3/21/11
Numbers 14-15 --- Psalm 90
The People Rebel
Numbers 14:1 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. 2 And all the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron; the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! 3 Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become booty; would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” According to Tan. B. IV, 84; BaR 16.3: Sifre D., 24; Midrash Tannaim 12. the people told Moses “If an earthly king has two sons and two fields, one watered by a river, and the other dependent upon rains, will he not give the one that is watered by the river to his favorite son, and give the other, less excellent field to his other son? God led us out of Egypt, a land that is not dependent upon rain, only to give us the land of Canaan, which produces abundantly only if the rains fall." 4 So they said to one another, “Let us choose a captain, and go back to Egypt.”
5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the Israelites. 6 And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes 7 and said to all the congregation of the Israelites, “The land that we went through as spies is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. 9 Only, do not rebel against the Lord; and do not fear the people of the land, for they are no more than bread for us; their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” 10 But the whole congregation threatened to stone them.
Then the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites. 11 And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me?
Jewish sources paint a traumatic story of this night of weeping. They say the people cried long and loud, because of the report of the spies, that continued to be retold and retold throughout the camp. Basically the people believed the spies with the bad report more than God. Remember, they had God's presence among them, but so do we. How many times do I believe situations and circumstances more than God, despite God's past faithfulness? Even now I struggle to believe in good things though God has promised to guide the footsteps of the righteous. Righteous means in good relationship with God. Am I in good relationship with God? If I were wouldn't my faith be stronger? Relationship is not works. We wrongfully blame God for our own sin. We are called to live by faith. Lack of faith is sin. The people's lack of faith and loud weeping were the reason, Yelammedenu in Yalkut I, 743 on Num. 14:1, also Sifre D. On the “night of weeping”, see Sotah 65a; Taʿanit 29a; Yerushalmi 4, 68d; Tan. B. IV, 690; Tan. Shelah 12; BaR 16.20; ER 29, 145; Ekah 1.60–61; Targum Yerushalmi Num. 14:1; Jerome on Zech. 8:18–19. that God decreed to destroy the Temple on the ninth day of Ab. On the ninth day of Ab the people had wept without cause. Little did they know their lack of faith would mean that future generations of Israel would weep with good cause.
And how long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? 12 I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”
Moses Intercedes for the People
13 But Moses said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for in your might you brought up this people from among them, 14 and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people; for you, O Lord, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them and you go in front of them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. 15 Now if you kill this people all at one time, then the nations who have heard about you will say, 16 ‘It is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them that he has slaughtered them in the wilderness.’ 17 And now, therefore, let the power of the Lord be great in the way that you promised when you spoke, saying,
18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love,
forgiving iniquity and transgression,
but by no means clearing the guilty,
visiting the iniquity of the parents
upon the children
to the third and the fourth generation.’
Justice or mercy? How often are we confronted with a choice? We know the answer is not either-or, but both-and. God shows mercy, but at the same time God will not be mocked. God did not wipe out these Israelites all at once, but didn't they trek through the desert for 40 years? Who among them entered the promised land? Because we are not immediately punished for what we do we often think we have escaped. Their words of doubt were their great sin. God's response was God's word. It will always be there to encourage and to convict. To lean too much to either is a mistake. Encouragement without conviction leads to vanity and conviction without encouragement leads to despair. You can quote me on that. I have lived long enough on both sides of God's word to know it to be true.
19 Forgive the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have pardoned this people, from Egypt even until now.”
20 Then the Lord said, “I do forgive, just as you have asked; 21 nevertheless—as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord— 22 none of the people who have seen my glory and the signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have tested me these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, 23 shall see the land that I swore to give to their ancestors; none of those who despised me shall see it. 24 But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me wholeheartedly, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. 25 Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”
An Attempted Invasion is Repulsed (Deut 1.41—45)
26 And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying: 27 How long shall this wicked congregation complain against me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites, which they complain against me. 28 Say to them, “As I live,” says the Lord, “I will do to you the very things I heard you say: 29 your dead bodies shall fall in this very wilderness; and of all your number, included in the census, from twenty years old and upward, who have complained against me, 30 not one of you shall come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. 31 But your little ones, who you said would become booty, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have despised. 32 But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. 33 And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. 34 According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day a year, you shall bear your iniquity, forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.” 35 I the Lord have spoken; surely I will do thus to all this wicked congregation gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.
