19 February 2025

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Numbers (Introduction, Part 1)

So I made an oopsie last week. I posted the first part of the introduction to Deuteronomy instead of the first part of the introduction to Numbers. I have since taken down the wrong post and will post it at the appropriate time. Now, on to Numbers 😬

 -----------------------------------

So now that we have finished with the Book of Leviticus, we now move on to the Book of Numbers. The title of this book is from the Greek Άρίθμοί (Arithmoi, “numbers”), from the Greek Septuagint. It was given this title by the Greek translators because of the two censuses that are recounted herein.  The original Hebrew title of the book was Bemidbar (בְּמִִדׅבּר, “wilderness” or “desert”), because it takes place in the desert, as the people are trekking through the desert from Mt. Sinai to the Promised Land of Canaan. This is the next part of the journey to the land that God had promised to Abraham. Genesis 17:7-8—7 And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. 8 Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." This was the land that was settled by Canaan, the grandson of Noah, whom Noah cursed after Ham uncovered Noah’s nakedness when he became drunk after planting vineyards and drinking the wine thereof after the ark came to rest following the flood. Genesis 9:25—Then [Noah] said: "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants He shall be to his brethren." The land that we now know as Israel was once the land that belonged to this cursed grandson of Noah.

Keep in mind the Israelites were not always Israelites as we now know them. Certainly Abraham was not an Israelite, as he was the grandfather of Jacob, who was later named by God Israel (יִשְׂרָאֵל, yiśrā'ēl, “God prevails”). Abraham was from Ur of the Chaldees (Genesis 11:28), which was in what was once called Babylonia and was later known as Assyria, in what we call today Iraq (see Acts 7:2). God promised Abraham that his descendants would possess the land of Canaan, and Abraham did not dispute it. He believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3). And in that land, they did not know YHVH as God, but worshipped other gods. So what set Abraham apart, that God would call him out of the land, when he was surrounded by those who worshipped pagan gods, and he may have as well? The answer is that we don’t know. All we know is that God chose him to be the father of many nations, and that is really all we need to know. Very long story very short, Abraham had a son named Isaac, Isaac had a son named Jacob, and Jacob had twelve sons, one of whom was named Levi. And Levi had many descendants, one of whom was the man named Moses. And God chose him to be a prophet to the people of Israel (Jacob also had a son named Judah, who was a direct ancestor of our Lord Jesus Christ).

When Moses was born, the sons of Abraham were living in Egypt, and were slaves to the Pharaoh. Who was the Pharaoh at the time of the Exodus? It is not clear, and many suggestions have been made. Movies such as The Ten Commandments identify him as Ramses II, but I would caution against using this film as research, as it has its own problems. Others have suggested Merneptah, still other believe Thutmose I or his father Amenhotep I, or even Amenhotep II (which is the most popular theory). At any rate, the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt for 430 years, and many had forgotten the promises that God made to bring them into the land of Canaan. And they were crying out for deliverance from their affliction. Exodus 2:23-24—23 Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. 24 So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. Why does it say that, at this time, God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob? Had He forgotten, and he was suddenly reminded of it? No, God does not need to be reminded of anything, as He does not (cannot) forget anything. The people were in the midst of a pagan nation, and were being forced to build monuments to the pharaohs and the false gods they worshipped. They were exposed to all sorts of abominations, and had, by this time, forgotten YHVH. But when they finally called out—not to Him, as they had forgotten Him—He “remembered”. He brought it up to the forefront of His mind, and stirred up Moses to be the one who would lead His people out of their bondage into the land flowing with milk and honey.

So He made Moses His prophet, called him to Mt. Sinai, and gave him the Ten Commandments and the other 603 commands of the Law. And he and the people with him remained at Mt. Sinai for two years, making the things that God commanded them to make—the Ark of the Covenant, the Table of Showbread, the Golden Lampstand, the curtains for the Tabernacle itself, the Altar of Incense, the Altar of Burnt Offerings, as well as all the necessary pans and shovels and censers—and they had erected them, and Moses anointed the Tabernacle. In Numbers 1:2, God commands Moses to take a census of the people according to their tribes (hence the name “Numbers”). He tells Moses to set apart to Him the sons of the tribe of Levi to be priests to Him (Numbers 1:47-54), and redeems them out of the population (Numbers 3:45-51). In Numbers 4, God lays out the commandments of the various duties of the sons of Aaron, Kohath, Gershon and Merari. The sons of Aaron were to cover the most holy things (The Ark of the Covenant, the Table of Showbread, the Altar of Incense, the Golden Lampstand) and sons of Kohath were to carry them (Numbers 4:4-15). The sons of Gershon were to carry the curtains for the Tabernacle and everything needed for it (Numbers 4:22-28), and the sons of Merari were to carry everything else (Numbers 4:29-33). These tasks were to be allotted to these families, to the males age 30-50.

