Day 35: October 14, 2025 – Leviticus 16-19 and I Corinthians 3-4

At the end of our reading in Corinthians Paul asks a question of the disobedient church: “Should I come to you with a stick or with love?” This could be our theme for both of our readings. We see once again the people of God rebel against Moses and his leadership, even to the point where there are leaders who are mentioned along with an army of men who are willing to go against Moses and Aaron and their leadership. It is an attempt at a civil war, it is our January 6 written out in Scripture, but we see how Moses handles it. He allows God to do the work and he separates the three leaders of the rabble mob from the rest of the congregation and the earth literally swallows them and their families and their tents whole. Then the other 250 are killed by the Lord. You would think this would teach those who rebelled against the Lord a lesson.

But then in the next chapter we read about more complaints from the people of Israel to the point where God sends a plague and Aaron has to hustle out there with his censer and incense to prevent the plague from spreading. But thousands of people still die as a result of the plague. You would wonder how bad did it have to be in order for the people to miss the presence of the Lord which seems so obvious in their midst to rebel against Moses and Aaron. But isn’t that the same question that we can ask for our time. The presence of the Lord is so obvious in our midst and yet we continue to miss it and we continue to wonder where God has gone. If we would only open our eyes.

In Corinthians we see Paul scolding the church because of the divisions that they have created which is centered around who they prefer: Paul or Apollos. I love how Paul talks about the building upon the foundation and that each builder leaves their mark, but it is still the foundation, Jesus, that remains and that is built upon. That can be seen so clearly in our church as well. So many pastors have come and gone over the years and yet Jesus has remained the foundation. Praise be to God!