Final Instructions Before the Conquest

Transcript

GRS 2-36
5/21/2006
Final Instructions Before the Conquest
Numbers 31-36
Gil Rugh

We are in the Book of Numbers together and we’re closing out that Book and we turned to Chapter 31 in your Bibles. We are in the closing months of Moses’s life and the transition time when Joshua will take up the leadership of Israel and the event anticipated some 40 years earlier when Israel left Egypt, the crossing in and the beginning to take possession of the land of Canaan that God has promised to Israel. Moses is preparing for his death and there is something that he has to complete before he passes the leadership responsibility to Joshua and himself dies.

Chapter 31 going to talk about God’s plan to bring judgment and we are ready to bring judgment on the Canaanites, the people of Canaan and that would include surrounding people. We are not in the land of Canaan per se at this point because we have not crossed the Jordan. We would be called the Transjordan area. We are on the eastern side of the Jordan River, but those peoples will come under the judgment of God at this time for their sin. Remember way back in connection with the promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob regarding the land. We are going to have to wait until the inequity of Canaanites is right for judgment and now the time has come and we are ready for judgment.

Main thrust in this section will be first we will deal with some of Israel’s enemies, have them destroyed, and then there will be an emphasis on the dividing of the land and the making preparations so that there is no confusion when the conquest is formally underway and if you will, the conquest does begin because with the conquest of these people on the eastern side of the Jordan as we will see two and half of the tribes will take possession of this portion of land as their allotment rather than taking a portion of the land on the other side of the Jordan and so in some sense we could say the conquest begins here. The judgment is coming on the Midianites and people associated with them because of their involvement particularly in the sin of Israel at Baal Peor. Remember Balaam, the prophet and the woman who lured the Israelites into idolater’s worship and into immorality. Judgment came on Israel for that sin, now it will come on those nations. That was recorded in Chapter 25, but now the judgment comes.

Chapter 31, the Lord spoke to Moses saying take full vengeance for the sons of Israel on the Midianites. Afterward you will be gathered to your people. Moses is a man carrying out his responsibilities with the sentence of death upon him. His brother Moses died in Chapter 20 that was recorded in Chapter 20. Moses dies in the same year there, so these months leading up to his death. He knows his death is imminent. The Lord has addressed that on several different occasions. And you know this has not become an opportunity for Moses to become morbid, depressed, discouraged, unable. I just can’t function; I can’t face it. His responsibility is to serve the Lord till the Lord has done with him. Then the Lord will call him from this life. So think oh boy, how can I get occupied with matters of war? Then I have to be occupied with matters of diving the land, I mean I am going to die. I am going to leave my wife; I am going to leave my kids, my family, that does not even become an issue here. We weren’t told anything about the discussions in Moses’ family over his impending death. What did you do to prepare his kids and all this?

We assume those things took place, but the scripture is concerned with God’s plan being unfolded for his people and Moses’ death is part of that plan and that is anticipated. The Midianites were part of a large collection of tribes if you will, confederation of tribes that are often linked together. They are often joined with the Ishmaelites, the Moabites, the Amalekites people that function in the region would know of the Sinai, the Negeb, the Transjordan area, so that area around the east and down around the south part of what we know as Canaan, Judah, and Palestine. They are often joined together on different occasions. The Midianites were associated with the Moabites in the context we are in because of the sin that is being dealt with and that will be addressed here. We will see Gideon doing battle with the Midianites when we get to the Book of Judges. So the Midianites are totally wiped out to the last person in this judgment, but for an extended period of time, they are rendered a known factor in what will take place.

All right in verse 3, Moses spoke to the people saying our men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian to execute the Lord’s vengeance on Midian. You see this war is an act of God in bringing judgment on the Midianites. It’s the Lord’s vengeance on them and the Army that is to be assembled is not all the army of Israel, which would number in excess of 600,000 men. This is a small army, 12,000, one thousand men from each of the tribe. Verse 5, they were furnished from the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each tribe, 12,000 armed for war. Verse 6, Moses sent them a 1000 from each tribe to war and Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the priest. You know the high priest of Ur remember, is deceased. He died in Chapter 20. Now Eleazar, the priest does not go out to war, probably to avoid any contact with the dead, which would defile him, his high priest and thus I mean he could not carry out certain of the priestly duties until his defilement was taken care of, so that the high priest is to avoid any of that kind of defilement.