Next, we have the rules concerning those who were impure by touching a leper, anyone with a discharge, and anyone who touched a dead body (Numbers 5:1-3). This was followed by the oath that a woman would take if her husband thought she had been unfaithful to him (Numbers 5:11-31). Many today have though this to be God commanding abortion, but we will see that is clearly not the case. This mistaken belief comes from one word which has been mistranslated in the 2011 edition of the NIV. Numbers 5:22 (NIV)—“‘May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.’” The words translated in the NIV as “womb miscarries” are the Hebrew words  יָרֵךְ (yārēḵ, “thigh”) and וְלַנְפִּל (nāp̄al, “to fall”). This edition of the NIV is the only translation that renders these words as “womb miscarries”, and the pro-abortion crowd has latched onto this as a way to say that God not only condones abortion, but commands it. And they are, of course, wrong. Nowhere in this passage does it even intimate a pregnancy is present. So to say that this passage commands abortion is wrong (at best) and completely ludicrous (at worst). For it says later in that chapter, Numbers 5:28—But if the woman has not defiled herself, and is clean, then she shall be free and may conceive children. Clearly, the admonition was not that if the woman was guilty of infidelity she would miscarry, but that her uterus would shrink and she would be barren (a sign of disapproval by God) since it says that if she was not guilty she would be able to have children.

The next chapter sets out the duties of one who had taken a vow as a Nazirite. We will study such notable Nazirites as Samson, Samuel and John the Baptist. There were three rules all Nazirites had to obey: Do not touch a corpse, do not cut your hair, and partake of nothing from the grapevine (Numbers 6:1-6). (Some commentators (even some highly respectable ones) have tried saying that Jesus was a Nazirite, but that is not so, as even a cursory examination of Scripture will show us, since He did drink wine (Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:34) and He touched dead bodies (Matthew 9:25; Mark 5:41)) The chapter ends with a passage that many churches use as the ending benediction of their services. Numbers 6:24-26—24 “The LORD bless you and keep you; 25 the LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; 26 the LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.” What a magnificent prayer this is! Many say that the God of the Old Testament is a vengeful, angry God who wants to do nothing else but send His angry fire down and consume everyone. But this passage shows that He is not so. Can He be angry? Of course. Can He be vengeful? Of course. But He is so much more than that. He is also the God Who sent His son to die and pay the price for our sins. Does this sound like a God Who is only angry and vengeful all the time?

This is obvious in Numbers 9, which speaks of the “Second Passover”, the one that was to be kept by anyone who was not able to keep the Passover at the appointed time of the 14th of Nisan. It points to a patient God, one who can see the failings and shortcomings of those who want to worship Him rightly but are prevented from doing so by some uncleanness or by being on a journey. He tells Moses to let the people know that if one is not able to keep the Passover at the appointed time, they can do so on the 14th of the second month of Iyar. After this, God readies the people to move by having His cloud come down and envelope the Tabernacle, and having Moses tell the people that He will lead them by the cloud. “Well, what if the cloud stayed over the Tabernacle for, say, a month or two, or even a year?” Numbers 9:22—Whether it was two days, a month, or a year that the cloud remained above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would remain encamped and not journey; but when it was taken up, they would journey. Even if the cloud settled over the Tabernacle for a couple hours and was taken up again, they were to move. If the cloud stayed in its place for a year, the people were to remain. This was to let the people know that He was the one leading them, not Moses or Aaron, and that they were to follow Him.

Then, finally, they set out on their journey (Numbers 10:33). And not long after they set out, what do they do? They complain—a theme we will see over and over and over again as we go through Numbers. These who had been set free from their bondage to Pharaoh were now complaining about anything and everything they could. The first thing they complain about is—well, we don’t know; all it says is the people complained (Numbers 11:1). So God sends fire and burns the outside borders of the camp. Moses pleads with God to stay His anger, and God does. But this is not a good way to start their journey. Then, they listened to the Mixed Multitude which came with them out of Egypt, and they complained about the free food that came down from heaven and they only needed to collect every day at sundown (Numbers 11:4). So what does God do? He sends them quail. Not just a small flock of quail, but enough to cover the camp up to their thighs. Enough to quiet their murmuring and feed them for months. He sent them enough that they would have enough to last for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils (Numbers 11:20). The person who picked up the least gathered two bushels. When you consider that there were numbered 600,000 men and they had their wives and children, the total population had to have been well over a million people all munching on their quail. And while they were still chewing it, what happened? They died (Numbers 11:33). So they gave the place where they were at the name Kibroth Hattaavah, or “Graves of Lust”.

That quieted the people for a minute, but then Aaron and Miriam decided to complain (Numbers 12:1). Moses’ brother and sister were upset that God had placed Moses as the leader of the people! And what was the reason of their complaint? It was because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married (Numbers 12:1). So because they complained about the black-skinned woman that Moses had married, God caused a disease of leprosy to come upon Miriam, making her white as snow (Numbers 12:10). Moses then prayed to God to restore her, which He did after she had been put outside the camp for the prescribed seven days. After which God directed the people to pull up camp and move to the Wilderness of Paran. This was an area in the Sinai Peninsula not far north of Sinai. And it was from here that God commanded to send out men to spy out the land of Canaan, to see what it was like (Numbers 13:2). The report came back, saying that the land was plentiful, as they brought back a cluster of grapes so large they had to carry it on a pole between two men. Good news, right?

