Category Archives: Numbers

Fear – Numbers, Part 5

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The Hebrew word yârê does not occur in the story of the waters of Meribah (either time).  Still, it seemed important to me to study the story I alluded to earlier.  I want to compare and contrast the two stories.  The first in Exodus involves Moses and the parents who left Egypt while the second in Numbers involves Moses with their children, some of whom were not yet born at the time of the first incident forty years earlier.

Exodus

Numbers
The whole community of the Israelites traveled on their journey from the Desert of Sin according to the Lord’s instruction, and they pitched camp in Rephidim.

Exodus 17:1a (NET)

 Then the entire community of Israel entered the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh.

Numbers 20:1a (NET)
Miriam died and was buried there.

Numbers 20:1b (NET)
Now there was no water for the people to drink.  So the people contended with Moses, and they said…

Exodus 17:1b, 2a (NET)

 And there was no water for the community, and so they gathered themselves together against Moses and Aaron.  The people contended with Moses, saying…

Numbers 20:2, 3a (NET)

So far the stories are quite similar, except that Moses’ sister Miriam died in the later story.

Exodus

Numbers
“Give us water to drink!”  Moses said to them, “Why do you contend with me?  Why do you test the Lord?”

Exodus 17:2b (NET)
But the people were very thirsty there for water, and they murmured against Moses and said, “Why in the world did you bring us up out of Egypt – to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?”

Exodus 17:3 (NET)

 “If only we had died when our brothers died before the Lord!  Why have you brought up the Lord’s community into this wilderness?  So that we and our cattle should die here?  Why have you brought us up from Egypt only to bring us to this dreadful place?  It is no place for grain, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates; nor is there any water to drink!”

Numbers 20:3b-5 (NET)

In the later story Moses had learned apparently not to argue with a mob.  I think it’s also worth noting that the parents in the former story murmured against Moses.  They had some respect for him, maybe even some fear of the Lord, though I can see it is clearly arguable whether that fear entailed any reverence: How long must I bear with this evil congregation, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, that murmurs against me?  I have heard the complaints of the Israelites that they murmured against me.[1]

The children, however, grew up hearing their parents’ complaints more openly.  To them these complaints were simply facts.  They saw no reason to murmur facts.  They declared them openly: If only we had died when our brothers died before the Lord!  Why have you brought up the Lord’s community into this wilderness?  So that we and our cattle should die here? 

Apparently, the fact that the Lord gave them water from the rock through Moses did not get as much play in the tents of the Exodus as did the complaints against Moses (or against the Lord, as He clearly took it).  At least that fact did not make as indelible an impression on the children.  And Egypt, a place of slavery most had never seen or known, had become a fairy land of myth by comparison: Why have you brought us up from Egypt only to bring us to this dreadful place?  It is no place for grain, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates; nor is there any water to drink!

Exodus

Numbers
Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What will I do with this people? – a little more and they will stone me!”

Exodus 17:4 (NET)

 So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting.  They then threw themselves down with their faces to the ground, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them.

Numbers 20:6 (NET)

In the first story Moses sounded distressed, fearful even for his own life.  Forty years later both Moses and Aaron have been here and done this before.

Exodus

Numbers
The Lord said to Moses, “Go over before the people; take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile and go.  I will be standing before you there on the rock in Horeb, and you will strike the rock, and water will come out of it so that the people may drink.”

Exodus 17:5, 6a (NET)

 Then the Lord spoke to Moses: “Take the staff and assemble the community, you and Aaron your brother, and then speak to the rock before their eyes.  It will pour forth its water, and you will bring water out of the rock for them, and so you will give the community and their beasts water to drink.”

Numbers 20:7, 8 (NET)

In the earlier story the Lord gave Moses a bit of theater to perform.  It was reminiscent of the first plague in Egypt (Exodus 7:15-18 NET):

“Go to Pharaoh in the morning [the Lord said to Moses] when he goes out to the water.  Position yourself to meet him by the edge of the Nile, and take in your hand the staff that was turned into a snake.  Tell him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you to say, “Release my people, that they may serve me in the desert!”  But until now you have not listened.  Thus says the Lord: “By this you will know that I am the Lord: I am going to strike the water of the Nile with the staff that is in my hand, and it will be turned into blood.  Fish in the Nile will die, the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will be unable to drink water from the Nile.”’”

He instructed Moses to take the same staff, strike the rock as he struck the Nile, and potable water rather than blood would pour forth from it.

In the later story the Lord gave Moses a different bit of theater to perform.  This time he should speak to the rock rather than strike it with his staff.  The children believed the harsh words they learned from their parents.  Speaking to a rock is a futile enterprise ordinarily, but God would intervene here and water would pour forth from the rock as Moses spoke to it.

Exodus

Numbers
And Moses did so in plain view of the elders of Israel.

Exodus 17:6b (NET)

 So Moses took the staff from before the Lord, just as he commanded him.  Then Moses and Aaron gathered the community together in front of the rock, and he said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring water out of this rock for you?”  Then Moses raised his hand, and struck the rock twice with his staff.  And water came out abundantly. So the community drank, and their beasts drank too.

Numbers 20:9-11 (NET)

The earlier story ends much like the incident at the Nile: Moses…did so, just as the Lord had commanded.[2]  The later story is more nuanced.  Moses took the staff just as he commanded him.  He and Aaron gathered the people as the Lord commanded them.  But instead of speaking to the rock they spoke to the people (Numbers 20:10b NET):

Listen, you rebels, must we bring water out of this rock for you?

Moses’ words conveyed an attitude toward the people’s thirst.  I’m leaving aside for the moment any conjecture whether he actually believed it was the Lord’s attitude or simply went rogue.  But the Lord demonstrated that it was not an attitude He wanted conveyed.

Exodus

Numbers
Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust me enough to show me as holy before the Israelites, therefore you will not bring this community into the land I have given them.”

Numbers 20:12 (NET)

Aaron’s inclusion here makes me suspect that he was still speaking on Moses’ behalf.[3]  Both stories conclude in a similar manner.

Exodus

Numbers
He called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the contending of the Israelites and because of their testing the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Exodus 17:7 (NET)

 These are the waters of Meribah, because the Israelites contended with the Lord, and his holiness was maintained among them.

Numbers 20:13 (NET)

What holiness was maintained by the Lord’s promise to remove Moses and Aaron from their places of leadership before the people entered the promised land?  Jesus stated it explicitly (Matthew 6:31, 32 NET):

So then, don’t worry saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’  For the unconverted pursue these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

With all of this laid out for me so plainly and beautifully, I still find myself murmuring and wondering, who can possibly please this God?  But the point is well-taken, my bad attitude notwithstanding (Romans 8:8, 9a NET):

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.  You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.

Only God can please God.  I have been crucified with Christ, Paul wrote, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.  So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  I do not set aside God’s grace, because if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing![4]

The final occurrence of yârêʼ in Numbers is: And the Lord said to Moses, “Do not fear (yârêʼ) him [King Og of Bashan], for I have delivered him and all his people and his land into your hand.  You will do to him what you did to King Sihon of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.”[5]

I have no idea why Moses might have feared King Og of Bashan who marched out with all his forces to face Israel.[6]  I find it hard to believe that Og’s stature[7] alarmed Moses at this late date.  Aaron had died (or was executed) on Mount Hor.  Moses would die (or be executed) soon.  He seems to me like a man with absolute freedom, with nothing left to lose.  And I don’t know why God thought Moses feared Og.

