Black Caps!

The Backyard Naturalist Strikes Again:

Black Caps!

       Ah, black caps: the thorny weed with sweet and sour black gems of pitty fruit. The outdoor baby sitter. The source of pennies from Mom. The dye for making pretend blood for play-acting.

        It’s black cap season again, and by my calculation, it’s a week or two early. Usually they are at peak just before my birthday. This time, they’re at peak for Dad’s.

       To me, picking black caps has been a favorite part of summer for as long as I can remember. The pleasure of the prizes is almost always worth the pain of acquiring them.

        Black caps are protected by an astringent white powder on the stems and thorns. The thorns vary from large enough to draw blood to nearly microscopic enough to drive one to itchy exasperation. When pricked by the thorns, the powder seems to create an extra irritant to one’s skin. Additionally, it is rare to find a stand of black caps that are mosquito-free.

       Through the years, this backyard naturalist has noticed something about the black caps. Perhaps you have, too. Daddy longlegs seem to frequent the black caps. One hot summer day, I watched a daddy longlegs on one of the juicy black berries.

       “What are you doing?” I may have whispered.

       Then I saw it. The daddy longlegs had its fangs in the fruit. It was drinking the juices out of it, its tiny fangs poking into the fruit and then slipping them into its mouth and then back into the fruit again. I delightedly reported it to Mom and Dad, who gave me more than just parental interest. Dad made his “I’m impressed!” face. He raises his eyebrows slightly, draws his chin and lower lip upward and sometimes tips his head. That expression is one of those things I live for, as my father is a brilliant man. Impressing him makes my whole year. I’m definitely, as they say, my mother’s daughter and my father’s daughter.

       Today, at the end of a walk with my sweetie, I was struck by the immensity of this year’s black cap harvest all around the edge of our development. No one had touched them, although they’ve been ripening en masse for several days. The plants seemed to be begging to be relieved of their load of juicy black fruit.

       I went inside and changed to a long sleeved shirt (even though it’s 80+º out there). In about 20 minutes, I had picked a quart.

       When it comes to harvesting “weeds,” I remind myself to not be greedy. My biblical precedent is found in Leviticus.

         Leviticus 19: 9 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. 10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 23:22 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God.

       And, in Deuteronomy:

       Deuteronomy 24: 19 When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands. 20 When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. 21 When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

 22 And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt: therefore I command thee to do this thing.

       Even with my quart of berries, there’s at least another quart out there ready for the picking. After that, maybe another wave of ones that are still pink. 

       I’ve picked enough manna for one day.

Leviticus 10: Nadab and Abihu

Nu 26:60-61 And unto Aaron was born Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. And Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before the LORD.

         Strange fire? Who were these men and what happened to them?

Background:

       Nadab and Abihu were two of Aaron’s four sons (Exodus 6:23; Numbers 3:2; I Chronicles 6:3).

       Nadab [bdn] means “generous” in the sense of giving willingly, offering freely. Abihu [awhyba] means “he is my father.” As children of Aaron, they are to minister before God as priests. In Exodus 24, they went with Moses, their father Aaron and 70 elders to see the LORD.

       Ex 24:1 And he said unto Moses, Come up unto the LORD, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off.

            Ex 24:9-11 Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel: And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.

       Nadab and Abihu saw the glory of God and lived. They were to minister alongside their father. What happened to change everything?

       In Leviticus 9, Aaron, his sons and the elders of Israel are about to offer sacrifices. In 9:7, Moses tells them:

            Go unto the altar, and offer thy sin offering, and thy burnt offering, and make an atonement for thyself, and for the people: and offer the offering of the people, and make an atonement for them; as the LORD commanded.

       After the offering, in verses 22+, God “shows up.”

         And Aaron lifted up his hand toward the people, and blessed them, and came down from offering of the sin offering, and the burnt offering, and peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out, and blessed the people: and the glory of the LORD appeared unto all the people.

             And there came a fire out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.

Strange [rwz zuwr] fire:

       We don’t know the span of time between the last verse of 9 and the first verse of Leviticus 10. It may have been minutes or weeks. We don’t know the motivation of Nahab and Abihu, either. Were they zealous and a bit too eager? Did they think their fire was good enough? Regardless, two men fell dead:

         Leviticus 10:1-2 And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.

Duties in spite of grief:

       Moses warns Aaron he must continue his duties.

         10:3 Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the LORD spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace.

       Moses directs Aaron’s cousins:

         10:4-5 And Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said unto them, Come near, carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of the camp. So they went near, and carried them in their coats out of the camp; as Moses had said.

       Then Moses directs his brother Aaron one more time.

         10:6-7 And Moses said unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sons, Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes; lest ye die, and lest wrath come upon all the people: but let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the LORD hath kindled. And ye shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: for the anointing oil of the LORD is upon you. And they did according to the word of Moses.