Well, in that report they also said "The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight" (Numbers 13:32-33). And because of the cowardice of these who brought the bad report, and because of the fearfulness of those who listened to this, God said that the people (other than Caleb and Joshua) would not be allowed to see the Promised Land, and that the people would wander the wilderness for forty years (Numbers 14:30-34). So those who complained did what they thought was right to get back into God’s good graces, and fought against the people of the land, trying to earn back God’s favor but were soundly defeated by the Amalekites and Canaanites (Numbers 14:44-45).

In Numbers 16-18 we read of the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, who thought that they should be elevated to a station above which they were and the fallout from that rebellion. God had called Moses to lead the people, and Aaron to be the High Priest who would make atonement for them. But these did not like that arrangement, and dragged 250 men along with them to rebel against God, much like Satan dragged one-third of the angels to rebel against God for which these were kept in judgment until the Day of the Lord (Jude 1:6). And these men suffered a like punishment, as the earth opened up and swallowed them alive into it (Numbers 16:31-33). In Numbers 17 God gives a second sign that Aaron was to be High Priest, by causing his rod to bud (Numbers 17:8), and in Numbers 18 God gives ordinances that the priests were to do in order to keep themselves right to make atonement for the people. At the end of Numbers 18 we read about the tithes of the tithes the priests were to give, and we see that these would be counted as Wave Offerings and Heave Offerings. And we will see some obvious foreshadowing of the Cross in that section.

Part 2 next week

 
Jesus Christ is Lord.
Amen.
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , ,

05 February 2025

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Leviticus

 
Posted by at

29 January 2025

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Finishing Leviticus (Leviticus 27)

Finally, chapter 27. This chapter is rather anticlimactic. It deals mostly with how to affix a valuation to people, or property or animals, and how much it would cost to redeem these things. When we think about sports, and how much money some of the players make, it boggles the mind. Read about some of the contracts these guys are making, how many millions they get—even if they're a second-string bench warmer. And yet those whose careers make more of a difference in our lives every day—these people, many times, struggle just to make what they're worth. But under the Law, every person, in various age ranges, was valued the same. You didn’t look at one 30-year-old man and say, “He’s worth about 30 shekels” and then look at another and say, “Eh, I’ll give you a couple shekels for him.” The price of redeeming one man was the same as another—that valuation did, however, vary by age. We will be using the NASB for our text.

Leviticus 27:1-8 (NASB)—1 Again, the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “2 Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When a man makes a difficult vow, he shall be valued according to your valuation of persons belonging to the LORD. 3 If your valuation is of the male from twenty years even to sixty years old, then your valuation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary. 4 Or if it is a female, then your valuation shall be thirty shekels. 5 If it be from five years even to twenty years old then your valuation for the male shall be twenty shekels and for the female ten shekels. 6 But if they are from a month even up to five years old, then your valuation shall be five shekels of silver for the male, and for the female your valuation shall be three shekels of silver. 7 If they are from sixty years old and upward, if it is a male, then your valuation shall be fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels. 8 But if he is poorer than your valuation, then he shall be placed before the priest and the priest shall value him; according to the means of the one who vowed, the priest shall value him.’”

Those who were between the ages of twenty and sixty were assigned a higher valuation for one simple reason—they could work, either in the field, or tending herds or flocks, or weaving. From five years old to twenty, they were valued slightly less because they only had potential. They could be trained. From one month old to five years old—children in this range don’t really do a whole lot, other than eat and drool and poop and pull their sisters hair, so they’re valued even less. And anybody from sixty years and older, their days of working in the field (or the mill, or the loom) were pretty much behind them—but they could still teach the younger folks. This is a principle that we find even in the New Testament, in the letter Paul wrote to Timothy, telling him how to instruct the older widows. 1st Timothy 5:1-10 (NASB)—1 Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers, 2 the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, in all purity.3 Honor widows who are widows indeed…5 Now she who is a widow indeed and who has been left alone, has fixed her hope on God and continues in entreaties and prayers night and day…9 A widow is to be put on the list only if she is not less than sixty years old, having been the wife of one man, 10 having a reputation for good works; and if she has brought up children, if she has shown hospitality to strangers, if she has washed the saints' feet, if she has assisted those in distress, and if she has devoted herself to every good work. We should not need Social Security or other government programs—at least not for the elderly in the church. They should be taken care of by their family and/or the church. And even the Law stated that the elderly still had some value.

