Moses is dead: Now what? (Joshua chapter 1)

 Living in the Promised Land: A study in the book of Joshua

A 24-week series given in 2021

By Bob Mendelsohn

Jews for Jesus, Sydney

Lesson One (Joshua Chapter 1)

26 February 2021

bob@jewsforjesus.org.au

 

To view this online as a video: https://youtu.be/8p14cmQT6FM

Lesson One: A funeral and a promise: Leadership in the Land

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. For the first 25 minutes I will teach this section of the Bible then we will let everyone on the call into a conversation for questions and answers for the last half hour. This will include comments about all the themes or ideas that I will bring up. Further discussion happens even deeper in our D-Groups that happen over the next week and maybe some of you will conduct a D-Group on Shabbat. I want to ask you to consider whom you want to invite to join us here or in your home groups later. 

For those watching on YouTube please read the next Bible chapter before you watch the rest of this. Today we are discussing Joshua chapter 1. Go ahead and press pause, read the chapter, then press play on your machine and re-join us. Thanks.  Welcome back.

2.     Overview

[For those online, see this book overview from The Bible Project (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqOqJlFF_eU )

B.    Today’s study:  A funeral and a promise: Leadership in the Land

1.     Divine Marching Orders (.1-9)

The book begins with the death of Moses. This is a tragedy from word 1. Moses was the main man of the Jewish religion for the last 40 years. He was God’s deliverer for our people out of the hands of Pharaoh and the slavery in which we had lived for centuries. He had been our leader through the wilderness, and as the Torah ended, he died and was buried somewhere on Mt Nebo.

Moses, my servant is dead. Not the way to begin a happy book. Not the way to state a book of Guaranteeing Promises. Hey, guys, be sure I’m with you, like I was with Moses. Only, Moses isn’t here any longer. 

Wait you say, how can I trust God who has now abandoned us? He left Moses on Nebo to die alone. He doesn’t even want us to sit shiva for him. Get up, march on, in 3 days… let’s go. 

Promises? This is as bad as an electioneering candidate who makes promises that will never happen. And he knows they won’t happen. God says, I promise and then he lets Moses die? What kind of promise keeper is he?

All good questions. The promise of the Land was given to and through Moses, but didn’t oiriginat with Moses. It originated in Abraham’s day 500 years earlier. Did Abraham see the Land? Did Isaac receive the promises? Did Jacob or any of the 3 million in Egypt? No, but God is still faithful. The promises were made to Abraham ON BEHALF of his children who would conquer in the days of Joshua. The promises are real and true and able to be believed, not on the basis of the human spokesman, but on the basis of the character of God who speaks those promises. 

11 times in chapter 1, Moses is mentioned. He’s still a pivotal character!

Look at the promises given in this hapter alone:

Verse 2: Promise of the land reiterated

Verse 3: I have given you the land wherever you step

Verse 6: I swore their fathers to give this land. The promise will NOW be fulfilled.

Verse 5: Beyond the land, now, Joshua, I will be with you

Verse 5: you are invincible. No man will be able to stand against you (successfully)

Wow, how do you read those promises. How do you read any promise of God? 

Consider these….and add some of your own that speak directly to you…

• Psalm 145:9 The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.
•  1 Chronicles 16:34 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.
•  Psalm 100:5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
•  James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
•  2 Samuel 7:28 Sovereign Lord, you are God! Your covenant is trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant.

•  Psalm 19:7 The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
•  Psalm 34:8 Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
•  Nahum 1:7 The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him.
•  Psalm 84:11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favour and honour; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.
•  Matthew 6:31-33 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
•  2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
•  Psalm 34:10 The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
•  Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Make your own list and see if God is the one to trust or if it’s dependent on you to fulfill these promises. 

We are talking in this series about God who makes and keeps promises. Most notably the Land of Promise, but by application, listen and learn, live in the hope of God’s fulfillment. Amen?

God is faithful! It’s not because we believe that he will be faithful; he’s faithful and thus we believe him. 

2.     Commands to Joshua then the people (6-9)

With the promises, God also gave these words to Joshua. They are commands. No matter what, whether promise or command, these are words of God. God gives you ‘his word’ and you can count on him to fulfill and strengthen us to fulfill.

God expects us to trust him, to believe him. He didn’t make robots. He wants us to have a role in the fulfillment of his words. God has spoken to his people, Hallelujah! And his words are words of wisdom, hallelujah!

