Matot - The Tribes and Masei - the Journeys-מַּטּוֹת־מַסְעֵי- Audio Podcast July 15, 2023
Notes
Transcript
Numbers 30:1-36:13
REVIEW
So far we can summarize what we have studied about Bamidbar - in the wilderness / Numbers by this Summary
b’Midbar Sinai, count the army. Count Levites separately, and Naso everyone for special tasks. b’Ha’alot’cha the lamps, shine as a light to the nations.
Though spies Sh’lach l’Cha, trust God to protect you. And don’t rebel like boldfaced Korach!
Chukat haTorah keeps you pure. Though Balak tries to destroy, God will bless your tents! When Pinchas spears idolatry, his zeal will change darkness back to light!
We all belong to Matot, each tribe with an inheritance. The journeys, Mas’ei Yisra’el, may twist and turn … but God’s path holds promise!
We spoke about
EVERY MAN IN HIS PLACE.
Distorted Thinking
Today very predominant
4 different kinds of law
4 Types for the beginning of the discussion - Torah is instruction/no law
We talked about the prophetic significance of the Golden Calf - idolatry
In Chukkat, there are three examples of the Sanctification of the Name” to witnesses through the death of a righteous person:
The death of Miriam, Aaron and Moses
Today we will continue to talk about the difference it makes in the kingdom when a righteous persons decides to do what God commands and the consequences for not doing it.
Meribah (mer’-i-bah) = Water of strife; chiding; contention. Strife
It is those who who have lived a life of service to the Kingdom who seem to have a death sentence on them
My beloved [ani dod] = but in it you find David - דוד - if you take the vowels out - regarding Songs of Salomon chapter 5 verse 10
Balak - Destroyer
The promise of Messiah as a follow up of the Red Heifer
Balak hired Balaam who compromised. His job was to curse Israel
But he could not because his eyes are opened by the HS
We talked about Pinchas
Picture of Pinchas/ Phinehas
Picture of People of Israel at the Door of the temple
But something interesting happens when we are faced with evil: Some run. Some join in. Some say nothing. Some do nothing
They began to commit harlotry with women of Moab
They worshiped other gods
They joined themselves to Baal -evil
Everyone is mourning in front of the DOOR of The Tabernacle of Meeting - facing East
Jan Hus said: “Seek the truth. Hear the truth. Learn the truth. Love the truth and Defend the truth until death.”
Leadership is not about who calls the shots - or has control
Organic leadership is about doing what is righteous
Seduction
God is jealous God
Picture of Gathering of People in front of church
Just like Israel
Question Picture
Is it possible that people are complacent and do nothing against evil because we have been seduced with falsehood in the house of the rock, and rejoice in ignorance?
Picture to restore women
5- Women
Restoration Num - 27 - 5-11
Introduction
Introduction
Numbers 25:10-30:1
The roadmap
There are 7 prophetic seeds in these Torah Portions:
1- The Vow of the Bride Nullified by the Bridegroom
2- The War with Midianites - The Levites - to Keep the Temple
3- The Division of Land -The Turning away - Consequences
4-The journeys
5- The six cities
6- The Blood
7- The Daughters of Zelophehad (of Manasseh)
Moses acts as the Prophet for Israel in the wilderness
He delivers the Law, explains it, gives the warning, and has people repent
PRESENTATION
Numbers 30:1-36:13
1- The Vow of the Bride Nullified by the Bridegroom
Unfortunately men break their vows
The laws of God are given to us so that we can see the character of God in them.
Some of the laws of God are impossible to keep. Some can be broken very easily.
This is good when it comes down to a vow.
Even when we break vows (promises we make) to have the option to break them is good, in the bigger picture, otherwise when we make a vow with the enemy it could not be broken
2 If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
He binds his soul with a vow
A man must keep his vow
Vows are a means to asceticism (the practice of strict self-denial as a measure of personal and especially spiritual discipline : the condition, practice, or mode of life of an ascetic : rigorous abstention from self-indulgence; ei -fasting
Merriam Webster)
(Ethics of the Fathers 3:13)
Asceticism leads to purity, purity leads to holiness, holiness leads to humility, humility leads to fear of sin, fear of sin leads to saintliness, saintliness leads to the [possession of] the holy spirit, and the holy spirit leads to eternal life.
