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All right, go ahead and turn to Numbers chapter 27. Numbers 27, that's the chapter we're going to listen to, but we are going to cover two chapters, 26 and 27, but we'll listen to 27 after we pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you again for bringing us back here to sing to you, to pray to you, and to look at your word, and hopefully, Lord, you'll open our eyes and open our heart to receive a blessing, to receive instruction, and if necessary, admonition and correction through the Holy Spirit.
But we thank you for all of your gifts, and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, Numbers chapter 27.
Then came the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepha, the son of Gilead, the son of Mekhi, the son of Manasseh, from the families of Manasseh, the son of Joseph. And these were the names of his daughters, Mala, Noah, Hagla, Milcah, and Terzah.
And they stood before Moses, before Eliezer the priest, and before the leaders and all the congregation by the doorway of the tabernacle of meeting, saying. Our father died in the wilderness, but he was not in the company of those who gathered together against the Lord, in company with Korah, but he died in his own sin, and he had no sons.
Why should the name of our father be removed from among his family because he had no son? Give us a possession among our father's brothers.
So Moses brought their case before the Lord, and the Lord spoke to Moses.
The daughters of Zelophehad speak what is right. You shall surely give them a possession of inheritance among their father's brothers, and cause the inheritance of their father to pass to them. And you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, if a man dies and has no son, then you shall cause his inheritance to pass to his daughter.
If he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers. If he has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father's brothers. And if his father has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to the relative closest to him in his family, and he shall possess it.
And it shall be to the children of Israel a statute of judgment, just as the Lord commanded Moses. Now the Lord said to Moses,.
Go up into this Mount Abaroth, and see the land which I have given to the children of Israel. And when you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother was gathered. For in the wilderness of Zin, during the strife of the congregation, you rebelled against my command to hallow me at the waters before their eyes.
These are the waters of Meribah, at Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin. Then Moses spoke to the Lord.
Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, who may go out before them and go in before them, who may lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be like sheep which have no shepherd.
Take Joshua, the son of Nun, with you, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand on him. Set him before Eliezer the priest, and before all the congregation, and inaugurate him in their sight. And you shall give some of your authority to him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient.
He shall stand before Eliezer the priest, who shall inquire before the Lord for him by the judgment of the Urim. At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, he and all the children of Israel with him, all the congregation.
So Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua and set him before Eliezer the priest, and before all the congregation. And he laid his hands on him and inaugurated him, just as the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses.
So tonight, as I said, we're gonna cover chapters 26 and 27. And the most significant thing that happens in these chapters is the transfer of leadership from Moses to Joshua. In chapter 27, as we just heard, the Lord tells Moses to lay hands on Joshua in the sight of all the people.
And this really, I think, establishes a pattern for what we, in the New Testament church, call what? What would we call this? The laying on of hands. We would call it a
Blessing.
What? Anointing.
Anointing. I was thinking of ordination. So Joshua will then be God's man, but here in Numbers, Moses is not gonna die yet. Moses doesn't die until towards the end of the book of Deuteronomy. So here, we'll come back to this, but let's start with chapter 26.
So chapter 26 covers the second census. And you'll remember, this is why the book of Numbers is called Numbers, because the people are being counted. So what they wanna know is how many men are there in each tribe of military age who are able to go to war.
Look at Numbers 26, verses one through four. And it came to pass after the plague that the Lord spoke to Moses and Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saying, take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel from 20 years old and above by their fathers' houses, all who are able to go to war in Israel.
So Moses and Eleazar, the priest, spoke with them in the plains of Moab, by the Jordan, across from Jericho, saying, take a census of the people from 20 years old and above, just as the Lord commanded Moses and the children of Israel who came out of the land of Egypt.
So we're not gonna go through all the verses and look at each tribe in the Numbers, but more or less, it's the same as the census from 38 years ago. Israel really has not changed in number. It's a very small amount.
