God instructs Moses that the tribe of Levi (the Levites) are not to be numbered among the army. Furthermore, God states that instead of the firstborn of every Israeli family being specially consecrated to God, God will exchange the firstborns for the entire tribe of Levites. What He chooses to do with the Levites is to give them in service to Aaron and the priesthood, and to guard/watch over the tabernacle, lest any harm befall it. This is alot of security over the tabernacle. There are 22 thousand males among the Levites. God also commands, with specific instructions to each clan within the tribe, that the Levites will be responsible for unassembling, carrying, and reassembling the tabernacle each time Israel picks up and moves, all throughout their journey. (I was wondering how they were going to move it!!)
The chiefs of the tribes of Israel bring their first offerings to the tabernacle. My heads spins in awe and partially in disgust when I try to visualize all the many goats, bulls, rams and oxen which are being killed, hacked apart into pieces, etc. Have you ever seen those scenes from the Sopranos - you know, the ones where they are in the bathroom of that meat market taking care of the....evidence? Anyhow, God has special instructions for the blood, like...Dip your finger in the blood and touch the person's thumb on their right hand, the earlobe of their right ear, and their big toe on their right foot, and sprinkle the blood from your finger seven times in front of the alter, etc, etc.... (I'm not being funny about the big toe - that is actually one of the commands...) But when you think about, like, 100 animals all in queue, being brought to slaughter, I would imagine the whole room to be like a big pool of blood. I know this is gory, but....sheesh.... Makes me feel a little badly for Moses. I mean, granted, he is receiving direct counsel from God, FACE TO FACE, in the tabernacle, which is pretty awesome, but..... Honestly, I would grow weary of the endless slaughter in the tabernacle. Being around that much blood, guts and gore can effect a person.....
God orders Moses for Israel to make silver trumpets, in order to make sounds of alarm, and sounds for certain orders. So they do this.
Israel finally leaves Sinai, and now some trouble begins. First of all, Israel is sick and tired of mana. They've done all they can with mana. They eat it plain, they grind it into a paste. They make cakes out of it. Some of the people are just plain fed up with God's miracle of mana. They specifically are craving meat. They get rather upset with Moses over the whole thing, and Moses calls out to God. God's response is a little like, "Be careful what you wish for....." when He says, "Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat. You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, "Why did we come out of Egypt?" Shortly afterward, God sends an enormous amount of quail their way. The person who gathered the least amount, it says, gathered 6 bushels. Before it was even consumed, God's anger was kindled and He sent Israel a plague for dessert.
God tells Moses to send spies into Canaan (the promised land) to scope things out. Off they go for forty days. I really like this story because this is the part of the Bible from which my son's name comes. I knew that my son Caleb's name means "faithful", but I didn't fully understand the role that Caleb had in the Bible. Caleb was one of the spies who went into Canaan. When the spies returned, they all gave a terrible report because of the people there who frightened them. Caleb, however, is assured that since God promised to help them, they will easily overcome their adversaries. Caleb and Joshua were the only two spies who gave good report of Canaan.
Israel rebels. The feel it's too risky to trust the Lord to safeguard them, and think only of the danger, and decide amongst themselves to choose a new leader and head back to Egypt.
God and Moses have some harsh discussion. God threatens to strike Israel with pestilence and disinherit them. Moses persuades God not to do so. God relents, but promises judgement when He vows that no man who saw the signs & wonders which He did for Israel will live to see the promised land, with the exception of Caleb & Joshua. "The little ones", however, meaning the children, God will bring in to the promised land. But not the adults. He sends Israel into the wilderness for forty years. All the spies who gave bad report die of a plague.
Some small amount of Israel decides they want to backtrack and pretend like it didn't happen. So they press on into Canaan, ready for battle. Moses warns them that they do not presently have God's protection. They don't listen. They are squashed by the Canaanites.
--A man gathers sticks on the Sabbath. God orders him executed. Israel stones him.
--God orders all Jews to wear tassels with a blue cord on their clothing to remind them to obey God's commands
--A group of 250 challenge Moses's authority. God literally orders everybody to "stand back" so that He can "consume" the group of people. He opens the ground and it swallows them up.
To prove Aaron's authority, God commands that the chief of every tribe put a staff in the tabernacle, and that the tribe of Levi put Aaron's staff in the tabernacle. Then God makes Aaron's staff bud & bloom with leaves and almond blossoms.
The Red Heifer is finally introduced to the tabernacle scene. More laws about not touching dead bodies.....
Israel comes to a place where there is no water. God orders Moses to strike a rock with his staff, and he does. Water flows out. Something, however, went terribly wrong, because God becomes rather angry with Moses & Aaron afterward. The text has Moses & Aaron saying this to Israel: "Hear now, you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock?" I am not sure whether they said it flippantly, or just irreverently or what, but God responds to them with this: "Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them." Ouch! After all that, one false move......
Aaron dies.
Israel starts grumbling again, and God sends firey snakes on them. Moses intercedes with prayer, and God commands him to make a bronze serpent, and that whoever looks upon it will not die from their snake bites.
Israel starts fighting some battles which they win. The King of Moab, named Balak, gets nervous about this Israel. He calls on a man named Balaam, who is skilled in divination. He asks Balaam to curse Israel, but God had already visited Balaam and warned him not to curse Israel, and so Balaam refuses. He begs and pleads, offering him money, still Balaam refuses. Balaam's donkey gets spooked by an angel in the road, which Balaam cannot see. Irritated with his disobediant donkey, Balaam smacks him around a bit. God loosens the donkey's mouth and it speaks to Balaam, basically asking Balaam, "Aren't I your donkey that you've had all these years? Do you remember me acting like this before? Do ya think there might be a reason, pal?" Balak tries valiently once more for Balaam's curse on Israel, and once again, Balaam refuses. Instead, Balaam recites three intricate oracles blessing Israel up and down and left and right. Then, rather abruptly, it states that Balaam rose and went back to his place, and Balak also went his way. (tee hee hee...)
--Israel starts worshipping the god Baal. God doesn't like this. He strikes down 24 thousand of them with another plague.
--Another census is taken
--Joshua is commissioned to replace Moses
--Lots of instructions on tabernacle offerings
Israel defeats the Midianites, killing all of them but the virgin girls, who Moses tells Israel to keep for themselves. (Moses was a great guy, but......obviously he was still a guy.) The tribes of Reuben and Gad, who have alot of livestock, kinda drop out of the game. They agree to still go to war for Israel, but they don't want to proceed to Canaan. They want to stay in a place called Gilead, which is set up well for livestock. Moses permits it.
God gives specific instructions through Moses of the promised lands boundaries, and how to divvy out property lots to the Israelites. He ordains rules for what will be "cities of refuge", or places where suspected murderers flee to, before trial, to be apart from the rest of society. The book of Numbers ends with God's attention on the matter of female heirs (when a father has no son but has a daughter), commanding that women should not marry outside of their tribe, in order to keep inheritances from crossing over tribes. Israel is by the Jordan at Jericho..... Exciting stuff is coming soon...
Here's a toon of Balaam and his donkey :-)
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