Three times God says (and one time the people say) to Joshua to be strong and courageous. One time he adds “me’od” to the Chazak v’ematz. Your strength comes not from yourself, or even from ‘your faith’ but rather from the God in whom you trust. 

.7 Do all Torah, don’t go off the beaten path. Be orthodox. Go straight. I believe this is during his military campaigning, rather than the way many think of this as Joshua was to set up religious academies of learning and study. I don’t see that anywhere here, and certainly not in the rest of the book. I don’t mind if someone says Joshua is charged to keep Torah, but I don’t think that’s what God is encouraging. He’s on a military march to conquer the land of promise for Jehovah!

Wherever he steps, and the people step, that will be the territory for Jehovah. 

.8 Meditate on the Word. וְהָגִ֤יתָ בּוֹ֙  This speaks to me. And I use the imagery of a bagel and a bakery. If you read the Bible it’s like you are walking by the bakery and the aroma draws you. You know the good stuff is there, but you (so far) don’t have any benefit to it. Then when you memorize the Bible, you actually take the bagel into your mouth. It’s almost satisfying and certainly a delight to the taste buds, but again, you don’t have any real benefit from it yet. It’s only when you Hagita Bo (say it to yourself) meditate on it, that this is like swallowing the bagel and it goes into your system, you gain from it. The bagel becomes part of you. It IS you. Reading? Walking past the bakery. Memorizing? Tasting. Meditating on the Word? Swallowing it and it becomes you.

When? Yomam v’layla. יוֹמָ֣ם וָלַ֔יְלָה Day and night. Compare ‘evening and morning.’ That phrase refers to one day only. ‘Day and night’ refers to this day and the next day (which begins in the erev (evening)). So day and night could carry the meaning of ‘from now on’ or ‘continually.’

.9 Be strong, don’t fear, don’t be dismayed. We are in a battle for trusting God. We are not called to fulfill God’s promises. He can do that all by himself. Our battle and our battles are to trust him in all our circumstances. 

Don’t confuse faith with presumption. What he says, he will do. He however will not always heal all people of all their woes. He will not prevent death from happening to his people. Don’t presume that nothing bad will occur. That no bad thing will happen to your mother or your child. That you will win the lottery and own a property on Nantucket or Surfers Paradise. 

Those personal words you receive in your meditation on the Word, that’s how this works.

3.     Chain of command settled (.10-11)

.10 All the officers are called in and get their marching orders. God speaks personally

Hobbs in his commentary on the book of 2 Kings chapter 2 says this, “A point of note in this chapter is an overt reminder of the traditions connected with Moses and Joshua (cf. Montgomery/Gehman, 354; Gray, 475.) The similarities are quite extensive between this narrative, the narrative of the crossing of the Reed Sea (Exod 14), and the narrative of the crossing of the Jordan (Josh 3). They are expounded in the comments below. The similarities extend beyond the use of common words. The relationship of Elijah to Elisha is like that of Moses to Joshua, and both successors are appointed in similar fashion (Num 27:18–23; 1 Kgs 19:15–21). Further, the location of the crossing of the Jordan is identical, and the cities of Bethel, Gilgal, and Jericho are common to both. Whether this connection is due to the preservation of the Reed Sea traditions and the first crossing of the Jordan by the custodians of the shrine at Gilgal (so Gray, 475, following H.-J. Kraus, VT 1 [1951] 190–91), who later became the followers of the prophet, or whether it is a deliberate echo created by the writer is difficult to determine.”

4.     Leadership lesson 

The lesson of leadership is clear. Trust God. You are invincible because you are with Him! After the funeral, they take 30 days (Deut. 34) but they don’t (in Joshua) sit shiva. They get going because they have work to do. It’s time to take God at his word and to live in the assurance of that, and the realm of his kingdom. 

Verse 4 says “from the wilderness to Lebanon all the way to the river Euphrates!” We Jews have never owned that entire piece of land. There YET remains a fulfillment of that promised land. 

We need leaders who will take God at his word, who will believe it, who will meditate on it, who will speak it, and who will be strong and courageous. 

Invitation

Dear friends, if you have never asked Yeshua to be your Saviour, today as we begin learning from Joshua, would you choose to believe the Lord of life?   What does it mean to be strong and courageous in light of learning about Yeshua? Would you be willing to take a stand for him who took a stand and died on a Roman cross for you?

If you’d like to do that today, just now, join me as we pray.

Say something like this: “Father in Yeshua’s name, forgive me my sin, I was wrong to dismiss you and to disbelieve in you. I need your mercy. I deserve punishment but you are kind and merciful and I receive your grace. I repent. I receive Yeshua as my saviour and Lord. I will live because of my faith in Messiah Yeshua. Amen.

