Scripture Notes – A Bad Mistake (Leviticus 10)

Nadab and Abihu, sons of Moses’ brother Aaron, have just been consecrated as priests along with their father (the high priest) and brothers. They are set aside for God’s work, to be holy, to enter into God’s presence, to obey God’s will, and to teach the people of Israel about God and His plan for them. God, through Moses, has given the priests detailed instructions for proper worship and sacrifice. He has told them exactly what He wants from them now that He is dwelling among His people in the Tabernacle.

So what do Nadab and Abihu do first thing? They decide to innovate. They take unholy fire with incense before God. They disregard God’s instructions and do their own thing. Apparently, they think that they know better than God, that their ways are better than what He has laid out for them.  And this badly mistaken attitude gets Nadab and Abihu killed. Instead of God’s fire consuming the incense, it consumes them. They die instantly before God.     

We might shudder at this a bit, thinking God is being harsh. But what He is really doing is showing the extreme gravity of disobedience. Nadab and Abihu’s bad mistake was much more than a mistake. It was a deliberate sin, an act of free will that chose to disregard what God had specifically commanded. Nadab and Abihu deserved punishment, and their father and brothers had to learn a hard lesson from it.

We must remember, too, that God does not give us commands and regulations simply because He is arbitrary. What He commands us to do or not do is for our own good. It is closely intertwined with our nature, who we are as human beings. God created us. He knows us better than we know ourselves. So when He gives us an order, it is because we truly need it to be in a right relationship with Him and to fulfill the purpose He has for us. Therefore, we must obey and follow God’s ways rather than our own.

Scripture Notes: A Lenten Psalm (Psalm 22)

As we enter into Lent this coming week, we may wish to select a passage from Scripture to hold before our eyes throughout this penitential season, to reflect on, to sink deep into. We should allow God to speak to us through His Word, opening our hearts to listen to Him and responding with prayer and love. One good possibility for Lenten meditation may be Psalm 22, the very psalm that Jesus begins to recite as He hangs on the cross.

“My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” the psalm begins, and the psalmist continues to pour out his heart and express his pain. Yet at the same time, he trusts in God. He looks to the past, knowing that God has never failed His people. He casts himself upon God even when everything is at its worst. He knows that God is his help and will not actually abandon him no matter what his situation looks like. And he believes with all his heart that God will deliver him and the people.

God “has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;” the psalmist declares, “and He has not hid His face from him, but has heard, when he cried to Him.” Indeed, God remains with us, hearing us and loving us. But we must remain with God, listening to Him and loving Him. Perhaps this should be our Lenten vow.

Scripture Notes: Joseph the Dreamer (Genesis 37)

The Patriarchs were so very human. There is always a temptation to put these great men on a pedestal, and indeed they were great, but they were also messy. They had a fallen human nature just like us. And they made wrong decisions. And they sinned. And they had to deal with the consequences of their choices and repent of their sins and reach out for God’s mercy, just like we do. They are models of intimacy with God, yes, but sometimes they are also examples of what not to do.

In Genesis 37, the adolescent Joseph has two prophetic dreams. In the first one, he is out in the field with his brothers, binding sheaves, and he sees his own sheaf stand up tall while his brothers’ sheaves bow down to it. In the second one, he sees the sun and the moon and eleven stars all bowing down to him. These are pretty spectacular dreams even though Joseph really has no idea what they actually mean.

Just having them, though, makes Joseph quite proud of himself, and he runs off to tell his brothers all about them. The young man apparently thinks that his brothers will be pleased to hear the news, and if so, he is deceiving himself badly. On the other hand, perhaps Joseph simply wants to get in a dig at his older brothers, kind of an adolescent “Ha, ha, guys! See what I dreamed!” He is already his father’s favorite son, and his brothers are already jealous, so needless to say, Joseph’s dreams do nothing to endear him to them.  

In fact, the brothers get so angry and envious that they decide to get rid of this kid once and for all. Reuben stops them from killing Joseph outright, suggesting they just throw him in a pit in the wilderness (and meaning to come back for him later). But when Reuben steps away for a while, Judah comes up with the plan to sell Joseph to a nearby caravan. So off goes Joseph to Egypt!  

God has a hand in all of this, of course, and later Joseph recognizes God’s plan for him and realizes what his dreams really mean. He has to grow up quickly, and he is still far from perfect. But he does end up saving his entire family (and much of the world along with) from famine through his wisdom and courage. 

Scripture Notes: Driven by Fear, Part 3 (Genesis 26)

Abraham may have learned from the consequences of his double lie, the two times when he tried to pass off Sarah as his sister rather than his wife. But their son, Isaac, ends up doing the exactly the same thing. The lie passes down to the next generation (yet another consequence that Abraham did not foresee).

Isaac and Rebekah are living in Gerar, under the rule of the king Abimelech. Now Abimelech had proven himself to be a pretty good guy the first time around with Abraham. But Isaac experiences the same kind of fear his father did, the danger of a beautiful wife and the risk of getting killed if someone else wants Rebekah for himself. So Isaac lies and says Rebekah is his sister.

