|
"Masei"
(Journeys) - The Schlep Is Over, Now the Real
Work Begins!
The Torah
portion for this Shabbat will bring us to the
conclusion of BaMidbar, Numbers - the fourth
of the five books comprising the Torah. If you’d
like to follow along, you may open your Bibles
to Numbers chapter 33, as we summarize chapters
33 through 36. This Torah portion is entitled
Masei (“Journeys”), because it opens with
a list of the various journeys undertaken by the
Sons of Israel (42 in all) between our leaving
the city of Ra’amses in Egypt and arrival at Jericho.
First,
notice with me the startling statement that comes
halfway through verse 3 and into verse 4: ...on
the next day after the Passover the sons of Israel
started out boldly in the sight of all the Egyptians,
while the Egyptians were burying all their first-born
whom the Lord had struck down among them.
We didn’t
just leave Egypt, we left while the funeral
was going on! What a bizarre scene that must have
been, and what is lamentable is that it was the
repeated hard-heartedness of Pharaoh that brought
disaster on his people. That tenth plague was
not unavoidable. Nor was the ninth or eight or
even the first. When the God of Israel speaks,
you do well to heed His voice.
Section
I: Egypt to Jericho (33:5-49)
And so
chapter 33 gives us a recap, a thumbnail sketch
of our journeys. Along the way there were incidents,
some of which were very unpleasant. Verse 8 describes
our encampment at Marah, and that’s where the
waters were bitter and we complained to Moses,
who at the Lord’s direction threw a tree into
the water and it became clean and deliciously
drinkable (cf. Exodus 15:22-25). Verse 9 mentions
our encampment at the oasis of Elim, with its
twelve lovely springs and seventy date palms.
Verse 14 notes our encampment at Rephidim, and
that was where we had no water to drink and again
complained and threatened Moses. There God provided
water for us from the rock! At Kibbroth Hattavah,
which is named in verse 16, we again grew impatient
and complained about the lack of meat, and were
given quail to eat. That’s where the Sons of Israel
got greedy and started hoarding the birds and
God struck many people down.
In verses
37-39 we are reminded of our encampment at Mt.
Hor in the region of Moserah, near the border
of the Edomites, and that was where Aaron was
called home. Adonai summoned Moses, Aaron and
Aaron’s son, Eleazar, up to the mountain. There
Moses transferred Aaron’s priestly garments to
Eleazar, and there, on the mountain, Aaron died.
Eleazar alone came back down off Mt. Hor with
Moses.
There’s
a rather cryptic statement in verse 40, Now
the Canaanite, the king of Arad who lived in the
Negev in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming
of the sons of Israel.
So what?
That’s it? Well, if you were to go back to Numbers
chapter 21 you would learn that this particular
Canaanite king had attacked Israel and took some
of them captive. Israel took a vow, asking Him
to deliver those Canaanites into their hands,
and God answered that prayer in the affirmative,
and we destroyed those cities. The name of the
place was changed from Arad to Hormah -
meaning, “devoted to destruction”.
Verses
41 to 49 sum up the journeys from Mt. Hor to Jericho,
and you all know what happened at Jericho, I hope.
But let me ask a question:
What’s
up with the list?
Why this
long, rather repetitive list of place names? “They
journeyed from A and camped at B. They journeyed
from P and camped at Q...” and so on? To some
people this kind of passage has all the excitement
and thrill of, say, a genealogy. Let me assure
you there’s are some very good reasons for this
list, and it starts with this: This is history!
Maybe it’s not exciting to you because it isn’t
your history, but we are talking about verifiable
geographic sites, and recorded movement that could
be verified any time anyone wants to re-trace
the Exodus and the Wilderness Wandering. This
is the kind of thing that separates a factual,
historical document from mythology. In the first
place, with just a few notable exceptions, most
mythologies exaggerate numbers greatly, and the
“heroes” are generally presented as either faultless,
or else their flaw is so glaring as to challenge
credulity. Look at the book of Numbers, by contrast.
Our people are presented neither as flawless,
nor as ridiculously caricatured. Moses also is
shown in a realistic and genuine light. He was
a reluctant leader with human flaws and frailties,
but with great faith in God. And then you have
these long, seemingly tedious lists of names,
numbers and details. But it’s these “boring” little
details that help establish the Torah’s historical
reliability. And to Israel the Torah would be
as the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, and
Declaration of Independence are to us. It is a
record of our history!
The Revolutionary
War might not hold much fascination for someone
in Uzbekistan. And even for Americans, the idea
of reading the journals of soldiers or recorded
numbers of infantry or minute details of military
engagements can seem dry. But it is those details
that enable us to reconstruct the events and analyze
their significance. And the annals of that great
war are available, and you can point to those
cities, that bridge, those fields, that mill,
that river - and those who have done their homework
can tell you who fought there, how long the battle
raged, how many died, which army was victorious,
and how that particular battle contributed to
the overall War for Independence. Don’t think
for one minute that the list of Israel’s travels
and encampments is unimportant! Those willing
to go back in the Scriptures and find the significance
of the place names and how the events there affected
Israel’s future will be blessed tremendously!
