09-Numbers 7-20
Feb. 21, 2009
This week we will begin in the Book of Numbers Chapter 7. In last week’s study we learned that the Lord had given Moses the order of marching for the congregation to travel. In Chapter 7 the people realized that they were about to leave Mt. Sinai and head for the Promised Land. The elders of the twelve tribes of Israel brought a freewill offering of oxen and carts to the Lord. This offering was to be used by the Levites to transport the disassembled Tabernacle. The Lord had Moses divide the offering up between the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari. The sons of Kohath did not receive any carts or oxen. The furniture of the Tabernacle was required to have been carried on their shoulders. During the next twelve days the elders from the tribes brought additional offerings to the Tabernacle. Each tribe had one of the days, and each of the offerings was similar. The offerings consisted of bowls of silver and gold, and also animals for sacrifice. The Lord was very pleased with the generous offerings of the people. After the offerings were given, Moses entered the Tent of Meeting and the Lord spoke to him. Moses was given the instructions to set apart the Levites for service to the Lord in the Tabernacle. Moses was told to sprinkle the Levites with water. They were then to shave all the hair from their bodies and wash their clothes. This process was required to cleanse them. The congregation was gathered to the doorway of the Tabernacle. The people placed their hands on the cleansed Levites, ceremonially transferring their sin to them. The Levites then continued the transfer of sin by placing their hands on the heads of the bullocks brought to them for the sin and burnt offerings. The offering was made. The Lord then accepted the Levites for service and took them in place of the firstborn of Israel, as he had required earlier. The firstborn of Israel were sanctified by the Lord when He spared them from death in Egypt during the first Passover. The Lord gave the Levites to Aaron as a gift to help in the service of the Tabernacle. A Levite would begin to serve the Lord in the Tabernacle from the age of twenty five. They were then to retire from service at age fifty. A man after fifty could assist the Levites ministering in the Tabernacle but could do no work. In Chapter 9 the Children of Israel celebrated the first anniversary of the Passover. A controversy came up over some men of Israel who were defiled by a dead person at the time of the Passover Feast. The men knew they were required to observe the Lord’s Passover, but were unclean at the time. Moses waited on the Lord to see what He would say concerning this matter. The Lord told Moses that an exception was to be made for men of the congregation that were away from the camp on a journey, or defiled by a dead body on that day. An alternate Passover was to be held one month later for those who missed the Passover feast for these exceptions. The Lord also said at this time that His laws applied not only to the Children of Israel, but also to the mixed multitude that lived with them. After this time the presence of the Lord covered the Tabernacle as a cloud in the daylight and as fire during the night. The people were told that when the Cloud of the Lord lifted from the Tabernacle the people were to travel. They were to follow the cloud wherever it led. When the Cloud of the Lord stopped, the people were to set up the Tabernacle and camp. The people were to observe the Lord’s command. It did not matter if the cloud stayed on the Tabernacle for a day, a month, or a year; they were not to travel without the Lord’s command. In Chapter 10 the Lord told Moses to make for himself two silver trumpets. The trumpets were to be used to summon the congregation to the Tabernacle, and also as an alarm for the people to prepare to travel. If one trumpet was blown the elders were summoned. If both trumpets were blown this meant the entire congregation’s presence was required. The trumpets were also blown by the sons of Aaron during the feasts to the Lord. The trumpets were the means Moses used to communicate with, and command the people. The people had been camped in the wilderness of Sinai, at the foot of the Mountain of God, for about fourteen months when the Cloud of the Lord lifted from the Tabernacle. The Children of Israel were finally going to begin their journey toward the Promised Land. They marched for three days and stopped in the wilderness of Paran. The people again began to murmur against Moses, and in Chapter 11, the Lord caused a fire to travel through the fringes of the camp to consume the complainers. Moses interceded again and prayed for the people, and the Lord’s fire was quenched. The mixed multitude of people that followed the Children of Israel incited them to complain to Moses of their desire for the abundant variety of food they ate in Egypt. They had lost sight of the fact the Lord had brought them out of their bondage in Egypt, and supplied them with all their needs, including food, since they had left. This displeased the Lord greatly. Moses was also discouraged at his inability to govern and please the people. He asked the Lord to kill him because he was not able to bear the burden he was given. The Lord heard Moses and had him gather up seventy elders from the tribes to assist in governing the people. God promised Moses that he would fill those chosen with the Holy Spirit to help them with their tasks. The Lord also promised that He would supply the congregation with so much meat they would become sick of it. Moses gathered together the elders and the Holy Spirit came on them. They began to prophesy as a sign of the Holy Spirits