In today’s section, we read about:
The Levites are set apart for God
The second Passover, the fiery cloud and the silver trumpets
The people grumble for food so God sends quail
Miriam and Aaron complain about Moses
12 scouts explore the promise land and report back
More grumblings and rebellions, the budding of Aaron’s staff
Moses barred from leading the people into the promised land
The deaths of Miriam and Aaron
Edom refuses Israel passage
God sends a plague and Moses makes a bronze snake for people to look at and be healed.
Some thoughts that stuck me today:
The Levites are set apart as substitutes for the firstborn of the people – I found it interesting that God did this on the day the day he struck down the firstborn of Egypt. The Israelites were saved because of the blood of the lamb, which was killed and then the blood was smeared on the doorposts.
This Passover sacrifice was a hugely important event, which was to be remembered in a festival to be celebrated by everyone without fail
The NLT uses the verb “whine” repeated in ch 11. Moses gets fed up and when he complained about the burden, I thought of Matt 11:28-30 “Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
The description of Moses’ relationship with God is incredible – Nu 12:6-8 “If there were prophets among you, / I, the Lord, would reveal myself in visions. / I would speak to them in dreams. / But not with my servant Moses. / Of all my house, he is the one I trust. / I speak to him face to face, clearly, and not in riddles! / He sees the Lord as he is. / So why were you not afraid / to criticize my servant Moses?”
It is Miriam who is punished, not both Aaron and Miriam. Was it only she who had criticised Moses? 12:1 would indicate otherwise.
When the spies reported back that there were giants in the land and that the cities were strongly defended, this was actually true as was shown when they tried to take the land without God going before them (14:44-45). Their problem was that they looked at it in human eyes and not through the perspective of faith. Without God, we feel really insignificant – “I am a worm” (Ps 22:6).
The people seem so stubborn – they have seen all the plagues in Egypt, walked through a sea and have a whopping great pillar of cloud and fire going ahead of them, and still they disobey and grumble. This struck me most forcefully in 16:41, when the very next morning after the ground has swallowed up Korah, Dathan and Abiram, “the whole community began muttering again”. It was like Chris’s sermon about the farmer in Australia who knows all his sheep by name – they’re all called stupid! This is our inclination too.
In ch 14, Moses again intercedes with God for the people. Interestingly in 14:20-23, these people are forgiven, but they still suffer some consequences from their sin. I like the phrase in 16:47-48, “Aaron burned the incense and purified the people. He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague stopped.”
Nu 16 - Korah is not some marginalised, poor, disadvantaged outcast. Instead he is a Levite, from the strain of Levites which has the most prestigious duties - the Kohathites (Nu 4:1-20) who were to look after the sacred objects in the Tabernacle.
Nu 18:7 – “I am giving you the priesthood as a special privilege”. I’m not sure it always feels/felt like that (11:11-15) “do me a favour and spare me this misery!”
Moses’ sin in 20:11 seems fairly trivial, certainly not enough to disbar him from entering the promised land. Yet, on closer inspection, he plainly disobeyed the Lord’s command by striking the rock instead of speaking to the rock. Even more serious, in 20:10 it records Moses as saying “Must *WE* bring you water from this rock?” It could indicate that God was putting himself in God’s place as the provider for the people, even though Nu 12:3 says “Now Moses was very humble – more humble than any other person on earth”. Nothing can ever be allowed to take God’s place of precedence.
Edom , who refuse the Israelites passage in 20:14-21, are the descendants of Esau, Jacob’s elder brother (25:30)
The story in Nu 21:8-9 is referred to by Jesus in his discussions with Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader – Jn 3:14-15 “And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.”
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