But the size of the tribes has changed. So Simeon, tribe of Simeon, lost the most men, 37 ,100. Does anyone know why Simeon has got so much smaller? Well, they seem to be the tribe that was most heavily involved in the idolatry from the last chapter.
Remember, Baal of Peor. So they seem to get punished because of that. So they shrunk. But then the tribe of Manasseh, they gained the most, 20 ,500. So with all the differences, things really just evened out.
So this will be useful information for when the land is divided. Look at verses, skip ahead to verses 52 through 54. It says, then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, to these, the land shall be divided as an inheritance according to the number of names.
To a large tribe, you shall give a larger inheritance. To a small tribe, you shall give a smaller inheritance. Each shall be given its inheritance according to those who are numbered of them. So this obviously just makes sense.
The larger the tribe, the bigger the plot of land that they need. But it wasn't just that. We see in the next verse that the land, how it's gonna be divided up, who gets what is also gonna depend on the lot, okay?
Or the casting of lots, which leaves the decision up to God.
Did you say the Urim?
The casting of lots. Yeah, the Urim's gonna come in a little later on, but I don't think we've talked about this yet. Going through Genesis and Exodus, and then one study in Leviticus, have we talked about casting lots?
I don't think it's come up. All right, so the first time the casting of lots is mentioned is in the book of Leviticus, but we just did a quick overview of the book, so we didn't touch on it. So what is a lot?
That can be translated inheritance, and then of course, there's Abraham's nephew. We talked about Lot the man, right? But this of course is different. Lot here, well, what is casting of lots? Let me ask you, when you hear that.
It's like a scratch ticket you get in the same line.
Like a scratch ticket.
Oh, it's straws, that's the lottery.
Picking straws or something like that?
Okay, drawing straws or picking straws. A lot of people relate it to that. What did you say?
It's a vote.
It's like spinning a bottle.
Okay. All right, another illustration that I'm used to, it's like rolling the dice to discern the will of God. Proverbs 16, verse 33 says, "'The lot is cast into the lap, "'but its every decision is from the Lord.'".
Now, I say rolling of dice, but we really don't know what casting lots is. I mean, casting, they're throwing them. So I'm assuming it's more like rolling dice than picking straws. But again, we don't really know.
But this is an Old Testament practice. It carries over into the pages of the New Testament scriptures. But I've always been kind of interested in this topic. Was this an acceptable practice in Israel, casting lots?
Yeah.
Yeah, obviously it was. But that doesn't mean that as New Testament Christians, we can do this. Yeah, we can do this to discern. Yeah, it has nothing to do with gambling, right? But it doesn't mean that we should take out the dice when we're trying to make a decision.
Like, okay, Lord, if I roll snake eyes, I'm moving to Las Vegas. Or if I roll doubles, I'm moving to California. If I roll under five, I'm staying here in Massachusetts. Obviously, we should not do this.
Number one, because again, we don't really know what a lot is. We don't know what was done. We have not all the information. And then number two, that while this is a legitimate Old Testament practice, and it's even used up until the day of Pentecost.
Remember when the apostles, after the death of Judas, they cast lots to choose the next apostle, Matthias. But once the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, you never see the apostles or anyone casting lots ever again in the pages of the New Testament.
So we draw from that, that now we are to rely on the leading of the Holy Spirit and not casting lots or trying to figure out what it is. So we make our decisions based on what? Leading of the Holy Spirit, being informed also by the scripture.
Now, do Christians today do anything similar? Maybe it's not exactly casting lots, but do Christians do some similar things to try to discern the will of God? Okay, yeah. Putting out your fleece. That's a story from the book of Judges.
Gideon, right? Didn't Gideon put out his fleece? What would that mean, putting out your fleece? I mean, I know what it means in the story, but what would it look like today? What's that?
If this happens, I'm gonna decide this way,.
If that doesn't happen, I'm not gonna decide that way.
So I thought of a thing that some people do, it's called lucky dipping. How many of you know what lucky dipping is? Yeah, yeah. So to discern the will of God, you might just let the Bible fall open wherever it does, and then you're like, okay, and this verse is gonna tell me what God wants me to do.
