Numbers 9:23 At the command of the LORD they remained encamped, and at the command of the LORD they journeyed; they kept the charge of the LORD, at the command of the LORD by the hand of Moses. I find it interesting that the 5-7 verses prior to this reiterate the same point over and over in different ways – when the cloud hovered over the tabernacle they stayed put, no matter how long it stayed; when the cloud moved, they moved. Usually in Hebrew that repetition means it’s an important point being made. Ultimately, I think that Moses is emphasizing the importance of obedience – again. The verse above makes it even clearer that all their movement was at the command of God. They didn’t wander around the desert at Sinai whenever they felt like it (if they had, I’d imagine they’d have tried to cut a couple of years off of the journey). Sometimes they stayed put for a day, sometimes for a month, and sometimes for a year. But no matter how long they stayed, it was at the command of the LORD. The tricky thing is applying this today. I don’t have a cloud hovering over a tabernacle to guide me. I have the Holy Spirit, but I’ve found that knowing what He wants of me is often a very difficult task. It doesn’t seem to me that it should be so difficult. After all, I’ve been told that God wants me to know His will. Even if I look back at His faithfulness in the past, how do I use that to make decisions about things today? A practical example of this is that I currently have a teaching contract for next year (yeah!), but my current school is quite far from where I live and I spend a small fortune in gas and tolls getting to and from work. I would like to find a job closer to where I currently live, but how do I know if this is the right thing to do? Do I put in applications and trust God to open or close doors at His discretion? I don’t really know. I want to be obedient, to move at the command of God, but I don’t know how. That’s frustrating. PS. A thought I just had was that the Israelites had to constantly be watching to see when God moved. So, probably part of the process is watching where He’s working… Unfortunately, these days that’s kind of hard to do.
Numbers 6:24-26 The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; The LORD lift His countenance upon you, And give you peace. This is the blessing that Aaron was to give the children of Israel (which, if you accept and obey Yeshua you are grafted into the covenant, and I think this blessing is for you, too). The LORD bless you and keep you; The first part is blessing and protections, that I understand. But what does it mean for G-d’s face to shine upon someone? The LORD make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. … Okay, did a little research and found that G-d’s face shining on someone meant salvation in the midst of battle – rescue when all else seems lost and when failure is sure without reinforcements [1]. So the second part is about rescue from certain defeat and showing mercy towards them. The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace. Here’s a random thought, what if “lift up” actually meant to carry or bear continuously (that is part of what this word means in Hebrew) and “countenance” (being the same word as face in the previous part of the verse) meant before and behind or forward (this is the adverb meaning of the word)? I can’t read Hebrew, but it would certainly give meaning to this phrase… The LORD carry you forward/before and behind and give you peace (completeness, safety, health and welfare). That’s a lot more significant as a blessing. To receive this spoken from a priest, directed by G-d… that would be like G-d speaking it over you. It’s a beautiful blessing about protection and blessing. I wish we used it more often now. [1] Moen, Skip. “Back To The Beginning.” Hebrew Word Study | Skip Moen . N.p., 22 Apr. 2010. Web. 2 May 2010. <http://skipmoen.com/2010/03/22/back-to-the-beginning/>.
Numbers 3:49 So Moses took the redemption money from those who were over and above those who were redeemed by the Levites. The Levites were chosen by God to take the place of the first born sons. So instead of the firstborn males being used as redemption, being given back to God (?), the Levites were to serve Him. When they figured this out numerically, there were 273 males who didn’t have a “redeeming” Levite to cover for Him, so God told Moses to redeem those firstborn males with money. This is what he did in the verse here. I don’t know if this tradition continued every time they did a census or if it was a one time for everyone kind of deal. I just think it’s interesting how God used every day things to help Israel understand concepts, and when they were obedient, He used gentle ways to remind them of His sovereignty. We are blessed because the One True God’s own Son took our place, redeeming us, in the same way that the Levites were took the place of the firstborn males of Israel. That’s pretty cool. We are SO blessed!
Numbers 2:9 “All who were numbered according to their armies of the forces with Judah, one hundred and eighty-six thousand four hundred–these shall break camp first. Once again I am reminded of how detailed God’s love for us and knowledge of us is. Here He gives instructions for how the people of Israel were to live and how they were to break camp. Can you imagine the chaos of about a million people (well over 600,000 fighting men… so add to that at least the same number of women, plus children, plus elderly, plus any servants…) all trying to pack and leave an area at the same time? That would be nuts! But God’s got a solution to make things orderly, safe, and simple. It’s a good reminder that God’s got instructions for how I should live my life (the Torah and His Word), and His plan has an order and purpose to it. He doesn’t ignore the details of my life. If He had a plan to make moving easier, I’m sure He has a plan for all those other little details in my life. Of course, I have to learn to hear Him as He instructs. That’s the tricky bit. But, even though I have weaknesses, that doesn’t mean that He doesn’t have a plan for everything. It’s kind of like the way that God knows every hair on my head (and at the rate I shed hair, that’s saying something). Nothing is too small for His notice. What a blessing that is!
