Lecture

In the last lecture, we left the Israelites at Kadesh Barnea with a bad report of the faithless spies. In this lecture, number 20, we see the bitter fruit of the people’s disobedience. These twelve spies had been suggested by the people. They were to go up through the land of Canaan and reconnoiter the land: see what the land was like, see also, what would be the most likely way to enter the land, how to take the cities in general, to spy out the land. The plan seemed to be a good one to Moses, and the men went out. But when they came back, they were divided. They all agreed that the land was a beautiful land, that it was a land of plenty. In the Valley of Eshcol, Eshcol means bunch of grapes, they cut down some vines loaded with grapes. And the load was so big that it took two men apparently to carry them on a pole between them. The land was a land of abundance.

But the ten spies who came back with a bad report said that it was not possible to take the land. They saw fortified cities there. Remember these people had come from Egypt where they did not have usually cities like this. And they had now spent some time in the wilderness. They were not trained in fighting, knew nothing about siege tactics. They saw these cities walled, as they said, up to heaven. And they spoke of the inhabitants of the land as being tall and strong. And we were, they said, as grasshoppers in our own eyes.

Joshua and Caleb, on the other hand, said to the Israelites that the Lord was going to give them the land. Joshua and Caleb did not deny any of the facts that the others had brought forth. They all agreed as far as the facts were concerned, but oh what a difference in the attitude toward the facts. Joshua and Caleb saw the wonderful productivity of the land of Canaan, and they were happy that God had given them such a land. They saw also the problems in conquering such a land, but they trusted that the Lord would give them the land just the same. But they were out-voted and out-shouted by the ten spies. And the people swung around to that viewpoint. And they were mourning that they had been brought all this distance in order to face certain defeat and total extermination. They talked of stoning Moses and going back to Egypt.

In the midst of this, the Lord broke through and said that the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation. And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people provoke Me?” (Numbers 14:11). And God said that He would smite the Israelites and make a new nation out of Moses. The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. This is not a subject we think of all the time these days, but it is a very real part of the biblical revelation. God is angry with the wicked, and God is angry against sin. And God is a God of judgment. People don’t like to face that fact. The Israelites didn’t like to believe that fact, but God is a God of judgment. In the New Testament, it says that all judgment is committed unto the Son. Jesus Christ Himself, in the fifth chapter of Revelation, is pictured as on the throne. And He is the one who is qualified to open the seal of divine judgment, that seal, the seven-sealed scroll in chapter 6 of the book of Revelation. God is a God of judgment.

Moses interceded for the Lord. And Moses’ intercession was based on God’s promises and God’s covenant and God’s name. He said the people will say that You brought them out into the wilderness and did not bring them into Canaan because You were not able. And the Lord repented. And the Lord said that “I have pardoned according to thy Word.” Verse 21, chapter 14:

“But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD. Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put me to the test now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; Surely they shall not see the land which I swore to give unto their fathers.”

Only Caleb and Joshua, of those who were numbered, were allowed to go in. It is interesting to notice that this does not exclude the priests. Some of the priests quite possibly did go in. The priests were not part of the fighting force and were not numbered. The same way with the women. But the men over twenty who had been enrolled in the armed force and who were the men who refused to go in and rebelled against God, these were condemned to die in the wilderness.

Well, then the people changed their minds. The people changed their minds but evidently not their hearts. And they said now here we are. We’re sorry we did this. Doubtless we sinned, and so we’ll go on up now. We’ll take a second chance. Moses said there is no second chance. Moses cautioned, “Go not up, for the LORD is not among you.” It says, “The ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp.” The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not leave. But the Israelites presumed to go up and fight without the instructions of the Lord and without the blessing and presence of the Lord. The result was that the Amalekites came down. The Canaanites fought against them and defeated them bitterly and chased them, it says, “even unto Hormah.”

And so begins in chapter 15 the forty years of wandering in the wilderness. And as we have said already, there is not much given on that period in the history here of the book of Numbers. A few miscellaneous events are mentioned. Some miscellaneous laws also were given. And the picture that I drew was that the Israelites fanned out across the Sinai Peninsula with their flocks and herds. And Moses and the Levites, at least some of them, stayed near the tabernacle. The tabernacle may well have continued at Kadesh Barnea for some time and then moved from place to place as necessity or climate, availability of food or whatnot would indicate. And the guiding cloud would have indicated when the tabernacle should move. It was the official center of Israel, but there were many people who never saw the tabernacle again, who didn’t care, who went off in their apostasy and perished in the wilderness.

