Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy Part 2
-Natalie Varonne-
Have you ever heard someone compare their sins with the sins of major characters in the Bible? “At least I’m not as bad as David…murder and adultery!” or “My sexual sin is nothing like Rahab the prostitute!” I’ve heard people wonder aloud “How could the Israelites not have learned from everything God had done for them? They’re so ungrateful!” But are we not the same in our own lives? We can be so busy studying the lives of these people that we forget to apply the concepts to ourselves. And it doesn’t take very long through that lens to see ourselves in all these characters, sin and all. We often judge the characters of the Bible, some of the most God-fearing people who exhibited tremendous faith, but who also committed gross sin. We often judge the Israelites and other characters, but fail to recognize how spiritually, we’re just like them. The only differences are the specifics of the situations and the specifics of the sins. We need to be careful in our comparisons, or we may actually be judging ourselves.
I have learned that we often get ourselves into trouble for not believing the good that God will bring us. The Israelites repeatedly doubted that God would deliver on His promises to them. God’s goodness was doubted so severely, that they would take matters into their own hands and thus disobey God. They were afraid that God would not be there for them in the unknowns and the waiting. Their impatience caused them to disbelieve and act according to their own agenda instead of God’s. Waiting caused them much fear, and in that waiting, they faltered. God’s different and longer timeline than their own caused them to doubt His goodness. They interpreted God’s “wait” as abandonment and a lack of His faithfulness. We often get these two concepts confused as well.
The Israelites passed through three different lands or stages: the slavery of Egypt, the wilderness, and the promised land. Out of the three, their attitudes and behaviors toward God in the wilderness were especially focused on in these Old Testament books of the Bible. Perhaps because the most spiritual growth occurred in this middle stage. That’s also the spiritual stage that I related to the most and see in my clients. God breaks us out of bondage, sin, or unbelief in the slavery of Egypt, and in the wilderness comes learning, pruning, and doubting. The wilderness is unexpectedly painful, as we are out of slavery and expect to enter directly into the promised land. In being freed from the “bad,” we expect to go immediately into the “good.” That middle stage, the wilderness, is often overlooked. It can feel like a form of slavery, but it is the pain of pruning, not the pain of enslavement to evil or sin. This pain is a disciplining, growing pain. We are being spiritually prepared for the promised land but it’s a grueling process. Waiting, doubting, and impatience abounds. God is strengthening and refining our faith through endurance and perseverance.
In that wilderness, the Israelites’ questions begin towards God. The “are we there yet?” and “when will this be over?” questions on repeat. We’ve all asked God in the wilderness how much longer the pain will last. We’ve all felt like we’re moving in circles and become discouraged. Sometimes we get so discouraged in the wilderness, we want to go back to the slavery we were in prior because at least it’s familiar to us. That’s what the Israelites expressed. And it’s certainly a season of complaining and lamenting to God. But He’s looking at our feet— do we obey or disobey Him, even when what He’s asking is something different than we’ve ever done? Do we trust Him to be faithful or become our own god due to the doubts? I have heard it said that faith is God’s love language, and that seems quite clear in these books.
To read about the Israelites is to read about ourselves. Not to judge them for how we are different but to learn from how we are similar. Their journey to the Promised Land is the same journey we are all on with God (if we allow Him). Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are one big spiritual roadmap. And the lessons are so important, they are emphasized to us through repetition. Their journey is one that we can all relate to and learn from, to avoid making the same mistakes that they did. It becomes a fascinating, detailed picture of our own realities. God doesn’t waste space in the Bible, and I’m grateful to have learned some of the reasonings for these writings that appear below the surface.
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