(Talmud, Avodah Zarah 20b)
A woman keeps a vow always under a covering:
3 “Or if a woman makes a vow to the Lord, and binds herself by some agreement while in her father’s house in her youth,
4 and her father hears her vow and the agreement by which she has bound herself, and her father holds his peace, then all her vows shall stand, and every agreement with which she has bound herself shall stand.
5 But if her father overrules her on the day that he hears, then none of her vows nor her agreements by which she has bound herself shall stand; and the Lord will release her, because her father overruled her.
6 “If indeed she takes a husband, while bound by her vows or by a rash utterance from her lips by which she bound herself,
7 and her husband hears it, and makes no response to her on the day that he hears, then her vows shall stand, and her agreements by which she bound herself shall stand.
8 But if her husband overrules her on the day that he hears it, he shall make void her vow which she took and what she uttered with her lips, by which she bound herself, and the Lord will release her.
Verse 9, we spoke about in this same Torah portion last year -
Summary:
A vow, however, can be annulled (as long as it does not involve an obligation towards another person).
A father has the authority to annul the vows of his daughter, and a husband the vows of his wife or betrothed, within the day of the vow’s declaration. (Another kind of annulment is that effected by a Torah scholar or a panel of three judges.)
The Husband can affirm or nullify any vow the bride makes
10 “If she vowed in her husband’s house, or bound herself by an agreement with an oath,
11 and her husband heard it, and made no response to her and did not overrule her, then all her vows shall stand, and every agreement by which she bound herself shall stand.
12 But if her husband truly made them void on the day he heard them, then whatever proceeded from her lips concerning her vows or concerning the agreement binding her, it shall not stand; her husband has made them void, and the Lord will release her.
13 Every vow and every binding oath to afflict her soul, her husband may confirm it, or her husband may make it void.
15 But if he does make them void after he has heard them, then he shall bear her guilt.”
2- The War with Midianites - The Levites - to Keep the Temple
The gathering happens after the war
2 “Take vengeance on the Midianites for the children of Israel. Afterward you shall be gathered to your people.”
3 So Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm some of yourselves for war, and let them go against the Midianites to take vengeance for the Lord on Midian.
Why only upon the Midianites, but not the Moabites (who also sent their daughters to cause Israel to sin)?
Because the Moabites got involved because they feared Israel (cf. Numbers 22:2–6);
but the Midianites entered a fight that was not theirs.
Another explanation: God said to spare the Moabites because of “two fine beings which I shall extract from them”—Ruth the Moabite and Naamah the Ammonite (wife of King Solomon).
4 A thousand from each tribe of all the tribes of Israel you shall send to the war.”
5 So there were recruited from the divisions of Israel one thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.
6 Then Moses sent them to the war, one thousand from each tribe; he sent them to the war with Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, with the holy articles and the signal trumpets in his hand.
7 And they warred against the Midianites, just as the Lord commanded Moses, and they killed all the males.
8 They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of those who were killed—Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. Balaam the son of Beor they also killed with the sword.
There were 12 tribes - Levites were included - with Manasseh = 13
Phinehas/ Pinchas leads trumpets
Pinchas
Why did he send Pinchas? He said: “The one who began the mitzvah (the commandment) shall finish it.”
It was Pinchas who turned away God’s wrath from Israel and smote the Midianite woman;
let him finish the sacred task.
(Midrash Rabbah; Rashi)
All males are killed - in ancient times heritage was passed through males
Balaam is killed
The Hebrew word midian means “strife.” Midian is the essence of divisiveness, which is the root of all evil.
The sages speak of “groundless hatred” as the greatest of evils.
In truth, all strife is groundless hatred: the so-called “grounds” that people and nations have for hating and destroying each other are but the various façades of the divisive “I” of Midian
—the ego that belies the common source and goal of humanity, and views the very existence of others as an encroachment upon the self.
At a spiritual level, God is the ultimate oneness, and everything Godly in our world bears the stamp of His unity.
All evil derives from the distortion of this oneness by the veil of divisiveness in which God shrouds His creation.
So before the people of Israel could conquer the “seven nations” that inhabited the land of Canaan—which represent the seven negative traits of the heart—
they first had to destroy Midian, which is their source and cause.
This is also why the destruction of Midian could be achieved only under the leadership of Moses, who embodied the traits of utter self-abnegation, and therefore harmony and truth.
(Maamar Heichaltzu 5659)
“To take God’s vengeance on Midian”—for whoever stands against Israel, stands against God.
