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Numbers 25-27
Phinehas
and Joshua
Psalm 25:1-13 Guided from Goofing up to God's Goodness
1.“To you, Yahweh, do I lift up my soul.2.My God, I have trusted in you. Don't let me be shamed. Don't let my enemies triumph over me.3.Yes, no one who waits for you shall be shamed. They shall be shamed who deal treacherously without cause.4.Show me your ways, Yahweh. Teach me your paths.5.Guide me in your truth, and teach me, For you are the God of my salvation, I wait for you all day long.6.Yahweh, remember your tender mercies and your loving kindness, for they are from old times.7.Don't remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions. Remember me according to your hesed/loyal love, for your goodness' sake, Yahweh.8.Good and upright is Yahweh, therefore he will instruct sinners in the way.9.He will guide the humble in justice. He will teach the humble his way.10.All the paths of Yahweh are hesed/loyal love and truth to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.11.For your name's sake, Yahweh, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.12.What man is he who fears Yahweh? He shall instruct him in the way that he shall choose.13.His soul shall dwell at ease. His seed shall inherit the land.Observations
25:1-2.David is praying because he's sinned and suffering shameful consequences (25:18)
25:4-8.
The smart sinner asks God to guide them so they don't make the same stupid mistakes.
25:8-13.
David appeals to God's character and hesed for pardon and promised blessing, noting that humble fear of God opens the door to goodness regardless of great sin.
Application
When you're off the path and in the swamp, humbly seek and accept God's solutions to stay on the path: forgiveness and truth.
Prayer
Good and Gracious God, I praise You for being a God who pardons. Forgive me for straying and guide me in Your Truth. Amen.
Proverbs 7:1-5 What's on Your Heart and in Your Eye?
1.“My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments within you.2.Keep my commandments and live! Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye.3.Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart.4.Tell wisdom, "You are my sister." Call understanding your relative,5.that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words.”Observation
7:1-5.In the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:33) God writes His law on one's heart. Here we have the responsibility to do the writing. Note the benefit of embracing the right objectives and the right means of attaining them (Wisdom), a value transformation that vaccinates you against unfaithfulness to God.
Application
How do you write God's word on your heart? How have your values changed as a result? Hint: Psalm 119:9-11
Prayer
Holy God, Your desire is for me to be holy as You are Holy, show me how to incorporate Your Word in every aspect of my life. Amen.
Numbers 25-27 Phinehas and Joshua
Numbers 25 Phinehas Stops the Plague
1.Israel abode in Shittim; and the people began to indulge in sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab:2.who invited them to the sacrifices of their gods; and the people ate, and bowed down to their gods.3.Israel joined himself to Baal-peor: and the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel.4.Yahweh said to Moses, "Take all the chiefs of the people, and kill and expose them to Yahweh before the sun, that the fierce anger of Yahweh may turn away from Israel."5.Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Kill everyone who joined themselves to Baal-peor."6.One of the children of Israel came and brought to his brothers a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the tent of meeting.7.When Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the midst of the congregation, and took a spear in his hand;8.and he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stopped.9.Those who died by the plague were 24,000.10.Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,11."Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned My wrath away from the children of Israel, in that he was zealous for My honor among them, so that I didn`t consume the children of Israel in My jealousy.12.Therefore say, "Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace:13.and it shall be to him, and to his seed after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.""14.Now the name of the man of Israel that was slain was Zimri, the son Salu, a prince among the Simeonites.15.The name of the Midianite woman was Cozbi, the daughter of a leader in Midian.16.Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,17."Afflict the Midianites, and strike them;18.for they afflicted you with their deceit, with which they have deceived you in the matter of Peor,"Observations
25:1.Shittim is sometimes translated as Acacias Grove, the place where Israel was told to get the wood for the Ark of the Covenant and Tabernacle. Groves of trees were favorite spots for pagan worship because of the fertility implications.
The Moabites were descended from the eldest son of Lot. The Midianites (descended from the fourth son of Abraham thru Keturah) had joined with the Amorites to hire Balaam to curse Israel. Unable to go against God's command to bless Israel, Balaam counseled spiritual seduction of Israel through sexual worship of Baal.
Num 31:16 Behold, these (women) caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against Yahweh in the matter of Peor, and so the plague was among the congregation of Yahweh.
Revelations 2:14 But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to throw a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.
25:3.
Baal is a Semitic/Mesopotamian word for lord or master. It can refer to humans, but when applied to deities it usually refers to a localized/territorial demon, worshiped by the pagans. Peor means cleft or gap and was the mountain from which Balaam tried to curse Israel. Baal-peor was worshiped in abominable orgiastic rituals that the Scriptures hint at (Ps 106:28; Hosea 9:10) and secular and rabbinic sources detail. See Leviticus 1-7 post under Digging Deeper for more on pagan vs. Yahweh worship. God raised up the Israelites to judge idolaters (Gen 15).
25:12.
Phinehas gets peace (“life is good”) as a covenantal blessing for his service to God and Israel.
25:14.