Of course, some of you are familiar with this joke where a person theoretically could turn to, okay, Matthew 27, five. Judas went out and hung himself. Okay, that doesn't sound right. Let's go somewhere else.
Okay, Luke 10, 37. Go thou and do likewise. Nope, nope. Okay, John 13, 27. What you do, do quickly. Okay, we're giving up on this.
Yeah, because it's bad luck to be superstitious.
Yeah, but at the same time, I know some, and I know I might catch a little flack for this, I know some believers who have done this and they would tell you this actually worked, that God gave them a message and it really gave them, now it depends on what it is, what it is they're saying,.
But.
Those are the ones that handle snakes too.
Yeah, I mean, I would tell you that this happened to me once, but I don't wanna get myself in trouble. It's not something that we would recommend, but this is something that is actually probably more common than you would think.
But as far as casting lots, again, we don't know what it is. We don't know even what a lot is. The word is translated pebble or stone. So you might think it's stones throwing them light dice, but that's our best guess.
Anything else before we move on from this subject? I think it's good to try to know what the Bible's talking about.
Sounds like they're losing their marbles.
Okay.
I'll stop now.
All right, no questions on that. So the overall size of the nation is more or less the same as it was 38, 40 years earlier. Numbers 26, verse 63 says, and these are those who are numbered by Moses in the Eliezer the priest, who number the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.
Now remember, this is a new generation, right? This new generation is going to be more faithful than the prior generation. The prior generation was rebelling against God and what did God say about them?
They will die in the wilderness. So this next generation that's coming up is more godly. And I was just thinking about this. This should give us great hope that, you know, yeah, the younger generation or whatever next generation that comes along, it's possible they can be more godly than previous generations.
I know the way we tend to look at things right now is that the older generation or the generations that have gone on before us, they were much more faithful than the millennials or Gen Z or whatever generation is the youngest right now.
And that may be true, but you know, we should never lose hope because if the Lord tarries, it is very possible that another generation could rise up who is the most faithful generation this country has ever seen.
That is possible. Am I overly optimistic? I don't know, but this is just my opinion. I look at the way things are and I have to hope that people will see how insane things have gotten and the next generation will reject it or that they're pushing things so far, they're overplaying their hand to such a degree that the younger generation will say, this is, no, we don't want anything to do with this.
That's my hope. That's my prayer if the Lord tarries, but it can happen is the point. So this next generation that's coming up is more faithful than the generation of Joshua, Caleb, and Moses, because these are the three men that are left over, right, from this generation.
All right, look at verse 64. But among these, there was not a man of those who were numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest when they numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai, for the Lord had said to them, they shall surely die in the wilderness.
So there was not left a man of them except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun. So that generation that they numbered all those years ago, they're all gone except these two men and Moses.
But we know about Moses that he's going to die before they enter the land. So it's only Joshua and Caleb who enter Canaan. All right, anything before we move on to the next chapter?
All right.
Now, before we get to the most significant part of our lesson, which is the transfer of leadership from Moses to Joshua, there's something that kind of stands out in Numbers 27, verses one through 11 is labeled inheritance laws.
In any sermon or any Bible study, any commentary that I've ever read or heard, this always gets some attention. We see a unique situation where a man has no sons, but he has five daughters. And these women approach Moses because they're expecting nothing.
Because back in those days, the men, the sons inherited everything. So there's no sons. My father's name, our father's name is just gonna cease to exist. So they come to Moses, look at verse four, and they say, why should the name of our father be removed from among his family?
Because he had no son? Give us a possession among our father's brothers. So Moses brought their case before the Lord. Notice Moses does not say, hey, sorry, you're women and too bad. That's not what he does.
He brings it before God. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, the daughters of Zelophehads speak what is right. And you shall surely give them a possession of inheritance among their father's brothers and cause the inheritance of their father to pass to them.
I was listening to a Bible study by Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel. How many of you know who he is or you've heard of him? On Numbers chapter, well, in these chapters, he was talking about this and he called it the first women's lib movement.
