May 5 ▪ Day 125

Scripture Readings

Proverbs 16:33
Leviticus 26–27
Acts 22
Psalms 125

Verse Focus (Proverbs 16:33)

The lot is cast into the lap,
     but its every decision is from the LORD.

Meditation

Our verse focus today, Proverbs 16:33, tells us, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.” What a profound statement! God controls even the things that seem random chance. God’s sovereignty is absolute. Nothing is too small for the LORD to notice. Nor is anything so big that He cannot handle it. He knows when sparrows fall; He sees what happens behind closed doors; He controls every roll of the dice.

The question is, what do we do with this knowledge? When I was younger, I wanted to apply this proverb as a means of getting answers from God. Should I study? Should I go out with friends? Should I take a nap? Heads up, yes, tails down, no. After all, God also controls every flip of the coin. Of course, what would really happen is that I would flip a coin, and the answer of the coin would tell which choice I really wanted to make. It revealed more about my own heart than anything else.

As I matured, I began to see that I was twisting Scripture by using coin flips to decide upon a course of action. I was actually testing God. That behavior said that I didn’t want a relationship with God — I was neither asking Him directly for wisdom, nor was I growing in prayer. All I wanted was the convenience of a push-button fortune teller.

Well, I don’t flip the coin any more to tell me what God wants me to do (although occasionally I’ll flip a coin to figure out what it really is I want to do). But my question still stands. What do we do with the knowledge that we gain from this proverb? How should we apply this proverb to our lives?

I think we are meant to see God’s hand in all circumstances. Things happen to us and around us. But we shouldn’t see this as happenstance; God is very careful about what He allows to transpire. We need to start seeing God’s hand directing the events of our lives. We need to be looking for the good that God wants to come out of even the difficult situations we face. Most of all, I think we need to understand that God cares about every detail. Our personalities and our lives and the opportunities we will face have all been painstakingly crafted to bring God glory. So let’s do that!

Father God, thank you that you are in control. There is no such thing as chance where you are concerned. Things aren’t random. Life is not chaos, but purposeful intricacy, perfectly planned on a scale we cannot begin to comprehend. Open our eyes to see you at work around us. Increase our faith through Christ Jesus. Amen.

Today we conclude our reading of the book of Leviticus. To me, chapter 26 feels like it ought to be the last chapter of the book since it covers the blessings for obedience as well as the punishments for disobedience. Chapter 27 feels like an addendum, containing laws about the value of people and other items that are vowed to the LORD.

Leviticus 26 begins by warning the people against idols, and reminding them to keep the Sabbath. Those who keep the laws and commands of God are blessed and protected. The weather will cooperate; the crops and harvests will be good; there will be full bellies, peace, and security. God will protect them from wild beasts and from warfare. But should conflict arise, verse 8 speaks of victories that are ridiculously imbalanced in favor of the Israelites: “Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.” The Israelites will be extremely fruitful and they will prosper because God will be in their midst.

However, if the Israelites do not listen the the LORD, spurning his law and ignoring his commandments, then God promises to visit the Israelites “with panic, with wasting disease and fever (v. 16).” Their enemies will eat their harvests and rule over them. Yet if this punishment does not move the people to return to the LORD, God promises in verse 18, “I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins.”

Indeed, the rest of the chapter details this progressive discipline. The punishments get worse and worse the more the people refuse to listen to the LORD. Three more times the LORD says that he will continue striking the Israelites “sevenfold for your sins” (v. 21, 24, 28). First the land stops being fruitful. Then wild animals will kill their children and their livestock. If they still refuse to listen, then their enemies will come against them. Pestilence and food shortages will haunt them. But if they still refuse to listen to God, disobeying his commands, then their land and their lives will become desolate. They will cannibalize their young in famine (v. 29). All their places of worship will be destroyed and the cities will be devastated. They will be scattered among the nations (v. 33).

Even this worst possible outcome is not without mercy, however. God promises that the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths while the Israelites are in foreign lands. If the Israelites remember and turn to the LORD when they are living in these foreign lands, God promises to remember His covenant with their ancestors and to remember the land. Yet even if they do not humble themselves, God promises that He will not totally destroy them. He will continue to remember His covenant with their forefathers (v. 44-45).

Several things strike me as I read Leviticus 26 today. First, I wondered at the “sevenfold” punishment of the LORD. I re-read the chapter, making sure this wasn’t a literal number — but, indeed, God only details five examples of progressive discipline in this chapter. “Sevenfold” is symbolic, rather than literal. The number seven connotes wholeness or completeness. The world was created in six days, and on the seventh day God rested. Seven is the number of the Sabbath, and would remind the Israelites of their covenant with God. When God promises that He will punish the Israelites “sevenfold for their sins,” He is essentially saying as much punishment as it takes for them to see their need and return to their God. He is also saying that the punishment will be whole and complete — perfectly matching their crimes.

I was also struck by God’s care of the land. Removing the Israelites from the Promised Land was not just a punishment for them, but a relief for the environment. I understand that it is not just people who need the Sabbath; all creation needs Sabbath rest. The earth, its creatures, and the land must be stewarded with care. And if the people do not care for the land properly, God will remove them so that the land will have time to recover. That’s actually kind of sobering when you think of how we treat the earth today — does this imply that God would even allow nuclear devastation in order to clear a land of its inhabitants? Does this imply that the coronavirus pandemic — as much as we see God’s hand using it for good in some ways — is also a punishment for how we have polluted the world?