presence on them. This utterance of prophesy only happened this one time it was not repeated. Two of the elders, Eldad and Medad, did not gather with Moses and the others at the Tabernacle. They were still with the people in the camp. When the Holy Spirit came on the elders at the Tabernacle and they prophesied, the same thing happened to Eldad and Medad where they were. A young man ran to the Tabernacle to tell Moses what the two men were doing. Joshua was jealous for Moses and his authority over the people and wanted him to stop the men. Moses did not agree, and rebuked Joshua in Numbers 11:23 “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!” This request of Moses was fulfilled for the church at Pentecost in Acts 2:1-4 “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.” The elders act of speaking prophesy when the Spirit of God came upon them, was the same sign as the disciples exhibited at Pentecost when they spoke with other tongues. Today, the moment each of us accept Jesus as our savior, we also receive the Holy Spirit. I believe we do not speak with other tongues as they did, but the Spirit of God indwells us to guide us in all things. During Old Testament times the Holy Spirit did not indwell God’s people as He does today for His church, but only temporarily rested on those who the Father chose to do His will. That same day the Lord caused a wind to drive quail into the camp from the sea. The quail were only about three feet off the ground when they came near to the camp. They were easy prey for the people to capture. Even with such an abundance of meat some of the people became greedy with the food, and began to hoard the quails. This angered the Lord and He struck them with a plague to punish their greed. In Chapter 12 Miriam convinced Aaron to speak against their brother Moses. The excuse they used was that they were angry with him for marrying a Cushite woman. This was not the real reason. Miriam was jealous of Moses and his relationship with the Lord. She wanted the same prominence as Moses before the people. Aaron, as he did when he made the golden calf, was too meek to go against his sister or the people. The Bible tells us in Numbers 12:3 that Moses was the most humble man in all the Earth. He would not argue with his family, but would let the Lord decide on Miriam’s complaint. The Lord called Miriam, Aaron, and Moses to Him and told them that he spoke to the prophets through visions and dreams. He said that to Moses only would he speak mouth to mouth. When the Cloud of the Lord lifted from them, Miriam was left a leper. Aaron begged his brother to intercede for Miriam. The Lord heard Moses’ prayer and healed Miriam, but only after she was unclean for seven days. Her punishment for her jealousy was to be a public punishment. The whole congregation saw her banished to outside of the camp for her sin. The Children of Israel had reached the southern boundary of the Promised Land at Kadesh-Barnea, and camped there. The Lord instructed Moses to send out spies from the camp to explore the Promised Land. One man from each of the tribes was to be included in the group. No Levite was chosen to spy. The twelve were told to go and report back on the quality of the land and the people who lived there. The spies left and went about the Promised Land for forty days, then returned to the people. Ten of the men returned with a bad report. They told the people of the abundance found, that the land flowed with milk and honey, and of a valley that was found where a single cluster of grapes had to be carried on a pole between two men. Even with this they were afraid of the people who lived in the land. They said the people were strong, their cities were fortified, and that they saw the sons of Anak, the giants, including the Nephilim in the land. They told the people they became as grasshoppers in their sight. Caleb, the spy from the Tribe of Judah, did not agree with the other men and encouraged the people that they should go in and possess the land. The people would not listen and grumbled again to Moses and looked to replace him with a new leader who would return them to the safety of Egypt. Joshua and Caleb stood up to the people and pleaded with them to follow the Lord. God saw all that went on and told Moses to separate himself from the people so that He could destroy them, and start again with Moses alone. Moses again interceded for the people and the Lord decided to spare the people. God’s anger however was not appeased. He told the people that because of their disobedience that no adult living of this generation would set foot in the Promised Land. They were to wander through the wilderness for forty years until they all were dead. Only their children, along with Caleb and Joshua would go in and possess the land. The people heard this and changed their mind. They decided to go into the Promised Land without the Lord and possess it. They came upon the Amalekites and the Canaanites and were severely beaten and driven back from the land. In Chapter 15 the Lord goes back to relating to Moses instructions for the people on the laws they needed to follow when they went into the land. By the end of the Chapter Moses was told to have the people place tassels and fringes on the hems of their garments to remind them of the Lord’s commandments. Chapter 16 relates the story of the rebellion of Korah. Korah was a Levite and the grandson of Kohath. He was not satisfied with his position among the other Levites and got together with the grandsons of Reuben, his neighbors in the camp, and plotted against Moses. After a period of time they had convinced a total of 250 leaders of the people to side with them against Moses and