Poor Abimelech! He looks out the window one day and sees Isaac and Rebekah doing something that is decidedly not brotherly or sisterly. At that point the king knows his guests are definitely a married couple. He must experience a bit of deja vu as he asks Isaac why he lied and listens to his response of fear. Once again Abimelech is rather hurt. This could have brought down a great sin and a great guilt and a great calamity upon his people.

But just as before, the king does not get angry. Instead, he warns his people not to touch Isaac and Rebekah, and the couple is able to prosper in the land. This prosperity does not, of course, come from Isaac’s lie but rather from God’s protection and Abimelech’s mercy and patience.

Scripture Notes: Driven by Fear, Part 2 (Genesis 20)

Abraham does not learn the first time. He has already claimed that Sarah is his sister when they sojourned in Egypt during the famine. Now, not horribly long afterward, he tries the same trick again. This time they are in Gerar in Canaan, a placed ruled by the king Abimelech. And once again, Abraham is frightened that Sarah’s beauty will get him killed. So he tells Sarah to say she is his sister.

And once again, Sarah ends up in the king’s harem, in danger of being violated. Her husband, fearing for his own life, essentially hands her over, risking her purity. The man who is supposed to protect and honor her fails a second time.

But God comes to the rescue, appearing to Abimelech in a dream and warning him that Sarah is a married woman. Abimelech is truly horrified, for in spite of Abraham’s suspicions, he would not have taken Sarah had he known she was Abraham’s wife. He says as much to God: “In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” God responds that He knows, and that is why He prevented Abimelech from sinning. He tells the king to restore Sarah to Abraham, which Abimelech does right away the next morning.

The king is, however, rather hurt, and tells Abraham so. Abraham makes his excuse of fear. But Abimelech is not buying it. He tells Abraham that he has brought a “great sin” on the kingdom, and indeed, there are consequences, for the people of Gerar have been prevented from bearing children on account of Abraham and Sarah’s lie. Abraham prays, and God heals Abimelech and his people.

Indeed, through that prayer, Abraham finds healing as well. He seems to finally realize that he does not have to lie, that God will take care of him and his wife, that He would indeed fulfill His covenant promises. Abraham does not try to deceive anyone after this. He is no longer driven by fear.

Scripture Notes: Driven by Fear (Genesis 12)

As famine spreads throughout the land of Canaan, where God had told Abram to go, Abram decides that he must leave and head for Egypt where there will be food. He is frightened, and while he obeyed God in going to Canaan, there is still a part of him that does not completely trust this Deity Who has spoken to him.  

As Abram and his company are about to enter into Egypt, he turns to his wife, Sarai, and tells her that she must say that she is his sister rather than his wife. Abram is scared that someone will take the beautiful Sarai from him and kill him in the process. So he comes up with a lie.

This might actually seem quite reasonable to us fallen human beings. We can sympathize with Abram and his fears as he enters into a new place filled with potentially hostile people that he does not know and does not trust. But he is forgetting something, and so are we. God has already promised Abram that He will make him a great nation and a great name, that He will give Abram many descendants, and that through Abram all the nations of the world will be blessed. God does not lie; He always keeps His promises. So He is definitely not going to allow Abram to be killed in a foreign land (whether or not Abram is supposed to go there to start with).

But Abram, apparently, could not or would not see that and believe it. So he comes up with his lie, and Pharaoh takes Sarai for his harem, thinking, naturally, that she is Abram’s sister. And God, in turn, dumps “great plagues” upon Pharaoh and his house. This is more of a message for Abram than for the bewildered Pharaoh, who figures out quickly enough that Sarai is Abram’s wife. God is showing Abram the suffering that comes from falsehood. Sarai has ended up in a harem, bringing down plagues upon the Egyptians, and all because Abram was too scared to tell the truth.

Pharaoh could probably have had Abram killed for such an offense, but he merely sends him away, another sign that God is protecting Abram. We might think that Abram would have learned a valuable lesson from this little incident, but actually, he does not...not yet. He continues to be driven by fear.

Scripture Notes: A Missing Boy, Part 2 (Luke 2)

In the last post, we reflected on the twelve-year-old Jesus going missing during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and Mary and Joseph finding Him in the Temple having a detailed theological discussion with the teachers there. But questions remain: Why does this event happen? What is the significance of it? What does God want to teach us through it?

First, the three days Jesus is missing foreshadow another three days, the three days that Jesus is in the tomb. At that point, Mary’s sorrow and grief reach unknown proportions as she mourns her Son, even knowing that He will rise again. She remembers finding Him in the Temple when He was twelve, for she has kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. He has promised that death will not hold Him, and it does not. She finds Him again, in an even greater way than ever before.

Second, this little incident of the missing Jesus shows us something about what we must do during those times that we wonder if we have lost our Lord. We must look for Him in the Temple. But where is the Temple for us? It is in the Church. It is in the Mass and the Eucharist (where Jesus is really present Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity). It is in the Scriptures (the Word of God in print). It is in the writings of the saints, that great cloud of witnesses. It is in prayer, where we speak to God and listen to Him. And it is in our own hearts, where our Lord is longing to meet us.

Jesus never leaves us. We sometimes leave Him. But He is always seeking us, always loving us, always reaching out to us. All we have to do to find Him is to turn to Him in faith, hope, and love and seek Him in the Temple.