Monday, October 23, 2017

READ IT! - Introduction to Numbers 8-14

Readings for this week

Monday: Numbers 8
Tuesday: Numbers 9
Wednesday: Numbers 10
Thursday: Numbers 11
Friday: Numbers 12
Saturday: Numbers 13
Sunday: Numbers 14


Introduction to Numbers 8-14

Chapters 8-9

God tells Moses to present the Levites as a wave offering to the LORD and make atonement for them because he has set them apart to serve at the tent of meeting. And the text says that in the first month of the second year the Israelites kept the Passover, and that whenever the cloud lifted from the tabernacle they journeyed.

Chapter 10

Two years, two months, and twenty days after leaving Egypt, the Israelites left Sinai. The cloud of smoke lifted up from the Tabernacle and went ahead of the Israelites and they followed it. Moses tried to convince his father-in-law to go with them. Israel set out from Sinai and the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them as they followed the cloud of smoke. They traveled for three days before the cloud stopped.

Chapter 11

Israel complained about their “hardships” within “earshot” of God. Fire from the LORD began to consume the outskirts of the camp. The people cried out to Moses. Moses prayed and the fire died down. The people named that place “Taberah,” which means “burning.”

Later, the people complained about God’s manna and wanted the food they claimed they had back in Egypt. Here, the text refers to these people as “rabble.” God got angry and Moses got worried. Moses complained to God about the people, saying, “Did I give them birth?” Moses asked God to give the people meat. God said he would give them so much meat that it would come out their nostrils and they would “loath” it. Moses questioned God’s ability to provide meat. God said, “Is the arm of the LORD to short?”

Halfway through this story, two guys start prophesying and Joshua tries to stop them, but Moses tells Joshua not to be jealous.

Later, God sent a wind to drive in flocks of quail from the sea, and the people began to gorge themselves on the quail. God became angry with them and sent a plague upon them and some people died from it. They named the place “Kibroth Hattaavah,” which means “graves of craving.”

Chapter 12

Aaron and Miriam bad-mouthed Moses because he had married a “Cushite” woman. They also pointed out that God had spoken through them as well, and not just Moses, and the text says “the LORD heard” them. Here, the text also says that “Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.” God told Moses to go get his brother and sister and He appeared to them in the cloud and vindicated Moses. God made a distinction between Moses and other prophets saying that He spoke to other prophets through dreams and visions, but that He spoke with Moses face to face. When the cloud lifted, Miriam had leprosy. Aaron begged Moses for forgiveness, and Moses begged God to heal Miriam. God told them that she would be “unclean” and have to stay outside the camp for seven days before she could come back.

Chapter 13

Israel traveled to the desert of Paran and Moses sent out twelve spies from each of the twelve tribes to go explore the land of Canaan. Among the spies were two men named Caleb and Joshua. Here, Joshua is also listed as “Hoshea.” The text says that Moses had given the name “Joshua” to Hoshea. Caleb was from the tribe of Judah, and Joshua was from the tribe of Ephraim.

Moses sent them on a mission to go see whether or not the land they were entering was good. The spies explored the land and spied on its people for forty days. At the end of their mission, they took a cluster of grapes back with them that was so big that two men had to carry it on a pole. 
The spies reported on all they had seen and how good the land was. Caleb said they should go up and enter the land. The other spies disagreed and told the people that the land was filled with giants and that they would all be killed if they tried to go there. They compared themselves to grasshoppers. They even said the “Nephilim” from Genesis 6 lived in the land.

Chapter 14

The people cried out that they would be better off dead in the desert than entering Canaan. They wanted to replace Moses with a new leader. Joshua and Caleb pleaded with them not to rebel in fear, but the people wanted to stone them. “The Glory of the LORD” suddenly appeared and God again told Moses He would kill all the people in His anger and make Moses into a great nation instead. God says, “How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them?”


Moses again interceded for the people to turn away God’s wrath, saying, “What will the Egyptians say when they hear?” God decided not to kill the people, but said that none of the people of that generation who had rebelled against Him “these ten times” would ever enter the Promised Land, except for Joshua and Caleb.

God sentenced the Israelites to wander in the desert for forty years until every last person who had seen His miracles in Egypt had died. The people wept when they heard this and they decided to go up into the land anyway. Moses warned them not to do so because God would not go with them. The people went up anyway without Moses and they were defeated by the Canaanites and Amalekites.







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