Thoughts on Numbers 6 & Mark 14

Today’s reading: Numbers 6; Mark 14

Thoughts on Numbers 6

My thought on Numbers 6 really has very little to do with the actual content of the chapter (the Nazirite vow).

There are a lot of Christians who believe and/or teach that it is sinful to drink alcohol. I honestly don’t think this is a defensible position in Scripture, but one of the “arguments” I have often heard for it it is that while people drink wine in the Bible, that is always referring to unfermented grape juice. I just thought I would point out here, at the beginning of Numbers 6, that the Israelites knew the difference and Hebrew does in fact have different words for the drinks. Someone taking a Nazirite vow is supposed to abstain from alcohol for the duration of their vow (which, if the Israelites weren’t supposed to drink alcohol in the first place, why bother including that as part of the vow?), but more than that, they were supposed to abstain from all grape products. In that list though, the author explicitly lists wine (יַ֫יִן) and juice (מִשְׁרָה) separately.

I just noticed that this morning so I thought I would point it out really quick. Bible translators aren’t seeing the Hebrew for “grape juice” and translating it as “wine” everywhere. The Israelites knew the difference and Hebrew has the vocabulary to distinguish between the two. So if you want to argue that drinking alcohol is always sinful, your argument can’t rest on wine being grape juice, which means you have to explain why wine seems to be considered in such a positive light in so many places throughout the Scriptures.

Thoughts on Mark 14

Peter gets a lot of flack for some of his bigger failures. He is the one who, when Jesus invites him to walk on the water, gets scared of the waves and starts to sink. He is the one who gets rebuked by Jesus and told to, “Get behind me Satan.” And here, in Mark 14, he is the one who boldly declares he will not abandon Jesus at the Last Supper, only to deny Him three times later than night.

For all the flack Peter gets for these failures, the thing I don’t think we pay enough attention to is the fact that he only failed because he was there.

Was Peter the only one of Jesus’ disciples that started to sink when he was afraid of the waves? Yep, he sure was, but he was also the only one of the disciples bold enough to walk out to Jesus on the water. None of the rest put themselves in a position to fail.

Was Peter the only one of Jesus’ disciples to get rebuked and called Satan? He wasn’t the only one to ever get rebuked, but he was the only one rebuked in this way, but again, it was because he was willing to put himself out there to Jesus and speak his honest thoughts. We know the rest of the disciples were thinking the same thing, Peter was just the one bold enough to actually speak up and put himself in a position to fail.

Was Peter the only one of Jesus’ disciples to deny Him three times on the night He was betrayed? Yep, once again, he was the only one, but he was also the one that followed close enough to be noticed by others and to be in a position to have to deny it.

At the last supper, when Peter declares that even if he has to die, he will not abandon Jesus, and Jesus tells him that he will deny Him three times before the rooster crows twice, Mark tells us that they all said the same thing. So it wasn’t just Peter, but all of Jesus’ disciples agreeing with Peter together that they would not abandon Jesus, even if it meant their own death. So why is it only Peter that Jesus says will deny Him? Because Peter is the one who will be there.

To his credit, John is there too, he is the connection that got Peter into the high priest’s house in the first place, so Peter isn’t the only disciple there, but he is only one of two who were willing to risk being there while the rest fled to protect themselves. All of His disciples agreed with Peter that they would die before abandoning Him, but Peter and John were the ones to act on it and put themselves in such a vulnerable position.

So the next time you want to give Peter grief for one of his many great failures, stop and remember that he only failed because he was willing to put himself out there for the Lord in bold ways, and then ask yourself, how often do you put yourself in a position to fail by taking a bold risk for the Lord?

A life lived without failure because we were unwilling to take a risk for the Lord and put ourselves in a position to fail is a failure in and of itself.

Lord, give me the boldness to step out in faith and take risks for you. Give me a heart to rather be radically faithful than to guard myself against failure by never stepping out in the first place.