MSB Book Notes:
The title "Numbers" is from the Septuagint and Vulgate.  It refers to the two numberings of the people in chapters 1-4, and in 26.  The Hebrew Bible calls this book B'midbar, which means "in the wilderness", and is much more descriptive of the bulk of the book.  It comes from the first verse, which is translated "ADONAI spoke to Moshe in the Sinai desert".  "in the wilderness" is what the book is about, recounting about 39 years of wandering in the wilderness.  Moses is pretty definitely the author if this, and indeed of the first five books of the Bible.  It was written during the final year of Moses' life.  The events from 20:1 to the end of the book occur in the 40th year after the exodus.  This dates the book in about 1405 BC.  This is because Numbers is foundational to Deuteronomy, and Deuteronomy was written in the 11th month of the 40th year after the Exodus.

MSB gives the geographical travels of the book:
1:1-10:10, Israel is encamped in the Wilderness of Sinai.
10:11-12:16, Israel traveled from Sinai to Kadesh
13:1-20:13, Events in and around Kadesh, which is located in the wilderness of Paran, the wilderness of Zin.  
20:14-22:1, Israel traveled from Kadesh to the "plains of Moab".  
22:2-36:13, Israel is encamped in the plain to the N of Moab.  

Everything that happens in 1:1-14:45 occur in 1444 BC, the year after the Exodus.
Everything after 20:1 is dated about 1406/1405 BC, the 40th year after the Exodus.

The book is about 2 generations of Israel.  The first is the generation that left Egypt.  Their story goes to the first sighting of Canaan, when they rebelled and refused to go in.  God sentences them to die in the wilderness - all those 20 and older except for Joshua and Caleb.  Once these have died, Israel is again at the border of Canaan, and this time they go in.  Their story is from 26:1 through Deuteronomy and Joshua.  

Chapter 1
The book starts with a timestamp:
1 The LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, [Num 1:1 ESV]
So they were camped at Sinai to this point, 13 months now, roughly.

God orders Moses to take a census of all men of Israel, 20 years old and upward.  It is to be done by tribe and by clan.  The head of each tribe - by God's own appointment, is to assist with the census.  There were 603,550, and these were all considered capable of going to war.  This was their maximum army size.
Levites not listed.  They were here put in charge of all things related to the tabernacle - setting it up, taking it down, and carrying it.  Also guarding it - by camping all around it - so that no one who might be unclean or unworthy to approach it, or who might not understand all the rules associated with it, and so be killed.  Remember that the Levites - Moses' tribe - were set apart after they went through the camp killing their brothers and so on after the golden calf incident.  Only the Levites did that - only they were loyal enough to move over to Moses' side when he called.  This is their reward.

Chapter 2
Instructions on where each tribe was to camp, and how they were to depart.  It was always to be the same, and with the Levites in the middle carrying the tabernacle.  There is much detail about this, and very likely much to be learned, but it escapes me for now.  MSB has a little diagram of how they were camped.  There aren't many MSB notes on this chapter either.

Chapter 3
Aaron's sons.  First two killed by God for offering unauthorized fire.  So Eleazar and Ithamar serve as priests with Aaron.  
Levites given to Aaron to protect the tabernacle and all that came there.  It uses the phrase "wholly given" to Aaron.  He becomes head of the whole clan is how it seems to read.  Along with other duties, they are to guard Aaron, and guard all the furnishings and appurtenances associated with the tent of meeting.  And again, this goes back to the vengeance for those who worshiped the golden calf and then would not come to Moses.

2024 - This verse:  10 And you shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall guard their priesthood. But if any outsider comes near, he shall be put to death." [Num 3:10 ESV].  This says "guard", other translations say "wait on", "attend to", and a few others.  Jewish Study Bible says "carry out the duties of the priesthood".  Violating this rule, trying to usurp the position of the priests, was a capital crime.  We have already seen that Nadab and Abihu were killed by God for their mistake, whatever it actually was, as priests.  Not sure a lot of people would be trying to usurp the position anyway.  But you had to be specially consecrated, as a priest, in order to serve.  In the New Covenant, we are ALL priests.  We might go so far - a stretch but we might - as to call baptism a kind of consecration to our position.  It is church membership, and we can serve in church offices and carry out church business once we are a part of the church.  I makes good sense.

Here are the verses where all that happened back in Exodus 32:
26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, "Who is on the LORD's side? Come to me." And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. [Exo 32:26 ESV]
Moses orders the Levites to kill those close to them - to kill their brother, his companion, and his neighbor.  Three each?  Or figurative?  In any case, they killed those in their family and those close around them who had broken away.  A hard thing.  A VERY hard thing to do. In fact, the Levites kill 3000 people.  And then, almost as a "blessing" for their willingness to do something so difficult, we get this verse:
29 And Moses said, "Today you have been ordained for the service of the LORD, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day." [Exo 32:29 ESV]
These were all Levites who stepped forward and said they were on the Lord's side.  This was Moses' and Aaron's tribe also.  The Levites become a tribe of priests - servants really - keepers of the temple, separate and apart from the Aaronic priesthood, though all from the same tribe.  And this right here is where it started.  They stepped away from the crowd, and did a very difficult thing, as ordered by God through Moses.
This surely looks like only Levites moved to the Lord's side...
2023 Note:  If ALL the Levites came to Moses, then they were not actually killing their close relatives.  Close friends.  Neighbors.  Still a very hard thing, but I no longer believe they were killing other Levites.

Levites in their entirety substituted for all the firstborn of Israel.  So the firstborn no longer had to be redeemed?
God has Moses list all the Levites, from one month old and up.  The previous census was from 20 years old and up.  The first three in the list, in vs. 17 are Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.  These three names would be a very nice study, because they show up over and over.

In fact, I am pasting in this whole section, because all these names are "big" names as time goes on:
17 And these were the sons of Levi by their names: Gershon and Kohath and Merari. 18 And these are the names of the sons of Gershon by their clans: Libni and Shimei. 19 And the sons of Kohath by their clans: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. 20 And the sons of Merari by their clans: Mahli and Mushi. These are the clans of the Levites, by their fathers' houses. [Num 3:17-20 ESV]

Duties are assigned by clan.  It tells where they were to camp, and what part or parts of the tent of meeting and its furnishings they were responsible for packing, unpacking, taking down and setting up, and guarding.

Eleazar was chief over the chiefs of the Levites, and had oversight over those who kept the sanctuary.

The count shows that there were a total of 22000.  Then God has Moses count the first born males of all the other clans.  And there are 22,273.  The "extra" first born from the people had to pay 5 shekels each to Aaron and the Levites to redeem these extras.  For the rest, the priests of the Levites were substituted, a Levite for each firstborn, and the Levites now belonged to God, instead of the firstborn of each individual Hebrew.  This was also somehow done with the cattle of the Levites and the first born cattle of the people.  The priests became God's, as payment for God killing the first born of Egypt and bringing the people out of slavery.  As Jesus substitutes for us, as our priest, who bore our sins, and redeemed us from the appointed sentence for our sins.

2024 - 41 And you shall take the Levites for me--I am the LORD--instead of all the firstborn among the people of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the cattle of the people of Israel." [Num 3:41 ESV]>  This verse caught my eye this year.  The firstborn cattle of the Levites were also substituted for the cattle of the rest of Israel.  I can't help but think that is a lot less cattle than there would have been.  This is a huge change.  Even so, it seems to be only the cattle that were treated this way, not sheep and goats...or camels.  
Could also do some math.  650,000 fighting age men in Israel, 22,273 of them firstborn.  Ratio is 29 men for every firstborn.  that's a lot of second, third, and so on -born.  I am doing something wrong with my math there. 

Chapter 4
Next, the sons of Kohath are numbered, all aged 30-50.  Their job is described:  Whenever God decides the people should move, Moses and his sons come in and cover all the most holy things - the ark, the table, the altar, and so on - with various materials.  The veil covers the altar, then goatskin, then a blue cloth, and similar for the other items.  The utensils are also placed there, and then the poles for carrying these items are put in place.  Once all this is done, then the sons of Kohath do the transporting of these items.  BUT, they are not to touch any of them, lest they die.  

A census is taken of the sons of Gershon from 30-50.  This must be where the tradition of prophets and such beginning their ministry at the age of 30 comes from.  It was set up that way by God.  Jesus was 30 when he started, John the Baptist...and I think there's an OT prophet or two that started at 30.  I will keep an eye out for that.

2023 - This verse:
20 but they shall not go in to look on the holy things even for a moment, lest they die." [Num 4:20 ESV].  This seems to say that ONLY Aaron, Moses, and Aaron's anointed sons ever got to see the furnishings of the Holy Place or the Holy of Holies.  The people never saw them, they just knew that they were in there.  Sort of a faith in what they could not see I guess.  All those things had to be packed and covered before the Kohathites could take charge of moving it.  And if they saw or touched what they were forbidden to see or touch, they died instantly.  All these things were covered so the clan of Kohath would not die out from seeing these things.  Imagine the intensity of the covering process!  If it was done wrong, you wouldn't die, but it was likely someone from Kohath would.  It was serious business having this tent and its furnishings right there with you!

The Gershonites would be supervised by Ithamar.  

Next, the sons of Merari, from 30-50 are counted.  

Tasks that each Levite clan was responsible for clearly and plainly listed.

Chapter 5
Lepers, those with a discharge, and those unclean from touching the dead were to be put outside the camp, because the camp could not be defiled with God living there.  This applied to both male and female.  And it says they did it.  It reads like the day that God gave this rule to Moses, he told the people, and they went through the camp putting these three groups outside the camp.  Here is the verse:
2 "Command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp everyone who is leprous or has a discharge and everyone who is unclean through contact with the dead. 3 You shall put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp, that they may not defile their camp, in the midst of which I dwell." [Num 5:2-3 ESV]
2021 - The reason for this was that God was dwelling in the camp.  God cannot have certain diseases and certain uncleanness in camp with him.  Note that only these three conditions required isolation from the camp.  Why just these three?  Or will there be more later?  What about women during menstruation?  What about those who'd eaten something unclean.  What about any and all the things that made people ceremonially unclean.  Did all have to go outside the camp or just these three?  MSB is no help.  I will try and watch to see if these were the only three causes for eviction from the camp, or if the others are just mentioned separately.  Lev 12 talks about how long a woman had to wait for purification after childbirth.  Sometimes up to 80 days, if a girl child, and then she had to make an atonement sacrifice.  But I don't read it as her staying outside the camp.  It does say that the woman is unclean after childbirth.  Also says in that chapter that she is unclean during menstruation.  But she is only restricted from touching anything holy or coming into the sanctuary.  She does not have to go outside the camp.  I do not understand this.
2023 - Leprous disease and discharges were in many cases signs of a contagious disease.  Touching a dead body might also transmit a contagious disease.  This would not be so for women after childbirth, women during menstruation, unclean due to touching the wrong kind of bug, and so on.  Ceremonial uncleanness did not require leaving the camp, but being contagious with a disease did.  Ceremonial uncleanness was over when it got dark.  Disease not so much.  So God would not be around contagious disease...and I wonder what else there is about that...It cannot be about not spreading disease, because almost certainly all those "put out" were in the same sort of "side camp" temporarily.  They would certainly be giving the disease to each other in that case...so not a disease preventative...maybe a pandemic preventative.

When someone realized they had wronged another person, they were to confess their sin and make restitution.  This reads as if they didn't know it was wrong when they did it.  Upon realizing their wrong (no indwelling Holy Spirit then to convict of sin), this verse:
7 he shall confess his sin that he has committed. And he shall make full restitution for his wrong, adding a fifth to it and giving it to him to whom he did the wrong. [Num 5:7 ESV]
These seem like property crimes, that could be restored, either to the person harmed, his estate, or lacking any of those, to the priest.  Restitution was cost plus 20%.  An atonement sacrifice also had to be made.
2021 - MSB says that any sin against another Hebrew was a sin against God.  That is why it is worded this way.  As I read it, this is not just about property crimes at all but can go all the way up to things that include the death of the one harmed.  And you could settle that with his family by monetary payment.  I don't know how that would be determined.  It seems to me that a lot is assumed in this wording.  Much of this was supposed to be "understood" by being there as it was carried out.  Surely manslaughter was not always just a payment to the priest away from scott free?

Hmm....many of these rules, possibly all of them, were there for one of two reasons.  The people were to be holy because God is Holy, and the camp had to be ceremonially clean because God dwelt there with them.  An argument could be made that God does not dwell with us today the same way he dwelt with Israel, therefore, ham is ok now.  God still judges it unclean, but we are not under the same kind of compulsion now to keep it away from us.  Same with fat, which belonged to God, and blood.  2021 - I don't think I had this right the first two times.  God was trying to make the camp as holy as possible.  But God dwells in us, as the Holy Spirit, today.  The real difference is that Christ has paid for all our sins now.  That was not the case in the camp in the desert.  God can be among us now, though we sin, because God no longer sees that sin.  2023 - And we also know from Peter's experience in the NT that the dietary laws are all gone.  Nothing is unclean to eat or drink.  It is not what goes into a man that defiles the man.  

Determining if a woman is guilty of unfaithfulness to her husband, and the punishment that goes with it.  In this case, the punishment is not death.  She shall be a curse among her people, but it does not say to stone her.  Was stoning for an unmarried adulteress?  (Adultery, punishment)
The woman had to drink the bitter water from an earthenware vessel, and swear an oath.  If she had been unfaithful, and was keeping it to herself, then these things would happen after drinking the water:
22 May this water that brings the curse pass into your bowels and make your womb swell and your thigh fall away.' And the woman shall say, 'Amen, Amen.' [Num 5:22 ESV]
God would show publicly whether the woman was guilty or not.  There was no psychology here, no dependence on the woman to be honest.  Her guilt or innocence would be visible to all.  God did not want people to be unfaithful in marriage.  I note that it was only the woman who was tested in this way, there seems to be no proscription against the men who committed adultery.  The jealous husband who initiates all this, is the innocent party.
2021 - MSB says if she was guilty she was stoned, but I do not read it that way.  Vs 27:
27 And when he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and has broken faith with her husband, the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain, and her womb shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away, and the woman shall become a curse among her people. [Num 5:27 ESV]  If she becomes a curse among her people, she will still be among her people, not stoned to death and buried and forgotten.  So this appears to be some kind of exception to stoning for adultery.
2021, Put the following here and back in Leviticus 20, as I think both need to be considered in trying to understand these things.  In Numbers, an elaborate ritual is described for determining whether a woman has been unfaithful to her husband, if she wasn't actually caught en flagrant.  If she is guilty, her womb will swell (no more children) and her thigh will "fall away".  I do not know what this phrase might mean.  But the point here, in Leviticus 20, is that all these prohibitions against adultery, save one, start with "If a man..."  So it seems to me that the penalties resulting from a man's sin of adultery are different from those of a woman's sin of adultery.  Also, here in Leviticus, we know who the guilty parties are, on both sides.  In Numbers, the sin was secret, and the ritual is based on the suspicion of a husband.  Only on suspicion.  No witnesses.  And no way to identify who the man involved was, unless the woman confesses it.  If he cannot be punished with her, perhaps it was unfair for her to be stoned, while the guilty man kept his secret.  That may be the key to this.  The stoning occurred when all the facts were known.  Becoming a curse, and never again bearing children, was the punishment if there were no witnesses, and because the ritual could determine that the woman was guilty, but not identify the other party.  One last note...taking the position above means that I disagree with MSB as to the stoning of any identified adulteress.  I just don't think vs 27 allows that interpretation.

