On Sunday we were looking at Numbers 16. It's a passage where Moses and Aaron repeatedly faced human opposition and three times they fell on their faces before God to intercede for the people - so that the whole of the nation would not be wiped out by God's judgement. At the end of the chapter a plague breaks out in the camp and Aaron runs into the middle of the camp and stands in the gap between the living and the dead and makes atonement for the people. The plague stops but not until 14,700 people have died.
One of the roles of the High Priest was to stand in the gap between God and the people. To offer the sacrifices and to make atonement for the people. Atonement means restoring a broken relationship - in this case the gap between God and the people - the consequence of their sin. In yesterday's post I mentioned that this is the sort of passage that we find hard because God's actions seem so out of proportion with what has come before. And yet this is only the case when we don't recognise the seriousness of sin, and we downplay certain characteristics and truths about God - e.g. God's holiness and judgement. If you're anything like me you read these stories in the Old Testament and come to the conclusion that we wouldn't last three weeks before being wiped out by God's judgement. But we're not - instead we can know forgiveness, grace and atonement because Jesus stands in the gap for us. Jesus is the one who stepped in between God's judgement and the people. In Aaron the High Priest we have a picture of Jesus - standing in the gap to save us from the consequences of God's judgement.
On Sunday we looked at one of those Old Testament passages which we find very difficult because we find it hard to justify or defend God's actions. Of course God doesn't ask us to do this, and God doesn't need us to do this either. But still we feel we have to. We were looking at Numbers 16 - a story in which about 250 of the community leaders within Israel stand in opposition to Moses and Aaron. As a result - some get swallowed whole (along with their families) as the ground opens up beneath them, some are consumed in a ball of fire, and then 14,700 of the people die of plague because they grumble about Moses and Aaron. We're going to think a bit more about this during the week - but I want to start with this video.
One of the reasons the people rebelled was that they were not secure in who they were. They had been given an important role within the life of the community but still they wanted what had been given to someone else. When we a confident and comfortable with who we are because of Jesus then we will truly be able to serve.
Matthew 28:19-20 - Making and Baptising Today is the third of our days of prayer and fasting - focusing on God's vision for CBC and reflecting on Jesus' words at the end of Matthew's gospel we see that Jesus calls us to go and make disciples. In Matthew 28 - we see that being a disciple involves making disciples. Last week we were thinking about being sent out into the world, about existing for the benefit of those who are not a part of the church. Jesus calls us to be people who are characterised by love -people who see a need and who will want to respond, to help - in practical ways. One of the biggest mistakes we can make in our lives as disciples of Jesus is to separate out the ‘spiritual’ from the ‘practical’ - because this distinction leads us down lots of roads that ultimately prove to be dead-ends. We don’t meet a homeless person’s need for a warm drink in order to earn the right to try and convert them. We love them and therefore meet their need - needs which go deeper than what we can see on the outside. Human beings are complex - the physical, the spiritual, the mental, the emotional…it’s all tied up together. And our needs are often complex too. I wonder how often we see a need - let’s keep with the homeless person - and thought “if only I had £100, a £1,000 … if I won the lottery and had £1,000,000 - just think how much I could do”. But what do we have? We can introduce people to Jesus. Surely one of the things that we believe is that until a person encounters and follows Jesus their ultimate needs are never going to be met. Therefore whatever else we may be able to offer - nothing comes close to a relationship with Jesus. And that means bringing a person to a place of decision. In terms of the Discipleship Scale it’s about moving from B to C. And so whatever else we may be doing as a church - where and how are we providing people with that challenge and opportunity to make this step?
This coming Sunday (as with the past two and next week) we're going to be in the Old Testament book of Numbers. This term we're going on a journey with the people of Israel 'From Sinai to the Promised Land'. A journey that should have taken a few weeks ends up taking 40 years... If you've never read Numbers, or would struggle to provide a summary of what the book is about - then you're in good company. But here's another helpful video from The Bible Project that gives a short overview of the whole Book and where it fits in the Bible.
