Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy
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Sadness
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Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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Tentative
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
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Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
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The Book of Numbers is one of the darker texts in scripture:
Here’s how it begins...
How it begins...
Chapter 1 -- a military census, the number of men twenty years and older who are able to go to war.
Chapter 2 -- how the Israelites are supposed to camp, namely, in their regiments.
Its geography…
Over the course of the book, the Israelites travel through the following places...
Taberah or “Burning”
Kibroth-hattaavah or “Graves of Craving”
Meribah or “Quarrel”
Hormah or “Destruction”
Iye-abarim or “Ruins of Abarim”
Nahaliel or “Torrent Valley of God”
Jeshimon or “Wasteland”
Marah or “Bitter Lakes”
And also a place simply called…the “wilderness of Sin.”
Its characterization of Israel’s relationships with the other people groups in the area:
They’re giants!
No free passes.
King of Edom.
King Sihon of the Amorites.
A serious commitment to cursing.
Numbers 22:5-
Finally, there is the motif of God’s anger:
At least 2 consuming fires.
The King of Moab
At least 3 plagues.
1 swallowing up by earth.
1 sending of snakes.
It’s no wonder the Israelites keep clamoring to go back to Egypt in this dark biblical text.
At least the food is good there!
Numbers 11:5
Numbers is one of the bible’s darker books, and as such, conducive to helping people achieve a more balanced, adult faith.
In Convictions, Marcus Borg describes the two central challenges he faced as a teen when it came to his faith...
Science (esp., astronomy).
Impure thoughts.
Not having come of age in the 50’s or early 60’s, these weren’t issues for me.
What did prove challenging:
Another quite common teen experience:
My first experience of death.
And of the public language of grieving.
Cheri’s with Jesus now.
God must have wanted her with him.
After all, God only takes the best.
The questions this language often raises for young people:
What are we to make of God’s intentions regarding or relationship to the man who drove the truck?
Wasn’t there a more just way of taking this “best person” back than to have someone go through the experience of having caused their death?
So our loved one is with Jesus now, but what about the truck driver?
In what sense is Jesus also with him?
Numbers is indeed one of the bible’s darker books...
But as such, it can be highly conducive to helping people achieve a more balanced, adult faith.
Consider for a moment how an awareness of this book’s particular gifts might have framed a conversation about that truck driver’s experience...
What he might have been going through, e.g.:
The experience of being cursed.
The experience of being buried alive.
The experience of being punished by God.
The feeling of needing to defend himself.
A new and very scary spiritual geography, a wilderness of Bitter Lakes, Wastelands, Destruction, and Torrent Valleys.
An incredibly intense desire to travel back in time.
And how an awareness of this book’s perspective might help especially young people understand why the church speaks to the experience of death the way it does.
The roll of faith in this book:
While it is not to pretend that things are great...
It’s not to pretend that things are great.
To keep the language of justice, mercy and love alive in the face of life’s harshness.
Like Moses does when he literally faces God down in today’s scripture.
As Moses does quite literally in today’s scripture.
Numbers 14:17-
The Israelites, who are freaking out over the spies’ report.
the Israelites, who are freaking out over the spies’ report.
Numbers 14:2
God, who is angry and threatening destruction.
Numbers 14:
And Moses, who, as Israel’s main prophet, must literally face down and speak to the harsh reality of God’s anger.
And while there is a certain charm to that facing down.
Moses’ role as leader is to face down and speak at the harsh reality of God’s anger.
First, he is like — what will people say?
Numbers 14:
Like ministers do at funerals.
Then he’s like — allow me to remind you of how you have described yourself to me in the past (see ) — with special emphasis on the “steadfast love” aspect of your self-described personality.
And like all of us are called to do when the going gets rough.
Numbers 14:18
After all, it is not a little thing in this world to speak of love in the midst of darkness.
The really important thing in this scene is the seriousness with which it approaches the reality of God’a anger.
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