If you prayed that, please let us know of your profession by writing straightaway, won’t you? Bob@JewsforJesus.org.au We’d love to hear from you.

Conclusion

We are delighted you have joined us today. Please join us next week and learn with the others how you can stay on track in 2021 and beyond.   I hope to see you next week as we continue our studies in Joshua.       You will certainly see yourself in the readings and in the lessons. I plan to take 24 weeks to read and learn with you. That’s almost 6 months. Line by line. It will be worthwhile!  Next week we will look at Rahab, a scarlet woman. And see what lessons we can draw for ourselves.

Hope to see you then… until then, Shabbat shalom!

 

Bibliography

Butler, Trent C., Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 7. Joshua. Word, Waco, 1983.

Davis, Dale Ralph, Joshua: No Falling Words, Christian Focus, Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland, 2019.

Meyer, F.B., Joshua and the Land of Promise, Christian Literature Crusade, Ft Washington PA, 1977.

Sanders, J. Oswald, Promised-Land Living, Moody Press, Chicago, 1984.

Weirsbe, Warren. Be Strong: Putting God's Power to Work in Your Life. David C. Cook Publishing, Colorado Springs, 2010.

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D-Groups for this week

1)             Tuesday 11 am Sydney time. Led by James Howse

2)             Monday 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?

 

Rainbows and other signs

The clouds rolled in, the thunder clapped in might, rain drove down first straight down, then at 40 degrees, then almost horizontally, and finally it all stopped. Silence after the crashing of the weather system, and cracking through the determined clouds, racing away as quickly as they approached, a few rays of sunshine. In the distance I saw the colours appear. I knew what was ahead. The right angle and the sun beaming, into the clouds and mist, there suddenly appeared... a rainbow. 

I love rainbows. Here's one in Jerusalem photographed in an entire album of rainbows. Click here 

The other day here in Sydney, and worldwide was a day about which I knew nothing when I was a kid. Little Jewish kids don't care much about Easter or Ash Wednesday or really most other religions. All over Sydney adults popped into cafes and workplaces with dashes of ash on their foreheads. The day was declared. Ash Wednesday-- whatever that meant. I know what it means now, but back then...not so much.

What I did learn was that there was a day that preceded Ash Wednesday that was apparently a day for fun and frolic. They say that the ashes were there to remind the wearer of their humanity, dust to dust and all that stuff. We are human after all, and we are all going to return to dust/ ash eventually. A somber reality, to be sure. But the day before that-- it's titled Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) and is a day or rather an evening of debauchery and frolic. An evening to let your hair down, to join with others in decadence and self-consumption. Why then? The next day you are expected to self-deny, so get all the self-centredness out of the way on Tuesday's fatness and you will be ready to meet ashes and sullenness on Wednesday.

What's the rainbow got to do with it? After all the rainbow was originally a sign of something between God and mankind, a symbol of covenant. A symbol of acceptance and welcome. But now it's something related to Fat Tuesday.

Stores all around the City, and probably all around the country, are showing the red/orange/yellow...violet (Roy G. Biv) lineup. In a way it's a sign of welcome, that anyone who celebrates Mardi Gras is welcome to shop and spend their money at that facility.

But often it's more than that. 

It's about a time to showcase sensuality and debauchery. It's about making room for folks who usually parade down Oxford Street in licentious and usually well orchestrated syncopation. 

What's the rainbow got to do with it? It was a symbol that has been commandeered by others. It's time for the believers to take it back into the realm from which it came. 

Gen. 9:13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. ¹⁴ “It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud,

Gen. 9:16 “When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”

Dear friends,

When God sends these Roy G Biv colours into your world; look up and say 'thanks.' He will never again destroy the world by flood. He is the God of covenant. He really does love us all. On Tuesdays or Wednesdays or every day. Call on him while he is near.

Land Distribution and Final Wrap up: The Book of Numbers (Final)

  Wandering in the Wilderness: Reflections from the book of Numbers. 3500 years to Covid-19

Lesson Fourteen (Numbers Chapters 32ff)

19 February 2021

 

To view this online as a video: https://youtu.be/DcCtGn8AmN8 

Lesson Fourteen: Final Wrap up (Land distribution for each tribe)

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 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 over the next week or maybe some will conduct a D-Group on Shabbat. 

I’m going to recommend that you who are watching this on YouTube should read the next two Bible chapters before you listen/ watch the rest of this. This is chapters 32. Then press play on your machine and re-join us. Thanks.  Welcome back.

