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Commentary on "A New Order"
Day 2: Sunday, September 27, 2009
Sunday’s lesson explains that God had Moses number Israel in order to organize the nation. The author explains that this numbering introduced a “new organization”—a “new order”. Now, this nation which had been agricultural in background would become warriors and would “serve as God’s executioners of [the Amorites and Canaanites] who had filled the cup of their transgressions.”
The lesson ends with Ellen White’s words, “The Amorites were at enmity against His law; they believed not in Him as the true and living God; but among them were a few good persons, and for the sake of these few, He forbore long.”
The lesson ends with a question asking why, when there is so miuch in the Bible we don’t understand, we must “simply need to go by faith”.
The Teachers Comments includes these objectives for the week’s lesson:
- Know: Describe how God brought order to the people of Israel so that they could represent Him.
- Feel: Sense the similarities between Israel and God’s church and identify with the lessons God is trying to teach us.
- Do: Apply the lessons of order to our lives, family, and church.
Problems
While Moses’ numbering of Israel was part of God’s organization of Israel into an army, it also served an overarching purpose. It demonstrated God’s faithfulness to His people who had multiplied exponentially since God made His covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15.
Moreover, the practical organization of the tribes into their positions and of the Levites into those who served and protected the tabernacle and functioned as priests was not primarily about the people representing God. Rather, this organization was more specifically about God revealing Himself. The entire purpose of the Mosaic covenant, by which Israel lived and worshiped, was to be a shadow of God’s redemption of His people in the person of the Lord Jesus.
Israel’s organization was never about making Israel better evangelists. It was always about God revealing His purposes and faithfulness through the shadows of the tabernacle services and through the levitical assignments. Moreover, Israel’s organization into an army was not primarily for the purpose of making Israel a great war machine that could carry out God’s purposes. Rather, God manifested His own power as He led the Israelites into battle as the nation gradually took the land.
Israel was always intended to obey God’s directions and then watch as God Himself protected and provided for them and as He defeated the enemy nations.
Also significant is the fact that the destruction of the Amorites and Canaanites is not an inscrutable act of divine violence. These nations had become progressively evil and wicked. God removed them from the land in an act of divine judgment reminiscent of His judgment during the flood. God never lets anyone sin successfully forever. When people are unrepentant and suppress the knowledge of God by their wickedness, God allows them to experience His wrath against their sin (see Romans 1).
The story of Israel in the wilderness is not intended as a pattern or example for the church. The New Testament has clear teaching for the structure and functioning of the church. The pastoral epistles (1 & 2 Timothy and Titus) give clear directions for selecting elders and deacons. Ephesians describes the nature and purpose of the church. 1 Corinthians explains what true Christ-followers “look like”; how they are to avoid sin, minister to one another through the gifts of the Spirit; how church discipline is to be done. Romans 6 through 8 describe how a Christ-follower understands and learns to submit to the Holy Spirit while still inhabiting sinful flesh.
Pentecost ushered in a completely new reality: the church as Christ’s bride. The indwelling Holy Spirit in all who accept Jesus’ blood in payment for their sin changes everything. Israel is not the church, and God’s people today are no longer looking forward to Jesus but are living in the actual fact of the risen Christ who gives them His own resurrection life (read Romans 5 and 8). The church has a different definition from Israel, and the wilderness pattern for Israel is not the biblical pattern laid out for the church in the New Testament.
Summary
- The organization of Israel in the desert was not for the purpose of preparing Israel to be God’s evangelists but rather to reveal God’s faithfulness and self-revelation to His people.
- The destruction of the Amorites and Canaanites was not an inexplicable mystery. Their destruction was God’s judgment on prolonged, intensifying sin as explained in Romans 1. It is an echo of God’s judgment displayed in the flood. God was protecting His people from rampaging evil by destroying those sold-out to wickedness in the land He promised to His people.
- The organization of Israel in the wilderness was not an example for the church. Rather, the church’s instructions are clearly outlined in the New Testament, with detailed instructions for the selecting of church leaders and for ministering to one another with the spiritual gifts which are given to the members of Christ’s body.
Copyright 2009 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised September 24, 2009. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
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