(Rashi)
The laws of God are given to us so that we can see the character of God in them
Hagalah
Moses also tells them to undergo the seven-day purification process for one who comes in contact with the dead, while Elazar instructs them on the laws of hagalah (“koshering”—the cleansing of utensils of the non-kosher food absorbed in them),
by which to cleanse the “gold, silver, copper, iron, tin and lead” utensils captured in the war:
21 Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had gone to the battle, “This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord commanded Moses:
22 “Only the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead,
23 everything that can endure fire, you shall put through the fire, and it shall be clean; and it shall be purified with the water of purification. But all that cannot endure fire you shall put through water.
24 And you shall wash your clothes on the seventh day and be clean, and afterward you may come into the camp.”
Dividing the Plunder, the Levites are provided to keep the Temple:
30 And from the children of Israel’s half you shall take one of every fifty, drawn from the persons, the cattle, the donkeys, and the sheep, from all the livestock, and give them to the Levites who keep charge of the tabernacle of the Lord.”
47 and from the children of Israel’s half Moses took one of every fifty, drawn from man and beast, and gave them to the Levites, who kept charge of the tabernacle of the Lord, as the Lord commanded Moses.
The responsibility to keep the temple is observed in all throughout the history of Israel
This is not only expected but also clearly seen in the prophecies of the Day of the Lord
3- The Division of Land -The Turning away - Consequences
1 Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock; and when they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, that indeed the region was a place for livestock,
2 the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spoke to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the leaders of the congregation, saying,
3 “Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Shebam, Nebo, and Beon,
4 the country which the Lord defeated before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.”
5 Therefore they said, “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants as a possession. Do not take us over the Jordan.”
Moses is extremely upset by their request.
6 And Moses said to the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben: “Shall your brethren go to war while you sit here?
Moses initially saw their request as the equivalent of the spies’ shunning of the Holy Land, why did he at the end agree to their proposal, and even expand on it, by adding half the tribe of Manasseh to the tribes of Reuben and Gad?
(The fact that they pledged to participate in other tribes’ conquest of the Land answered only the first part of Moses’ complaint to them—
“Shall your brethren go to war, and you sit here?”—
but not the other, seemingly more grave, accusation—namely, that they are repeating the sin of the spies in spurning the Land, which had caused that entire generation to die out in the desert!)
The explanation is to be found in the first words of the response given by the men of Reuben and Gad to Moses:
16 Then they came near to him and said: “We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones,
5 Therefore they said, “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants as a possession. Do not take us over the Jordan.”
The motivation?
it was not the fear of the land that motivated these two tribes to remain east of the Jordan.
On the contrary: they wanted to settle these lands, to build cities and ranches, to raise their sheep and cattle on its pastures.
The request, “Do not take us across the Jordan,” did not express a reluctance to seek out the potential for holiness contained in the Land,
but an attraction to even more remote—and perhaps even more superior in their eyes—“sparks of Godliness.”
Not all that glitters is gold
After all, the land west of the Jordan, though material, was the “Holy Land”—a land where even the most mundane pursuits are touched with a spiritual glow.
Outside of the Holy Land, the physical world is more lowly, and thus contains sparks of self divinity that derive from a prideful source.
The tribes of Reuben and Gad were convinced that their mission in life was to pursue, extract and elevate the “sparks” inherent in this more spiritually distant corner of creation.
Extract them for our service
The laws of God are given to us so that we can see the character of God in them
Consequences
15 For if you turn away from following Him, He will once again leave them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all these people.”
20 Then Moses said to them: “If you do this thing, if you arm yourselves before the Lord for the war,
21 and all your armed men cross over the Jordan before the Lord until He has driven out His enemies from before Him,
22 and the land is subdued before the Lord, then afterward you may return and be blameless before the Lord and before Israel; and this land shall be your possession before the Lord.
23 But if you do not do so, then take note, you have sinned against the Lord; and be sure your sin will find you out.
Be careful not to fail in keeping your vow before the Lord in your journey
4-The journeys
Masei - Journeys = journal
1 These are the journeys of the children of Israel, who went out of the land of Egypt by their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron.
