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Chukat chaim: The Way of life
Death seems normal to use because we see it all around us. It has taken so many we care about away from us. The pain and suffering has caused so many to doubt the goodness of God. Death is foreign to God’s realm, death is out of place in His order.
Corruption and contact with it can not approach the Presence of God. Anyone who approached God in the Tabernacle or temple had to detox themselves from the realm of death before entering the realm of life. Heaven provides protection against these threats to get us to the goal Heaven has for us.
Israel suffered from scorpions and snakes until they reached the Land. Apostle Paul had a similar experience when he was bitten by a snake, but God promised him that he would arrive at his destination, he would complete his mission (Acts 28:3–5; 23:11).
In Torah reading חֻקַּת Chukat (“statute of,” Numbers 19:1–22:1), water becomes a symbol of both life and struggle. We also read about this ceremony of the sacrifice of the red heifer, whose ashes were later mixed with water to cleans people from contact with death.
There are parallels between the sacrifice of the red heifer and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement).
| Red heifer | Yom haKippurim |
|---|---|
| Seven sprinklings of blood (Num. 19:4) | Seven sprinklings of blood (Lev. 16:14–19; cf. Lev. 4:1–21; 14:7, 16) |
| Ashes from the red heifer cleanses from contact with the dead. | Blood of the goat for the LORD covers sins, transgressions and iniquities. |
As we read in Hebrews 9, these the offerings of the red heifer and Day of Atonement are about cleansing. They are part of the pattern that God showed to Moses on Mt. Sinai. These are symbols of what God has done, what He is doing and what He will do, culminating in Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus).
Would we want all our inner most thoughts broadcast to the world? We live in a time where people truly overshare their lives on social media and that often what we say and what we present is purposefully presented in the most negative light, and interpreted with the most negative of motives.
But then imagine what we have said and what we did, rather than broadcast to the world for judgement, is erased, forgotten and brought up no more? God offers us liberation from our sins, transgressions and iniquities. He offers to erase our sins from not only our memory, but also the memories of others and even His own memory.
Snakes! Why did it have to be snakes?
Num. 21:4–9 is living parable, in that the bite of “fiery” serpents is blunted by a blood-red (copper/bronze) serpent on a pole. It also hearkens back to the serpent in Eden, whose head would be crushed by the heel of the “Second Man” (Gen. 3:15; 1Cor. 15:45–49). And that Second Adam would be also be lifted up on a pole to be a source of life for all humanity, who suffer from the lingering “bite” of the serpent deception in Eden.
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.”
John 3:14–15 NASB
We also have a play on words in Genesis 3, with the serpent’s being “cunning,” concealing intentions vs. Adam and Chavah’s (Eve) being “naked,” completely honest. We also have a Hebrew play on words with the words for standard or pole (נֵס nes, H5251; also can mean miracle), serpent (נָחָשׁ nachash, H5175), bite (נָשַׁךְ nashakh, H5391a) and copper/bronze (נְחֹשֶׁת nechoshet, H5178).
The serpent was made of copper, just as the items in the most outer courtyard of the Tabernacle were made of copper. One lesson from the outer courtyard is that which red/blood must be transformed before coming into the realm of the golden (inner Tabernacle, i.e., haQadosh (the Holy Place) and Qadosh haQadoshim (Holy of Holies, Most Holy Place).
There is also a class of angelic hosts called seraphim (Isa. 6:2–7). Saraph means “to set on fire,” which can either refer to literal fire or hearken to how snake venom works on bodily tissues.
One view on the arrival of the “fiery” serpents in the camp of Israel is they came because of a removal of protection, rather than by Heaven’s direct commission of the creatures. Commentator Shimson Raphael Hirsh noted that the Hebrew form for “sent” in Numbers 6 (יְשַׁלַּ֨ח yeshallach, piel stem of שָׁלַח shalach) is often translated “released”(“Punished … by snakes?” Aleph Beta).
Here’s another take on shalakh:
The third meaning [of the verb שָׁלַח] “let loose, free” is also found mostly in the Piel. It is used in the mild sense of formally allowing a guest to leave (Gen 18:16; 24:54) or in the stronger sense of releasing captives such as Israel in Egypt (Ex 4:21), the exiles in Babylon (Isa 45:13), and the prisoners in the pit (Zech 9:11). In Ps 81:12 God gives rebellious Israel up to go their own ways and to suffer the consequences.
Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament
The snake and its bite were a source of death, but when a blood-red serpent was put on a pole and “lifted up” like a flag or an ensign, looking at this “source of death” saved lives in a miraculous way. When you turned your eyes away from your suffering and looked up towards the standard, it would bring you life.
