Several major events take
place in Numbers 20. First we see the people complain—again—because there is no
water at Meribah Kadesh. So God tells Moses to speak to the rock so that water
might come out. But Moses, in his anger, instead strikes the rock with his rod,
incurring the anger of God so that God would not allow him to see Canaan. Numbers
20:12
—Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron,
"Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children
of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I
have given them." And we will see when we get to Deuteronomy that
Moses does indeed die before the people get to the Promised Land. In Numbers
20:14-21 we see messengers being sent to the king of Edom to ask that he
allow the people to simply pass through the land, that they would not turn to
the left or to the right, and that they would not graze their flocks or their
herds there (Numbers 20:17). They told him they would pass along the
King’s Highway, an established trade route through the land. However the king
of Edom would not allow it, which angered God as we will see later. In Numbers
20:22 God speaks to Moses, telling him to take the garments off Aaron and
put them on Aaron’s son Eleazar, as Aaron was getting ready to pass away. They
had traveled to Mount Hor, which is about halfway between the Dead Sea and the
Gulf of Aqaba. And we see in Numbers 20:28 that Aaron did indeed die at
Mount Hor, and when all the congregation saw that
Aaron was dead, all the house of Israel mourned for Aaron thirty days. (Numbers
20:29).
As Numbers 21 opens, the
people are complaining (I told you they do this a lot), so God sends fiery
serpents to destroy the people. But we see a foreshadowing of the Cross here,
as Moses sets up a serpent on a pole, that whoever looks upon that serpent
would be healed and not die. We see recorded the words of our Savior in John
3:14—“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” Just as that
serpent was lifted up, that whoever looked to it might not die, so our Lord
Jesus was lifted up, that all who look to Him might be given eternal life! We
then read of Sihon the king of the Amorites and Og of Bashan, how they opposed
the people and also incurred the anger of God. We will briefly touch on some of
the places in the Scriptures that speak of these two men, as we will see them
again in Deuteronomy.
In Numbers 22-24 we read
of Balaam, who was sent by Balak (king of Moab) to curse Israel, and the
troubles that Balaam encountered in doing so. In a way, Balaam gets a bad rap,
as he did not want to, at first, curse Israel, as God told him He would not
curse the people, as He had blessed them (Numbers 22:11). And the more
Balaam tried to curse the people, the more he realized he could not. And if you
know Scripture, you know of Balaam riding a donkey and how an Angel of God
stood in that donkey’s way, and that the donkey spoke to Balaam—and Balaam
answered it! This gave rise to the hymn “I Saw An Angel In The Road” by Daniel
Charles Damon:
I saw an angel in the road and quickly turned aside,
But Balaam had not seen it yet. My master tanned my hide.
Returning to the narrow way, the angel loomed so tall,
My master struck me when I scraped his foot against the wall.
But, fearful of the way ahead, I lay down on the ground.
My master struck again in rage until he heard this sound:
"What have I ever done to you that you abuse me so?"
A donkey speaks, an angel stands, and Balaam's tears now flow.
"Forgive me for the blows I gave in arrogance and fear.
Direct me, God, and help me speak the loving word I hear."
Numbers 25 shows us that
the people do not learn from their mistakes. The people, who have seen the
mighty works of God, decided to commit harlotry with the women of Moab (Numbers
25:1) and began to worship the pagan god Ba'al (Numbers 25:3). What
was God’s command in response to this rebellion? Numbers 25:5—"Every one of you kill his men who were joined to
Baal of Peor." (Baalpeor, KJV) God does not tolerate insolence, and
He let the people know that here, in no uncertain terms. In this instance, the
penalty was death, as it was when the people enticed Aaron to form the Golden
Calf at the foot of Mt. Sinai (Exodus 32:1-6). In the midst of all this,
a man brings a Midianite woman to the people, and while he is in his tent
having sex with her, Phinehas (son of Eleazar) puts a javelin through both of
them (Numbers 25:8). And because of this action, God made a covenant
with him that his descendants would be priests to Him (Numbers 25:12-13).
Numbers 26 shows us the
second census of the people. The timing of this census is off, since we see in Numbers
26:63-64 that all those who were at Sinai had died off, as God promised in
Numbers 14. This census probably came closer to the end of Deuteronomy.