       What strikes  me most about this account is the heavy requirement of holiness in spite of grief. The anointing oil of the LORD was upon Aaron when all this transpired. Aaron must not, for his own safety, be involved in even touching his sons’ bodies. Let instead, the whole of Israel grieve. Aaron holds his peace [Mmd damam, to be silent, cease, grow dumb].

       Then, in Leviticus 10:12-19, Aaron and his remaining sons haven’t eaten the offering according to the directions. Moses is angry [Puq qatsaph] with Aaron and Eleazar and Ithamar. Aaron answers in 19:

Behold, this day have they offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the LORD; and such things have befallen me: and if I had eaten the sin offering to day, should it have been accepted in the sight of the LORD?

       Aaron has a good point. In their distress, would they have been in the right heart to comply with their directive?

       In verse 20:

            And when Moses heard that, he was content.

       The word for content [bjy yatab] means to be glad, joyful, pleased. It can even mean “merry.” I infer that Moses sees that Aaron “gets it.” Aaron and his sons are looking not only at the letter of the law but also its intent.

       This hasn't been the easiest of subjects. I know I haven't answered some of the bigger questions. What this passage shows me is the humanity of the people involved in a terrible situation.

       Later on, Moses will face his own grief and test when his sister Miriam dies. (Numbers 20).

Blessings and Curses, Part 2 of Leviticus 26

Part 2.

Leviticus 26:14-15

But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant:

       Brace yourself for a litany of fates far worse than a thousand camels infesting your sleeping bag.

       First, please remember that these awful results come from despising [oam ma'ac] God’s statutes and abhorring [leg ga`al] His judgments [jpvm mishpat]. The choice to follow God’s ways and the choice to not follow His ways are yours and yours alone.

       Verses 16-39 describe the awful consequences of actively going against God’s laws, among them are fear, sorrow, illness, triumph of one’s enemies. There won’t even seem to be logic to it, such as fleeing when no one is pursuing.

       Were I to dump all obedience to God, were I to dump everything to defy Him, what would bother me most are verses where God says things like “I will set my face against you” and “my soul shall abhor you.” I am reminded of (and sobered by):

Hebrews 6:4+
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

       Regardless of how you feel about “eternal security,” (the permanence of salvation by faith), the writer of Leviticus 26 spends a large amount of time describing the imminent dangers of deliberately tossing out God’s commands.

       Were these imminent dangers applicable to the Israelites? Yes, the Bible tells us so. History also tells us so. The cannibalism in verse 29 is also forewarned in Deuteronomy 28, Jeremiah 19 and Ezekiel 5. It is described as having happened in II Kings 6 and Lamentations 4.

       Does this passage apply to us as well? If so, how on earth do we apply this warning in Leviticus 26? First, I should do all I can to not despise God’s laws. Second, if I’m experiencing any of these consequences, is it not worth self-examination? Am I ridiculously nervous? phobic? No matter what I do, am I still losing? Does heaven seem like iron when I pray?

       My faith, our faith, is not a game. It is a war. I am not going to let a particular theology stand in the way of getting myself right before God. When unmistakably bad stuff is happening in my life, I shall ask God to show me where I’m despising His statutes and abhorring His judgments. It’s worth a shot and it might save my life.

       Furthermore, it is definitely pleasing to God when we say,

Psalm 139:23-24

Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

       In part 3, we will come full circle and meet the God who remembers.

Blessings and Curses, part 1.

Leviticus 26:3

If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;

Leviticus 26:14

But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;

Leviticus 26: 45 But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.

Part 1.

Leviticus 26:3

If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;

       If you want to see good stuff in your lifetime, you must understand and apply Leviticus 26. I’m not saying that God is mean spirited and vengeful. Don’t get hung up on Leviticus 26’s curses. Remember that Scripture reveals God’s character to be merciful as well as holy and just.

       God proclaimed this about Himself in Exodus 34:5-8. And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.

       In light of God’s mercy and amazing love for us, I recommend that believers look at the curses in a special light. It’s not an angry, grumpy, distant, human god pronouncing curses. It is a loving Father urging His children.

Jeremiah 31:9b for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

       Don’t we warn our children to not touch the hot stove? We don’t want them to get burned. God doesn’t want us to get burned.

       My favorite Bible is over 20 years old. The cover is held together by every Vermonter’s, Mythbusters’ and Redd Greene’s favorite: duct tape. My mom, a former librarian, first fixed it with library tape. That wasn’t enough, so I moved to the big guns. But even the miracle tape is showing its age. The strings are permanent but the silver backing is rolling up and no stickier than the pages it protects.

       This Bible has one word underlined more than any other. What word?

         If.

       “If… then… else….” God was the original writer of computer logic.

       Leviticus 26:3 opens with if. In order to experience the phenomenal blessings of Leviticus 26, the believer is to follow three conditions.

1.    Walk in my statutes

2.   Keep my commandments

3.    Do them

       Is this really a contractual agreement between God and man? Was it only meant for the Israelites, or does the principle apply to us today? Do these principles also work for non-believers?