I'm assuming he's kidding, right? But I don't know. God says what they're doing is right. It's good. So you could take from this that, yeah, it's a groundbreaking thing, but it shows that women are treated well.
They're treated fairly in Israel. In other parts of the world, in other religions that we don't need to name, you forget about this, right? So really right up until the rise of the radical feminist movement and whatever, the 1960s, most everybody recognized that the Judeo-Christian tradition as people call it, has given more rights to women than other faith traditions and other cultures on the earth.
There's one religion that when the husband died, the wife actually was put on the funeral pyre and burned alive just because her husband died. So you compare something like that or other religions that give no rights or considerations to women, and you compare it to Christianity.
And my point is all the accusations you hear constantly today about sexism and misogyny are just not legitimate really at all. Obviously that stuff has happened, but women are treated fairly in Israel.
You agree with that?
Any comments on that?
Well, not so much in Judaism.
Well, I mean, this isn't Judaism necessarily, but it's the Old Testament faith. What do you hear about?
Or Hasidic, all the women are treated.
Do you have something?
What religion was that that burned?
Well, it's Eastern religion. I don't wanna name a religion because I'm not 100 positive that it's the one I'm thinking of, but it was in the Eastern, the Eastern part of the world. Yeah, not in Western civilization that I know of.
Jim.
These daughters were also of the lineage of Manasseh. It says that in verse one, I think, or two. So they should be included anyways. I think that's what God was saying. Just because they lost their father, they should also continue to get their inheritance in that particular tribe.
And another significant thing about this story is now you see case law being established. Who wants to give a definition of case law? Well, God gave his law to Moses on Mount Sinai.
Remember in the verses?
Yeah, well.
Verses of the Bible.
This is not part of the original law of Moses, right? It's a unique situation that is presented and a law is created based on this specific case. So God gives his statutes. When something comes up, they bring it before God and now a new law is established.
Of course, God is still speaking at this point. What happens now? There's no more revelation being given. So when we're presented with a unique situation, it's a little more difficult. This is how Israel got into trouble.
When God stopped speaking, the rabbis would write and debate and they would try to make decisions based on what they already had. And sometimes they would come to false conclusions, right? Today, we have the Bible and most things are spelled out pretty clearly.
And once in a while though, something will come up that you weren't planning on or maybe there's no example in the scripture. And now what do we have to do? We have to try to take principles in God's word and base the situation on what the word of God says.
That can be a really difficult thing. Here, Moses, because there's this direct pipeline to God, Moses can just go to God and ask Him and God gives an answer. But once Moses is gone, you don't have that direct line.
And then even with the priests, the priests, it kind of gets less and less as time goes on. So by the time Jesus comes, the scribes and the Pharisees, they're way off base because they've had all these years, sort of like the Supreme Court.
With all the things they do that is good, they're basing decisions based on previous cases that might've been a bad decision and things kind of get worse and worse and worse. In Jesus's day, the scribes were also called what?
The King James Version calls the scribes?
Pharisees?
No. What?
Lawyers. The scribes were considered the lawyers of that day. So I say all of this to say that a literal rendering, a literal interpretation of the Bible is best and you need to carefully apply that. I was reading an article in the paper and a minister of a more liberal mainline church was talking about how their church makes decisions.
I thought this was really interesting. He spoke of how the deacons get together and they'll discuss whatever issue there is and the pastor's involved in that conversation and sometimes they get input from the congregation and they're trying to figure out, I don't know if they said to discern God's will, but they're trying to make the best decision by getting everybody together with their collective wisdom.
Now that's what you do, right? However, there is something in the article that stood out to me. Actually, it was something that was missing. There was never any mention of, hey, we go to the scripture and look at what the scripture has to say about it.
So when me and the deacons, we do this, we get together and we talk about things and try to make sound decisions, but what do we always do? Jim, what do we always do first?
Number one, and we always accept any input from the membership as to decisions that we might have to make.
Well, what's the first?