Now what is the reason for this list of valuations? In verse 2, God talks about a man who has made a “difficult vow”. This is probably referring to one of the Peace Offerings found in chapters 3 and 6. Leviticus 7:16—“‘16 But if the sacrifice of his [peace] offering is a vow…’” Just to kind of refresh our memory, there were two different types of “vows” one could make—there was a vow of devotion (the vow of abstinence [the [קָרְבָּן, qorban]), and the vow of destruction [the [חֵרֶם, cherem, or Greek [ἀνάθεμα, anathema]). The “vow of devotion” was basically a promise the person makes to God. “If God delivers me through this, I will offer Him the best of my herd.” We used the example of Jacob in Genesis 28:20-21—20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, 21 so that I come back to my father's house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God." If someone made a “vow of devotion” קָרְבָּן (qorban), it simply meant that the person had set some possession and had dedicated it to the use of the temple. They may have held the object in their physical possession—but it belonged to God. The Nazirite vow was a type of קָרְבָּן (qorban). The “vow of destruction” (Hebrew [חֵרֶם, cherem], Greek [ἀνάθεμα, anathema]). We read about things being declared חֵרֶם (cherem) in Joshua 6. The things dedicated to חֵרֶם (cherem) were, of course, those things in the city of Jericho that the LORD commanded them to destroy. We’ll talk more about that when we get to the end of this chapter.

So what would happen was this: the person would make the vow; they would find it difficult to fulfill that vow; they would need to be released from that vow. Which makes it pretty clear that we should be really careful about making vows (see Joshua chapter 9). Ecclesiastes 5:4-5 (NASB)—4 When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it; for He takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow! 5 It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. But if you do make that vow you can't pay, you can be redeemed. You can either pay the valuation based on your age, or, if you can't afford that, the priest will judge and put a price on you, so that you may thus fulfill that vow.

Leviticus 27:9-10 (NASB)—“‘9 Now if it is an animal of the kind which men can present as an offering to the LORD, any such that one gives to the LORD shall be holy. 10 He shall not replace it or exchange it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good; or if he does exchange animal for animal, then both it and its substitute shall become holy.’” Once you offer your animal for sacrifice, it belonged to the priest. Period, end of story. If you vowed the next ox to be born to YHVH, and it is born with some kind of defect or blemish—perhaps it has a short leg or some scaly patch of skin—you do not go to the priest and say, “Look, I know I vowed this ox to the LORD, but as you can see it’s not fit for God’s use. Here, let me give you this better one from my herd.” You don’t do that. If that one is not fit, and you want to offer a better specimen, then guess what—both the good one and the bad one belonged to God. The good one was used for sacrifice; the bad one went to the family of the priest. “If he does exchange animal for animal, then both it and its substitute shall become holy.” John Gill—“Whatsoever was devoted to sacred use was never to be put to any profane one; and this was also to teach men not to be hasty and fickle in such things, but to consider well what they did, and abide by it.” Or, as Paul warned Timothy, Do not lay hands upon anyone too hastily and thereby share responsibility for the sins of others; keep yourself free from sin (1st Timothy 5:22 (NASB)).

Leviticus 27:11-13 (NASB)—“‘11 If, however, it is any unclean animal of the kind which men do not present as an offering to the LORD, then he shall place the animal before the priest. 12 The priest shall value it as either good or bad; as you, the priest, value it, so it shall be. 13 But if he should ever wish to redeem it, then he shall add one-fifth of it to your valuation.’” That is, if you wanted to give the priest a donkey for him to use—perhaps to use for travel, or some other use outside of the sanctuary—if you wanted to buy it back, the priest had to put a value on it, add 20%, and then you could buy it back. “The priest shall value it, whether it be good or bad, should rather be rendered, the priest shall estimate it between good and bad, that is, at a moderate price, as though it were neither very good nor very bad. And so in the next verse” (Spence and Exell, The Pulpit Commentary).

Leviticus 27:14-25 (NASB)—“‘14 Now if a man consecrates his house as holy to the LORD, then the priest shall value it as either good or bad; as the priest values it, so it shall stand. 15 Yet if the one who consecrates it should wish to redeem his house, then he shall add one-fifth of your valuation price to it, so that it may be his. 16 Again, if a man consecrates to the LORD part of the fields of his own property, then your valuation shall be proportionate to the seed needed for it: a homer of barley seed at fifty shekels of silver. 17 If he consecrates his field as of the year of jubilee, according to your valuation it shall stand. 18 If he consecrates his field after the jubilee, however, then the priest shall calculate the price for him proportionate to the years that are left until the year of jubilee; and it shall be deducted from your valuation. 19 If the one who consecrates it should ever wish to redeem the field, then he shall add one-fifth of your valuation price to it, so that it may pass to him. 20 Yet if he will not redeem the field, but has sold the field to another man, it may no longer be redeemed; 21 and when it reverts in the jubilee, the field shall be holy to the LORD, like a field set apart; it shall be for the priest as his property. 22 Or if he consecrates to the LORD a field which he has bought, which is not a part of the field of his own property, 23 then the priest shall calculate for him the amount of your valuation up to the year of jubilee; and he shall on that day give your valuation as holy to the LORD. 24 In the year of jubilee the field shall return to the one from whom he bought it, to whom the possession of the land belongs. 25 Every valuation of yours, moreover, shall be after the shekel of the sanctuary. The shekel shall be twenty gerahs.”

