Wandering in the Wilderness: Reflections from the book of Numbers
3500 years to Covid-19
A multi-week series given in 2020-21
Lesson Thirteen (Numbers Chapters 30ff)
12 February 2021
To view this online as a video:
Lesson Thirteen: On Vows, Balaam (reprise), and Spoil
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 30-31. 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: On Vows, Balaam (reprise), and Spoil
1. Vows
We concluded last week with a review of the calendar that God established, in his setting the rhythm of appointments he wanted to have with the Jewish people. Daily, weekly, monthly, and annual meetups and special offerings on the days. And in verse 39 of chapter 29, we read, “You shall present these to the Lord at your appointed times, besides your votive offerings and your freewill offerings…” Votive has to do with offerings you have previously vowed to make. Chapter 30 begins with “if a man makes a vow” and thus we see the natural segue.
The chapter details a woman making a vow and whether it continues to be binding on her to fulfill. There are certain circumstances which prevent its binding and certain ones that demand her to fulfill the vow. We’ll look at those in detail, but let me say in light of the rights of women shown in chapter 27 with the daughters of Zelophehad, this and the chapters to follow make me think that it’s included to answer the question—what happens when a woman makes a vow about the land she is given? Is there anything legal about it?
Let’s remember we are dealing with the rules of life 3,500 years ago. How those rules translate into our worlds is for further discussion, but the principles are settled, for sure.
The Sanctity of Words (30.1-16)
Numbers chapter 30 Verse 2. The Bible says when a man vows a vow. Ordinarily we would say in English to “make” a vow. In Spanish “hacer un voto.” But in Hebrew the word is amplified by vowing a vow. The word ‘neder’ signifies something significantly binding. Usually a positive idea to offer a sacrifice or make a pledge. The second type of vow is ‘isar’ and carries a more negative or prohibitive obligation.
The text says, “if a man vows a vow to God or swears an oath to establish a prohibition on himself, he shall not desecrate his word.” The taking of an oath is about establishment of a legal reality. Even though the Lord has not said, “Don’t eat anything that is not vegan” a person is within his or her right to take that prohibition upon himself. That’s isar. Even though the Lord has not said, “Run 200 metres every morning” a man may take that vow on himself. The reality is that those vows and oaths are binding. Hence the final phrase, “he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.”
When God says, “Bless” we ought to do so. When we say “Curse” when the Almighty has not said “curse” we both step out of God’s will AND we create a curse in the place of whatever was previously there. That’s the problem with the Balaam story. Think of Noah and his children. In Genesis chapter 9, God blessed Noah AND HIS SONS after the waters receded from the flood. But later in that chapter, Noah himself cursed his grandson Canaan (Gen. 9.25) with slavery as his future portion. What we say is powerful. Our words have weight.
Mind you, they do not have perpetual and permanent power, as God is sovereign, but for the time of God’s permission, that curse on Canaan which overrode the blessing of the Lord, stood.
Solomon the king said, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” (Prov. 18.21) (Hebrew is “death and life are in the hand of the tongue.”) I guess we can call this ‘the sanctity of words.’
Back to Numbers chapter 30.
Single young women at home (.3-8), widows and divorcees (9) and married women (10-16) are all dealt with particularly in this chapter and the veto power of the man of the house is evident in the father or husband. There is no veto power for the widow or divorcee and thus Moses established women’s rights, albeit curbed a bit. Here’s a key to understanding the elevation of women’s rights: if the father or husband do not cancel the vow, the woman has said and is held to her vow. She has new rights in this regard. She can state her plans and if no one disannuls them, the plans stand. Get it?
Remember we have spoken often of authority in the book, and this is yet another evidence of God’s plan to maintain order in society.
Everyone has limitation in authority. The single woman or the married woman is limited. The father is limited in time as his daughter moves out or with her husband. The husband is limited in a way also, as it is only in his time, that is if he dies or divorces her. Everyone has limitation.
Rashi says that the limitation includes the day of the hearing of the vow. (.15) He says that the husband does not have a full 24-hour period, but only until the beginning of the next day. That’s common for rabbinical interpreters to nail minutae and specifics. The point I’m making is that there are limitations.
By the way, God won’t ask of us something he’s not willing to do. He is faithful and true as the Book says, and that means what he promises or vows he will fulfill. He told Abraham that he would make a covenant including giving Abraham’s descendants the land of promise (Israel), blessedness and a seed. That seed of course is Yeshua who is the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promises. Messianic promises are as reliable as the One who makes those promises. Without God’s nature of faithfulness, we could not rely on him to bring to pass what he says. And dear friends, God is faithful and true. Amen?
The Battle over Midian (31.1-54)
This ends the story of Balaam and Pinchas as we spoke about in chapters 22-25. For those who missed those episodes, Balaam was hired by Balak to curse the Jewish people but couldn’t do so directly. He ended up coming to a clever, albeit evil, method of having the Jewish people curse ourselves by idolatry and adultery. Pinchas (Phinehas) took the role of judge and slew Zimri and his woman Cozbi, ending the plague that had killed 24,000 Jewish people already.