2.     Overview

[For those online, see this book overview from The Bible Project (https://youtu.be/tp5MIrMZFqo)] 

Some of you are new to our Zoom call and I especially welcome you, whether here in Australia or from overseas. You are muted at the beginning, but in a short while, our host will allow the usually lively conversations and questions. We are looking at the traveling of the Jewish people in the book of Numbers, titled in Hebrew “Bamidbar” or “In the wilderness.” With Covid-19 with variants and now vaccines having their way throughout the world, with US political turmoil, with the continuing uncertainty that almost defined the last twelve months, the world is still in a wilderness and God’s answers for us are found in the pages of this book.

[[There are three theses that pop up often in this book of the Bible:

1)    The goal of our wandering was another place: Israel

2)    God is to be central to our marching and in our living

3)    The authority of the Lord and his anointed is often front and centre.  ]]]

B. Today’s study:  Land Distribution and final wrap-up

Let’s start today’s lesson at the end. Chapter 36. Verse 12. “Thus their inheritance remained with the tribe of the family of their father.” Throughout this Bible book, we have noted the three theses, that the Promised Land was to be the goal, and when we got there, that we should preserve who we are, no matter the conditions of the land, the enemies we would face from without or within, and that we should keep God as central in our lives. The summary of the ending of this book is all about distribution of the land which will ensue as we are done with battles, no more since the battle against Midian. Cities of refuge and more.

Today we are going to see this first with the 2 and a half tribes of Gad, Reuben and half of Menasheh with their instructions and their commitments. Let’s look at chapter 32. 

1.     Two and a half tribes (chapter 32)

If the goal of the wandering is to get into the land, then what’s going on with the 2 ½ tribes in announcing  that they are going to take possession of the land east of the Jordan River? Seems they have much cattle and the land of Israel is not exactly conducive to their contentment. They want the plains, and the area north of the Arnon River and south of the Sea of Galilee will suit them perfectly. They ask Moses for permission and are granted this area. I like that. It’s not wrong to ask for a place to live. And it’s not wrong to ‘get in first’ before the rest of the family gets their apportionment. 

But what does Moses say? In verse 6 we read

Now why are you discouraging the sons of Israel from crossing over into the land which the LORD has given them?

Moses chides the 2.5 tribes for discouraging the others. The Hebrew is well represented with the English “discourage” Cour is the French for heart, and dis-courage means to diminish or be anti-heart. The Hebrew is 

תְנוּאוּן [תְנִיא֔וּן] אֶת־לֵ֖ב

To thwart, to discourage, to hinder. Moses sees the 2.5 as jumping ship and not going all the way. Moses reminds the 2.5 tribes of the history from Kadesh Barnea, the wandering and God’s anger about the faith-less situation. He tells them three times that God’s anger burned against the Jewish people in the wilderness and that’s why so many have died and in fact all (except two) died who were 20 or older when they left Egypt. God’s anger burned in verse 10, and verse 13, and verse 14. 

But, here’s the difference. The 2.5 in verse 16 approach Moses with a plan. They say they will build proper cities for their families, with sheepfolds for their livestock. They say they will lead the charge throughout the entire military campaign to come. They say they will not return home until the entire land is conquered and everyone else is apportioned their residences. 

What does that say? 

It says ‘take heart, Moses.’ It says ‘encouragement’ not discouragement at all. It says ‘FAITH!’

Remember Psalm 95 we saw earlier in this study? It carried a call to sing and rejoice, to worship and bow down. And a reminder, 

^cToday, ²if you would hear His voice,

⁸           Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, 

            As in the day of Massah in the wilderness,

⁹           “When your fathers tested Me, 

            They tried Me, though they had seen My work.

¹⁰         “For forty years I loathed that generation, 

            And said they are a people who err in their heart, 

            And they do not know My ways.

¹¹         “Therefore I swore in My anger, 

Truly they shall not enter into My rest.”

 

God’s call through the psalmist was to praise the Lord IN DIRECT CONTRAST to the 40-year folks who were ‘loathed’ and who ‘erred’ and ‘didn’t know my ways.’ These didn’t ‘enter into my rest.’

I see the 2.5 as holy people who were not included in that category. 

The difference? They had faith! They trusted God to preserve their families. They trusted God to lead them through the conquest. In other words, they believed the two spies who came back with the minority report! They believed like Abraham in the Akedah story. 

Do you know that story? It’s foundational to the issue of faith and it’s found in one Hebrew letter.

