A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Numbers 17

Numbers 17:1-7—1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 2 "Speak to the children of Israel, and get from them a rod from each father's house, all their leaders according to their fathers' houses—twelve rods. Write each man's name on his rod. 3 And you shall write Aaron's name on the rod of Levi. For there shall be one rod for the head of each father's house. 4 Then you shall place them in the tabernacle of meeting before the Testimony, where I meet with you. 5 And it shall be that the rod of the man whom I choose will blossom; thus I will rid Myself of the complaints of the children of Israel, which they make against you." 6 So Moses spoke to the children of Israel, and each of their leaders gave him a rod apiece, for each leader according to their fathers' houses, twelve rods; and the rod of Aaron was among their rods. 7 And Moses placed the rods before the LORD in the tabernacle of witness.  

Numbers 17 could be considered a continuation of Numbers 16, and in fact Numbers 16-18 could be considered as one unit. Here we see God finally putting to rest any question about who is the High Priest. Not only by the negative sign of destroying Korah and company, but by a positive sign that Aaron was High Priest. They were to gather twelve rods, one from each family, and gather them together inside the Tabernacle so God could show whom He had called as High Priest. He had shown, in Numbers 16, was not High Priest, now He is going to show who was High Priest. And it shall be that the rod of the man whom I choose will blossom. 

Numbers 16:8-11—8 Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses went into the tabernacle of witness, and behold, the rod of Aaron, of the house of Levi, had sprouted and put forth buds, had produced blossoms and yielded ripe almonds. 9 Then Moses brought out all the rods from before the LORD to all the children of Israel; and they looked, and each man took his rod. 10 And the LORD said to Moses, "Bring Aaron's rod back before the Testimony, to be kept as a sign against the rebels, that you may put their complaints away from Me, lest they die." 11 Thus did Moses; just as the LORD had commanded him, so he did. Eventually, Aaron’s rod was to be placed inside the Ark of the Covenant, along with the Two Tablets of the Law and a pot of manna. This was a picture of the Christ to come. The Roman Catholics think of Mary as the new Ark of the Covenant because she bore the one who was High Priest, Prophet and King. And they are sadly mistaken. Was Mary a blessed woman? Yes, for God chose her to bear His Son, the One who would bring salvation. But Mary is not the new Ark of the Covenant; that title belongs to Jesus. What was held in the Ark of the Covenant? Three things: The ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant (Hebrews 9:4). 

The two tablets of the Law. Christ lived under that Law, kept that Law, and was the fulfillment of that Law. Matthew 5:17—“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” He did not come to open up the floodgates of sin; He did not come to make every device of a man’s heart acceptable to God. He came to live under the Law, to carry it within Himself, and to fulfill every word which was written about Him. And He is the fulfillment of that Law for all those who believe in Him. The God’s Word Translation (not a literal word-for-word translation, but a thought-for-though translation) renders Romans 10:4—Christ is the fulfillment of Moses’ Teachings so that everyone who has faith may receive God’s approval. That is essentially what this verse is saying, that Christ has fulfilled the Law in our place, and we receive the fulfillment of that Law by faith in Him. What could we possibly do to earn such a reward? There are not enough good works to do in the entire world to merit any kind of favor from God! We are saved by faith alone, in Christ alone. Titus 3:5—Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. The Law was against us, there was nothing we could do against that Law, and it condemned us. And Christ, who is our life, took upon Himself the burden of our sins, that we may be found approved of by God, apart from the works of the Law or any “good works”, for that matter. Romans 8:2-4—2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. “The Law was weak? How?” Because of the flesh. The Law only prescribed sacrifices that were to be carried out after the person sinned, it could not prevent them from sinning. Just like laws against murder and robbery cannot prevent people from committing these crimes, but only prescribes a penalty to be served after the crime has been committed. God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh. He condemned His Son to die in order to take away the penalty we owed because of our sins. So that that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who…walk... according to the Spirit. 

Mary, blessed as she was, contributes nothing to our salvation. Yes, she bore the One who would save us from the wrath of God, but there is nothing about her herself that is in any way involved with our salvation. We don’t pray to her, we pray to God. We do not look to her for our salvation, we look to Christ. She has passed, she was not “assumed to Heaven” as the Romanists say. She died just like anyone, having fulfilled her role in bringing forth the body of our Lord. 