Numbers 1: The Census I started reading Numbers with the vague notion that it would be SO much fun to read all the genealogies. But within minutes I noticed something interesting. God instructs Moses to take a census and to take with him the head/leader of each tribal family. And then He does something interesting… He names them. I know that seems stupid. But, He didn’t have to name them off. Moses could have called them out and then learned their names. But God knew their names. Out of the hundreds of thousands (millions?) of Israelites, He knew the names of each of the tribes’ leaders. Granted, there are only 12 tribes, but I still think it’s pretty darn cool that He just rattles off the names of the leaders of each tribe. He knew His people. He knew everything about them. He knew who their fathers were, and in many cases, he also tells us who their grandfathers were! I think that’s awesome! The implication, obviously, is that in all the millions (billions?) of people on this earth, God knows my name, too. We say that all the time, and while it’s true, seeing God specifically name 12 men (and their lineage) out of the entire nation of Israel makes it hit home a little more. P.S. – it’s also pretty amazing that each person twenty years-old and under could recite their own ancestry.
Leviticus 26:12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. I was curious to know what word was used for walk, so I went into the Hebrew translation to find out (Blue Letter Bible – it’s awesome!). What I found was kind of cool, but it didn’t have much to do with walk. Essentially, from the words I’m given (the major nouns, verbs, etc. – no prepositions, etc.) the verse says: Go/walk between/among to exist as God to exist nation/kindred. Yup, there are a lot of “small” words missing. So, the “I” and “you” are implied in the formation of the word, which I can’t read because I don’t know Hebrew. I take for granted that they’re correct. What I thought was interesting is that the word used for “My people” translates to nation or kindred. It was the kindred part that made me think. When I read this verse, I usually see it in a proprietary way. Like God is walking among His people surveying His property. But if I use a word like kindred it makes me see the phrase “my people” differently. Now God is walking among family and countrymen. “We the people of the United States…” That’s how our Declaration of Independence starts. The people in this country are my people. Collectively we are a nation. My family are also my people because I come from their line, we love each other, and there are bonds there that are special. In society today we often refer to the friends we hang around with as my people (or sometimes, as with my students “my peeps”). It puts a different spin on Gd’s relationship with His people. He’s not necessarily looking down on them and surveying what He owns. He’s walking among them and between them. They are His people – His nation, His family, His friends. He is Gd, and yet He loves us and enjoys spending time with us. He makes a promise to the people of Israel that if they will keep His Torah and walk in His ways then He will make the land and them fruitful, He will walk among them, and they will be His people. I like that spin.
Psalm 105:19 Until the time came to fulfill his word, the LORD tested Joseph’s character. This entire Psalm is a historical account of how God kept His promise to Abraham and Jacob to give them the Promised Land. It all started when there were just one or two men who wandered around the countryside. And then God sent Joseph (he was kidnapped and sold into slavery, remember? No first class accommodations there!). God spent a long time testing Josephs’ character when Joseph was in jail for something he didn’t do. Those loooooooong periods of time when we feel like we’re trapped (imprisoned) by life might be those times when God is testing our character in preparation for the next period. If God had never humbled Joseph and taught him the lessons he learned in prison then he might have become a proud and contemptuous ruler instead of a wise and caring leader. I doubt it was fun being in prison though. Their prisons probably make our prisons look like the Ritz Carlton. Anyway, the rest of the song recounts how the Israelites grew in number until they were like the stars, fulfilling the promise made to Abraham. They were enslaved because the Egyptians grew afraid of their power and great numbers. In their oppression, they didn’t try to rebel (that we know of) and if God hadn’t sent Moses to stir the pot they may have continued in slavery there forever. But God was only half-way done. He turned the Egyptians against Israel and hardened Pharaoh’s heart. And then He led them out of slavery. One thing I noticed is that when they left, not only were they loaded down with silver and gold (the slaves became rich), but “there were no sick or feeble people among them (vs. 37).” That’s pretty remarkable considering the conditions they were probably living under. And God eventually fulfilled the second promise, the one He made to Jacob to give the people the Promised Land. He would have fulfilled that promise sooner, too, if the Israelites hadn’t been so stubborn and unruly… but that’s for another time. God’s promises don’t always get fulfilled immediately. Sometimes it takes a generation or more to see their completion… but just like with Abraham and Jacob, God keeps His word. Sometimes it just takes some testing of character to get it all started.