Bamidbar (Numbers)
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Meaning
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Day Four
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Haftara
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B'rit Hadashah
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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 3:14-39 (NASB)1
14 Then the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, saying, 15 "Number the sons of Levi by their fathers' households, by their families; every male from a month old and upward you shall number." 16 So Moses numbered them according to the word of the LORD, just as he had been commanded. 17 These then are the sons of Levi by their names: Gershon and Kohath and Merari. 18 These are the names of the sons of Gershon by their families: Libni and Shimei; 19 and the sons of Kohath by their families: Amram and Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel; 20 and the sons of Merari by their families: Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of the Levites according to their fathers' households. 21 Of Gershon was the family of the Libnites and the family of the Shimeites; these were the families of the Gershonites. 22 Their numbered men, in the numbering of every male from a month old and upward, even their numbered men were 7,500. 23 The families of the Gershonites were to camp behind the tabernacle westward, 24 and the leader of the fathers' households of the Gershonites was Eliasaph the son of Lael. 25 Now the duties of the sons of Gershon in the tent of meeting involved the tabernacle and the tent, its covering, and the screen for the doorway of the tent of meeting, 26 and the hangings of the court, and the screen for the doorway of the court which is around the tabernacle and the altar, and its cords, according to all the service concerning them. 27 Of Kohath was the family of the Amramites and the family of the Izharites and the family of the Hebronites and the family of the Uzzielites; these were the families of the Kohathites. 28 In the numbering of every male from a month old and upward, there were 8,600, performing the duties of the sanctuary. 29 The families of the sons of Kohath were to camp on the southward side of the tabernacle, 30 and the leader of the fathers' households of the Kohathite families was Elizaphan the son of Uzziel. 31 Now their duties involved the ark, the table, the lampstand, the altars, and the utensils of the sanctuary with which they minister, and the screen, and all the service concerning them; 32 and Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest was the chief of the leaders of Levi, and had the oversight of those who perform the duties of the sanctuary. 33 Of Merari was the family of the Mahlites and the family of the Mushites; these were the families of Merari. 34 Their numbered men in the numbering of every male from a month old and upward, were 6,200. 35 The leader of the fathers' households of the families of Merari was Zuriel the son of Abihail. They were to camp on the northward side of the tabernacle. 36 Now the appointed duties of the sons of Merari involved the frames of the tabernacle, its bars, its pillars, its sockets, all its equipment, and the service concerning them, 37 and the pillars around the court with their sockets and their pegs and their cords. 38 Now those who were to camp before the tabernacle eastward, before the tent of meeting toward the sunrise, are Moses and Aaron and his sons, performing the duties of the sanctuary for the obligation of the sons of Israel; but the layman coming near was to be put to death. 39 All the numbered men of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron numbered at the command of the LORD by their families, every male from a month old and upward, were 22,000.
It is the season of the mucking of the chicken coop, and it has begun! Yesterday, I managed to clear about a quarter of the space and the newly improvised system this year appears to be working rather well. It's very helpful if I go out with a bowl of treats and lure all the biddies and the two roosters outside into the run. Once the coop is vacant, it's much easier to work. Then my shovel and I, with the wheelbarrow, make it happen! I don't even try to use the ramp anymore. I just set the wheelbarrow beside the ramp and use the other door. I have a very large receptacle with wheels on one side that I fill up and then roll to the door and dump it.
The small pop door for the hens has two doors. One door slides down on the inside and the outer door does the same. But I only closed the inner door. At one point I was sure that I heard some muffled clucking going on. I checked and the one chicken sitting in the nesting box was still there and I went back to work. Then I heard more and louder muffled activity and decided I should check the outside. And that was when I went out into the run and discovered not one, but three hens jammed into the pop door. One had gone and couldn't get in and another hen pushed in behind her and then one more hen did the same. All I could see was a mess of feathers and some feet jammed into the space between the walls of the coop! Had I not been able to pull them gently out by those feet, I'm not sure what I would have done. After the hens came out and were examined to be none the worse for the wear, I closed the outer door to prevent another “hen-jam”. Memo to self: To prevent hen-jams, always close the outer door.