Then in Numbers 27, we see
some women come to Moses who had a question about inheritance. Their father
died, leaving no sons, only daughters (Numbers 27:3-4). And since an
inheritance of land went to sons, they would be left with no place to call
home. So Moses asks God, “What shall we do for these?” The answer is
that they were to be given a portion of the land given to their uncles, and
these daughters were to get the land that their father would have gotten (Numbers
27:7). Then we see that God gave other commands about the people inheriting
land (Numbers 27:8-11). At the end of the chapter, we see God telling
Moses that his time to die is drawing near (Numbers 27:13), but that
Moses will die without entering the Promised Land as punishment for striking
the rock at Meribah Kadesh (Numbers 20:12). Moses pleads to have a man
set over the people who will faithfully lead the people into the Promised Land
(Numbers 27:16-17). So God chooses Joshua to lead the people when Moses
passes away, and for Eleazar to be the High Priest, as these two men have been
faithful in all the ways of God. We will probably look at Numbers 36 along with
this chapter, as it extends the commands contained in this chapter.
Numbers 30 talks about how
when a person takes an oath it is binding upon that person, and in Numbers 31
God commands the people to smite the Midianites for the evil that they had
perpetrated against the people of Israel in Numbers 25. It should be noted that
Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law (the father of his first wife Zipporah) and Hobab,
whom Moses pleaded with to be the eyes and ears of the people while they were
traversing the wilderness, were Midianites. This will show us that even in the
midst of a wicked people, there may be some that do believe in God, like Rahab
in Jericho in the Book of Joshua.
In Numbers 32 we read
about the Tribe of Gad and the Tribe of Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh
not desiring to cross the Jordan after they saw that the land of Gilead was
good for grazing cattle, which these tribes had in abundance (Numbers 32:1-5).
However, Moses confronts them, saying that it is not right that their brethren
should cross the Jordan and fight while these two tribes stay behind. So a deal
is made that they will go over Jordan with the other tribes and fight, and when
the land is settled they will return to Gilead (Numbers 32:16-27). And
they fulfilled their promise, which can be seen in Joshua 22:1-34.
Numbers 33 lists the
itinerary of the people for most of the chapter, but ends with a stern warning
from Moses, that if the people do not utterly drive out the inhabitants of the
land God is giving them, it will cause them to stumble before God (Numbers
33:55-56), and that God will do to the people of Israel what He thought of
doing to the inhabitants of the land. And if you read ahead in the Scriptures,
you will see this come to fruition in the wavering of the people of Israel
between worshipping God and worshipping the pagan gods. For a good example of
this, you need not read further than Judges 2. The people all cry out, with one
voice, Joshua 24:16—“Far be it from us that
we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods.” Yet two chapters later,
we see the death of Joshua in Judges 2:8, and his body isn’t hardly even
cold yet when we read Judges 2:11—Then the
children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals.
Which is why we need to always be careful to walk circumspectly (Ephesians
5:15), and never let our Adversary gain even a foothold, knowing the sway
he can hold over us. We also see in Israel’s history, after the death of King
David, how the people of Israel vacillated between the true worship of God and
the false worship of the Baals and Ashtoreths.
In Numbers 34 Moses lays
out the borders of the Promised Land, and in Numbers 35 he tells about the
cities of refuge that are to be given to the Levites for the man guilty of
involuntary manslaughter to flee to until he can lay his case out. We know that
the Decalogue contains the commandment “Thou shall
not murder” (Exodus 20:13). But what if a man kills another man
unintentionally? What if his hand swings a stroke
with the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle and
strikes his neighbor so that he dies (Deuteronomy 19:5)? If that
were to happen, the one who swung the axe would flee to one of these cities of
refuge where he could escape the “avenger of blood” (a family member of the
victim who was seeking revenge) until he could remain safely until his case
could be heard and he could—if it was found that he did not intend to kill the
victim—be vindicated.
As you can see, there is a
lot of complaining in this book. Many times the people are not happy with the
way Moses does things, even though he is faithful to God in performing his
duty. Things haven’t changed a whole lot in the millennia since these things
occurred. Many times, no matter how faithful we are to God, things don’t go the
way we want them to and we complain. Or we see that one of our neighbors has
something we don’t have, and we complain because we don’t have that thing. We
need to be on our guard against those feelings, as they can lead us to do
something rash and harm our neighbor and in doing so, disobey God and do things
He has commanded us to not do. And if we desire that thing too much it can
cause us to take our eyes off God and focus them on ourselves.
Lord,
help us to always remember that our first duty is not to ourselves, but to You.
For You are above all things, You hold the world and all creation in your hand,
and at any moment You may require our life from us. Let us never complain about
anything You have given us, knowing that everything we have comes from You, and
whatever You decree us to have, we should accept with all joyfulness. Let us
always purge out from our lives those things which stand against you, and all
those things which associate themselves with the unfruitful works of darkness.
Let us always be thankful in all things.
Jesus Christ is Lord.
Amen.