The rabbis who translated the Septuagint chose φοβηθῇς here.  The only occurrence of φοβηθῇς in this form in the New Testament is (Matthew 1:19, 20 NET):

Because Joseph, her husband to be, was a righteous man, and because he did not want to disgrace her, he intended to divorce her privately.  When he had contemplated this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid (φοβηθῇς) to take Mary as your wife, because the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit” [Table].

Joseph’s fear here was a moral scruple.  I would certainly like to think that Moses’ fear was of the same kind.  So they defeated Og, his sons, and all his people, until there were no survivors, and they possessed his land.[8]

Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 1

[1] Numbers 14:27 (NET)

[2] Exodus 7:20a (NET)

[3] Exodus 4:14-16 (NET)

[4] Galatians 2:20, 21 (NET)

[5] Numbers 21:34 (NET)

[6] Numbers 21:33b (NET)

[7] Deuteronomy 3:11 (NET) – Only King Og of Bashan was left of the remaining Rephaites. (It is noteworthy that his sarcophagus was made of iron.  Does it not, indeed, still remain in Rabbath of the Ammonites?  It is thirteen and a half feet long and six feet wide according to standard measure.)

[8] Numbers 21:35 (NET)

Fear – Numbers, Part 4

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To Korah the Levite, the Reubenites Dathan, Abiram and On, and the 250 leaders of the community[1] who accused Moses and Aaron of exalting themselves above the community of the Lord,[2] Moses said (Numbers 16:16, 17 NET):

You and all your company present yourselves before the Lord – you and they, and Aaron – tomorrow.  And each of you take his censer, put incense in it, and then each of you present his censer before the Lord: 250 censers, along with you, and Aaron – each of you with his censer.

The first time Moses said this[3] I wrote it off as sarcasm.  Here it sounds more like a princely summons to appear at their own executions, considering what happened to Nadab and Abihu, authorized priests who presented unauthorized fire before the Lord.  They appeared as commanded, and not only those who were summoned.  When Korah assembled the whole community against them at the entrance of the tent of meeting, then the glory of the Lord appeared to the whole community.[4]

In the Septuagint the whole community assembled was τὴν πᾶσαν αὐτοῦ συναγωγὴν (literally, “the all here synagogue”).  And the glory of the Lord appeared to πάσῃ τῇ συναγωγῇ (literally, “all the synagogue”).  The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Separate yourselves from among this community (Septuagint, τῆς συναγωγῆς), that I may consume them in an instant.[5]  It’s probably worth mentioning that this story recounts yehôvâh’s frustration, patience and mercy with condemned Israel rather than redeemed Israel (Numbers 14:28-30a):

As I live, says the Lord, I will surely do to you just what you have spoken in my hearing.  Your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness – all those of you who were numbered, according to your full number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me.  You will by no means enter into the land where I swore to settle you.

A note in the NET suggests that this community meant only “people siding with Korah… an assembly of rebels.”  Moses and Aaron, however, didn’t take it that way: they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all people (Septuagint, τῶν πνευμάτων καὶ πάσης σαρκός; literally, “the spirits and all flesh”), will you be angry with the whole community (Septuagint, πᾶσαν τὴν συναγωγὴν) when only one man sins?”[6]

I find it particularly affecting that Aaron, who was once on the side of his rebellious people and in need of Moses’ intercession, joined Moses here in intercession. And despite Aaron’s former rebelliousness, the Lord answered them favorably. “Tell the community (Septuagint, τῇ συναγωγῇ): ‘Get away from around the homes of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (Septuagint, τῆς συναγωγῆς Κορε; literally, “the synagogue of Korah”).’”[7]  Moses did as the Lord commanded him (Numbers 16:25-27 NET):

Then Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram; and the elders of Israel went after him.  And he said to the community (Septuagint, τὴν συναγωγὴν), “Move away from the tents of these wicked men, and do not touch anything they have, lest you be destroyed because of all their sins.”  So they got away from the homes of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram on every side, and Dathan and Abiram came out and stationed themselves in the entrances of their tents with their wives, their children, and their toddlers.

In my estimation Moses tried diligently to make what transpired next explicitly clear to all the community (Numbers 16:28-30 NET).

“This is how you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works, for I have not done them of my own will (Septuagint, ἐμαυτοῦ; literally, “myself”).  If these men die a natural death, or if they share the fate of all men, then the Lord has not sent me.  But if the Lord does something entirely new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them up along with all that they have, and they go down alive to the grave (Hebrew, sheʼôl; Septuagint, ᾅδου; literally, “to Hades”), then you will know that these men have despised the Lord!”

On cue, the earth split open. They and all that they had went down alive into the pit (Hebrew, sheʼôl; Septuagint, ᾅδου), and the earth closed over them. So they perished from among the community[8] (Septuagint, ἀπώλοντο ἐκ μέσου τῆς συναγωγῆς; literally, “they perished out of the midst of the synagogue”).  The rest of the community didn’t feel particularly pious.  They ran, saying, “What if the earth swallows us too?”[9]  With a surgical precision that honored the intercession of Moses and Aaron, a fire went out from the Lord and devoured the 250 men who offered incense.[10]

In their reaction the next day the whole community of Israelites offers the most valid and poignant measure of the sanctifying power of scary stuff.  I call it scary stuff because yârêʼ, the Hebrew word translated fear, which seems to entail reverence for God and appears to stand as the Old Testament equivalent of New Testament faith, makes no appearance in the telling of this story.  The rest of the community either misunderstood or ignored Moses’ explanation of the previous day’s events.  They thought he did a magic trick, black magic at that: on the next day the whole community of Israelites (Septuagint, υἱοὶ Ισραηλ; literally, “sons of Israel”) murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed the Lord’s people (Septuagint, τὸν λαὸν κυρίου)!”[11]

Scary stuff doesn’t produce fear, not the fear of the Lord.  That fear, it seems, like faith only comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.[12]  And the Lord, it seems, was prescient when He wanted to destroy the whole community the day before.

Again, He said to Moses and Aaron, Get away from this community (Septuagint, τῆς συναγωγῆς), so that I can consume them in an instant![13]  Again, Moses and Aaron threw themselves down with their faces to the ground[14] but made no insinuation that the Lord might be destroying the innocent along with the guilty.

Then Moses [the prophet] said to Aaron [the priest], “Take the censer, put burning coals from the altar in it, place incense on it, and go quickly into the assembly and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the Lord – the plague has begun!”  So Aaron [the priest] did as Moses [the prophet] commanded and ran into the middle of the assembly, where the plague was just beginning among the people. So he placed incense on the coals and made atonement for the people.  He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped.  Now 14,700 people died in the plague, in addition to those who died in the event with Korah.[15]

Again, the Lord responded favorably to Moses’ intercession. Through the very same act that fried 250 others He spared the vast majority of the people when Aaron the authorized priest responded obediently to the word of the authorized prophet.  Contrast this to a more “successful” rebellion in the time of Jeremiah, just prior to the Babylonian captivity of Judah, the southern part of the divided kingdom of Israel (Jeremiah 2:12, 13, 29, 30; 4:21, 22; 5:30, 31 NET).

