Numbers 15

If your parents raised you correctly, then you'll remember reading this nifty little picture book series called The Berenstain Bears, featuring an anthropomorphic ursine family with the inspired names of Mama, Papa, Brother, and Sister. In retrospect, their family is surprisingly kindred to the eponymous family in The Simpsons, except that Brother is more like Lisa and Sister is more like Bart. In one particular story, called No Girls Allowed, Sister Bear, as is her wont, acts like a jerk by screwing up everyone else's activities. Brother Bear, understandably irked, gathers up his cronies to create a club that, as you'd expect from the title, excludes girls. (Though I suspect his real intention was to just keep out his sister; he probably wouldn't have minded if any other girl had joined.) You can read/listen to the whole enthralling saga here:

Who knows what the boys actually did in their little clubhouse--but if it's anything like my experiences at church camp, I'm betting they probably did a lot of farting, itching their butts, and telling smutty jokes. But it's never fun to feel excluded from anything, particularly for an arbitrary "reason." Before the coming of Christ, God chose the Israelites as His chosen group of people. Yes, they were an exclusive group, even if God chose them to pave the way for His gospel to be shared to all. And yet even here, in verses 14-16, God understands that some foreigners may want to devote themselves to Him--and He graciously makes provisions for those people. Sometimes, I have to remind myself (or let God remind me) that God doesn't just focus on those who are already Christians. In fact, He desperately wants everyone, even those who I overlook or dismiss, to be reconciled to Him. My responsibility is to allow Christ's love to manifest through me to everyone I meet.

Verses 32-36 relate an incident of a Sabbath-breaker whose punishment is getting stoned to death. (Ouch.) From the severity of the punishment, we can infer that he didn't break the Sabbath unintentionally but was openly recalcitrant in his disobedience. As I've written before, I don't openly defy God, but I sometimes ignore Him or push Him aside right before I do something regrettable, like when I act inordinately testy with someone who's getting on my nerves. I can tell myself that I'm not flouting God's precepts outright, but I know I'm only kidding myself.

This slightly desultory chapter ends with God telling the Israelites to tie blue tassels on the corners of their clothes to remind them of His commands (verses 38-39). The NIV Study Bible says that the swish of the tassels was what reminded the Israelites to follow God's commandments. I'm not about to tie tassels on all my shirts, pants, socks, and underwear, but perhaps it would do me good to have a physical token to remind me to always act Christlike. But why did the tassels have to be blue? Why not puce?