|
Bamidbar
(Numbers) chukat 19:1-22:1 |
Meaning
|
Day Two
|
Haftara
|
B'rit Hadashah
|
1 Our Father, we receive Your Words and hide Your commandments with us; 2 we incline our ear unto wisdom, and apply our hearts to understanding; 3 We cry after knowledge and lift up our voices for understanding; 4 we seek it as silver; and search for it as for hidden treasures; 5 We declare that we shall understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. Declaration of Proverbs 2:1-5
Numbers 19:20-20:14 (NASB)1
20 'But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself from uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD; the water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him, he is unclean. 21 'So it shall be a perpetual statute for them. And he who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening. 22 'Furthermore, anything that the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.' " 20 1 Then the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came to the wilderness of Zin in the first month; and the people stayed at Kadesh. Now Miriam died there and was buried there. 2 There was no water for the congregation, and they assembled themselves against Moses and Aaron. 3 The people thus contended with Moses and spoke, saying, "If only we had perished when our brothers perished before the LORD! 4 "Why then have you brought the LORD'S assembly into this wilderness, for us and our beasts to die here? 5 "Why have you made us come up from Egypt, to bring us in to this wretched place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there water to drink." 6 Then Moses and Aaron came in from the presence of the assembly to the doorway of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. Then the glory of the LORD appeared to them; 7 and the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 8 "Take the rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink." 9 So Moses took the rod from before the LORD, just as He had commanded him; 10 and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, "Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?" 11 Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank. 12 But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them." 13 Those were the waters of Meribah, because the sons of Israel contended with the LORD, and He proved Himself holy among them.
The caution of being unclean should probably have been kept with yesterday's reading. Or perhaps the Rabbins that settled on the sections to be divided in Torah felt that they should leave on a more positive note. Regardless of that, we see the cautions about remaining in an 'unclean' state. As long as one remains in that state, one cannot participate in tabernacle worship. Everything touched will also be rendered unclean. So it is to be the highest wish and desire that one always be careful about being 'clean'!
This is the second time that the group has been around to Kadesh and it just happens to be about thirty-eight years later.
1 Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there. Numbers 19:1.
The commentator, John Gill preached in the same church as C. H. Spurgeon, but over one hundred years earlier. Most people have never heard of John Gill. This is unfortunate since his works contain priceless gems of information that are found nowhere except in the ancient writings of the Jews. John Gill's Exposition of the Bible is in the public domain and may be freely used and distributed. He states:
“Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, &c.] Not immediately after the transaction of the above things, recorded in the preceding chapters; as the sending of the spies into the land of Canaan, and their report of it; the business of Korah, and the giving of several laws respecting the priesthood, and the purification of the people; but thirty eight years after: nor was this the congregation that came out of Egypt; their carcasses, by this time, had fallen in the wilderness, as had been threatened, excepting some few, so that this was a new generation: what passed during this time we have very little account of, excepting their journeyings from place to place, in (Numbers 33:1-56), by which it appears, there were eighteen stations between the place they encamped at when the spies were sent, and this they now came to; and that the place from whence they came hither was Ezion Geber; from hence they journeyed…”
Then, in that thirty-eighth year, Miriam dies! As a leader, Moses most likely didn’t have a lot of close friends and relatives and the loss of one of these had to have been a blow. We know what it’s like to be in a state of grieving. The color fades out of our world as we move on without that significant other. We’re often drained emotionally and physically and some of the smallest daily pleasures are muted and without satisfaction. We don’t seem to have our usual coping powers and so we try to avoid confrontations and the snarls of life that we might usually meet with our usual reserves of strength and energy. The Jewish tradition calls for an immediate interment and then seven days of an open house for all the family and friends to gather to grieve the loss.
I have, over the years, begun to think these seven days of withdrawal from the usual rat race of life are a particularly good thing. Even if folks aren’t Jewish they would benefit from such a practice. Many times the grieving is hard around the open coffin wake. In recent years, we've had to do the wake and then wait a day or two, and then do the interment. It started that hard grieving all over again. I've had this happen at least three times in recent years and I do not like this gap that the funeral homes now seem to do more frequently. In my opinion, the best thing is to have the burial immediately and then take time for days of official grieving with everybody who would come to the home of the bereaved and spend time. It has become my personal belief that this time of 'shiva' (Hebrew for seven), would be my personal choice when I pop my clogs. But I digress.
Almost immediately following the death of Miriam, the people rise again and murmur for water! Instead of falling on their knees and petitioning The Living God in His capacity as God and Father, and trusting HIM, they turn into the ‘lean mean murmuring machine’ yet again!
