Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Yesterday closed with a plague, and today opened with God talking to Moses and Eliezer, the new high priest now that his father Aaron has died. God tells them to take a census. Why do we need another one of these? Because it's been 38 years since the last census, and there have been a lot of new deaths and a lot of new births in the meantime.
They needed the updated numbers since they were about to enter the Promised Land, and the leaders also verified that there were no people remaining from the first census other than Caleb and Joshua and their families. If you remember from Numbers 14, that was one of the prerequisites for entering the Promised Land. All the old generation had to die off. At the end of the census, they confirmed this.
God tells Moses and Eleazar how to divide the land He's giving them, and He says to give larger plots of land to larger tribes and smaller plots of land to smaller tribes. And again, He reiterates that the Levites will be given no inheritance of the land because God Himself was their inheritance. In chapter 27, we hit a unique situation.
Zelophehad had no sons to give his inheritance to before he died, so his five daughters approached Moses and Eleazar for consideration. But before they approached them, they had to argue their case to four other judges first. Remember how Moses' father-in-law Jethro told him to appoint judges over the people to handle things and only the biggest problems that the judges couldn't solve would be brought to Moses? That's how these five women got there. They make their case and ask for land.
Moses takes this request to God, and God says they're right. He orders Moses to give them what would have belonged to their father. Not only that, but God makes this a new law. The request of these five women and their persistence about it all showed they truly believed God when he said he was giving the Israelites the land, and they didn't want to be left out. Then God pulls Moses aside and lets him know the news. He's about to die, just as God promised him.
God tells him he'll get to see the Promised Land from the top of the mountain where he'll die. God will reveal the promise fulfilled, but Moses won't get to enter it. Don't feel too sorry for him, though. I'm pretty sure he won't be missing it where he's headed. Then, despite how horrible these people have been to Moses over the past 40 years, he pleads with God to appoint a new leader for them so they won't be like sheep without a shepherd. God commands Moses to commission Joshua, his assistant, for this role.
And in front of Eleazar, the new high priest, Moses lays his hands on Joshua and establishes him as his successor. Where did you see God's character in what we read today? What was your God shot? For me, it was in God's response to the five daughters of Zelophehad. We've seen a lot of compassion and generosity on his part, but I also think there's something very reasonable about this. Was this compassionate and generous? Absolutely. But it was also reasonable.
I'm occasionally accused of being too rational, of subtracting emotions from decision-making processes. And while I'm learning to move more toward the middle where I can incorporate both logic and emotion, I find it really comforting that our God strikes the perfect balance of both. I want to get to that place, and the Spirit serves as a good guide for me. Yes, of course, He's where the truth is, Tara Lee, but also, He's where the joy is. ♪
One of the recurring themes we see in scripture from Genesis to Revelation is the theme of idolatry. When we think of idols, we might imagine statues or things other religions worship or use for good luck. But idols can be anything that distracts our heart from engaging with God at a deeper level. Anything that has our heart's attention over God. Yikes.
So we've built out a resource with more info on how to identify idolatry in your own heart. If you want to get this free TBR resource, all you have to do is go to thebiblerecap.com forward slash idols and submit your email address. That's thebiblerecap.com forward slash idols or click the link in the show notes.