Skip to main content

Numbers 12-15



In Numbers 12, we see Moses’ own brother and sister, Aaron and Miriam, speaking against him because he has taken another wife, in addition to Zipporah, a Cushite woman from Ethiopia. Notice, Aaron and Miriam do not state their main complaint, they state another one instead: “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” Apparently, they were jealous of Moses’ position and resentful of it, as well as being unhappy about his new wife, perhaps for racist reasons since her skin, as an Ethiopian, would have been a darker color than their own skin.
We read in Numbers 12:3, “Now the man Moses was very humble.” This is curious because Moses does not come across as humble in what we have read of him so far. Perhaps he grew in humility through having to bear such a great burden of leadership. This verse also indicates that at least this part of Numbers was not written by Moses. One cannot claim humility for oneself, even in the third person, and at the same time actually be humble. 
As I have indicated in previous blog posts, I agree with the majority of scholars of the Hebrew Scriptures who hold to at least a four-source theory of authorship of the Torah. These sources are known as J, E, P, and D. J stands for the Yahwist source, J being the German equivalent of the English letter Y. This source is so called because it uses the name Yahweh for the deity. E stands for Elohist because this source uses the name Elohim for the deity. P stands for the priestly source. D stands for the Deuteronomist source which includes Deuteronomy and some of the books that follow it. Some scholars think that J was put together around 950 BCE in the southern Kingdom of Judah. E was composed around 850 BCE in the northern Kingdom of Israel. D was put together around 600 BCE in Jerusalem, and P was composed around 500 BCE by Jewish priests in exile in Babylon. For a very readable and enjoyable exposition of this documentary hypothesis I would highly recommend reading Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard Elliott Friedman.
The story of Aaron and Miriam’s complaint ends with the Lord noting that he speaks with Moses unlike anyone else, “face to face,” and Miriam is judged by having her skin turned leprous, white as snow. This appears to be a punishment that fits the crime since she judged Moses’ second wife by the color of her skin. Apparently, Aaron does not suffer any punishment because he is the high priest. Moses begs the Lord to heal Miriam, which he does after seven days.
Numbers 13-14 tells the story of the tribal leaders of Israel who are sent to spy out the Promised Land. Ten bring back a negative report. Two bring a positive report (Caleb and Joshua). The people of Israel are condemned to wander in the desert for forty years (one year for each day of the spies’ expedition) because they listen to the negative report instead of the positive one.
It seems to be of the essence of our sin nature that we listen to negative reports and believe them more than positive ones, whether those reports are about situations, other people, or about ourselves. By contrast, we need to develop “different spirits” like Caleb who followed the Lord wholeheartedly. I believe the only way we can do this is with the help of the “second Joshua,” Jesus Christ.
Numbers 15 presents an interlude in the narrative dealing with offerings. Toward the end of the chapter, we read about a man who is condemned to death for gathering wood on the Sabbath. The punishment may seem very harsh to us, but it shows how important the Sabbath was to ancient Israelites. 
Though many Christians talk about the importance of the Ten Commandments, we certainly do not abide by the fourth commandment in the way that the ancient Israelites were expected to do. The reason for this most likely has to do with Jesus who demonstrated a different attitude toward the Sabbath when he said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27) I will have a sermon about this passage in Mark in the coming weeks. You can listen to it here: http://willvaus.com/mark.
At the end of Numbers 15, we read about the blue cord that the Israelites were supposed to put on the fringe of their garments. Friedman notes, “The blue string in the fringe of every Israelite’s clothing is an element of the holy in everyone’s daily life. The fringe in general is a reminder to keep all the commandments; the blue string is a reminder of holiness.”[1]
What reminder to follow Jesus might we keep in our everyday lives?


[1] Friedman, Commentary on the Torah, 479

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

C. S. Lewis on Homosexuality

Arthur Greeves In light of recent developments in the United States on the issue of gay marriage, I thought it would be interesting to revisit what C. S. Lewis thought about homosexuality. Lewis, who died in 1963, never wrote about same-sex marriage, but he did write, occasionally, about the topic of homosexuality in general. In the following I am quoting from my book, Mere Theology: A Guide to the Thought of C. S. Lewis . For detailed references and footnotes, you may obtain a copy from Amazon, your local library, or by clicking on the book cover at the right.... In Surprised by Joy , Lewis claimed that homosexuality was a vice to which he was never tempted and that he found opaque to the imagination. For this reason he refused to say anything too strongly against the pederasty that he encountered at Malvern College, where he attended school from the age of fifteen to sixteen. Lewis did not rate pederasty as the greatest evil of the school because he felt the cruelty displa

Fact, Faith, Feeling

"Now Faith, in the sense in which I am here using the word, is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods. For moods will change, whatever view your reason takes. I know that by experience. Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable. This rebellion of your moods against your real self is going to come anyway. That is why Faith is such a necessary virtue: unless you teach your moods 'where to get off', you can never be either a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion. Consequently one must train the habit of Faith." Mere Christianity Many years ago, when I was a young Christian, I remember seeing the graphic illustration above of what C. S. Lewis has, here, so

C. S. Lewis Tour--London

The final two days of our C. S. Lewis Tour of Ireland & England were spent in London. Upon our arrival we enjoyed a panoramic tour of the city that included Westminster Abbey. A number of our tour participants chose to tour the inside of the Abbey where they were able to view the new C. S. Lewis plaque in Poets' Corner. Though London was not one of Lewis' favorite places to visit, there are a number of locations associated with him. One which I have noted in my new book,  In the Footsteps of C. S. Lewis , is Endsleigh Palace Hospital (25 Gordon Street, London) where Lewis recovered from his wounds received during the First World War.... Not too far away from this location is King's College, part of the University of London, located on the Strand, just off the River Thames. This is the location where Lewis gave the annual commemoration oration entitled The Inner Ring  on 14 December 1944.... C. S. Lewis occasionally attended theatrical events in London.