5 And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink. Numbers 19:5.
Now one might petulantly think, “You ungrateful wretches! Did they forget what life was like in Egypt?!” They weren’t celebrating grain or figs or pomegranates when they bitterly wailed as slaves of Pharaoh! In fact, I wonder if Moses actually might have reacted in a similar vein that day. He was with them right from the get-go and he wasn’t remembering the past through any rose-tinted, misty, water-colored memories! Possibly, due to fatigue and bereavement, in full view of the ‘miserable wretches’, Moses lost control, bitterly yelled at them, and said, “Shall WE bring forth water”, then then striking the rock in sheer anger, and both he and Aaron, lost their entry into that land of promise. Those were the waters of Meribah (meaning provocation and strife), where God made Himself holy instead of being made holy in the eyes of the people through Moses.
12…Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel… The word ‘holy’ or as it appears in KJV, to ‘sanctify’, means: קָדַשׁ : qadash kaw-dash': a primitive root; to be (causatively, make, pronounce or observe as) clean (ceremonially or morally):—appoint, bid, consecrate, dedicate, defile, hallow, (be, keep) holy(-er, place), keep, prepare, proclaim, purify, sanctify(-ied one, self), X wholly. In the middle of all those meanings of sanctify we find the term ‘defile’. Another mystery—how can one word mean two opposites? Defile is to make dirty or profane. I think we can agree, nevertheless, that the behavior of Moses certainly did ‘defile or profane’ The Living God. Was it because Moses didn’t believe that The Living God could pour water out of the rock by merely speaking to it? We can certainly recognize why Moses literally “flew off the handle” when he was still coping with his grief over Miriam and the people rose against him yet again! But having said that, we can understand why Yah was not pleased with him because of the way he lashed out at the people, the rock, and his God! Moses was disobedient. He struck the rock instead of speaking to it as he was told. In doing so, he took the glory that was reserved for Yahweh alone.
8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. Isaiah 42:8.
Moses lost his cool, yelled at the people, and hit that rock twice. “Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?" It wasn’t Moses or Aaron who could do such a miracle as bringing fresh water out of a rock— it was something that only Yah could do. Moses would pay the price for his actions. It is a sad thing, and most unfortunate, but because he was human, Moses broke and forfeited his passage to the land of promise. We’ll read later, how, when he regained his perspective and moved on, how Moses pleaded with God for entry into Canaan but was denied. But no record tells us how Yah must have felt about standing by His judgment. It must have grieved Yah to have to administer that discipline and perhaps He felt worse than Moses did to have to uphold it—we know that feeling when we’ve been parents of children. Nevertheless, it reminds us that our Father God is a God of justice and will not be giving his children “a pass” instead of discipline.
Once we’ve realized this truth, it helps us to take Him more seriously when He tells us something. Yahweh’s frustration with wayward children is noted in a passage from Isaiah:
4 I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not. Isaiah 66:4.
Can we blame Him for withdrawing from unruly and disrespectful children? But look in the same chapter for His tender mercies, for He knows that His children will return to Him and He will respond:
19 And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles. Isaiah 66:19.
I don’t think we realize how ‘double-minded’ we can get—it creeps up on us sort in all subtlety. We need to jealously desire the Spirit which Yah has made to live in us! No wonder The Creator was so angry at Moses for what he did! Do we want to be like Moses? Well… YES! and NO! Moses was fatigued, bereaved, and out of control. We see that it happens to the best of us. It's the human condition. But let it not be cause for sin!
This is the second time that the group has been around to Kadesh and it just happens to be about thirty-eight years later.
1 Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there. Numbers 19:1.
The commentator, John Gill preached in the same church as C. H. Spurgeon, but over one hundred years earlier. Most people have never heard of John Gill. This is unfortunate since his works contain priceless gems of information that are found nowhere except in the ancient writings of the Jews. John Gill's Exposition of the Bible is in the public domain and may be freely used and distributed. He states:
“Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, &c.] Not immediately after the transaction of the above things, recorded in the preceding chapters; as the sending of the spies into the land of Canaan, and their report of it; the business of Korah, and the giving of several laws respecting the priesthood, and the purification of the people; but thirty eight years after: nor was this the congregation that came out of Egypt; their carcasses, by this time, had fallen in the wilderness, as had been threatened, excepting some few, so that this was a new generation: what passed during this time we have very little account of, excepting their journeyings from place to place, in (Numbers 33:1-56), by which it appears, there were eighteen stations between the place they encamped at when the spies were sent, and this they now came to; and that the place from whence they came hither was Ezion Geber; from hence they journeyed…”
Then, in that thirty-eighth year, Miriam dies! As a leader, Moses most likely didn’t have a lot of close friends and relatives and the loss of one of these had to have been a blow. We know what it’s like to be in a state of grieving. The color fades out of our world as we move on without that significant other. We’re often drained emotionally and physically and some of the smallest daily pleasures are muted and without satisfaction. We don’t seem to have our usual coping powers and so we try to avoid confrontations and the snarls of life that we might usually meet with our usual reserves of strength and energy. The Jewish tradition calls for an immediate interment and then seven days of an open house for all the family and friends to gather to grieve the loss.
