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 š¬
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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 ĪĻĪÆĪøĪ¼ĪæĪÆ (Arithmoi,
ānumbersā), 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 (×Ö¼Ö°×Ö“Ö“××
×Ö¼×Ø,
āwildernessā or ādesertā), 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
ā7 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
Noahās nakedness when he became drunk after planting vineyards and drinking the
wine thereof after the ark came
to rest following the flood. Genesis 9:25āThen
[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 (×֓ש×Ö°×ØÖø×Öµ×, yiÅrÄ'Äl, āGod
prevailsā). 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 donāt
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 2:23-24ā23 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 outānot to Him, as they had
forgotten HimāHe ārememberedā. 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 makeāthe 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 censersāand 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
āNumbersā). 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)āāāMay this water
that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.āā
The words translated in the NIV as āwomb miscarriesā are the Hebrew words ×Öø×ØÖµ×Ö° (yÄrÄįøµ, āthighā) and
×Ö°×Ö·× Ö°×¤Ö¼Ö“× (nÄpĢal, āto fallā).
This edition of the NIV is the only translation that renders these words as
āwomb miscarriesā, 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
5:28āBut 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
6:24-26ā24 āThe 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.ā 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 āSecond Passoverā, 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. āWell, what if the cloud stayed over the
Tabernacle for, say, a month or two, or even a year?ā Numbers 9:22āWhether 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 complaināa 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 isāwell, we donāt 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 āGraves of Lustā.
That quieted the people
for a minute, but then Aaron and Miriam decided to complain (Numbers 12:1).
Mosesā 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 Godās
good graces, and fought against the people of the land, trying to earn back
Godās 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