Aaron’s budding rod. What we see here in our text in Numbers 17. Just as God chose Aaron to be the High Priest of His people Israel, so He sent His son to be the High Priest of our confession (Hebrews 3:1). We will see more of Aaron’s and the priests’ responsibilities in Numbers 18. But let us focus on our Great High Priest. We see in Hebrews 4:15 why He came in the flesh. Hebrews 4:15—For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Was Christ tempted with sin? Absolutely. Was Christ tempted by sin? Absolutely not. “What’s the difference?” you ask. If your friend tries to get you to run to iniquity, he may dangle some hope before you that you will somehow benefit from it. But in Christ, you know that what they are doing is wrong, and will only turn out to your hurt. He is tempting you with sin, but you are not tempted by it. Take Aaron, the High Priest of our passage in Numbers. Was he tempted to sin? Yes. Did he sin? Yes. When the people did not know Moses’ fate when he was on Mount Sinai, they prodded Aaron into making a golden calf that they could worship. And what did Aaron do? Did he rebuke them, and let them know that only YHVH is God? No. He took their gold, and as he told Moses, he “cast it into the fire, and this calf came out!” (Exodus 32:24). “Can you believe it? Out of that molten mass of gold, this calf just *POOF* appeared!” No, it didn’t just appear. It was fashioned by the hand of Aaron, a man who should have known better. But our great High Priest knows better! What was His goal while on the earth? To glorify God. John 17:1— “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You”. He did not come to glorify Himself, but to glorify the One who sent Him. 

Hebrews 5:4—And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was. Aaron was the one chosen by God to offer up sacrifices for the sins of the people that the other priests could not. And making his rod to bud was a work of God that no man could work. Could a man make not only blossoms but full, ripe almonds grow on a rod that was cut off from the tree? And overnight, no less? This is the work of a God who creates. Just as at creation He did not create eggs, but birds; He did not create fish eggs, but fully formed fish; He did not create calves but fully grown cattle, and He did not create a baby, but an adult Adam from the earth. And here, He caused ripe almonds to grow from a stick taken from a tree. And He showed the people that they do not decide who will be High Priest, but God calls the High Priest. 

The pot of manna. When the people were in the wilderness, and cried out because they had nothing to eat, God caused manna to come down at sunset. The people were to gather for themselves one omer, that nothing be left for the morning, and they were not to gather on the Sabbath. And what happened? Exodus 16:18—So when they measured it by omers, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. Each person had exactly what they needed; no one had any more, and no one had any less. This was another sign Christ explained to the people. In John 6, a multitude of people were gathered to hear Him, and it was near twilight. There was not enough food to satisfy the people, so what did Jesus do? He had the people sit down, He took the 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread, then He blessed it and broke it, and fed the thousands that had gathered. The people came back the next day—to hear more of Jesus’ teachings? John 6:26—“Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.” They wanted another free meal. But Christ answered them well (as always). He let them know that He understood what was in their hearts, and that He did not come to simply give them free food, but to give them food that would never perish. John 6:49-50—49 “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.” Our lives are about more than eating and drinking, but about glorifying God and being in His presence for eternity. What eternal good was the manna to the people? They ate it, and what happened the next day? They ate it again. They had to eat it every day in order to survive their life on Earth. But what happened to them eventually? They “ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead”. It could only sustain them while they were living on this rock; it could not give them eternal life. 

But Jesus taught them something better. He said “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever” (John 6:51). This must have been a hard saying for the people to understand. “Live forever? How can someone live forever and not die?” But He was not talking about physical death, everyone will experience that. He was talking about spiritual life; eternal life lived in the presence of God. And it is the spiritual bread that Christ gives us. John 6:52—The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" Jesus answered them, but did so in the way He always answered those who questioned Him with ulterior motives (Proverbs 26:4-5). He did not give them a direct answer, but rather a parable. Was He saying you had to eat His literal flesh and drink His literal blood? Of course not, and it is foolishness to think this is what He was saying! This was a parable, a truth hidden beneath a story parallel to what He was teaching. For if He was saying that the people needed to drink His literal blood, then the Jerusalem Council was lying (Acts 15:29). No, He was teaching them something hard to understand for a reason: those who believed Him would understand, but those who did not believe would not understand. Hebrews 6:4 speaks of those who have tasted the heavenly gift. Did they eat this gift? No. But the Writer uses this metaphor to describe those who have had some experience with religion, even salvation, but go looking for something else to do what only Jesus could do. He is the true Manna, He is the One who can give us eternal food and drink, He is the only One who can sustain us forever at the table in New Jerusalem. From the hymn “The Marriage Supper” by Carrie Breck: 