36 And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation complain against him by bringing a bad report about the land— 37 the men who brought an unfavorable report about the land died by a plague before the Lord. 38 But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh alone remained alive, of those men who went to spy out the land.
39 When Moses told these words to all the Israelites, the people mourned greatly. 40 They rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country, saying, “Here we are. We will go up to the place that the Lord has promised, for we have sinned.” 41 But Moses said, “Why do you continue to transgress the command of the Lord? That will not succeed. 42 Do not go up, for the Lord is not with you; do not let yourselves be struck down before your enemies. 43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will confront you there, and you shall fall by the sword; because you have turned back from following the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.” 44 But they presumed to go up to the heights of the hill country, even though the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, had not left the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and defeated them, pursuing them as far as Hormah.
Various Offerings
Numbers 14:1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving you, 3 and you make an offering by fire to the Lord from the herd or from the flock—whether a burnt offering or a sacrifice, to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering or at your appointed festivals—to make a pleasing odor for the Lord, 4 then whoever presents such an offering to the Lord shall present also a grain offering, one-tenth of an ephah of choice flour, mixed with one-fourth of a hin of oil. 5 Moreover, you shall offer one-fourth of a hin of wine as a drink offering with the burnt offering or the sacrifice, for each lamb. 6 For a ram, you shall offer a grain offering, two-tenths of an ephah of choice flour mixed with one-third of a hin of oil; 7 and as a drink offering you shall offer one-third of a hin of wine, a pleasing odor to the Lord. 8 When you offer a bull as a burnt offering or a sacrifice, to fulfill a vow or as an offering of well-being to the Lord, 9 then you shall present with the bull a grain offering, three-tenths of an ephah of choice flour, mixed with half a hin of oil, 10 and you shall present as a drink offering half a hin of wine, as an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord.
11 Thus it shall be done for each ox or ram, or for each of the male lambs or the kids. 12 According to the number that you offer, so you shall do with each and every one. 13 Every native Israelite shall do these things in this way, in presenting an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord. 14 An alien who lives with you, or who takes up permanent residence among you, and wishes to offer an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord, shall do as you do. 15 As for the assembly, there shall be for both you and the resident alien a single statute, a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you and the alien shall be alike before the Lord. 16 You and the alien who resides with you shall have the same law and the same ordinance.
17 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 18 Speak to the Israelites and say to them: After you come into the land to which I am bringing you, 19 whenever you eat of the bread of the land, you shall present a donation to the Lord. 20 From your first batch of dough you shall present a loaf as a donation; you shall present it just as you present a donation from the threshing floor. 21 Throughout your generations you shall give to the Lord a donation from the first of your batch of dough.
22 But if you unintentionally fail to observe all these commandments that the Lord has spoken to Moses— 23 everything that the Lord has commanded you by Moses, from the day the Lord gave commandment and thereafter, throughout your generations— 24 then if it was done unintentionally without the knowledge of the congregation, the whole congregation shall offer one young bull for a burnt offering, a pleasing odor to the Lord, together with its grain offering and its drink offering, according to the ordinance, and one male goat for a sin offering. 25 The priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the Israelites, and they shall be forgiven; it was unintentional, and they have brought their offering, an offering by fire to the Lord, and their sin offering before the Lord, for their error. 26 All the congregation of the Israelites shall be forgiven, as well as the aliens residing among them, because the whole people was involved in the error.