So Phinehas goes out as the priestly representative probably indicative of the fact that this is viewed as a holy war here and an act of God, they take the holy vessels, the trumpets, and so on. They made war against Midian just as the Lord had commanded Moses. They killed every man. Now again we are going to see Midianites, we get into the days of the judges, that does not mean every Midianite they killed, but in the battles and those that they fought with the Midianites all the men are killed. In verse 8, they killed the kings of Midian along with the rest of their slain, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. They also killed, Balaam, the son of Beor with the sword. He is going to die, the death of the unbeliever and as we noted in our study of back with the events of Balaam, he seems to be clearly a pagan prophet. We saw in numbers 24-1, he used omens, which none of the prophets of God would use, it’s a pagan practice.

Joshua Chapter 13 verse 22 will refer to him as a diviner, again a pagan title. It’s one of those remarkable cases where God shows to use a pagan prophet to give dramatic processes regarding his plans for his people. And that’s not so surprising since we saw that he even used Balaam’s donkey to speak the truth. Come down to verse 14, when they come, they have killed all the men, but they bring back to spoil, mean all the property and so on of the conquered enemy, the animals of the conquered enemy, but they also brought back the women and children and Moses is tremendously upset. Verse 14, Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the captains of thousands, the captains of 100 who had come in from service the war. Moses said to them, have you spared all the women? Behold, these caused the sons of Israel through the counsel of Balaam to trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor. So the plague was among the congregation of the Lord.

Back up to number 25, verse 1, while Israel remained a Shittim, the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab, for they invited the people to the sacrifices of their Gods, the people ate, bowed down to their Gods, and then you had the immoral activity. Moses says it wasn’t just the man; the women were the key element. Under Balaam’s counsel, they followed the advice of that godless pagan and became the instrument to lure Israel into sin. 24000 Israelites died under the judgment of God for that. We have examples in the old text, we say vow, this is, I mean you are going to kill now the women and all the kids, all the male children. Verse 17, I will therefore kill every male among the little ones and kill every woman who has no man intermittently, no man by lying with them, had sexual relations with the man. The virgin girls in verse 18 can be spared. I mean this is a serious judgment. Kids, kill them, we can take the women, the wives and slaughter them, I mean, they are not combatants.

Some unbelievers come to the Old Testament and say the God of the Old Testament is you know, you can’t be the same as the god of the New Testament, He is a violent God. When it comes to judgment, judgment will be without mercy and that is a good reminder. Remember revelation 14, we come to the judgment of hell, there will be no mercy mixed in to that judgment. God is always fair, but he is not required to show mercy, mercy is something undeserved, unmerited and it is his discretion to show mercy or not, but he must judge sin in righteousness. So he is judging sinners here, not innocent people, but sinners and so the virgin women are spared because obviously they weren’t involved in any immoral activity, doesn’t mean every woman who had known to man was involved, but there is accountability there. The women become part of the spoil of the virgin young girls and think of the tragedy for these young girls. I mean their fathers have died in the battle, now their mothers are going to be executed, older sisters they have been married and they are all going to die and now the virgin young girls will be parceled out as servants and slaves to Israelites. It’s a brutal life, God’s judgments are severe.

All right verse 17, now therefore kill every male among the little ones, kill every woman with known man intimately, but all the girls who have not known no man intimately, spare for yourself and then you camp outside the camp. Anyone who has killed any person, who has touched the slain, because now they get up to go through the ritual purification for their contact with dead bodies that we saw earlier, that is taking care of. They have to purify the spoil that they have taken; anything that can survive fire is pass through fire. This symbolizes its being cleansed from the defilement of these godless people and then anything that couldn’t stand the fire that is a spoil can be cleansed with water. So that’s what is unfolded in verses 21 and following in verse 23, we were told you pass through the fire, the things like the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin and the lead.

In the end of verse 23, whatever cannot stand the fire, you cleanse through the water. Down to verse 27, the spoils of the war are divided. The soldiers get a portion and then the rest of Israel gets it divided some of it. So it’s not just soldiers, you have to keep everything that it is divided between the soldiers and the whole congregation of Israel because they do belong together. Down in verses 28 to 30, the priests get a portion, one out of every 500 from the soldiers share goes to the priest, one out of every 50 from the congregation share goes to the Levites and so that’s how the priestly ministry and the Levitical ministry in Israel is the same by these kinds of, if you will tax as required gifts.

