Numbers Review Continued

Aaron and his sons were to be the priests, but two of his sons died for rebelling against God.  We cannot expect to go to heaven as a part of the priesthood of Christ if we do not accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, because doing anything else is rebelling against God.  The Levites were appointed to help Aaron and his descendants in taking care of the tabernacle.   As Christians, we all have a responsibility in the church, and we all must fulfill our obligations, even if they don't seem as important as what others may be doing,  The Levites were to take the place of the first born of the people of Israel in being dedicated to God.  This did not relieve the other tribes from being dedicated to God and following His commandments.  Today, Jesus Christ represents us in the atonement of sin, and even though He removes the death sentence for our sins, if we accept His sacrifice for us, we are still not free to ignore God's commandments.  Anyone who committed a sin against God was to confess and make recompense.  If we are guilty of sinning against God today, whether we are Christians or not, we must confess our sins, but Jesus Christ has already made the recompense.  Of course, we must accept His sacrifice for us in order for it to have any effect in our life.  The vow of the Nazarite was specified, and once it was taken, it was to be fulfilled.  This was not a lifelong vow, but was for a specified time.  If we take specific vows to serve God in a particular way, we should first make sure that God is leading us in this, and then we should fulfill vow.  The people voluntarily brought wagon loads of gifts ro Moses, and God told him to give them to the Levites to help in their caring for the tabernacle.   We should still voluntarily bring gifts to God, and they should always be used to care for His church, those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ, and not just a building itself.  Not all of the Levites shared equally in these gifts, because some did not need them for their particular responsibility in caring for the tabernacle, just as we do not all require the same things in order to accomplish our role in God's kingdom today. 

Thanksgiving

 We will pause in or study today to celebrate Thanksgiving, a day set aside to give thanks to God for all that He has blessed us with.  Unfortunately, too many people today are attempting to take thanking God out of Thanksgiving, referring to it as Turkey Day and seeing it as more of a day off work than as a day of giving praises to God for His goodness.  Psalms 95:2 says, Let us us come before His presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise to Him with Psalms.  As we gather with family and friends this Thanksgiving, this should still be our focus.  We should first give God our thanks and our praise for all that He has blessed us with.  Happy Thanksgiving. 

Numbers Review

The first thing that we can say about Numbers as we review it is that it deals a lot with numbers.  It had been forty years since the people of Israel were last counted, and a whole generation had died.  They had wandered these forty years because of a lack of faith when they got to the edge of the Promised Land.  Until we put our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we will always be on the edge of the Promised Land.  They were counted by tribe by the number of males over twenty who were able to go to war.  This unwillingness to go to war under God's guidance had caused a generation to pass away.  They had been afraid of dying in a war, but they died anyway.   We should never let fear of the things in this world keep us from serving God, because in the end, we are going to die anyway.  Our faith in God will determine our destination, though, whether we are to go into the Promised Land of Heaven, or be forever outside of it.  The Levites were not counted with the rest of the people of Israel, because they were set apart to care for the tabernacle.   They were not a part of those who were to be able to go to war, and I believe that God still sets aside His ministers today who are to be concerned with doing His work even in times of war.  The people of Israel were to be divided by tribes, each with their own standard.  They were the people of Israel as a whole, but were twelve tribes within the whole group.  We are all a part of the family of God as Christians, but we are not all a part of the same family, congregation or even nation.  There was a set order of travel when the people moved, with the tabernacle in the center. As Christians today, God directs each of us as individuals and as congregations, but Jesus Christ must be in the center of all that we do.