The record of the Akedah is in Genesis chapter 22. There Abraham is called to take his son up the mountain named Moriah and to offer him as a sacrifice. He takes Isaac, the son of promise, and they take a three-day journey. 

⁵ Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.”

Verse 5 is the key. And within it is one Hebrew letter, the letter nun beginning three words here. We will go. We will worship. We will return.

נֵלְכָ֖ה עַד־כֹּ֑ה

וְנִֽשְׁתַּחֲוֶ֖ה

 וְנָשׁ֥וּבָה אֲלֵיכֶֽם׃

 

I think Abraham is saying what the 2.5 tribes are saying. We will go. We will win the war. We will return.  Abraham demonstrated faith! No wonder he’s called the ‘Father of Faith’

The writer of the book of Hebrews, whom I believe is Priscilla, Aquila’s wife, notes this well in chapter 11, the Hall of Faith chapter. Have you seen that before?

Heb. 11:17   By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; ¹⁸ it was he to whom it was said, “IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED.” ¹⁹ He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.

In other words, Abraham received Isaac back as a type of something which would happen in the future. A father who offered his son, who actually was crucified and died on a Roman cross, and who rose from the dead. That’s Yeshua!

What did Priscilla say, “He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead” How do we know that? The Hebrew letter Nun! We will go, we will worship; we will return!

Who says that? Who says ‘we will return?’ knowing that he was called to offer his son? Only one who knows God is able to raise people even from the dead!

That’s what I see in the 2.5 today as well. They believed God. And thus they were able to enter the Promised Land, to serve in battle there, and to return to their wives and children. That’s faith, amen?

And as a result Moses gave them the land of Sihon, melech Emori, and Og, melech Bashan, and the 2.5 built cities and gave their word that they would be front-line soldiers to the end.

Verse 23 of Numbers 32 is a well-worn and oft-used promise. “Be sure your sins will find you out.” Considering the revelations the last few months, and most notably the last week, of rape in the Parliament here in Australia and commensurate blaming and silence, and the more global criminal activity of a well-known preacher/ apologist whose sexual and financial exploits were revealed after he died last year, this verse is more true than ever. Be sure, no matter if before or after you die, your sins will find you out. Or as Yeshua taught, 

But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known. (Luke 12.2)

         Review: Chapters 33 and following

            The rest of this book contains a rehearsal of the journeys. Chapter 33 shows the geography to the people who know those places. Most of this information is useful for those who study academically. I want to show you another purpose. 

            The Midrash says “It may be like a king who took his ailing son to a distant place to be healed. On the return journey, the king would lovingly recount to the lad all the experiences they went through at each of the places they stopped.” In other words, it’s a showcase of life together, en route to the Land of Promise, for the father and son to remember each other as well as the journey. 

            I’m a keen photographer and take pictures everywhere I travel. In some way I’m a photojournalist, and in a deeper moment of pondering, I would say I want to remember what God was doing or saying to me at the time. Maybe that helps you with this pin-point mapping of the travels of the people. 

            Look for adverbs like in verse 3 of chapter 33 “started out boldly” and feel the excitement of the Jewish people. Verse 4 shows the verb ‘burying’ and marks the pathos of Egypt. Verse 9 has a description of the oasis which would remind the hearer of the bounty of pleasure and relief they felt. Verse 37 shows the proximity “at the edge of the land of Edom.” Each of these adds emotion and memory.

            Aaron dies in verse 38 and 39 and that’s a huge point of cognition.

            Chapter 34 lists names and places, for the verification of history and the remembrance of right things.

         Final instructions: 33:50 to end of book

            Moses is told in chapter 33 that he should instruct the Israelites about taking the land. Together. Completely. Don’t leave any of the 7 nations alive. What would happen if they failed? 

            Verse 55 says “‘But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come about that those whom you let remain of them will become ^aas pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides, and they will trouble you in the land in which you live.

            You will see a similar phrase two other times in Tenach and one time in the Newer Testament. 

Josh. 23:13 know with certainty that the LORD your God will not continue to ¹drive these nations out from before you; but they will be a snare and a trap to you, and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which the LORD your God has given you.

Judg. 2:3 “Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; but they will ¹become as thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you.’”

Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me — to keep me from exalting myself! ⁸Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. ⁹ And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. ¹⁰ Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12.7-10)

            If we follow God and trust him to do what he says, yes, there will be enemies; Yes, there will be opponents. The thorns of the enemies of God will be around us, but we will win. In Joshua’s day the enemies of the Jews were left in the land and perpetually, and dare I say, to this day, haunt us.  In Paul’s day, the opponents of the Gospel, those legalizers who misrepresented Paul and the Gospel, they were the thorns in his side. 

