Numbers 27 - Joshua's Rise

"Moses did as the Lord had commanded. And when he had taken Josue, he set him before Eleazar the priest, and all the assembly of the people,
And laying his hands on his head, he repeated all things that the Lord had commanded." (Numbers 27:22-23)

"These they set before the apostles: and they, praying, imposed hands upon them." (Acts of the Apostles 6:6)

"Neglect not the grace which is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the imposition of the hands of the priesthood." (1 Timothy 4:14)

In this chapter we see the transference of leadership from Moses to Joshua (spelled Josue in the Douay-Rheims). I bring up the other verses above because they show the significance of external ceremonies, e.g., the laying on of hands. It wasn't enough for Moses just to tell Joshua he was now in charge; as instructed by God, Moses had to physically lay his hands upon him as well as bring in the witness Eleazar. So it is still when priests are ordained (as well as with other ceremonies). The laying on of hands is a necessary and significant part of the ordination process.

With Joshua's accession we come to a critical point in the history of the Israelites. Moses has reached his end. God has told him that he will not enter the Promised Land, which must have come as quite a devastating shock. But did Moses throw a tantrum or rebel against God because of this? Of course not! He meekly accepted his fate and immediately turned his attention to making sure his people were left with a worthy leader. I think it is also significant that Moses chose Joshua who is not a direct relation to him. Moses made his choice based on merit, not heredity. I think we can take this as a model. Hereditary succession (though perhaps permissible at times) is not the ideal way to choose a leader. Much like the pope is chosen by careful deliberation using a criteria of character and holiness, Moses demonstrates to us that the responsible thing to do is pass on authority to the one most wise and worthy. And so the Israelites are handed over to Joshua just before making their grand entrance into the Promised Land.

Numbers 26 - A Martial Census

East of the Jordan, with a war looming, the Israelites number themselves, again. Before making their fateful entrance into the Promised Land, it seems they need to take stock of who they've got. This is the second time in the Book of Numbers that we have seen a detailed census take place (hence the name of the book). It strikes me as significant that these numbers seem so precise, so labored over. Names, tribes, families are all taken into account. This very well could be simply to see what their fighting forces would look like. How many men would be bearing arms as they cross the Jordan to claim what is theirs? But what it does essentially is add to the historicity of these books. We don't see these types of things occur in ancient myths and legends from other cultures. The tribe of Zabulon had 60,500 fighting men. This seems like a plain and simple historical record, much like a parishioner count from a medieval church.

As would be expected, the number of Israelites had dwindled some since their last census 38 years earlier when they first started their sojourn through the desert. Many men had died, either by natural causes or by the several punishments that the Israelites brought upon themselves by means of their incessant disobedience. Yet, some particular tribes enjoyed an increase in population. At the risk of getting too "statistical," I thought I'd list the increases and decreases that each tribe underwent during their wanderings in the desert:

The tribe of Ruben originally numbered 46,600. They lost 2,870 men so they now number 43,730.
The tribe of Simeon originally numbered 59,300. They now number 22,200, which means they lost 37,100! This tribe lost more men than any other. Is there a significance there?
The tribe of Gad originally numbered 45,650. They lost 5,100 men so they now number 40,550.
The tribe of Juda originally numbered 74,600. They gained 1,900 people, so that they now number 76,500. A prosperous tribe, and the one Jesus would be born into.
The tribe of Issachar originally numbered 54,400. They also gained men. They gained 9,900 to now number at 64,300.
The tribe of Zabulon originally numbered 57,400. They gained 3,100 to now number at 60,500.
The tribe of Manasses originally numbered 32,200, a small tribe. But they gained 20,500 men! Which gives them an immense increase to reach 52,700 men!
The tribe of Ephraim originally numbered 40,500. And they lost 8,000 men, leaving them with 32,500.
The tribe of Benjamin originally numbered 35,400. They added 10,200 men to reach 45,600.
The tribe of Dan originally numbered 62,700. They added 1,700 men to reach 64,400.
The tribe of Aser originally numbered 41,500. They enjoyed an increase of 11,900 to reach 53,400.
The tribe of Nephtali originally numbered 53,400. They, however, lost 8,000 men so that they now numbered 45,400.

These were impressive numbers, especially for a wandering people. One can see why the local kings were so unnerved by the arrival of this massive body of people to their lands, and why Balac wanted them cursed. And yet, amazingly, virtually all of these people would be barred from entering the Promised Land. Their infidelity to the One True God would catch up to them, and in the end their imperfections kept them out of a promised place. Not even Moses could bring the people into the Holy Land. That job was reserved for one who stood for Christ, Joshua. And we come to that next.

Numbers 25 - Zeal

This chapter packed a punch. Amazingly, the Israelites have again fallen into idolatry and its accompanying vices, i.e., fornication. It seems that there is no end to the failings of God's people. Yet, as I thought of these things, I instantly caught myself pointing a finger, when the finger should really be pointed at me. The Israelites, I must remember, represent all of us; and their journey through the desert is a figure for our journey through life; and their failings in the desert is a figure for our failings in life; and all the second-chances they are given by God is a figure for the forgiveness we are given when we fail. It shouldn't seem so crazy that the Israelites fell back into idolatry so many times when we count up the number of times we have sinned against God. It's frustrating, though, to read about a people so near to their promised land, and yet they still can't stay true to God. But, of course, we are all so near to the promises God has made to us through His Son Jesus Christ, and yet we still find a way to fall short. It doesn't matter that the Israelites are at the border of Canaan, or that we are near the gates of Heaven -- we are weak creatures, and it is only God's mercy that allows us the possibility of eternal life.