In chapter 15, there are some laws given with regard to the offerings. It is specified that an offering made by fire, a burnt offering, should have with it a certain amount of flour and, also, a drink offering. I think we might remark that the drink offering, contrary perhaps to some opinions, was not drunk. Really the word “drink offering” is misleading. It was technically called a “libation offering;” it was poured out. Poured out in the holy place over the offering and specified a third part of a pint of wine for a sweet savor unto the Lord. The point, perhaps, of the mentioning of these laws at this time is that these laws were to apply not only to the Israelites. Such laws had been given before. But they were to apply also to the stranger that would be with them when they would enter the land of Canaan. Other miscellaneous instructions are given there in chapter 15.

Also in chapter 15, there is an incident of a man who broke the Sabbath, gathered sticks on the Sabbath day and was condemned to death. This seems, of course, to us as an excessively severe punishment for a man who was just gathering sticks on the Sabbath. In all such cases in the Old Testament, it is helpful for me to remember that although we do not know the circumstances of the offense, nonetheless, we do know the Lord. And the Lord is a God of judgment, but He is also a God of wisdom. And He judges strictly when it is necessary and there are doubtless circumstances that made it necessary for Him to judge severely in this case. We have a case in the New Testament also, Ananias and Sapphira. Ananias and Sapphira, it might seem, did not have a very serious offense. They had sold their field, and they had brought some to God; but they had not brought it all to God. And here was wickedness in the camp, and at this particular important juncture at the beginning of the Christian church in this new phase of its life, it was necessary to show that the congregation of the Lord must be holy. And so Ananias and Sapphira died before the Lord.

We remember, also, that in the case of Elijah; Elijah, when these children came after him saying, “Go up, thou bald head,” and two she bears came out and killed 42 of the children. This, too, seems to be a very terrible judgment for such a light offense. The point is, we don’t know the circumstances. We don’t know whether it was a light offense. Actually, if you have a group of men after you, these were not necessarily tiny children. The word there for children is a word that would be suitable for any teenager on up probably to the age of majority of twenty years. This rabble of children coming after Elijah may well have been a group of hooligans that would indeed have killed Elijah if God had not given him the protection of these bears.

And so it was with Saul. Saul worshipped and sacrificed ahead of time because he couldn’t wait for Samuel. And Samuel told him that God had taken the kingdom away from him. It seems as if this is a very heavy judgment for a small offense. But if we really look at Saul’s later actions, we see that Saul was not a worthy man.

So we may suppose here that the man who gathered sticks did it perhaps in a way that everybody would see that he was defying God, and the details we do not know. But we do know that God reacted here appropriately as He always does to this occasion. So the Lord said to Moses that this man shall surely be put to death. And then the Lord commanded them to put on their garments fringes of blue; that they may look upon these garments, and they might, even in their clothing, be distinguished from other people; and that they might notice even from their clothing that they were people of God. And they should look upon these fringes and remember the commandments of the Lord and do them. Because, He says, “I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD your God.” An echo, of course, of Exodus 20, verse 1, the introduction to the Ten Commandments.

There follows in chapter 16 the sin of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. These were leading men in the camp of Israel. And they felt their importance so greatly that they felt that they should be given more and larger place. They said why should Aaron do everything? Why should Aaron be the high priest? Everybody in the congregation is holy. Why can’t we also come before the Lord and worship Him in our own way? We must remember that for Aaron to serve as priest was God’s commandment and God’s appointment. And the worship of God also is to be done in God’s way. And God showed Korah, Dathan, and Abiram that. Moses said you come tomorrow, and you bring your fire and your censers. And Aaron will bring the holy fire and his censer. And we will see who is the one that God has appointed. And the people were angry, and some of them didn’t even cooperate in the test. But those who did cooperate came, and the fire of the Lord came out against them. And it says they went “down quick into hell [sic]” as the King James Version. It means they went down alive into the grave. They were swallowed alive by the opening earth in judgment on Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.

Here we have God signifying His approval of Aaron and also, therefore, Moses, his ministers. And to rebel against these men was to rebel against the God who had authorized them. And we should remember that the ordinances of God are serious. And God does not want each man to do his own thing and work in his own way, but in everything we are to worship the Lord. And we are to obey the commandments He has given us as they are revealed already in His Bible. It is not for us to bring strange fire. It is not for us to bring new doctrines. It is not for us to add to or take away from the Word of God but to follow the commandments God has given.

