Numbers 25 – 36
Numbers 25:1 Now
Israel remained in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with
the women of
I have always considered
the book of Judges the Yoyo book because the children of
4
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Take all the leaders of the people and hang
the offenders before the LORD, out in the sun, that the fierce anger of the
LORD may turn away from
God demands justice to be
served and Moses tells the judges of
Hebrews
6
And indeed, one of the children of Israel came and presented to his brethren a
Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation
of the children of Israel, who were weeping at the door of the
tabernacle of meeting.
Let me tell what I think
is going on in this passage. I think that this man thought that if brought this
women before Moses and seen how pretty or innocent she was that just maybe he
would be able to change their minds about the judgment God had made. But notice
what happens next.
7
Now when Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he
rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand; 8 and he went after the man of
Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and
the woman through her body. So the plague was stopped among the children of
Phinehas was a very
faithful man one who was dedicated to God and his commands. He understood that
God wanted these sinners put to death and he didn’t waste anytime taking care
of the this man and this woman. God had already started a plague amongst the
children of
10
Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 11
"Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned back
My wrath from the children of
What do we learn from
Phinehas? Do learn that we as Christians should pack a javelin and go around
kill all the sinners? No. What we do learn from Phinehas is not to hesitate
when it comes to obeying God’s Word. Even if everyone else is standing around
and being idle we should not. All Christians should have the same Zeal as
Phinehas and be ready and willing to obey Gods Word in every situation.
16 Then the LORD spoke to Moses,
saying: 17 "Harass the
Midianites, and attack them; 18
"for they harassed you with their schemes by which they seduced you in the
matter of Peor and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a leader of Midian,
their sister, who was killed in the day of the plague because of Peor."
You see the Midianites
used a very deceptive way to bring the children of
Numbers 26:1 And it
came to pass, after the plague, that the LORD spoke to Moses and Eleazar the
son of Aaron the priest, saying: 2
"Take a census of all the congregation of the children of
Once again a census is
taking of the children of
Numbers 26: 52
Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 53
"To these the land shall be divided as an inheritance, according to the
number of names. 54 "To
a large tribe you shall give a larger inheritance, and to a small tribe
you shall give a smaller inheritance. Each shall be given its inheritance
according to those who were numbered of them.
55 "But the land shall be divided by lot; they shall
inherit according to the names of the tribes of their fathers. 56 "According to the lot
their inheritance shall be divided between the larger and the smaller."
Basically the bigger the tribe the more land they received the
smaller the tribe the less land they received and of course the Levites were
not numbered because they did receive any land.
Numbers 26: 63
These are those who were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who
numbered the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across
from
Here we see yet another
promise fulfilled by God. Only those that were 20 years and younger are alive
now with the exception of these 2 men.
In Chapter 27:1 – 11 has
to do with Inheritance. Basically a
daughter wants to have some possessions that her father had because her father
did not have any sons. Moses ask God about this and God agrees that the
daughter should inherit some of her
father possessions through her fathers brother. The text give more details on
different situations on how possessions should be passed down.
Numbers 27: 12
Now the LORD said to Moses: "Go up into this
Once again God reminds
Moses of why he will not enter the promise land.
15
Then Moses spoke to the LORD, saying: 16
"Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the
congregation, 17 "who
may go out before them and go in before them, who may lead them out and bring
them in, that the congregation of the LORD may not be like sheep which have no
shepherd." 18 And the
LORD said to Moses: "Take Joshua the son of Nun with you, a man in whom is
the Spirit, and lay your hand on him;
19 "set him before Eleazar the priest and before all the
congregation, and inaugurate him in their sight. 20 "And you shall give some
of your authority to him, that all the congregation of the children of
At Moses request a new
leader is chosen for the children of
In Chapter 28 and 29 we
are given more details about the various offerings that the children of
Now chapter 30 is all
about vows and keeping your word.
Numbers 30:1 Then
Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes concerning the children of Israel,
saying, "This is the thing which the LORD has commanded: 2 "If a man makes a vow to
the LORD, or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not
break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his
mouth. 3 " Or if a woman
makes a vow to the LORD, and binds herself by some agreement while in
her father's house in her youth, 4
"and her father hears her vow and the agreement by which she has bound
herself, and her father holds his peace, then all her vows shall stand, and
every agreement with which she has bound herself shall stand.