27 An individual who sins unintentionally shall present a female goat a year old for a sin offering. 28 And the priest shall make atonement before the Lord for the one who commits an error, when it is unintentional, to make atonement for the person, who then shall be forgiven. 29 For both the native among the Israelites and the alien residing among them—you shall have the same law for anyone who acts in error. 30 But whoever acts high-handedly, whether a native or an alien, affronts the Lord, and shall be cut off from among the people. 31 Because of having despised the word of the Lord and broken his commandment, such a person shall be utterly cut off and bear the guilt.
Penalty for Violating the Sabbath (Ex 31.12—17)
32 When the Israelites were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the sabbath day. 33 Those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses, Aaron, and to the whole congregation. 34 They put him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. 35 Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him outside the camp.” 36 The whole congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.
Fringes on Garments
37 The Lord said to Moses: 38 Speak to the Israelites, and tell them to make fringes on the corners of their garments throughout their generations and to put a blue cord on the fringe at each corner. 39 You have the fringe so that, when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and not follow the lust of your own heart and your own eyes. 40 So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and you shall be holy to your God. 41 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the Lord your God.
Psalm 90 God’s Eternity and Human Frailty
A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.
Lord, you have been our dwelling place
in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
3 You turn us back to dust,
and say, “Turn back, you mortals.”
4 For a thousand years in your sight
are like yesterday when it is past,
or like a watch in the night.
5 You sweep them away; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning;
6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers.
7 For we are consumed by your anger;
by your wrath we are overwhelmed.
8 You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your countenance.
9 For all our days pass away under your wrath;
our years come to an end like a sigh.
10 The days of our life are seventy years,
or perhaps eighty, if we are strong;
even then their span is only toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away.
11 Who considers the power of your anger?
Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.
12 So teach us to count our days
that we may gain a wise heart.
13 Turn, O Lord! How long?
Have compassion on your servants!
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us,
and as many years as we have seen evil.
16 Let your work be manifest to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children.
17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and prosper for us the work of our hands—
O prosper the work of our hands!
Devotionals, Videos and more ...
by Bill Federer
On this date, March 21, 1685, Johann Sebastian Bach was born. By the age of ten, both his parents had died. At eighteen he was appointed organist at a church, followed by positions in royal courts. Once he was imprisoned because the duke he worked for did not want him seeking employment elsewhere. Widowed with seven children, he remarried and had thirteen more. Bach composed hundreds of pieces, sometimes at the rate of one per week and influenced composers such as Mozart and Beethoven. John Sebastian Bach stated: “The aim… of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.”
Federer, B. (2003). American minute. St. Louis, MO.: Amerisearch, Inc.
by D.H. Stern
Whoever stops up his ears at the cry of the poor
will himself cry, but not be answered.
14 A secret gift allays anger,
and a bribe under the cloak the strongest fury.
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
Interest or identification?
I have been crucified with Christ. --- Gal. 2:20. Chambers, O. (1993). My Utmost for His Highest
The imperative need spiritually is to sign the death-warrant of the disposition of sin, to turn all emotional impressions and intellectual beliefs into a moral verdict against the disposition of sin, viz., my claim to my right to myself. Paul says—“I have been crucified with Christ”; he does not say, ‘I have determined to imitate Jesus Christ,’ or, ‘I will endeavour to follow Him,’ but, ‘I have been identified with Him in His death.’ When I come to such a moral decision and act upon it, then all that Christ wrought for me on the Cross is wrought in me. The free committal of myself to God gives the Holy Spirit the chance to impart to me the holiness of Jesus Christ.
“… nevertheless I live …” The individuality remains, but the mainspring, the ruling disposition, is radically altered. The same human body remains, but the old satanic right to myself is destroyed.
“And the life which I now live in the flesh …,” not the life which I long to live and pray to live, but the life I now live in my mortal flesh, the life which men can see, “I live by the faith of the Son of God.” This faith is not Paul’s faith in Jesus Christ, but the faith that the Son of God has imparted to him—“the faith of the Son of God.” It is no longer faith in faith, but faith which has overleapt all conscious bounds, the identical faith of the Son of God.
the Poetry of R.S. Thomas
Gifts
From my father my strong heart,
My weak stomach.