A five, zero, three.
Yeah, where do you go first?
Right.
Yeah, you wanna know, okay, does the Bible address this? Does the Bible address this even just a little bit? Does anything apply to this situation? So I think that's where you have to go first. Again, here with Moses, you had a direct pipeline.
We don't have that, but we have 66 books of the Bible. Chances are, no matter what comes up, there's something that can tie in, right? And that should be the case with you and your personal life. Some big decision needs to be made.
Are there any principles in God's word that I can look to to help me make this decision?
Yes.
The epistles are probably the better place to begin.
But the more familiar you are with scripture, the more likely the Lord will be able to bring a verse or passage or circumstance to mind. That does apply.
You know, the churches that might shy away from doing that, or if that church that I was referring to didn't do that,.
I don't know.
I think some people shy away from it because they know what the Bible says and they just don't like what the Bible says. So we'll come up with something else. That obviously happens. Okay. Now for the final verses that we're going to cover, look at verse 12 or this section.
Who had their hand up? Okay.
Numbers 27, 13, you said. And when you have seen it, that is the promised land. When you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people as Aaron, your brother, was gathered. So what are you taking away from this?
Basically what happens to him when he dies.
That he's gathered to his people. I mean, one thing I noticed when I read through the Old Testament for the first time, and I don't know that this is what you're getting at, but there really isn't that talk of like the apostle Paul talked about when he died, he's going to be with the Lord or absent from the body, present with the Lord.
You might expect that, okay, and he died and he went to heaven. I mean, it's true. You don't really see that in the Old Testament. You see, I'm not saying it's not there at all, but that concept is much more prevalent in the New Testament.
Is that what you were thinking?
Yeah, because obviously we don't talk like that. When someone passes, he was gathered to his people. We say they went home to be with the Lord, which I think is
Is there any reference in the Old Testament to someone dying and going to heaven? They always, like you said, they always say you gather to his people, but they never say where those people are and where they're going.
Well, it talks about
I think there is somewhere in the Old Testament where the Lazarus.
That's New Testament.
Well, there's talk about the resurrection. In the book of Daniel, there is Daniel 12, 2, about people that would be raised to eternal life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. So they did have a concept of the afterlife and a resurrection, but there wasn't, and people would die and go to Sheol, gathered to their people.
But I think it's more, they didn't have the full revelation.
Right, exactly, that's what it is.
All right, any final comments on that?
So verses 12 through 23, this section is titled, Joshua, the next leader of Israel. Look at verse 12. It says, now the Lord said to Moses, go up into this Mount, Mount Abarim, and see the land which I have given to the children of Israel.
And when you have seen it, you shall also shall be gathered to your people as Aaron, your brother, was gathered. So Abarim is either another name for Mount Nebo, because we know that Moses dies on Mount Nebo.
So it's either another name for that, or more likely it's a name of the mountain range, and Mount Nebo is in this mountain range. So why does Moses have to die? He gets to see the land. He doesn't get to go into the land.
Why?
Because of a couple of incidents that he had, especially with the water and the stone. I think God mentions that.
Right, he tells us. Because Moses rebelled against God when God told him to speak to the rock, but Moses is so frustrated. Remember, he yells at the people, and just takes the staff, and he strikes the rock.
So because of that, and this is done in front of everybody, God sort of makes an example out of him. Now Moses is not allowed to enter the land. But God is gracious, and allows him to see the land. And because Moses was humble, and he loved the Lord, he was content with this.
And as he's dying, or as he's preparing to die, his concern isn't about himself, and oh no, poor me, I don't get to see the promised land. That's not what he's thinking. Who's he thinking about?
The people.
And this is another example of why we consider Moses to be such a great leader. His focus isn't on him, and what he wants. His concern is for the people. So he asked God that the Lord would appoint a shepherd, or a new leader.
He says in verse 17, that the congregation of the Lord may not be like sheep, which have no shepherd. And we know who the leader is. We've known this for a while. The next leader is who?
Joshua.