2 Now Moses wrote down the starting points of their journeys at the command of the Lord. And these are their journeys according to their starting points:
4604 I. מוֹצָא (mô·ṣā(ʾ)): Str 4161; 1. the act of going out, utter, issue, i.e., an act of speaking (Nu 30:13[EB 12]; Da 9:25); 2. stage of a journey, i.e., an incremental part of a very long journey (Nu 33:2); 3. movement, i.e., habits and patterns of a life as a behavior or conduct (2Sa 3:25); 4. rising, i.e., the linear appearing movement of a heavenly object (Ps 19:7[EB 6]);
The forty-two “stations” from Egypt to the Promised Land are replayed in the life of every individual Jew, as his soul journeys from its descent to earth at birth to its return to its Source.
(Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov)
The Torah goes on to recount the 42 stations from the Exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land:
1) “They journeyed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the morrow after the Passover . . . and they camped in Sukkot”;
2) “They journeyed from Sukkot, and camped in Etham (Eitam), which is in the edge of the wilderness”;
3) “They journeyed from Etham ( Eitam), and turned back to Pi-Hachirot, which is before Baal-Tzefon; and they camped before Migdol”;
4) “They passed through the midst of the sea into the desert, and went three days’ journey in the wilderness of Etham (Eitam), and camped in Marah”;
5) Elim (“in Elim were twelve fountains of water and seventy palm trees”);
6) The Red Sea;
7) the Sin Desert;
8) Dofkah;
9) Alush;
10) Refidim (Rephidim) (where they thirsted for water, had doubtsabout God’s presence and fought Amalek);
11) The Sinai Desert (where they camped for eleven months and twenty days, received the Torah and built the Sanctuary);
12) Kivrot HaTaavah (“Graves of Lust”);
13) Chatzeroth (Chatzeirot) (where Miriam spoke against Moses);
14) Ritmah (the incident of the spies);
15) Rimon Peretz;
16) Livnah;
17) Rissah;
18) Keheilatah;
19) Mount Shefer;
20) Charadah;
21) Mak’heilot;
22) Tachat;
23) Tarach;
24) Mitkah;
25) Chashmonah;
26) Moseirot;
27) Bnei Yaakan;
28) Chor Hagidgad;
29) Yotvatah;
30) Avronah;
31) Etzyon Gaver;
32) Kadesh in the Tzin Desert (where Miriam died, and the incident of the “Waters of Strife” took place);
33) Hor HaHar (where Aaron died, and the Israelites were attacked by the Canaanite king of Arad); at the edge of the land of Edom
34) Tzalmonah;
35) Punon;
36) Ovot; (Ovos)
37) Iyei HaAvarim (“Desolate Mounds”), on the border of Moab;
38) Divon Gad;
39) Almon Divlataimah;
40) “the Avarim Mountains before Nebo”;
41–42) “They journeyed from the Avarim Mountains, and camped in the plains of Moab by the Jordan River across from Jericho; they camped by the Jordan, from Beit HaYeshimot to Avel HaShittim in the plains of Moab.”
So, journeys 1 through 11 were in the first year following the Exodus, and journeys
32–42 in the fortieth year,
meaning that there were 19 journeys in the intervening 38 years.
According to the Midrash, 19 of these 38 years were spent in Kadesh, and the other 19 wandering through the desert.
It would seem that there was only one journey which took the Jewish nation out of Egypt—their journey from Rameses to Sukkot.
The other “journeys” listed in our Parshah were between points outside of the geographical borders of Egypt.
Why, then, does the Torah speak of “the journeys”—in the plural—“of the children of Israel going out of the land of Egypt (Mitzrayim)”?
Egypt (Mitzrayim), the Hebrew word for “Egypt,” means “borders” and “narrows.”
On the spiritual level, the journey from Egypt is a journey from the boundaries that limit us—an exodus from the narrow straits of habit, convention and ego to the “good, broad land” of the infinite potential of our Godly soul.
And the journey from Egypt (Mitzrayim) is a perpetual one:
what is expansive and uninhibited by yesterday’s standards, is narrow and confining in light of the added wisdom and new possibilities of today’s station.
Thus, each of life’s “journeys” is an exodus from the land of Mitzrayim: having transcended yesterday’s limitations, we must again journey from the Mitzrayim that our present norm represents relative to our newly uncovered potential.
Rabbi Schneur Zalman
Yet these encampments were not ends unto themselves—only way-stations and stepping-stones to advance the nation of Israel in their goal of attaining the Promised Land.
So the stops themselves are referred to as “journeys.”
The same is true of the journey of life.
Pauses, interruptions and setbacks are an inadvertent part of a person’s sojourn on earth.
