Mastodawn

Step Away from the Tents

The Bible in a Year

“He spake unto the congregation, saying, Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins.” — Numbers 16:26

As we move through our year-long journey in Scripture, we come today to a sobering scene in Numbers 16. The camp of Israel is unsettled. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram have risen in rebellion against Moses and Aaron. On the surface, it appears to be a dispute about leadership. In reality, it is a challenge to the authority and will of God. Numbers 16:3 records their accusation: “You take too much upon yourselves.” Yet behind that protest is something deeper—a refusal to submit to the order God had established.

Rebellion against God’s appointed order is never a small matter. It is not merely a personality clash or a difference of opinion. It is, at its core, resistance to the will of the Lord. And as always in Scripture, rebellion carries consequence. Judgment is not arbitrary; it is the natural outworking of rejecting divine authority. When the earth eventually opens and swallows the rebels, it is a dramatic illustration that sin consumes.

Before judgment falls, however, Moses issues a heartfelt warning: “Depart, I pray you.” That phrase carries urgency. The Hebrew word translated “depart” suggests turning away decisively. Moses is not suggesting a mild distancing; he is calling for clear separation. There are moments when love for God requires distance from what dishonors Him. Scripture consistently affirms this principle. Psalm 1 begins by describing the blessed man as one who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly. Paul echoes the same truth in 2 Corinthians 6:17: “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord.”

In our culture, separation is not a popular word. It is often dismissed as narrow or unloving. Yet biblical separation is not about superiority; it is about preservation. It is not isolation from people but insulation from sin. There are “tents” in every generation—places, influences, and patterns of thinking that subtly pull the heart away from obedience. Sometimes those tents are literal environments. At other times, they are ideas that normalize rebellion against God’s Word.

The extent of separation in Numbers 16 is striking: “Touch nothing of theirs.” Some would call that extreme. But God understands human nature. If we linger near what is destructive, curiosity often becomes participation. The progression is rarely sudden. It begins with touching, then handling, and eventually embracing. James 1:14–15 describes this slow development: desire conceives, sin is born, and death follows. Sin does not appear full-grown; it grows when nurtured.

This is especially relevant in a world saturated with subtle compromise. Temptation often presents itself in small, seemingly harmless forms. A conversation that edges toward gossip. A habit that dulls spiritual sensitivity. An attitude that questions God’s wisdom. We may tell ourselves we can “touch” without consequence. But Scripture urges early resistance. Fight sin in the bud. Address it before it becomes rooted.

The final phrase of the verse reveals the motivation: “Lest ye be consumed in all their sins.” Separation is not punishment; it is protection. The Hebrew concept behind being “consumed” carries the idea of being swept away or destroyed. Sin has a consuming nature. It promises freedom but produces bondage. It advertises pleasure but yields sorrow. The rebellion in Numbers 16 did not remain confined to a few leaders; it threatened the entire camp.

Charles Spurgeon once remarked, “The nearer we live to Christ, the more we shall hate sin.” That hatred is not self-righteousness; it is spiritual clarity. When we see what sin does—to families, to congregations, to individual hearts—we understand why God calls us to step back from its tents. Separation, rightly understood, is an act of trust. It is saying, “Lord, Your boundaries are for my good.”

As we read this chapter in our Bible-in-a-year journey, we must resist the temptation to treat it as ancient history. The story confronts us with a personal question: Where might I be lingering too close to rebellion? Are there influences I have minimized because they seem socially acceptable? Have I confused tolerance of sin with compassion for sinners?

Biblical separation never means abandoning love. Jesus was known as a friend of sinners, yet He was never entangled in sin. He moved among the broken without adopting their rebellion. That balance is our calling as well. We remain engaged with the world but anchored in obedience to God.

Separation, then, is not retreat; it is alignment. It positions us under God’s protection and within His purposes. It reminds us that holiness is not restrictive but life-giving. As we continue through the Scriptures this year, passages like Numbers 16 anchor us in a sobering truth: worldliness brings peril; separation brings preservation.

For further study on biblical holiness and separation, you may find this article from Ligonier Ministries helpful: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/what-is-holiness

May today’s reading encourage you not only to understand the text but to examine your own camp. Step away from the tents that draw you toward compromise. Trust that God’s call to separation is an invitation to safety, clarity, and enduring life.

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Belgian Ecclesia Brussel - Leuven Oct 15, 2016

The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #5 Temptation, assault and curse

After the choice Adam and Eve made to go against the Will of God, eating of the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil, God came to deal with three parties in the fall of mankind: Adam, Eve and the serpent. An alleged fourth – the devil – is not mentioned in Genesis narrative. This for the simple reason the symbolic tempter (satan), the serpent, or the evil thoughts in Eve’s mind are the evil itself.