Chapter 6
Requirements of the Nazirite Vow.  Interesting that they were to abstain from alcohol of all kinds for the duration of the vow.  Also from eating grapes, either fresh or dried, or grape seeds, or anything from the grape vine.  Guess all of it is subject to fermentation.  But the instructions also make it clear that when the vow is over, the person can drink wine again.  There is no way to make the argument that alcohol in any form at any time is a sin.  It is the excess, the alcohol to the point of irresponsibility or diminished performance or incapacitation that is a sin.  Too much is a sin.  

Both men and women could take this vow.  No alcohol, and nothing from the grapevine could be touched.  No haircuts of any kind during the vow.  No going near a dead body, even a father or mother.  At the end of the time, the Nazirite brings a burnt, a sin, and a peace offering and the grain and drink offering that goes with it.  He/she shaves the head and the hair is burned under the peace offering.

2023 - So Samson's strength went when his hair was cut because he was a Nazirite from birth.  Cutting the hair ended the separation to God.  This ritual is what that was about.  For the duration of the Nazirite vow, the one who vowed is holy to the Lord.  Perhaps this is why Samson got away with so much.  He was holy, even though his character was questionable.

23 "Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, 24 The LORD bless you and keep you; 25 the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. [Num 6:23-26 ESV]
One of the most memorized verses in the Bible.  The blessing Aaron was to use to bless the people.

This blessing came from God, to be repeated over the people of Israel by Aaron.  These are not Aaron's words.  This is what God wanted spoken, in order to put His name upon the people, and then He would bless them.  He blesses His name, and all that has His name. 

The tabernacle is dedicated/anointed.  The chiefs of the tribes bring ox-drawn wagons, and other offerings.  Each chief gives his offering on a single day, and only one chief per day offers.  The offerings are listed in detail.  Even though each offering was essentially the very same as the one before it and after it, all are named, because all were of equal importance and meaning to God.  Though the same, each offering was holy because it was given to God, and as such, each is named in its own time, with its own details.  This is a long chapter, and very repetitive.

When it was all done, this:
89 And when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with the LORD, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim; and it spoke to him. [Num 7:89 ESV].  Perhaps this was the first time God had spoken from an identifiable location, and this was right where he said he would be.

Chapter 8
At the end of 7, Moses had gone into the newly set up and consecrated Tent of Meeting, and God speaks to him from the mercy seat.

Aaron sets up the lamps that belong with the lampstand, so that the light they give is directed to the front of the lampstand.  Not sure what the significance of this might be.  MSB just says this is the description of the first lighting of these lamps.

Cleansing of the Levites.  Sprinkled with water, and then they were to shave their bodies.  Then they were to wash their clothes and cleanse themselves.  Next, a burnt offering with it's grain offering followed by a sin offering.  They were offered as a wave offering before the Lord, a "sacrifice" from all of Israel of a part of Israel, sacred to God.  Their service in the tent of meeting was required from the age of 25 until 50.  After that, they could do guard duty only.  A 25 year working career.

2024 - 10 When you bring the Levites before the LORD, the people of Israel shall lay their hands on the Levites, ... 12 Then the Levites shall lay their hands on the heads of the bulls, and you shall offer the one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering to the LORD to make atonement for the Levites. [Num 8:10, 12 ESV].  This seems to be a sort of "transfer" of the sins of the people to the Levites, and then transfer of sin from the Levites to the sin offering and to the burnt offering.  Except...the Levites weren't all priests were they?  What is the separation here?  There were more priests than just Aaron and his sons...or were there?  What "title" to the Levites have.  Seems a simple question but I can't answer it.  Maybe this is the answer:  14 "Thus you shall separate the Levites from among the people of Israel, and the Levites shall be mine. [Num 8:14 ESV].  
2024 - The Levites took the place of all the firstborn.  They "belonged to God", they were His, he took them.  And he gives them to Aaron and his sons to perform the duties and service of the tabernacle.  This verse:  19 And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and his sons from among the people of Israel, to do the service for the people of Israel at the tent of meeting and to make atonement for the people of Israel, that there may be no plague among the people of Israel when the people of Israel come near the sanctuary." [Num 8:19 ESV].  I would call making atonement for the people a priestly duty.

2023 - In connection with how the sacrifices "worked", and in connection with how the Lord's Supper symbolizes the way Jesus' death continued in the same manner, look at vss 10-14:
10 When you bring the Levites before the LORD, the people of Israel shall lay their hands on the Levites,
11 and Aaron shall offer the Levites before the LORD as a wave offering from the people of Israel, that they may do the service of the LORD.
12 Then the Levites shall lay their hands on the heads of the bulls, and you shall offer the one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering to the LORD to make atonement for the Levites.
13 And you shall set the Levites before Aaron and his sons, and shall offer them as a wave offering to the LORD.
14 "Thus you shall separate the Levites from among the people of Israel, and the Levites shall be mine. [Num 8:10-14 ESV]
The sins of the people "transfer" to the Levites,  and then the Levites are offered as a sacrifice - in this case a wave offering, but still carrying sins that they are atoning for as they are sacrificed - AND THEN the Levites transfer the sins to the bulls, who shed blood to atone for the sins that the Levites have laid on them to bear.  Then the Levites are offered again as a wave offering, this time having "removed" their own sins and those of the people into the bulls that shed blood in atonement.  Maybe this will help me better understand the symbolism of the Lord's Supper.
Note that when the people laid their hands on the Levites, there was no sacrifice offered by the people.  Transferring sin was not involved here, I don't believe.  This was the transfer of the firstborn of Israel to the Levites as God's own tribe forever.  But the second time, atonement is made for the Levites - for their own sins rather than the sins of the people.  This is because the Levites were dedicated for SERVICE, but NOT as priests.  Only the sons of Aaron were priests...I think.  Even so, this procedure may add to understanding Christ's sacrifice on the cross, and how it is represented - memorialized - in the Lord's supper.

Chapter 9
Passover celebrated in the 2nd year, first month, 14th day of the month.  This was the first celebration of the Passover following erection and sanctification of the Tent of Meeting.  
Those ceremonially unclean or out of town would celebrate it one month later.
From this point on, a cloud covered the tabernacle by day, and fire covered it at night.  I think these were constant signs that God was dwelling right in their midst.

2022 - These verses:
"18 At the command of the LORD the people of Israel set out, and at the command of the LORD they camped. As long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle, they remained in camp. 19 Even when the cloud continued over the tabernacle many days, the people of Israel kept the charge of the LORD and did not set out. 20 Sometimes the cloud was a few days over the tabernacle, and according to the command of the LORD they remained in camp; then according to the command of the LORD they set out. 21 And sometimes the cloud remained from evening until morning. And when the cloud lifted in the morning, they set out, or if it continued for a day and a night, when the cloud lifted they set out. 22 Whether it was two days, or a month, or a longer time, that the cloud continued over the tabernacle, abiding there, the people of Israel remained in camp and did not set out, but when it lifted they set out." [Num 9:18-22 ESV]
I put in quite a few verses today because I think you need them all to make the point.  Just look at how many times these verses say to wait on God!  Half a day, 24 hours, many days, a few days, two days, a month, or even longer.  Until God said to move, Israel did not move.  They watched the cloud, they were attentive to God's leading, and they moved ONLY when God decided to move.  What a great lesson for us also.  Ever feel like your prayers are not being answered?  That means the cloud is still in place.  Wait for it.  Feel like God wants you to get out there and do something, but you can't figure out what?  The cloud is not moving, wait for the cloud.  What do we do when we are frustrated and chomping at the bit to move ahead?  We watch the cloud, and we study, and we pray even more, and we minister right here where we're standing, and then we check the cloud again.  But we stay put until that cloud moves, because that is what God wills!
Possible FB post for 4/25/22.

This verse ends the next section:
23 At the command of the LORD they camped, and at the command of the LORD they set out. They kept the charge of the LORD, at the command of the LORD by Moses. [Num 9:23 ESV]
Vss 16-23 seem like repetitions of the same information, over and over.  Seems like about six times it repeats itself.  What is the purpose of this repetition?  MSB says of vs 23 that it shows that at this time in her history, Israel was obeying God, right down to being ready to move anytime He commanded, or to stop and stay as long as He did.  This was an obedient time.  So maybe the redundancy emphasizes the complete submission of Israel to the covenants they had made with God, and to His daily leading.  No matter what, whether they saw a reason for the delay, or a reason for hurry, didn't matter.  They followed as God led.  Had to be frustrating at times.  Had to always be convenient for some and very inconvenient for others.  But they followed God's commands.  Good FB post here.  

2021 - Imagine this lifestyle.  You had be ready and able to pack everything you owned in a short while on any given morning, 24/7/365, and move out to parts unknown.  I doubt they had a lot of non-essential belongings.  No one had a swimming pool.  Wouldn't this also go a long way to leveling the playing field between the rich and the poor?  The rich might have some nicer things on the bookshelf in their tent, and maybe they had a few slaves to help carry more stuff than the common people, but this could only go so far.  Should we strive to live like that?  To limit what we have to the essentials and then give the rest away to those in need?  The whole minimalist thing going on right now and the tiny house craze and such - is all that the beginning of some kind of revival, or a return to these days in the desert?


Chapter 10
Two silver trumpets made to be used for signalling when the people should gather, when they should depart, and as alarms.  These were constructed after the tabernacle was set up, so not part of the official equipment of the tabernacle.  Two trumpets blowing meant all were to come to the tent.  One trumpet meant only the elders were to come to the tent.  
Vs 8 says this trumpet blowing was a statute forever.  
2021 - This verse:
10 On the day of your gladness also, and at your appointed feasts and at the beginnings of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings. They shall be a reminder of you before your God: I am the LORD your God." [Num 10:10 ESV]
This reads almost as if the trumpets are to get God's attention, so that He will turn His face toward them when they sacrifice.  But it seems to be a trumpet for the whole people of Israel.  There is nothing here that says individuals should blow a trumpet before each sacrifice that they make.  Maybe that's what the showing off of the Pharisees was about in the NT, that Jesus condemned.  Maybe they'd taken this verse and turned it into an announcement of individual recognition, perverting the original purpose.

This verse:
11 In the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud lifted from over the tabernacle of the testimony, 12 and the people of Israel set out by stages from the wilderness of Sinai. And the cloud settled down in the wilderness of Paran. [Num 10:11-12 ESV]
The first move as an organized, ordered people.  They had camped in this one spot for over a year, preparing.  And then suddenly the cloud lifts, and it is time to go.  Imagine the breaking of that camp of several million people who'd gotten "comfortable" where they were for so long.  And they were leaving, never to return, because the cloud had lifted.
Israel camped there at Sinai for about 14 months, there in that one place, in the desert.  

2021 - I have these next verses underlined in my Bible, but I really don't even remember ever reading it:
35 And whenever the ark set out, Moses said, "Arise, O LORD, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you." 36 And when it rested, he said, "Return, O LORD, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel." [Num 10:35-36 ESV].  God went out before them, cleared the way, straightened the road, smoothed the terrain.  And when they rested, God came back and dwelt in the camp.  No other people at any time ever had a God who did such things.

Chapter 11
At the end of 10, the cloud had lifted from over the tabernacle, and the people pack up and move for the first time in over a year.  And now, after He has fed them for a year, given them water, kept them safe from enemies, He says it is time to move on with the plan to travel to Canaan, enter that land, possess that land, and begin their national life as a people sacred to God.  He wants them to move to better things than what they have where they are.  And this is their response:
1 And the people complained in the hearing of the LORD about their misfortunes, and when the LORD heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. [Num 11:1 ESV]
Good FB post about getting comfortable with routine and letting it keep you from better things when it is time to move on.

The Israelites complain.  The Lord's fire consumes some on the outskirts of the camp.  Moses intercedes.  MSB note for 11:1-25:18 says in these chapters Israel changes from the obedient nation they were in the first 10 chapters, to a complaining, grumbling, whining nation.  It says that even Moses and Aaron ultimately rebel against God.  We will see God's response to this in the form of plagues and diseases like those of the Egyptians.

2021 - So if I am reading this right, they were obedient and faithful while they were sitting still at the mountain.  Perhaps they were faithful as they practiced moving around a little to get them prepped for the long journey.  In 9:23 it says they moved when they were supposed to move, they camped when they were supposed to camp.  Nothing about complaints here.  But then the trumpets are incorporated, and the purpose of the trumpets seems to signal a "bigger" move than what they were used to.  Maybe they previously moved to keep from over-polluting any one place.  Maybe they moved now and then to get further away from the latrines and such, to keep things sanitary and hygienic.  Maybe this was no big deal to them, because they didn't have to pack real tightly, they were only moving a little ways, and they probably understood the reasons for it and were just fine with moving away from the smell.  But then at 10:11 it says they leave Sinai all together.  This is the first time they have move say 10 miles or more in a day.  And they do this three times.  And it is a lot of trouble, and they've perhaps had to abandon some things they were using because they just couldn't carry them.  And they are tired at the end of the day, and the next door neighbors are different than at the last camp, and all the conveniences are kept in storage since they might be moving again tomorrow....They were fine serving God "in place",  but when he has them set out and deal with some hardship, what's the first thing they do?  They complain.  When they complain, God sends some fire and "consumes" some outlying parts of the camp.  Why outlying?  Perhaps what is meant is that some got tired of the trip and just camped where they were instead of moving on into the assigned location, as instructed by God.  Perhaps they were introducing disorder and randomness to the camp.  Perhaps they were just too lazy to do it right.  I picture a whole collection of tents sort of scattered over the last half mile before the actual camp, and the fire starting at the tail end of that and consuming them - vaporizing them - as it moved toward the main camp.  As the main camp saw what was happening, we get 11:2.  This fire gets them sort of back into line, but only until vs 4.  Seems this rabble that they had with them - whomever that was - lived by their bellies.  They were more interested in looking after themselves and seeing to their physical needs than they were to trusting God to help them get beyond the physical and grow spiritually.  And as these got louder and louder, they began to influence all the people, and the dissatisfaction with the menu spread.  The preoccupation with physical things infected the majority.  The manna that sustained them got routine, and they wanted some variety.  The manna tasted the same no matter how they prepared it apparently.  So they wanted variety.

Then the people whine about not having anything to eat but manna.  Plenty of that, but nothing else.
God gets angry.  Moses gets angry and asks God to just kill him now because he can't put up with these people.  This is the verse:
11 Moses said to the LORD, "Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? [Num 11:11 ESV]
2021 - Not sure this is the first time Moses has expressed this sentiment, but I think it is.  Moses is kind of like "what have I done that you are punishing me?".  And God doesn't seem to get upset with Moses.  The lesson may be that if someone's behavior is inexplicable, ungrateful, and aggravating to you, imagine how aggravating it is to God!  

