Skip to main content

Numbers 24-27



Numbers 24 concludes the story of Balaam, but there is a sequel that we will discuss when we come to Numbers 31:8.
In Numbers 25, we see the Israelites engaging in sexual activity with the daughters of Moab. The Moabites then attract the Israelites to get involved in sacrificing to their gods. YHWH is understandably jealous of his people’s affections. YHWH then instructs Moses to have the leaders of the people killed for this offense. However, Moses takes things further. He says to the judges of Israel, “Each of you shall kill any of your people who have yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor.” (Numbers 25:5)
Just as this is happening, an Israelite man takes a Midianite woman and has sexual relations with her in the Tent of Meeting. Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, sees this and pursues the couple into the Tent of Meeting, then he pierces them together "through the belly" with his spear. “So the plague was stopped among the people of Israel. Nevertheless those that died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.” (Numbers 25:8-9)
Friedman has this helpful comment on this episode:
Commentators have been troubled by Phinehas’s zeal in killing these two people. But the point is that it is a ritual crime. The crime is not that an Israelite and a Midianite have sexual relations. It is that they have violated the Tabernacle. As non-Levites, they are not even permitted to enter it, let alone to have sexual relations—whether it is for procreation, pleasure, or a fertility rite. Note that there is no trial. If it were solely an ethical offense, there would be a trial and an inquiry into their motives. But, for a ritual violation of the holy place, there is no trial because there is no possible defense, no satisfactory motive or explanation. Phinehas, as a priest, can enter, and he executes them—as the law requires (Num 1:51; 3:10,38; 18:4,7). Thus the Torah goes on to tell us that (1) this stops a plague and (2) God is pleased with what Phinehas has done and gives him a reward for it: a covenant of eternal priesthood. These harsh consequences for ritual offenses—here and in the case of Nadab and Abihu and elsewhere—are extremely difficult to comprehend in the present age, in which most people (I think), including me, respond with shock to their severity.[1]
Numbers 26 records the census that takes place after the plague. Numbers 26:11 mentions that Korah’s sons did not die as a result of his rebellion. Friedman comments:
Indeed, their descendants later become the composers or singers of psalms in the Temple…and they are mentioned in an inscription on a bowl from a temple excavated at Arad that functioned during the preexilic biblical period [see below]…. Why do Korah’s children not die with Korah? Korah’s ritual offense is the improper burning of incense. His 250 followers commit this offense as well. And so all those who have had contact with the forbidden incense are killed. There is no suggestion that their sons play any part or come into contact with the incense.[2]

At the end of Numbers 26, we learn that there was not a man in this second census who was also recorded in the first census, except for Caleb and Joshua. This is a confirmation of God’s condemnation of the Israelites who failed to trust him and take the Promised Land after the spies gave their report. Caleb and Joshua are faithful to the Lord’s vision for his people and so they will survive to lead the new generation into the Promised Land.
Numbers 27 records the incident of Zelophehad’s daughters asking Moses for the right to inherit their father’s land. Friedman has this important comment on this story:
This judgment is an important step in the development of women’s rights, but its message is mixed. On one hand, it says that women can inherit property, and their right of inheritance precedes the rights of their father’s male siblings or any other male relatives who are more distantly related to their father than the women themselves. On the other hand, this applies only if their father had no sons. If a father has even one son and ten daughters, the son inherits the family land. The daughters are dependent on that brother or on their husbands for property…. There is little point in debating whether this step means that the Torah is supportive of women, on the grounds that it provides for them to inherit, or whether it means that the Torah is unfair to women, on the grounds that sons still precede daughters. The fact is that social transformations take time: generations, centuries, even millennia. The Torah does not command a revolution in the status of women. It provides for steps such as this one, which in the short run established that women do have rights, and which ultimately participated in the development of women’s rights generally. We can praise the Bible for how far it went, or we can be critical that it did not go farther. But we would do better to examine how far it went in its age, and how much this contributed to the transformation in the balance between men and women in the millennia that followed. The larger point is the same that I made with regard to slavery: The Torah does not forbid it and attempt to bring it to an end overnight. It rather gives laws of treatment of slaves—which involved granting respect, rights, and compassion for slaves. And this eventually undermined slavery as an institution. The diminution of slavery and the increase of women’s rights are two of the major developments of the past century. The Torah’s laws played an early and determinative part in birthing and nurturing both of these revolutions.[3]
At the end of Numbers 27, we have the last record in the Torah of Moses speaking to YHWH. Moses’ concern is that the people should have a leader after he dies. YHWH tells Moses to appoint Joshua. He tells Moses to lay his hand on Joshua. However, Moses lays both hands on Joshua. Friedman believes Moses does this to make the choice of Joshua unmistakably clear. He fulfills the divine command with one hand, and with the other hand Moses adds his own affirmation of Joshua. Friedman notes, “The successor to a great leader is always in a vulnerable position, and it is a gracious act by the great leader to support that successor.”[4]


[1] Friedman, Commentary on the Torah, 513
[2] Ibid, 515-516
[3] Ibid, 520-521
[4] Ibid, 522

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