The central event of this chapter, though, is the actions of the priest Phinees. The Israelites have fallen into a depraved state of idolatry and fornication (as they intermix with the Moabites and Madianites), and Moses and the judges and priests are of course worried and agitated by this crisis. What Phinees does is quite shocking, but we must remember to keep his action not only in context but in view of God's divine plan for His future Church. For what Phinees does he does out of a zealous love for God. His act of killing two fornicating sinners is done at an acute moment in the history of the Israelites. The people as a whole are abandoning the Law that Moses instituted; they are sinning in the face of God; they are dismissing God, forgetting Him, blaspheming Him. Zambri (the man Phinees kills) is even so upfront about his evilness that he openly enters a woman's tent with obvious intentions in sight of Moses and the priests praying at the Tabernacle! The affront here shown to God is shocking and drastic. Phinees can hardly believe his eyes and is so overwhelmed with a zeal for defending God that he is driven to administer a fatal punishment right then and there. Phinees's action is not exactly to be copied by us, but his zeal is. This was a time when capital punishment was practiced widely in all societies, and for reasons that we are of no authority or expertise to question, God allowed it for those people at that time. The account of Phinees is no doubt though meant to show us the mindset of a true soldier of the Lord. We are to react in defense of our God when He is attacked. But as we have been instructed by Jesus, we are to do this mildly. We must admonish the sinner with love. We must mix Phinees's zeal with a true charity when we are defending our Lord. And so God has allowed us the opportunity to learn from Phinees's harsh actions.

Numbers 24 - "A Star Shall Rise"

Numbers 24 continues the prophecies of Balaam. And what prophecies they are! Reading the words in this chapter really gives a sense of a person enraptured by God. Balaam's prophecies are both grandiose and poetic. To give an example: "How beautiful are thy tabernacles, O Jacob, and thy tents, O Israel! As woody valleys, as watered gardens near the rivers, as tabernacles which the Lord hath pitched, as cedars by the water side" (Numbers 24:5-6). I was stunned by the beauty of this language. This is spoken by a man who is not even associated with the Hebrews. Balaam is a pagan mystic, basically, and yet God is using him as an outside figure looking upon His children and foretelling their fate. I had no idea, though, the gravity of his prophecies that would come later in the chapter. After Balac tries to silence Balaam, the Mesopotamian prophet can't help but continue to speak God's words. And in verse 17 he drops a bomb: "I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not near. A star shall rise out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall spring up from Israel." I immediately assumed this verse was about the Messiah, Jesus Christ. A quick glance at my commentary solidified my assumption. Balaam is indeed seeing a vision of the future Christ. However, his vision as a whole also deals with the coming of the king David, who will smite the Moabites. But there are clear-cut signs pointing to Jesus as the eventual king who will subdue all nations, not just the Moabites. Balaam even prophecies the eventual destruction of the Jews, and many of the other nations of area, when he says, "They shall come in galleys from Italy, they shall overcome the Assyrians, and shall waste the Hebrews, and at the last they themselves also shall perish" (Numbers 24:24). In short, no nation will survive. In the end, Christ the King will overcome all the peoples of the earth. Wow, what a prophecy! It is even theorized that when Balaam says that he "shall behold him, but not near" that he is referring to the Christ Child as seen through the eyes of the Magi; literally that Balaam sees Jesus in the manger through the eyes of men who came from the east, just as he did. Balaam's vision in this chapter is obviously quite grand, and it would take books to deconstruct it and try to understand every word. In basic terms we have a scene here wherein a worldly, pagan king, Balac, wants a particular people destroyed, only to find out through a prophet that said people are highly special, and that they will not be defeated, and that a king shall rise out of their midst who will destroy Balac's people, and eventually an even greater king will arise, the Son of God Himself, out of Isreal, who all nations will bow to, unto the end of the world. Spectacular.

Numbers 23 - The Obstinacy of Balac

Numbers 23 is a very structured chapter of the Bible. It consists in three instances of Balac prompting Balaam to curse the people of Israel. Each time Balaam is given a divine instruction to not curse Israel, but to bless them instead. This of course frustrates Balac, who is bent on ridding his land of Moab of these newcomers, the Israelites. Balac's behavior is very illustrative of human stubbornness. He will not listen to the proclamations uttered by God (through Balaam) and continues to obstinately try to get Israel cursed. He wants to hear only what he wants to hear. If Balaam had returned to issue a curse instead of a blessing, Balac would have been overjoyed. How often is it the case with us, that we will only listen to God when He is telling us things we want to hear. And when He has things to say that we don't necessarily want to hear, we often ignore Him, or modify His message so that it is more in line to what we wanted in the first place. Such a thing is not how we are to abandon our will and adopt God's. Your will, God, but not mine.

One other interesting thing about this chapter is its reference to a strange creature whose identity translators to this day are not sure of. In Numbers 23:22, Balaam prophecies that, "God hath brought [Israel] out of Egypt, whose strength is like to the rhinoceros." The Hebrew word for what is translated as "rhinoceros" is ream. Apparently some translators think ream is the unicorn, while there is a theory that it is actually the Arabian oryx. It apparently signifies a beast with a horn, though I think of those possible creatures, the rhinoceros fits best, as it is notably the largest and strongest of these real and fictitious animals. It's fascinating to wonder what creature Moses had in mind when he originally wrote this verse. One has to think of the animals that were known in that region at that time. And if ream does signify the unicorn, perhaps that legendary creature's myth goes back farther than we thought.