It is another gorgeous spring day out there but we must turn over some Torah before we move on to the daily routine. At the beginning of this book, The Almighty said to number the tribes, but don’t number one particular tribe, and they were obedient to do so. Now has come the time to number the one remaining tribe left and it would not be for military service, but for the service of the tabernacle, God's house. The manner of numbering was different also. For the eleven tribes, it was a counting of each male twenty years and up. For the Levites, it would be a count of every male from one month old and up that would be important. The New American Standard Bible has put little headlines in its text. The one they insert here indicates “The duties of the priests”. Years ago, I made an executive decision to drop these headlines from the NASB text. I believed it would help to delineate the “priests” from the Levites. The priests would have been the sons of Aaron while all the rest of the support staff, were Levites. This is why many times we see the phrase, “priests and Levites”. When we take the little insert by the New American translation, then we end up combining the sons of Aaron with all their cousins and collectively calling them all priests. Doing this muddies the waters. Then we lose clear sight of the differences between the sons of Aaron and the rest. Is this not what Korah did later on in their history? He decided that because the sons of Aaron were Levites and they were all Levites, he and his crew should be elevated to priests. By and by we’ll come to that and we’ll see that this was a most dangerous line of thinking for Kohath.
Because I’ve made this statement above, I mean to make a clear further delineation regarding the Levites. The Levites apart from the sons of Aaron, were thought by the commentators to be the only ones who didn’t take part in the idolatry of the golden calf. They took up arms by command of God and killed three thousand of their fellow tribesmen who were “running wild” in that incident recorded in Exodus 32:28. The Levites were given the honor of holy things because they had honored the holy things! We can summarize the lesson for today.
32 These are those which were numbered of the children of Israel by the house of their fathers: all those that were numbered of the camps throughout their hosts were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty. Numbers 2:32
And this is another meditation to take with us today. It was originally penned by Matthew Henry:
“Let the believer be prepared to withstand the enemies of his soul—though all may appear to be peace.”
While we go through these books each year we have time to stop and truly appreciate all these details that God had worked out. They all had a purpose and it was SO orderly! Each of the clans within the Levites who weren't priests had their distinctive tasks, with their distinctive place surrounding the house of Yahweh.
23 The families of the Gershonites shall pitch behind the tabernacle westward. Numbers 3:23.
29 The families of the sons of Kohath shall pitch on the side of the tabernacle southward. Numbers 3:29.
35 And the chief of the house of the father of the families of Merari was Zuriel the son of Abihail: these shall pitch on the side of the tabernacle northward. Numbers 3:35.
If our God is anything, He is orderly and complex with none of the aberrations of His creation, mankind. Again I hear myself despairing, deep inside, “Why did you have to go away from the promises of God Israel? Why didn’t you stay faithful when He gave you such order and such goodness?” And yet they turned away. The world reaps the fallout to this very day. The closing verses of our associate reading, Hosea chapter two, offer hope. There is a time of harsh discipline but there will be a time when God’s people and He will be reconciled. We don’t see it yet, because it does appear that prophecy has to play out first. It does appear that things may get much worse before they get much better. I stopped quoting the headlines in our daily missives because they take up too much space when we should be looking at Torah.
John Ray Cash sang a song some time ago that Chester Lester wrote as he pondered the times. “Some people say that peace is on the way, but the worst is still to come.” The chorus to that song is this: “’Cause the prophets wrote about it, and Jesus spoke about it, and John got to take a look. And he told us what he saw and it’s easy to see: It’s goin’ by the Book.”2 What a marvelous inspiration and witness to the Johnny Cash music-loving segment of classic country devotees. We know exactly which “BOOK” this whole thing is ‘going by'! Hosea gives hope.
