3/20/11
Numbers 11-13
Complaining in the Desert
Numbers 11:1 Now when the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, the Lord heard it and his anger was kindled. Then the fire of the Lord burned against them, and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. 2 But the people cried out to Moses; and Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire abated. 3 So that place was called Taberah, because the fire of the Lord burned against them. The scholastic resources I referred to regarding Taberah all said the same thing. It was a place in the wilderness where the Israelites were quickly punished for complaining. The Legends of the Jews: Moses in the Wilderness was much more interesting. "The sad predicament of Moses on this occasion is partly traceable to the fact that he had to face alone the murmurs and complaints of the people without the accustomed assistance of the seventy elders. Since the exodus from Egypt the seventy elders of the people had always been at his side, but these had recently been killed by the fire from heaven at Taberah, so that he now stood all alone. This death overtook the elders because like Nadab and Abihu they had not shown sufficient reverence in ascending Mount Sinai on the day of the revelation, when, in view of the Divine vision, they conducted themselves in an unseemly manner. Like Nadab and Abihu the elders would have received instantaneous punishment for their offense, had not God been unwilling to spoil the joyful day of the revelation by their death. But they had to pay the penalty nevertheless: Nadab and Abihu, by being burned at the consecration of the Tabernacle, and the elders similarly, at Taberah." Ginzberg, Louis ; Szold, Henrietta ; Radin, Paul: Legends of the Jews. 2nd ed. Philadelphia : Jewish Publication Society, 2003, S. 695 I love reading what the Rabbis had to say.
4 The rabble among them had a strong craving; and the Israelites also wept again, and said, “If only we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; 6 but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”
Notice what they are complaining about not having. Don't you find it odd that in Egypt they were not only given straw to make bricks, but apparently great food? When they left Egypt they had cattle and sheep. Couldn't they make themselves a Big Mac or Quarter Pounder if they really wanted? There is something else behind this complaining. Maybe they just didn't like being under God's authority?? Maybe they didn't want to use their livestock because they wanted something for nothing? Do you think most of us today would fit in nicely with this group?
7 Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its color was like the color of gum resin. 8 The people went around and gathered it, ground it in mills or beat it in mortars, then boiled it in pots and made cakes of it; and the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. 9 When the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna would fall with it.
10 Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, all at the entrances of their tents. Then the Lord became very angry, and Moses was displeased. 11 So Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you treated your servant so badly? Whoa, no intercession here! Moses is hot. Don't for a minute think those around you don't impact how you think and what you do. Suddenly everything is about Moses. Why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? 12 Did I conceive all this people? Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a sucking child,’ to the land that you promised on oath to their ancestors? 13 Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they come weeping to me and say, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ 14 I am not able to carry all this people alone, for they are too heavy for me. 15 If this is the way you are going to treat me, put me to death at once—if I have found favor in your sight—and do not let me see my misery.”
The Seventy Elders
16 So the Lord said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; bring them to the tent of meeting, and have them take their place there with you. 17 I will come down and talk with you there; and I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them; and they shall bear the burden of the people along with you so that you will not bear it all by yourself. I found the following in Tan. B. IV, 61; Tan. Behaʿaloteka 16; 15.25. God said to him: “I gave thee sufficient understanding and wisdom to guide My children alone, that thou mightest be distinguished by this honor. Thou, however, wishest to share this guidance with others. Go, then, and expect no help from Me, ‘but I will take of the spirit that is upon thee and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone.’ ” 18 And say to the people: Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wailed in the hearing of the Lord, saying, ‘If only we had meat to eat! Surely it was better for us in Egypt.’ Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat. 19 You shall eat not only one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, 20 but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you—because you have rejected the Lord who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’ ” 21 But Moses said, “The people I am with number six hundred thousand on foot; and you say, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month’! 22 Are there enough flocks and herds to slaughter for them? Are there enough fish in the sea to catch for them?” 23 The Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord’s power limited? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.”