There was a following plague. And Moses interceded before the Lord and stood between the dead and the living. And 14,700 men died beside them who died about the matter of Korah. The next day or so after that, the Lord told Moses to have again a specific indication that Aaron was God’s man. And he had the leaders of the twelve tribes bring rods, just plain dead sticks, and Aaron too. And these twelve sticks were to be put before the Lord. And there was to be a sign that Aaron was to be the high priest of God, because his rod and his alone would put forth buds. And the next day, it says, that when “Moses went into the tabernacle of witness; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds” overnight. God had made this dead stick of Aaron actually to bear fruit.

And so this was to be proof that the people should recognize Moses and recognize the leadership of Aaron because they were to recognize the leadership of God. But the people of Israel did not. The people of Israel said that it is dangerous to be near the tabernacle of Moses. It was not dangerous, of course. It was a great blessing if they would have come again in God’s way, but that they would not do. And so in chapter 18, we have God’s emphasis that the children of Israel were to be led in their worship by the house of Aaron. And Aaron was to treat the things of the Lord with great care and respect. And what it calls the burden or the charge of the tabernacle was to be with Aaron and his sons, the priests. And the Levites were to be his helpers. We should remember that it was quite a job to take care of the sanctuary. The giving of all these offerings took a lot of work. It was a vast butcher shop in some ways. And so there was a great deal of extra and additional work needed merely to supply wood for the altar and oil for the lights. These things were the responsibility of the Levites. And so the Lord apportioned this work to them and established thus and continued the tabernacle worship.

Also in chapter 19, another law was given. This was a law that gave further details of the cleansing. These details of cleansing and the meaning of the cleansing of the leper with his quarantine I’ve already mentioned in a previous lecture. I’ve given more detail in a book that I referred to, my book called God’s Eternal Creation. There I give some further argument on this point that the laws of quarantine were good public health laws for ancient Israel. But they were invested, of course, with religious sanction. And when a person was approved by the priest, when he had come and the priest had observed that the period of quarantine could now safely be over, he was to be sprinkled with this water. This water was made from the blood of the red heifer. The ashes of the red heifer were kept mixed with water, and this was called the water of separation—a kind of a holy water. And this was to be used and to sprinkle over a person for cleansing.

Now we come to a new section, chapter 20 and following. Chapter 20 tells of the journey of the children of Israel to the borders of the land of Canaan on the side of the east there by Jericho. There is in chapter 33 of the book of Numbers a summary of all the journeys from the land of Egypt down to Sinai and then through these years of wandering in various spots that we can hardly identify around the territory of Edom and Moab and up to Jericho. So chapter 33 is the summary chapter that gives point by point these places. Unfortunately, the places are strange to us and, of course, it does not say how long they stayed at any one place. At this time, it was the end of the forty years of wandering. Miriam died in chapter 20, it says in Kadesh Barnea. She died and was buried there.

Shortly after that, again when the children of Israel murmured against Moses, he smote the rock as he had done once before on the trip down from Egypt to Sinai. But this time, evidently in anger and also speaking against the congregation, out of patience and assuming it was he who was bringing the water, he spoke ill advisedly. And the Lord said to Moses that he had sinned before God in not giving Him the glory and that Moses should not enter the Promised Land. There was a reason for this. God saw also that Moses’ time was about over. He had given all this long period of his life in leading the children of Israel. And now he was nearly 120 years old. And it would not be right for him to be the leader in taking the children of Israel across the Jordan River. He must give way to Joshua, the new leader.

Well, there they were at the southern part of the land of Canaan. And to follow their travels now is a little difficult. Sometime during this period, they went down to Ezion-Geber, modern Eilat on the eastern arm of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aqaba. First, however, in chapter 20 we have the death of Aaron. Aaron went up to Mount Hor by the border of the land of Edom. And Moses stripped him of his garments and put them upon Eleazar his son who would succeed him in the high priesthood.

Then they tried to go up against the Canaanites by the southern gateway. How serious this attempt was, we do not know. But in chapter 21, it says that Arad the Canaanite who lived in the southern part of Canaan heard that Israel came. And he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoners. And Israel vowed vengeance against Arad.