This section doesn't really need much commentary; we have already discussed either all that is covered here, or at least the principle behind these words. Basically, if you wanted to buy back what you had dedicated to YHVH, you had to add 20% to the price. The valuations were prorated based on the number of years until Jubilee. If you don’t redeem it by the Year of Jubilee, or you sell it to another man, you don’t get it back. And the shekel that was to be used, the shekel of the sanctuary, was twenty gerahs. “What’s a gerah”? A gerah was equivalent in weight to about 16 coffee beans. If you want to do a home study on your own and weigh them yourself, feel free.

Leviticus 27:26-27 (NASB)—“‘26 However, a firstborn among animals, which as a firstborn belongs to the LORD, no man may consecrate it; whether ox or sheep, it is the LORD's. 27 But if it is among the unclean animals, then he shall redeem it according to your valuation and add to it one-fifth of it; and if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your valuation.’” Again, simple. The firstborn among any animal that could be sacrificed to YHVH could not be redeemed. On the night of the first Passover, Exodus 13:1-2 (NASB)—1 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 "Sanctify to Me every firstborn, the first offspring of every womb among the sons of Israel, both of man and beast; it belongs to Me." Now, if you did not want to redeem that firstborn of unclean animals, and you couldn’t find a buyer for it, God gave instructions for just such a situation in Exodus 13:11-13 (NASB)—“11 Now when the LORD brings you to the land of the Canaanite, as He swore to you and to your fathers, and gives it to you, 12 you shall devote to the LORD the first offspring of every womb, and the first offspring of every beast that you own; the males belong to the LORD. 13 But every first offspring of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck; and every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem.” The firstborn belonged to God, period, paragraph, end of story. This concept of the firstborn belonging to God is echoed in Christ. Colossians 1:15 (NASB)—He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 1st Corinthians 3:23 (NASB)—You belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God. Now, it’s true that Christ belonged to God long before He became flesh and made His tabernacle among men. And He has been given the preeminence as the Firstborn of God because God has made us brothers and sisters of Christ. Romans 8:29 (NASB)—For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.

Leviticus 27:28-29 (NASB)—“‘28 Nevertheless, anything which a man sets apart to the LORD out of all that he has, of man or animal or of the fields of his own property, shall not be sold or redeemed. Anything devoted to destruction is most holy to the LORD. 29 No one who may have been set apart among men shall be ransomed; he shall surely be put to death.’” This would be talking about the sacrifice of a Peace Offering—specifically, a Peace Offering of a vow, and even more specifically, the Peace Offering of a vow of destruction, or חֵרֶם (cherem) (Greek ἀνάθεμα, anathema). Now, let’s not get ahead of ourselves and ask, “But, does this mean that Yitzhak could offer his servant as a חֵרֶם (cherem) and that servant would be put to death?” No, that is NOT what this means. The חֵרֶם (cherem) was not to be used in that manner. (Jephthah learned that lesson the hard way in Judges 11). Only God could set someone aside for destruction. And He did. Joshua 6:17-18 (KJV)—“17 And the city shall be accursed (חֵרֶם [cherem]), even it, and all that are therein, to the LORD…18 And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing (חֵרֶם [cherem]), lest ye make yourselves accursed (חָרַם [cherem]), when ye take of the accursed thing (חֵרֶם [cherem]), and make the camp of Israel a curse (חֵרֶם [cherem]), and trouble it.” Nothing that God had put under the ban (חֵרֶם [cherem]) could be redeemed. It had to be destroyed. Anything devoted to destruction for the glory of God was to be destroyed. We have already studied this in detail when we looked at chapter 3 and the Peace Offering, so if you want to read more about it, you can do so there.

And finally, Leviticus 27:30-34 (NASB)—“‘30 Thus all the tithe of the land, of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD's; it is holy to the LORD. 31 If, therefore, a man wishes to redeem part of his tithe, he shall add to it one-fifth of it. 32 For every tenth part of herd or flock, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the LORD. 33 He is not to be concerned whether it is good or bad, nor shall he exchange it; or if he does exchange it, then both it and its substitute shall become holy. It shall not be redeemed.’” 34 These are the commandments which the LORD commanded Moses for the sons of Israel at Mount Sinai. What is one of the most controversial subjects in the church? The tithe. I'm gonna say it from the outset; get it out of the way so you know where I'm coming from. Here goes: the church, under the new covenant (Hebrews 8:6-13) is not—not—bound by any 10% tithe. But what do we always hear from pulpits of those churches that teach that the church, even though not under the Law is under the tithe? “You're robbing God!” And to whom do they run for their refuge? Malachi. Specifically Malachi 3:8—“Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, 'How have we robbed You?' In tithes and offerings.” And they read that verse and they declare, “SEE!!”—and they speak in all capital letters—“SEE!! MALACHI SAYS YOU'RE ROBBING GOD IF YOU DON’T TITHE!!” And they have taken that verse out of context in order to prop up their flawed doctrine. If they were to read that verse in its proper context, they would (if they were so convicted) cease to teach the “give your 10% or God will curse you” tithe.