24 So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord; and he gathered seventy elders of the people, and placed them all around the tent. 25 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again. Some may think it wrong to use Jewish sources for Bible study. I find it enlightening. I got the following from Tan. B. IV, 58; Tan. Behaʿaloteka 13; BaR 15.20; Targum Yerushalmi Num. 11:16; Sifre N., 92; Sifre Z., 200. Moses was now supposed to choose his new 70 leaders openly so the people could watch. He chose men who had been leaders before while they were in Egypt. When they were in Egypt if the people did not meet their job quota the leaders were beaten. So these leaders were chosen from among those who had not only been willing to sacrifice themselves for others, but probably endured beatings because of the people. These were the ones found worthy of having the Holy Spirit come upon them. Do you think this kind of criteria would change political leaders, business leaders, church leadership today?
26 Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested on them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. 27 And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” 28 And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, “My lord Moses, stop them!” 29 But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!” 30 And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.
Quail
31 Then a wind went out from the Lord, and it brought quails from the sea and let them fall beside the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, about two cubits deep on the ground. 32 So the people worked all that day and night and all the next day, gathering the quails; the least anyone gathered was ten homers; and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. 33 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague. 34 So that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had the craving. 35 From Kibroth-hattaavah the people journeyed to Hazeroth.
Aaron and Miriam Jealous of Moses
Numbers 12:1 While they were at Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had indeed married a Cushite woman); 2 and they said, “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the Lord heard it. 3 Now the man Moses was very humble, more so than anyone else on the face of the earth. 4 Suddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.” So the three of them came out. 5 Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the entrance of the tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forward. 6 And he said,
“Hear my words:
When there are prophets among you,
I the Lord make myself known to them in visions;
I speak to them in dreams.
7 Not so with my servant Moses;
he is entrusted with all my house.
8 With him I speak face to face—clearly, not in riddles;
and he beholds the form of the Lord.
Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” 9 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed.
10 When the cloud went away from over the tent, Miriam had become leprous, as white as snow. And Aaron turned towards Miriam and saw that she was leprous. 11 Then Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, do not punish us for a sin that we have so foolishly committed. 12 Do not let her be like one stillborn, whose flesh is half consumed when it comes out of its mother’s womb.” 13 And Moses cried to the Lord, “O God, please heal her.” 14 But the Lord said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be shut out of the camp for seven days, and after that she may be brought in again.” 15 So Miriam was shut out of the camp for seven days; and the people did not set out on the march until Miriam had been brought in again. 16 After that the people set out from Hazeroth, and camped in the wilderness of Paran.
Spies Sent into Canaan (Deut 1.19—33)
Numbers 13:1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites; from each of their ancestral tribes you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.” 3 So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the Lord, all of them leading men among the Israelites. 4 These were their names: From the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur; 5 from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori; 6 from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh; 7 from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph; 8 from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun; 9 from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu; 10 from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi; 11 from the tribe of Joseph (that is, from the tribe of Manasseh), Gaddi son of Susi; 12 from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli; 13 from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael; 14 from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi; 15 from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Machi. 16 These were the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses changed the name of Hoshea son of Nun to Joshua.
17 Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up there into the Negeb, and go up into the hill country, 18 and see what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, 19 and whether the land they live in is good or bad, and whether the towns that they live in are unwalled or fortified, 20 and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be bold, and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now it was the season of the first ripe grapes.
21 So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near Lebo-hamath. 22 They went up into the Negeb, and came to Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the Anakites, were there. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23 And they came to the Wadi Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them. They also brought some pomegranates and figs. 24 That place was called the Wadi Eshcol, because of the cluster that the Israelites cut down from there.
The Report of the Spies
25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. 26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 Yet the people who live in the land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large; and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites live in the land of the Negeb; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea, and along the Jordan.”