2024 - Here is an interesting question:  
Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, 'Give us meat, that we may eat.' (Num 11:13 ESV)
Where did all the bulls, rams, goats, sheep, turtle doves, and pigeons that they sacrificed come from?  How can they say we have no meant and still sacrifice as required?  Didn't they leave Egypt with their herds?  I guess they have been camped in the desert for over a year and likely the herds are not reproducing as quickly as they were...and a lot of them are going to sacrifices...but this still seems like an interesting complaint.  How did the "the first born of men and animals is mine" come into it also?  There is no requirement that only the firstborn be sacrificed, it just had to be without blemish...
Or is the lesson here that meat is for special occasions and celebrations, and we would be healthier to eat vegetarian most of the time?  Hmm....that is interesting.  God had not provided enough meat for them to eat every day.  And when he does provide, he sends it to them in such abundance that they get sick of meat.  Much to think on here...

2021 -This verse then:
15 If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness." [Num 11:15 ESV].  Moses is truly at wits end with these people.  I can see him trying to tell them to be patient, Canaan is ahead and they will have whatever they crave there.  But they don't listen.  They just whine.  No personal discipline at all.  Just whining, on and on and on.  Moses just wants to be dead, considering that desirable to trying to appease these awful people.
Instead of being angry with Moses, God takes a part of what Moses has and spreads it among 70 others.  The original Sanhedrin perhaps.  See below....Here's the thing.  If you don't shoulder the responsibility that Got gives you to shoulder, if it is too much for you, God will lighten your load, but at the expense of your relationship with Him.  Some of God's spirit was removed from Moses and given to these 70.  

God has Moses bring 70 of the elders of Israel, and says he will put some of Moses' burden on them.  In fact, God says He will take some of the Spirit that is on Moses and put it on the elders.  So as a result of his own prayer, Moses' earthly burden will get some relief, but it will cost him some of his relationship with God.  Is this correct?  It might cost him closeness, a certain level of comfort with God.  As when an old friend does something that hurts your feelings unexpectedly.  You are still friends, but something just isn't exactly the same anymore.  A little something will always be missing after this.  Is this what happened?   MSB says almost nothing about it.  Also, God says he will give them meat to eat for a whole month.  So much that it comes out their nostrils and becomes loathsome to them.  They have rejected God and said they were better off in Egypt.  What were they thinking?  Even Moses doubts that enough meat can be found to feed so many people for a month.  He expresses his doubt to God, and this is the answer:
23 And the LORD said to Moses, "Is the LORD's hand shortened? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not." [Num 11:23 ESV]
2021 - Moses is in a bad place.  Even he doubts that God can provide enough meat to last these people a month.  And it is implied that they won't just get "enough", they will gorge on the mean for a whole month.  Gluttonous, riotous consumption is what God says is coming.  And Moses says "How can that be?".  So I think we see that the infection of dissatisfaction has even infected Moses at this point.  Perhaps this is the real reason that some of the Spirit on him is going to be spread among others.  This loss on Moses' part is permanent I believe.  He will never be where he was previously with God, and yet we know what all is still ahead of him, what all he still must do.  

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 as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied. But they did not continue doing it. [Num 11:25 ESV]
Surely this does say that the Spirit of God with Moses was lessened by the amount given to the 70.  They immediately prophesied, a visible outward sign of the Spirit of God.  But this didn't continue with them.  AS IT DOES NOT CONTINUE in the book of Acts!  Here is the type for the intensity of spiritual gifts declining with time.  Here is scriptural example that the amount of the Holy Spirit visited on any given person is not exactly the same as that given to others.  And here it is shown that the Spirit present with any one person can be changed - by prayer?  by the will of God, and so on.  Many concepts and ideas that have never occurred to me before, in this one chapter in the middle of Numbers.
2024 - Remember too the "glory" that shined from Moses after he spoke with God, that also declined over time.  Surely all this is a type for the gifts and maybe this chapter gives us a type for that.  Now, it is true that this is OT Prophecy and that the Spirit was on them, not in them...but does that disqualify it as a relevant passage?  I don't think so.  

It is reported that two of the elders of Israel who were so callous they didn't even bother to show up with the other 68 (I think this is what it means?) have nevertheless received a portion of the Spirit and are prophesying in the camp.  Joshua urges Moses to stop them, but Moses says this:
29 But Moses said to him, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD's people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!" [Num 11:29 ESV]
Moses did not perceive that the diminished Spirit that he had was harmful to him.  He didn't feel like he'd really lost anything.  Instead, he was grateful that others now had it, that he was no longer alone in being the only contact between God and the people, but was happy - and wished even more had that level of communion with God.  So many things to look at here in this chapter.  

!!!2021 - Well Moses' reply to Joshua doesn't really follow from the things I said above about a permanently "lesser" relationship with God.  Moses doesn't seem to think that's the case.  Moses doesn't think the Spirit is lessened by division.  

2023 - So perhaps the wording means that 70 others received a lesser portion of the Spirit than Moses...yet it specifically says that God took some that was ON Moses, and gave it to others.  So...maybe it means that Moses recognized that he had enough to do as was supposed to do, though that was somewhat less than before.  Or maybe we can't really see what it means.

Moses seems grateful that others have gained in Spirit rather than upset that he has lost.  Perhaps he didn't lose anything at all!!!  That's what it is.  He still had all he ever head, but now others had some also and could sense God's will also, and could share in the responsibility.  When it says God took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and put it on others, it means the Spirit qualitatively, NOT quantitatively!  Joshua saw it the way I was seeing it.  If others have more, Moses must have less.  But the Spirit does not work that way!!!  Elisha asked for twice the Spirit Elijah had, and got it.  This is all qualitative!  It wasn't that Moses didn't want to do the work, it was that these people were more than ANY one man, even with God's help, even a man as completely and utterly faithful as Moses was at this time, could handle.  Moses knew he was over his head, made that case to God, and God agreed with Moses that it would take more than one man to deal with these stiff-necked people.  So 70 more were recruited.

The quail are blown in by the wind and fall on two sides of the camp.  They are two cubits deep.  The people gather them up and there are lots.  They gather very greedily.  Though they should have learned from the manna that God provides enough, day by day, they gathered far more than a day's worth.  I think it is their greed that angers God so much because it demonstrates their complete lack of faith for one thing, and their focus on earthly things in the second place.  They are being guided by their bellies, not by God's commands.  So God sends a plague that kills the ones who have "the craving", and they are buried in the desert.  Then the people move on, from the base of Mt. Sinai to Hazeroth, presumably carrying more quail with them.

2021 - They even name the place "Kibroth-hataavah" which means "graves of lust".  This was no ordinary craving like "I am hungry for a cheeseburger tonight" thing.  This was an overwhelming, consuming, OCD kind of obsession that reduced the whole world to a desire for meat.  They got their meat, but death came with it.  If we are obsessive in seeking what God does not intend for us, He may let us satisfy our physical craving, but that may be the end of everything for us.  Most of us wouldn't choose a cheeseburger over life itself, but that is what these people did.  Their whole lives were reduced to one craving, one obsession, one goal.  And when they got that, life was over.  We anticipate opening our Christmas gifts.  Or our vacation.  And once we open the gifts, or get home from vacation, we can feel the "let down".  Well the craving these people had was so intense that when they got to the other side of it, they died.  But this is not right....God sent a plague.  They didn't die from obsession they died for letting obsession displace God.

Chapter 12
Aaron and Miriam get upset with Moses because he marries a Cushite woman.  Cush is south of present day Egypt, and is now called Ethiopia.  How she came to be with Israel in the desert we do not know.  She may have been in Egypt with them, she may have joined them in the desert.  No way to know how she came to be there.  She was probably black.  We have no idea whether skin color was the basis of Aaron and Miriam's complaints.  What we do know is that they began to imply that Moses was not the only one whom God was speaking with as to the leadership of Israel.

This verse, explaining perhaps why Moses was not disturbed about the two who prophesied in the camp, nor about Aaron and Miriam's complaints:
3 Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. [Num 12:3 ESV]

2024 - This verse:  And suddenly the LORD said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, "Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting." And the three of them came out. (Num 12:4 ESV).  Hadn't thought about it before but this looks like they came to that tent outside the camp where Moses met with God while God was so angry at them.  But...the tabernacle has been dedicated and Aaron and his sons are priests at this time.  Has that term "tent of meeting" transferred from the tent outside  the camp to the tabernacle?  MSB has no note at all about it.  "Come out..." is the wording that got my attention.

God calls the three of them to the tent of meeting, and chastises A and M and reminds them that with most prophets - in fact with all prophets, with every person other than Moses - there are dreams and visions and riddles, but he speaks clearly and plainly to Moses and Moses sees his form.  God tells them how He communicates with His prophets.  Even speaking to prophets, God does not always speak in a way that is easy to understand.  These verses:
6 And he said, "Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. 7 Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. 8 With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" [Num 12:6-8 ESV].
2024 - God's own definition of how he works with OT prophets.  The "riddles" part is also interesting.  This surely implies that even the true prophets had to put into words what they saw in vision or dream, and they might get that wrong in translation.  Especially if God spoke in a riddle to start with!  And this implies still further that when God was inspiring Scripture, there were no riddles, and the vision or dream was reported properly.  This seems to put Scriptural inspiration in a completely different category than prophecy doesn't it?  And that changes a LOT of what Grudem says in this chapter about prophets.

2024 - Note that Adonai comes down in that pillar of cloud and stands there.  Seems this once at least, Aaron and Miriam have a clouded glimpse of Adonai, and they here him speak as Moses hears him.  And He is pretty clear about things!
2024 - I note that in the Hebrew text, it is Jehovah that comes down.  Adonai is the name used in the Jewish Study Bible, which I am using this time through the Pentateuch.

So here is a partial explanation of why there would be various interpretations of Biblical passages.  The prophets themselves surely did not always see clearly what they were communicating.  God gives us riddles, not full clarity, in dreams and visions.  He does this on purpose.  We should therefore not be surprised.  I remember that book on end times that said the closer you get to something the clearer it becomes.  Tie this in with what God Himself says right here, and you would expect various parts of Biblical prophecy to be very difficult to understand at some stages, but easier and more clear as the time of fulfillment approaches.  
And since it is the 25th today, I read Proverbs 25, and found still another connection:
2 It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out. [Pro 25:2 ESV]
2021 - It would be interesting to understand what this "form" that Moses saw might be.  Moses didn't talk to air, didn't hear a disembodied voice apparently.  There was a visible form there, and the voice came from that form.  Only Moses had this privilege.

Miriam becomes covered with leprosy, and remains outside the camp for 7 days.  Aaron is not punished, so far as the Bible tells.  After the seven days, the camp moves from Hazeroth to Paran.

Chapter 13
The 12 spies sent in to the promised land.  Their names are given.  I would say this indicates the level of responsibility placed on each one.  We need to know that they were assigned an important and critical role in fulfilling God's promises to Abraham.

They are given seven specific questions to answer as they spy in the Land.  These seven are in vss 17-20:
17 Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, "Go up into the Negeb and go up into the hill country, 18 and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, 19 and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, 20 and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land." Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes. [Num 13:17-20 ESV]
So if my geography is correct, they moved in from the south to spy out the land.  The Negev is the southernmost part of present day Israel.

They spend 40 days spying, surveying, assessing, and collecting.  40 shows up so very often.  It would be my first choice for a numerology study in the Bible.  Why always 40???  It rained 40 days, Jesus tempted 40 days, I think there's a 40 in Acts, Moses on Sinai 40 days at least two different times.  Who knows how many  others.  Would be nice to compile them all.  

10 say they are too weak to take large fortified cities occupied by giants.  Two say they can do it.

2021 - They saw the sons of Anak there.  Also, they saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim.)  We haven't seen Nephilim since before the flood.  This is the only other verse where the word is used:
4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. [Gen 6:4 ESV]
There are also these people:
10 (The Emim formerly lived there, a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim. 11 Like the Anakim they are also counted as Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim. [Deu 2:10-11 ESV]
11 (For only Og the king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bed was a bed of iron. Is it not in Rabbah of the Ammonites? Nine cubits was its length, and four cubits its breadth, according to the common cubit.) [Deu 3:11 ESV]
4 and Og king of Bashan, one of the remnant of the Rephaim, who lived at Ashtaroth and at Edrei [Jos 12:4 ESV]
12 all the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei (he alone was left of the remnant of the Rephaim); these Moses had struck and driven out. [Jos 13:12 ESV]
8 Then the boundary goes up by the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the southern shoulder of the Jebusite (that is, Jerusalem). And the boundary goes up to the top of the mountain that lies over against the Valley of Hinnom, on the west, at the northern end of the Valley of Rephaim. [Jos 15:8 ESV]
15 And Joshua said to them, "If you are a numerous people, go up by yourselves to the forest, and there clear ground for yourselves in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim, since the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow for you." [Jos 17:15 ESV]
The phrase "Valley of Rephaim" is used many times.  
So it seems there were these Rephaim first, and that the sons of Anak were later.  The sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim is how it is stated in the parentheses in Num 13:33.  This ties them back to Gen 6:4.

2024 - This verse:
So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, "The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. (Num 13:32 ESV).
Note the lie here.  It is NOT grue that ALL the people they saw were giants of great height.  If you go back and read the report in 20-24, only one place is said to be inhabited by the Anakim.  And yet these 10 said they were EVERYWHERE and spooked all Israel into refusing to go in and conquer the land.  This is a lot of why God was so angry at them.  And surely we know from later in this story that the first city conquered, Jericho, was NOT full of giants!!!

Chapter 14
The people are afraid to enter Canaan, and plan to select a new leader to take them back to Egypt and slavery.
Moses and Aaron fall on their faces, Joshua and Caleb tear their clothes and remind the people that God is with them and He is NOT with the inhabitants of Canaan.  So these people decide to just stone the whole bunch of them, and would have had the Lord not appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people.

God says he will wipe out Israel and start over with Moses. This verse:
11 And the LORD said to Moses, "How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? [Num 14:11 ESV]
People are always looking for a sign, claiming something was a sign, or asking for a sign to decide what they should do.  But here is clear proof that even when there is a sign, most people won't accept it for what it is.  What could have been going through their heads after seeing the plagues of Egypt, the Red Sea part, after hearing God's own voice at Sinai, water from the rock, mana, quail...all these things, all this provision of God, had come before the border of Canaan.  And still they doubt.  They are stubborn, and stiff-necked.  They are never going to be the nation God wants.  So God says this:
12 I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they." [Num 14:12 ESV]
God says He is going to kill them off with disease.  Hmm...is this a theme?  Is this one of the ways God deals with disobedient nations?  He did it to those Philistines who were keeping the Ark.  He had sent a plague among Israel before as punishment.  But here is the thing...the USA is not God's chosen people, and we are not under that kind of a direct covenant with God at all.  The New Covenant is in effect, a covenant with individuals, and with the church.  Corona virus is not a punishment aimed at changing the behavior of a nation.  I can see it as a birth pain.  But the last similar one was in 1918.  Maybe H1N1...This is just a virus, a consequence of the imperfection the first sin introduced.

But Moses intercedes for the people yet again.  The first time was when the people worshiped the golden calf while Moses was on Sinai getting the 10.  And now this time, when they refuse to go where God is clearly and unambiguously leading.  This verse is part of Moses' plea on behalf of Israel:
18 'The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.' [Num 14:18 ESV]

2023 - But...he didn't visit the iniquity of the fathers on the children for 3 or 4 generations.  In fact, God is so merciful that it was the very next generation that entered Canaan.  So, God can do this, we can see that it is sort of the natural way of things, but even this God can, will, has, and does overcome.  