But about 600-700 years later, this same symbol, which God had used to save many people’s lives, became a source of sin instead and had to be destroyed:
[Hezekiah] removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan. He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him. For he clung to the LORD; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses.
2Kings 18:4–6 NASB
Some in Israel had started worshiping the “Nechushtan,” or the “snake thing,” rather than the God who created the serpents and humanity. When these descendants of Israel forgot the lesson of the Red Sea splitting — that the LORD was more powerful than Yam, the so-called deity of the sea that was on par in power with Ba’al — they also forgot their true Savior.
We can either put our faith in the structures of religion, or we can put our faith in the One who all of these things point to. That’s a key warning of the serpent on the pole.
Balak: The Way of Death
The Torah reading בָּלָק Balak (Numbers 22:2-25:9) covers the prophesies of Bilam (Balaam), who was a non-Israeli pseudopagan prophet that Balak king of Moab hired to curse the people of Israel.
The smartest being in the story of Bilam was his donkey. Bilam was a well-known historical figure, well-attested in the archaeological record.
One archaeological find that mentions Bilam in great detail, the Deir ‘Alla inscription, dated to around 800–700 B.C. Here’s a segment of this inscription, translated into English:
[i.1] The misfortunes of the Book of Balaam, son of Beor. A divine seer was he. …
[i.5] Balaam arose on the morrow; He summoned the heads of the assembly to him,
[i.6] And for two days he fasted, and wept bitterly. Then his intimates entered into his presence, and they said to Balaam, son of Beor, “Why do you fast, and why do you weep?”
[i.7] Then he said to them: “Be seated, and I will relate to you what the Shaddai gods have planned, And go, see the acts of the god!”
In Semitic cultures, Shaddai is a common title for powerful god. It refers to power to destroy and obliterate. That is why the title “El Shaddai” is often translated as “God Almighty.” But there was only one true Deity Who sent the worldwide Flood. Thus, this title of God was what Noach and Abraham were most familiar with.
With Bilam (Balaam), God is using a prophet who often opens himself to messages from other spirit beings besides Himself. God is certainly working with a very broken vessel.
The name Bilal is thought to be a combination of בֶּלַע and עָם “destruction of people” which accords with his reputation as a charmer and conjurer.
Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament
The first part of his name, bala’ (H1104), means “swallow down, swallow up, engulf (idea of quickness, suddenness)” (Brown Driver Briggs lexicon), while the second part of his name,
’am (H5971, 5993) simply means “people” (BDB)
Some have suggested that Nikolaos “conquerors of the people” in Rev. 2:6, 15 is a translation of this name.
Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament
Which talking animal do you believe?
This is not the only place where there’s a talking animal. In Genesis 3, we also read about a talking animal in the serpent who was speaking with Eve. This is not a coincidence.
The snake sows distrust in Eve while the donkey emphasizes trust. The snake implies that God is trying to keep something good from here, while the donkey is expressing her faithfulness and wanting the best for her master.
Both accounts also have angels with flaming swords. In Genesis, the angel with the flaming sword protects the Tree of Life while the Angel of the Lord wears a flaming sword to block Bilam’s path. Bilam was only allowed to continue on his path after he received Heaven’s commission.
The snake was the adversary of humanity, while the donkey is a burden bearer of the nations, which we see culminated when the donkey carried Yeshua into Jerusalem for His final visit there before His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension.
Bilam’s story is recorded for us, not as an example of how to live our lives but as a warning of how not to live. We are warned by his story that we should listen to God’s voice not the cacophony of voices that want to compete with and drown out God’s voice.
Why should we care about Bilam and his story. We will read later (Numbers 30) how he conspires with the Midianites to seduce Israel into idolatry. God ends up destroying Midiani and Bilam for this.
“Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel, and he sent and summoned Balaam the son of Beor to curse you. ‘But I was not willing to listen to Balaam. So he had to bless you, and I delivered you from his hand.”
Joshua 24:9–10 NASB
God used the oracles He gave to Bilaam to show His power, just as He had used Pharaoh to show His power in Egypt.
Later in the Bible, in the book of Jude, Bilam is the example of the heretic, or the apostate who knows the truth but prefer to follow lies, the person who prefers to live a life of sin rather than a life of righteousness.
Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
Jude 1:11 NASB
One thing we can hope for when reading about God’s interaction with Israel in the history of the world, is that in the messianic era, these things that have been concealed will be made known. We pray that those who have been two-faced, who have lead others astray, will be revealed and their falsehoods be struck down.
We have a picture here that Heaven is working extremely hard to bring those who are on the outside closer to Him, like the red heifer, which was offered outside the camp, is brought in. We pray that God will show us His ways and that we will not work against Heaven, as Bilam had done. We pray for discernment that we can discern God’s voice and ignore those voices that call us to rebel against Him.
Summary: Tammy