30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” 31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against this people, for they are stronger than we.” 32 So they brought to the Israelites an unfavorable report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are of great size. 33 There we saw the Nephilim (the Anakites come from the Nephilim); and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
Devotionals, Videos and more ...
by Bill Federer
On this date, March 20, 1727, Sir Isaac Newton, one of the world’s greatest scientists, died. With his mother widowed twice, he was raised by his grandmother, before being sent off to grammar school and later Cambridge. He discovered calculus, the laws of gravity and built the first reflecting telescope. Using a prism, Newton demonstrated how a beam of sunlight contained of all the colors of the rainbow. Regarding the Bible, Isaac Newton wrote: “The system of revealed truth which this Book contains is like that of the universe, concealed from common observation yet… the centuries have established its Divine origin.”
Federer, B. (2003). American minute. St. Louis, MO.: Amerisearch, Inc.
by D.H. Stern
When a scorner is punished,
the simple become wiser;
and when the wise is instructed,
he takes hold of knowledge.
The Righteous One observes
the house of the wicked;
he overthrows the wicked to their ruin.
Stern, D. H. (1998). Complete Jewish Bible-OE
: An English version of the Tanakh (OT) and
B'rit Hadashah (NT) (1st ed.). Clarksville, Md.: Jewish
New Testament Publications.
by Oswald Chambers
Friendship with God
Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? Genesis 18:17. Chambers, O. (1993). My Utmost for His Highest
Its Delights. This chapter brings out the delight of real friendship with God as compared with occasional feelings of His presence in prayer. To be so much in contact with God that you never need to ask Him to show you His will, is to be nearing the final stage of your discipline in the life of faith. When you are rightly related to God, it is a life of freedom and liberty and delight, you are God’s will, and all your commonsense decisions are His will for you unless He checks. You decide things in perfect delightful friendship with God, knowing that if your decisions are wrong He will always check; when He checks, stop at once.
Its Difficulties. Why did Abraham stop praying when he did? He was not intimate enough yet to go boldly on until God granted his desire, there was something yet to be desired in his relationship to God. Whenever we stop short in prayer and say—‘Well, I don’t know; perhaps it is not God’s will,’—there is still another stage to go. We are not so intimately acquainted with God as Jesus was, and as He wants us to be—“That they may be one even as We are one.” Think of the last thing you prayed about—were you devoted to your desire or to God? Determined to get some gift of the Spirit or to get at God? “Your Heavenly Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him.” The point of asking is that you may get to know God better. “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” Keep praying in order to get a perfect understanding of God Himself.
the Poetry of R.S. Thomas
The Son
It was your mother wanted you:
you were already half-formed
when I entered. But can I deny
the hunger, the loneliness bringing me in
from myself? And when you appeared
before me, there was no repentance
for what I had done, as there was shame
in the doing it; compassion only
for that which was too small to be called
human. The unfolding of your hands
was plant-like, your ear was the shell
I thundered in; your cries. when they came,
were those of a blind creature
trodden upon: pain not yet become grief.
Shabbat 75a
A married man is seen at a romantic little restaurant having a candlelit dinner with a woman who is not his wife. Within days, the community is all abuzz about the “affair.” Only later is it discovered that the other woman was actually his sister, in for a visit from out of town.
A woman buys an expensive new luxury car just one month after becoming the treasurer of the elementary school PTA. People begin to ask jokingly if the two facts are somehow related, but the kidding becomes serious when someone claims to have heard that significant funds are missing from the bank account. Only after the treasurer is accused of embezzling does it come out that the rumors were false and that the woman had recently received a modest inheritance upon the death of her mother.
Congregants spot the local rabbi walking into a fast-food restaurant during the afternoon break on Yom Kippur. By the time services conclude that evening, many of the members have already heard a story of how the rabbi ate nonkosher food on the holiest day of the year, a fast day. At the next synagogue board meeting, the embarrassed rabbi has to admit to indeed entering the restaurant, but to relieve a weak bladder.