In fact, next time someone asks you, “Do you believe in the tithe?” you should ask them this simple question—“Which tithe?” And they will look at you like you’ve got three eyeballs. “Well, what do you mean ‘which tithe’? The 10% tithe!” And when you ask them to show you, from the Scripture, where it says that the church, under the new covenant, is bound neck and heel to give 10% of their income to the preacher, they may drag you to Hebrews 7, where the writer talks about Abram tithing to Melchizedek. And then you ask them, “What did Abram tithe from?” And they will once again look at you like you have three eyeballs. Then you elaborate and ask, “Did he tithe, one time, from the spoils of war—or did he tithe from everything he made for the rest of his life?” Of course he did not give Melchizedek 10% of everything he ever made for the rest of his life. It was a one-time deal. But then, they will pull out (what they think is) their trump card, and say, “Aha! But we must tithe because the tithe was in force before the Law!” Really. So Abram was under compulsion to give Melchizedek 10% of the spoils of war? Let’s think about this a second. If the Law was not in place, how could Abram be under compulsion to give Melchizedek the tithe? And, one more way to answer this last objection—ask them another question: was the Sabbath in place before the Law? If they say “Yes,” then ask them if they keep the Sabbath. If they don’t, then ask them “Well, the Sabbath was in place before the Law, but you don’t keep the Sabbath. And yet the tithe, which existed before the Law, you place around people’s necks like a millstone?”

I hate to say “We’ll talk more about the tithe when we get to it”—but I have to. Because under the Law there were actually three tithes (the Malachi Tithe® was actually that which was set aside for the widows and orphans, and you actually ate one of the other tithes), and they are all in the book of Deuteronomy, so you'll have to wait on that. But before we leave this topic, let me say this—should we, the church, be giving? Absolutely. Do we do it because we are under compulsion to do so? Absolutely—NOT. 2nd Corinthians 9:6-7 (NKJV)—6 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. Was the tithe of necessity to the Israelite? Yes. So we are to give, not of necessity, then are we bound, by Law, to the tithe? No. If you want to read an excellent treatment of the subject of tithing, read Jim McClarty’s book “A Guide to New Covenant Giving” (You can read the free PDF at http://www.salvationbygrace.org/uc/sub/docs/grace_giving.pdf )

One more thing: We are taught to tithe off the top. And to make sure it’s the very best. But what was it that belonged to God? Leviticus 27:32-33—“32 For every tenth part of herd or flock, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the LORD. 33 He is not to be concerned whether it is good or bad.” You simply hold out a rod, have your animals file underneath it one at a time, and count as they pass under the rod. And every tenth animal that passed under that rod belonged to God, and therefore went to the priests and Levites. And you don’t check it to see if it had a blemish. You simply count it, and hand it over. This was God’s way of saying “Everything belongs to Me. The good, the bad—it’s all mine. And I will do with it as I please.” The fact that God commanded they not be concerned whether it was good or bad served a purpose, however. Whenever the priests and Levites were in a sinful state, God could very easily blight the herds and flocks, and give the blighted animals the priests’ and Levites’ portions.

So that concludes our study of the book of Leviticus. We will now, naturally, move directly on to the book of Numbers, which is more of a narrative, although there are many theological implications and applications which we will glean from the texts. I hope you have enjoyed this study, and that you will enjoy Numbers.

Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , ,

22 January 2025

A Survey of the Old Testment Law--Leviticus 26:21-46

Leviticus 26:21-22—“‘21 Then, if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins. 22 I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number; and your highways shall be desolate.’” If it’s not enough to take away your crops, then God will send wild beasts to kill your children, your livestock, your flocks and herds—oh, and you children, too. And you would think that would be enough to make the people turn back to God. Again, you would be wrong.

Leviticus 26:23-26—“‘23 And if by these things you are not reformed by Me, but walk contrary to Me, 24 then I also will walk contrary to you, and I will punish you yet seven times for your sins. 25 And I will bring a sword against you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant; when you are gathered together within your cities I will send pestilence among you; and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26 When I have cut off your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall bring back your bread by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.’” If it’s not enough that God delivers you to plunderers, makes you scared of your own shadow, wipes out your crops, destroys your children and your flocks and herds by wild beasts—then He will send disease among you, turn you over to your enemies, and cut off your food. You will be so hungry that you could eat an entire loaf of bread—and still be starving. And notice what He says in verse 25. “I will bring a sword against you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant.” This goes back to Exodus 23:20-33, where He promises to send the Angel before them. He promises that the Angel will scatter their enemies so they may dwell in peace. But he also promises that if they sin, that Angel will turn and instead of fighting against their enemy, that Angel will fight against Israel. Do you think it’s a good idea to be on the bad side of an angel God sends to execute His justice? And you would think that would be enough to make the people turn back to God. And you would be wrong.

