Greetings on this warm summer Shabbat in the DFW.
These are my thoughts and reflections on the 97th reading of our three-year Torah Reading Cycle. It is contained within Numbers 1:1-2:13; the Haftarah in Ezekiel 47:13-23; and the Apostolic in Luke 15:1-7. Combined, these readings led me to entitle this post: God Brings His Children unto Himself.
Our Torah Reading
This week’s Torah reading begins our journey through the Cepher/Book of Numbers/Bemidbar. Bemidbar means “In the Wilderness,” and it is drawn from the first words of chapter one, verse one. Unlike Leviticus/Vayiqra, which is primarily legislative in nature, Numbers/Bemidbar is like Exodus/Shemot in that it is a mixture of history and instructions in righteousness.
At first blush, this is one of those readings that most bible readers gloss over because it involves numbers, tribes, and the Hebrew names of people whom we will not hear much about beyond this passage.
But for the one who pushes through this type of text and allows the Ruach to speak to him/her, he/she will see Yah’s plan of salvation, restoration, and redemption take shape before their eyes.
Having completed a full year as a free people, Yah begins to organize the nation into an ordered, living organism. One of the first tasks in organizing the people into tribes and their placements in the camp and when traveling was to number the men who were 20 years of age and in a physical state to serve in Yisra’el’s army. Aaron and Moses were tasked with this monumental assignment (1:1-2) along with a representative, otherwise referred to as “princes of the tribes” (1:4, 16).
Yah, being the loving and compassionate God/Elohim that He is, exempted those males under 20 years and those who were physically impaired from having to serve in the nation’s military (1:3).
In total, the fighting men of Yisra’el, as counted in this census, amounted to 603,550 (1:46).
Now, many have doubted the validity of this census because back in Exodus, chapters 12 and 38, the same number of souls were documented to have exited Egypt/Mitsrayim. And this being the second year of their journey, we know that many souls had already died along the way. So, how can the number remain the same a year later?
Messianic Torah teacher and author Tim Hegg offers a most likely explanation. He suggests that when the tribes exited Egypt and the fighting-age males were numbered, the total sum in the above-cited passages of Exodus included the Levites. When we carefully examine the tribes that were counted, we see that the Levites were indeed not included in the census (1:50). The Levites’ sole responsibility was the care, running, and transport of Yah’s Tabernacle (1:51).
And so, how did the number arrived at in this census total the exact number of souls that departed Egypt? Quite simply, this: Yah is amazing, and His mysteries are unfathomable. Only He could make such a thing happen.
So, after completing the census, Moses, Aaron, and the 12 tribal princes positioned the tribes. This position would directly affect where each tribe would be positioned when the nation was camped, as well as where each tribe would be positioned when the nation would commence and go about their wilderness journeys (1:52-2:13). Interestingly, the 12 tribes when in camp, were situated roundabout the Tabernacle, with the Tabernacle and the Levites being dead center in the camp (1:53).
The specificity of why Yah placed each tribe where He placed them around His Tabernacle is a mystery. Yah did not reveal the whys and wherefores of His setup. But leave it to the Rabbinic sages to come up with an explanation.
Hegg records Ramban’s explanation, which I’ll quote here for you. I found this to be quite interesting as well as enlightening:
“Judah is on the east, the place from which the light comes each day, for Judah is the tribe of the Messiah. Ramban designates Issachar as the tribe of the Torah since tradition says Issachar produced scribes. Zebulun was known as a tribe of wealth. Thus, Zebulun supports those who study Torah, and Torah leads to the Messiah. Reuben symbolizes repentance (Gen. 35:22). Gad symbolizes strength while Simeon needed atonement. It was therefore fitting that Simeon be flanked by repentance and strength. Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin together represented strength, necessary for the harsh weather that enters the Land from the West. The strength represented by these tribes is a necessary companion to Torah (Judah) and repentance (Beuben). The north is symbolic of darkness, as is Dan, who allowed idolatry in the north under Jeroboam. To offset the darkness God gave Asher (known for olive oil) and Naftali, given a special blessing by Moses: (cf. Deu. 33:23) (Studies in the Torah-Numbers; pg. 18).
Ideally, and we’ll get into this more in our discussion of the Haftarah portion of this week’s reading, the stranger or sojourner would dwell within whichever tribal section they personally identified with. They were to be treated as a native-born Yisra’elite was treated, subject to Torah: “One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you” (Exo. 12:43).
Our Haftarah Reading
The land allocation in this renewed land distribution will include “strangers that sojourn” with the descendants of the 12 tribes. Back in the day, the so-called “resident alien…was not allowed to own land and was commended to the legal protection of the full citizen” (Zimmerili, Walther: Ezekiel 2: A Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel). Thus, the prophet here in our Haftarah reading is instructing his kinsmen who would be returning to their land at the end of their Babylonian Captivity, in the very spirit of Torah whereby the sojourner who has chosen to enjoin him/herself to the commonwealth of Yisrael would be given the full rights of citizenship that included land ownership as well.