The concern about mar’it ayin is a troubling one: Why should someone who is doing the right thing have to be worried about what someone else mistakingly thinks? Yet as we see in the above examples, “what the eye sees” can lead to a wrecked marriage, to criminal charges, and to a ruined reputation. In warning us to be sensitive to such things, the Rabbis teach us about the world—not as it should be, but as it is. We are reminded that no matter where we are, someone may well be watching us. The Rabbis would also teach us that no matter where we are, Someone is always watching us.
Can you cut off its head without it dying?
Text / Our Rabbis taught; “One who catches a snail and crushes it is liable for one [sin-offering].” Rabbi Yehudah says: “Crushing falls into the category of threshing.” They said to him: “Crushing does not fall into the category of threshing.”
Rava said: “What is the reason of the Rabbis? They hold that threshing applies only to things grown in the ground.” Maybe he is also liable for taking a life! Rabbi Yoḥanan said: “When he crushed it, it was already dead.” Rava said: “Even if you say that it was alive when he crushed it, he was intent on something else when its life was taken.” But did not Abaye and Rava both say that Rabbi Shimon admits “Can you cut off its head without it dying?” Here the case is different—it is better for him while it [the snail] is alive, because the dye is clearer.
Context / “Hillazon in rabbinical literature is a land or sea snail (Sanhedrin 91a). Among the latter there are species in whose bodies is a gland containing a clear liquid, which when it comes into contact with the air becomes greenish: this is tekhelet which, after the addition of various chemicals, receives its purple color, the “royal purple” of literature.” (Encyclopaedia Judaica, volume 15, p. 914) The dye of the ḥillazon was used, among other things, for the “thread of blue” in the tzitzit or fringes attached to four-cornered garments like the tallit. (Numbers 15:38)
The Mishnah lists thirty-nine major categories of labor that are forbidden on Shabbat. Among them is hunting a deer (and by extension, all forms of hunting and trapping). The Rabbis here are debating the violations involved in catching a particular species of snail that was the source of much sought-after dye. The shell of the snail first had to be crushed and broken so that the dye could be squeezed from the snail. The Rabbis teach that doing this on Shabbat violated one prohibition, and thus a single sin-offering had to be brought to the Temple. Rabbi Yehudah holds that a second violation was involved: The crushing of the shell would fall into the classification of “threshing,” another of the thirty-nine categories of forbidden labor. (Both threshing and crushing required force to break and remove an outer shell in order to get the sought-after inner product.) The Rabbis disagree, saying that “threshing” applies only to things like wheat that grow from the ground.
A question is posed: If crushing the snail is not the same as threshing, is it not the same as “slaughtering,” which is among the thirty-nine labors? Rabbi Yoḥanan answers that in this case, the snail was already dead; the only violation is hunting. Rava holds that even if the snail was killed, the person who crushed it is not liable, because he never intended to kill it, only to extract the dye. This seems to contradict a principle that Rava himself, along with Abaye, stated on another occasion: A person cannot say “I wanted only to cut off the animal’s head; I never intended that the animal should die!” Rabbi Shimon is the authority who held that a labor was permitted, even if it resulted in a forbidden action, so long as that forbidden action was unintentional. (For example, walking on the grass on Shabbat is permitted, even though the act of walking may cause the grass to be uprooted, so long as it was not the intent of the person to uproot the grass.) But even Rabbi Shimon admits that if the forbidden result was inevitable, then the labor is forbidden. Cutting off the animal’s head always leads to death, regardless of the intention, and is therefore forbidden.
The contradiction between Rava’s two statements is resolved by saying that not only is the death of the snail unintentional, it is counter-productive. The quality of the dye is much better when it comes from a living snail.
Katz, M., & Schwartz, G. (1998). Swimming in the Sea of Talmud: Lessons for Everyday LIving
. Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society.by Diana Wallis
Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name… so that they may be one as we are one. --- John 17:11
With what arguments does he plead with the Father for these mercies?