So down in verse 40, the human beings were 16,000 from whom the Lord’s levy was 32 persons. In another words, there were 32 virgin girls given to the priest to become their servants or slaves, when it comes down to it. There are many activities and these girls would be responsible for the duty of slaves for the priests. Verse 49 tells us amazing things. No Israelites were killed in that battle. And we are taking about a substantial number of people involved in this battle; we can tell from the animals, we are not told the number of people. But look at verse 32, now the booty that remained from the spoil which the men of war plundered was 675000 sheep, 72000 cattle, 61000 donkeys, and then the human beings of the women who had not known men intimately, they were 32000 and so then you have the further breakdown in dividing the spoil. So the Midianites and those who had joined with them were a sizeable group and we were not told the numbers that were slaughtered among the people. This is a major battle, but the 12,000 soldiers of Israel were completely successful without losing one soldier.

Verse 50, they bring an offering to the Lord and this is an offering from the army. Verse 48, “The officers who were over the thousands, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, approached Moses and your servants have taken a census of men of war who are in our charge, and no man is missing. So we have brought an offering to the Lord what each man found. Some throve from the spoil of war, they bring this additional offering, which may be in the context that no life was lost, this a ransom given to the lord as Exodus chapter 30 verse 12 talks about that we acknowledge that it was the Lord, who preserved us, not our great military abilities and we offer this to the Lord as acknowledgement that he has delivered us.

Chapter 32, now here we begin the division of the land, division of the land before we get into the land. Reuben and Gad, two of the tribes, the leaders of these tribes desired to be given their allotment, their inheritance, their portion of what God promised from the land they have just conquered. I mean there are no enemies here to deal with, we have wiped them out. But this is a fertile land, it is a good land. We would like you to give us our portion here. Oh that’s what chapter 32 is about. Then this is a potential crisis. Half of the tribe of Manasseh will join them. We will learn that later in the Chapter.

Just starts out talking about Reuben and Gad when that’s all done, half of the tribe of Manasseh will also take their portion, so two and a half of the tribes will have their portion of the Promised Land on the eastern side of the Jordan River. This is a potential for conflict. Moses’ response to that request will be very harsh because he looks at it as a potential act of rebellion. This looks so good. Let’s just not go any further. So verses 1 to 5, they come, the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad. They had an exceedingly large number of livestock. They saw the land, Jazer and Galaad that was indeed pretty suitable for livestock. They came to Moses, to Eleazar, the priest, to the lords of the congregation and they said verse 4, the land which Lord conquer before the congregation of Israel is the land for livestock.

Your servants have livestock. If we have found favor in your side, let this land be given to your servants as a possession, do not take us across the Jordan. So we would like to stay here with our flocks, our families, our herds. Verses 6 to 15 Moses condemns their request thinking it will undermine the moral of the people, now all of a sudden instead of considering going over as a united people, two and a half of the tribes that are going stay behind that could be discouraging. I mean if they are going to stay behind to begin to enjoy the good life, wee will go over there and face in all enemy after enemy, maybe we all have to consider not going over. Well that be a disaster because Moses hasn’t forgotten Cades-barnea. So he condemns their request and warns them. Verse 6, he says shall your brothers go to war, while you yourself sit here, why are you discouraging the sons of Israel from crossing over into the land, which Lord has given them. This is your fathers did when I sent them from Cades-barnea to see the land because they went into land, they come back and discouraged the people, then the people didn’t want to go into the land.

So the Lord’s anger burned and the judgment came on all that generation. Verse 13, so the Lord’s anger burned against Israel. He made them wander in the wilderness of 40 years. Verse 14, now you have risen up in your father’s place, a brutal sinful man to add still more to the burning anger of the Lord against Israel. I mean we talk and what the battle says Moses was the most meek man on the face of earth. So you don’t want to get on the wrong side of Moses. If you turn away from following him that he will once more abandon them in the wilderness. Destroy all these people. There is no room for rebellion here. We don’t need another 40 years wandering around going nowhere and Moses’ concern is you just exacerbate the Lord and the judgment would only get more severe.