Be amazed at this, O heavens!  Be shocked and utterly dumbfounded,” says the Lord.  “Do so because my people have committed a double wrong: they have rejected me, the fountain of life-giving water, and they have dug cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns which cannot even hold water.”

“Why do you try to refute me?  All of you have rebelled against me,” says the Lord.  “It did no good for me to punish your people.  They did not respond to such correction.  You slaughtered your prophets like a voracious lion.”

“How long must I see the enemy’s battle flags and hear the military signals of their bugles?”  The Lord answered, “This will happen because my people are foolish.  They do not know me.  They are like children who have no sense.  They have no understanding.  They are skilled at doing evil.  They do not know how to do good.”

“Something horrible and shocking is going on in the land of Judah: The prophets prophesy lies.  The priests exercise power by their own authority.  And my people love (Septuagint, ἠγάπησεν, a form of ἀγαπάω) to have it this way.  But they will not be able to help you when the time of judgment comes!

You unbelieving (ἄπιστος) generation! How much longer must I be with you?  How much longer must I endure you?[16] This was Jesus’ response to an argument He walked into after his transfiguration.  Actually this is Mark’s version of his response.  Matthew’s and Luke’s are quite similar except for διεστραμμένη (a form of διαστρέφω). You unbelieving (ἄπιστος) and perverse (διεστραμμένη, a form of διαστρέφω) generation! How much longer must I be with you?  How much longer must I endure you?[17]  They were not merely unbelieving but were distorting, turning aside from, opposing and plotting “against the saving purposes and plans of God,” according to the definition in the NET.

On the surface of it this doesn’t sound like a promising prelude to the healing of the boy at the center of the story. Jesus didn’t do many miracles in his hometown of Nazareth because of their unbelief (ἀπιστίαν, a form of ἀπιστία).[18]  Yet all three Gospel writers record essentially the same thing, Bring him here to me,[19] Jesus continued.

Matthew Mark Luke
I brought him to your disciples, but they were not able to heal him.”  Jesus answered, “You unbelieving (ἄπιστος) and perverse (διεστραμμένη, a form of διαστρέφω) generation!  How much longer must I be with you?  How much longer must I endure you?

Matthew 17:16, 17a (NET)

 I asked your disciples to cast it out, but they were not able to do so.”  He answered them, “You unbelieving (ἄπιστος) generation!  How much longer must I be with you?  How much longer must I endure you?

Mark 9:18b, 19a (NET)

 I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not do so.”  Jesus answered, “You unbelieving (ἄπιστος) and perverse (διεστραμμένη, a form of διαστρέφω) generation!  How much longer must I be with you and endure you?

Luke 9:40, 41a (NET)
Bring him here to me.”

Matthew 17:17b (NET)

 Bring him to me.”

Mark 9:19b (NET)

 Bring your son here.”

Luke 9:41b (NET)

In Matthew’s most abbreviated account, Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of him, and the boy was healed from that moment.[20]  While this is true to the other accounts, Matthew left out some of the detail and some of the nuance of the story. As the boy was approaching, Luke wrote, the demon threw him to the ground and shook him with convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father.[21]  Luke captured a bit more of the drama of the story but still left out some of the details.

So they brought the boy to him, Mark wrote.  When the spirit saw him, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell on the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.[22]  Though the sight of Jesus set the spirit off, Jesus didn’t immediately rebuke the spirit and heal the boy.  He paused to take what sounds to a modern ear like a medical history: Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood.  It has often thrown him into fire or water to destroy him.”[23]  It becomes obvious later that Jesus arrived at a diagnosis based on this one question, but it elicited something else as well.

But if you are able to do anything, the boy’s father continued, have compassion on us and help us.[24]  Here is the dilemma for Jesus.  The father’s words were not an expression of faith but something more like putting the Lord to the test (Matthew 4:5-7 NET).

Then the devil took him to the holy city, had him stand on the highest point of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.  For it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you’ and ‘with their hands they will lift you up, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”  Jesus said to him, “Once again it is written: ‘You are not to put the Lord your God to the test.’”

This becomes clearer if I contrast the father’s words to the faith of the Roman centurion.

The Boy’s Father

The Roman Centurion
But if you are able to do anything, have compassion on us and help us.

Mark 9:22b (NET)

 But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.  Instead, just say the word and my servant will be healed.  For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me.  I say to this one, ‘Go’ and he goes, and to another ‘Come’ and he comes, and to my slave ‘Do this’ and he does it.”

Matthew 8:8, 9 (NET) Table

If Jesus had required this kind of faith as a prerequisite to healing someone, He would have healed no one in Israel at all: When Jesus heard [the centurion’s faith] he was amazed and said to those who followed him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found such faith in anyone in Israel!”[25]  And as a rule He didn’t require those possessed by evil spirits to exhibit any faith at all.  On the contrary, He seemed to want to silence the evil spirits.  Still, the boy’s father (inadvertently, I assume) had challenged Jesus’ authority.  So Jesus fed him the correct answer: Then Jesus said to him, “‘If you are able?’ All things are possible for the one who believes (πιστεύοντι, a form of πιστεύω).”[26]

Concerned for his son’s welfare this father didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth: Immediately the father of the boy cried out and said, “I believe (πιστεύω); help (βοήθει, a form of βοηθέω) my unbelief (ἀπιστίᾳ, a form of ἀπιστία)!”[27]  Medical science has begun to grasp the importance of faith in the context of the natural healing process.  But I don’t think Jesus was interested in the placebo effect here.  I think He would have questioned and instructed this father more on the subject of faith in God and miraculous healing if the boy’s antics hadn’t drawn a crowd (Mark 9:25-27 NET).

Now when Jesus saw that a crowd was quickly gathering, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “Mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.”  It shrieked, threw him into terrible convulsions, and came out.  The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, “He is dead!”  But Jesus gently took his hand and raised him to his feet, and he stood up.

Two different versions of Jesus’ disciples asking Him privately (κατ᾿ ἰδίαν) what they did wrong follow (Matthew 17:19, 20 NET).

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately (κατ᾿ ἰδίαν) and said, “Why couldn’t we cast it out?”  He told them, “It was because of your little faith (ὀλιγοπιστίαν, a form of ὀλιγόπιστος).  I tell you the truth, if you have faith (πίστιν, a form of πίστις) the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; nothing will be impossible for you.”

This was the more public privately.  Jesus was clearly concerned that bystanders grasped the importance of faith even as He healed a man’s son who had challenged (tested, or tempted) Him more than he had trusted Him.  The key here is ὀλιγοπιστίαν (a form of ὀλιγόπιστος).