The first is drawn from the joint interest that both he and his Father have in the persons for whom he prays, “All I have is yours, and all you have is mine” (v. 10), as if he would say, “Father, see and consider the persons I pray for, they are not aliens but Christians. Yes, they are your children as well as mine, the very ones on whom you have set your eternal love and in that love have given to me. Great is our interest in them, and interest draws care and tenderness. Everyone cares for his own, provides for and secures his own. Property, even among creatures, is fundamental to their labor, care, and watchfulness; they would not so much prize life, health, estates, or children if they were not their own. Lord, these are your own by many ties or titles. O therefore keep, comfort, sanctify, and save them, for they are yours.” What a mighty plea is this! Surely, Christians, your intercessor is skillful in his work, your advocate lacks no eloquence or ability to plead for you.
The second argument, and that a powerful one, treads on the very heel of the former, “Glory has come to me through them”; “my glory and honor are infinitely dear to you; I know your heart is entirely on the exalting and glorifying of your Son. Now what glory have I in the world but what comes from my people? Others neither can nor will glorify me; no, I am daily blasphemed and dishonored by them. From these my active glory and praise in the world must rise. It is true, both you and I have glory from other creatures; the works that we have made and impress our power, wisdom, and goodness on thus glorify us, and we have honor from our very enemies accidentally, their very wrath will praise us. But for active and voluntary praise, where does this come from except from the people who were formed for that very purpose? Should these then go wrong and perish, where shall my glory be demonstrated and active, and from whom shall I expect it?” Here his property and his glory are pleaded with the Father to prevail for those mercies, and they are both great and valuable things with God. What dearer, what nearer to the heart of God? --- John Flavel
(27). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.Three Lessons: Numbers 11:1–12:15
When Israel moved away from Sinai after having been camped there so long, three incidents occurred which were truly “examples” for Israel (1 Cor. 10:11). Each involved a rejection of God, and each was the occasion of immediate judgment. Israel was being taught the difficult lesson of responsibility. As God’s people they had to respond to Him with trusting obedience. Any failure to respond led to tragic consequences. In these three experiences Israel was being graciously prepared for a coming choice that would establish the destiny of the entire generation. Rejection of God’s guidance (Num. 11:1–3). It took only three days of journeying in desert country for the Israelites to revert to a pattern they had established before they arrived at Sinai. Forgetting all that God had done for them, they let discomfort dominate their thinking. They “complained about their hardships in the hearing of the Lord” (v. 1). This was an explicit rejection of God as the One who guided them, and who had guided them from the beginning. In their murmuring they denied His wisdom, and ignored the supernatural provision of the cloudy-fiery pillar that directed their every move. God immediately acted—in judgment. Fire destroyed some outlying parts of the camp. In panic the people turned to Moses, who prayed, and the fire was controlled. Rejection of God’s provision (Num. 11:4–35). Shortly afterward the people began to complain about something else. They became dissatisfied with their diet, and were ready to trade their freedom for the meat and vegetables they had lived on in Egypt. The manna that God provided was despised, and every man at the door of his tent complained and plotted because of a craving for meat. This rejection of God’s provision was a last straw to Moses, who had long felt the burden of leading a people who behaved like squalling infants (v. 12). God responded to Moses’ need by distributing his leadership responsibility and gift to 70 of the elders. And God responded to the people too. God had Moses inform the people that the next day they would have meat. Meat enough for a whole month, “until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it” (v. 20). “You have rejected the Lord who is among you” (v. 20), is the divine comment on their behavior and its meaning. God provided meat by bringing a great flock of quail (perhaps like the giant flocks of carrier pigeons which in the early days of our continent darkened the sky for days). The quail flew about three feet off the ground (v. 31), and for two days were gathered by the bushel. Meat for the millions had been provided. But when the people began to eat, a great plague struck the camp. Thousands and thousands of the murmurers died (vv. 33–34). The people who had rejected God and His provision bore the dreadful consequences of their choice.