From my mother the fear.
From my sad country the shame.
To my wife all I have
Saving only the love
That is not mine to give.
To my one son the hunger.
Shabbat 104b
A teenager boils a pot of water to make hot chocolate. After the water is ready and the drink is made, the youngster puts the kettle back on the flame and leaves the house. The water eventually boils off, the pot burns, and the kitchen catches fire. When the parents question the teen on the lack of responsibility, the reply is: “What did I do wrong? All I did was put water on the stove. Is that a crime?” By itself, of course not. But an unwatched pot of water will always boil off and then burn.
A laborer from the Department of Public Works digs a three-foot hole in the sidewalk, trying to get to some gas lines. At the end of the day, he leaves the pit uncovered, without warning signs or barricades. After dark, an elderly woman falls into the pit and is severely injured. The worker asks: “What did I do wrong? I just dug a pit! That’s what I’m paid to do.” Combine the innocent digging of a pit with the lack of protection and the coming of darkness, and there is a real disaster in the making.
Physicists in Germany during World War II are engaged by the government to experiment with rocket science. They turn over their research, which is used by Germany to build missiles that deliver payloads of death and destruction hundreds of miles away. After Germany’s defeat, these scientists are tried for war crimes. They plead not guilty. “We were only involved in theoretical scientific issues. What the government and the army did with it is not our fault and not our responsibility.”
The Rabbis take a tougher stance. One cannot avoid responsibility by saying: “It’s not my fault! What I did was okay. I’m not to blame if something else happened. I never intended that. I never in a million years thought …” It’s ludicrous to say, “I cut off its head, but I never meant it to die!” Just as ludicrous is the way that so many people refuse to see the consequences of their actions.
We do not bring proof from fools!
Text / Mishnah (12:4): One who writes in one act of forgetfulness is liable. If he wrote with ink, paint, red paint, gum, vitriol, or anything else that leaves a mark, on two corner walls or on two pages of a tablet which are read together, he is liable. He who writes on his flesh is liable. He who scratches on his flesh—Rabbi Eliezer makes him liable for a sin offering, while the Sages exempt him.
Gemara: “He who scratches on his flesh.” It was taught: Rabbi Eliezer said to the Sages: “Didn’t Ben S’tada bring witchcraft from Egypt using scratches on his flesh?” They said to him: “He was a fool, and we do not bring proof from fools!”
Context / Ben S’tada is an obscure figure mentioned several times in the Talmud. In Sanhedrin 67a, we are told that he was taken out from Lydda on Pesaḥ eve and hanged. His mother is identified as Miriam. Given these two facts, some have speculated that Ben S’tada is another name for Jesus, though this seems impossible based on the chronology: Ben S’tada lived a century after Jesus. Apparently, he was a figure known in rabbinic circles for having stolen some of the secrets of Egyptian sorcery and witchcraft on an ancient version of a “crib sheet.” He was also not very well respected; the Gemara in Sanhedrin describes his lineage in particularly crude terms. These few particulars leave more unknown than known about Ben S’tada—except for the fact that the Rabbis were sure that he was a fool!
The Mishnah reaches who is liable to bring a sin offering, a type of sacrifice given for an accidental transgression, in this case, of the Shabbat. For example, what if one forgot that it was Shabbat and wrote something, in violation of a Shabbat prohibition? Is that person liable to bring a sin offering? First, it must be “one act of forgetfulness,” that is, writing at least two letters at once. (Two letters are the equivalent of the shortest possible Hebrew word and, thus, the minimal requirement for breaking the law of Shabbat.) The next Mishnah will teach that the Rabbis exempt from bringing a sin offering one who forgot that it was Shabbat early in the day and wrote a letter, and then later in the day forgot again and wrote another letter.
Second, one is liable for a Shabbat violation only for writing that is permanent. Thus, all of the writing materials—“ink, paint, red paint, gum, vitriol, or anything else that leaves a mark”—are mentioned. Each leaves a specific type of permanent mark.