Oh, the bride shall shine in bright array/With her tears all forever wiped away–

There will be a great rejoicing on that day/At the great marriage supper of the Lamb

From all sin forevermore released/They will come from the west and from the east,

For all nations will be gathered at the feast/Of the great marriage supper of the Lamb

We shall praise him by the crystal tide/When the Lamb that was slain is glorified

And the ransomed church of God shall be the bride/At the great marriage supper of the Lamb.

That is when we will feast with our Lord who ransomed us, who gave His life for us, and who gives us meat to eat and wine to drink at the marriage supper of the Lamb! 

Numbers 17:12-13—12 So the children of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, "Surely we die, we perish, we all perish! 13 Whoever even comes near the tabernacle of the LORD must die. Shall we all utterly die?" What was one of the first lies ever told? “Thou shalt not surely die!” (Genesis 3:4). Here, the people put forth a lie that was the opposite of this, “we shall surely die!” This was an echo of when they were at the base of Mount Sinai, when God said “Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death” (Exodus 19:12). They were under the impression that if they even went near the Tabernacle, God would cut them down. This was not the case. They could not go into the Tabernacle, and certainly not the Holy of Holies, but as long as they stayed outside the tent, God would not strike them down. It is also an echo of Eve’s argument to the serpent. Genesis 3:3—“But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'” Did God tell her she could not touch the fruit? No. Did God tell the people they could not come near the Tabernacle lest they die? No. Perhaps they were afraid because of the punishments God had inflicted upon them because of their various rebellions. Now, they were afraid to even put God to the test, lest they incur His wrath. Was it necessarily a bad thing for them to stay as far away from the Tabernacle as they could? No. But it could have prevented them from bringing the offerings they needed to in order to stay God’s wrath. 

It’s not a bad thing to set up boundaries and fences against sin. Will God be angry if we stay farther away from sin than may be necessary? No. No one has ever been condemned to Hell for being too far away from sin! And sometimes, we need to set those fences even further back from sin than may be necessary. Jesus even warned us we may need to cut off our hand or gouge out our eyes to keep us from sin (Matthew 5:30, 18:8; Mark 9:43). Is this going too far? Is it too much to mutilate ourselves to keep us from sin? Well, as RC Sproul once said, “What’s wrong with you people?” Jesus said “it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell” (Matthew 5:30). If you are in Christ, and destined for an eternity in the presence of the Father and the Lamb, then go maimed and blind, rather than going into eternal destruction with all your limbs and both eyes. Now, did Jesus mean we should maim and blind ourselves to keep us from sin? No. He was telling us to cut away anything that may lead us to sin. If one of our temptations is drink, and our route to and from work takes us by a bar, find a different route. If we are tempted by someone we work with, maybe we need to find a different job. There is always a way to avoid sin. 1st Corinthians 10:13—No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. Stay close to God, do not fear to call on Christ. Do not avoid drawing near to the Tabernacle, in fact run to it! Run to the One who will save you from your sins. Run to the One who can give you eternal food to eat and eternal drink to drink. Run to the One Whose arms are open wide to accept any who call on His name. From “Untitled Hymn” by Chris Rice: 

Weak and wounded sinner/Lost and left to die

Oh, raise your head for Love is passing by

Come to Jesus

Come to Jesus

Come to Jesus and live       

 

Now your burden's lifted/And carried far away

And precious blood has washed away the stain

So, sing to Jesus

Sing to Jesus

Sing to Jesus and live

 

And like a newborn baby/Don't be afraid to crawl

And remember when you walk sometimes we fall

So, fall on Jesus

Fall on Jesus

Fall on Jesus and live

Come to Jesus, sing to Jesus, fall on Jesus, cry to Jesus, dance for Jesus, fly to Jesus—and live! 

Father, may we never be afraid to run to the arms of our great High Priest for forgiveness of our sins. May we always cling to the One who tabernacled among us, who ever lives to make intercession for us. Thank you for this eternally wonderful gift, that we may taste of His glory and be saved from Your wrath. Help us to avoid the pitfalls of our flesh, that we may ever live to glorify You!

 Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen.

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Numbers 12 (Part 2)

Numbers 12:10-14—10 And when the cloud departed from above the tabernacle, suddenly Miriam became leprous, as white as snow. Then Aaron turned toward Miriam, and there she was, a leper. 11 So Aaron said to Moses, "Oh, my lord! Please do not lay this sin on us, in which we have done foolishly and in which we have sinned. 12 Please do not let her be as one dead, whose flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother's womb!" 13 So Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, "Please heal her, O God, I pray!" 14 Then the LORD said to Moses, "If her father had but spit in her face, would she not be shamed seven days? Let her be shut out of the camp seven days, and afterward she may be received again." 

How angry was God with Miriam? So angry that He caused her to be leprous. We covered all the regulations concerning leprosy in Leviticus 13 and 14. And now, Miriam, sister of the man to whom God spoke face to face, would have to live under these regulations. As I said at the outset, she didn’t like Moses marrying a woman darker than him, so God made her white as snow. And yet again, as in our previous chapter, we see Moses entreat God to stop the consequence of the actions of one who had spoken rashly. 

The question God asks, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not be shamed seven days?” There is no commandment or injunction in the Law like this except in Deuteronomy 25:9, and that only speaks of a woman spitting in the face of a man who will not marry her according to the Levirate marriage. It was, however, from everything I’ve read, a common practice at the time, when a daughter had brought shame on the family, for the father to publicly disgrace her and send her away for a time of remorse and repentance, that she may come back sorrowful and more apt to not disgrace the family any more. The Pulpit Commentary says:

 

It was the distinctive note of public disgrace inflicted by one who had a right to inflict it. In the case of a father, it meant that he was thoroughly ashamed of his child, and judged it best (which would be only in extreme cases) to put his child to shame before all the world. So public a disgrace would certainly be felt in patriarchal times as a most severe calamity, and entailed by ordinary custom (as we learn here) retirement and mourning for seven days at least. How much more, when her heavenly Father had been driven to inflict a public disgrace upon her for perverse behavior, should the shame and the sorrow not be lightly put away, but patiently endured for a decent period!

 God knows how to punish the unruly. He knows how to chasten His children (Deuteronomy 8:5; Hebrews 12:6). He has to chastise us, because we can, many times, be unruly children who need a spanking. He could have very easily sent down fire and consumed her, but He didn’t. He could have turned her into a pillar of salt as He did with Lot’s wife, but He didn’t. He could have made two she-bears appear (2nd Kings 2:23-24) and devour her, but He didn’t. He doesn’t destroy His children. He chastises them, He punishes them, He may even leave them alone with Satan for a spell that they may learn that sin is sin and they may repent and turn again to Him (1st Corinthians 5:5). And this was a case where God chastised Miriam for her speaking so harshly against God’s servant. 1st Chronicles 16:22—"Do not touch My anointed ones, and do My prophets no harm."

You may think “Why didn’t Aaron suffer some kind of punishment?” Well, he was the High Priest. He would have had to have been put outside the camp, and the people would have been without a High Priest for seven days. There were certain duties the High Priest alone had to carry out. Not only that, there would have been the shame of the situation, if the High Priest had become leprous and put outside the camp for seven days. Knowing this people, how rebellious and stiff-necked they were, and how quickly they turned from serving God to serving idols, what kind of shape would the camp be in? Whatever the reason Aaron was spared punishment, we must remember one thing—this was God’s decision, and we must always agree that His is the proper punishment. You see, there are many parents who do not know or understand how to properly punish their children. Many are too harsh and end up abusing their children, leaving scars that the child will bear for most of, if not all of, their life. They grow up into adults that despise authority and rebel any time anyone tries to impose any kind of rules over them. And if you try to share the gospel with them, they spurn it as just another attempt to place them under some ogre who only wants to punish them and berate and abuse them. Dave Pelzer wrote a series of books about the abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother, the first being “A Child Called ‘It’”. These books chronicle his life and how he went from being severely abused to becoming a functioning member of society. Not all such children are so lucky, however. Many never escape the mental problems brought on by the physical abuse, end up in jail and/or prison and, worst of all, never know Jesus as their Savior and wind up spending eternity in Hell. 