I have, over the years, begun to think these seven days of withdrawal from the usual rat race of life are a particularly good thing. Even if folks aren’t Jewish they would benefit from such a practice. Many times the grieving is hard around the open coffin wake. In recent years, we've had to do the wake and then wait a day or two, and then do the interment. It started that hard grieving all over again. I've had this happen at least three times in recent years and I do not like this gap that the funeral homes now seem to do more frequently. In my opinion, the best thing is to have the burial immediately and then take time for days of official grieving with everybody who would come to the home of the bereaved and spend time. It has become my personal belief that this time of 'shiva' (Hebrew for seven), would be my personal choice when I pop my clogs. But I digress.
Almost immediately following the death of Miriam, the people rise again and murmur for water! Instead of falling on their knees and petitioning The Living God in His capacity as God and Father, and trusting HIM, they turn into the ‘lean mean murmuring machine’ yet again!
5 And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink. Numbers 19:5.
Now one might petulantly think, “You ungrateful wretches! Did they forget what life was like in Egypt?!” They weren’t celebrating grain or figs or pomegranates when they bitterly wailed as slaves of Pharaoh! In fact, I wonder if Moses actually might have reacted in a similar vein that day. He was with them right from the get-go and he wasn’t remembering the past through any rose-tinted, misty, water-colored memories! Possibly, due to fatigue and bereavement, in full view of the ‘miserable wretches’, Moses lost control, bitterly yelled at them, and said, “Shall WE bring forth water”, then then striking the rock in sheer anger, and both he and Aaron, lost their entry into that land of promise. Those were the waters of Meribah (meaning provocation and strife), where God made Himself holy instead of being made holy in the eyes of the people through Moses.
12…Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel… The word ‘holy’ or as it appears in KJV, to ‘sanctify’, means: קָדַשׁ : qadash kaw-dash': a primitive root; to be (causatively, make, pronounce or observe as) clean (ceremonially or morally):—appoint, bid, consecrate, dedicate, defile, hallow, (be, keep) holy(-er, place), keep, prepare, proclaim, purify, sanctify(-ied one, self), X wholly. In the middle of all those meanings of sanctify we find the term ‘defile’. Another mystery—how can one word mean two opposites? Defile is to make dirty or profane. I think we can agree, nevertheless, that the behavior of Moses certainly did ‘defile or profane’ The Living God. Was it because Moses didn’t believe that The Living God could pour water out of the rock by merely speaking to it? We can certainly recognize why Moses literally “flew off the handle” when he was still coping with his grief over Miriam and the people rose against him yet again! But having said that, we can understand why Yah was not pleased with him because of the way he lashed out at the people, the rock, and his God! Moses was disobedient. He struck the rock instead of speaking to it as he was told. In doing so, he took the glory that was reserved for Yahweh alone.
8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. Isaiah 42:8.
Moses lost his cool, yelled at the people, and hit that rock twice. “Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?" It wasn’t Moses or Aaron who could do such a miracle as bringing fresh water out of a rock— it was something that only Yah could do. Moses would pay the price for his actions. It is a sad thing, and most unfortunate, but because he was human, Moses broke and forfeited his passage to the land of promise. We’ll read later, how, when he regained his perspective and moved on, how Moses pleaded with God for entry into Canaan but was denied. But no record tells us how Yah must have felt about standing by His judgment. It must have grieved Yah to have to administer that discipline and perhaps He felt worse than Moses did to have to uphold it—we know that feeling when we’ve been parents of children. Nevertheless, it reminds us that our Father God is a God of justice and will not be giving his children “a pass” instead of discipline.
Once we’ve realized this truth, it helps us to take Him more seriously when He tells us something. Yahweh’s frustration with wayward children is noted in a passage from Isaiah:
4 I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not. Isaiah 66:4.
Can we blame Him for withdrawing from unruly and disrespectful children? But look in the same chapter for His tender mercies, for He knows that His children will return to Him and He will respond:
19 And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles. Isaiah 66:19.
I don’t think we realize how ‘double-minded’ we can get—it creeps up on us sort in all subtlety. We need to jealously desire the Spirit which Yah has made to live in us! No wonder The Creator was so angry at Moses for what he did! Do we want to be like Moses? Well… YES! and NO! Moses was fatigued, bereaved, and out of control. We see that it happens to the best of us. It's the human condition. But let it not be cause for sin!
12 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. 13 This is the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the LORD, and he was sanctified in them. Numbers 19:12-13.
1 Scripture reading from the NASB www.lockman.org and KJV unless otherwise stated.
Daily Torah Bites ©