In the closing chapters of the book of Numbers, among a discussion of land grants to the tribes of Israel we read of a justice-and-mercy system for murderers that prophetically links ransom of the accidentally guilty to the death of the high priest.
Tag: Numbers 33
Why is it that God specifically told Moses to write down these places? We may not have a complete picture of it but God did not ask Moses to write this down just for the sake of history. There’s a bigger picture to be found in the names of these places that Moses records and we endeavor to discover God’s picture.
Many people consider Numbers a very boring book because it goes over so many names. But as seen in part 1 of this discussion, the Hebrew names of each of the places of the Exodus and wilderness wanderings have important meaning. It might not be the literal meaning of the name but based on the symbolism of what occurred at that place. These are God’s names for these places, not necessarily the common names given to those places by the inhabitants at the time.
This is a difficult, laborious chapter. There are lots of hard-to-pronounce names — 40, 42 or 43 depending on the count. Yet the name of each encampment carries important teachings from what happened at each site and the meaning of the names themselves.
We may be tempted to give up when the end of our jobs, our relationships or lives are looming. Yet Moshe embodies apostle Paul’s encouragement to “fight the good fight” and “run the race” with all we have until we reach our goal or it’s time to pass the baton to the next person. Moshe encouraged the tribes of Reuben and Gad to pitch in to the hard settlement of Canaan, even when their new home was secured.