In a world where “faith” is the work we do to merit heaven and distinguish ourselves from those sinners condemned to hell, the translation of ὀλιγόπιστοι (another form of ὀλιγόπιστος) as you people of little faith[28] sounds like the harshest slander and condemnation.  But the disciples saw Jesus’ face and heard the tone in his voice when He said it, and knew that ὀλιγόπιστοι was one word in the Greek language, and that He used that word like a pet name[29] for them.  Because they knew this they were not afraid to ask Him the very same question again, a more private privately (Mark 9:28, 29 NET).

Then, after he went into the house, his disciples asked him privately (κατ᾿ ἰδίαν), “Why couldn’t we cast it out?”  He told them, “This kind can come out only by prayer.”

And here I have Jesus’ diagnosis derived during that brief medical history.

 

As an aside, I read something online about Amen.  The writer was concerned that we who used it at the end of our prayers were invoking an ancient Egyptian deity, a demon in other words.  I thought that was silly even as I read it, but I couldn’t come up with any compelling reason to end my prayers in tongues, a foreign language.  So I began to end them with “I believe,” the translation of Amen as I understood it.  Though I hadn’t really considered it when I prayed Amen, praying “I believe” seemed quite disingenuous at times.  So I amended my prayers then to “I believe; please help my unbelief.”  This is, of course, exactly what Jesus does through his Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22, 23 NET).

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness (πίστις), gentleness, and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.

 

[1] Numbers 16:2 (NET)

[2] Numbers 16:3 (NET)

[3] Numbers 16:6, 7 (NET)

[4] Numbers 16:19 (NET)

[5] Numbers 16:21 (NET)

[6] Numbers 16:22 (NET)

[7] Numbers 16:24 (NET)

[8] Numbers 16:33 (NET)

[9] Numbers 16:34 (NET)

[10] Numbers 16:35 (NET)

[11] Numbers 16:41 (NET)

[12] Romans 10:17 (NKJV)

[13] Numbers 16:45a (NET)

[14] Numbers 16:45b (NET)

[15] Numbers 16:46-49 (NET)

[16] Mark 9:19a (NET)

[17] Matthew 17:17a (NET)

[18] Matthew 13:58 (NET)

[19] Matthew 17:17b (NET)

[20] Matthew 17:18 (NET)

[21] Luke 9:42 (NET)

[22] Mark 9:20 (NET) Table

[23] Mark 9:21, 22a (NET)

[24] Mark 9:22b (NET) Table

[25] Matthew 8:10 (NET) Table

[26] Mark 9:23 (NET) Table

[27] Mark 9:24 (NET) Table

[28] Matthew 6:30 (NET)

[29] Matthew 8:26; 14:31 (ὀλιγόπιστε, another form of ὀλιγόπιστος); 16:8 (NET)

Fear – Numbers, Part 3

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Now Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth, who were Reubenites, took men and rebelled against Moses, along with some of the Israelites, 250 leaders of the community, chosen from the assembly, famous men.[1]

Fear, the Hebrew word yârêʼ, doesn’t appear in the story of Korah’s rebellion.  That in itself is instructive.  Though there is plenty to be frightened of, there is no fear of the Lord here; it is difficult to find even a hint of reverence for God.  The rebels confronted Moses and Aaron and said, “You take too much upon yourselves, seeing that the whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them.  Why then do you exalt yourselves above the community of the Lord?”[2]

Accusing Moses of exalting himself above the community of the Lord was hitting below the belt.  He was the most reluctant Messiah: “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, or that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”[3] he had said.  Then he had caviled, “If I go to the Israelites and tell them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ – what should I say to them?”[4]  He had fretted, “And if they do not believe me or pay attention to me, but say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you’?”[5]  He had made excuses, “O my Lord, I am not an eloquent man, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant, for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”[6]  He had all but refused to serve, angering[7] the Lord in the process, “O my Lord, please send anyone else whom you wish to send!”[8]

He had wholeheartedly admitted that he was burdened excessively, beyond [his] strength, so that [he] despaired even of living:[9] I am not able to bear this entire people alone, Moses had cried out to the Lord, because it is too heavy for me!  But if you are going to deal with me like this, then kill me immediately.  If I have found favor in your sight then do not let me see my trouble.[10]  And his most profound hope was that all Israel would know the Lord and be holy in fact: “Are you jealous for me?” he had said when Joshua was offended because Eldad and Medad had prophesied in the camp.[11]  “I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”[12]

With his body Moses fell down with his face to the ground[13] when he heard the rebels’ accusation, but I wonder about his heart (Numbers 16:5-7 NET).

Then he said to Korah and to all his company, “In the morning the Lord will make known who are his, and who is holy.  He will cause that person to approach him; the person he has chosen he will cause to approach him.  Do this, Korah, you and all your company: Take censers, put fire in them, and set incense on them before the Lord tomorrow, and the man whom the Lord chooses will be holy.  You take too much upon yourselves, you sons of Levi!”

I’ll be the first to admit that it doesn’t pay to be too subtle with Moses’ matter-of-fact writing style,[14] but the brute fact of goading Korah and his accomplices into presenting strange fire before the Lord[15] sounds like sarcasm to me.  Moses spoke to Korah and the sons of Levi, but he summoned[16] Dathan and Abiram as a prince would summon unruly subjects.  They refused his summons and said, Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of the land that flows with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness?  Now do you want to make yourself a prince over us?  Moreover, you have not brought us into a land that flows with milk and honey, nor given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards.  Do you think you can blind [continue to deceive] these men?[17]

It was another low blow.  It hadn’t been that long since Moses had interceded[18] for Dathan and Abiram, when the Lord wanted to strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them[19] after they had refused to enter the promised land because they feared the people living there rather than the Lord.  Reading the Bible in faith I am privy to the secret communication between the Lord and Moses that Dathan and Abiram heard about only through Moses.  Granted, they had rejected the privilege of hearing from the Lord when they said to Moses, “You speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak with us, lest we die.”[20]  Still, I want to consider the truth of Dathan’s and Abiram’s accusations, both literal and perceptual.

Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of the land that flows with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness?  Yes, Moses had led them out of Egypt, and, yes, they were going to die in the wilderness (Numbers 14:28-30a):

As I live, says the Lord, I will surely do to you just what you have spoken in my hearing.  Your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness – all those of you who were numbered, according to your full number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me.  You will by no means enter into the land where I swore to settle you.

Now do you want to make yourself a prince over us?  Moses had summoned them as a prince.

Moreover, you have not brought us into a land that flows with milk and honey, nor given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards.  True, under Moses’ tenure as leader Dathan and Abiram would not inherit fields and vineyards in the promised land.  Their children might have: But I will bring in your little ones, whom you said would become victims of war, and they will enjoy the land that you have despised,[21] the Lord promised.  Dathan and Abiram, however, would die in the wilderness.

Do you think you can blind [continue to deceive] these men?  Slavery in Egypt didn’t seem so bad any longer.  But here they were wrong.  Moses had not deceived anyone.  Dathan and Abiram added up all the facts they perceived but came to the wrong sum.  How do I know?  Through faith, the very faith Dathan and Abiram did not have, though they saw with their eyes, and lived through, the circumstances I can only read about.

