The Bible or a Daytime Soap?

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The Bible or a Daytime Soap?

Numbers Chapter 4:21 continues with assigning work to the other two families of Levites. In the previous chapter, the Kohanites had already been counted from the age of thirty to fifty years old and assigned their jobs. Now, this chapter begins with the counting of the Gershonites from age thirty to fifty. Their job was to work and carry. Those were some good years weren’t they, thirty to fifty? Of course nothing beats the terrific twentiesJ! Going onward, the Gershonites were to carry the things from the Tabernacle such as the curtains, the ropes and certain utensils. Each man was under the authority of Ithamar, the son of Aaron. He assigned what each man would carry. You might say the Kohathites carried the most sacred parts of the Tabernacle and the Gershonites and the Merarites, the less sacred. However, both were absolutely necessary tasks. In today’s world it would be like the one who provides the place of meeting is just as necessary as the one who gets up and expounds on the Word. One couldn’t exist without the other. Sometimes, we don’t feel like our part in the overall picture is worth very much. You have those times in life when you feel like the whole world is a tuxedo and you’re a pair of brown shoesJ! Especially when you’re Messianic!

In verse 29, it goes on to count the Merarites. Same deal, ages thirty to fifty. They are to carry the planks, the bars, pillars and sockets, etc. Each man was assigned something specific to carry, as they were the ones who carried the heaviest pieces. The more muscular the man, the heavier the item he was assigned to lift. It would have been a bad place for a ninety pound weakling to get a hernia trying to lift heavy boardsJ.

Numbers Chapter 5 has a couple of famous issues it deals with, one being theft. The definition is really pretty simple for stealing, you are forbidden to take anything that rightfully belongs to someone else. We have rationalized it away by such ideas as; he won’t miss this money, he’s rich anyway, or the company doesn’t miss one roll of tape, or finders keepers, loosers weepers. Here’s a common one, that checkout girl gave me back too much money, or well, she won’t get into any trouble over it. The truth is, those are all lies and deep down we know it. If we do any of those things, we are stealing, plain and simple. Now the Scripture says we are to repay the person we took from an extra fifth (20%) on top of what we took. Whatever happened to doing that?

The other issue is the unfaithful wife test, as I call itJ. Actually this is performed when there is no evidence the man’s wife has been unfaithful, he only believes she has. No million dollar “dream team” of attorneys could get you off the hook back then! YHVH was your judge and Him alone. I don’t believe many women, who if they were really guilty, would not have confessed before the process was over. If you knew FOR SURE your belly was going to swell and your thigh rot, would you confess? I would be confessing so fast, they would think I was speaking in tonguesJ. I mean divorce is bad, but I’d say death has it trumped by a mile!

Here the husband brings an offering of barley flour. The Kohen sets apart water from the Laver and mixes dust from the floor with it. The Midrash says in the Temple where there were marble floors, they left one marble stone that could be lifted up to perform this ceremony. The Kohen sets the woman down, uncovers her head, and puts the barley offering in her hands. Meanwhile, the Kohen has the cup of bitter water in his hand while he recites and writes down the curses that will come upon her if she drinks this water and is guilty. He then scrapes off the curses he wrote into the water. The Kohen takes the offering out of her hands and waves it before the YHVH. Then he burns the offering on the altar and he has her drink the water. According to Rashi, it is mentioned twice that she drinks the water, (verse 24, 27) not because she actually drinks it twice, but to signify that if she is guilty, the one she laid with would die also. We are all the unfaithful wife, we all committed adultery against YHVH. The bride here is representative of us. Let us also note that only a pure man could offer up his wife. If the husband had committed adultery, the curse would apply to him at the same time. How could a sinner bring another sinner to justice for doing the same thing he did? Yeshua had to be sinless to bring the bride before the Father to take our place.

Now we go on to Chapter six and to a Nazarite vow. We all know when you take this vow you cannot drink or eat any thing that comes from the grape, cannot cut your hair, and you cannot come near a dead body. The minimum period was for thirty days. The max was your entire life. For us today this would translate into watching your thoughts (hair=head), watching what you speak, (no grapes=mouth) and keeping a clean walk. (death=unclean state) The entire bride of Yeshua should be living out a “spiritual” Nazarite vow all their life.

Notice it says in Chapter 6:13-14, that when a Nazarite’s vow is fulfilled, there is an animal and grain offering required. When people say Paul never kept the law, just point them to this passage along with Acts Chapter 21. In Acts you will find Paul being told to go with four men who are ending a Nazarite vow and “cleanse himself with them” and pay their expenses. What were their expenses, a dinner out and a room at the Holiday Inn? No, it was the price of their offerings. Now if Paul was against any kind of animal sacrifices being done, and all that “law business”, why didn’t he speak up about it here? He was right there joining in with the animal sacrifices and the head shaving and the whole deal. Once when I told this to a lady from a certain denomination who came knocking on our door handing out pamphlets, her reply back was, “Well that was before Paul became a Christian.” Yeah, I had to smile tooJ.

Getting back to Numbers Chapter seven, we see the Tabernacle being sanctified and the offerings being brought by the tribal leaders. They brought wagons (John Wayne would have been proud) and cattle. Moshe gave the wagons to the Levites to transport the Tabernacle items on, except for the Kohathites, who must carry the most set apart things on their shoulders.

The twelve leaders all arrived on a different day. What is unusual here is the fact they all arrived on different days AND brought the same items. This was in itself a miracle! There are also some interesting symbolisms here. The numerical value of the silver bowl is 930, corresponding to the years of Adam’s life. Its weight, 130 shekels, corresponds to the age at which Adam and Eve had Seth (Gen.5:3) One silver basin has the numerical value of 520, an allusion to the number of years from the time YHVH first told Noah there would be a flood until Noah’s first child was born. Seventy shekels alludes to the seventy nations. One ladle which is similar in use to a hand, symbolizes the Torah, with the weight of ten shekels being a picture of the Ten Commandments being given from the hand of YHVH. The one young bull alludes to Abraham who used such an animal as an offering. (Gen. 18:7) The ram alludes to Isaac who was replaced on the altar by a ram. The sheep alludes to Jacob who tended sheep during his years with Laban. The he-goat as a sin offering atoned for Joseph’s brothers who sold him into slavery and slaughtered a goat afterward. Two cattle allude to Moshe and Aaron. There are three sets of fives alluding to the three essences of the Godhead and five for his Torah. So we have several interesting things to look at in this parashah. We have stealing, adultery, head shaving, giving up drinking, and lots of gifts handed out. Either I’m reading the Torah, or I accidentally picked up a copy of what’s on one of the soap operas this weekJ! After all, YHVH doesn’t just tell you about all the nice things man does, but He tells it like it is, the good, the bad, and the ugly!!!