God relents, but says that none of those who have despised him will enter Canaan.  So begins the 40 years of wandering.  Everyone over 20 would die before they entered.  And this verse also:
33 And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. [Num 14:33 ESV]

God says they will wander 40 years, a day for each day the spies were in the land.  40 again.  God also takes direct and immediate action against the 10 unfaithful spies who recommended not going in.  This passage:
37 the men who brought up a bad report of the land--died by plague before the LORD. [Num 14:37 ESV]
Another sign.  God used disease to carry out his will.  Once you notice it, there seem to be a lot of instances like this.  From very early on, God had said that if Israel would obey him he wouldn't visit the diseases of Egypt on them.  I may be 180 degrees off on the disease thing.  Maybe it is a persistent and consistent punishment God sends on those who disobey him...This would need a lot more study I think.

So the people decide they'll go in anyway, to show God they have repented.  Moses warns them that God isn't with them and they will therefore be defeated.  Moses doesn't go with them to battle, nor does the Ark of the Covenant.  They are defeated, and turn tail and run.

Chapter 15
This chapter breaks away from the historical narrative and gives more rules for sacrificing.  MSB says these rules about the grain offering in vss 1-16 are different than those laws given in Lev 2.  These allow offering of grain and wine with either the burnt offering or peace offerings.  Note that it says this will be acceptable "2 ...When you come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving you, [Num 15:2 ESV]". So here, immediately after God tells them about the 40 years they are sentenced to wander and die in the wilderness, He also gives them some instruction for sacrifices in the new land.  God's promises are still in place, but this generation won't see it, and the next will receive those promises.

It says in this chapter that these sacrifices are to go on throughout their generations.  Again, this may be why the sacrifices resume in the end times.

These verses about intentional, knowing, premeditated sin:
30 But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or a sojourner, reviles the LORD, and that person shall be cut off from among his people. 31 Because he has despised the word of the LORD and has broken his commandment, that person shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be on him." [Num 15:30-31 ESV]
The Mosaic Law was very specific about what sacrifices were required to cover unintentional sins.  For instance, if a person had dinner with someone, and was served a food the law prohibited but didn't know about it until later, that was unintentional sin.  Once one learned they had sinned this way, the law required certain sacrifices.  In God's eyes, this sacrifice removed the guilt of the accidental sin from a person.  But the verses above say that if the sin was committed with full knowledge that it was a sin, and the person did it anyway, there was no provision in the law to remove that kind of guilt.  Intentional sin separated a person from God and Mosaic Law provided no remedy.  While guilt for such a sin could not be removed with an animal sacrifice, the annual atonement by the high priest put off God's punishment for that sin for a year.  This, then, was the point the Mosaic Law was designed to make.  Intentional sins - which none of us could ever avoid completely and which no animal sacrifice could ever cover - could only be forgiven after the offering of a perfect sacrifice.  In this way, the law was sent to condemn all men, and Jesus - the perfect sacrifice - was sent to save all men!  His death on the cross paid the price and removed the guilt of intentional sin for all who believe in Him.  In all of history, only Jesus was qualified to be the perfect sacrifice.  The Law and Jesus are connected and inseparable.  The Law both required and prophesied the coming of the perfect sacrifice.  Jesus ties the Old Covenant to the New.  Only God could make such a plan!
This MUST be a FB post!
2021 - But it says a person who committed intentional sin would be "utterly cut off".  How does that leave room for yearly atonement?  Is it this verse that the Pharisees seized upon to say that they could lead sinless lives by obeying every law and never intentionally breaking one?  They focused on "observable" sins, and they never did those, so they were without sin?  I really need to nail down whether the annual atonement was for intentional, unintentional, or both.  It makes sense to me if it was both or for just intentional, but then I still need to resolve that with vss 30, 31.  
Hmmm....vvs 22-26...Here, there are several key phrases.  First, in vs 22, the section opens with saying this is about intentional sin.  It has to have been unintentional and without the knowledge of the congregation.  So something that a person did, not realizing it was a sin and no one in the congregation knew about it, or they also did not realize it was a sin.  For such sins, ALL the congregation was to present a bull offering and a male goat offering, with grain, oil and wine as appropriate.  The whole congregation was to do this.  The priest is to "make atonement for all". It does not mention this being an annual thing, monthly, etc.  It does not say how the sin was recognized and the need for a sacrifice acknowledged.  Perhaps this is a "national sin".  Something they all forgot to do, or something they all did not "remembering" that they weren't to do it that way.  Maybe they all ate some bugs they thought were acceptable but later determined to be unclean.  Then they'd all need to make atonement.  I note also that atonement is not capitalized here in the ESV.  It doesn't seem to tied this command to the annual Day of Atonement.  I need to read about that in more detail.  Surely it was to delay wrath for intentional sins.  
vs 27 seems to indicate that I am on the right track about this being some "mistake" by the whole of the congregation, because 27 starts with "If one person..." as contrasted to vs 22 which starts with "But if you..."  I bet that's a plural you...Checked interlinear and it is second person masculine plural.  "you guys".  Reading vs 27 is clear that it is an individual offering, not a corporate offering that needs to be done.
Isn't it interesting that unintentional sins could be removed/forgiven completely even under Mosaic Law.  Christ's sacrifice removes both for all time.  How freeing is that.
Then we get vss 30, 31, where the sin is "high-handed".  There is no atonement sacrifice for this person in this chapter.  Utterly cut off is what happens.  Perhaps the high-handed part means an habitual eating of ham for breakfast every morning.  Reckless disregard of ongoing sin in one's life.  Perhaps a moment of weakness in committing a known sin, and choosing in weakness to do it, counts as a mistake, and repentance and sacrifice are still possible.  I do not know.
MSB notes says the unintentional, or unwitting sin, is one of unintentional neglect or omission.  The atonement for these is in vss 22-29.  MSB says vs 30 is about sins "committed knowingly and deliberately".  These were considered blasphemous because they were an arrogant act of insubordination.  This sounds like sin without repentance.  With no intention of repentance.  It does not sound like a moment of weakness.  Was David's sin with Bathsheba a moment of weakness?  Or does the ongoing attempt to "get away with it" imply this blasphemous sin?  Surely it did not, because Saul did not declare David utterly cut off, or stoned or anything like that.  MSB note says those guilty of high-handed sin are to be excommunicated and put to death.

2024 - So...my great FB post above is very likely in error.  How can the sentence be "excommunication and put to death" if the annual atonement would delay that sentence?  There has to be an explanation for this.  Perhaps the Jewish Study Bible, the JSB, will help me out.
2024 - In this chapter, there is no mention of death for intentional sin.  Only that one will be "cut off from his people".  Might gain some insight by studying all applications of that phrase.  In JSB it says "his offense will remain with him".  Are these the ones in captivity whom Jesus took captive?  There sins could not be removed ever by bulls and goats and therefore they  had to be kept in a place that was not hell, but was also not heaven, until Jesus and went and got them - their spirits - and took them with him into heaven between his death and resurrection?  Intentional sin could not even be atoned for under the law.  The condemnation remained, and God viewed these as unredeemed sinners, but as his chosen people.  I do not believe for one second that any person could live life without committing even one intentional sin.  Fifteen minutes after this Law was spoken, pretty much ALL ISRAEL would have been cut off from Israel.  So there has to be something else...and captivity captive may be the explanation for it.  (No help in JSB).

Then a paragraph is inserted about the people stoning a man caught gathering sticks on the sabbath.  2021 - MSB says this goes with the injunction just  before.  This man gathering sticks was disdaining the rule, and habitually, repeatedly gathering sticks on the Sabbath.  The interlinear says this is an active participle formed from a poel stem.  It is a masculine singular absolute.  That's a lot.  But I found a rather lengthy but understandable explanation here:    https://uhg.readthedocs.io/en/latest/participle_active.html
The short version is that it expresses non-finite, ongoing, repeated action.  This really clarifies what is going on here.  This man didn't just do this once.  He kept on doing it, and possibly bragged about how nothing had happened to him, so anyone could break the Sabbath.  I believe it is unrepented, ongoing, repeated, disdainful sin that requires stoning.  That is why David was not stoned for Bathsheba.  She was another man's wife.  The law is clear.  If I am wrong about all this, David is in hell.  No way to go there.

Then we go back to more rules, these about putting tassels on each corner of their garments, with a blue cord.  This was to remind them of the law, the rules, the commandments.  A constant reminder that they were under conditional contract and had much that they were responsible for.

This verse:
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." [Num 15:41 ESV]
This phrase "I am the Lord you God", includes the "I am".  The Hebrew word is transliterated "an-ee".  Here is what it looks like in Hebrew:  אֲנִי
The first time the phrase is used, it is like this, transliterated:  "an-ee  Yehova' eloheem".  The second time it is "eloheem an-ee Yehova".  But in English they are translated identically.   What shades of meaning are hidden here in English that see light in Hebrew?  Literally, the first says "I am Lord God", and the second says "God I am Lord".

Chapter 16
Korah, several other Levites, and 250 of the elders of Israel, "well known men", rebel against the authority of Moses and Aaron, and challenge them.  They say they are as holy as Aaron and Moses and they want to be priests.  Moses asks them why being Levites, and in the tabernacle regularly, and chosen by God to be close to Him, is not enough?  This verse:
9 is it too small a thing for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself, to do service in the tabernacle of the LORD and to stand before the congregation to minister to them, [Num 16:9 ESV]

2024 - There are some Reubenites here also though.  Dathan and Aviram are brothers, sons of Elias.  They along with On, are Reubenites.  Korah and seems to be the only Levite,though perhaps a majority of the 250 were also Levites.  Moses' words indicate that this was mostly a Levite uprising against Moses and Aaron.
2024 - In vs 12 Moses summons Dathan and Aviram but they won't come up.  So perhaps it was only the those descended from Levi that confronted Moses and Aaron and the Reubenites wouldn't even show their faces?

The Levites had been set apart after the golden calf.  They dispensed punishment to their own, and for this God rewarded them.  And now they want more.  I think the Levites also shared in the sacrifices that were offered.  I didn't think this was just for the Aaronic priests hood - surely it is far too much for Aaron and his sons alone to consume.  So much would be thrown away if it was that.  MSB doesn't really say that this is the case, and points out that this was more about them wanting to take over the Aaronic priesthood than about them not getting their "share" of the sacrifices.  Furthermore, they were using God's own words to justify their rebellion.  This part of their argument is in vs 3:
3 They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, "You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?" [Num 16:3 ESV]
They believed they were as holy as Aaron and his sons, and that God had said so.  
FB post here maybe:  It is possible to so badly misinterpret what the Bible says that we can bring destruction on ourselves.  Korah's interpretation was guided by his ambition, not by prayer and supplication.  Korah's approach makes it clear that his desire is not to intimately know God's will, but to assert his own will.  
This rebellion includes some of the Levites and some Reubenites.  Reuben was the first born, but had forfeited that position in uncovering his father's nakedness.  Jacob called Reuben "unstable as water".  Levi, along with Simeon, was called violent.  These two had avenged their sisters mistreatment, and seem to have indulged in the violence, enjoying the killing instead of avenging it.  They were both to be scattered in Israel.  So here they are - the one who lost the double portion of inheritance, and the ones who were to be scattered and so lack prominence, working together to overthrow the power structure God had set up.  
2023 - Here is where they were getting their argument about equality:  6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel." [Exo 19:6 ESV]

2021 - As I read this, it was only Korah and the Levites who went up to talk to Moses about all this.  The Reubenites stayed in the camp, though perhaps On son of Peleth went up with Korah.

Moses tells them to come back tomorrow with censers and incense and God will choose the ones he wants in charge. Moses and Aaron will also have censers and incense.  Dathan and his bunch refuse to even come up to confront Moses.  They deny his authority completely.  They stay in the camp.  

Next day, the 250, and Korah, and Aaron, all show up with censers and incense at the door of the tent of meeting.  God tells Moses and Aaron to step away from the congregation, because He is going to kill them all.  The whole congregation.  This implies that Korah and company had a lot more support than just the 250.  Moses prays that God not kill them all over the revolt of these few.  

2023 - Look at the specific prayer they prayed:
22 And they fell on their faces and said, "O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and will you be angry with all the congregation?" [Num 16:22 ESV]
They asked God not to take down the whole nation of Israel because of the revolt stirred up by one man, Korah.  Many were standing with him, but this verse makes it plain that one man was behind the whole thing, and Moses and Aaron ask that the whole entire nation not die over this one man's ambition.

So God instructs the congregation to move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.  Moses goes from the tabernacle to the tents of the two Reubenites, and they come to the doors of their tents with wives and children and families.  And Moses says this:
30 But if the LORD creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the LORD." [Num 16:30 ESV]
Moses says if these die natural deaths, then God is not with him (Moses), but if vs 30...
A new thing.  Taken down alive, in physical body, to Sheol.  To the bad part of Sheol, the part where the rich man lifted up his eyes to see Lazarus.  This was fire and torment, and they experienced it in the flesh.  Surely it killed them, and then they continued to experience it in spirit.  

The whole camp goes down to the tents of Dathan and his followers.  Moses tells the people to move away lest they too be punished with them.  Moses says if these men die natural deaths, then God has not chosen Moses to do his work.  But if God does something new, and they go down alive to Sheol, then Moses chosen of God, and not of his own ambitions.

The earth opens up and swallows them, their families, and all their goods alive.  Then fire from the Lord consumes the 250 elders and their censers before the people.  Then God has Aaron's son Eleazar gather up those 250 censers, and scatter the fire far and wide, for all have become holy.  Presumably because God's own fire consumed them.  
MSB says the children were not so punished, they were not taken to Sheol.  This is in Numbers 26:11.  That verse says "But the sons of Korah did not die."  But...didn't the families of Dathan and Abiram die?  I don't see how you read that any other way, and it is difficult to know why Korah's children were spared.  
2023 - I think the catch here is that at least Korah had the guts to go up and confront Moses.  Dathan and Abiram were so scornful of Moses' authority that they wouldn't even go up the the tent of meeting, and then they refused to go up even when Moses called them.  These were very high up in the hierarchy of this Korah-led rebellion.  Moses goes to them, and these two, and all their families, come to the door of their tents, and go down into the earth alive.  But Korah, I think, was standing with the 250 with the censers, and he dies with them.  I don't think Korah's tents went down into the ground.  Vs 27b is the key, where it says Dathan and Abiram came out.  They were still in their tents.  Dathan was with Moses.  It is also possible that Korah's sons were with him, though not carrying censers, because they were not considered leaders and elders.  In any case, it is not hard to see, once you have Number 26:11, that the fate of Korah's family could be different than the fate of Dathan's and Abiram's families.

2024 - Here is something interesting.  The JSB ends Chapter 16 at vs 35 where the 250 are destroyed by fire.  In the NASB, Chapter 16 goes on  to vs 50.  So in 2024, reading Numbers in the JSB, I stopped here today, and the following is in Chapter17.