Some, on the other hand, are far too lenient and do not punish their children enough, so the child grows up and has no respect for any authority, neither parent, nor human law, nor God. When they grow older, they will not have any respect for any kind of boundaries, and they will be like the Israelites who consistently refused to be ruled by the Great King and Potentate of all Creation. You can see them all over the place, especially on social media, flaunting their sins, never thinking about giving an account to anyone, especially God. They go through life seeking more and more attention from this world, only thinking of what they can get now, only thinking of the material gains of attention, likes, follows, and money. Never thinking that there is One greater than themselves, they chase after one dopamine high after another, never accomplishing anything that will be of any benefit in eternity, only the fleeting winds of what this world can offer. 

James 4:13-14—13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Ecclesiastes 5:13-17—13 There is a severe evil which I have seen under the sun: Riches kept for their owner to his hurt. 14 But those riches perish through misfortune; when he begets a son, there is nothing in his hand. 15 As he came from his mother's womb, naked shall he return, to go as he came; and he shall take nothing from his labor which he may carry away in his hand. 16 And this also is a severe evil—just exactly as he came, so shall he go. And what profit has he who has labored for the wind? 17 All his days he also eats in darkness, and he has much sorrow and sickness and anger. James 5:1-3—1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Anything we can gain in this life will be burnt up at the last Day. And if it is only something that profits us a little in the here and now, it will be gone forever, never to be remembered again. Parents, make sure you discipline your children in the right way, and for the right reasons. Let them understand why you’re chastening them—not because they are making your life inconvenient, but so they learn correction early, that they may not suffer a far greater and eternal punishment later. Proverbs 13:24—He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly. Proverbs 23:13—Do not withhold correction from a child, for if you beat him with a rod, he will not die. Proverbs 29:15—The rod and rebuke give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. So God knows how and whom to punish. And He does so perfectly. So let us not question why Aaron wasn’t punished for his insolence, but rather, let us remember the example that God has given us, and not speak falsely about His leaders. 

And let us also remember another thing: when God chastises us, it is always with a promise. See, the abusive parent simply chastises the child for no reason but to exact punishment. But when God punished us, it is for a reason: that we may know that we have done wrong. You may say, “But Christ died on the Cross for my sins, why do I need to be punished now?” (It is the principle behind the horrendous Roman Catholic idea of Purgatory.) For this reason: that you may turn from your wicked ways and follow Him. It was why God allowed the Babylonians to carry away Israel captive. 2nd Chronicles 36:15-17—15 And the LORD God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. 16 But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against His people, till there was no remedy. 17 Therefore He brought against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, on the aged or the weak; He gave them all into his hand. The kings and priests rebelled against God, they worshipped idols, and were resistant to His urgings. So He gave them into the hands of their enemies and they were taken out of their land. But God… This captivity was but for a moment. He would show the people of Israel that He was not done with them, and had not utterly cast them away. Further on, in 2nd Chronicles 36:22-23—22 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, 23 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: ‘All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. Who is among you of all His people? May the LORD his God be with him, and let him go up!’” You see, chastisement is much different than condemnation. We are condemned when we reject God and His offer of eternal salvation through Jesus Christ. When we embrace Him, however, He will guide us along, and correct us when we do wrong. Just as a father does his son. And a good father will explain to his son that the punishment he receives for his disobedience is so that he may know to do right rather than wrong, that he may grow up to live a peaceable life. Hebrews 12:6-11—6 “For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” 7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? 8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. 11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. As Charles Spurgeon said of this passage:

 

Oh! What comfort there is here! Whenever we are under the scourging hand of God, how we ought to be cheered with the thought that this is a part of the heritage of the children. There are Elis who spoil their children. God is not one of them. He spares not the rod, and the more he loves, often the more he corrects. A tree of common fruit may be let alone so long as there is some little fruit on it, but the very best fruit gets the sharpest pruning; and I have noticed that in those countries where the best wine is made, the vine-dressers cut the shoots right close in, and in the winter you cannot tell that there is a vine there at all unless you watch very carefully. They must cut them back sharp to get sweet clusters. The Lord does thus with his beloved. It is not anger. Afflictions are not always anger. There are often tokens of great love. 