Or you can just skip over it, as so many do, and
miss out on what God intended.
Section
II: The Principle Behind the Conquest (33:50-56)
Then
the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab
by the Jordan opposite Jericho, saying, “Speak
to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you
cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of
the land from before you, and destroy all their
figured stones, and destroy all their molten images
and demolish all their high places; and you shall
take possession of the land and live in it, for
I have given the land to you to possess it. And
you shall inherit the land by lot according to
your families; to the larger you shall give more
inheritance, and to the smaller you shall give
less inheritance. Wherever the lot falls to anyone,
that shall be his. You shall inherit according
to the tribes of your fathers. But if you do not
drive out the inhabitants of the land from before
you, then it shall come about that those whom
you let remain of them will become as pricks in
your eyes and as thorns in your sides, and they
shall trouble you in the land in which you live.
And it shall come about that as I plan to do to
them, so I will do to you.’”
Did you
notice that we were commanded to drive out the
Canaanites? Critics of the Bible often, and predictably,
claim that God’s command to destroy the Canaanites
is proof that the Old Testament lacks Divine inspiration,
and is purely the product of men attempting to
whitewash their military conquests. But such an
argument betrays a lack of actually having read
the text. According to the text, we were instructed
to drive out, not annihilate, the Canaanites.
Now, the Canaanites, understandably, were not
about to willingly pack up and leave, but they
chose to fight Israel. God had promised Abraham
that this land would be given to his descendants
after four centuries as slaves in Egypt, and that
the wickedness of the Amorites/Canaanites would
by then have reached its zenith. In view of the
common knowledge by this time of what Israel’s
God had done in Egypt a generation earlier, to
take up war against Israel was a foolish bet,
and the Canaanites lost.
Now we
were instructed to annihilate the Amalekites
for their having attacked our caravan in a most
cowardly fashion - from the rear, killing the
weak and elderly, those straggling behind, including
young children and their mothers. The Amalekites
targeted the most vulnerable for slaughter, and
incurred God’s everlasting wrath.
Now the
principle in the foregoing verses is that Israel
was not to assimilate the Canaanites into their
society. To be sure there were proselytes, just
as there had been converts made in the Exodus.
We’re told in Exodus 12:38 that Israel went up
out of Egypt “a mixed multitude”. This warning
against allowing a continued Canaanite presence
was not about ethnicity, but about not adopting
the horrific cultic practices that characterized
Canaanite religion. Those who worshiped Baal and
the Asherahs and who practiced cultic prostitution
and child-sacrifice, as was the custom of the
Canaanites, were not to live in Israel’s borders.
As we learned painfully in the account of Bil’aam
at Ba’al of Peor, Israel’s toying with paganism
led to tragedy! And lest anyone accuse God of
a double-standard, He promised that if we began
imitating the ways of the heathen, He would pour
out His judgment on us as well; And, sadly, we
did, and He did!
Section
III. Apportionment of the Land (34:1 - 35:5)
Have you
ever witnessed or even been part of a lengthy
and painful legal battle over property? Most of
us would concur with King David, who wrote, “The
earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains (Psalm
24:1)”. But if my next door neighbor decided to
move their fence a couple of feet into my yard,
do you really think I’d just sit idly by?
This next
section of parsha Masei concerned the defined
borders of the nation, and the equitable apportionment
of the Land upon our arrival. By the way, this
is one of the reasons I frequently recommend that
believers who are serious about their knowledge
of the Bible purchase a Bible atlas. When Numbers
34 says that our southern border was to extend
from the wilderness of Zin along the side of
Edom and... extend from the end of the Salt Sea
eastward, it sure helps to be able to look
at a map and see what kind of real estate we’re
talking about!
(Those
who have the Moody Bible Atlas should check out
maps 25 & 26 with this passage)
Reuben,
Gad and the ½ tribe of Manasseh already had received
their land allotment east of the Jordan, “toward
the sunrise” (mizrachi) as the text says
here, so what we’re concerned with here in chapter
34 is the allotment for the other 9 ½ tribes.
Joshua and Eleazar the High Priest were to oversee
this, and one man from each tribe was to handle
the apportionment. Not a whole lot is said about
how it was conducted here, but we are to be reminded
that the sons of Israel were inheriting fields
they had not sown, houses they had not had to
build, flocks they had not had to develop, and
they were to be thankful to God. Listen to the
words of Moses in Deuteronomy 6: Then it shall
come about when the Lord your God brings you into
the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, to give you, great and splendid
cities which you did not build, and houses full
of all good things which you did not fill, and
hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards
and olive trees which you did not plant, and you
shall eat and be satisfied, then watch yourself,
lest you forget the Lord who brought you from
the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
You shall reverence only the Lord your God; and
you shall worship Him, and swear by His name.