Finally, I am struck by God’s assertion that even with all these punishments and the removal of the Israelites from the Promised Land, He will not forget His covenant promises. Indeed, to us all these disciplinary actions seem like evidence to us that He has forgotten us. But God tells us that this is not so. And He told this to Moses hundreds and hundreds of years before any such exiles would occur.

Regarding Leviticus 27, the Keil and Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament, written by two fundamental German theologians sometime before 1888, says in part, “The directions concerning vows follow the express termination of the Sinaitic lawgiving (Leviticus 26:46), as an appendix to it, because vows formed no integral part of the covenant laws, but were a freewill expression of piety common to almost all nations, and belonged to the modes of worship current in all religions, which were not demanded and might be omitted altogether, and which really lay outside the law, though it was necessary to bring them into harmony with the demands of the law upon Israel. Making a vow, therefore, or dedicating anything to the Lord by vowing, was not commanded, but was presupposed as a manifestation of reverence for God, sanctified by ancient tradition, and was simply regulated according to the principle laid down in Deuteronomy 23:22-24, that it was not a sin to refrain from vowing, but that every vow, when once it had been made, was to be conscientiously and inviolably kept (cf. Proverbs 20:25; Ecclesiastes 5:3-5), and the neglect to keep it to be atoned for with a sin-offering.”

I love this perspective on Leviticus 27, that these votive laws were deliberately made into an addendum because they don’t directly relate to covenant law!

Of course, part of me bridles at how females were valued less than males were; however, apart from that personal gripe, these valuations do seem fair.

Verse 10 is interesting. We learn that one who vows to offer an animal may not “exchange it or make a substitute for it.” Should that person attempt to do an exchange, “then both it and the substitute shall be holy.” This principle shows up elsewhere in the Pentateuch. When tithes are offered to God, every tenth animal belongs to him — the Israelites are not allowed to make substitutes or exchanges for those that belong to God. But that desire to bargain with God persists — a wish either to offer something less valuable or more valuable.

Verses 28 and 29 deserve a little bit of commentary, even though I won’t go too in depth here. People or items “devoted” or “devoted to destruction” (some translations might say “permanently set apart”) were irrevocably given over to God. People who were thus devoted were to be put to death. This type of devotion usually referred to people that God had declared must be destroyed — such as the Canaanites. This law might be misinterpreted (and was in Judges 11), but it was not God’s intention that an Israelite would ever so devote a member of their household in this manner. Indeed, rightly speaking, the head of a household did not even have the authority to make such life-and-death decisions for others in the household.

In Acts 22, Paul begins to address the crowd that had mobbed him and dragged him from the temple. He tells them that he is a devout Hebrew, zealous for God “as all of you are this day (v. 3).” I find it interesting that Paul compliments the people on their zeal. He is trying to build connections, even in this fraught situation.

He tells the story of his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. Verse 11 tells us that Paul had to be “led by the hand” into Damascus because of the “brightness of that light.” Indeed, this detail was also told in Acts 9, but today I was thinking about how helpless Paul would have felt then. Blind — suddenly made like an infant again — he must trust others to care for him and to get him where he needs to go.

We do learn a new detail about Paul’s time in Jerusalem after the trip to Damascus. We already know that Paul was sent away from Jerusalem because of opposition. Here, we learn that Paul received a vision and was told by Jesus that they would not accept Paul’s testimony about him (v. 18). I find myself surprised by this. I hadn’t realized that Paul had more than one direct encounter with Jesus. It makes me wonder what other visions he might have had that we never heard about….

When Paul tells the crowd that Jesus sent him “far away to the Gentiles,” this causes an uproar. They start clamoring that Paul should not be allowed to live. I am not sure why the Jews are so enraged by this statement. Every major prophet in Scripture testified that the Gentiles would also come to Mount Zion. But somehow the idea that God would share any blessings with the Gentiles threatened their sense of identity.

Because of the ruckus, the Roman tribune took Paul away to the barracks, intending that he should be “examined by flogging (v. 24).” But Paul plays his “get out of jail free” card, saying that he is a Roman citizen. Verse 28’s “But I am a citizen by birth” seems symbolic to me. Yes, Paul was a Roman citizen. God planned his birth and his family, giving him the rights of a Roman citizen, the rights of Hebrew, and the education of the finest minds in Jerusalem. Through re-birth, however, Paul and we gain citizenship in heaven and have even more valuable rights granted to us.

Psalm 125 is an interesting Psalm of Ascent. The first verse tells us that those who trust in the LORD will be “like Mount Zion” — immovable, unshakable, and permanent. Then the psalmist considers the mountains around Jerusalem and uses this to tell the pilgrims that the LORD surrounds the people, just as the mountains surround Zion. Even though the psalmist does not repeat the ideas from verse 1, we make the connection and understand that the LORD is immovable, unshakable, and permanent in his protection of us.

The rest of the psalm goes on to assert that God will not let the wicked stand. Indeed, God will not let wickedness rule “lest the righteous stretch out their hands to do wrong (v. 3).” An interesting perspective — that God will not allow wickedness to flourish because he understands that his people are frail and might be tempted into wrongdoing! The psalm concludes with the sentiment that God will “lead away” both evildoers and the wicked.

Father God, thank you that when we trust in you we become solid and unshakable. Thank you also that you are more than a hedge of protection around us — you are an entire ring of mountains! Thank you that you protect us from harm and that you also protect the land.

Father, we are not bound to the law as the Israelites were bound to the covenant. But we want to please you with our obedience and behavior. May we shepherd the people you place under our care. May we find and do the good works you have planned for us. And may we be good stewards of the earth and of your property. In Jesus’ name, Amen.