The chapter begins with a double verb again. N’kom nikmat, ‘Take full vengeance’ or perhaps ‘venge vengefully’ for the children of Israel. It could be ‘take vengeance’ for yourselves or ‘take vengeance’ for the Lord. Rashi says that the one who does wrong to Israel is as if he has wronged the Almighty. And didn’t Yeshua say that same thing?
Remember the apostle Paul? He had been Rabbi Saul of Tarsus and had committed horrible crimes against other Jewish believers in Jesus. One day he was traveling on the road to Damascus when he was struck with blindness and overwhelmed with a voice speaking to him. The voice said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Rabbi Saul answered, “Who are you, Lord?” What was the answer? The voice said, “I am Yeshua, whom you are persecuting.” (Acts 9) What you do to the people of God, you are doing to Yeshua. Even as Rashi also declared.
So the Jewish people go up 1,000 from each tribe to attack Midian and they slay all the men, even the king. They take the women and all kinds of other spoil.
Moses gets really angry and reminds them that the women are the responsible parties. See verse 15-16. It was “the ‘word of Balaam’ which caused the children of Israel to commit a betrayal against the Lord and caused the plague.” That’s the only way we know about the sin of Balaam. Without this little phrase, we would think him a good fellow. But the Newer Testament picks that up as well in 2 Peter 2.15, Jude 11, and Revelation 2.14. And about that we spoke a couple of weeks ago.
You know that in the battle, not one Jewish person died? (31.7, 48-49) That’s amazing. The army killed all the kings (read mayors) of the towns of Midian including Zur, the father of Cozbi who was responsible for his daughter’s actions (see how authority works?), Balaam, and all the men.
The law of cleansing from chapter 19 was enacted with the daughters of Midian who were virgins, including the one-week quarantine rule. It was not only about this particular event, but as we will learn in the studies of Joshua beginning in two weeks, we would be required to be severe with darkness and sin, and we would be required to separate ourselves from the foreigners and their gods. More on that later.
Offerings of the soldiers
The soldiers gave offerings of gold. This was in great gratitude for their preservation. Offerings that were mandated in Torah are one thing, an offering of thankfulness is quite another. I’ve learned this about gratitude. If you think you deserve and are entitled to something, gratitude rarely follows receiving it. But if you know you don’t deserve anything, but God in his grace has extended kindness to you, you are not only grateful, you will express that gratitude in thanksgiving. See Colossians 3.15 says ‘Be grateful’, verse 16 says ‘songs of thanksgiving.’ Verse 17 says ‘giving thanks.’ What’s inside you will come out. Best is if it’s gratitude!
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 stay with us next week and learn with the others how you can stay on track in 2021 and beyond. Learn how to keep God central in your daily life. Learn about God’s promises to you and how you can reach your promised land. And in the D-Groups, you will work this out with others, as a community on the march. If you have not yet joined a weekly Discipleship Group, please re-consider that and join us as we dig deeper.
I hope to see you next week as we study chapters 32-36 and finish the book of Numbers and learn about the responsibilities of those who get things in the first place, about the review of history and its purpose and how to make things fair in distributions. 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?
Num. 30:1 Then Moses spoke to athe heads of the tribes of the sons of Israel, saying, “This is the word which the LORD has commanded. 2 “aIf a man makes a vow to the LORD, or takes an oath to bind himself with a binding obligation, he shall not violate his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
Num. 30:3 “Also if a woman makes a vow to the LORD, and binds herself by an obligation in her father’s house in her youth, 4 and her father hears her vow and her obligation by which she has bound herself, and her father 1says nothing to her, then all her vows shall stand and every obligation by which she has bound herself shall stand. 5 “But if her father should forbid her on the day he hears of it, none of her vows or her obligations by which she has bound herself shall stand; and the LORD will forgive her because her father had forbidden her.
Num. 30:6 “However, if she should 1marry while 2under her vows or the rash statement of her lips by which she has bound herself, 7 and her husband hears of it and says nothing to her on the day he hears it, then her vows shall stand and her obligations by which she has bound herself shall stand. 8 “But if on the day her husband hears of it, he forbids her, then he shall annul her vow which 1she is under and the rash statement of her lips by which she has bound herself; and the LORD will forgive her.
Num. 30:9 “But the vow of a widow or of a divorced woman, everything by which she has bound herself, shall stand against her. 10 “However, if she vowed in her husband’s house, or bound herself by an obligation with an oath, 11 and her husband heard it, but said nothing to her and did not forbid her, then all her vows shall stand and every obligation by which she bound herself shall stand. 12 “But if her husband indeed annuls them on the day he hears them, then whatever proceeds out of her lips concerning her vows or concerning the obligation of herself shall not stand; her husband has annulled them, and the LORD will forgive her.
Num. 30:13 “Every vow and every binding oath to humble herself, her husband may confirm it or her husband may annul it. 14 “But if her husband indeed says nothing to her from day to day, then he confirms all her vows or all her obligations which are on her; he has confirmed them, because he said nothing to her on the day he heard them. 15 “But if he indeed annuls them after he has heard them, then he shall bear her guilt.”
