Numbers 11-13

Chapter 11
The whole chapter begins with the people complaining.....they have just STARTED their trip, so they begin by ticking off the Lord and the Lord shot out fire....seems to me that the people would learn a little lesson from this but NO......they want MEAT.  My translation said they were  "wailing".   All they could think about was meat and they even annoyed Moses.   The key difference is that the people wailed to each other, but Moses expressed his frustration to the Lord directly.  The Lord provides some help to Moses and gives the Sprit to 70 of their elders....cracks me up that Eldad and Medad got the Spirit, but Joshua says to Moses, "'scuze me, Moses.....those two dudes are doing your job".....Moses was so cool and said, "I wish all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them"........humble, non-jealous Moses.    Note here that prophesying here is not "predicting the future".....it is speaking the Word of the Lord.  If God directs people to prophesy and predict the future, they will as you can see with Moses, but sometimes, he just wants people to speak about Him in the here and now......

Quail came for the people, but because the people were lusting(putting it before everything else) after the meat, the Lord struck the people with a plague.

Chapter 12
OK, let me clarify something.....I thought Moses only had Zipporah as a wife.  After research, scholars feel that he had more than one wife.   Zipporah was the Midianite.....she bore Moses the sons we discussed earlier.   Apparantly, there is a Cushite wife whose name is never mentioned.   Cush is in Ethiopia....Scripture doesn't talk about what Miriam and Aaron had the gripe with specifically, but there are two theories...one is that they couldn't find anything wrong with Moses, so they attacked his wife, and the other is that it was skin color....Ethiopians are black and the Lord struck Miriam with the leprosy that made her skin "white as snow" for a reason, scholars argue.    Quite honestly, this is not a saving issue, the point is that there was sibling squabbles that God took care of.  Miriam and Aaron repented....Miriam was purified for seven days, they packed up the camp and moved on to the Desert of Paran.

Desert of Paran


Do you think that Traveling in this desert would make you cranky?  Would you look only at the desert, or would you think about the fact that you were not a slave in Egypt and that the Lord gave you manna, and that He was leading the camp in a pilar of fire?????


Then here is Kadesh where the Isrealites wait for the Spies report.  The desert oasis will be significant, because Miriam dies here eventually, and this is where you will find out that Moses misbehaves and has some dramatic consequences.




Chapter 13....
Moses sent spies to check out the Promised Land.  These people were so close to the Promised Land, but the spies got scared and didn't trust in the Lord and spread a bad report about the inhabitants of the Land.  Let me point out that I think I am descended from the Anaks who are a race of abnormally large people!!!!!  We are otherwise known as Amazons..LOL.   Calab said that they should take possession of the Land......the fear spread throughout the camp.....the other races were pagans and people that killed just for the sake of killing.....The Isrealites are SO CLOSE to the Promised Land...

Numbers 8-10

The Levites are set apart...they are purified so they can do their work at the Tabernacle...Interesting that the Levites retired at the age of 50...at least it was the heavy lifting part..they could then counsel the younger priests...so there is your training and education for the younger generation.

The second Passover is celebrated...it had been a year since they celebrated the first one and were delivered from Egypt...we have some men who came to Moses because they were ceremoniously unclean because they had been in the house of a dead body....they wanted to present offerings to the Lord because if they were ceremoniously clean and did not celebrate it, they would have been cut off from their people....Moses went to the Lord and asked what to do; the Lord did not adjust the Passover, but he did allow the ceremoniously unclean people to celebrate Passover later.

Can you  imagine being led by a cloud of fire?    When the cloud moved, the people went and followed it...Talk about following the Lord's direction!    No excuses, huh?    The first approach to the Promised Land is coming (note I say the FIRST approach)...the people leave Sinai where they had been camped for quite some time.  Moses invites his father-in-law to travel with them...he is a Midianite
the father of Zippoah. He is not an Isrealite,  History tells us that Zipporah is a black woman...remember that the Isrealites are mid-Eastern people, probably with dark skin themselves.....I'm afraid Jesus didn't look like some of our Sunday School dipictions of an Americanized Jesus....

Numbers 7

Well, that was a rather boring chapter, wasn't it?  I keep thinking of Bonnie's voice saying, Man, I'm ready for a good story".....well, it is coming soon, thank goodness......

The offerings are presented to dedicate the tabernacle.  Where did these desert nomads get that kind of wealth?   Remember when they left Egypt?  What happened then?  God opened the hearts of the Egyptians and they gave the wealth to the Isrealites on the way out.  Each of the heads of the tribes presented the offering.