Aaron. They accused Moses of possessing too much power. Moses told the rebels to return tomorrow bearing censers with fire and the Lord would address their complaint. Korah and the other rebels were not satisfied with their duties to the Lord and wanted to be part of the priesthood with Aaron and his sons. The grandsons of Reuben, Dathan and Abiram, did not want the priesthood. They believed that they deserved to be the civil authority over the people because they were descended from Jacob’s firstborn son. In their eyes their grandfather was denied his rightful place in the congregation. The next day when the men came before the Lord the earth opened up and swallowed them and their entire households. After this a fire came from the presence of the Lord and consumed the rest of the 250 conspirators. God had Eleazar gather up the censers of the men and beat them into plating for the altar as a reminder to the people of what would become of those who would rebel against the authority of the Lord. The next day the people had forgotten who had caused the death of so many people, and blamed Moses and Aaron for the loss. The Lord told Moses and Aaron to move away from the people so that He could consume them. Moses then interceded for the people again and had Aaron fill a censer with fire from the altar and make atonement for the people. Aaron had to hurry and do this, because the Lord had already started a plague that began to sweep through the people. Aaron stood between the living and the dead, made atonement, and the plague was stopped. Beside the 250 men and their households that died from the rebellion, an additional 14,700 were killed by the plague. In Chapter 17 the Lord had Moses get a rod from each of the tribes of Israel. The rod was a staff like a shepherd’s crook that was made from an almond tree. The name of each owner was written on his rod. Moses placed the rods inside the Tent of Meeting. The Lord told Moses that the man who was His choice to be High Priest would have his rod sprout by morning. The next morning Aaron’s rod had not only sprouted, it had produced buds and fully ripe almonds. Moses was told to save the rod as a reminder to the people not to sin and die. God speaks to Aaron, in Chapter 18, about the duties of the Levites. At this time He also told Aaron that the gifts and offerings brought to the Lord by the people belonged to the Levites. This meant that they were given the best of all the food in Israel to eat. Included were the firstfruits offerings of the people and their unblemished animal sacrifices. Aaron was told that the Levites were to have no inheritance or land of their own in the Promised Land, but they would receive the tithe of Israel as their inheritance. In Chapter 19 the Lord explains the red heifer sacrifice to Moses. The ashes of a sacrificed red heifer were used as a portable cleansing for people or objects defiled by the dead. The ashes would be stored and mixed with water to be sprinkled on a defiled object that could not be brought to the Tabernacle for cleansing. This was necessary to purify that which had become defiled. This week we will end our study in Chapter 20. Chapter 20 begins with the word “then”. This word represents the passing of forty years of wandering in circles through the wilderness by the Children of Israel. The people were now back at Kadesh, where they were forty years ago during the time of the spies. Miriam died and was buried there in Kadesh. The people had not learned much during the years of wandering. They began to complain to Moses about the lack of water in the camp. They still said they missed the old life in Egypt, even though most of the people remaining alive were not old enough to remember their life there. This was forty years later, after the adults of the generation that the Lord had brought out of Egypt had died in the wilderness. The Lord told Moses to speak to the rock that was near him and water would come out abundantly so the people could drink. Moses was angry with the people and disobeyed the Lord by striking the rock twice with his staff and rebuking the congregation. Moses and Aaron, by their actions tried to take the glory of this miracle from the Lord and make the people believe they alone had caused the water to flow from the rock. Because Moses did not treat the Lord as holy in front of the people, and for this disobedience in striking the rock, God would not allow him to lead the people into the Promised Land. The people wished to travel through the territory of Edom on their way to the Promised Land. Moses sent messengers to the King of Edom asking for safe passage through their land. Israel considered the Edomites brothers because they were the descendants of Esau, their father Jacobs’s brother. The Edomites were afraid that the Children of Israel would cause damage to their land when they passed, and remembered the Israelites had received the blessing of Isaac, and not them. They came out against Israel with their army and did not allow them to pass through their land. The Children of Israel marched a different way around the territory of Edom and stopped to camp at Mt. Hor. God had Moses have Aaron and Eleazar follow him up the mountain. The office of High Priest was then transferred from Aaron to his son Eleazar on Mt. Hor outside of Edom. When the transfer was complete, Aaron died. The mountain was bare so that what happened there was visible to the entire congregation. Moses and Eleazar then returned to the people. Israel mourned the passing of Aaron for the next thirty days. Next week we will finish up the Book of Numbers as the Children of Israel approach and prepare to enter into the land God promised to give His children long ago.