16 "On that day," says ADONAI "you will call me Ishi [My Husband]; you will no longer call me Ba'ali [My Master]. 17 For I will remove the names of the ba'alim from her mouth; they will never again be mentioned by name. 18 When that day comes, I will make a covenant for them with the wild animals, the birds in the air and the creeping things of the earth. I will break bow and sword, sweep battle from the land, and make them lie down securely. 19 I will betroth you to me forever; yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, in justice, in grace and in compassion; 20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you will know ADONAI. 21 When that day comes, I will answer," says ADONAI "I will answer the sky, and it will answer the earth; 22 the earth will answer the corn, wine and oil, and they will answer Yizre'el [God will sow]. 23 I will sow her for me in the land. I will have pity on Lo-Ruchamah [Unpitied]; I will say to Lo-'Ammi [Not-My-People], 'You are my people'; and they will say, 'You are my God.'" Hosea 2:16-23 (CJB)3
The Torah readings this week and the reading from Hosea are a stark contrast. We look at it and we can learn to make the right choices and pray for those who are still quite unaware that there is indeed, an important choice to be made.
The small pop door for the hens has two doors. One door slides down on the inside and the outer door does the same. But I only closed the inner door. At one point I was sure that I heard some muffled clucking going on. I checked and the one chicken sitting in the nesting box was still there and I went back to work. Then I heard more and louder muffled activity and decided I should check the outside. And that was when I went out into the run and discovered not one, but three hens jammed into the pop door. One had gone and couldn't get in and another hen pushed in behind her and then one more hen did the same. All I could see was a mess of feathers and some feet jammed into the space between the walls of the coop! Had I not been able to pull them gently out by those feet, I'm not sure what I would have done. After the hens came out and were examined to be none the worse for the wear, I closed the outer door to prevent another “hen-jam”. Memo to self: To prevent hen-jams, always close the outer door.
It is another gorgeous spring day out there but we must turn over some Torah before we move on to the daily routine. At the beginning of this book, The Almighty said to number the tribes, but don’t number one particular tribe, and they were obedient to do so. Now has come the time to number the one remaining tribe left and it would not be for military service, but for the service of the tabernacle, God's house. The manner of numbering was different also. For the eleven tribes, it was a counting of each male twenty years and up. For the Levites, it would be a count of every male from one month old and up that would be important. The New American Standard Bible has put little headlines in its text. The one they insert here indicates “The duties of the priests”. Years ago, I made an executive decision to drop these headlines from the NASB text. I believed it would help to delineate the “priests” from the Levites. The priests would have been the sons of Aaron while all the rest of the support staff, were Levites. This is why many times we see the phrase, “priests and Levites”. When we take the little insert by the New American translation, then we end up combining the sons of Aaron with all their cousins and collectively calling them all priests. Doing this muddies the waters. Then we lose clear sight of the differences between the sons of Aaron and the rest. Is this not what Korah did later on in their history? He decided that because the sons of Aaron were Levites and they were all Levites, he and his crew should be elevated to priests. By and by we’ll come to that and we’ll see that this was a most dangerous line of thinking for Kohath.
Because I’ve made this statement above, I mean to make a clear further delineation regarding the Levites. The Levites apart from the sons of Aaron, were thought by the commentators to be the only ones who didn’t take part in the idolatry of the golden calf. They took up arms by command of God and killed three thousand of their fellow tribesmen who were “running wild” in that incident recorded in Exodus 32:28. The Levites were given the honor of holy things because they had honored the holy things! We can summarize the lesson for today.
- The numbering in the opening chapters of Bamidbar was to pinpoint eligible men for military service.
- The census also was for the purposes of ascertaining the families and clans of the tribes—the purpose of this can be seen in this “genealogy” laid out for us today and who knows what it may mean to us in the future.
- The separate manner of census between the Levites and the other eleven tribes also had the purpose of proving the faithfulness of the God of their fathers. They had, in their earliest beginnings, been saved from extinction from famine and been called to Egypt where their ranks swelled from seventy souls to over six hundred and three thousand military force.