So the Lord tells Moses to lay hands on Joshua, set him before Eleazar the priest, and inaugurate him. That's the word, inaugurate. In the sight of all the people. And the purpose that it's in front of everybody.
It's not a private ceremony. It's in front of everybody.
Yeah, right. Pretty simple. So that everybody knows that this man is the legitimate leader of the nation. Because if the people don't see that, there's bound to be another uprising. And when things are not clear, that's what you get.
There's uncertainty, and people are gonna claim this guy's that no God wants him. This way, it's an open and shut case. Yes, Marcus.
Well, I was just thinking of the difference because another translation has it commissioned,.
But the inauguration.
Is more like a political. And the commission is more like military.
But leadership nonetheless.
Well, with Israel being what it is, Joshua is kind of, well, he's the military leader, right? He is the military leader. And he's like the president, just wrapped up in, of course, we're used to the president being separate from the military.
But a lot of countries, maybe even most, the president is a military man. That's pretty common. And Joshua, is he the spiritual leader of the nation?
Well, actually, the president is the head of the military.
That's true. He is the commander in chief, but he's not a military man.
Boy, that's for sure.
Uh-oh, yeah. So, but he's not the head of the religious wing of the government, right? Who's the head of the religious part? The high priest. But he is sort of a spiritual leader, isn't he?
Because the spirit of God is within him. But anyways, just this laying on of hands. I'm not sure this is the first place we see it.
Is it? It might be.
This sets a pattern for what, again, what we call in the New Testament church, ordination. So when a pastor, a new pastor is chosen, they go through this trial, this time of questioning. And if they come out approved, a group of pastors or a group of elders, they bring the pastor up.
And in front of everybody, they lay hands on him and inaugurate or commit whatever you want to call it. This is New Testament ordination. So most of you have seen an ordination. That's kind of what's happening here.
And the purpose is to outwardly recognize what God has already done inwardly. It says in verse 18, that Joshua was a man in whom is the spirit. Who or what's the spirit?
It's the Holy Spirit. So Joshua was chosen by God and he is empowered by the Holy Spirit. So now he will be the appointed leader, the shepherd of the flock of Israel. And this is really an important turning point for the nation.
Things are going to change pretty drastically because Joshua is not Moses. Joshua is a great man. One of the most significant characters you see in the Old Testament, but he's not Moses. What are some of the differences or maybe the main difference between Joshua and Moses?
I'm thinking of one main, one primary difference.
Moses actually spoke with God audibly.
Right. Yeah.
I don't think he has the same connection with God as Moses.
He does not have the same connection that Moses had. Really nobody in the Old Testament has the same connection that Moses had. And Moses was the mediator of the Old Covenant. So the only person that would compare would be like Jesus in the New Testament.
Obviously Moses isn't Jesus, but Joshua definitely is no Moses, but he will have some of that same authority. That's what it says. Specifically, he will have some of the authority of Moses. So Moses spoke, there's the main difference.
Moses spoke to God. What did I say? Face to face. Joshua will not be able to do this. When Joshua wants to seek the Lord's will, who does he have to go through?
He has to go through the high priest. Moses could just go directly to God and get direct answers. Joshua has to go through the high priest and that sets a precedent for all the future leaders and future kings of Israel.
The leader of the nation will have to go through the high priest. And even the high priest can't go directly to God and talk to him face to face. This is where the Urim comes in. Remember the Urim and the Thuman?
We talked about that. You could watch our study of Exodus 28 where I explained what that is. But they had to use these objects. It's similar to casting lots, but these objects, that's how the high priest discerns the will of God.
So now there's this kind of chain of command that to get to God, you have to go through the mediation of a priest. So in conclusion, Joshua is now God's man. He has been chosen. He will be, he was the leader in training, but now the time is drawing near that Moses, the man of God, he'll pass the torch as it were, and we'll close with verses 22 and 23.
It says, so Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua and set him before Eliezer the priest and before all the congregation. He laid his hands on him and inaugurated him just as the Lord commanded by the hand.