Moses was very angry…[22]  Perhaps I should accept his anger as righteous indignation and let it go at that.  I certainly have in the past.  I would be willing to do so again, if not for the Scripture the Holy Spirit brings to my mind: Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters!  Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.  For human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.[23]  Have no respect for their offering! Moses “interceded” with the Lord.  I have not taken so much as one donkey from them [no one accused him of stealing anything], nor have I harmed any one of them![24]

Let me say before I go any farther down this road, that apart from the Spirit of God raising the dead, I would have folded long before this if I were under Moses’ pressures.  But I do wonder here if Moses was concerned with justifying the Lord or himself.  And I probably ask the question because I’ve spent so much of my time and energy trying to justify myself.  Be that as it may, I can’t help but wonder if I am staring at the terminal moraine, if you will, of the most humble man in the world.[25]  Is this the foreshadowing of what would become explicit at the waters of Meribah?[26]

I am foreshadowing for those who know the story and will be explicit for any who do not.  Even Moses could not enter the promised land.  “Then who can be saved?”[27] Jesus’ astonished disciples exclaimed on a different subject.  But I think his answer still applies: “This is impossible for mere humans, but not for God; all things are possible for God.”[28]  And don’t fret too much for Moses.  He came back in the sequel (Luke 9:28-31 NET).

…Jesus took with him Peter, John, and James, and went up the mountain to pray.  As he was praying, the appearance of his face was transformed, and his clothes became very bright, a brilliant white.  Then two men, Moses and Elijah, began talking with him.  They appeared in glorious splendor and spoke about his departure that he was about to carry out at Jerusalem.

This followed Jesus’ promise, I tell you the truth, there are some standing here who will not experience death before they see the Son of Man coming (ἐρχόμενον, a form of ἔρχομαι) in his kingdom,[29] as Matthew recalled it.  The definition of ἔρχομαι in the NET lists “to appear, make one’s appearance…come forth, show itself” and “become known” as possible meanings.  These make some sense of Mark’s Gospel account (which I assume was Peter’s recollections), there are some standing here who will not experience death before they see the kingdom of God come (ἐληλυθυῖαν, another form of ἔρχομαι) with power.[30]  The vision[31] (ὅραμα) of not just one but three glorified sons of man was overwhelming to Peter in its power (Luke 9:32, 33 NET).

Now Peter and those with him were quite sleepy, but as they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.  Then as the men were starting to leave, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here.  Let us make three shelters, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah” – not knowing what he was saying.

For they were afraid (ἔκφοβοι, a form of ἔκφοβος) Mark wrote, and he did not know what to say.[32]  But God, the Father, made sure there was no confusion in the matter (Luke 9:34, 35 NET).

As [Peter] was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid (ἐφοβήθησαν, a form of φοβέω) as they entered the cloud.  Then a voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One.  Listen to him!”

It’s a beautiful picture of the kingdom of God.  And the hope of, not being afraid,[33] but walking among them as one of them is wonderful beyond description.  It’s an occupational hazard of studying the Bible I suppose, but Jesus, Moses, Elijah, Peter, Paul, Abraham, David, Jephthah’s daughter, Mary and Abigail are more vibrant and alive to me than most of the people I see every day.  I can only imagine what it was like for Jesus to step out of that vision and back into the here and now.  I know what was on his mind.  The Scriptures make it abundantly clear that He was concerned that his disciples understood his departure that he was about to carry out at Jerusalem.  The clock was ticking loudly then.

As they were coming down from the mountain, he gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.  They kept this statement to themselves, discussing what this rising from the dead meant.[34]  But while the entire crowd was amazed at everything Jesus was doing, he said to his disciples, “Take these words to heart, for the Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.”  But they did not understand this statement; its meaning had been concealed from them, so that they could not grasp it.  Yet they were afraid (ἐφοβοῦντοto, another form of φοβέω) to ask him about this statement.[35]  They went out from there and passed through Galilee.  But Jesus did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of men.  They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.”  But they did not understand this statement and were afraid (ἐφοβοῦντο, another form of φοβέω) to ask him.[36]  When they gathered together in Galilee, Jesus told them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.  They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised.”  And they became greatly distressed.[37]

Finally they began to hear Him.  They became greatly distressed which is understandable, maybe even commendable, but completely beside the point!  So with the foreknowledge of their unbelief weighing on his mind, Jesus walked down the mountain of transfiguration into an argument (Mark 9:14-18 NET).

When they came to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and experts in the law arguing with them.  When the whole crowd saw him, they were amazed and ran at once and greeted him.  He asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?”

A member of the crowd said to him,[38] “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that makes him mute [Table].   Whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and becomes rigid.  I asked your disciples to cast it out, but they were not able to do so.”

Then the Son of Man vented his own frustration, You unbelieving generation!  How much longer must I be with you?  How much longer must I endure you?[39]

[1] Numbers 16:1, 2 (NET)

[2] Numbers 16:3 (NET)

[3] Exodus 3:11 (NET)

[4] Exodus 3:13 (NET)

[5] Exodus 4:1 (NET)

[6] Exodus 4:10 (NET)

[8] Exodus 4:13 (NET)

[9] 2 Corinthians 1:8b (NET)

[10] Numbers 11:14, 15 (NET)

[11] Numbers 11:27 (NET)

[12] Numbers 11:29 (NET)

[13] Numbers 16:4 (NET)

[16] Numbers 16:12 (NET)

[17] Numbers 16:13, 14a (NET)

[20] Exodus 20:19 (NET)

[21] Numbers 14:31 (NET)

[22] Numbers 16:15a (NET)

[23] James 1:19, 20 (NET) Table

[24] Numbers 16:15b (NET)

[27] Mark 10:26b (NET)

[28] Mark 10:27 (NET)

[29] Matthew 16:28 (NET)

[30] Mark 9:1 (NET)

[32] Mark 9:6 (NET)

[34] Mark 9:9, 10 (NET)

[35] Luke 9:43b-45 (NET)

[36] Mark 9:30-32 (NET)

[37] Matthew 17:22, 23 (NET)

[39] Mark 9:19a (NET)

Fear – Numbers, Part 2

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The Lord spoke to Moses: “Send out men to investigate the land of Canaan…”[1]  To quote Dickens, “This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate.”[2]  The Lord wasn’t surprised by what happened.  He knew it from the beginning.[3]

All of [the men] were leaders of the Israelites.[4]  They returned after forty days and reported to the whole community: “We went to the land where you sent us.  It is indeed flowing with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.”[5]  They had brought back a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a staff between two men.[6]  “But,” the leaders of the Israelites continued, “the inhabitants are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large.  Moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there”[7] (the descendants of Anak came from the Nephilim).[8]

The Nephilim used to be giants: There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.[9]  Now they are God (and human imagination) only knows what.  The word occurs twice in the Old Testament, once when the leaders of the Israelites were obviously spinning the truth for their own purposes.  A lot of human conjecture about the Nephilim stems from the “lost book of Enoch.”[10]