So what they do is explain their request. They don’t want to undermine the moral of the people in verses 16 to 19. What they will do is build some four to five places here, all the major enemies are gone. They have annihilated them, wiped them out. So there is no potential armies do come in and we will leave our families here and a skeleton force if you will for protection from wild life and any roaming, you know, thieves, but we will go over in force as part of the army and help you conquer the land and we won’t come back and settle down until we have conquered the land for the rest of the tribes. So that’s their plan and they submitted to Moses.

Down in verse 19, we will not have an inheritance with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond because our inheritance is followed on this side of the Jordan. But in verse 18 they say we will not return to our homes until every one of the Israelites has entered into his inheritance. So we are not going to bail out of the battle here, which can be a discouraging element we are going over with you. Under that pervasion verses 20 to 27, Moses grants them their request and down in verse 33 we are told for the first time Moses gave to them, to the sons of Gad, to the sons of Reuben and to the half tribe of Joseph’s son Manasseh, the kingdom of Sihon, the king of the Amorites, the kingdom of Og, the king of Bashan, the land with its cities with their territories, the cities of the surrounding land and so on and they take the time here to establish their own cities and leave their flocks and families here and they will go over into the land.

Chapter 33 just unfolds as a summary Israel’s journeys from Egypt, so you have the highlights of 40 years from when they left Goshen, can add all the Egyptian City of Rameses and the building of that city till now and it’s a summary and it identifies the places they went, the major places they stopped, broken into four major sections. We can change generally, but the problem is a lot of these places we don’t know anymore. We don’t know where specifically many of these areas were. You think well we can just start then and we know exactly where they were, but the problem is many of these areas have been lost to our knowledge, but it is part of the Israel’s history that journey and the routes they took and so on.

Do note in verse 2, Moses recorded their starting places according to their journeys by the command of the Lord. It is the lord instructing Moses on this. Now I realize many people don’t believe in the inspiration scripture, but we who are believes believe and we know why we have a reliable record. And wasn’t Moses is a fallible man? Yes, he did. He is not going into the land, because he is a fallible man. He rebelled against the Lord, but the Lord instructed him on what’s to write and the spirit of God moved him. Holy men of all rod as they were moved by the spirit of God and the number of times, we are not going to go back to look at them now, but it is recorded that Moses wrote and God instructed Moses to write and so we have an accurate record and God is interested in the details of his people. Why does God take a chapter like this? And about the whole chapter that he places, a large number of them we don’t even know where they are. Why was it important for that? Because the details of what God does with his people are important.

I take great comfort on that. I read this and say well I can just skip over most of that because I am going to read they journeyed from Hahiroth and pass through that and then they ended up wilderness of Etham and then they camped at Marah. Then they went to Elim and there, there were 70 palms, wonderful. I mean good for them. But you know, I take encourage of God, He interested in the details of my life, the little things. They are all part of his favor me, because it is not part of a little things of my life. My life is made up of a lot of little things. Now I came here from my home this evening. You know it’s is important to me how I got here. It is important to me I didn’t get hit by a tractor trailer on my vehicle. I am quite not just interested in the highlights; sometimes tell Maryland, how does the day go, just give me the highlights. But you know the details are important. I am glad that I have a God who is not important and caught up with other things he can’t take care of the details.

So Chapter like verse 33, I find great encouragement in. Verses 50 to 56 at the end of that section on the land, here are some instructions on conquering of Canaan. It is utmost important just as we saw with the Midianites, we have to wipe them all out. So the Lord spoke to them in verse 50, while in the planes of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho saying, speak to the sons of Israel, tell them when you crossover the Jordan into the Land of Canaan, then you drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. You destroy all their idols. You take possession of the land and it’s your land. No room for deciding you will have more mercy than God. You will be more gracious than God. God said to destroy them, but you don’t think that is necessary. We know from since we agreed ahead that they didn’t always carry this out as they should and then you divide the land.

Beginning with verse 54, by Lord, the larger tribes get a larger portion, the smaller tribes will get a smaller portion. Verse 55, a warning. If you do not drive up the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it will be come about that those whom you let remain of them will become pricks in your eyes, just thorns in your sight. They will trouble you in the land in which you leave and as I planned to do to them, I will do to you. So you can escape obeying God because if you don’t obey me, judgment will come. You can either be the instrument of my judgment on them or in your rebellion you will bring my judgment on yourself. Israel did that and they live under the judgment of God today for they are rebellion against God. The God is gracious God. He wants to give them the land. He wants it all to be there. I mean, He is not like; I don’t want you to have this. I want you to have it. I want you to have it all. The people who live over there. They are right for judgment. You are my instruments of judgment, it’s all part of the plan, they have to be wiped out.