Even after all this, the very next day, the people grumble because of those who were killed.  Are they completely without logic?  Can they not see the cause and the effect?  What an amazingly stubborn and obstinate people!  So they come to the tent of meeting and start whining.  And Moses and Aaron come.  And the glory of God comes and tells Moses and Aaron to get out of the way while he takes care of this.  These verses:
46 And Moses said to Aaron, "Take your censer, and put fire on it from off the altar and lay incense on it and carry it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the LORD; the plague has begun." 47 So Aaron took it as Moses said and ran into the midst of the assembly. And behold, the plague had already begun among the people. And he put on the incense and made atonement for the people. 48 And he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped. [Num 16:46-48 ESV]
So another place where God uses a sickness/disease/plague to out and out punish the people.  This wasn't really designed to bring them back into line.  God's intent at the beginning of this was to kill the whole people.  That might be the distinction for God using disease.  It is not discipline, it goes further than that.  It is pure punishment.  I am only noticing these because of the corona virus.  But this would be a really good study.  A compare and contrast study of disease, snakes, the 10 plagues....how was each used and when exactly, and what was the purpose - discipline or death?

2021 - If corona is from God, as a punishment to this nation, a vaccine is not going to stop it.  Only atonement - repentance - is going to stop it.  There is no Moses today.  There is no Aaron.  So who will come among the people and stop the plague?  NT says all the saved are a holy priesthood.  So the saved, the body, the church, among the people sending up prayers as incense before the Lord, might be able to stop it.  If it is a plague sent by God to take us out, that's the only way.  I don't know how we tell the difference between a punishment not aimed at repentance and just sickness.  And let's not forget that corona is worldwide.  Not just this country.  It is likely arrogant to think that corona is just about us.

The plague was stopped...after 14,700 have died.

Chapter 17
Moses puts a staff with the name of each tribe before the Lord.  Aaron's staff is among them.  Aaron's staff buds, has flowers, and ripe almonds.  The others have nothing.  When Moses brings out the staffs, the people say "We are undone".  They believe that now, if any of them comes near the tabernacle, they will die.
2023 - It is like they finally realize how wrong they have been in the past, and they fear that God will still seek vengeance against them.  They are afraid that if they come to worship, he will use the "opportunity" to strike them down.  They see God as the pagans see their gods at this point.  They are still acting like Egyptians.

So they finally fear the Lord.  This demonstration was intended to stop their grumbling against the leadership of Moses and Aaron once and for all.  

It is interesting that Aaron is the one who fashioned the golden calf when the people rose up to play.  He had himself fashioned the graven images that the people worshiped instead of God, and he burned incense to these images.  Yet God still makes him High Priest and backs him when the people rebel.

Chapter 18
The Levites given to Aaron to guard the tent of meeting, but NOT to come too near.  Only Aaron and his sons could go in, and they were obligated to guard all that was within the tent.  
This interesting verse:
1 So the LORD said to Aaron, "You and your sons and your father's house with you shall bear iniquity connected with the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you shall bear iniquity connected with your priesthood. [Num 18:1 ESV]
Any sins or misdeeds connected with the sanctuary and Aaronic priesthood would be born only by them.  They most likely will have to make sacrifices of atonement that apply only to them, and then separate atonement sacrifices for the people.  The whole tribe of Levi is to guard the sanctuary so that those who should not be there are not killed, and if outsiders "break in", which is unholy, then not only these, but the priests will also die for letting it happen.  Being an Aaronic priest was a great honor, but it was not without its drawbacks.  It was never to be taken lightly.  

2021 - This year, it seems to me that after Korah, the people of the camp were further restricted from approaching the tent of meeting.  There are those last few verses of 17, where the people are now afraid even to go near the tabernacle, and now these verses.  Note also that 18 starts with "So..." as if connecting it to what came before in 17. They were afraid to come near the tabernacle.  So at the beginning of 18 God puts additional responsibility on Aaron and the Levites.  He makes them all priests, not just Aaron and his descendants.  The Levites weren't to come near the altar.  Surely this is about the altar of incense, not the altar outside where all those sacrifices are made?  I see no way that Aaron and his sons alone could do all the work of sacrifice without help.  MSB does not address it this way, says very little at all about it.  At the end of 17, MSB says the people's realization that Aaron was chosen of God led to a reaffirmation of Aaron and his sons as priests.  Maybe so, but it seems to me that there was more to it than that.  Were the people bringing sacrifices ever let into the outer court of the tabernacle where the laver and altar were?  If so, then this seems to be a change.  If not...then MSB is right.

2023 - This verse:
3 They shall keep guard over you and over the whole tent, but shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary or to the altar lest they, and you, die. [Num 18:3 ESV].  The word used here for altar can be traced back all the way to Gen. 8.20 when Noah built his altar.  This word is used for the altar on which the burnt offerings were sacrificed and also for the altar of incense, withing the tent of meeting.  Somehow, you have the court, which is enclosed by curtains that go all the way around the tent, and then inside, as you walk past the laver and the altar, you get to the tent itself.  Inside the tent is the Holy of Holies, and this is where the lampstand, the table of shewbread, and the altar of incense are located.  And beyond that, through the veil, is the Holy of Holies, containing the Ark and the Mercy Seat.  I find it very difficult to say that this vs 3 is about the altar of sacrifice.  I just do not see how the massive amount of work that would be associated with all the countless sacrifices being made could be handled by Aaron and his sons alone.  What does sanctuary mean?  And why would the altar need to be "added" to the injunction about the sanctuary?  
Still 2023 -
This verse is the first time the word used in 3 above is used anywhere in the Bible.  In this verse from Exodus, the word is translated "holy", in the phrase holy ground.  So we see that this is the ground right up next to God.  It turns out that this word, qodesh, pronounced like kodesh, is translated as holy 262 times and as sanctuary only 68 times.  So...what about "shall not come near the holy vessels or to the altar...In any case, back to the original point, this DOES in fact all point to the interpretation that Aaron and his sons, and only Aaron and his sons, could approach that altar on which all the sacrifices were burnt.  I don't see how they could possibly do that by themselves.
Still 2023 - So there are many consequences to Korah's rebellion.  It seems to have been the most serious attempt to unseat Moses...by first unseating Aaron.  They wanted to be the chosen, they wanted to override God's sovereign choice.  (Like when a man decides he's a woman).  Because of this, there's this stepped expansion of the buffer between where God dwells, above the Mercy Seat, and the sons of Levi, and then also the congregation.  Remember that Korah was a Levite.  His rebellion, his presumptuousness, his ambition, results not only in his death, but in his entire tribe, and then his entire people, being pushed back further away from God.  Wow!  And all these new rules are a part of that expanding buffer.
Still 2023, this verse:
5 And you shall keep guard over the sanctuary and over the altar, that there may never again be wrath on the people of Israel. [Num 18:5 ESV].  This instruction is given directly to Aaron.  Never again wrath...It almost seems that Korah and his followers not only demanded to be priests like Aaron, but they presumed to begin functioning as such, and they had sacrificed on the altar and they had gone into the tent.  No one had stopped them.  Perhaps previously, the Levites had been allowed in these places to clean and maintain and to service the holy items and the altar, but when they decided that proximity also granted them the right to offer sacrifices and to "approach" the holy items, they should have been stopped, and there was no one to stop them.  So God says here to keep them back forever, because if they are so impertinent again, both they AND Aaron and his sons, are going to die.

And this verse:
8 Then the LORD spoke to Aaron, "Behold, I have given you charge of the contributions made to me, all the consecrated things of the people of Israel. I have given them to you as a portion and to your sons as a perpetual due. [Num 18:8 ESV]
God speaks directly to Aaron, as he always does to Moses.  This is a very rare thing.

Aaron and the priests were to receive as their portion many of the things offered to God.  Some things only the males could eat but most things, any clean person could eat.  These were given the priesthood in perpetuity.  Imagine the temptation...
The Levites are given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance.  Yet they were also to give a tithe of the tithe.  

19 All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the LORD I give to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. It is a covenant of salt forever before the LORD for you and for your offspring with you." [Num 18:19 ESV]
2021 - I have noted this verse before and tried to contrast people as salt of the earth with people as light of the world under the new covenant.  Salt and light.  But reading it now, I get more context.  It was the covenant between God and the priesthood of Aaron that was a covenant of salt.  This does not seem here to apply to all the people.  Yet I know that elsewhere, with any offering made to God, salt was to be included.  It is not in any of the original instructions for sacrifices, but shows up later.  This verse in Numbers, after the revolt of Korah, is the first place we see it mentioned at all, and here it seems exclusive to the priesthood.

2021 - This verse, in connection with the 2021 note above about the people no longer coming near the tabernacle at all:
22 so that the people of Israel do not come near the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin and die. [Num 18:22 ESV]  So first, after the golden calf, God wasn't going to be in the camp at all.  But he relented because of Moses' pleadings, and dwelt in the Holy of Holies, behind the veil, a little separated from direct contact with the people.  Now, after the revolt of Korah, the people are pushed back further.  Not only to outside the tent, but there was an additional buffer.  They couldn't even come near the tent.  This was all during the 40 years of wandering also.  They had been turned back from Canaan, then Korah and the rebellion, and now this.

Chapter 19
Starts this way - a second time the Lord speaks directly to Aaron, along with Moses:
1 Now the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, [Num 19:1 ESV]
2021 - The MSB note on 18:1 says that only there and in Lev 10:8 does the Lord speak directly to Aaron.  So...what does 19:1 mean?   MSB says nothing, as might be expected.  But MSB does talk about the reason for the red heifer and all that is associated with it.  Over 40 years, 1.2 million or so were going to die.  The people were constantly, daily dealing with dead bodies.  This made them ceremonially unclean.  So this special provision is made to cleanse them from this contact.

Rules as to the red heifer.  Purification?  The red heifer, never yoked, was to be taken outside the camp, slaughtered, and every piece and part burned.  Then some of it's blood was to be sprinkled toward the tent of meeting seven times.  This was all to be done by Eleazar, not Aaron.  Cedarwood, hyssop, and scarlet yarn were to be thrown into the fire while the heifer burned.  (2021 - Weren't these the same items used to determine if a woman had committed secret adultery?  Perhaps also the same items used when a healed leper was purified before re-entering the camp?  Why these items???)  When done, the priest was to wash his clothes and bathe his body in water before returning to the camp.  (2024 - Looks like Eleazar was to be present during the burning, but a different priest was "hands on" in the burning.)  Even so, the priest remained unclean until evening.  A clean person was then to gather up the ashes and deposit them in a clean place.  They would be used for the water for impurity for the congregation of the people of Israel.  As in, these ashes were mixed with water and used to ceremonially cleanse those who had in some way  (2024 - No, it was specifically for people or items that had touched, or been too near, a dead body.  A human corpse.) become unclean.  We're not given the actual recipe for that water - at least not here - but the ashes were in it.  MSB note says that this image of the red heifer burned completely outside the camp is taken up in Hebrews 13:11-13 as it relates to Christ's death outside of Jerusalem.  So the result of the red heifer being sacrificed outside the camp is a means of purification from uncleanness, so that one might return to the presence of God in the camp.  No one unclean could approach the tent of meeting lest they die as a result.  In the larger sense, no sinner under the new covenant can have direct access to God except through the shed blood of Christ, and through Jesus as advocate with the Father.  God sees us through the purifying blood of Christ as God saw those purified by the water made from the red heifer's ashes in the encampment of Israel.  God dwelt in their camp - right there with them.  They had to be clean or He would have to kill them for approaching and bringing uncleanness into His presence.  We are all unclean, and also sentenced to death except we be purified with Christ's blood.

2024 - But this is more than that...Dead bodies are the key to understanding this.  We are all "dead bodies". We are born dead basically.  1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ... 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- [Eph 2:1, 5 ESV].
13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, [Col 2:13 ESV].
Those unclean because of proximity to death - those born again from the dead upon salvation - must still be purified, or the will remain unclean.  They must be 'sprinkled" with purifying water on the third and seventh days, and after they are purified by this water, THEN they wash themselves in water.  So we ought not think of the red heifer as having to do with sin.  The red heifer is about purifying uncleanness CAUSED BY death.  Jesus was killed outside the camp, as the red heifer is killed outside.  His blood, shed outside the camp, in addition to being payment for our sins - and an atoning sacrifice at that - also purifies us from the uncleanness of our previous state, in which we are dead to Christ, and cannot help ourselves, and we must be reborn through his blood to become pure enough to "enter the camp", to approach the tent where God is.  In this case, in the New Covenant, we are cleansed enough by Jesus' blood to walk right into God's presence, bypassing the buffers and restrictions we saw in Chapter 18.

2024 - Here are the verses from Hebrews referenced above by MSB:
11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. [Heb 13:11-13 ESV].  As I read it, this quote is NOT about the red heifer at all.  This is about sin offerings.  These were killed IN the camp, the best parts of them burned on the altar, and the rest of them was burned outside the camp.  These ashes are not used for anything.  Hebrews is telling us that Jesus' death outside the camp sanctifies us - makes us holy to God - by removing our sins from us.  Cleansing them away.  What is added then by this quote is that Jesus death outside the camp had more than one symbolic meaning - more than one "tie" back to the Law which his death fulfilled.  We should see that as a sin offering, Jesus best was given to God - because he was sinless - during his life, and then all sins for all time were on him as he was crucified (read "burned") outside the camp.  The sins are burned up, and no more.  In addition to that, as the red heifer is burned up and the ashes used to purify us from death, Jesus dying outside the camp purifies us from "the body of this death" into which we are born as descendants of Adam.

If one touched a dead body, they were unclean seven days, and were to cleanse themselves with some of the water on day 3 and day 7, else they were still unclean.  To remain unclean was to defile the tabernacle, and that person would be cut off from his people.  So the red heifer was exclusively about purification of those who had touched dead bodies or been in a tent with a dead body, and it was used to purify the tent itself.  Anything defiled by contact or proximity with a dead body had to have this water of purification or it remained unclean.

There is a good study here.  It seems as though the red heifer's ashes were used only in purification for those who touched dead bodies.  How exactly does this image foretell or symbolize the work of Christ on the cross?  How is Jesus' death about cleansing from touching dead bodies?  Or is that too literal?  Need to look more into this.
2021 - It seems that a red heifer would be sacrificed in this way whenever they were low on ashes to make this purifying water.  It does not seem that it was an annual thing, or on any schedule at all.  It was an as needed sacrifice.  All this time I have thought there was some big huge deal about the red heifer, but in fact it seems to be a "filler" that was only required because of God's curse on the adult population for balking at the border of Canaan.  2023 - and only following Korah's rebellion and the consequent expansion of the "buffer zone" around the tent of meeting.

2021 - The attention given even to items near a person who died makes it clear that dead bodies were very unclean.  God does not want to be associated with dead bodies, no matter how many degrees the contact is removed.  As in someone who was in a tent with a dead body touching a glass in his own tent and then someone else drinking from that that glass.  That last person is also unclean for seven days, and if that person isn't purified by the ashes of the red heifer, they are cut off for defiling the tabernacle.  But all this red heifer stuff is finally clear to me.  I get what it is for.  I had "elevated" it's importance because I know that some are trying their best to produce a red heifer.  I thought it was somehow critically related to end times events.  But that is not the case as I understand it now.

Chapter 20
Starts this way:
1 And the people of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh. And Miriam died there and was buried there. [Num 20:1 ESV]
The people are entering a new area, where they have not been before.  This is after they're sentenced to wander for 40 years.  

The people grumble because their is no water, and they start the whole "Why did you bring us out of Egypt, it was such a nice place" talk again.  They say this:
3 And the people quarreled with Moses and said, "Would that we had perished when our brothers perished before the LORD! [Num 20:3 ESV]
They actually say they would rather have been taken down to Sheol alive with Korah and his followers than to be here in the Wilderness of Zin with no water.  They  have forgotten - or choose to ignore - that the reason they are here is that they lacked the faith to enter the promised land.  They are always wanting to make all the decisions, but never to accept the consequences of those decisions.  