But when everything a person does is toward the goal of attaining the “Holy Land”—the sanctification of the material world—these, too, are “journeys.” Ultimately, they are shown to have been the true motors of progression, each an impetus to the realization of one’s mission and purpose in life.
The laws of God are given to us so that we can see the character of God in them
5- The six cities
9 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
10 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
11 then you shall appoint cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person accidentally may flee there.
12 They shall be cities of refuge for you from the avenger, that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation in judgment.
13 And of the cities which you give, you shall have six cities of refuge.
14 You shall appoint three cities on this side of the Jordan, and three cities you shall appoint in the land of Canaan, which will be cities of refuge.
15 These six cities shall be for refuge for the children of Israel, for the stranger, and for the sojourner among them, that anyone who kills a person accidentally may flee there.
Three on each side of the Jordan—should be set aside as havens for “one who slays a soul unawares.”
The Torah includes six hundred and thirteen mitzvot (commandments). . . .
Of these, the mitzvot (commandments) that can be observed today [following the destruction of the Holy Temple and our exile from the Holy Land] number, altogether, three hundred and thirty-nine.
Among these are mitzvot (commandments) for which a person becomes obligated only under certain circumstances,
so that it is possible that never in his lifetime will these circumstances come about and he will never have the opportunity to do them
—e.g., the mitzvah to pay an employee on time. . . . The number of mitzvot (commandments) that every Jew is obligated in is two hundred and seventy. . . .
Many of these, however, are binding only on certain days of the year, or at certain times of the day.
There are six mitzvot (commandments) whose obligation is constant, and does not depart from the person for a single moment throughout his lifetime. These are:
to believe in God
to openly declare His oneness
to renounce idolatry
to love God
to fear Him
and to avoid temptation to sin.
They are symbolized by the verse, “Six cities of refuge shall they be for you.”
The laws of God are given to us so that we can see the character of God in them
6- The Blood
33 So you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it.
34 Therefore do not defile the land which you inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell; for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel.’ ”
How were the Ten Commandments given?
Five on one tablet and five on the second tablet.
This means that “Do not murder” corresponds to “I am the Lord your God.”
The Torah is telling us that one who sheds blood, it is as if he has reduced the image of the King.
To what is this comparable to?
To a king of flesh and blood who entered a country and put up portraits of himself, and made statues of himself, and minted coins with his image.
After a while, the people of the country overturned his portraits, broke his statues and invalidated his coins, thereby reducing the image of the king.
So, too, one who sheds blood reduces the image of the King, as it is written (Genesis 9:6): “One who spills a man’s blood . . . for in the image of God He made man.”
The laws of God are given to us so that we can see the character of God in them
Only the one who sheds the blood can reclaim it.
33 So you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it.
7- The Daughters of Zelophehad (of Manasseh) -
6 This is what the Lord commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, ‘Let them marry whom they think best, but they may marry only within the family of their father’s tribe.’
7 So the inheritance of the children of Israel shall not change hands from tribe to tribe, for every one of the children of Israel shall keep the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.
8 And every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel shall be the wife of one of the family of her father’s tribe, so that the children of Israel each may possess the inheritance of his fathers.
9 Thus no inheritance shall change hands from one tribe to another, but every tribe of the children of Israel shall keep its own inheritance.”
East of Samaria
10 Just as the Lord commanded Moses, so did the daughters of Zelophehad;
11 for Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to the sons of their father’s brothers.
6 The border went up to Beth Hoglah and passed north of Beth Arabah; and the border went up to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben.
Beth Hoglah - the house of Hoglah - one of the daughters
Zelophehad
The Son of Helper
Zelophehad (ze’lo’-fe-had) = First rupture; i.e., firstborn; the first born; fracture. Anxious for shade. Shadow of fear.
daughter.
Most biblical uses of the word “daughter” refer to a female child, though the term can be used more expansively for any female descendant (e.g., 2 Kings 8:26)
a synonym for “women” (e.g., “daughters of humans” in Gen. 6:4 are human women;
“daughters of Jerusalem” in Luke 23:28 are women who live in Jerusalem).
Metaphorically, cities may be referred to as daughters (e.g., Ps. 48:11, “daughters of Judah”; nrsv: “towns of Judah”).
In many biblical narratives, sons appear to be more celebrated than daughters, perhaps because the family name was usually passed on through the male descendants (cf. Deut. 25:5–6, which expresses concern that a man’s name might be “blotted out of Israel” if he dies without a son).