Chapter 34, you have instructions for dividing Canaan. It sets the borders of the land and again we can get a good general outline of the Land of Canaan as defined here, but not specific because again some of the geographical locations we can’t identify. There is no certainty on that, but there is enough knowledge about it that we have a good understanding. In the first 12 verses, you have the parameters of the land on all sides. We are not going to work through that. You can look at the maps on the back of your Bible or in an atlas and that will set that out for you. Israel has never possessed all that God has promised them here because we know that their obedience broke down and they didn’t drive out all the people. The closest they came was under the rule of David and his son Solomon, but even there they didn’t tell that we possess all the land that is encompassed here.

The Palestinians continued to control us, trip along the coast in the Southern part of Canaan, higher inside and continued to control the coastal area in the north during the days of David and Solomon, but that causes Israel came, when all settle down, Israel will have everything God has promised. Verses 13 to 39, they name the leaders of each tribe who will be involved in dividing up the land and everything that has to do what God has promised is taking care of by God. Here is how the land is to be divided. Here are the leaders, who are to be involved in dividing out the land and each piece of territory is to be fairly and properly divided among the Israelites, that’s all about taken in Chapter 34.

You come to Chapter 35, you have the cities for the Levities and Cities of Refuge, all potential land. You know, you might think that God would have allowed Moses to die and Joshua to take care of this because Joshua is the one who is going to have to administer this, which seems to be a more difficult job for Moses to have to do this knowing he is not going. He is going to experience a premature death because of his active rebellion, but everything has to be done in God’s way. He has to take care of his private affairs on the side because he has God’s work to do here. So you have the cities for the Levites because remember the Levites don’t get a provision. We still end up taking about the 12 tribes, remember we have 12,000 soldiers when out the war, but the Levites still go to war, how did we get the 12 tribes all the time, how did we get the 12,000 soldiers.

Remember Joshua’s two sons, Manasseh being one, who has already received part of his land. So that portion when continues to be broken down into 12 sections even though the Levites are getting a specific allotment or don’t send out soldiers. Since the Levites are not going to get in a lot of section of land, what provision is made for them and here the Levites are to be given specific cities spread throughout the land of Israel. So that is we will have Levites permeating them. They won’t be isolated out here as if they were given allotment that is Levites there tribal identity, it would be in one section, but the Levites should have cities sprinkled throughout all of Israel. Thus there will be a presence of the Levites, who are to be the religious leaders in the nation and are to be responsible for teaching people the law of God, the Mosaic Law particularly.

Verse 6, we are told that six of the Levitical cities will be Cities of Refuge and the Cities of Refuge are places where you can run for protection if you kill someone and that keeps you from being killed by the blood avenger, the nearest male relative had the right to avenge the death of his relative by killing the person who killed his relative. But when you got into a City of Refuge, you were protected, that didn’t protect murders, but the avenger of blood was not allowed to come into that city and kill you and so you were safe there until judgment could be determined.

If you were found to be guilty of murder, you were executed. If you were guilty of manslaughter, you were allowed to live in the City of Refuge. So that’s what is unfolded here. There will be 48 Levitical cities sprinkled throughout all of Israel. There will be six cities that are marked out as Cities of Refuge, so not all the Levitical cities are Cities of Refuge. If you are in Israel right at this time, you don’t have it write because you went to the wrong city, you could be killed and everybody will be aware where the Cities of Refuge. They are cities that are set to them spread out, they are not going to be right next door generally speaking from those people, but they will be in a reasonable distance to enable you to get there for safety in most cases.

Verse 8, as per the cities, which you shall give from the possessions of the sons of Israel, you shall take more from the larger, you shall take less from the smaller. Each shall give some of his cities to the Levites so that the larger tribe that had larger possession should give larger cities to the Levites. The smaller tribes that have smaller allotment will give a smaller city to the Levites. So everything is done proportionately and properly.