“It happened after the sons of men had multiplied in those days,” Enoch began his tale, “that daughters were born to them, elegant and beautiful.  And when the angels, the sons of heaven, beheld them, they became enamoured of them, saying to each other, Come, let us select for ourselves wives from the progeny of men, and let us beget children.”[11]  Then he filled in the details:  There were “two hundred angels”[12] led by Samyaza[13] (Book of Enoch, Section II, Chapter 7, vv. 10-13):

Then they took wives, each choosing for himself; whom they began to approach, and with whom they cohabited; teaching them sorcery, incantations, and the dividing of roots and trees.  And the women conceiving brought forth giants, Whose stature was each three hundred cubits [i.e., the same as the length of the ark, Genesis 6:15 (KJV)].  These devoured all which the labour of men produced; until it became impossible to feed them; When they turned themselves against men, in order to devour them…

There is seemingly no end to the detail Enoch supplied (Book of Enoch, Section XI, Chapter 68, vv. 3-28):

These are the chiefs of their angels, and the names of the leaders of their hundreds, and the leaders of their fifties, and the leaders of their tens.  The name of the first is Yekun: he it was who seduced all the sons of the holy angels; and causing them to descend on earth, led astray the offspring of men.  The name of the second is Kesabel, who pointed out evil counsel to the sons of the holy angels, and induced them to corrupt their bodies by generating mankind.

The name of the third is Gadrel: he discovered every stroke of death to the children of men.  He seduced Eve; and discovered to the children of men the instruments of death, the coat of mail, the shield, and the sword for slaughter; every instrument of death to the children of men.  From his hand were these things derived to them who dwell upon earth, from that period for ever.

The name of the fourth is Penemue: he discovered to the children of men bitterness and sweetness; And pointed out to them every secret of their wisdom.  He taught men to understand writing, and the use of  ink and paper.  Therefore numerous have been those who have gone astray from every period of the world, even to this day.  For men were not born for this, thus with pen and with ink to confirm their faith;  Since they were not created, except that, like the angels, they might remain righteous and pure.  Nor would death, which destroys everything, have affected them; But by this their knowledge they perish, and by this also its power consumes them.

The name of the fifth is Kasyade: he discovered to the children of men every wicked stroke of spirits and of demons: The stroke of the embryo in the womb, to diminish it; the stroke of the spirit by the bite of the serpent, and the stroke which is given in the mid-day by the offspring of the serpent, the name of which is Tabaet.  This is the number of the Kesbel; the principal part of the oath which the Most High, dwelling in glory, revealed to the holy ones.  Its name is Beka. He spoke to holy Michael to discover to them the sacred name, that they might understand that secret name, and thus remember the oath; and that those who pointed out every secret thing to the children of men might tremble at that name and oath.

This is the power of that oath; for powerful it is, and strong.  And he established this oath of Akae by the instrumentality of the holy Michael.  These are the secrets of this oath, and by it were they confirmed. Heaven was suspended by it before the world was made, for ever.  By it has the earth been founded upon the flood; while from the concealed parts of the hills the agitated waters proceed forth from the creation to the end of the world.  By this oath the sea has been formed, and the foundation of it.  During the period of its fury he has established the sand against it, which continues unchanged for ever; and by this oath the abyss has been made strong; nor is it removable from its station for ever and ever.  By this oath the sun and moon complete their progress, never swerving from the command given to them for ever and ever.

Enoch had yet more to say about these angels (Book of Enoch, Section II, Chapter 8, vv. 1-9):

Moreover Azazyel taught men to make swords, knives, shields, breastplates, the fabrication of mirrors, and the workmanship of bracelets and ornaments, the use of paint, the beautifying of the eyebrows, the use of stones of every valuable and select kind, and of all sorts of dyes, so that the world became altered.  Impiety increased; fornication multiplied; and they transgressed and corrupted all their ways.  Amazarak taught all the sorcerers, and dividers of roots: Armers taught the solution of sorcery; Barkayal  taught the observers of the stars; Akibeel taught signs; Tamiel taught astronomy; And Asaradel taught the motion of the moon.  And men, being destroyed, cried out; and their voice reached to heaven.

And how, according to Enoch, did God respond to the desperate men who “cried out; and their voice reached to heaven”?  The “waters of a deluge shall come over the whole earth, and all things which are in it shall be destroyed.”[14]  The Bible doesn’t mention a word about these reprobate angels.  In the Bible the flood came because the Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth.  Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil all the time.[15]  “The fallen angels made me do it,” wrote Enoch.

As I urged you when I was leaving for Macedonia, Paul wrote Timothy, stay on in Ephesus to instruct certain people not to spread false teachings, nor to occupy themselves with myths (μύθοις, a form of μῦθος)[16] and interminable genealogies.  Such things promote useless speculations rather than God’s redemptive plan that operates by faith.[17]  And, By pointing out such things to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, having nourished yourself on the words of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed.  But reject those myths (μύθους, another form of μῦθος) fit only for the godless and gullible, and train yourself for godliness.[18]

For there will be a time, Paul warned Timothy, when people will not tolerate sound teaching.  Instead, following their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves, because they have an insatiable curiosity to hear new things.  And they will turn away from hearing the truth, but on the other hand they will turn aside to myths (μύθους, another form of μῦθος).[19]  For this reason rebuke them sharply, he wrote Titus, that they may be healthy in the faith and not pay attention to Jewish myths (μύθοις, a form of μῦθος) and commands of people who reject the truth.[20]

This Enoch sounds more like a mythmaker to me than the Enoch who walked with God for 300 years.[21]  This Enoch made excuses, not unlike the leaders of the Israelites (Numbers 13:31-33 NET):

“We are not able to go up against these people, because “they are stronger than we are!” [Table]  Then they presented the Israelites with a discouraging report of the land they had investigated, saying, “The land that we passed through to investigate is a land that devours its inhabitants.  All the people we saw there are of great stature [Table].  We even saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak came from the Nephilim), and we seemed liked grasshoppers both to ourselves and to them” [Table].

Then all the community raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night.  And all the Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had perished in this wilderness [Table]!  Why has the Lord brought us into this land only to be killed by the sword, that our wives and our children should become plunder?  Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt [Table]?”  So they said to one another, “Let’s appoint a leader and return to Egypt [Table].”[22]

One of the leaders of the Israelites, Caleb, a descendant of Judah,[23] voiced his dissent from the majority.  “The land we passed through to investigate is an exceedingly good land [Table],” he said to the whole community.  “If the Lord delights in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us – a land that is flowing with milk and honey [Table].  Only do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear (yârêʼ)[24] the people of the land, for they are bread for us.  Their protection has turned aside from them, but the Lord is with us.  Do not fear (yârêʼ) them [Table]!”[25]

The rabbis who translated the Septuagint chose φοβηθῆτε (a form of φοβέω)[26] here.  “A disciple is not greater than his teacher,” Jesus said according to Matthew’s Gospel account, “nor a slave greater than his master.  It is enough for the disciple to become like his teacher, and the slave like his master.  If they have called the head of the house ‘Beelzebul,’ how much more will they defame the members of his household!  Do not be afraid (φοβηθῆτε, a form of φοβέω) of them, for nothing is hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing is secret that will not be made known.  What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the housetops.[27]

I’ll continue with Luke’s Gospel account because he chose φοβηθῆτε, too.  “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid (φοβηθῆτε, a form of φοβέω) of those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more they can do.  But I will warn you whom you should fear (φοβηθῆτε, a form of φοβέω): Fear (φοβήθητε, a form of φοβέω) the one who, after the killing, has authority to throw you into hell.  Yes, I tell you, fear (φοβήθητε, a form of φοβέω) him!”[28]  Ordinarily I would return to Matthew’s Gospel, So do not be afraid, Jesus concluded, you are more valuable than many sparrows.[29]  But this time I’ll let fear stand.