Leviticus 26:27-39—“‘27 And after all this, if you do not obey Me, but walk contrary to Me, 28 then I also will walk contrary to you in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. 29 You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. 30 I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and cast your carcasses on the lifeless forms of your idols; and My soul shall abhor you. 31 I will lay your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the fragrance of your sweet aromas. 32 I will bring the land to desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it. 33 I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you; your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. 34 Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies' land; then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall rest—for the time it did not rest on your sabbaths when you dwelt in it. 36 And as for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; the sound of a shaken leaf shall cause them to flee; they shall flee as though fleeing from a sword, and they shall fall when no one pursues. 37 They shall stumble over one another, as it were before a sword, when no one pursues; and you shall have no power to stand before your enemies. 38 You shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 39 And those of you who are left shall waste away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; also in their fathers' iniquities, which are with them, they shall waste away.’”

Not only will God cut off their food; not only will the wild beasts carry off their children—but the people themselves will cut up their children and eat them. The act of cannibalism marked two of the darkest hours in the history of the nation Israel. In 2nd Kings 6:24-29— 24 And it happened after this that Ben-Hadad king of Syria gathered all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria. 25 And there was a great famine in Samaria; and indeed they besieged it until a donkey's head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and one-fourth of a kab of dove droppings for five shekels of silver. 26 Then, as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, "Help, my lord, O king!" 27 And he said, "If the LORD does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor or from the winepress?" 28 Then the king said to her, "What is troubling you?" And she answered, "This woman said to me, 'Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.' 29 So we boiled my son, and ate him. And I said to her on the next day, 'Give your son, that we may eat him'; but she has hidden her son." Women were baking, broiling, and boiling their children in order to eat. This because God promised this to the people if they repeatedly disobeyed Him. Does God keep His promises? Whether He promises good or bad, will He not deliver. When people talk about the faithfulness of God in keeping His promises, that faithfulness is s two-way street. He promises good, and He will make good on those promises. But He also promises calamity, and He will fulfill that promise as well.

There is another recorded episode of cannibalism in Israel, this time from the pen of Josephus. This story comes from the absolute darkest hour in the history of the city Jerusalem—its siege and fall at the hands of Titus in 70 AD. The tragedy that overtook the city was the result of the murder of the Son of God, and the destruction of all those things used by men to continue in the works of the Law that could save no man. By the time that day had come, the temple was no more about the worship of God, but rather the buying and selling of the priestly office, for which the entire city paid dearly. But, this was the warning that God Himself had given some 1500 years prior, and it was now coming to pass, and the city would fall in one of the most horrific ways imaginable (if one could even imagine such an abominable end to a people). Here is what the historian Josephus says of the fulfillment of the promise of God from Leviticus—

“There was a certain woman that dwelt beyond Jordan, her name was Mary…what food she had contrived to save, had been carried off by the rapacious guards, who came every day running into her house for that purpose…if she found any food, she perceived her labors were for others, and not for herself; and it was now become impossible for her any way to find any more food, while the famine pierced through her very bowels and marrow, when also her passion was fired to a degree beyond the famine itself…She then attempted a most unnatural thing; and snatching up her son, who was a child sucking at her breast, she said, ‘O thou miserable infant! For whom shall I preserve thee in this war, this famine, and this sedition? As to the war with the Romans, if they preserve our lives, we must be slaves. This famine also will destroy us, even before that slavery comes upon us. Yet are these seditious rogues more terrible than both the other. Come on; be thou my food, and be thou a fury to these seditious varlets, and a by-word to the world, which is all that is now wanting to complete the calamities of us Jews.’ As soon as she had said this, she slew her son, and then roasted him, and ate the one half of him, and kept the other half by her concealed. Upon this the seditious came in presently, and smelling the horrid scent of this food, they threatened her that they would cut her throat immediately if she did not show them what food she had gotten ready. She replied that she had saved a very fine portion of it for them, and uncovered what was left of her son. Hereupon they were seized with a horror and amazement of mind, and stood astonished at the sight, when she said to them, ‘This is mine own son, and what hath been done was mine own doing! Come, eat of this food; for I have eaten of it myself! Do not you pretend to be either more tender than a woman, or more compassionate than a mother; but if you be so scrupulous, and do abominate this my sacrifice, as I have eaten the one half, let the rest be reserved for me also.’ After which those men went out trembling, being never so much affrighted at anything as they were at this, and with some difficulty they left the rest of that meat to the mother.”

Why do people never learn? Why did generation after generation of those who had the Sacred Scriptures, who studied them and memorized them, never learn, but rather drift further and further away from the God of which they spoke? Because they were human. And we foolish humans are only concerned with one thing—our own wants. So we pretend that the warnings of God do not apply to us. If we were to go back to the passage in Judges, after the people were greatly distressed about God punishing them for bowing down to the Ba’als and Ashtoreths, what does God do? He tells them, “OK, that was your trial. You found out that what I said would come to pass. So, I’ll give you men who will deliver you from the hands of your enemies.” And so, in Judges 2:16, God does just that, and they are once again out from under the rule of the pagans. But the story doesn't end there. Guess what the people do immediately? Judges 2:16-17—16 The LORD raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them. 17 Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. For those of you who still think that the human heart is “basically good”, and actually wants to follow God—here’s your clue that you're wrong. The people heard the commands of YHVH from their fathers. They heard that if they disobeyed the LORD He would punish them and sell them into the hands of their enemies. They test Him, He does what He promised, they become greatly distressed, God gives them men to deliver them from the enemies hand—and they go and do the very thing for which God delivered them into the hands of their enemies!! Are you serious!! But such is the human heart. No matter how many times were are corrected and chastised, we keep going back and doing that very thing we were punished for—not thinking we will be punished for it again. Alexander MacLaren—

