him nor honour him before the people and he will be excluded from entering the land with the people.
This passage contains a conversation with the Edomites whose territory was to the South East of the promised land they were heading towards. Moses sent messengers to the Edomites (who were the descendants of Esau, Jacob’s brother) to ask permission to pass through their land though in a non-hostile way. Edom, perceiving a danger of allowing them access, refused, despite Moses statement that he would not take anything of theirs – no livestock, no water. Edom even mustered an armed force to bar the way and so they turned around to skirt the land.
Sometimes wisdom would inform us not to confront but to take the way of peace in our dealings with others. Some battles are more important than others and if we are wise we will know that difference. Perhaps that may be a word for you today in present circumstances.
Friday Numbers 20:22-29
The death of Aaron is told here with his connection with Moses at the incident at the waters of Meribah at the beginning of the chapter. God was not going to allow Aaron to enter the land either just as he has refused Moses, however the priesthood was not to end. Aaron was given instructions with regard to passing on the priesthood to his son Eleazar.
Somone has once said that no-one should be doing any task in the Church who isn’t also preparing someone else to follow them. That is probably a good idea because all too often certain tasks are left to certain people in the hope that they will always be there to do the job. Not the best idea. Before Aaron died he passed on the duties of his role to Eleazar and the community mourned Aaron’s passing when Moses and Eleazar came down Mount Hor.
We are dealing with the southern part of the area the Israelites were heading toward, a barren, desert land called the Negev which, looking at a map, is to the left of the lower part of the Dead Sea. It was a land of Amalekites and Canaanites and the king of Arad decided he was going to attack the people of Israel and did capture some. What follows is the vow the people of Israel take in a plea to God that if he will give them into their hands they will destroy all the places of occupation that they lived in. The passage tells us that they did and the place became known as Hormah which means broken or banned to destruction.
The Amalekites we know, from the first place we meet them, were devoted to the destruction of this people and would always be a threat to Israel the only possibility would be their destruction. As we have seen the Old Testament is full of physical attacks to stop the appearance of Jesus. We are in a different battle now. We still have enemies but not the physical ones needing killed but the forces of evil which gather around us and try to stifle us. They try to destroy us by way of “enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions …etc (Gal 5:19-21) and much more. Some of these enemies may be fought against but are there not some which need to be done away with outright? Pride, self-regard, vicious revenge? The Amalekites and Canaanites of our lives are inside, not in the territory that we live in.