Down verses 9 and following, you have detailed instructions on the Cities of Refuge and the regulations regarding the Cities of Refuge. Verse 11, you shall select yourself cities to be your Cities of Refuge. Verse 6 has told us there would be six of these so that the man slayer, who has killed any person unintentionally may flee there. I say that someone killed somebody, flees there it won’t be a safety place for those who killed unintentionally, but a person could flee there and have safety, now he was found out to be a murderer, he will be executed, but it is a place of safety, the city shall be due as a refuge from the avenger so that the man slayer will not die until he stands before the congregation for trial.

The cities which you are to give shall be your six Cities of Refuge, three cities across the Jordan, three cities in the land of Canaan. So there will be three cities over the region, the Transjordan area, where the two and a half tribes every three cities on the other sides. These six cities shall be refuge for the sons of Israel, for the alien, for the soldier among them. Anyone, who kills a person unintentionally may flee there. Now you have the dividing line who is protected. Well if he struck him down with an iron object so that he died is a murder, struck him with a stone in his hand, the murder, if it was premeditated he is a murderer.

Then verse 19, the blood avenger shall put the murder to death. He shall put him to death when he meets him. Rushed upon him in hatred, threw something at him lying in way. So the distinction what we would make between murder and manslaughter is the distinction being made there. You have accidentally killed someone. You accidentally killed someone. You are working on building a wall and you are up fairly high and one of the stones falls over and falls down and hit somebody on the head and they died, that was not intentional that was manslaughter. So that is the kind of distinction that is drawn as you read through down here.

Verse 22 picks up with the manslaughter. If he pushed him suddenly without enmity through something out and without lying invader any deadly object or stone without seeing it, dropped on him so that he died, while he was not his enemy nor seeking his injury. So the congregation will judge here. Then verse 25, the congregation shall deliver the man slayer from the hands of the blood avenger, the congregation shall restore him to a City of Refuge. So it is in the City of Refuge, then he can be brought out for judgment. Some of these obviously like our court will be cleared than others. If he is found to be not guilty of murder, it was an accident; there still is punishment just like we have for manslaughter. But it is not the same punishment for murder and what the punishment is that the person guilty will be confined in that City of Refuge until the high priest die.

This is not determined by other circumstances, because may be the high priest is only going to live six months when he dies, then the sentence for his manslaughter is over. He can leave the City of Refuge and he can’t be haunt. If the blood avenging relatives kill him, then he will be guilty of murder, because as far as the law in Israel is concerned, he is paid for his crime and same thing we would have. If you accidentally hit someone with your car and you are sentenced to a certain jail term, when you come out one of the relative’s kills you, it is a murder. This must say well, he deserves that, he deserves that, now the court has to decide that, but you might get here on a high priest and he is going to be high priest for the next 15 years, well then you have to live in that City of Refuge, and being in that City of Refuge means you cannot go outside the world, because if you go outside and that blood avenging relative see who can kill you because you violated your sentence. As long as you are in the city, you are safe. So you see there is a punishment made it out.

When I work at a steel mill, they had signs allover. Accidents don’t just happen, accidents are caused and so a sort of the punishment here from manslaughter with an accident, but obviously there is some responsibility even for the accident. All of this is based upon the fact that we are created in the image of God that any death, even an act of double death has to be accounted for. Now murder has to be paid for with the life of the murderer. The man, who is guilty of manslaughter has still been involved in taking a life. He stays in the City of Refuge until the high priest dies and that high priest death is taken as being an act on behalf of any of those in the Cities of Refuge. So a death is occurred, the high priest that is in effect on that sense as he does on occasions on behalf of the nation, here his death will be accepted by God as making a tomb or the death of these who were guilty of manslaughter.

Down in verse 30, you make note two witnesses are required and this is generally to condemn anyone. Deuteronomy 19:15 requires two witness for anything. Here it in the context of someone to be contempt for murder. If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death at the evidence of witnesses, but no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness. Now there can be other evidence brought. Leviticus 5:1 talks about that. Person may not have seen it happened, but he has information that relates to what has happened, though the witnesses here can be other than direct eyewitness. Someone who knew, well I have testimony to bear, he hated that person on several occasions, he expressed the desire to kill them, that kind of testimony could be brought in. So two witnesses here, does not have to require two eyewitnesses because like in all crimes, it is often hard to find multiple eyewitnesses to a crime because most people are going to commit a crime, try to do it when there aren’t witnesses. Now there is provision for that. The witnesses required is kick someone who has a grudge who can cue from coming up and condemning you and getting you convicted on the basis of their sole testimony.