       As God is perfect in His love and wisdom and goodness, is it safe to assume that, if these blessings are contractual in nature, it’s not God’s fault when we don’t experience all of them? Before we get mad at God for reneging on His part of the deal, let’s look at the conditions of the deal.

1. Walk [Kly yalak] in my statutes [hqx chuqqah].

       Yalak means to go, walk, come, depart, proceed, move, etc. It also means to die, live, manner of life. Moving ahead to Judges 4, here is part of the conversation between Barak and Deborah. Deborah has just told Barak he is to war against the oppressive Sisera and King Jabin. (Warning! shameless self-promotion: My screenplay Deborah was the one that made quarterfinalist in the Blue Cat screenplay competition a few years ago.)

       Oops, back to Judges 4:8-9.

And Barak said unto her, If thou wilt go [yalak] with me, then I will go [yalak]: but if thou wilt not go [yalak] with me, then I will not go [yalak]. And she said, I will surely go [yalak] with thee: notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honour; for the LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose, and went [yalak] with Barak to Kedesh.

       It’s quite possible that Barak and Deborah understood the second use of yalak, but admittedly, this is extrabiblical. I haven’t heard that many sermons about their conversation (actually, I’ve heard none). The point is, for illustration, that walking in God’s statutes is to be a way of life, a manner of living.

       Chuqqah means statute, ordinance, limit, enactment, something prescribed, custom, manners, rites. In other words, statutes means “statutes.” Ah.

2. Keep [rmv shamar] my commandments [hwum mitsvah].

       Shamar is a wonderful word. It means to keep, guard, observe, give heed, preserve, watch/watchman, watch for, wait for, keep oneself, keep, pay heed…. What a rich, thick word!

       We get bar/bat mitzvah from this word. Mitsvah means commandments, precepts, law, ordinances.

       To shamar mitsvah requires more than a surface obedience. Like walking in His statutes, this is a way of life. It seems the mitsvah is to be cherished and protected as a treasure, not just as a code of conduct.

3. Do [hse `asah] them.

       The Hebrew definitions for `asah are many. In English, we would say, “and do them.”

       To sum up, the blessings God wants to give are much less of a contract than a matter of the heart. May we, like the psalmist say,

Ps 119:97 O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.

Prohibition, Paradox and Provision: Lev. 20-22.

Leviticus chapter 20 further elucidates some of the principles in chapter 18. Of note, in Leviticus 20:1-6, God holds us accountable if we don’t intervene when we know of child sacrifice to Molech.

      [When I get to the Chronicles and the lives of Josiah and Jeremiah, I’ll take more time on those subjects. I’ll need to flex my exegetic and hermeneutic muscles for them first.]

I enjoyed verses 7 and 8.

:7-8 Sanctify vdq qadash yourself and be holy vwdq qadowsh because He is the LORD hwhy Y@hovah our God Myhla 'elohiym. Keep His statutes and do them, for He is the LORD hwhy Y@hovah who sanctifies vdq qadash us.

   These verses illustrate one of the wonderful paradoxes of God’s ways. God tells his people to [sanctify, hallow, dedicate, be holy, prepare, consecrate, be appointed, be bidden, purify] themselves. He says to be holy and to keep and do His statutes. In turn, He sanctifies them. But indeed, isn’t it He who sanctifies us in the first place?

20:26 says we are to be holy vwdq qadowsh unto God, for He is vwdq qadowsh and has separated us ldb badal (in the sense of being set apart) from other people, that we should be His.

Leviticus 21 has special rules for the sons of Aaron, as they are the ones who will be God’s priests. There are a lot of verses about which of the sons of Aaron can't make offerings.

      When I applied for the Coast Guard academy, I read in the application that you would be ineligible if you had disfiguring acne. I thought it strange. Then my wise little sister said, “Maybe because it would scare the people you are trying to rescue.” Um, ok. Maybe that goes for the priests, too? Or not.

      Since the priests were devoted to God, they were, in a sense, sacrificed/offered to Him. Just as sacrifices must be without disfigurement (see Lev. 22), so should the ministering priests be in optimal spiritual and physical condition.

      The blemished weren’t kicked out of the priesthood, but they weren’t to make the offerings. They still retained the benefits of eating the bread of God, both the most holy and the holy (20:22).

      I encourage you to think about that. How? Think about God’s holiness tempered with His mercy strengthened by His promise, fueled by trust in Him. The Levites weren’t meant to eat road kill (22:7); God’s intent was to provide both the holy and most holy bread for them. Is there a similar provision for us as believers?

The verse that came to mind was:
 John 6:35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
Thank God that the most holy of bread is available to us. To me. To you.

          Here's something nifty from:

Lev. 22:26-28 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, When a bullock, or a sheep, or a goat, is brought forth, then it shall be seven days under the dam; and from the eighth day and thenceforth it shall be accepted for an offering made by fire unto the LORD. And whether it be cow or ewe, ye shall not kill it and her young both in one day.

I think this section has both animal husbandry and spiritual implications. Any thoughts out there?

Blessings,

exodus15