32 These are those which were numbered of the children of Israel by the house of their fathers: all those that were numbered of the camps throughout their hosts were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty. Numbers 2:32
- The Levites were separated and rewarded for their past behavior and esteem of the “holy things of God”.
And this is another meditation to take with us today. It was originally penned by Matthew Henry:
“Let the believer be prepared to withstand the enemies of his soul—though all may appear to be peace.”
While we go through these books each year we have time to stop and truly appreciate all these details that God had worked out. They all had a purpose and it was SO orderly! Each of the clans within the Levites who weren't priests had their distinctive tasks, with their distinctive place surrounding the house of Yahweh.
23 The families of the Gershonites shall pitch behind the tabernacle westward. Numbers 3:23.
29 The families of the sons of Kohath shall pitch on the side of the tabernacle southward. Numbers 3:29.
35 And the chief of the house of the father of the families of Merari was Zuriel the son of Abihail: these shall pitch on the side of the tabernacle northward. Numbers 3:35.
If our God is anything, He is orderly and complex with none of the aberrations of His creation, mankind. Again I hear myself despairing, deep inside, “Why did you have to go away from the promises of God Israel? Why didn’t you stay faithful when He gave you such order and such goodness?” And yet they turned away. The world reaps the fallout to this very day. The closing verses of our associate reading, Hosea chapter two, offer hope. There is a time of harsh discipline but there will be a time when God’s people and He will be reconciled. We don’t see it yet, because it does appear that prophecy has to play out first. It does appear that things may get much worse before they get much better. I stopped quoting the headlines in our daily missives because they take up too much space when we should be looking at Torah.
John Ray Cash sang a song some time ago that Chester Lester wrote as he pondered the times. “Some people say that peace is on the way, but the worst is still to come.” The chorus to that song is this: “’Cause the prophets wrote about it, and Jesus spoke about it, and John got to take a look. And he told us what he saw and it’s easy to see: It’s goin’ by the Book.”2 What a marvelous inspiration and witness to the Johnny Cash music-loving segment of classic country devotees. We know exactly which “BOOK” this whole thing is ‘going by'! Hosea gives hope.
16 "On that day," says ADONAI "you will call me Ishi [My Husband]; you will no longer call me Ba'ali [My Master]. 17 For I will remove the names of the ba'alim from her mouth; they will never again be mentioned by name. 18 When that day comes, I will make a covenant for them with the wild animals, the birds in the air and the creeping things of the earth. I will break bow and sword, sweep battle from the land, and make them lie down securely. 19 I will betroth you to me forever; yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, in justice, in grace and in compassion; 20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you will know ADONAI. 21 When that day comes, I will answer," says ADONAI "I will answer the sky, and it will answer the earth; 22 the earth will answer the corn, wine and oil, and they will answer Yizre'el [God will sow]. 23 I will sow her for me in the land. I will have pity on Lo-Ruchamah [Unpitied]; I will say to Lo-'Ammi [Not-My-People], 'You are my people'; and they will say, 'You are my God.'" Hosea 2:16-23 (CJB)3
The Torah readings this week and the reading from Hosea are a stark contrast. We look at it and we can learn to make the right choices and pray for those who are still quite unaware that there is indeed, an important choice to be made.
15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. Joshua 24:15.
1 NASB www.lockman.org for daily reading and KJV in commentary unless otherwise specified
*The Torah and Haftara chapter/verse numbering taken from the Hebrew Bible (Christian-published chapter/verse numbering indicated within parenthesis)
2 (149) Johnny Cash - Goin' By The Book (Official Music Video) - YouTube
3 Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc.
*The Torah and Haftara chapter/verse numbering taken from the Hebrew Bible (Christian-published chapter/verse numbering indicated within parenthesis)
2 (149) Johnny Cash - Goin' By The Book (Official Music Video) - YouTube
3 Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc.
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