Numbers 36:5

Numbers 36:5 says, And Moses commanded the children of Israel according to the word of the LORD, saying, The tribe of the sons of Joseph hath said well.  Moses commanded the children of Israel that according to God's word, the sons of Joseph had said well.  We need to make sure that as followers of Christ that whatever we say today is according to God's word, and not according to what we want.  Verse six adds, This is the thing which the LORD doth command concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, Let them marry to whom they think best; only to the family of the tribe of their father shall they marry.  God said that the daughters of Zelophehad could marry whomever they thought best, as long as he was from the tribe of their father.  Today, we may hear Christians say that they should be free to marry whomever they choose to marry, but it must be within God's guidelines and with His blessing.  Verse seven continues, So shall not the inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe: for every one of the children of Israel shall keep himself to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.  This was to ensure that the inheritance of the land was to remain in the tribe that it was given to.  Verse eight states, And every daughter, that possesseth an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel, shall be wife unto one of the family of the tribe of her father, that the children of Israel may enjoy every man the inheritance of his fathers.  This was a restatement of the fact that any daughter in the people of Israel who had an inheritance was to marry within her tribe to keep the inheritance within the particular tribe.  I believe that we as Christians should never marry another Christian simply because we want what to claim what his or her family has for our own at the expense of his or her family.  Verse nine adds, Neither shall the inheritance remove from one tribe to another tribe; but every one of the tribes of the children of Israel shall keep himself to his own inheritance.  They were not to attempt to claim the inheritance that God gave to another family as their own, and neither should we.  Verse ten continues, Even as the LORD commanded Moses, so did the daughters of Zelophehad:  The daughters of Zelophehad did as God commanded through Moses, and so must we today do as God commands as followers of Christ.  This doesn't mean that we are to do as everyone who professes to be a leader of God's church today says, but that we are to do so if we know what they say is God's word, which must be consistent with His written word, the Bible.  The people of Israel were not to obey Moses because he was Moses, but because he was God's chosen leader.  Even then, his word had to be what God said and not what Moses himself wanted.  Verse eleven says, For Mahlah, Tirzah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married unto their father’s brothers’ sons:   The five daughters of Zelophehad were married into their tribe as God had commanded.  Verse twelve adds, And they were married into the families of the sons of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of their father.  They were from the tribe of Manasseh, one of Joseph's sons, and their inheritance remained with the tribe of Manasseh.  When we know what God is saying to us, we must obey Him.  Verse thirteen concludes, These are the commandments and the judgments, which the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.  This concluded the commandments from God to Moses before the people of Israel entered the Promised Land.  We today as Christians have God's written word to guide us with the help of the Holy Spirit.  We must always seek God's guidance even as we study His word and should never attempt to make His word endorse what we want.

Numbers 36:1

Numbers 36:1 says, And the chief fathers of the families of the children of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came near, and spake before Moses, and before the princes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel:  The heads of the families of Gilead, of the tribe of Manasseh, one of Joseph's sons, came to talk to Moses and the heads of the rest of the tribes of Israel.  Verse two adds, And they said, The LORD commanded my lord to give the land for an inheritance by lot to the children of Israel: and my lord was commanded by the LORD to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother unto his daughters.   This was the half of the tribe of Manasseh, and they counted their inheritance a reality, even though they had yet to receive it, given to them by God forever.  We have God's promise that we have an everlasting inheritance in heaven if we are followers of Christ, and we need to live our lives in that assurance.  The daughters of Zelophehad, who had no sons were to receive an inheritance of part of the Promised Land.  Verse three continues, And if they be married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the children of Israel, then shall their inheritance be taken from the inheritance of our fathers, and shall be put to the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they are received: so shall it be taken from the lot of our inheritance.  The leaders of this half of the tribe of Manasseh were concerned about what would happen to the inheritance of the daughters of Zelophehad if they married a man from another tribe, at which point the daughters inheritance would become a part of her husband's tribes land.  This would not have been in accordance with God's division.  Matthew Henry points out that these leaders did not just decide on their own how to settle this possible problem, but brought it before God through Moses and in the presence of all the other leaders.  If we have questions concerning our relationship with other Christians, we need to bring them to God in the presence of our fellow Christians.  Verse four concludes, And when the jubile of the children of Israel shall be, then shall their inheritance be put unto the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they are received: so shall their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.  These leaders of Manasseh said that at the jubilee that the land would be taken away from the tribe of Manasseh and given to the tribe that the daughters of Zelophehad had married into.  This would weaken the tribe of Manasseh and strengthen the tribe that they married into.   Though no one can ever take away our heavenly home if we are Christians, we should never attempt to use Christianity to benefit us materially, especially at the cost to other Christians.  