Upon hearing these complaints, and likely the rising level of intensity of the complaints, Moses and Aaron go to the door of the tent of meeting, fall on their faces, and "the glory of the Lord appeared".  God tells Moses to speak to the rock.  But Moses strikes it instead.  For this sin, because he didn't believe God could bring the water just from his speaking to it, Moses and Aaron were forbidden to enter Canaan.  Here it is in God's own words:
12 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them." [Num 20:12 ESV]
While it might not seem to us that there was any lack of faith involved, just a lapse of detail, God knows what was in the minds of Moses and Aaron.  Despite everything, even Moses doubted that God could bring forth water from a rock just by Moses' speaking to the rock.  God had always (often?  mostly?) had Moses do something with that staff to initiate God's miraculous intervention.  This time, God doesn't mention the staff.  This is the second time God has brought water from a rock.  The first time was in Exodus 17:6:
6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink." And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. [Exo 17:6 ESV]
This was not the first time Moses had been through this.  Almost exactly this same situation.  Perhaps Moses remembered how it had been done the first time, and believed that was the only way it could be done, despite God's clear instructions.  
This one has always bothered me.  For all that Moses had done, this one lapse cost him Canaan.  God's scales do not work like human scales.  Hmm...God doesn't use scales at all.  His standard is perfection, and anything short of perfection is failure.  God is pass/fail, and none can earn passage.  Maybe that's why this is here.  To show that the law was there to condemn - to show beyond a doubt that there was no earning your way into Canaan.  Only faith would get you there.  
This is a good FB post.
2022 - But look at this verse:
"10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, "Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?"" [Num 20:10 ESV]
Here is the real sin.  Moses separates himself from the "rebels", and "we" - that is, Moses and Aaron - bring water from the rock.  And here is God's view of it:
"12 And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them."" [Num 20:12 ESV]
The sin was in claiming to be Israel's deliverer, by giving them water, rather than saying "Look, here is water for you from a rock, through no action of mine, but from God."  It was supposed to be obvious that God was supplying water to Israel, yet again, and despite their rebellion.  That's why Moses was to speak to the rock rather than hit it.  
(((2023 - By hitting it, at the very least, Moses' actions would be seen as "assisting" in providing the water.  God wanted this time to be different.  He wanted there to be no doubt that the water was from God, not from God and Moses.  That is what Moses messed up...he was so angry at the way the people continually treated him, that he also wanted them to know that he was "their helper and mediator".  One small, but I admit very significant slip, at a very critical time, Moses took glory from God for himself.)))

But Moses, like the people, was in a very depressed state of mind, having been turned away from Canaan by the people's unwillingness to trust God to put that land into their hands.  Moses believed.  Aaron believed.  Joshua and Caleb believed.  But no one else believed.  So God turned them all away, the four good men paying the same price as the whole rebellious nation.  Of course Moses and Aaron were angry with the people.  They were constantly harassed by this rebellious people and blamed for everything that happened.  More than once Moses tells God he is fed up with them.  And now, at the very door of deliverance, the people rebel, and are sentenced to 40 years of unfulfilling, purposeless, destinationless wandering, with Moses right up front, leading the way, and listening to their constant whining and bickering and blaming for another 40 years.  Moses disagreed with God's provision for the people, and he resented being the instrument of God's provision.  And he was focused on his part in the provision, rather than on God's mercy in this miracle.  This was the sin.  And like all men, it only takes one sin to separate us from God and send us to hell...but for his provision through Jesus.
How many posts are here?
1.  Vss 4, 7-8, for "Here's what happened next after they were turned away.  Lesson is that when we fail in our faithfulness, we may encounter severe testing.  God doesn't say "Oh, well, since you didn't pass the test there will be no more tests".  Instead, because we failed the "advanced test" that he knew we could pass, He sends us back to first grade, and begins the lessons again.  Back in Exodus 15, after God had drowned Pharoah's army in the Red Sea, the very first thing He did was send them three days into the wilderness, where they was no water.  They whined, just as they do here in Numbers 20, and God provided water for them by having Moses strike the rock at Marah.  They failed the "water test" in Exodus.  They should have learned, their faith should have grown after seeing God's provision, and as they saw many more miracles on their way to Canaan.  Miracles like manna from heaven, quail in the desert, and so on.  Then the real test at the border of Canaan, and they failed.  They'd learned nothing.  So.  God takes them back to the first test, and begins all over again building the faith they need to conquer Canaan.  It works the same way with us.  Testing is not a possibility for Christians, it is a certainty, and we need to train ourselves to recognize testing, recognize our failures, and recognize the re-test with absolutely will come, and do better the next time.  Else, we remain defeated at the elementary level of faith, and never graduate to the advanced faith that makes us far more useful to God.
2. Vs 12, What was it that Moses did so wrongly that it cost him Canaan?  He'd brought water out of a rock before, at Marah, by striking it.  What was the problem with that at Meribah?  Why did God tell him to do it differently in the first place?  Well look at what Moses says as he strikes the rock:  "10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, "Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?"" [Num 20:10 ESV].  It wasn't what Moses did that was sin, it was what Moses said.  With these words, Moses says that all the people are rebellious, and that he and Aaron are separate and apart from them.  And when he says "shall WE bring water", he is usurping God's provision for the people, and taking the credit for himself.  By posing it as a question, Moses is saying that he disagrees with God's providing water for these "rebels".  So he not only separates himself - and Aaron - from the people as better than they are, but he also separates himself from God as he disagrees with God's mercy.  And doing so cost him entry into the land of Canaan.  Do we ever feel resentment when bad people get good things?  Pretty much every day I think.  Do we ever say right out loud that bad people ought to be punished right now, today?  When we do so, we are putting ourselves in the place of judge, a place that only God should be.  
3. One more look at Moses' actions, and its consequences, in Numbers 20.  Let's think about what Moses might have been thinking.  To understand Moses thinking, we need to go back to these verses in Number 14:  "1 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. 2 And all the people of Israel grumbled 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 a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?" 4 And they said to one another, "Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt."" [Num 14:1-4 ESV]  In these verses, the people decide they prefer a return to Egypt over trusting God to help them conquer Canaan.  The whole nation wants to go back to captivity, save four good men.  So God sends them back out into the desert.  Surely Moses, like the people, was in a very depressed state of mind after this.  After all, Moses believed God could do it.  Aaron believed He could.  Joshua and Caleb believed.  But no one else believed.  So God turned them all away, the four good and faithful men paying the same penalty imposed on an unfaithful nation.  Of course Moses and Aaron were angry with the people.  They had been constantly harassed by them and blamed for everything that happened.  More than once Moses tells God he is fed up with them.  And now, at the very door of deliverance, the people rebel and are sentenced to 40 years of unfulfilling, purposeless, destinationless wandering, with Moses right up front, leading the way, and listening to their constant whining and bickering and blaming for another 40 years.  So if we ever find ourselves feeling isolated, alone, and the only faithful God-trusting person that we know, then purposefully turn your thoughts away from your own problems, and get yourself back in tune with God's plans, lest your self-pity lead you into a sin that costs you your hearts desire.  Self-pity is a horribly dangerous state of mind for a faithful Christian, and if it could happen to Moses, it could certainly  happen to us!
Three FB posts here.

They ask the king of Edom for passage through his country.  Just to walk through - not to eat his food, or drink his water, or trample his fields.  Just to walk through in peace.  He refuses and brings out his army to enforce his answer.  Here is how Moses phrases his request:
14 Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom: "Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the hardship that we have met: [Num 20:14 ESV]
The reminder here is that Edom was settled by Esau, Jacob's brother.  These dwelling in Edom are closely related to Israel, though that relationship goes back to before the time in Egypt.  Despite this ancient kinship, Edom refuses Israel passage.  This will come back to haunt Edom.  This rift between Edom and Israel will really never heal.  Animosity will characterize their relationship from here on.  

This would be a good study also.  Not only the overt actions that either Israel or Edom take to undermine or harm the other, but also the many prophecies of Edom that we find in the major prophets.

At Mount Hor, God says it is time for Aaron to be gathered to his people.
26 And strip Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son. And Aaron shall be gathered to his people and shall die there." [Num 20:26 ESV]
MSB notes points out that Numbers 19:22 - 22:1 cover a period of 37 years.  They mark the transition from the old generation, represented by Aaron and Miriam, that refused to enter Canaan to the new generation represented by Eleazar, that would go in under Joshua.

Aaron, Moses, and Eleazar go up the mountain, Moses puts Aaron's priestly garments on Eleazar, and Aaron dies.  Hard to imagine the goodbye scene with Aaron and his wife (or maybe wives), his children and grands and so on.  And then Aaron was able to walk up that mountain - Mt. Hor.  Aaron was apparently still in pretty good health if he was able to do that.  This wasn't about his age, it was just time for him to go home, so that God's plan could proceed with the next generation.

Chapter 21
In the last chapter, Edom refused passage to Israel, so they take a different path.  The way they chose takes them near the kingdom of Arad, in the Negeb.  He brings his army out, fights against Israel, and takes some captive.  Israel prays, as a nation it seems, for God to let them defeat this Canaanite.  They promise to destroy all the cities in Arad's kingdom, if God will help them.  Israel defeats Arad, destroy all his cities, and they name the place Hormah.  This word means "destruction".  

They begin to move, to go around Moab.   The people again grumble against Moses and ask why he brought them out of Egypt to starve.  They say they don't like the food.  They don't like manna from heaven.  God sends serpents.  When they repent, Moses puts up the bronze serpent, and if they look at it, they live.  It cures the snakebite.  It neutralizes the poison.  As the bronze serpent was lifted up...

Vss 10-20 are a detailed description of the roundabout way Israel had to go in their travels because of Edom.  It is a long journey this way.  There is no map of the route in MSB.  They end up on the region of Moab.  Moab lies between Edom on the south and Ammon to the north.  Moab is east of the dead sea.
They request permission from Sihon King of the Amorites, to pass through his land.  The request is phrased much like the request to Edom.  Sihon, refuses passage and comes to fight them.  They defeat him, and occupy his land and his cities.  
25 And Israel took all these cities, and Israel settled in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all its villages. [Num 21:25 ESV]
Doesn't say how long they lived in these cities, but it does say settled.  We know from previous reading that 37 years of wandering or more have passed by this time, and entry into the promised land by this new generation is getting close.  So for a time, they rest from the wandering, and stay settled in Ammon.  
Then this:
31 Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites. [Num 21:31 ESV]
So they must have been there more than a week or two...

Og,  King of Bashan comes to fight Israel.  Israel defeats him too, and takes all his land.

Chapter 22
Balak, who lives in Moab, is in dread that Moab is next on Israel's list.  They are in fear of Israel.  Israel is camped on the plains of Moab at the time.  Balak sends for Balaam, so Balaam will curse them, and maybe give Moab enough advantage to defeat them.  Balaam is a highly paid diviner.  
The princes of Moab and Midian tell Balaam what they want.  That night, God speaks to Balaam and tells him he can't curse Israel.  So he sends the princes home.  
Has always amazed me, confused me, that God speaks to a man who makes his living by divination.  Guess the example should be that God can and does use whomever and whatever he chooses to accomplish his will.  Eventually, all Israel ends up blessed by Balaam, not cursed.

They send more and better princes to talk to Balaam.  This time, God tells him to go with them, but only to do what God tells him to do.  Then it says that God was angry because Balaam went.  There was a condition in what God said.  The verse is here:
20 And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, "If the men have come to call you, rise, go with them; but only do what I tell you." [Num 22:20 ESV]

If God was angry that Balaam went, Balaam must have somehow gotten cross ways with the "If" in the verse above.  Would be worth looking into what "call" means in the original language.  Also, the next verses make it clear that Balaam and his two servants are traveling alone.  They did not "go with them", they went separate from them.  Maybe this is the error....
No, because it says this:
21 So Balaam rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab. [Num 22:21 ESV]  So what was God angry about?  
MSB says that the problem was, Balaam had argued with God this second time because he was anxious to go to Balak.  Balaam had dollar signs in his eyes about the possibilities for this job.  So Balaam went with the men, as God had told him to go, but Balaam was not yet in a submissive frame of mind to adhere to the condition God gave him.  Balaam is still plotting as to how he can do Balak's bidding and earn tons of money without getting afoul of God's condition.  He is devious and a plotter and very greedy.  This attitude is what God is angry about.  

In any case, we now get the story of the talking donkey.  I note with interest that the donkey is female.
When the donkey does talk, Balaam just answers back.  Then he says if he had a sword, he would just kill this talking donkey.  Very odd.  
Then we get vs 35:
35 And the angel of the LORD said to Balaam, "Go with the men, but speak only the word that I tell you." So Balaam went on with the princes of Balak. [Num 22:35 ESV]
Here, the angel reiterates that Balaam is not going on this journey to enrich himself, but to do as God tells him to do.  And he better not be doing anything else.  
There was also this explanation of why the Lord was angry:
32 And the angel of the LORD said to him, "Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me. [Num 22:32 ESV]
Once the truth of the donkey's behavior is made clear, and Balaam realizes the consequences of disobeying God, and realizes that were it not for his donkey he would now be dead because of his plotting to circumvent God's words, Balaam finally gets his attitude right.  This change to a submissive attitude is reflected in this verse:
34 Then Balaam said to the angel of the LORD, "I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood in the road against me. Now therefore, if it is evil in your sight, I will turn back." [Num 22:34 ESV]

The angel repeats God's permission for Balaam to go with the men, and also repeats the caveat.  And from here on, Balaam intends to follow God's instructions exactly.

Balaam meets Balak.  After some preliminaries, Balak takes Balaam up on a high hill where he can see some of the people of Israel.

Chapter 23
Balaam and Balak offer seven bulls and seven rams on seven altars.  Balaam goes forward, and God speaks to him, and then he returns to tell Balak and the princes of Moab what word God has given him.
Balaam blesses them instead, though it seems to me in a roundabout way.  Not directly a blessing.  Here is an interesting phrase, that ties in with the various rules and regs of the Mosaic Law:
9 ...a people dwelling alone, and not counting itself among the nations! [Num 23:9b ESV]
Israel's rules, customs, diet, sacrificial system, priesthood, and on and on, served to distinguish them from any other nation.  This should have culturally isolated them and kept them pure..  Sadly, it did not.

Balak is upset about it.  He asked Balaam to come with him to another place and curse the ones he can see from there.  7 7 7 again, Balaam goes forward and comes back with the word.  One of the verses is this:
19 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? [Num 23:19 ESV]
This is the verse that tears down what the Mormons say about each man eventually being a god himself and having his own planet.  They say they believe the Bible, and all that is in it, they just have some extra info.  But their extra contradicts this verse.
The verse also implies that ALL men lie, and all men go back on their word at some time.  No one is like God, who never goes back.
2023 - I memorized this verse a very long time ago, but I never really noted the context.  This was Balaam, of all people, who said htis.

This second blessing is somewhat more direct and predicts conquest and victory for Israel in a mighty way.  Balak is a very slow learner.  He takes Balaam to yet a third place, and they do the 7 7 7 thing for the third time.