Unfortunately, bigotry on both sides of this equation has led to a temporary disruption of this grand plan. The Hebrews, after the Assyrian and Babylonian devastations, became consolidated such that the only descendants of Avraham to be considered children of Yah are those of the tribe of Judah. But this paradigm excludes the other 11 tribes entirely, creating in and of itself a religious and cultural bias that has reigned over the Land and all of the Abrahamic peoples for millennia.
Then we have the other side of this equation, in the form of so-called Christians, who look disparagingly upon their Jewish cousins. These, because their cousins reject Yeshua as their Messiah, have all but dismissed them as having any remaining claim to Yah’s covenant promises and the coming Kingdom of Yah (aka, Dominion and Replacement Theologies).
But scripture is quite clear on these issues. Yehovah made a covenant with Avraham, which covers all of his descendants down through the ages. Not just Jews (i.e., of the Tribe of Judah), mind you, but also the other eleven tribes that were strewn throughout the world.
In his attempt to better unify the Roman Messianic Jewish assembly members with their growing Gentile Messianic counterparts, Paul goes right to the heart of the renewed covenant. And it is at the heart of the renewed covenant that and Yah’s desire that all of humanity-both biological Hebrew and Gentile alike–come into the great adoption of souls that will be His children.
Paul said that there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, in the Body of Mashiyach. But that does not mean that Yah does not apply any significance to the biological tribes of Yisra’el. These certainly do still matter to Yehovah as He still has a covenant promise to fulfill. And we know that Yah never reneges on His promises. What this does mean, however, is that the Gentile (aka the Ger) is, through the auspices of the renewed covenant, brought near unto Yehovah. And Yehovah has effectively grafted each Gentile into the commonwealth of His nation, Yisra’el. He/she is joined filthy with his/her counterpart, the Hebrews. Thus, the Jew-Hebrew-Ger/Gentile is made into a unified family of Yehovah. Thus, there is no need for us to worry about the Jewish (i.e., the religious) mandates that have been held over the heads of any who would desire to join the family of Yehovah for millennia. As Gentiles/Ger, we do not have to become or act like Jews in order to be a member of Yah’s set-apart people. We become what Yah has destined His chosen ones to be: Members of His family, His child, through the Person and Ministries of Yeshua Messiah.
This reality is critical for anyone entering a covenant relationship with Yah to understand. For Yah never made any covenants with Christians. Thus, the only way to enjoy the benefits of Yah’s covenant promises is through Yeshua Messiah and walk in the true Faith once delivered.
Our Apostolic Reading
Our apostolic reading aligns with that of the Haftarah reading, whereby Yah uses the Parable of the Lost Sheep to make a key spiritual point to His nemeses, the Scribes and Pharisees, for this passage documents Yeshua’s response to the Scribes’ and Pharisees’ criticism of Him socializing with those deemed as the less-desirable ones of the Jewish community (e.g., publicans/tax collectors such as Matthew and sinners).
Religious Jewish arrogance and prejudice prohibited religious Jews from having anything whatsoever to do with such classes of people. As we’ve learned, religious Jews were also forbidden from associating with Gentiles, short of those who went through the rigors of proselytization. Recall the story of Peter/Kefa and Cornelius. When meeting Cornelius at his home, Kefa reminds Cornelius, a God-fearer: “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but Yah has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean” (Acts 10:28; ESV). Then there’s the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well who asked Yeshua: “How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans” (Joh. 4:9; KJV). And so forth.
But Yehovah, being ever so faithful to His covenant promises, is Personally seeing to it that the Gentile has the divine opportunity to become a member of His set-apart, eternal family. In his comprehensive letter to the Roman Messianics, the Apostle explains to both Messianic Jews and converted Gentiles of the assembly that the Gentiles, like wild olive branches, are being grafted into the olive tree that is believing Yisra’el (Rom. 11:14-24). Why is Yah doing this, according to Paul? He tells his readers: “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Yisra’el until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in” (Rom. 11:25; KJV).
Praise Yah from Whom all blessings flow! Once again, but this time, with circumcised hearts, Yah’s set-apart people are being numbered and ordered in preparation to enter the Promised Land as our cousins of old were in the Sinai desert. And this time, we, who were once olive branches, are being intricately and beautifully and lovingly engrafted into the commonwealth of Yisra’el, even among her individual tribes (reference Revelation 12). Therefore, let us rejoice that Yah chose us to enter in and draw near unto Him, that we may be a member of His glorious family that He founded from the foundation of the world.
Shabbat Shalom–Shavu’atov–Blessings unto you, your families, and fellowships. Take care.