Numbers 35:25

Numbers 35:25 says, And the congregation shall deliver the slayer out of the hand of the revenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to the city of his refuge, whither he was fled: and he shall abide in it unto the death of the high priest, which was anointed with the holy oil.  Someone who had accidentally killed someone instead of murdering him would be delivered out of the hand of the revenger and returned to his city of refuge, where he would live as long as the high priest lived.  Verse twenty-six adds, But if the slayer shall at any time come without the border of the city of his refuge, whither he was fled;  Verse twenty-seven continues, And the revenger of blood find him without the borders of the city of his refuge, and the revenger of blood kill the slayer; he shall not be guilty of blood:  If the man who had accidentally killed someone left his city of refuge and was found and killed by the revenger, then the revenger would not be guilty of his blood.  Though we have no sanctuary cities like this today, if we have put our faith in Jesus Christ as our High Priest, we are safe from facing the death penalty of sin as along as He lives, which is forever.  Verse twenty-eight concludes, Because he should have remained in the city of his refuge until the death of the high priest: but after the death of the high priest the slayer shall return into the land of his possession.  If the man remained in his sanctuary city until after the death of the high priest, he was free to return to his homeland.  Since our High Priest, Jesus Christ, will never die, we will never be free to return to the place we were before we accepted Him.  We are always spiritually in His sanctuary.  Verse twenty-nine states, So these things shall be for a statute of judgment unto you throughout your generations in all your dwellings.  These laws were to last throughout all the generations of Israel, or forever.  Verse thirty adds, Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses: but one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die.  God said no person could be put to death by the testimony of one person, but it would require the testimony of two or more. Verse thirty-one continues, Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death. Though the murderer was to be put to death, the people were to take no satisfaction in it.  Too often today I believe we want the death of those most in need of God's salvation, but their death should break our heart.  They are then doomed to everlasting destruction  which is never what God wants.  Verse thirty-two concludes, And ye shall take no satisfaction for him that is fled to the city of his refuge, that he should come again to dwell in the land, until the death of the priest.  They were also to take no satisfaction for the man who had fled to the sanctuary city where he was safe until the death of the high priest.  Verse thirty-three says, So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.  God then said, through Moses, that the land could not be cleansed of shed blood, except by the blood of the one who shed ot.  Our sin brings a death sentence, but Jesus shed His blood in our place to cleanse us, and that is the only way to be cleansed.   Verse thirty-four adds, Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I dwell: for I the LORD dwell among the children of Israel.  Like the people of Israel, we as followers of Christ are to not defile the land, because God dwells amongst us. 

Numbers 35:16

Numbers 35:16 says, And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.  Sanctuary cities did not remove the penalty for murder from a person.  If they deliberately killed someone, they were still to be put to death, even if they had fled to a sanctuary city.  Verse seventeen adds, And if he smite him with throwing a stone, wherewith he may die, and he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.  Verse eighteen continues, Or if he smite him with an hand weapon of wood, wherewith he may die, and he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.  A couple of more ways of deliberately killing someone were listed.  It didn't really matter what method of killing was used, but what mattered was the intent.  Deliberately killing someone by any method brought a death sentence.  Verse nineteen states, The revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer: when he meeteth him, he shall slay him.  The one who was the blood revenger, the relative of the person murdered was to carry out the death sentence when he met the murderer.  This was only to be done if there was no doubt that the man had committed the murder, and Matthew Henry says some suggest that even then it was to be done only after the man was found guilty in the court of law.  This was not for revenge, but to fulfill the law.  Verse twenty adds, But if he thrust him of hatred, or hurl at him by laying of wait, that he die;  Verse twenty-one continues, Or in enmity smite him with his hand, that he die: he that smote him shall surely be put to death; for he is a murderer: the revenger of blood shall slay the murderer, when he meeteth him.  These verses say that if a person kills another out of hatred or by laying in wait to kill him for whatever reason, he will be put to death by the one who is the blood relative chosen to do so.  Again, this is not to be done for revenge, but is to be done to fulfill the law.  We today as followers of Christ are to act under His law, which is the law of forgiveness.  We are never to act out of hatred for another person, but are always to look for them to be redeemed by Jesus Christ.  Verse twenty-two says, But if he thrust him suddenly without enmity, or have cast upon him any thing without laying of wait,  Verse twenty-three adds, Or with any stone, wherewith a man may die, seeing him not, and cast it upon him, that he die, and was not his enemy, neither sought his harm:  There is once again a distinction made between accidentally killing someone and murdering someone deliberately, and the one who accidentally killed another was not to be killed.  Verse twenty-four continues, Then the congregation shall judge between the slayer and the revenger of blood according to these judgments:  The congregation was to judge between the slayer and the revenger in this case.  The law of God was still in effect, just as it is today.