Num. 30:16 These are the statutes which the LORD commanded Moses, as between a man and his wife, and as between a father and his daughter, while she is in her youth in her father’s house.
Num. 31:1 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “aTake full vengeance for the sons of Israel on the Midianites; afterward you will be bgathered to your people.” 3 Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm men from among you for the war, that they may 1go against Midian to execute athe LORD’S vengeance on Midian. 4 “A thousand from each tribe of all the tribes of Israel you shall send to the war.” 5 So there were 1furnished from the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war. 6 Moses sent them, a thousand from each tribe, to the war, and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war with them, aand the holy vessels and bthe trumpets for the alarm in his hand. 7 So they made war against Midian, just as the LORD had commanded Moses, and athey killed every male. 8 They killed the kings of Midian along with the rest of their slain: aEvi and Rekem and bZur and Hur and Reba, the five kings of Midian; they also killed cBalaam the son of Beor with the sword. 9 The sons of Israel captured the women of Midian and their little ones; and all their cattle and all their flocks and all their goods they plundered. 10 Then they burned all their cities where they lived and all their camps with fire. 11 aThey took all the spoil and all the prey, both of man and of beast. 12 They brought the captives and the prey and the spoil to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest and to the congregation of the sons of Israel, to the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by the Jordan oppositeJericho.
Num. 31:13 Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the congregation went out to meet them outside the camp. 14 Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, who had come from service in the war. 15 And Moses said to them, “Have you 1spared aall the women? 16 “aBehold, these 1caused the sons of Israel, through the 2counsel of bBalaam, to 3trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, so the plague was among the congregation of the LORD. 17 “aNow therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man 1intimately. 18 “But all the 1girls who have not known man 2intimately, 3spare for yourselves. 19 “aAnd you, camp outside the camp seven days; whoever has killed any person and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves, you and your captives, on the third day and on the seventh day. 20 “You shall purify for yourselves every garment and every article of 1leather and all the work of goats’ hair, and all articles of wood.”
Num. 31:21 Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had gone to battle, “This is the statute of the law which the LORD has commanded Moses: 22 only the gold and the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin and the lead, 23 everything that can stand the fire, you shall pass through the fire, and it shall be clean, but it shall be purified with awater for impurity. But whatever cannot stand the fire you shall pass through the water. 24“And you shall wash your clothes on the seventh day and be clean, and afterward you may enter the camp.”
Num. 31:25 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 26 “You and Eleazar the priest and the heads of the fathers’ households of the congregation take a count of the booty 1that was captured, both of man and of animal; 27 and adivide the booty between the warriors who went out to battle and all the congregation. 28“aLevy a tax for the LORD from the men of war who went out to battle, one 1in five hundred of the persons and of the cattle and of the donkeys and of the sheep; 29 take it from their half and give it to Eleazar the priest, as an 1offering to the LORD. 30 “From the sons of Israel’s half, you shall take one drawn out of every fifty of the persons, of the cattle, of the donkeys and of the sheep, from all the animals, and give them to the Levites who akeep charge of the tabernacle of the LORD.” 31 Moses and Eleazar the priest did just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
Num. 31:32 Now the booty that remained from the spoil which the 1men of war had plundered was 675,000 sheep, 33 and 72,000 cattle, 34 and 61,000 donkeys, 35 and of human beings, of the women who had not known man 1intimately, all the persons were 32,000.
Num. 31:36 The half, the portion of those who went out to war, was as follows: the number of sheep was 337,500, 37 and the LORD’S levy of the sheep was 675; 38 and the cattle were 36,000, from which the LORD’S levy was 72; 39 and the donkeys were 30,500, from which the LORD’S levy was 61; 40 and the human beings were 16,000, from whom the LORD’S levy was 32 persons. 41 Moses gave the levy which wasthe LORD’S offering to Eleazar the priest, just aas the LORD had commanded Moses.
Num. 31:42 As for the sons of Israel’s half, which Moses 1separated from the men who had gone to war — 43 now the congregation’s half was 337,500 sheep, 44 and 36,000 cattle, 45 and 30,500 donkeys, 46 and the human beings were 16,000 — 47 and from the sons of Israel’s half, Moses took one drawn out of every fifty, both of man and of animals, and gave them to the Levites, who kept charge of the tabernacle of the LORD, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
Num. 31:48 Then the officers who were over the thousands of the army, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, approached Moses, 49 and they said to Moses, “Your servants have taken a census of men of war who are in our charge, and no man of us is missing. 50 “So we have brought as an offering to the LORD what each man found, articles of gold, armlets and bracelets, signet rings, earrings and necklaces, ato make atonement for ourselves before the LORD.” 51 Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from them, all kinds of wrought articles. 52 All the gold of the offering which they offered up to the LORD, from the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, was 16,750 shekels. 53 aThe men of war had taken booty, every man for himself. 54 So Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it to the tent of meeting as aa memorial for the sons of Israel before the LORD.
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