There is one more thing to glean from this passage. The Ethiopian woman Moses married. At the time that Numbers was written, what we now call Ethiopia was called Cush. If you see the word “Cush” in the Bible, it is referring to what is now Ethiopia. Cush was a son of Ham, one of the sons of Noah. It was Ham that found Noah drunk and naked in his tent, and told his brothers. Something must have happened more than Ham simply finding Noah in such a state, as it says in Genesis 9:24—So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. Something happened we don’t know what—we can speculate, but we do not know. Anyway, Noah places a curse on Ham’s descendants that they will serve the descendants of Shem and Japheth. This may have been what had incensed Miriam and Aaron to anger against Moses taking a wife of the Cushites. At any rate, what I learned was that this was a picture of the Church. Jews at the time of Christ looked very unfavorably upon the Gentiles. As I said before, there was a saying among Jews that the Gentiles were to be used as fuel for the fires of Hell. The Jews believed that Gentiles were not fit for the kingdom of God. Jesus, when He encountered the Syro-Phoenician woman, says rather quizzingly, that the Kingdom is not for Gentiles. Mark 7:26-27—26 The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs." Many would say that Jesus was not being loving here, but hold on. Jesus was the embodiment of love, and would not have simply cast aside this woman, seeing as how He healed the servant of a Roman centurion (Matthew 8:5-13; Luke 7:6-10). No, rather He said this to test her faith, to see if she believed that Gentiles could be saved. She answers Him well, and He performs what she asked of Him. Mark 7:28-30—28 And she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs." 29 Then He said to her, "For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter." 30 And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed. And in so doing, showed that He had broken down the middle wall of separation between Jew and Gentile. Let us not despise our brethren for their spouse, remembering that the same Jesus died for all, both Jew and Gentile, Black and White, Red, Brown and Yellow. 

Numbers 12:15-16—15 So Miriam was shut out of the camp seven days, and the people did not journey till Miriam was brought in again. 16 And afterward the people moved from Hazeroth and camped in the Wilderness of Paran. So, after the Quail Incident, after the Miriam/Aaron Incident, the people finally move from Hazeroth to the Wilderness of Paran. The first we read of the Wilderness of Paran is in Genesis 21. Hagar had birthed Ishmael to Abraham. Ishmael mocked Isaac at Isaac’s weaning, and Sarah told Moses to cast out the bondwoman and her son (Genesis 21:10). Hagar and Ishmael go out, eventually they run out of water and Hagar doesn’t know what to do to feed or water her and her son. Then God speaks to her, and she lifts up her eyes and what does she see? Genesis 21:19—Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. Eventually, Ishmael would settle in the Wilderness of Paran (Genesis 21:21). The same Wilderness of Paran that God was leading the people to. And why was He leading them there? Because there was a well. And they had to have water for over a half million people. So He led them to a place where there was water in this vast and rugged wilderness. If you get a chance, look up “Wilderness of Paran” and you will see that it is indeed a vast wilderness, literally a desert. Nothing but sand and rocks as far as the eye can see. This is where the cloud was leading them. You may think “Why would God lead them to such a place?” 

Glad you asked. It’s because there was water there. After the quails and the Aaron/Miriam episode, God was leading them to where they could find water. And He was showing them, and showing us, that even after we rebel against Him fiercely, even after our puny human minds can’t comprehend His provision and we dare to question Him, even after we show just how unworthy we are to be called His, He is still leading us and guiding us in the way that we should go. He may not take us out of the world when we first come to accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, He will most likely leave us here as a witness to His greatness and glory. He will lead us through trials and temptations, through desert and wilderness, through gale and flood, through wind and fire and rain and all sorts of tests so that when we overcome them through Him, we can say to each other and to the world, “God is good”. Robert Hawker sums up nicely this theme of Jesus’ love for us, and His patience in leading us in the love of God:

 

Reader! do not close this Chapter without having an eye in the intercession of Moses for Aaron and Miriam, to the intercession of JESUS on the cross, for those who crucified him. Oh! what a volume is folded up in that one prayer of JESUS to comfort poor sinners, and to show the all-prevailing efficacy of JESUS’S advocacy. FATHER! forgive them for they know not what they do. Oh! LAMB of GOD! let this first cry of thine upon the cross, be the first and last of my soul-reviving consolations under all the discouragements by reason of my unworthiness and neglect of thee. Surely, dear LORD! when I sin against thee, I know not what do. 

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen.