Lesson One (Chapters 1, 2, and 9)
To watch this on video
A. Introduction
1. Greetings
Shalom to each of you here on the Zoom call and those who will watch this class lecture on YouTube later. Our usual program during these talks is to conduct an overview of the Bible section in the first 20-25 minutes and then let everyone on the call into a conversation about all the themes or ideas that I will bring up for the last 30 minutes or so. Further discussion happens even deeper in our D-Groups that happen next week or maybe some will conduct a D-Group on Shabbat.
We begin today a new study on the book of Numbers in Torah. Why Numbers? The Hebrew for this book, taken from the first line of the text, is Bamidbar. Translate: “In the wilderness.” Dear friends, if anything describes the year 2020 for many of us here in Australia, and around the globe, it’s the uncertainty and wilderness-type considerations that this book will highlight. The Hebrews were never made to live in the wilderness any more than we in Australia were made to live forever under COVID-19 and under travel restrictions. Wherever you live and are watching this lecture, you have experienced any number of stresses that are not normal, or at least, they were not normal before 2020. Thus, I see our entire experience as being ‘in the wilderness.’ What lessons can we learn from the Jewish people’s wandering? That’s what the next few months will highlight. Let’s jump into this after prayer.
[Prayer]
I’m going to recommend that you who are watching this on YouTube should read three Bible chapters before you listen/ watch the rest of this. They are chapters 1, 2 and 9. Then press play on your machine and rejoin us. Thanks.
2. Overview
The book breaks into three major geographic and chronological sections. The first is chapters 1 through 10. Geographically we were at Sinai at the time. We receive laws, learn about the first census, the role of the Levites, rules about jealousy and so much more. In the second section Chapters 10 to 21, we learn about the happenings of the Jewish people in their next 38 years of wandering in the wilderness. That will be the bulk of our study. We see many ‘famous’ stories about spies and leprosy, eating manna and quail, about Korah, a snake in the plague and even the only mention of Moses’ particular sinning. Finally the third section from chapters 22 to 36 showcases our final stops in the wilderness journeys in the land of Moab, which has some other episode of great significance like the Balaam and the donkey story, and Pinchas and his zeal.
3. Three Theses
Apart from the structural breakdown of the chapters and understanding their geography, I see three major considerations that Moses addresses over and over in the book. You will find them throughout our study. First, as Jewish people today still think, the goal of our wandering was a settled place, then titled ‘Canaan’ and today titled ‘Israel.’ We were not designed to wander forever; we were not made to live in the wilderness. Even the beginning of Torah itself zooms in on the Land of Israel from Creation, and certainly Numbers will help us see that more clearly, especially in light of the sin of not taking it. The second major thesis I see is the centrality of God, in location, in guidance, in physicality, in the structures he establishes from Tabernacle on. We are a community often on the march, but we are never to forget the centrality of the Almighty.
The third major thought concerns authority. We have the One who gave us Sh’nei luchot at Mt Sinai, and to whom we often have to return for further clarification and advice. And we get in trouble, from Moses to Miriam to Korah and Balaam, when we disregard his authority. So I guess we can see authority as both advisory and safeguarding as well as that which we don’t want to disregard lest we cop it from that same authority.
Watch for those three theses each week, although some weeks they won’t be that visible, but usually they are front and centre.
B. Today’s study
1. Pesach Sheni
We are going to study this book chronologically, which means we are going to start in chapter 9. What, you say? Yes, I don’t know what Moses was drinking when he began to scribe this book, but it’s clear he didn’t have a computer with cut-and-paste options. Otherwise, he might have put chapter 9 as chapter 1 and moved everything along. But he didn’t own a Mac and so we start in chapter 9.
The timing is listed in verse 1
“in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt,” and verse 3 says, “on the 14th day…”
Exodus 12-15 describes the Passover and the exodus itself. Then after we walked through the Red Sea, we took about a year to get to Mt Sinai and then to mosey our way around Mt Sinai, and to await further motion from the cloud by day and the fire by night. We don’t seriously move out from Sinai until chapter 10 verse 11 of Numbers “on the 20th of the month.” That might surprise some of you who imagine the Jewish people wandering all four decades after the Exodus, but that’s not so.
First things first. We celebrate Passover. GREAT way to start a book study. Great way to start a movement, with a progressive dinner. Actually rather than looking at the ceremony, I want you to see the reason for the mention of Passover. It’s a make-up seder, like sitting your HSC or SAT a month after everyone else, due to some unforeseen problems on the set date. I love that God has grace on the people mentioned in chapter 9 beginning at verse 6. Standard application, verses 1 to 5, but then there’s trouble. Some men are unclean due to touching a dead person (Hebrew nefesh adam: soul of a man) and God makes special allowance for celebrating in what would become known as Pesach Sheni. (verses 10-11) I love that about the Lord and we will see him offering alternatives throughout Bamidbar. That’s so useful in understanding how to survive ‘in the wilderness.’ Speak with him and let him use wisdom to make situations real and reasonable and memorable as a result. More on that throughout this book.
Another thing to note is that the mention of the time of the 2nd Passover is that like it was in the 1stPassover (Exodus 12) that picking up and moving will follow straightaway. First the rebuild/set up of the Tabernacle (9.15-23, 10.11ff) In other words, if Exodus gets us in motion to leave Egypt, then Pesach Sheni gets us in motion to enter Canaan. Between those two events, we have had a full year of sitting and waiting. Imagine being in the crowd. Imagine waiting with nowhere to go. Your kids are climbing around the tent. No one is moving and the dust in the wilderness is mounting on your esky. You have ideas about returning to the situation in Egypt. You wonder if this freedom is worth all the confusion and distress.
Friends, the year 2020 is one of waiting in place as well. Sometimes we get advice that borders will open, and motion can again happen, but realistically, we are stuck in place. Like the Jewish people in Bamidbar, though, we are waiting, not for Godot, but for God, to send the signal. Then we shall move. Then and only then we will move out. Chapter 9 ends with that reminder. “Whether it was for two days, a month, or for longer, that the cloud waited over the Tabernacle, settling thereon, the people of Israel encamped and did not set out. And when it was taken up they set out. 23 At the commandment of Yahweh they encamped, and at the commandment of Yahweh they set out. They engaged in the service of Yahweh according to Yahweh’s commandment by the hand of Moses.”
My takeaway is that we who claim a relationship with the Lord must be listening to His word, keen to hear what he has to say to our circumstances today and move only when he moved. Yeshua said it this way, “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandmentas to what to say and what to speak.” (John 12:49)
If listening to the Father was what Yeshua did and how he knew what and when to speak, can we do any different? Should we behave any differently?
2. Army Roster
Back to chapter 1. This is what some call the boring bits of the Bible. Long lists of names and numbers. But don’t miss this. The precision and dutiful recording of details help us learn about both the Jewish people who fulfilled the mission and the Lord who required it.
The chronology shows this as being a fortnight after the chapter 9 introduction. 2nd year, 2nd month, 1stday. Verse 2 says ‘take a census’ but the Hebrew word is ‘rosh: head’ Like when you count heads. We even use the term head counting. Note who is counted and thus who is not counted. Men only. 20 years old and upward. Capable of going to war. So those who are disabled or otherwise infirmed are excluded. Then they ran a rostering registration system (1.18-19). None was left out. That means everyone mattered. And it was orderly, as it was a system conducted by tribes. The leader was held to be responsible. Think of the elections in the US just now and how counting and voting and the attempts by some to prevent such counting has been stuff of headline news for months. My wife and I have been glued at times since Tuesday’s voting to see county by county opening of envelopes and stacking of ballots and eventual reporting to the news agencies.
Reubenites were first, then Simeon, Gad (not Levi), Judah, Isachar, Zebulon, replacing Joseph were his two sons, Efraim and Menasheh, then the final four: Benjamin, Dan, Asher, Naftali.
Verse 46 says there were 603,550 men in that count. That’s why so many estimate 3 million to be the number of Jews who left Egypt during the Exodus.
Verse 47 says the Levites are excluded because they are specially chosen, to serve at the Tabernacle. They were not in the 600,000 count.
Chapter two reiterates the lists/ rosters, with the same number of 603,550 men in total ready to war. The Levites again are charged to work with the Mishkan, and the tribes are assigned locations in the four corners of the holy place. This is a picture of order and decent order at that. No wonder the apostle Paul says, “let everything be done decently and in good order.” (“But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner.” 1 Cor. 14.40) This is not a Germanic neat-freak speaking. This is a rabbi who was well informed by the Tabernacle and the God who gave us Bamidbar rulings.
3. Tabernacle arrangements
Not only were the items in the Mishkan to have been set in order with the laver between the altar and the tent, the menorah on one side and the table of showbread on the other, but the Naftali families were on the northeast, the Reubenites on the South, etc. When they slept with their flags denoting their property, and when they marched into war.
So we see the gathering and mustering of the soldiers in chapter one and the deployment of them in ranks and files when they set out, with their degels, their pennants or flags, their big identifying markers like we see in the Olympic Opening Ceremonies or I see at the Sydney Cricket Ground every time the Swans play another team. The red and white army with flags and colors and apparel versus whoever dares to march into our stadium.
Soldiers go out to war.
We are going to go to war in the Lord’s army as well. Does that excite you or intimidate you? Or had you even thought of that before?
4. We are in a unique battle
As believers, we are in a battle. A battle for truth and kindness. A battle for righteousness and love. Some are fixated on winning arguments. Some are more concerned with love and good will. Don’t miss this; we are in a battle for both. Can we speak the truth in love? (Ephesians 4.15) Can we like the spouse of an unregenerate “be submissive to your own spouse so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives.” (1 Peter 3.1)
They say, and I believe wrongly, that you can talk about anything except religion and politics. You might know that I often discuss, and sometimes heatedly, issues of religion. You and I in this room might have had those heated conversations. And during the US election, I have entered into some discussions which ended badly. I’ve lost some who were previously titled ‘friends’ because of my political views. OK. They saw me as an enemy combatant and I wouldn’t join their army, so I was unwelcome. OK, I can live with that. As I age, and I had a birthday this week, people matter more to me than just about anything else. I prefer to preserve relationships with my friends, with my enemies, with my colleagues and with those who disagree with me. Dionne Warwick wasn’t far off when she sang, “What the world needs now… is love, sweet love.”
Can I be in a battle for God and still maintain love?
Can you be in a battle for righteousness and dignity and keep gentleness in your spirit? As we speak about holy war in the book of Numbers and taking territory, can you remember both of these items? Being right and being in the right spirit?
Martin Pakula, a Jewish believer originally from Sydney, wrote a commentary on Numbers which I will reference from time to time. He ended his review of chapter 2 with these words, “Spiritual warfare involves living God’s way, prayerfulness and proclaiming the truth. We are not to go AWOL; we are at war. We must keep following Jesus. We must keep eating our rations, the Word of God, or we will become weak and fall prey to the enemy. And we must stay in radio contact with our commanding officer, in prayer. “ (Homeward Bound, page 22)
Dear friends, this is the overview of the beginning of the book. It’s a very important book for us in this season, especially as regards the plagues that are listed and with COVID-19 what the world has been and continues to experience. Plagues and faith, not being where we are supposed to be, travel or not travel…one man described it this way, “the book of Numbers was written to demonstrate that God's covenant plan stays on track even when His people don't. The instances of sinful complaining and rebellion and the resulting judgment are so pronounced and widespread that it seems like they will never make it “
Stay with us during these weeks and learn with the others how you can stay on track in 2020 and beyond. And in the D-Groups, you will work this out with others, as a community on the march.
I hope to see you next Friday 10 am, as we study chapters 3 and 4, and learn about Levites and Cohens, about roles and functions and God’s order yet again. Hope to see you then, and until then, please have a safe and kind battle for God’s kingdom wherever you live. Shabbat shalom!
The theses:
1) The goal of our wandering was Israel
2) God is to be central to our marching
3) Authority is not to be dismissed
Actual text:
Numbers chapter 1.1
Then the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on athe first of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “aTake a 1census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, every male, head by head 3 from atwenty years old and upward, whoever is able to go out to war in Israel, you and Aaron shall 1number them by their armies. 4 “With you, moreover, there shall be a man of each tribe, aeach one head of his father’s household. 5 “These then are the names of the men who shall stand with you: aof Reuben, Elizur the son of Shedeur; 6 of Simeon, Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai; 7 of Judah, aNahshon the son of Amminadab; 8 of Issachar, Nethanel the son of Zuar; 9 of Zebulun, Eliab the son of Helon; 10 of the sons of Joseph: of Ephraim, Elishama the son of Ammihud; of Manasseh, Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur; 11 of Benjamin, Abidan the son of Gideoni; 12 of Dan, Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai; 13 of Asher, Pagiel the son of Ochran; 14 of Gad, Eliasaph the son of aDeuel; 15 of Naphtali, Ahira the son of Enan. 16 “These are they who were acalled of the congregation, the leaders of their fathers’ tribes; they were the bheads of 1divisions of Israel.”
Num. 1:17 So Moses and Aaron took these men who had been designated by name, 18 and they assembled all the congregation together on the afirst of the second month. Then they registered by bancestry in their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, head by head, 19 just as athe LORD had commanded Moses. So he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai.
Num. 1:20 aNow the sons of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war, 21 their numbered men of the tribe of Reuben were 46,500.
Num. 1:22 aOf the sons of Simeon, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, their numbered men, according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, bwhoever was able to go out to war, 23 their numbered men of the tribe of Simeon were 59,300.
Num. 1:24 aOf the sons of Gad, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war, 25 their numbered men of the tribe of Gad were 45,650.
Num. 1:26 aOf the sons of Judah, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war, 27 their numbered men of the tribe of Judah were 74,600.
Num. 1:28 aOf the sons of Issachar, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war, 29 their numbered men of the tribe of Issachar were 54,400.
Num. 1:30 aOf the sons of Zebulun, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war, 31 their numbered men of the tribe of Zebulun were 57,400.
Num. 1:32 aOf the sons of Joseph, namely, of the sons of Ephraim, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war, 33 their numbered men of the tribe of Ephraim were 40,500.
Num. 1:34 aOf the sons of Manasseh, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war, 35 their numbered men of the tribe of Manasseh were 32,200.
Num. 1:36 aOf the sons of Benjamin, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war, 37 their numbered men of the tribe of Benjamin were 35,400.
Num. 1:38 aOf the sons of Dan, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war, 39 their numbered men of the tribe of Dan were 62,700.
Num. 1:40 aOf the sons of Asher, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war, 41 their numbered men of the tribe of Asher were 41,500.
Num. 1:42 aOf the sons of Naphtali, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war, 43 their numbered men of the tribe of Naphtali were 53,400.
Num. 1:44 These are the ones who were numbered, whom Moses and Aaron numbered, with the leaders of Israel, twelve men, each of whom was of his father’s household. 45 So all the numbered men of the sons of Israel by their fathers’ households, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war in Israel, 46 even all the numbered men were a603,550.
Num. 1:47 aThe Levites, however, were not numbered among them by their fathers’ tribe. 48 For the LORD had spoken to Moses, saying, 49 “Only the tribe of Levi ayou shall not number, nor shall you take their 1census among the sons of Israel. 50 “But you shall aappoint the Levites over the 1tabernacle of the testimony, and over all its furnishings and over all that belongs to it. They shall carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings, and they shall take care of it; they shall also camp around the 1tabernacle. 51 “aSo when the tabernacle is to set out, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle encamps, the Levites shall set it up. But bthe 1layman who comes near shall be put to death. 52 “aThe sons of Israel shall camp, each man by his own camp, and each man by his own standard, according to their armies. 53 “aBut the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, so that there will be bno wrath on the congregation of the sons of Israel. cSo the Levites shall keep charge of the tabernacle of the testimony.” 54Thus the sons of Israel did; according to all which the LORD had commanded Moses, so they did.
Num. 2:1 Now the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 2 “aThe sons of Israel shall camp, each by his own standard, with the 1banners of their fathers’ households; they shall camp around the tent of meeting 2at a distance. 3“Now those who camp on the east side toward the sunrise shall be of the standard of the camp of Judah, by their armies, and the leader of the sons of Judah: aNahshon the son of Amminadab, 4 and his army, even their 1numbered men, 74,600. 5 “Those who camp next to him shall be the tribe of Issachar, and the leader of the sons of Issachar: aNethanel the son of Zuar, 6 and his army, even their numbered men, 54,400. 7 “Then comes the tribe of Zebulun, and the leader of the sons of Zebulun: aEliab the son of Helon, 8 and his army, even his numbered men, 57,400. 9“The total of the numbered men of the camp of Judah: 186,400, by their armies. aThey shall set out first.
Num. 2:10 “On the south side shall be the standard of the camp of Reuben by their armies, and the leader of the sons of Reuben: aElizur the son of Shedeur, 11 and his army, even their numbered men, 46,500. 12 “Those who camp next to him shall be the tribe of Simeon, and the leader of the sons of Simeon: aShelumiel the son of Zurishaddai, 13and his army, even their numbered men, 59,300. 14 “Then comes the tribe of Gad, and the leader of the sons of Gad: aEliasaph the son of 1Deuel, 15 and his army, even their numbered men, 45,650. 16 “The total of the numbered men of the camp of Reuben: 151,450 by their armies. And athey shall set out second.
Num. 2:17 “aThen the tent of meeting shall set out with the camp of the Levites in the midst of the camps; just as they camp, so they shall set out, every man in his place by their standards.
Num. 2:18 “On the west side shall be the standard of the camp of aEphraim by their armies, and the leader of the sons of Ephraim shall be bElishama the son of Ammihud, 19 and his army, even their numbered men, 40,500. 20 “Next to him shall be the tribe of Manasseh, and the leader of the sons of Manasseh: aGamaliel the son of Pedahzur, 21 and his army, even their numbered men, 32,200. 22 “Then comes the tribe of aBenjamin, and the leader of the sons of Benjamin: bAbidan the son of Gideoni, 23 and his army, even their numbered men, 35,400. 24 “The total of the numbered men of the camp of Ephraim: 108,100, by their armies. And athey shall set out third.
Num. 2:25 “On the north side shall be the standard of the camp of Dan by their armies, and the leader of the sons of Dan: aAhiezer the son of Ammishaddai, 26 and his army, even their numbered men, 62,700. 27 “Those who camp next to him shall be the tribe of Asher, and the leader of the sons of Asher: aPagiel the son of Ochran, 28 and his army, even their numbered men, 41,500. 29 “Then comes the tribe of aNaphtali, and the leader of the sons of Naphtali: bAhira the son of Enan, 30 and his army, even their numbered men, 53,400. 31 “The total of the numbered men of the camp of Dan was 157,600. aThey shall set out last by their standards.”
Num. 2:32 These are the numbered men of the sons of Israel by their fathers’ households; the total of the numbered men of the camps by their armies, a603,550. 33 aThe Levites, however, were not numbered among the sons of Israel, just as the LORD had commanded Moses. 34 Thus the sons of Israel did; according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so they camped by their standards, and so they set out, every one by his family according to his father’s household.
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Bibliography
Budd, Philip, Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 5. Numbers. Word, Waco, 1984.
Hertz, Rabbi Dr JH, The Pentateuch and Haftorahs, Soncino, London, 1978.
Pakula, Martin, Numbers: Homeward Bound, Aquilla Press, Sydney, 2006.
Weirsbe, Warren. Be Counted. David C. Cook Publishing, Colorado Springs,1999.
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D-Groups for this week
1) Tuesday 11 am Sydney time. Led by James Howse
2) Monday 10 am Sydney time, led by Rebekah Bronn
3) Thursday 7 pm, Sydney time, led by James White
(Contact our office for zoom details)
If you’d like to host a D-Group either online or in person, please contact bob@jewsforjesus.org.au for further details. It’s time to step up. Ponder this—who will be in your D-Group?
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