Chapter 24
This third time, after the offerings, Balaam doesn't even bother to go forward and see what God says, but the Spirit of God comes upon him and he speaks a third time.  It starts like this:
5 How lovely are your tents, O Jacob, your encampments, O Israel! 6 Like palm groves that stretch afar, like gardens beside a river, like aloes that the LORD has planted, like cedar trees beside the waters. [Num 24:5-6 ESV]

Balak is really upset now and tells Balaam to go home.  
2022 - In fact, Balak refuses to pay Balaam for his services.  This verse:
"11 Therefore now flee to your own place. I said, 'I will certainly honor you,' but the LORD has held you back from honor."" [Num 24:11 ESV].  Balak keeps none of his promises to Balaam, and Balaam in turn claims to have done exactly what he promised Balak he would do.  That is, he would say only what God told him to say, NOT what Balak told him to say.  Perhaps Balaam is angered by the refusal to pay, and that is why he gives this one last oracle, which was not preceded by the 7 altars, 7 bulls, and 7 rams:

But Balaam has one more oracle to speak, this one couched as:
14 And now, behold, I am going to my people. Come, I will let you know what this people will do to your people in the latter days." [Num 24:14 ESV]
Latter days....
Better to just put it all here:
17 I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth. 18 Edom shall be dispossessed; Seir also, his enemies, shall be dispossessed. Israel is doing valiantly. 19 And one from Jacob shall exercise dominion and destroy the survivors of cities!" 20 Then he looked on Amalek and took up his discourse and said, "Amalek was the first among the nations, but its end is utter destruction." 21 And he looked on the Kenite, and took up his discourse and said, "Enduring is your dwelling place, and your nest is set in the rock. 22 Nevertheless, Kain shall be burned when Asshur takes you away captive." 23 And he took up his discourse and said, "Alas, who shall live when God does this? 24 But ships shall come from Kittim and shall afflict Asshur and Eber; and he too shall come to utter destruction." [Num 24:17-24 ESV]

There are a lot of prophecies here.  I don't know if they are about the near term, as Israel conquers Canaan, about the time of David when surrounding countries were defeated, or about Jesus return with his army when he sets up his earthly 1000 year kingdom in Jerusalem.
2022 - Vs 17 is surely about the second coming.  He is the scepter rising out of Israel.  

Balaam was a diviner for hire.  He somehow was able to communicate with God, and possibly the only reason for all that, and the reason Balaam was able to make a living as a diviner, was so that Balaam could bless Israel as he does in these two chapters.  But make no mistake.  Balaam was not a God-fearing man, he was no prophet of God.  Even after these blessings he conspired with Moab and others to undermine Israel and he was a principal in many plans to destroy Israel. In my opinion, Balaam will not be in heaven.  I don't think he will even be in the less intense parts of hell.  Too many references say that Balaam was a full on enemy of Israel, even after this.

Chapter 25
While Israel is settled in Shittim, rather than wandering, they begin to get tight with Moab, and begin to sacrifice to the Moabite gods and worship them.  This has the appearance of a plot - maybe Balaam is already busy doing his thing, we just aren't told about it yet.  Here is the verse:
2 These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. [Num 25:2 ESV]
This seems to say that the contact was initiated by the Moabites.  This doesn't lessen the guilt of Israel, but may indicate a new strategy by Balak and his friends to protect themselves from Israel.
The Moabites worship Baal of Peor. Here is what God tells Moses to do about this:
4 And the LORD said to Moses, "Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the LORD, that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel." 5 And Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor." [Num 25:4-5 ESV]
How many chiefs were there?  It doesn't say that this order was carried out, but it doesn't say it wasn't.  I suspect that those who participated in what may have been a one time thing were all hanged.  A warning of how seriously God takes idolatry.  Now this verse:
6 And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. [Num 25:6 ESV]
I read this as the people were weeping over the hanging of the chiefs that participated in this.  And right in the middle of all this grief, with the bodies of the chiefs hanging in the sun as punishment for their unfaithfulness, this guy brings home a Midianite woman to the family.  Welcoming her in.  

God is very angry, and 24,000 die of plague.  The plague stops when Phineas sticks a spear through an Israelite man and a Midianite woman at the same time, through the belly.  Again it is not completely clear, but it seems the plague started when this man brought the Midianite woman into the camp.  This plague was a separate thing, for a separate act, than the hanging of the chiefs of Israel.  Another very slow learner.  God "promotes" Phinehas and his family to be priests from here on.  Phinehas was already the son of Eleazar, the high priest, and he is the grandson of Aaron.  Seems to me he was already in line to be priest and likely the next high priest.  But this verse:
12 Therefore say, 'Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, 13 and it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.'" [Num 25:12-13 ESV]
The MSB note on this says that "Because of Phinehas' zeal for God's holiness, the Lord made "a covenant of a perpetual priesthood" with him so that through his family line would come all future, legitimate High-Priests (cf Ps 106:30, 31).  This promise will extend even into the millennial kingdom (cf Eze 40:46; 44:10, 15; 48:11)."  So this was a very big deal.

God tells Moses that Israel is to harass the Midianites because of what has happened, for their part in leading Israel astray.  There is this verse, making it plain that the seducing of Israel by Midian was a designed plan, not a "neighborly invitation".
18 for they have harassed you with their wiles, with which they beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the chief of Midian, their sister, who was killed on the day of the plague on account of Peor." [Num 25:18 ESV]
This verse confirms the intention of Midian to undermine Israel.

2021 - I note that the man who brought the Midianite woman into camp was the son of a "chief of a father's house of the Simeonites".  This young man was the son of a chief, a high ranking man of the tribe of Simeon.  And the woman, Cozbi, was the daughter of Zur, a tribal head of his father's house in Midian.  So she was the daughter of a Midianite Chief, he was the son of a Simeonite chief.  This was an attempt to ally Midian and Israel, and so avert any kind of hostilities between them.  A "live and let live" arrangement in the making.  This whole thing was more than a backyard barbecue for the new neighbors.  This was political intrigue as it has always been practiced.  And this young man of Simeon had fallen for it, and taken this woman home, and his family had perhaps welcomed here also, as we so often do with the poor choices of our children.  We shrug them off.  In this case, the shrug cost 24,000 lives.

Chapter 26
Starts this way:
1 After the plague, the LORD said to Moses and to Eleazar the son of Aaron, the priest, [Num 26:1 ESV]  Remember that Aaron had died, and so his eldest, Eleazar, becomes high priest.  But it was Phinehas, Eleazar's son, who had killed the profane man and the Midianite woman that he brought into the camp, and from whom future high priests will descend.  
After the plague, God requires a second census of those 20 and over who can go to war.  Once again the able bodied men over 20 who could go to war are counted by their tribes and clans.  I thought about going back and comparing the count from each census, but a note in MSB has already done that work.  I think they are worth noting.  Here they are, with the second census total, and the delta from 38 years before:
Reuben     43730     -2770
Simeon     22200     -37100
Gad          40200      -5150
Judah       76500     +1900
Issachar    64300     +9900
Zebulun    60500    +3100
Manasseh 52700  +20500
Ephraim    32500     -8000
Benjamin  45600  +10200
Dan          64400    +1700
Asher       53400  +11900
Naphtali   45400     -8000
Total       601730     -1820
2022 - The Levites are counted in vss 57-62.  They don't go to war, so they are not in that census.  They have a separate census, which counts 23,000 men, from 1 month old and upward.  They are counted separately because they will not receive an inheritance.  Hmm...The land is divided among the 12 tribes...but Levi gets nothing, leaving 11...except that the two sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, each get a share.  And that is how be get back to 12.  Essentially, Joseph is promoted to "firstborn" over Reuben's head, because of Reuben's sin in his father's tent.

That is a very large army by today's standards.  None listed as 20 and older in this census had also been listed in the first census, except for Joshua and Caleb.  All those in the first census had died in the wilderness.  Every one of them except Joshua and Caleb.  That means that more than 15,000 men per year, more than 1250 per month, had died during the wandering.  And women must be added to this number to get the total that had to be buried in the sand out in that desert each and every day.

2022 - 51 verses of Chapter 26 have to do with recounting the census of each tribe.  It is not just numbers, but the names of clans in each tribe.  There are dozens of proper names in this chapter.

2024 - Look how nearly exactly God replaced those who had rebelled against him with those born during the wandering.  It is true that more than 15,000 would have died each month (possibly the reason we have so much ritual associated with purification after touching a dead body) but that also make it necessary that 15,000 would be born each month - and again, that is just the males!  Forty years is two generations.  Women not born when God turned them away from Canaan grow up and have children of their own, who conceivable read child-bearing age also, before they arrive again at the doorstep of Canaan.

Another interesting comparison is to look at how each tribe is faring in light of the pronouncement on each that Jacob made back in Egypt before he died.  Copying and pasting that in from Genesis 49:
"Reuben - firstborn, but will not have the preeminence because he went to his father's bed and defiled it when he slept with the mother of some of his brothers.  He had slept with one of his father's concubines.  This may be the first time Reuben learns that his father knew about it all along.  Jacob calls Reuben "unstable as water".  MSB points out that this sin against his father erased Reuben's place as the one to get the double portion.  Instead, the second son receives it.  So this is what Jacob meant by crossing his hands when he blessed Ephraim and Manasseh.  MSB says not one judge, prophet, military leader, or other important person came from this tribe.  Moses even prayed that the tribe of Reuben wouldn't die out completely.
Also, Korah and Abiram, who were selected to confront Moses, were from this tribe.  

Simeon and Levi are talked about together - Violent men.  Jacob wants nothing to do with them.  They killed men and hamstrung oxen over the rape of their sister at Shechem.  They brought down anger and bad feeling on Jacob and the whole family because of their anger.  They endangered the whole family by indulging their anger at that time.  Jacob has not forgotten what they did, and is aware of the underlying violent tendencies that prompted it.  Apparently they went far beyond justice and indulged their own violent tendencies.  Jacob curses their anger because it is fierce and their wrath for it is cruel.  They are to be scattered in Israel.  Hmm...the Levites end up as keepers of the temple, but they don't really own land.  They don't inherit the way the other tribes do.  Don't know much about Simeon's share...
Per MSB, Simeon has become the smallest tribe in Israel by the time of the census in Numbers 26.  Moses did not bless this tribe in Dt. 33.  They later had to share territory with Judah.  Levi was "scattered" in the sense that they were priests all over the land.  They had no land of their own, and so were "dispersed".

Judah:  The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet.  His brothers will bow down to him.  He will bind his foal to the vine, and his donkey's colt to the choice vine.   (Jesus entered Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey.  This is a long time before that happens! - 2020, MSB says that isn't what this means.  Letting a donkey eat from a choice grape vine is a sign of affluence and plenty.  There's enough "choice" that even the livestock get the good stuff.)  

Zebulun:  Will dwell at the seashore.  Perhaps his descendants are to be fishermen.  His border will be at Sidon.  Does that come out that way?  MSB says they were not in fact on the seashore, but were so placed as to benefit from the trade routes coming from there.

Issachar is a strong donkey.  He bowed his shoulder to bear and became a servant at forced labor.  After seeing that the land was pleasant.  Issachar's descendants become workers, and laborers for wages per MSB.

Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.  He will be a serpent in the way, a viper that bites the horses heels so the rider falls backwards.  Per MSB Dan later abandons its land allotment and moves to the extreme north of Israel.  From xxx to Dan is a phrase that was used to encompass all of Israel.  Dan is omitted from the list of tribes in Rev. 7:4-8.  Wow.  I didn't realize that.

Gad:  Raiders shall raid Gad and he will raid at their heels.

Asher:  His food shall be rich.

Naphtali: a doe that bears beautiful fawns.

Joseph: A fruitful bough by a spring.  Jacob recounts many blessings for Joseph, far beyond anything he's said to the others.  I don't quite get this verse:
24 yet his bow remained unmoved; his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel), [Gen 49:24 ESV]
This seems to be a messianic reference.  Yet Jesus did not come from Joseph's descendants, but from Judah's.  

Benjamin:  A ravenous wolf.  Devouring prey in the morning, dividing the spoil at evening.  Saul is from this tribe.  Gibeah was inhabited by Benjamites, and they defended it in spite of the evil that occurred there.  They were warlike beyond reason, defending themselves against all comers, with no regard for justice.  The apostle Paul is also from this tribe.  Rachel died giving birth to him, and he and Joseph were Jacob's favorites.  Yet Jacob knows this about Benjamin."

And the blessings on Ephraim and Manassah from Genesis 48 are here:
5 And he blessed Joseph and said, "The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, 16 the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys; and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth." [Gen 48:15-16 ESV]
Recall that Ephraim, though younger, was to be the greater.

After the numbers are tallied up, there is this verse:
53 "Among these the land shall be divided for inheritance according to the number of names. [Num 26:53 ESV]
So when Canaan is conquered, each tribe does not receive the same number of acres of land.  Instead, they receive their allotments based on this second census, and the total number of families, as reckoned by the number of men.

The Levites are also numbered in this census.  They are not included in the total numbers above because they would not be in the army.  Their duty was the Tent of Meeting.

Chapter 27
7 "The daughters of Zelophehad are right. You shall give them possession of an inheritance among their father's brothers and transfer the inheritance of their father to them. 8 And you shall speak to the people of Israel, saying, 'If a man dies and has no son, then you shall transfer his inheritance to his daughter. [Num 27:7-8 ESV]

And so on...God did not discriminate as to inheritance based on gender.  Family names were to continue, and family land was to stay in the family.  
2022 - Well...the daughters only inherited if there were no sons.  They were in line, but behind the sons.  Even if there was only one son and a dozen daughters, that one son would get everything.

The time has come for Moses to be gathered to his fathers, as Aaron was.  Moses asks God to name a new leader for Israel, so that they won't be as sheep without a shepherd.  God names Joshua, son of Nun.
This verse implies to me that the way God communicates with Israel will change once Moses is gone.  God talked to Moses face to face, but now, he will communicate to Joshua through Eleazar, who will communicate with God using the Urim.  The Thummin is not mentioned.
21 And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the LORD. At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he and all the people of Israel with him, the whole congregation." [Num 27:7-8, 21 ESV]
MSB confirms.  There's a note in Exodus where the Urim and Thummin are first mentioned.  One point is that through these, and the high priest, God could make judgements that were more complex than just a yes or no answer, which could be determined by lots.

Chapter 28
2021 - This reads almost like the "daily schedule" of sacrifices for Israel.  These were the basics, and the intervals that were required, to keep things going.  This was the absolute minimum.  These may be the sacrifices required for unintentional sins, and non-repeated intentional sins that were the minimum required to prevent fire or plague from descending on the people.  These were minimum to put off the punishment of sin that a just God must mete out.
God has Moses remind the people of the daily food offering that is required, a lamb each morning and evening with fine flour and a drink offering.  It seems clear from the various translations that the drink offering was fermented wine.  It had alcohol in it.  These were burnt offerings.  None was left over.

2021 - This verse:  7 Its drink offering shall be a quarter of a hin for each lamb. In the Holy Place you shall pour out a drink offering of strong drink to the LORD. [Num 28:7 ESV]
Never saw this one before.  This happens in the Holy Place.  It is worded "strong drink" in both ESV and NASB.  KJV calls it strong wine, and NKJV avoids the controversy by omitting an adjective.  One of the Strong's definitions is "Intensely intoxicating liquor".  This is not just wine, though it could be some kind of enhanced wine.  Or maybe it just means undiluted wine.  The point I think is that this was not the "every day" alcoholic drink.  This was something beyond that.