The Shepherds' Perspective on Christmas

On December 21, 2015, the following headline appeared in the International Business Times: “Bethlehem Christmas 2015 Cancelled”. To be fully accurate, religious celebrations of Jesus’ birth went forward last year in Bethlehem, but many of the secular celebrations of Christmas that usually surround it were toned down due to instability in the area. Looking back a decade, there was even one year when Christian Arabs canceled community celebrations of Christmas in support of the Palestinian uprising. However, the Jewish government would have no part of that, so the Israeli military sponsored its own holiday celebrations in the area. It is also interesting to note who celebrated the first Christmas and who didn’t. The first Christmas was not celebrated by the emperor Caesar Augustus, nor Quirinius, the governor of Syria, nor was it celebrated by the lowly innkeeper. But Christmas was celebrated by a few lonely shepherds along with Joseph and Mary and the angels of heaven. How

A Prayer at Ground Zero

Does the Bible mention treating animals with kindness?

When I solicited questions to be addressed in this series, a member of the congregation wrote this to me: “Animals are mentioned in the Bible as beasts of burden and sacrificial animals.  Is there any mention of treating animals with kindness?” The short answer to that question is: yes. However, it is important to note that what the Bible says about caring for animals comes in the midst of a great narrative. It is a narrative of  Creation, Fall, and Redemption.  Let’s look at these three great acts in the narrative play of world history one by one. First, let’s look at creation. Creation At the very beginning of the Bible, in the book of Genesis, chapter 1, verses 26 through 28, we read this: Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the

Christmas Day Thought from Henri Nouwen

" I keep thinking about the Christmas scene that Anthony arranged under the altar. This probably is the most meaningful "crib" I have ever seen. Three small woodcarved figures made in India: a poor woman, a poor man, and a small child between them. The carving is simple, nearly primitive. No eyes, no ears, no mouths, just the contours of the faces. The figures are smaller than a human hand - nearly too small to attract attention at all. "But then - a beam of light shines on the three figures and projects large shadows on the wall of the sanctuary. That says it all. The light thrown on the smallness of Mary, Joseph, and the Child projects them as large, hopeful shadows against the walls of our life and our world. "While looking at the intimate scene we already see the first outlines of the majesty and glory they represent. While witnessing the most human of human events, I see the majesty of God appearing on the horizon of my existence. While

C. S. Lewis on Church Attendance

A friend's blog written yesterday ( http://wesroberts.typepad.com/ ) got me thinking about C. S. Lewis's experience of the church. I wrote this in a comment on Wes Robert's blog: It is interesting to note that C. S. Lewis attended the same small church for over thirty years. The experience was nothing spectacular on a weekly basis. For most of those years Lewis didn't care much for the sermons; he even sat behind a pillar so that the priest would not see the expression on his face. He attended the service without music because he so disliked hymns. And he left right after holy communion was served probably because he didn't like to engage in small talk with other parishioners after the service. But that life-long obedience in the same direction shaped Lewis in a way that nothing else could. Lewis was once asked, "Is attendance at a place of worship or membership with a Christian community necessary to a Christian way of life?" His answer w

Sheldon Vanauken Remembered

A good crowd gathered at the White Hart Cafe in Lynchburg, Virginia on Saturday, February 7 for a powerpoint presentation I gave on the life and work of Sheldon Vanauken. Van, as he was known to family and friends, was best known as the author of A Severe Mercy , the autobiography of his love relationship with his wife Jean "Davy" Palmer Davis. While living in Oxford, England in the early 1950's, Van and Davy came to faith in Christ through the influence of C. S. Lewis. Van was a professor of history and English literature at Lynchburg College from 1948 until his retirement around 1980. A Severe Mercy tells the story of Davy's death from a mysterious liver ailment in 1955 and Van's subsequent dealing with grief. Van himself died from cancer in 1996. It was my privilege to know Van for a brief period of time during the last year of his life. However, present at the White Hart on February 7 were some who knew Van far better than I did--Floyd Newman, one of Van&

Glenmerle

Glenmerle in the 1950s In 2013 I published a biography on one of my favorite authors, Sheldon Vanauken. If you are interested, you can learn more and/or purchase a signed copy here:  Signed Copy  or an unsigned copy here:  Amazon . One of the things that got me writing the book was my search for the location of Glenmerle, Vanauken's childhood home, so lovingly described in his book, A Severe Mercy . A visit to Van's alma mater, Staunton Military Academy, alerted me to the fact that Van grew up in Carmel, Indiana. Then, with the help of a local historian, we identified the location of Glenmerle.  Because Van had suggested, in my first conversation with him, that Glenmerle was destroyed, I naturally assumed that the house no longer existed. However, another one of Van's fans recently contacted me to let me know that she believed she had found Glenmerle still in existence. I was able to look up the house on a real estate web site and compare current interior photos o