What if someone wrote on two adjoining walls, one letter on each wall? (Rashi says, for example, one on the eastern and one on the northern.) In such a case, that person is “liable” and must bring a sin offering. The same is true in the case of two leaves of a tablet (like a sales ledger).
This leads to the disagreement between Rabbi Eliezer and the Rabbis over writing on one’s flesh (as opposed to writing on paper or parchment with a type of ink). Is such scratching considered permanent writing? Rabbi Eliezer says that it is, bringing proof from Ben S’tada, a man who (supposedly) smuggled the secrets of Egyptian witchcraft out of that country by scratching the words onto his skin. The Rabbis respond to Rabbi Eliezer that Ben S’tada’s actions are no proof, for it was known that Ben S’tada was a fool.
Katz, M., & Schwartz, G. (1998). Swimming in the Sea of Talmud: Lessons for Everyday LIving
. Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society.by Diana Wallis
I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world.… Father, protect them. --- John 17:11
With what [further] arguments [does] he plead with the Father?
He adds, in the beginning of John 17:11, a third argument in these words, “I will remain in the world no longer.” Consider the sense of it as a proposition and the force of it as an argument. This proposition, “I will remain in the world no longer,” is not to be taken universally as if in no sense Christ would be any more in this world but only as to his corporeal presence. This, which had been a comfort to them in all their troubles, was soon to be removed from his people.
And here lies the argument: “Father, consider the sadness and trouble I shall leave my poor children under. While I was with them I was sweet relief to their souls, whatever troubles they met. In all doubts, fears, and dangers, they could turn to me, and in their adversities and needs I supplied them. They had my counsels to direct them, my reproofs to correct them, and my comforts to support them. Yes, the very sight of me was unspeakable joy and refreshment to their souls. But now the hour has come, and I must go. All the comfort and benefit they had from my presence is ended, and except you make up all this to them another way, what will become of these children when their Father is gone? What will be the case of the poor sheep and tender lambs when the shepherd is struck?”
And yet, to move and engage the Father’s care and love for them, he subjoins [a fourth] consideration in the very next words, “but they are still in the world.” The world is a sinful, infecting, and unquiet place. And a hard thing it will be for such imperfect creatures to escape the pollutions of it, or if they do, yet the troubles, persecutions, and strong oppositions of it they can’t escape. “Seeing therefore I must leave your children, those from whom the glory is to rise, in the midst of a world where they can neither move backward nor forward without danger of sin or ruin—since this is so, look after them, provide for them, and take special care for them all. Consider who they are and where I leave them. They are your children, left in a strange country; your sheep, in the midst of wolves; your precious treasure, among thieves.” --- John Flavel
(27). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.Rejection of God’s appointed (Num. 12).
Shortly afterward another incident of rebellion occurred. This time Miriam and Aaron, Moses’ sister and brother, resented the special role Moses was given by God. They were aware that God had used them as well as Moses. So they challenged Moses’ authority. God responded angrily, pointing out the special relationship that He Himself had chosen to have with Moses. “He is faithful in all My house[hold]” (v. 7). In judgment, Miriam was stricken with leprosy, and put out of the camp for seven days. Afterward she was healed in answer to Moses’ prayer. (Aaron, who served as high priest, would have been disqualified from his office if he had been similarly judged.) The entire nation was intended to learn by this experience. Everyone was forced to wait for Miriam for those seven days, and did not set out again until she was brought in healed. Why did God deal so harshly and so decisively with the people at fault in these three incidents? These things happened to them as examples. Israel was about to make a vitally important decision—one that would affect her future drastically. On the journey to the place of decision, God permitted these three incidents so that Israel might learn the lesson of responsibility. Notice the parallel in each situation: Circumstances, rather than God’s presence, were given priority by the people. God’s revealed will and purposes were rejected. The rejecting attitude was expressed in actions. Israel’s wrong choices led to judgment and to suffering. In unmistakable and dramatic ways Israel was shown that they were now responsible for their own choices. Whenever they chose to turn away from God, tragic results would inevitably follow.