Book of Genesis, Fall of Man. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The most common presentation of Adam and Eve does not reflect clearly enough their theological significance, at least as seen in the New Testament. Too many people forget where the trouble started and do not come to see the essence of our suffering today being the cause of man its own choice. Eve decided herself, by her own choice to go against the wishes of God. She herself wanted to be like God. The apostle Paul, being a Jewish scholar knew very well the problem of evil and suffering. For him it was also clear what choice Adam and Eve had made and why.

For Paul the wrath on mankind was caused by the anger of God (Romans 5:9) It does not have to mean we are enemies of God, but Eve her action showed God how man doubted His position. For the opposing attitude of Eve God reckoned against the sinner. In the story of Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis, we hear God giving a first commandment: not eating of the fruit of the tree of conscience (the Tree of knowledge of good and evil). He is aware that they could see death reigning in the world form Adam’s time to the time of Moses (Knox).

Romans 5: 14 1But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over 2them also that sinned not after the like 3manner of the transgression of Adam, 4which was the figure of him that was to come.

In his letter to the Romans we get to hear that Adam foreshadows another person who had to come. The first Adam or the first man, corresponds in some degree to the man who was to come, and whose birth 2020 years ago we remember this year. That man being born was a gift to mankind, from God, which more powerfully affected mankind.

Romans 5: 15 1But yet the gift is not so as is the offense: for if through the offense of 2that one, many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

Adam and Eve committed an offence on which God had to react. He could directly destroy them and start all over again by creating some new living beings in his likeness which would keep to His commandment. Moreover, the boon of God exceeds the fruit of Adam and Eve’s sin. On that contrast between the gift and the results of that one sin, we shall come back in later chapters.

By their act, going against God’s Will, and by wanting to be like God, their Maker gave them the opportunity to show how much they themselves could make of it all. God’s right to govern was doubted, so know they could come to govern themselves and could come to make something of the world. Because all the children of Adam and Eve came after their choice of adversary they all fell under the spell or curse God came to bring over them. Adam and Eve after eating of the Tree of knowledge came to know the difference between good and evil and became weaker than before, because they now had knowledge. We can not escape the relationship from the first human beings. For just because of their relation to Adam and Eve all men fall under the spell of God and have to bear the consequences of that rebellion of the first carnal man. Being the descendants of Adam and Eve we all became members of a sinful race and we all shall have to face death.

1 Corinthians 15: 21 1For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be 1made alive.

In the letter to the Corinthians we are also told there is a solution. In those Greek Writings we find another confirmation of the same consequent: for Christ is to be considered as opposite to Adam, that as from one man Adam, sin came over all, so from one man Christ, life comes unto all: that is to say, that all the faithful, as they die, because by nature they were born of Adam, so because in Christ they are made the children of God by grace, they are quickened and restored to life by him. {annotation of the 1599 Geneva Patriot’s Edition}

The way the apostle Paul looks at the 1° and the 2° Adam places the Adam-story within a royal context, because the essence of the matter were Adam and Eve impeaching the Divine Creator. Them to query God His Most High position, is the biggest issue. This way a battle over kingship and its relation to the universe was initiated. The position of the one sent from God as a solution is too often missed by the majority of people, even by those who call themselves Christian.

In the Garden of Eden sin entered in the world of man. In a royal garden or orchard Jeshua (Jesus Christ) accepted the fact he must follow not his will but the Will of the Most High God, and should go to the stake. (Matthew 26:36-46)

In the Holy Scriptures a garden is used to express joy, peace and satisfaction.

Jeremiah 31: 12 Therefore they shall come, and rejoice in the height of Zion, and shall run to the bountifulness
of the Lord, even for the 1wheat and for the wine, and for the oil, and for the increase of sheep and bullocks: and their soul shall be as a watered garden, and they shall have no more sorrow.

Adam and Eve by Peter Paul Rubens (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Adam and Eve had no sorrow in the Garden of Eden. They had everything they needed. But God did wanted to teach them a lesson and did not want them in His Garden any more. Since Adam listened to his wife and ate from the tree whose fruit Jehovah God commanded him not to eat, the ground is cursed because of him. So his deed became the cause of the earth coming in problems by man. It is often by the wrong actions of men that something bad happens in the world, for example mudslides because men took away all the trees.
All our life now we will have to struggle to scratch a living from it. God told man that it will grow thorns and thistles for us, though man will eat of its grains. This time not for nothing any more, like it was in the Royal Garden. From then onwards man had to make his own garden and work with his own hands for it. By the sweat of our brow, will we have food to eat until we die, i.e. return to the ground from which man were made. Because we shall have to be reminded that we were made from dust, and to dust we will return.
But woman certainly could not escape. For him and her there was first no pain, but knowing now good and bad they also came to know pain and sorrow. The pain of woman’s pregnancy was going to be sharpened, and in pain she will give birth. She still was going to be able to give children, but concerning having control over things it would be more difficult. God warned her that though she still will desire to control her husband, it will be him who is going to rule over her.