And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Israel, and they conquered Arad and conquered his cities. But they did not follow up this conquest. Why? We do not know. But the Lord evidently had told them and Joshua also quite possibly had studied the terrain and figured that it would be an easier struggle if they went by the other route. And so the children of Israel turned and went “from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea,” it says, “to compass the land of Edom.” This is the eastern arm of the Red Sea doubtless, because some of the places named lie in that valley south of the Dead Sea, the Valley of the Southern Arabah, as it is called. And there near the later city of Petra and near the spring, which is today called the Ain Musa or Spring of Moses and then some other springs down in that deep valley, they traveled down toward ancient Ezion-Geber or Eilat [Elath]. This valley, of course, is in a very dry area, but there are hills on each side. And some little water comes down to various watering places, various springs where the children of Israel would have watered their flocks as they went up and down that road.

There again, the Israelites rebelled, and the Lord told Moses that those who were dying from the snakebites should look at the serpent, that he would make a serpent of bronze. And the serpent of bronze was put on a pole, and whoever looked at this symbol was healed from the snakebite. Of course, this is quoted in the New Testament as typical of Christ and who looks to Christ on the cross has the healing, the healing for the soul.

Now the Lord told Moses that they should not attack the Edomites. The Edomites were their brothers. That is to say, they were related. Esau, of course, had a twin brother, Jacob. And they were not to attack the Moabites. The Moabites had lived in trans-Jordan. But they had been pressed down south of the Arnon Gorge by the Amorite kingdoms to the north. And so from the Arnon Gorge down to the bottom edge of the Dead Sea, that would be the wadi of the brook Zered, from the Arnon to the Zered was at this time the territory to which Moab was restricted. So Moses asked the Edomites if they would let them go through their territory, and they said no. Moses said they would even buy their food and drink if they would just let them go through, and they would not fight. And the Edomites said no and came out against them. They made a similar proposition to the Moabites. The Moabites said no. Now what method Moses used to get around is not too clear, but one possibility for the route of the exodus from here on would be that Moses went north toward the Dead Sea up this wadi of the Arabah Valley south of the Dead Sea until they came to the Dead Sea. And then they would go east along the brook Zered. Zered would be the southern boundary of Moab and the northern boundary of Edom. And as they would go out the brook Zered to its beginning, they would come up onto the desert plateau.

And there at the desert plateau, they would be able to go around to the east of Moab. Their flocks and herds could live out in the desert, especially in the springtime, and they would be able to go around Moab by this method and not clash with either of the armies of Moab or of Edom. Then they would come in west again north of the Arnon Gorge and there they would be in the territory of the Amorites. Sihon was the king of the Amorite territory with his headquarters as capital of Heshbon. And north of him was Og, king of Bashan. These were the two kings of the Trans-Jordan territory. By this method, the Israelites would have passed around the territories of Edom and Moab. Now the contact of the Israelites with Edom and Moab is quite significant, because it bears on the question of the date of the exodus, which we will have to take up in our next lecture. But the Israelites then were poised north of the Arnon Gorge. This would be about the middle of the Dead Sea area and on the high plateau overlooking the Dead Sea.

And there was the rather fertile territory which is now the kingdom of Jordan and part of Syria to the north of them. And they had to traverse that territory in order to get down into the eastern gateway to Palestine around Jericho. So they gave the same proposition to King Sihon of the Amorites and asked him if they could go through just as they had asked Edom and Moab. The Lord had told Moses not to fight against Edom and Moab, but He did not tell them not to fight against the Amorites. Indeed, He said that they would come out against them and that they could fight against them and would win. And so when the Amorites received this message, they said no and came out to fight the Israelites. And the Israelites fought against them and won great victories. These victories are given very quickly in the Bible, but it was, of course, quite an extensive campaign. All that territory of Trans-Jordan, not as far east as the Ammonite kingdom around modern Amman, but the territory of Gilead down on the slopes toward the Jordan River and farther up the territory around Edrei, modern check point between Syria and Jordan, now at the present moment occupied by Israel, and on up toward Mount Hermon. All this rather large territory and some of it rather lush territory is drained by the brook Jabbok and by other rivers coming in from the east. The Yarmouk River drains quite an area. All this became the territory of the Israelites after these very successful battles.

So the Israelites were now safely out of the wilderness and were coming into the settled country and were ready to settle down. There is more, of course, to this settling down process. But at least two and a half tribes who specialized in cattle, particularly in the larger cattle, cows, these saw Bashan that it was a good territory for grain, for cattle. They asked Moses to stay right here. Now Moses said they might but that they must help their brethren conquer the territory of Palestine proper. They must go armed across the river, which they promised to do. So now the children of Israel are here encamped in the plains of Moab, and there they are poised ready to enter the Promised Land.