The book of Ruth, however, recounts a narrative in which a woman comes to regard her daughter-in-law as her own daughter (e.g. 3:1, 10–11) and, indeed, as a daughter who is more to her “than seven sons” (4:15).
Biblical genealogies typically list only sons, but they do sometimes list daughters when no sons were born (Gen. 47:17; Num. 26:46).
Daughters were valued and loved, and Israelite law often mandated protection of daughters in ways that surpassed what was required for sons (e.g., Exod. 21:7–11; Lev. 18:9–18; 19:29).
The case of Zelophehad’s daughters established inheritance rights for women who married within the family group of their tribe (Num. 27:1–11; 36:1–12).
In the NT, Jesus raises the daughter of a synagogue ruler from the dead (Matt. 9:18–26) and heals the demon-possessed daughter of a Canaanite woman (15:21–28). He sometimes addresses adult women as “Daughter” (e.g., Mark 5:34). See also Jairus; Jephthah; Lot; son; Zelophehad.
Mark Allan Powell, “Daughter,” ed. Mark Allan Powell, The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (Revised and Updated) (New York: HarperCollins, 2011), 176.
12 They were married into the families of the children of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of their father’s family.
13 These are the commandments and the judgments which the Lord commanded the children of Israel by the hand of Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho.
CLOSING
There are 7 seeds in this Torah portion that seem to have some prophetic value, for both the Tribes and their Journey.
After all, the journey will not be completed unless we look at the tribes, as they are part of the story line.
1- The Vow of the Bride Nullified by the Bridegroom
2- The War with Midianites - The Levites - to Keep the Temple
3- The Division of Land -The Turning away - Consequences
4-The journeys
5- The six cities
6- The Blood
7- The Daughters of Zelophehad (of Manasseh)
Let me address some of these seeds regarding the tribes and their journey the best I can in their specific order, by bringing some of the fulfillment these seeds.
1- The Vow of the Bride Nullified by the Bridegroom
Vows:
Yeshua also spoke of this
Consider this Bible title in comparison to the Ethics of the Fathers
“Jesus Forbids Oaths”
33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’
34 But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne;
35 nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.
36 Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black.
37 But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.
The warning is that you are making a vow and you can break it
There is a correlation of breaking a vow and doing evil
God does not break His vows: Character
The laws of God are given to us so that we can see the character of God in them
17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath,
18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.
19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil,
20 where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
But we find a picture of Yeshua in the following verses: If He calls you- You will be there
10 “If she vowed in her husband’s house, or bound herself by an agreement with an oath,
11 and her husband heard it, and made no response to her and did not overrule her, then all her vows shall stand, and every agreement by which she bound herself shall stand.
12 But if her husband truly made them void on the day he heard them, then whatever proceeded from her lips concerning her vows or concerning the agreement binding her, it shall not stand; her husband has made them void, and the Lord will release her.
13 Every vow and every binding oath to afflict her soul, her husband may confirm it, or her husband may make it void.
15 But if he does make them void after he has heard them, then he shall bear her guilt.”
7 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.”
8 And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
9 Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God.”
2- The War with Midianites - The Levites - to Keep the Temple
Midianites speak of division
Messiah came to call everyone to His kingdom by repentance
17 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Messiah came to give us His HS and to wait for His return to establish His 1K year reign at which point the physical temple will be kept
21 Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them. In that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.
The laws of God are given to us so that we can see the character of God in them
3- The Division of Land -The Turning away - Consequences
18 For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error.
19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.
20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.
21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.
22 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”
1 Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder),
2 that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior,
3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts,
4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”
5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water,
6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.
7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,
12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
The laws of God are given to us so that we can see the character of God in them
4-The journeys
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.
15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.
16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
The laws of God are given to us so that we can see the character of God in them
5-The six cities
28 Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?”
29 Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.
31 And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
32 So the scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He.
33 And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
34 Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” But after that no one dared question Him.
The laws of God are given to us so that we can see the character of God in them
6-The Blood
22 And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
The laws of God are given to us so that we can see the character of God in them
7- The Daughters of Zelophehad (of Manasseh)
East of Samaria
1 Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John
2 (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples),
3 He left Judea and departed again to Galilee.
4 But He needed to go through Samaria.
5 So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”
8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?
12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,
14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’
18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”
19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.
22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”
26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
The laws of God are given to us so that we can see the character of God in them
Keep the Peace of the Lord
Shabbat Shalom