Saturday, May 15, 2010

The book of Numbers ends with the Israelites camped "on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho" with the promised land now in sight. The forty years of wandering was finally over.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Numbers 35
" 'Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it. 34 Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell, for I, the LORD, dwell among the Israelites.' "

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

In Numbers 34, the Lord instructs Moses regarding the boundaries of the promised land (Canaan). God gives the specific land marks for the boundaries on the North, South, East, and West, of the special land that will be the possession of the Israelites. Next, the Lord directs Moses to give responsibility of dividing the land to Eleazar and Joshua. Also, the leader of each tribe is enlisted to help oversee the dividing of the land among the Israelites.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Numbers 33 ... the LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish all their high places. Take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess. Distribute the land by lot, according to your clans. To a larger group give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group a smaller one. Whatever falls to them by lot will be theirs. Distribute it according to your ancestral tribes. " 'But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live. 56 And then I will do to you what I plan to do to them.' "

Monday, May 10, 2010

Numbers 28-32

Moses said to the Gadites and Reubenites, "Shall your countrymen go to war while you sit here? Why do you discourage the Israelites from going over into the land the LORD has given them? This is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to look over the land. After they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and viewed the land, they discouraged the Israelites from entering the land the LORD had given them. The LORD's anger was aroused that day and he swore this oath: 'Because they have not followed me wholeheartedly, not one of the men twenty years old or more who came up out of Egypt will see the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob- not one except Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua son of Nun, for they followed the LORD wholeheartedly.' The LORD's anger burned against Israel and he made them wander in the desert forty years, until the whole generation of those who had done evil in his sight was gone.
"And here you are, a brood of sinners, standing in the place of your fathers and making the LORD even more angry with Israel. If you turn away from following him, he will again leave all this people in the desert, and you will be the cause of their destruction."

Sunday, May 9, 2010

In Numbers 27, Moses is directed by the Lord to go up to the Abarim mountain range and view the land that will be given to the Israelites after his death. Moses then asked God to appoint someone to take over the responsibility in shepherding the Israelites. The Lord told Moses to take Joshua as his successor and commission him before the whole assembly of Israelites so that they will respect his authority and obey him.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Numbers 26 records the second census instructed by the Lord, "Take a census of the whole Israelite community by families--all those twenty years old or more who are able to serve in the army of Israel." The total number of the men of Israel was 601,730.
"Not one of them was among those counted by Moses and Aaron the priest when they counted the Israelites in the Desert of Sinai. For the Lord had told those Israelites they would surely die in the desert, and not one of them was left except Caleb and Joshua."