In verses 31 and following, the seriousness what we talked about in death, you can’t take a ransom for a murderer. You shall not take ransom for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death. He has to be put to death. You shall not take ransom for him who was lived to the City of Refuge that he may return to live in the land before the death of the priest. All these connect to the seriousness of being involved in the death of another person because we are created in the image of God, the genesis 9 and to kill another person is to strike the image of God.

So the murder must give his life and whether it is accidental death, you have to wait for the priest in effect to get his life, the high priest and you can redeem him in any other way. The murderer has to give his life for his crime and the person guilty of manslaughter must wait for the death of the priest. If he has got a wealthy family, that can’t buy it off early and he can go to the family of the person who accidentally killed and said we all know it was an accident, how about if I give you 500 sheep, a 100 herd of cattle? Then the family can say, well look, it’s all been resolved. We are open to his coming. No, it takes a death, even in a manslaughter you have to stay there.

If you don’t do that verse 33, you pollute the land. So you shall not pollute the land in which you are, for blood pollutes the land. It is back to what we talked about because the death occurred. No expiation can be made for the land for the blood that you shed on it, except by the blood of him you shed it or by his substitute the high priest in the case of manslaughter. You shall not defile the land, which you live, the midst of which I dwell for you. I the Lord, I am dwelling in the midst of the sons of Israel. So it’s a land I have given to you, but you understand it’s my land. I live here, I dwell among you, you are my people, so you must be a holy people. You shall be holy for I am holy. That doesn’t change when you get to the New Testament. Peter repeats that you shall be holy for I am holy, God says. It is always true of God’s people. Here the land must be holy.

Chapter 36 talks about the inheritance of women, say why we are back on this while we are talking about the land, the diving of the land, being careful not to pollute the land. And of course when you talk about the diving of land, you have to talk about what you do with the Levites. When talk about not polluting the land, you have to talk about the provision about the Cities of Refuge and you talk about women having a provision to inherit land, you have to talk about extenuating circumstances here. Under the normal pattern, remember we saw with the daughters of Zelophehad in Chapter 27 of Numbers that their father died and there were only the daughters and so the land is always passed onto the sons. Well they were allowed in inheritance. So we have to clarify here on loss of inheritance.

Chapter 36 opens up the heads of the father’s household, the families of the sons of Galaad and so on. They came near and the spoke to Moses and before the leader. They said the Lord commanded my lord to give the land, my lord to the sons of Israel in inheritance. My lord was commanded by the Lord to give inheritance of Salphaad our brothers to his daughter, but here is the problem, but if they marry one of the sons of the other tribes of the sons of Israel, their inheritance will be withdrawn from the inheritance of our fathers. Will be added to the inheritance of the tribes to which they belong. Thus it will be withdrawn from my inheritance in other words. If you have a situation where a man dies and only has daughters.

They are of the tribe of Judah and then these daughters inherit his land, but they marry men from the tribe of Manasseh, well they become part of their new husband’s family now, even though these ladies were born into the tribe of Judah, these women, they marry men from the tribe of Manasseh, they are now belonged to the tribe of Manasseh, all the children, who were born will be of the tribe of Manasseh because it comes through the male, the land, all that land now gets transferred over the Manasseh. Judah’s land inheritance is shrinking. Now Manasseh gets a part of Judah, multiply this out over the next thousand years and some of the tribes are going to lose large portions of their land and pretty soon some tribes to go out of existence. That’s their concern.

Verse 5, Moses commanded the sons of Israel according to the word of Lord. So this is what God told Moses. The tribe of the sons of Joseph is right in their statements, you are right in your concern; you would begin to detract from some of the tribes and add a land allotment and give it to others, if it follows the women. This is what the Lord is commanding concerning the daughters of Salphaad saying let them marry whom they wish. Only they must marry within the family of the tribe of their father. So here is the solution. They can only marry within their own tribe. So the land will stay within that tribe. That’s the key concern. There will be no change in allotments of the land once it is set down. The lines are drawn and there are readjustments within, but are always be within the land of Manasseh, one of the other tribes.

