Tag: Numbers

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Discussions Torah

Numbers 22: The unintended prophesy of Balaam, part 1

Skeptics like to poke fun at this story because of the talking donkey. Yet sometimes, our way is so set upon evil that a talking donkey doesn’t even phase us and give us pause to turn away from our direction.

Balaam wasn’t ignorant of the identity of the Creator God. He knew YHWH by name, and Balak, the king of Moab knew of Him too. If he knew that, then he knew that God had the power to make a donkey talk. Balaam didn’t fully understand the error of his way until one of the most powerful angels in God’s hosts, the Angel of the Lord, confronts him with a sword in his hand.

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Discussions Torah

Numbers 21: Israel fights Amorites; God sends deadly serpents among Israel — and the Cure

Israel didn’t credit God with the victory over the Amorites and other blessings, namely the coming of manna each morning to feed the people. God sent death amid the people — and the cure in the image of the instrument of that death. There’s an important prophecy about the work of Messiah Yeshua in this account, something Yeshua didn’t want Nicodemus to miss from his studies of the Torah.

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Discussions Torah

Numbers 20: Deaths of Miriam and Aaron

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We will look at this chapter carefully. The events of this chapter occur near the end 40 year wilderness exile. After nearly 40 years, the people still complain about being removed from Egypt and “dying in the wilderness.”

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Discussions Torah

Numbers 18-19: High priest as a type of the Messiah; lesson of the mysterious red heifer

There is a very special but blunt message in Numbers 18–19, targeted to the High Priest and his family. Moses is not addressed at all. God impresses upon the High Priest family and the Levites the seriousness of their charge. They are given certain rights within in the community of Israel but also gives them very serious responsibilities. God also places serious consequences on the High Priestly family and the Levites if they are derelict in their Temple duties.

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Discussions Torah

Numbers 15-17: Rebellion in the Wilderness–The Pattern of Presumption and God’s Justice

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This section could be titled, “The Three Stories of Rebellion”: of a man collecting firewood on Shabbat, of Korah, of two families of the tribe of Reuben. God dealt with each rebellion in a different way. All imprinted in the minds of the people over and again God was the one in charge, and it was God’s prerogative to choose Moses and Aaron.

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Discussions Torah

Numbers 14: 12 spies ‘bad’ and ‘faithful’ reports on the Land

Joshua & Caleb saw opportunity, the other 10 spies saw defeat

Not only did the people believe the “evil” report, they actually wanted to stone the two spies who brought back the faithful report.

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Discussions Torah

Numbers 12-13: Aaron and Miriam ‘speak evil’ against Moses; spies ‘speak evil’ against the Land

Numbers 12 shows us the consequences of Miriam and Aaron’s jealously of God’s special relationship with Moses. Since they could not openly complained about God’s special treatment of Moses, they struck out against Moses’s by attacking his Cushite wife. Numbers 13 shows us the story of the first spies who went out into the land of Israel to scout out the land. God told Moses to call out one leader from each tribe to be the spies of the land.