Matthew 8

Matthew 8 contains several short stories about Jesus' ministry, but very interesting ones. The first shows examples of Jesus healing people, with an account of a Roman Centurion who believed Jesus didn't even need to come to his home to heal someone. Of course he was correct, and Jesus states that he has found more faith in this man than any of the Jews. Pretty sweet!

The third healing reported here is of Peter's mother in law. Let me say that again: mother in law. What does that mean? Peter was married! So the man who the Catholics built the idea of the papacy on was married, but they prohibit their priests (all the way from the lowliest up to the pope) from being married. Yeah, sorry guys: ya got this one wrong.

All of these healings, and the text states there were many more than these three, were fulfilling more prophecy about Jesus. Matthew quotes part of Isaiah 53:4 in the passage here, and it is quite applicable.

Following this we have the fairly famous account of Jesus calming a storm. What I like most here is that He was sleeping through it for a while - its things like this that remind us He was human - and then His perfect control over nature shows that he is also fully God. We also see here that His disciples at this early stage really don't realize who He is, based on their reaction.

Finally, we have the account of Jesus casting demons out of two men and into a herd of pigs. The locals aren't thrilled about the loss of the herd, but the more interesting thing here to me is the reaction of the demons to Jesus' presence. In verse 29 they ask: "What business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?" This highlights a few things:

- They know Jesus' true identity
- They fear Him
- They are aware that they will be tormented at a future time, and that the time was not yet there

If memory serves there are other places in the Gospels where a demon-possessed person rightly identifies Jesus, and if those following Him didn't fully believe it themselves you'd think that would tip the scales. It also must be terrifying to *know* you are destined for judgement and torment... I wonder if the angels who rebelled and became demons knew that was going to be their punishment, or if it wasn't till after their rebellion failed that they realized it? They must have thought they and Satan had some chance, or why would they have turned on God in the first place? Dear me, though, I am getting off-topic; we'll come back to this in a future passage, I'm sure.

Numbers 12

The short chapter today is interesting on several levels. For starters, Moses' siblings - Aaron and Miriam - who were helping to lead the Israelites seem to have become jealous of Moses on some level. They complained of his marriage to an "Ethiopian", but then switch tracks and suggest that they too have been given the gift of prophesy and should be qualified to lead. God has Moses' back in this, though, and gives them both a stern talking to. Furthermore, he strikes Miriam with leprosy... though at the behest of Moses he makes it temporary, rather then a permanent ailment.

What stood out to me was as follows:

- The description of Moses as "very humble, more so than any man on the face of the earth." (verse 3, NET). This is especially odd to find here, as I thought that Numbers was written by Moses himself; perhaps God insisted that he include this, or maybe his scribe (if he was dictating) added that touch.

- Miriam was struck with leprosy, but Aaron was not. I wonder why God didn't strike them both? Actually, now that I think about it I bet I know the answer: Aaron was the high priest, but having leprosy would have made him ceremonially unclean and not fit for his post.

- The first complaint leveled against Moses in the opening verses is that he married an Ethiopian, but I thought that his wife Zippora (sp?) was from Midian. Perhaps she was of Ethiopian descent, though, or maybe just darker skinned like someone from that region - or could Moses have married a second time?

Leviticus 14

I wonder what the "leprosy" that affected houses might have been. I would imagine some sort of mold or something, but the visual description given in the chapter doesn't really line up with what I though mold looked like. Also, how odd is it that attonement had to be made for a building that had become unclean?

Leviticus 13

Today's reading was quite long and repetitive, as much of Leviticus has been, but perhaps this is teaching me patience. Also, I'm beginning to think that the Israelite priests should have been on that TV show - Dirty Jobs. They had to deal constantly with sacrifices involving blood and guts of animals, and in addition they had the task of inspecting humans for leprosy. I'm sure that serving the Lord was an honor as well, but with my modern sensibilities I don't think I could have handled the sort of work they did.