            The Cities of Refuge (Chapter 35:6ff) are God’s safe havens for the people who get caught in manslaughter situations rather than murderous ones. We won’t unpack all the legal information and how to decide if someone is a murderer. Just know it’s there as a place of safety and calm. Compare the wild west in the US or the days of Ned Kelly and the retaliation that accompanied the death of a person. Here the Bible wants us to know God’s grace is available if you unintentionally take someone’s life. God placed these cities as beacons of light, and we should run to those in our days, for sure. Before you murder someone’s reputation, before you enact revenge, the old adage was ‘count to 10.’ In Bible times, it was let the accused get to a city of refuge and the whole world would count to 10. 

[[Compare refuge city with refuge altar! 1Kings 1:50 And Adonijah was afraid of Solomon, and he arose, went and ^atook hold of the horns of the altar. ⁵¹ Now it was told Solomon, saying, “Behold, Adonijah is afraid of King Solomon, for behold, he has taken hold of the horns of the altar, saying, ‘Let King Solomon swear to me today that he will not put his servant to death with the sword.’”

 

1Kings 2:28   Now the news came to Joab, for Joab had followed Adonijah, although he had not followed Absalom. And Joab fled to the tent of the LORD and took hold of the horns of the altar.]]

            Back to some thoughts on the thorns, in these days, with the capacity to generate fake emails and fake identities to misrepresent a person, a movement or almost anything, we should expect more thorns. 

            Dear friends, if we are going to take the Land of God’s Promises, if we are going to live in the abundant life Yeshua wants to give us, be sure you will have enemies. You will find hostility. Didn’t our Master experience misinformation and cruelty? Didn’t he cop the anger of the mob and the rejection of many of his own? But be of good cheer, Yeshua has overcome the world. And so in him we shall as well. 

            My review of Bamidbar is complete. The daughters of Zelophehad get their property on the other side of the Jordan. The people of Israel make it next to the Promised Land and consider who they want to be and what they want to do.  In the shule at the end of the reading of a Torah book “Chazak, chazak v’nitchazek” which basically means “Strength! Strength! We will be strong”(https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4305074/jewish/Why-Say-Chazak-After-Finishing-a-Book-of-Torah.htm) Please join me and say this together. We want God to make us strong to follow him in all aspects of our lives.

Invitation

Dear friends, if you have never asked Yeshua to be your Saviour, today as we continue our class in 2021, would you choose to believe the Lord of life?  He is the source of healing for the plague of sin which has captured the world since the Garden of Eden. He’s the One who can overcome the virus and the plagues of evil which highlight the planet in Washington, DC, in the conflicts between governments, in conflicts between the peoples of the world… Look up to Him and be saved!

If you’d like to do that today, just now, join me as we pray.

Say something like this: “Father in Yeshua’s name, forgive me my sin, I was wrong to dismiss you and to disbelieve in you. I need your mercy. I deserve punishment but you are kind and merciful and I receive your grace. I receive Yeshua as my saviour and Lord. I look up to him who was lifted on the pole of the cross. I will live because of my faith in Messiah Yeshua. Amen.

If you prayed that, please let us know of your profession by writing straightaway, won’t you?Bob@JewsforJesus.org.au We’d love to hear from you.

 

Conclusion

We are delighted you have joined us today. Please join us next week and learn with the others how you can stay on track in 2021 and beyond.   I hope to see you next week as we begin a new study on the Bible book and the lead character JOSHUA.  This is the ‘rest of the story’ as the people of Israel go into the Promised Land. The adventures they had in the Wilderness continue and develop with individuals and with whole tribes often in view. You will certainly see yourself in the readings and in the lessons. I plan to take 24 weeks to read and learn with you. That’s almost 6 months. Line by line. It will be worthwhile! 

Hope to see you then, and until then, continue to stay safe, love one another, believe even if the report is the minority report, and shout Hallelujah to the Lord of life for all he has done for us all. Shabbat shalom!

 

The three theses:

4)    The goal of our wandering was another place: Israel

5)    God is to be central to our marching and in our living

6)    Authority of the Lord and his anointed is not to be missed

 

 

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.

Scherman, Nosson and Zlotowitz, Meir. The Chumash. Artscroll Mesorah Publishing, Brooklyn NY, 2019.

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)             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?