Eleazar probably learned something from the failure of the Genesis generation to train his kids, and produced Phinehas. Salu, following in the steps of his ancestor Simeon, didn't teach Zimri self-control, and that led to Zimri's destruction.
25:17.
Now God orders the payback on Midian, which gets carried out in Numbers 31, with Phinehas leading the charge.
Application
Immorality and unfaithfulness lead to punishment; zeal for God's reputation and hatred of sin leads to permanent peace.
Prayer
Lord, You are the True God, above all others, may I be zealous for Your reputation, regardless of the consequences. Amen.
Chapter 26 Surviors, the Wilderness
1.It happened after the plague, that Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, saying,2."Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel, from twenty years old and upward, by their fathers` houses, all who are able to go forth to war in Israel."9.Dathan and Abiram, who strove against Moses and against Aaron in the company of Korah, when they strove against Yahweh,10.and the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up together with Korah, when that company died; what time the fire devoured two hundred fifty men, and they became a sign.51.These are those who were numbered of the children of Israel, six hundred one thousand seven hundred thirty.52.Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,53."To these the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names.54.To the more you shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer you shall give the less inheritance: to everyone according to those who were numbered of him shall his inheritance be given.56.According to the lot shall their inheritance be divided between the more and the fewer."57.These are those who were numbered of the Levites...61.Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before Yahweh.62.Those who were numbered of them were twenty-three thousand, every male from a month old and upward: for they were not numbered among the children of Israel, because there was no inheritance given them among the children of Israel.64.But among these there was not a man of them who were numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai.65.For Yahweh had said of them, "They shall surely die in the wilderness." There was not left a man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.Observations
26:1-65.The second census (for the purpose of dividing the land inheritances) gives reminders of a couple of noteworthy rebellions against Yahweh's word, and ends with the fulfillment of God's promise to have the generation die in the desert, with the exceptions of Caleb and Joshua.
26:51.
Simeon was the biggest loser: down 37,100; Manassah, who was the smallest in the last census, the biggest gainer, up 20,900; Judah still the largest, gaining only 1,900. Levites gained an even 1,000. Overall the nation lost 1,820 from the last census.
Application
The herd is usually headed to slaughter, so it's worth departing from it to follow God.
Prayer
God Who Keeps His Promises, may I always trust and obey You, even if no one else does. Amen.
Chapter 27 Getting and Losing Inheritance
1.The daughters of Zelophehad: Mahlah, Noah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Tirzah.2.stood before Moses, and before Eleazar the priest, and before the princes and all the congregation, at the door of the tent of meeting, saying,3."Our father died in the wilderness, and he was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against Yahweh in the company of Korah: but he died in his own sin; and he had no sons.4.Why should the name of our father be taken away from among his family, because he had no son? Give to us a possession among the brothers of our father."5.Moses brought their cause before Yahweh.6.Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,7."The daughters of Zelophehad speak right: you shall surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father`s brothers; and you shall cause the inheritance of their father to pass to them.8.You shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, If a man die, and have no son, then you shall cause his inheritance to pass to his daughter.9.If he have no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers.10.If he have no brothers...kinsman..."12.Yahweh said to Moses, "Get up to the mountain of Abarim, and see the land which I have given to the children of Israel.13.When you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother was gathered;14.because you rebelled against My word in the wilderness of Zin, in the strife of the congregation, to sanctify Me at the waters before their eyes."16."Let Yahweh, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation,17.who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in; that the congregation of Yahweh not be as sheep which have no shepherd."18.Yahweh said to Moses, "Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him;19.and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation; and give him a charge in their sight.20.You shall put of your honor on him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may obey.21.He shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before Yahweh: at his word shall they go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he, and all the children of Israel with him, even all the congregation."22.Moses did as Yahweh commanded him; and he took Joshua, and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation:23.and he laid his hands on him, and gave him a charge, as Yahweh spoke by Moses.Observations
27:5.Moses' immediate response is to seek God's instructions; and God establishes female inheritance rights.
27:14.
Moses loses the right to enter the Promised Land because he struck, rather than spoke to the rock. However he does get to see it. Note that God continued to use him to lead His people, even though he lost out on some of His future blessing.
27:18.
Joshua is chosen by God to shepherd His people. Note that the Spirit was already upon Joshua, and he was subject to Eleazar's inquiry using the Urmin in the high priest's breastplate.
Application
Sin, even though forgiven, has negative aftereffects. No exceptions.
Prayer
Holy God, may I always take You at Your word, and obey Your word, without doubting. Amen.
Digging Deeper
God in a nutshell: God clearly doesn't like rivals, and will destroy the unfaithful, immediately, or over time. He desires Spirit-controlled leaders, holds them to the highest standard, and gives them the consequence of their sin. He rewards those who have on their heart what's on His heart, His reputation/glory, and the welfare of His people. God cares about the rights, inheritance, and shepherding of all His people.Us in a nutshell: We are easily seduced away from God when we have the wrong values and character (no self-control). When we chose to do what the pagans do, we reap loss and regret; when we chose to be loyal to Him we reap great reward.