Another really cool thing is that the audible voice of the Lord spoke in the dwelling place.  Right on that seat cover between the cheribum.....as he promised, the Lord would dwell there.  What does Tabernacle mean?  The dwelling place.....

Leviticus 5-6

There is some reiteration about skin disease, discharge and restitution.....then we have the test for the unfaithful wife...seems cruel as it sits there as law...basically, without trust, there is no possibility for a good marriage.  The major application is that they took it to the priest......now we have counselors that we can choose, but we also have a High Priest in Jesus Christ.....Jesus knows our heart....if we have guilt, he knows it.   Marriage was to be a "mysterious union" like Christ loves the church....just remember that we are reading about a very Patriarchal society and that women could be temple prostitutes in pagan religions.....

The Nazarite is a vow one could take to dedicate himself to the Lord, or parents could do it for the child...Sampson, Samuel and John the Baptist were probably Nazarites.  These were leaders that devoted themselves completely to God.  They had very long hair as an outward sign to their dedication and did not drink wine.

And now I know where the ancient blessing that I heard every Sunday in the Lutheran church growing up is:

The Lord bless you
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.

I love it and bless you!

Numbers 2-3

So...remember the Passover?   The Isrealites dedicated all of its firstborn sons to God (see Exodus 3:40-51)....This was a temporary measure....God chose all the men from the tribe of Levi to replace the firstborn sons from every tribe....God had Moses count them and there were 22,000...this left 273 Isrealites that weren't "bought back" (redeemed)from being firstborn.  To buy ther 273, God required five shekels for each one and that money was given to Aaron and his sons.

The Kohanthites, Gershonites and Meraites were families of Levites who were assigned for special tasks in Isreal's worship....I'm amazed that some of God's things were so holy that the Kohathites could not touch them or they would die.  They couldn't look at some things without covering them first.   God was teaching about being set apart, being holy.....a huge contrast between how to approach God in the Old Testament and how we are permitted now to go boldly to the throne because of Jesus Christ and the ultimate sacrifice he became for us.     The Levites will become an old order of the Priesthood as God's plan progresses.

Numbers 1-2

OK....this chapter is called Numbers because it is all about the very first census ever taken...did you know that?  I didn't....Very cool...all men over the age of 20 that can fight, are counted.  The Tribe of Levi is not, because they will maintain the Tabernacle.  Numbers also comes from the Hebrew word Bamidar  which means 'In the Wilderness'.....you are going to find out that the Hebrews are going to get grumbly and discontented which will lead to rebellion...therefore, the nation is going to be "in the wilderness" for a lot longer than they needed to be......remember,we just finished Leviticus which talked about blessings for obedience.......

Moses is now preparing the nation to pack up and move forward to the Promised Land (Canaan)......

All the numbers shows the organization that Moses is trying do.  The large nation (remember it was a covenant to increase the descendents of Abraham) is organized into tribes....this will help to divide up the Promised Land when they get there....the Hebrews weren't known by last names like we were are today, but by family or tribe.....these detailed geneology records were the only thing to prove membership in God's chosen nation....the people followed the banner  (or flag) of the particular tribe they were in. Can you imagine all this?    That is over 2 million people that Moses had to manage.....wonder if he had any of the problems that we have with a "growing church"  LOL  

Leviticus 26-27

Today you have read the end of Leviticus....of course you know I am proud of you for sticking with this.   I can assure you that God loves you getting to know Him better!

You will notice that God points out rewards for obedience.  He knows we are sinners, but He wants us to know the difference between right and wrong and make the RIGHT choice.   God used sin's consequences to draw them to reptentance, not to get back at them......we are naturally rebellious.....(hard to believe, right!).  Just know that we will be re-reading this scripture as we move forward....God tells the people exactly what they need to do and they will be blessed.  Every bit of this scripture will be revealed...even the part where "you will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters".......then we will come back to this very prophecy and you will be amazed.  God does what He says He will do.    Note that God will never punish without warning first....God has wrath....but he is not a God of Wrath that needs to be appeased just to be nice.    God is a God of love....he has big plans for His people...He will fulfill his covenant...but, this is a two way relationship and the people have to do their part (this includes us)....note He says in 26:6   I WILL GRANT PEACE IN THE LAND and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid........has this happened yet?     You will not that he also says, "If you rmain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve...."Would you consider that it is because the Isrealites are not currently doing what they need to do right now?......the only way to God is through Jesus and the Jews do not believe that Jesus has come yet.  However, Scripture also tells us that God is not through with the Jews.....so....stay tuned to His plan

God has been teaching the people of Isreal for two years.   They have been camped at the base of Mount Sinai....are they ready to break camp and move to the Promised Land?