As this chapter continues it also deals with vows made between husband and wife and even vows made by widows or those who were divorced. The whole point of this chapter shows the seriousness God places on his people to keep their words. This a great lesson that our generation needs to learn. Today a person word means very little. It used to be that if two people shook hands on deal and gave the word their no doubt that each party would keep their word. But, that no longer is the case today. About the only way a person can be sure today that a person will keep his word is if both you sign a written agreement with at least 2 witnesses watching you sign. While this is true when it comes to the world as Christians we need to be the type of people that keep our word. If we tell someone we will do something then we need to do it. If we make some sort of promise to God we need to our best to keep it. God thought it was important back then and he still thinks its important today.
Numbers 30:6 "
If indeed she takes a husband, while bound by her vows or by a rash utterance
from her lips by which she bound herself,
7 "and her husband hears it, and makes no
response to her on the day that he hears, then her vows shall stand, and her
agreements by which she bound herself shall stand.
Notice that God even
wants this women who made a rash utterance to keep her word. What do we learn
from this? We learn that we need to make sure and think about what we say we
will do. Sometimes we find ourselves in a difficult situation and we might say
we will do something without thinking about it. Well the best thing we can do
is to say let me think about that and get back to you. Again, even if we make a
rash utterance we should do our best to keep our word as long as what we have
agreed to does not cause us to sin against God.
In Chapter 31 its time
for God to take his vengeance out on the Midianites. He commands Moses to send
some of the children of
Numbers 31:9 And the
children of Israel took the women of Midian captive, with their little ones,
and took as spoil all their cattle, all their flocks, and all their goods. 10 They also burned with fire all
the cities where they dwelt, and all their forts. 11 And they took all the spoil and
all the booty -- of man and beast.
Now there wasn’t a
problem with these men taking these various items form this land but they
messed up when they brought all these women back with them with their children.
We must remember that it was these women that had seduced the children of
Numbers 31:15 And
Moses said to them: "Have you kept all the women alive? 16 "Look, these women caused
the children of
So now they were going to
have to finish the job that they should had already done with the exception of
them getting to keep these younger women. After all this was taken care of then
we find out that the divide these spoils of war between the children of
Numbers 31: 32
The booty remaining from the plunder, which the men of war had taken, was six
hundred and seventy-five thousand sheep,
33 seventy-two thousand cattle, 34 sixty-one thousand
donkeys, 35 and thirty-two
thousand persons in all, of women who had not known a man intimately.
The rest of the chapter
just give the details on how this plunder was divided between the children of
In chapter 32 we learn
that tribes decide that they want to make their home just short of the promise
land. The tribe of Ruben and Gad decide they want to remain behind in the land
that the children of
Notice what Moses says to
these men in
Numbers 32:6 And
Moses said to the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben: "Shall
your brethren go to war while you sit here?
7 "Now why will you discourage the heart of the children
of
After Moses questions
them about this they explain what they will do. They say they will go fight
with the children of
Numbers 32:23
"But if you do not do so, then take note, you have sinned against the
LORD; and be sure your sin will find you out.
24 "Build cities for your little ones and folds for your
sheep, and do what has proceeded out of your mouth."
This same saying is true
today. If you sin against the Lord you can rest assure that your sin will find
your out. Let’s us never think that we can get away with sin. Yes we may fool
our friends and loved ones but we cannot hide our sin from God. In verse 24
once again we see the importance for a person to keep their word.
In Chapter 33 gives a
summary of all the places that the children of
In chapter 34:1-15 God
basically gives the details on how he
wants the borders setup on the promise land and verses 16-29 he appoints
certain men to divide up the promise land between the tribes.
Chapter 35:1-8 basically
states that each tribes is to give cities to the Levites that they may live in
and they are also to appoint 6 cities of refuge. The purpose of the cities of
refuge are explained in verse 9 -34. In general these cities of refuge were a
safe haven for anyone he accidentally killed someone. They could flee to one of
these cities and no one could kill them as long as they remained in that city.
But, if they were found outside the city they would not be safe. Now when the
high priest died of that city the man could safely go back to his hometown and
those who wanted to take his life can no longer do so. Now if someone killed
someone on purpose they to would be killed.
Finally we come to our
last chapter in Numbers chapter 36. This chapter is about protecting the
inheritance of each tribe. You see if a women who had inherited possession from
her father married a man from another tribe then that tribe gain part of that
tribes possessions. In order to prevent this a women under this
circumstance was only allowed to marry
someone from their own tribe. In this way there would never be a problem with
one tribe gaining part of another tribes possessions.