You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods
of the peoples who surround you ... (Deuteronomy
6:10-14)
We like
to think it’s been our hard work that has enabled
us to have homes, cars, wardrobes, filled refrigerators,
but you and I don’t have a single thing that isn’t
by the grace of God. Many have worked hard but
had little to show for it. I am an advocate of
honest, hard work. I concur wholeheartedly with
Rabbi Paul, who taught that laziness was not to
be tolerated. If a man was unwilling to work,
he shouldn’t expect to eat. But we are greatly
mistaken if we think it is our strength or our
ingenuity or our skill that has brought these
blessings to us.
If in
God we live and move and have our being,
what makes us think we have our “stuff” outside
of Him?
In chapter
35, verses 1-5 the people are commanded to provide
cities within each tribe to live in. The tribe
of Levi, as you may recall, did not receive a
land allotment. Adonai declared that He Himself
would be their portion. But that does not mean
that the Levites were to be homeless! Each tribe
was responsible to provide adequately for the
Levites in their midst. There were to be cities
reserved for them to live in. This was not little
matter. Those Levites served on their behalf before
God. To fail to provide for them would be like
stealing: using their services but failing to
compensate them. If God forbade us to muzzle an
ox while it was working, how much less the servants
of the Living God? The Levites were also to be
afforded pasture lands for the many flocks needed
for service at the Mishkan, and it was very specific:
two thousand cubits in each direction from the
wall of the city.
Section
IV. Distinguishing Manslaughter from Murder (35:6-34)
Numbers
35:9-12 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them,
‘When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
then you shall select for yourselves cities to
be your cities of refuge, that the manslayer who
has killed any person unintentionally may flee
there. And the cities shall be to you as a refuge
from the avenger, so that the manslayer may not
die until he stands before the congregation for
trial...’”
Those
Levitical cities were to include six cities (three
east of the Jordan and three west of the Jordan)
set aside specifically as “Cities of Refuge”.
It was incumbent upon Israel to make ethical and
legal distinctions between manslaughter and murder.
The former is accidental (though may involve negligence),
while the latter involves malice and intent. However
horrifically stupid it may be for a parent to
leave their child strapped in a car in hot weather
while they go shopping (or to lecture a class
at the university) and forget about them, it is
a mistake to call that “murder” - in spite of
media sentimentality.
If a man
accidentally caused another man’s death, there
were to be cities established in each region to
which he could flee, lest the family of the victim
take matters into their own hands and seek revenge
and become guilty of murder themselves.
The verses
which follow make clear distinctions about what
does constitute murder. What we find is
that anyone who wielded a hard object, such as
a stone, or a wooden object or iron object in
their hands, and intentionally and maliciously
struck the person, that is to be considered murder.
If they flee to one of the cities of refuge, they
will still have to stand trial before the High
Priest and the people of the city and the avenging
family. If they are found guilty - and that
had to be by more than one witness - he was
to be put to death, and it was the family of the
victim that would have that responsibility, and
it was not an option. Capital punishment for murder
is the biblical standard all the way from Genesis
9:6 to Revelation 21:8.
Human
beings bear the image of God, and as such our
life is to be regarded as sacred and to be protected,
nurtured and cherished. If you willfully take
a human life you forfeit your own. That is the
principle. There are practicalities, as well.
Historically, the threat of capital punishment
has always been a deterrent to rampant killing.
Some modernists question the effectiveness of
deterrent. Actually, anyone who has kids understands
the redemptive power of genuine threat of punishment
for wrongdoing. In Deuteronomy chapters 13 and
19 God mandated severe punishment for certain
crimes (one of which was perjury) and specifically
says that people will hear of it and be afraid
and never again do such an evil thing.
Section
V. Equity and Tribal Integrity (36:1-13)
Our Torah
portion ends with an admonition that daughters
not be cheated of their inheritance if there was
no son born to the family. They were to be guaranteed
the retention of their family estate. But lest
there be transference of lands between tribes
(something prohibited by God), the daughters (in
this case the daughters of one Zelophehad) were
required to marry within the tribe. The last thing
we needed was inter-tribal hostilities over land.
Conclusion:
Sometimes
we make the mistake of thinking that the end of
the journey means the end of responsibility. But
as in the case of Israel’s journeys and entrance
into the Land of Promise, that’s where the real
work begins - the work of pursuing justice and
trustworthy administration. The next time you’re
in a major transition in your life you may want
to remember that. Arriving in a new place, or
a new position, or a new stage in life hardly
means the end of meaningful and diligent work.
Keep at it! Do whatever it is that God has given
you to do with excellence! Don’t let that line
go slack only to have the kite come crashing down.
Allow the tension of serving God and doing your
very best remain, and you’ll fly high and straight.
Shalom,
Rabbi Glenn
|