Each Sabbath there was an additional lamb both morning and evening.  Burnt offering also, and in addition to the regular offerings morning and evening.  This was not "instead of".  

Monthly, at the first of the month, two bulls and seven rams as a burnt offering. and a goat as sin offering, with grain and drink offerings with each.

Reminder of the requirements of Passover offerings, including an atonement offering of a goat.  Red heifer not mentioned.  Then of the Feast of Weeks offerings.

So this chapter is mostly a reiteration of the requirements for sacrifices.  It is in summary form, just listing what the requirements are for each offering, and emphasizing that the offerings not be forgotten, and that animals sacrificed were to be without blemish.

Chapter 29
This chapter continues from 28, giving a summary of each required sacrifice throughout the year.  These are "national" sacrifices, and have nothing to do with those required of each man for his unintentional sins.

Offerings for the Feast of Trumpets.  Seventh month.
2021 - This verse:
5 with one male goat for a sin offering, to make atonement for you; [Num 29:5 ESV]  So offerings for atonement were not just done on the Day of Atonement.  Perhaps individuals were to do these sacrifices as needed, and the Day of Atonement applied to Israel as a whole.  In fact, now that I look more  closely at the wording, all these sacrifices were for the people as a whole.  This is not about individual offerings.
Offerings for the Day of Atonement.  Later in the seventh month.
2021 - I had the idea that this one was a much bigger deal than the others.  But it is listed in its place, with no special extra instructions or requirements.  In terms of all that accompanies it, Passover seems to be a bigger feast than Atonement.  However, I note that Trumpets, Atonement and Booths all occur in the seventh month.  It is a big feast month...the seventh month.
Offerings for the Feast of Booths.  Still later in the seventh month.  This one has sacrifices every day for a week.  On day 1 of this feast, 13 bulls, plus 2 rams, 14 lambs, and a goat are to be sacrificed.  
2022 - Why so many offerings for the Feast of Booths?  It commemorates the time in the desert, and also the delivery from slavery.  The biggest deal of all?  The redemption of Israel from her captor Egypt?  Only God's power can effect such a deliverance, and even then, it is a battle.  Just as our delivery from the Prince of this earth required Jesus' shed blood, in order to overcome sin and the machinations of Satan?  There are 13 bulls on day one, and it counts down each day until on the seventh day, it is 7 bulls, 2 rams, and still fourteen lambs.  On the eight day, at the assembly, 1 bull, 1 ram, 7 lambs, and a goat, as is done on the other feast days.  Booths is a really big deal though.

Each day there are many animal sacrifices.  Lots of bulls each day with grain and drink offerings with them.  Over and over through these sections, the phrase "see that they are without blemish" is repeated.  This points to Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, with no blemish of sin in his life.
Consider also the violence of these sacrifices.  The details.  These animals were dispatched at the altar, blood drained and poured or sprinkled in various places.  They were butchered, since not every single part of the animal was burnt, but some was carried outside the camp.  

Chapter 30
Rules about vows for men:  If you vow it, you are bound by it, and you shall not break your vow.  Takes just a few verses.
Vows for women:  Rest of the chapter.  In general, a woman's father can undo her vows if she still lives with him, her husband can undo them if she is married.  If widowed or divorced, same rule as men.

Chapter 31
2022 - We go back to a historical narration here, after several chapters of rules about observing feasts.

2 "Avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites. Afterward you shall be gathered to your people." [Num 31:2 ESV]

One last thing for Moses to do before he goes home.  Midian had been a pain to Israel for quite some time.  It was the Midianite priest's daughter that had been brought into camp by the Simeonite, and caused a great plague.  This was all political on Midian's part.

1000 men from each tribe were "called up".  Of more than 600,000 available fighting men, God only required 1,000 from each tribe.

7 They warred against Midian, as the LORD commanded Moses, and killed every male. 8 They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. And they also killed Balaam the son of Beor with the sword. 9 And the people of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones, and they took as plunder all their cattle, their flocks, and all their goods. 10 All their cities in the places where they lived, and all their encampments, they burned with fire, 11 and took all the spoil and all the plunder, both of man and of beast. [Num 31:7-11 ESV]

I had never before noticed that Balaam was killed here.  He is mentioned all the way into Revelation for the harm he did to Israel, teaching Midian and Moab how to undermine them.  And this is where he ended.  

15 Moses said to them, "Have you let all the women live? 16 Behold, these, on Balaam's advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the LORD in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the LORD. 17 Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. 18 But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves. [Num 31:15-18 ESV]

It seems cruel to us now, killing little boys, children, males, and women.  The reason for it is in verse 16 above.  These are the same women who enticed the men of Israel at Peor, likely with "free love", though they were married, and tried to lead them away from God.  And Balaam is the one who proposed this strategy, and the husbands of these women were all for it.
But this was not even unusual in those days.  It is hard to imagine what it was like for the young women allowed to live though they became slaves.  Seeing all the people they knew, all their families killed before them.  Why would you want someone with that kind of hatred inside them to stay with you?  And remember, Assyria and Babylon would someday do the same to Israel.
I am pretty sure I am glad we don't do things this way anymore....though we did see it with those guys in Jordan and the rest of the Middle East.  I can't even remember today who they were, but they killed men, women and children in the name of their god.

Those who had gone to battle and become ceremonially unclean from touching dead bodies had to stay outside the camp seven days, be purified with water on the third and seventh days, wash all their clothes and themselves, and only then could they return to the camp itself, where the tabernacle was.  Any thing that could stand the fire had to be passed through fire to be purified - and water also.  Anything that would burn in fire had to be purified with water.  Only after this could the men and the spoil be brought back into the camp.  They are very specific, both Moses and Eleazar.  

The spoil is divided, half to those who fought, and half to those who stayed behind.  A tribute to God is taken from each half, from the soldiers to Eleazar, and from the people to the Levites.  After all the killing, 32,000 women remained as slaves.  There were only 12,000 sent to fight.  How many did Israel kill?  There must have been at least 100,000 men to fight for Midian and 12,000 overcame them completely, and killed them to the last man.  

Chapter 32
The tribes of Gad and Reuben decide they would rather stay in Gilead with their large herds and not cross the Jordan, and they ask for this of Moses and the elders of Israel.  Moses is pretty hot at them for repeating the same thing their father's did, and discouraging the rest of Israel from going into Canaan.  Moses says it led to 40 years in the wilderness the first time, and yet here they are doing it again.  
Gad and Reuben say they will go and fight, but want to leave their herds, their children, and their women in Gilead.  Yet they will continue until the other tribes have conquered the land.  Moses agrees.  The half tribe of Manassah also decides to stay on the east side of Jordan.

This verse, that my Mom used to quote to me on a regular basis:
23 But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out. [Num 32:23 ESV]
She used it completely out of context, and said it was about anything I did and wasn't supposed to that she didn't catch me doing.  Instead, this verse is about not shirking your responsibility to the greater good, along with keeping your commitments to God on the behalf of others.  

2021 - This section:
29 And Moses said to them, "If the people of Gad and the people of Reuben, every man who is armed to battle before the LORD, will pass with you over the Jordan and the land shall be subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession. 30 However, if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan." [Num 32:29-30 ESV]
This seems like the wrong way to do this.  If they do not fight, they still get a possession in Canaan, but if they do fight, they can have Gilead, which is not in Canaan.  But Moses just got through accusing them of being just like their father's and refusing to fight - refusing to go into Canaan and possess it, and tells them God is going to be supremely angry about that.  So if they don't fight, they make God angry, but they still get a possession?  Nothing in MSB about this.  I've double checked, and I'm reading it right.  It just doesn't seem right.  

The lands that Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh were given, specifically, were:  The kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og, King of Bashan.

Still...the attitude.  God had promised so much to them, but in Canaan.  And they decided they recognized good livestock land better than what they were promised by God.  What they were giving up was God's protection, God's blessings, by staying on what they thought was good land.  Seems like a mistake to me.
Possible FB post here.  Even if God allows us to deviate, there is a cost in terms of protection and blessing.  If we choose to oppose God, there is not always a lightning bolt from heaven.  Sometimes, God just leaves us on our own, and we later learn what we forfeited in our own conceit.  Would need to find out what ultimately becomes of these three tribes, to see where this decision leads them.

Chapter 33
Chapter starts like this:
1 These are the stages of the people of Israel, when they went out of the land of Egypt by their companies under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. 2 Moses wrote down their starting places, stage by stage, by command of the LORD, and these are their stages according to their starting places. [Num 33:1-2 ESV]
So this chapter is a recounting of the travels of the people of Israel from the time they left Egypt.  It names each place where they stayed.  All the places had names.  MSB note on the chapter says there are forty places named for the forty years in the wilderness.  However, it does not mention some places previously named, and many are named here but nowhere else.

Special notice is taken of the encampment at Mt. Hor, because it was here that Aaron rested with his fathers.  The exact day of his death is reckoned here.  

This chronology starts with the people leaving Rameses and follows them to the plains of Moab, by the Jordan at Jericho.  This is a new generation, back at the place where their fathers failed so miserably.

God instructs Moses to tell all Israel that they are to drive out the people in Canaan.  These verses:
51 "Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 52 then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you and destroy all their figured stones and destroy all their metal images and demolish all their high places. [Num 33:51-52 ESV]  The people are to be driven out, not resettled, not incorporated into Israel, but driven all the way out.  And the idols of these people are to be summarily and completely destroyed.  They are not to be left lying around to be studied, looked at, wondered at.  

Drive them out.  Because if any of the Canaanites remain, they will be barbs in their eyes and thorns in their sides.  And God will do to Israel what he thought to do to the Canaanites.  God wanted them gone.

Chapter 34
Canaan's extent defined.  God is precise about what he is giving them.  I'm sure it's been done, but it would be interesting to compare this description with the description God gave to Abraham about what his descendants would someday own.  Israel may very well have been smaller than that, as they have a separate, and conditional, covenant with God.

Those who would be recipients as the land was divided, in the name of their tribes, are also chosen by name, and God tells Moses their names.

Chapter 35
Chapter 34 ended with a list of the names of those who would represent each tribe when it came time to divide up the land.  This chapter opens with what the Levites will get.

Levites to receive 48 cities, and the pastureland immediately surrounding it. Each tribe would "donate" some cities to the Levites.  The larger tribes, receiving more land, would contribute many cities, the small tribes only a few.  The Levites could farm or tend flocks for 1000 cubits in any direction around the city.  This was their "truck farm".  They were expected to raise cattle and sheep and grow crops.  But they were limited in area, thus depending on God for the extra that they needed.  Whole cities of what were essentially priests.  This was still going on in Jesus time.  Remember that John the Baptist's father was taking his turn serving in the temple when the angel told him he was going to have a son.  They served in rotation, called in from the cities where they lived.

Six of the cities were the cities of refuge.  These cities were so that anyone who accidentally killed someone, who was not an enemy, and with no intention of killing them, could flee to these cities and be "free" of the avenger of blood.  This avenger would otherwise kill the one who killed, even by accident.  Running to the City of Refuge did not mean you were off scott free.  This verse:
12 The cities shall be for you a refuge from the avenger, that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment. [Num 35:12 ESV]
All these cities did was give you protection from the avenger until you could get a "fair trial".  The MSB note, however, makes it seem like once judged, then and only then does the avenger seek justice, and that the City of Refuge was a way to stay away from that avenger.  I don't know which is right.  As I read it, the one who killed stayed while awaiting trial, or until the high priest died.  

Then this verse:
16 "But if he struck him down with an iron object, so that he died, he is a murderer. The murderer shall be put to death. [Num 35:16 ESV]  If you hit someone with a big heavy piece of metal, it is obvious that your intent - whether in the insanity of momentary anger or totally premeditated - was to kill the person.  This is not an accidental death.  Therefore, the cities of refuge would be no protection for you.  In order for this to be known, it makes sense that some kind of process would be followed, determining whether the one who had killed could be "extradited" from the C of R.  Note that killing with a stone tool was also murder.  Always.  There was no defense for killing with something that would obviously kill.  And the penalty for murder was and always had been death.  

22-24 then spell out the other cases. The one killed could not be your enemy.  That would be too suspicious, and would be considered murder.  It had to be someone you didn't know or a friend, and it had to have been an accident.  The determination is discussed here (so MSB is correct.  Judgement before City of Refuge):
24 then the congregation shall judge between the manslayer and the avenger of blood, in accordance with these rules. 25 And the congregation shall rescue the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge to which he had fled, and he shall live in it until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil. [Num 35:24-25 ESV]
I was also right!  The phrase "shall restore him to his city of refuge" indicates that the one who killed had fled to a CofR and stayed there until he could make his case that it was an accidental death.  If the congregation agreed with him, then he would be sent BACK to the CofR he came from for the trial.  Once sent back, the one who killed "served out his sentence" until the high priest died.  So the cost even for purely accidental manslaughter was "life in a City of Refuge" with the Levites who lived there.  It might be a month.  Or the high priest might outlive you, making it a life sentence.  Shedding man's blood was obviously a very serious crime no matter the circumstances.

The law was that murderers would be put to death, but only based on the testimony of two or more witnesses.  Never on the word of just one.  Also this additional stipulation about murder:
31 Moreover, you shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death, but he shall be put to death. [Num 35:31 ESV]
There was no commutation of sentences, no last second pardon from the governor, no reparations that could be paid.  If you murdered, you were to be executed, and no excuses.

33 You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it. [Num 35:33 ESV]
No way the OT was against capital punishment.  It was in fact required, lest the land become polluted.  The land, the earth itself, the dirt, was like the ultimate witness to the murder.  Blood could build up on the land, un-avenged because of injustice or corruption or negligence or just because no one cared about the person who was killed.  But "the land" would be increasingly polluted by this blood.  We previously saw that here:
10 And He said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground. [Gen 4:10 NKJV]  It is an old principle, going back to Cain and Able.  God didn't need any witness other than the ground.

Now think about all the aborted babies in the United States, and other places.  Innocent blood, no justice done for these intentional murders, no one standing up for them and demanding that the killers - abortion doctors and women and men and sometimes whole families complicit in the murder.  Surely their blood must cry out from the ground for justice.  How long can we survive as a people if we continue to pollute our ground in this way?

Chapter 36
The daughters of Zelophehad from the tribe of Joseph were required to marry only in their own tribe, so that their inheritance, which God himself commanded that they receive, would not be transferred to other tribes by the right of male heirship.  Daughters did not inherit, even what was theirs before the marriage.  This appears to be a unique instance, not a standing rule, since the daughters of this one "original" clan are specifically referenced.  But there is an implication that in similar situation down through time, land that belonged to one tribe originally could never become the inheritance - or move at jubilee - to a different tribe.  And rather than doing a lot of paperwork and record keeping to make sure what had originally belonged to whom, the rule was that women who's father's had no sons to inherit his land could only marry within their tribe, which insured that even though the land might change families, it would never change tribes.

They couldn't enforce this anymore.  The records no longer exist for Israel to trace its ancestry back to the original 12 tribes.  But according to Ezekiel, during the Millennial, the land will be divided again according to the 12 tribes.  So somehow, presumably by supernatural means, the Jews alive in the Millennial will know where they came from.