Here I can really see how fear became a euphemism for reverence.  The Israelites acted upon, obeyed and followed their fear.  Learning to fear God like that would have looked a lot like faith.  “How long will this people despise me,” the Lord said as the Israelites threatened to stone Moses, Aaron, Joshua and Caleb, and return to Egypt, “and how long will they not believe in me, in spite of the signs that I have done among them?”[30]

And then I’m treated to a reprise of the conversation between God and Moses after the incident with the golden calf.  “I will strike them with the pestilence,” the Lord said, “and I will disinherit them; I will make you into a nation that is greater and mightier than they!”[31]

Moses doesn’t come off quite as clueless[32] this time.  “When the Egyptians hear it,” he said, “for you brought up this people by your power from among them – then they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land.  They have heard that you, Lord, are among this people, that you, Lord, are seen face to face, that your cloud stands over them, and that you go before them by day in a pillar of cloud and in a pillar of fire by night.  If you kill this entire people at once, then the nations that have heard of your fame will say, ‘Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to them, he killed them in the wilderness.’”[33]

Then he rehearsed his knowledge of God, reciting the Lord’s long name: “So now, let the power of my Lord be great, just as you have said, ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in loyal love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children until the third and fourth generations.’”[34]

And once again he interceded with God for his people: “Please forgive the iniquity of this people according to your great loyal love, just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt even until now.”[35]

“I have forgiven them as you asked,” the Lord said.  “But truly, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.”[36]  He would not strike them with the pestilence (except those men who produced the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the Lord[37]).  Nor would He clear the guilty.  “For all the people have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have tempted me now these ten times, and have not obeyed me, they will by no means see the land that I swore to their fathers, nor will any of them who despised me see it.  Only my servant Caleb, because he had a different spirit and has followed me fully – I will bring him into the land where he had gone, and his descendants will possess it.”[38]

Communicating this knowledge of God (Jesus called it eternal life[39]) was more urgent and important to Jehovah than fulfilling the promise[40] that Abraham’s descendants would inherit the land.  I know this because, The Lord (Jehovah) spoke to Moses: “Send out men to investigate the land of Canaan…” knowing that the promise would be delayed another 40 years (Numbers 14:28-35 NET).

As I live, says the Lord, I will surely do to you just what you have spoken in my hearing.  Your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness – all those of you who were numbered, according to your full number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me.  You will by no means enter into the land where I swore to settle you.  The only exceptions are Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.  But I will bring in your little ones, whom you said would become victims of war, and they will enjoy the land that you have despised.  But as for you, your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness, and your children will wander in the wilderness forty years and suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your dead bodies lie finished in the wilderness.  According to the number of the days you have investigated this land, forty days – one day for a year – you will suffer for your iniquities, forty years, and you will know what it means to thwart me.  I, the Lord, have said, “I will surely do so to all this evil congregation that has gathered together against me.  In this wilderness they will be finished, and there they will die!”

Fear – Numbers, Part 3

Back to Romans, Part 26 

Back to My Reasons and My Reason, Part 3

[1] Numbers 13:1, 2a (NET)

[4] Numbers 13:3b (NET)

[5] Numbers 13:26, 27 (NET)

[6] Numbers 13:23 (NET)

[7] Numbers 13:28 (NET)

[8] Numbers 13:33 (NET) Table

[9] Genesis 6:4 (KJV)

[15] Genesis 6:5 (NET)

[17] 1 Timothy 1:3, 4 (NET)

[18] 1 Timothy 4:6, 7 (NET)

[19] 2 Timothy 4:3, 4 (NET)

[20] Titus 1:13b, 14 (NET)

[21] Genesis 5:22 (NET)

[22] Numbers 14:1-4 (NET)

[23] Numbers 13:6 (NET)

[25] Numbers 14:7-9 (NET)

[27] Matthew 10:24-27 (NET)

[28] Luke 12:4, 5 (NET)

[29] Matthew 10:31 (NET)

[30] Numbers 14:11 (NET) Table

[31] Numbers 14:12 (NET)

[33] Numbers 14:13-16 (NET)

[34] Numbers 14:17, 18 (NET)

[35] Numbers 14:19 (NET)

[36] Numbers 14:20, 21 (NET)

[37] Numbers 14:37 (NET)

[38] Numbers 14:22-24 (NET)

Fear – Numbers, Part 1

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Why then were you not afraid (yârêʼ)[1] to speak against my servant Moses?[2] Jehovah asked Miriam and Aaron.  The rabbis who translated the Septuagint chose ἐφοβήθητε[3] here.  Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married (for he had married an Ethiopian woman).[4]  It’s not clear to me whether they meant Zipporah[5] and were dredging up ancient history, or if Moses took a second wife who was not descended from Israel [See: The Law of the High Priest Leviticus 21:10-15 (NET)].  “Has the Lord only spoken through Moses?  Has he not also spoken through us?”[6] Miriam and Aaron said.

The Lord said (Numbers 12:6-8 NET):

“Hear now my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known to him in a vision; I will speak with him in a dream.  My servant Moses is not like this; he is faithful in all my house.  With him I will speak face to face, openly, and not in riddles; and he will see the form of the Lord.  Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”

I want to quote Philo of Alexandria, “a Hellenized Jew,”[7] on Moses, because 1) he lived in the first century (c. 20 BCE – 40 CE), a contemporary of Jesus; 2) he compiled some of the extra-biblical things the rabbis were telling themselves about Moses; and, 3) his writings were apparently influential to some of the church fathers.  Here is some of what the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy has to say about Philo: [8]

When Hebrew mythical thought met Greek philosophical thought in the first century B.C.E. it was only natural that someone would try to develop speculative and philosophical justification for Judaism in terms of Greek philosophy.  Thus Philo produced a synthesis of both traditions developing concepts for future Hellenistic interpretation of messianic Hebrew thought, especially by Clement of Alexandria, Christian Apologists like Athenagoras, Theophilus, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and by Origen.…In the process, he laid the foundations for the development of Christianity in the West and in the East, as we know it today.  Philo’s primary importance is in the development of the philosophical and theological foundations of Christianity.  The church preserved the Philonic writings because Eusebius of Caesarea labeled the monastic ascetic group of Therapeutae and Therapeutrides, described in Philo’s The Contemplative Life, as Christians, which is highly unlikely.

“I have conceived the idea of writing the life of Moses,” Philo wrote, “the greatest and most perfect man that ever lived…”[9]  “I…shall proceed to narrate the events which befell him, having learnt them both from those sacred scriptures which he has left as marvellous memorials of his wisdom, and having also heard many things from the elders of my nation, for I have continually connected together what I have heard with what I have read, and in this way I look upon it that I am acquainted with the history of his life more accurately than other people.”[10]

“[H]is father and mother were among the most excellent persons of their time…”[11]  “[T]he child Moses, as soon as he was born, displayed a more beautiful and noble form than usual…”[12]  He “was not, like a mere child, long delighted with toys and objects of laughter and amusement…but he himself exhibited a modest and dignified deportment in all his words and gestures, attending diligently to every lesson of every kind which could tend to the improvement of his mind.”[13]

“And immediately he had all kinds of masters, one after another, some coming of their own accord from the neighbouring countries and the different districts of Egypt, and some being even procured from Greece by the temptation of large presents.  But in a short time he surpassed all their knowledge, anticipating all their lessons by the excellent natural endowments of his own genius; so that everything in his case appeared to be a [r]ecollecting rather than a learning, while he himself also, without any teacher, comprehended by his instinctive genius many difficult subjects; for great abilities cut out for themselves many new roads to knowledge.”[14]

And when he had passed the boundaries of the age of infancy he began to exercise his intellect; not, as some people do, letting his youthful passions roam at large without restraint, although in him they had ten thousand incentives by reason of the abundant means for the gratification of them which royal places supply; but he behaved with temperance and fortitude, as though he had bound them with reins, and thus he restrained their onward impetuosity by force.  And he tamed, and appeased, and brought under due command every one of the other passions which are naturally and as far as they are themselves concerned frantic, and violent, and unmanageable.  And if any one of them at all excited itself and endeavoured to get free from restraint he administered severe punishment to it, reproving it with severity of language; and, in short, he repressed all the principal impulses and most violent affections of the soul, and kept guard over them as over a restive horse, fearing lest they might break all bounds and get beyond the power of reason which ought to be their guide to restrain them, and so throw everything everywhere into confusion.[15]

So Moses was most beautiful, most intelligent and most self-righteous, according to the stories Philo heard “from the elders of my nation.”  And in the Bible I read, Now the man Moses was very humble, more so than any man on the face of the earth.[16]  I can imagine how difficult it was for the most humble man on the face of the earth to write that sentence.  One of the translators of the NET mused on this in a note:[17]

Humility is a quality missing today in many leaders.  Far too many are self-promoting, or competitive, or even pompous.  The statement in this passage would have been difficult for Moses to write – and indeed, it is not impossible that an editor might have added it.  One might think that for someone to claim to be humble is an arrogant act.  But the statement is one of fact – he was not self-assertive (until Num 20 when he strikes the rock).

But it is impossible for me to imagine that the most humble man on the face of the earth refused to write that sentence if the Lord told him to write it, face to face.  Though first century religious thinkers may have found it impossible to imagine that Jehovah could have such a profound relationship with anyone who was anything other than most beautiful, most intelligent and most self-righteous, I’m betting on the Bible and most humble.  I think the facts bear me out.

When the Israelites tired of eating manna and cried out for meat, Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, everyone at the door of his tent; and when the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly, Moses was also displeased.[18]  And Moses said to the Lord (Numbers 11:11-15 NET):

“Why have you afflicted your servant?  Why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of this entire people on me?  Did I conceive this entire people?  Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your arms, as a foster father bears a nursing child,’ to the land which you swore to their fathers?  From where shall I get meat to give to this entire people, for they cry to me, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat!’  I am not able to bear this entire people alone, because it is too heavy for me!  But if you are going to deal with me like this, then kill me immediately.  If I have found favor in your sight then do not let me see my trouble.”

The Lord told Moses to select seventy elders of the people, and said, I will take part of the spirit that is on you, and will put it on them, and they will bear some of the burden of the people with you, so that you do not bear it all by yourself.[19]  This is the first I’ve heard that God’s Spirit was on Moses.  It was stated explicitly of Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, and Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan (Exodus 31:1-11 NET):

The Lord spoke to Moses: “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God in skill, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship, to make artistic designs for work with gold, with silver, and with bronze, and with cutting and setting stone, and with cutting wood, to work in all kinds of craftsmanship.  Moreover, I have also given him Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, and I have given ability to all the specially skilled, that they may make everything I have commanded you: the tent of meeting, the ark of the testimony, the atonement lid that is on it, all the furnishings of the tent, the table with its utensils, the pure lampstand with all its utensils, the altar of incense, the altar for the burnt offering with all its utensils, the large basin with its base, the woven garments, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons, to minister as priests, the anointing oil, and sweet incense for the Holy Place. They will make all these things just as I have commanded you.”

Only sixty-eight of the seventy elders Moses chose appeared before the Lord at the Tabernacle.  When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but did not do so again.[20]  Eldad and Medad, two who were among those in the registration, but had remained behind prophesied in the camp.[21]  When Joshua heard about it, he said, “My lord Moses, stop them!”[22]

The most humble man on the face of the earth replied, “Are you jealous for me?  I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”[23]

Why then were you not afraid (yârêʼ) to speak against my servant Moses? Jehovah asked Miriam and Aaron.  As He departed He helped them acquire the fear they lacked.  Miriam became leprous as snow.[24]

Immediately Aaron begged Moses, “O my lord, please do not hold this sin against us, in which we have acted foolishly and have sinned!  Do not let her be like a baby born dead, whose flesh is half-consumed when it comes out of its mother’s womb!”[25]

The most humble man on the face of the earth cried to the Lord, “Heal her now, O God.”[26]

But the Lord said to Moses, “If her father had only spit in her face, would she not have been disgraced for seven days?  Shut her out from the camp seven days, and afterward she can be brought back in again.”  So Miriam was shut outside of the camp for seven days, and the people did not journey on until Miriam was brought back in.[27]

Fear – Numbers, Part 2

Back to Fear – Deuteronomy, Part 1

[2] Numbers 12:8b (NET)

[3] Φοβέω, aorist, middle, indicative, plural, second  http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%86%CE%BF%CE%B2%CE%AD%CF%89

[4] Numbers 12:1 (NET)

[6] Numbers 12:2 (NET)

[9] Philo, On The Life of Moses, I, I. (1) http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/yonge/book24.html

[10] Philo, On The Life of Moses, I, I. (4)

[11] Philo, On The Life of Moses, I, II. (7)

[12] Philo, On The Life of Moses, I, III. (9)

[13] Philo, On The Life of Moses, I, V. (20)

[14] Philo, On The Life of Moses, I, V. (21, 22)

[15] Philo, On The Life of Moses, I, VI. (25, 26)

[16] Numbers 12:3 (NET)

[17] Note 9, sn

[18] Numbers 11:10 (NET)

[19] Numbers 11:17 (NET)

[20] Numbers 11:25b (NET)

[21] Numbers 11:26 (NET)

[22] Numbers 11:28 (NET)

[23] Numbers 11:29 (NET)

[24] Numbers 12:10 (NET)

[25] Numbers 12:11, 12 (NET)

[26] Numbers 12:13 (NET)

[27] Numbers 12:14, 15 (NET)