Choice vs. Destiny Part 3: Son of a Preacher Man

The sons of Amram:
Aaron and Moses.
Aaron was set apart, he and his descendants forever, to consecrate the most holy things, to offer sacrifices before the LORD, to minister before him and to pronounce blessings in his name forever. 14 The sons of Moses the man of God were counted as part of the tribe of Levi.

Today’s Reading: 1 Chronicles 22-24; John 8:28-59

Umm…. So I have a question here.

What if Aaron’s great great grandson didn’t want to do this? What if he wanted to be soldier? Fly kites? Mack the ladies? Be a carpenter?

It’s things like this in the Bible that I have a hard time with. It’s so interesting how clearly and concisely the future of an entire family line is spoken of. Aaron was set apart so all of his sons were too?

That seems ridiculous to me.

But if I were to suspend my judgment for a minute here… what if it is true?

*GASP*

What do you mean what if it is true Clarence? You know that’s just some oldfangled tomfoolery don’t you?

Well, let’s assume that it’s not for a second. What would that mean? If God determined that everyone in Aaron’s line would have this specific task what would He do to make that happen?

He’d have to give them the desire to do it.

Have you gotten to the point of figuring out what you are supposed to do with your life? How did it feel? How does it feel actually doing it? It must feel so incredibly amazing. You wake up every single day with a smile on your face, knowing that your work and your pleasure are the same thing.

That’s pretty amazing.

Maybe God puts these desires on our hearts to help guide us to our purpose. So, discovering what we most love to do would at the same time be discovering the specific reason why God put us on this earth.

I know that’s pretty romantic and all but I’m starting to believe it. We are all uniquely equipped with certain desires, talents and abilities and I see a purpose in that.

In the end we do have a choice of course. We can choose to follow the path that our deepest desires have laid out for us, or we could not. After all there is no guarantee that this most fulfilling path is the easiest one.

But the easiest paths tend not to lead us to lasting joy… instead they lead to fleeting moments of happiness sprinkled in to an unfulfilled life.

So maybe Aaron’s great great grand son thought he would have rather flown kites or been a carpenter… or maybe that was him taking the easy way out.

Perhaps if he had dug deep and searched his soul he would have realized that true fulfillment for his life would be found in working in the temple.

That sounds good for now.

Clear Vision

"Listen to my words:
"When a prophet of the LORD is among you,
I reveal myself to him in visions,
I speak to him in dreams.

But this is not true of my servant Moses;
he is faithful in all my house.

With him I speak face to face,
clearly and not in riddles;
he sees the form of the LORD.
Why then were you not afraid
to speak against my servant Moses?" – Numbers 12: 6-8

This story starts off with Moses’ brother and sister, Aaron and Miriam, talking smack about Moses because he married a Cushite (Ethiopian) woman. God hears it and then calls the three of them to him and says what is quoted above.

Then ZAP! He put that leprosy on Miriam.

Rough game.

Then Aaron begs Moses to pray to God so that God would forgive her. He does, and after seven days outside the camp she is healed. During that time Israel could not move forward. That is some serious public shame.

There are several interesting things about this story to me.

First of all… score one for interracial marriage! God wasn’t having any smack talking about Moses and his choice of wife. I think this says a lot about how important marriage is to God. It’s a permanent spiritual bond. When it is attacked, God is not pleased.

The next thing is the mention of how special Moses was. He wasn’t merely a prophet. He was the most humble man on earth! And as a result of his humility and faithfulness God spoke directly to Moses and revealed his form to him.

When we look back at all of the preparations that the high priest must perform before going into the holy of holies on the Day of Atonement, this says a lot.

The priest had to be ritually cleansed so that he could be in the presence of God and live to tell about it.

That’s just a Tuesday afternoon for Moses.

Here again are the recurring themes of faith and humility. The more faithful and humbly we live our lives, the more God reveals himself to us.

But also there is a flip side to this. God is always with us. But when we are blinded by selfishness and arrogance we cannot see outside the prism of our own interests.

Faith and humility allow us to see life much more clearly. The longer one walks that path, the clearer the image of God becomes.

Today’s Reading: Numbers 12-14; Mark 5: 21-43

We Be Grubbin'

The LORD said to Moses, "Say to Aaron and his sons: 'These are the regulations for the sin offering: The sin offering is to be slaughtered before the LORD in the place the burnt offering is slaughtered; it is most holy. The priest who offers it shall eat it; it is to be eaten in a holy place, in the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting. – Leviticus 6:24-26

Man… Aaron and his peeps were eating WELL.

So far in Leviticus Moses has been talking about various rules and regulations. Now we are at the section governing how various sacrifices are to be made.

One of the common threads between these various offerings is that they are supposed to be eaten by Aaron and his sons.

Being of the priestly line had its perks.

Aaron was the first chief priest and God decided that all of the men in his line would have the role of being the chief priests of Israel. As a result they had to essentially dedicate their lives to directly serving God.

They had to handle the Ark, pitch the holy tent, and perform all of the sacrifices for thousands of people.

That is a lot of work.

When the people sinned or did something otherwise unsavory they had to give an offering.

God required the offerings to be without blemish and of proper value so one couldn’t slide in the crippled or old sheep as their offering.

When I think about myself and all of the times in my life that I have fallen short it’s surprising to me that folk didn’t go broke giving these offerings.

But this does make me thing about the church today. We actually have something similar.

Tithes and offerings.

This has become a controversial subject for many reasons of course. Many of us have seen ridiculously ornate churches, pastors with fancy Italian suits who live in mansions, and congregations who give them fancy cars.

But when we get back to the origins of this it becomes really basic. How is someone who dedicates their life to serving others going to provide for themselves?

The can’t, so we provide for them.

Non-profits work this way. We hope that the majority of the money that we donate goes toward whatever cause they are promoting ,but we also know that some of it must go to running the organization. Every organization needs employees and resources.

The church is no different.

It is funny to me though to think of the random Israelite who brings a dove because he can’t afford a sheep. I wonder what he was thinking when he saw Aaron’s progeny smackin’ their gums on some succulent lamb chops.

Can a brotha get some of that laaaaaamb?

Nope, sure can’t… cause with that benefit comes a WHOLE LOT of responsibility.

At the end of the day the priests have to answer directly to God. And God don’t take too kindly to folk who mess over his people

Today’s Reading: Leviticus 6-7; Matthew 25: 1-30