Genesis 3: 16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly increase thy 1sorrows, and thy conceptions. In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thy desire shall be subject to thine husband, and he shall rule over thee.
17 Also to Adam he said, Because thou hast obeyed the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, (whereof I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it) cursed is the earth for thy sake: in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth: for out of it wast thou taken, because thou art dust, and to dust shalt thou return.
20 (And the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living)
21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God 1make coats of skins, and clothed them.
22 And the Lord God said, 1Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil. And now lest he put forth his hand, and 2take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever,

23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the earth, whence he was taken.
24 Thus he cast out the man, and at the East side of the garden of Eden he set the Cherubims, and the blade of a sword shaken, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Adam, Eve, but also we should see that the transgression of God’s commandment was the cause that both mankind and all other creatures were subject to the curse God spoke in that Kingdom of God, the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve, fell from the estate of integrity in which God had created them and now had to build their own kingdom (a kingdom of man) in their own world.

Temptation was the occasion; it was not the cause. To be subjected to temptation is not sinful for the tempted. Embrace and acquiescence constitute sin, i.e. going in against the Will of God.
Eve succumbed to the ideas in her head. Her heart wanted to have so much as God. She herself made the choice to take the fruit and to eat it. She came to the point of overt disobedience to the divine prohibition. Adam trusted his partner and with her in the adventure, hoping also to get the knowledge of good and evil and wanting to become wise (Genesis 3:6 ASV)

The tempter had gained the trust of the first human beings. Eve had accepted as true what was a blasphemous assault upon the veracity of Good and came to regard the tree as desirable in the direction that contravened the divine prohibition. Eve served herself as carnal creature rather than the Divine Creator.

The mannin her failure to recoil with revulsion from the temptation and the idea that she would not die (Genesis 3:4) is evidence that defection had already taken place and that she exemplified the invariable psychology of sin that overt action proceeds from the inward disposition of heart.

Proverbs 23: 7 For as though he thought it in his heart: so will he say unto thee, Eat and drink: but his heart is not
with thee.

Man loves to give the fault of their wrong doing to others or say it is not from them. But In the Messianic Scriptures the sent one from God clearly warns man that there is nothing outside man. Summoning the multitude rabbi Jeshua (Jesus Christ) addressed the crowd close to him and told them that we should worry about what comes out of man. It is that what is inside and comes outside that pollutes or defiles man. It is from inside, out of man’s heart that come evil thoughts and actions, like self-seeking, pride, jealousy or envying, slander, malice, double-dealing, lying, deceiving, misleading, betraying, sexual vice, adultery, fornication, theft or stealing, wickedness, murder, all things that make a person unclean.

Mark 7: 21 For from within, even out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, uncleanness, a wicked eye, backbiting, pride, foolishness.
23 All these evil things come from within, and defile a man.

We may not be mistaken, it is all from within ourselves. The satan or adversary comes from our inner thoughts which we allow to go wrong and where we give in. We can choose not to follow certain ideas, but when we chose to follow the wrong path then we sin. There may be manyfold temptation but it is how we react on them.Whenever you find yourself surrounded by various temptations do know that it all depends on your choice and on your faith which shall demand action (works of faith), leading to steadfastness, developing endurance. But to withstand such temptation man shall need now the courage to choose the right path and let patience finish its work that you may become fully developed and perfectly equipped, lacking in nothing or in no respect deficient. So when you are drawn away, enticed and baited by your own evil desire, like Eve was, let yourself not be beguiled and allured by your own evil desire and enticed by a bait. Remember that when passion or desire conceives and gives birth to sin, than when the bad act or sin runs its course and get fully matured it shall give birth to death. We may not be mislead and make no mistake about this.

James 1: 14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own concupiscence, and is enticed.
15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth 1sin, and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
16 1Err not my dear brethren.

* Bible quotes from 1599 Geneva Patriot’s Edition

Preceding articles

The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #1 Beginning of everything

The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #2 Beginning of mankind

The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #3 With his partner

The 1st Adam in the Hebrew Scriptures #4 The Fall

The Seed Of The Woman Bruised

Jesus begotten Son of God #10 Coming down spirit or flesh seed of Eve

Sayings of Jesus, what to believe and being or not of the devil

Not about personal salvation but about a bigger Plan

A book of life and a man born more than two thousand years ago

When having found faith through the study of the Bible we do need to do works of faith