“The Law stringently bridled passions which the hideous worship of the Canaanites stimulated. No wonder that, when the first generation of the conquerors had passed away, their successors lapsed into the universal polytheism, with its attendant idolatry and immorality. Instead of thinking of the Israelites as monsters of ingratitude and backsliding, we come nearer the truth, and make a better use of the history, when we see in it a mirror which shows us our own image. The strong earthward pull is ever acting on us, and, unless God hold us up, we too shall slide downwards. ‘Hath a nation changed their gods, which yet are no gods? But My people hath changed their glory for that which doth not profit.’ Idolatry and worldliness are persistent; for they are natural. Firm adherence to God is less common, because it goes against the strong forces, within and without, which bind us to earth.”

Coming back to Leviticus, we find, once again, that single word that changes the course of rivers of words.

BUT.

Leviticus 26:40-46—“‘40 But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me, 41 and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt—42 then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember; I will remember the land. 43 The land also shall be left empty by them, and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them; they will accept their guilt, because they despised My judgments and because their soul abhorred My statutes. 44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, nor shall I abhor them, to utterly destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God. 45 But for their sake I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.’” 46 These are the statutes and judgments and laws which the LORD made between Himself and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.

Repentance. We are human. We are going to mess up. God knows that. He will not excuse our sins, but if we go to Him in repentance, if we confess that we have messed up—and perhaps “messed up” is too mild of a term, we have rather rebelled against the authority and majesty of God—if we confess our sins, He will show us mercy and blot out those sins. He even says so. 1st John 1:9—If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And we must go to God daily to receive that forgiveness, that “washing” of our feet as Christ called it. John 13:10—"He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean." Back in Exodus, when we covered the consecrating and regulations concerning Aaron and his sons’ service in the tabernacle, we talked about the bronze laver where they were to wash their feet before they entered the sanctuary. They did not need to bathe themselves all over again—they simply needed to wash the dirt and grime of the world from their feet. An illustration of us as Christians, who have been bathed by Christ—but we too must have our feet cleansed and washed daily from the muck of the world which clings to us.

One last note—see in verses 44-45, where God promises that He will not completely abandon the people of Israel? He made a promise to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. He made a covenant with them, and just because their sons and daughters broke that covenant, God will keep up His end. Yet there are some who will say, “God is done with Israel.” And these people do not have a clue about what they are saying. If they read and understood the words of Paul, they would not make such wild claims. Romans 11:1-5—1 I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, “3 LORD, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life?” 4 But what does the divine response say to him? "I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." 5 Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. To say that God is done with Israel is to make Paul a liar. There will always be a remnant of the Jews on the earth. This is how William Sanday, in the International Critical Commentary, explains this passage in Romans, verse-by-verse, under the heading, “The Rejection of Israel Not Complete”—

“1 It is through their own fault that Israel has rejected a salvation which was fully and freely offered. Now what does this imply? Does it mean that God has rejected His chosen people? Heaven forbid that I should say this! I who like them am an Israelite, an Israelite by birth and not a proselyte, a lineal descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe that with Judah formed the restored Israel after the exile.

2 No, God has not rejected His people. He chose them for His own before all time and nothing can make Him change His purpose. If you say He has rejected them, it only shows that you have not clearly grasped the teaching of Scripture concerning the Remnant. Elijah on Mt. Horeb brought just such an accusation against his countrymen.

3 He complained that they had forsaken the covenant, that they had overthrown God’s altars, that they had slain His Prophets; just as the Jews at the present day have slain the Messiah and persecuted His messengers. Elijah only was left, and his life they sought. The whole people, God’s chosen people, had been rejected.

4 So he thought; but the Divine response came to him, that there were seven thousand men left in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal. There was a kernel of the nation that remained loyal.

5 Exactly the same circumstances exist now as then. Now as then the mass of the people are unfaithful, but there is a remnant of loyal adherents to the Divine message—a remnant, be it remembered, chosen by God by an act of free favour.”

Even when we are faithless, God is faithful. He will not completely cast His people away, but will chasten us, scourge us, and call us back to Himself when we stray. And if we are truly His people, we will return to Him. We will be His people, and He will be our God.

Father, may we never forget that You alone are God, and may we never go after idols of wood, silver and gold. May we always remember that if we do this, and You will it to happen, you can cause unthinkable tragedies to befall us. May we always remember that when we are faithless, You are ever faithful and will show us mercy when we repent of our sins and cry out to You for mercy.

 

Jesus Christ is Lord.
Amen.
Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)