The Numbers 3:16

16 So Moses counted them, as he was commanded by the word of the LORD.



So in Leviticus God says to sacrifice animals in order to make up for sin and remeber God, but who was going to run the operation. Well, God said that every firstborn son should dedicated to him and serve him. But logistically, that's a little tough to coordinate, so God declares that the clan of the Levites can take the place of the firstborns. But are there enough Levites to take the place of all of the firstborns? Thus we have the need for a census and a count of all the people (hence "Numbers").

What was the result? Well it turns out that there were about 270 more firstborns then Levites and there were sacrifices offed to make up for the difference. While in Levitcus you see alot of the qualitative detail given to his following, here in numbers you see much of the quantitative precision. A ton of care was given to following God to the letter back then.

Leviticus 3:16: Here Come the Sacrifices

16 The priest shall burn them on the altar as food, an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma. All the fat is the LORD's.



Its interesting to see the progression of the 3:16's so far. First in Genisis, there was that initial sin that caused the generational reprecussions. Then in Exodus, peple mess up and land in Egypt, but God never lets go of them and rescues them as they turn back to him, even though he dosen't have to. But that's not the last of sin, and the funny thing is people keep forgetting the past. They don't realize that weight God pulls for them and how different God wants his people to be.

So in Leviticus he lays down rules. Rules that remind people of their sin nature and in the long run demonstrate the continual inadequacy of humans to manage their own actions and live up to Gods standard. Some of the instructions make lots of sense for the time and some are downright crazy (we used to keep a list of the most humorous... perhaps another post)

I guess in the big scheme of things, these rules show us that we can only be good enough for God if he provides a way for us rather then us trying to sacrifice our way out of sin. The point is (and later 3:16's emphasize this) that Jesus was that final sacrifice and made ritual sacrifices unneeded.

Exodus 3:16 -- Mr. Moses

16 "Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt."



Hmm, well it looks like alot has passed since those Genesis days. Here's a couple things that have transpired

1. More then 2 people are on earth now (like lots of people)
2. The world starts ignoring God again and God floods the world exept this dude named Noah and his family who build a boat.
3. Abrahmam is chosen out of all people to start this nation of people known as the Isrealites.
4. One of the decendents inherits the blessing of God and has 12 sons who become the 12 tribes of Isreal later.
5. Now the drama starts (as if it hadn't already). One of Jacob's sons isn't liked y the others, is sold into slavery in Egypt, but though Gods helps become a powerful leader and since there's no email nobody in Isreal knows about it. But there's a famine and it turns out the only place that has food is Egypt and the Isrealites go there. Joseph feeds them and the Isrealites stay there only to become slaves generations later to the dominating Egyptians (Sounds like Alladin to me).


Ok, so fast forward to Egypt during the time of the pharaohs. This Moses guy is born to the enslaved Isrealites and grows up with the Egyptians, but makes some mistakes and hides in the desert. Then after some years in isolation, God shows up and tells him Exodus 3:16 and that now Moses has to go back to Egypt and lead people out of there (with God's direction of course).



So What are we supposed to get from this? Well, I guess we see a pretty big contrast from Genisis 3:16 where people lost their direct contact and blessing from God. And here we have a reassurance that God never left completely, and he still has plans for his people. He still see the good and the bad. Not that he doesn't let the bad happen. Sometimes we need the bad to teach us whats up and build some character. In fact for the Isrealites this was a 500 year lesson (meaning some people could have built lots of character in their lives!) Sometimes we just need a longer term perspective.

Genisis 3:16 -- Oh Women...

16 To the woman he said,
"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you."


Sad day. Heres the story:

1. God makes Earth, Man, Woman, Komodo Dragons, ect.
2. Devil Tempts man into doing something God forbid.
3. Humans have consequences that suck.
4. (later) God gives us a future hope.

Among the woman's woes, include Serpents having to crawl in the dust and men having to work hard for their survival. Plus the paradise garden that people lived in was now closed off. Sad way to start the world.

On a side note, I've always wondered why God even chose to create the world in the first place. I like to think its for the same reason that I play Sim City 2000 (best game ever).

The 3:16s of the Bible

So I was reading the verse 1 Tim 3:16 from the Bible and realized there's alot of interesting verses in the 3:16 locations in the Bible. I figured that would be a typical "thesis" point on a book, you know far enough in so that you have the point of the book but not so far that you just have boring details. So IO decided to look into the 3:16 verses one by one and found some interesting stuff. So for the next few weeks I'll try to be serious and inform my readers of these passages.

Grant

Today I read Grant Blhombdhal's blog.

Cube Conversations

So I had a request to start blogging about life at Intel in a Cubicle. I may start this for two reasons:

1. So that all of the old (and worthless) blogs I made will be pushed into the archive stack

2. So that the 3 other people who read my blog will know what happenes in my cube.


So today the cube safety people came by. I had to hide my ninja stars and prented like I was working for a few minutes. I've also got a pretty fany mail system set up with my cube neighbor. We have this slot in our cube wall where we can slide sinlge leafs of paper. Come in handy on occasion. I realized if you rearange the letters in cubical, you can make "Cub Lice."
I realized this secret at 12:48:17. pm.

Serbia 2006

So I feel at time I maybe haven't made great use of the lessons and stories I have learned from the trip, and to prvent the loss of these lesson from my brain I have decided to start blogging about the mission trip I took to Serbia this summer. Keep watching for more stories as the weeks go by and I may just move this to a seperate blog.

Cool Enough