Thus no inheritance of the sons of Israel shall be transferred from tribe to tribe. The sons of Israel should each hold to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. Every daughter, who comes into possession of inheritance of any tribe of the sons of Israel shall be wife to one of the family of the tribe of her father. So the sons of Israel may each possess the inheritance of his father’s. Thus no inheritance shall be transferred from one tribe to another for the tribes in the sons of Israel shall each hold to its inheritance. If they do marry outside their tribe, the land does not go with them, therefore would forfeit that. So that is the provision. You see god is serious about the land, is serious about all twelve tribes. You know, when you read the Old Testament, some of the very things that admires down were causes to skip over when we are reading the Old Testament. All the very things that you know we are to have impressed on our mind. Some people think all these promises become spiritual and the Israel is not going to get any land anymore.

God just made those spiritual lives of the promises, it is better to say, allegorize the promises or whatever. All these things are reminded God is serious about his promises to Israel down to exactly how the land is divided because as long as it just belongs to the Jews and that be good enough. I mean we are going to make a big issue out of each tribal allotment in their so that each of the 12 tribes has its exact desiccated lines and those can never change, that’s what God says exactly right. I concerned about the physical things I promised to Israel. You can never sell off, trade off buy off inherit off land from one tribe to another. Even though all Israelites are God’s people, the allotments for each of tribes of these were because God has chosen to divide Israel into twelve separate divisions and give the land to those twelve tribes.

As reading a book this afternoon on the history of Israel down through modern days and it is remarkable all the issues to come are not anti-Arab, the fact is God has promised the land to Israel and all the shenanigans and all the adjustments and creation of a so called Palestinian people changed the fact the land is Israel. I mean Palestinian people are a creation of those who despises Israel or like to take the God has promised to them. These promises Moses is going to die were about 1400 years before Christ, 3400 years ago approximately. God has promised the land to Israel, that is Israel’s land. I understand Israel is under the judgment of God or the judgment included being driven out of the land, I believe in the sovereign plan of God, he has brought them back to the land, but the worst is yet to come because in the coming tribulation all the world is going to turn against Israel and desire once again to annihilate Israel.

Watching the BBC news when I want to get a different perspective and see how Europe is viewing, world-wide events, I watch the BBC news; they were interviewing people regarding the problem in Israel, the Palestinian problem. You know, I jut scratch my head. Both the news person and the person they are interviewing have all the questions, everything is cast into what Israel is doing and the person being interviewed kept saying, you know as long as Israel does this, the Palestinian people are going to be frustrated and then the news cast for us what can we do to help the Israelites, the Jewish people understand they are going to have to change their tactics. I mean no questions about, though you think it’s a problem that the Muslim people and the Arab people have committed acts of terrorism and they continue to do that, well if Israel wouldn’t put all this pressure on this and you realize the unbeliever doesn’t have the ability to even think rationally in general areas and there is a deep seeded heart based animosity to Israel because God has chosen. Satan hates them right down to today. God’s program of salvation does not center in Israel today; it centers in the Church. But God has not done with Israel.

Remember what happens in the middle of the coming seven-year tribulation, Revelation Chapter 12 and Satan loses his place finally access to heavens. He is cast out of heaven. He comes down having great fury, what is he immediately begin to do, try to wipe out Israel. They are the only nation God has chosen. Satan is not primarily concerned with wiping out the United States of America. He is primarily concerned with wiping out Israel, why? The promises were just reading. They are people that God has chosen for himself. Chapter 35 verse 34 you shall not defile the land in which you live in the midst of which I dwell. For I the Lord, I am dwelling in the midst of the sons of Israel and I realize they are under judgment today. We have been grafted in as Roman’s 11 say, this is the church, they have made no mistakes.

As Romans 11 tells us the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. There is no going back on God’s promises. So I watch the news, I watch it in this light to hold the poor Palestinian people. Nobody asked any questions, why aren’t the Jews allowed to live in your cities? But there is an animosity to Israel. Do you think we are going to become political? No, but I am going to remain biblical. You know who came up with calling Canaan. Judah as it was known, Palestine, the Romans 135 AD, the last and final revolt of the Jews, a conflict which cost lives of Romans and Jews somewhere over 500,000. The Roman emperor in an attempt to annihilate all semblance of Jewish identity; changed the name of Judah to Palestine. Come up with the Palestinian people after the six-day war in 1967 and they are supposed to have some kind of identity with reading the statistics, more Jews have been driven out of the Arab cities than Arabs or Palestinians if you were becoming refugees and all these things plays if you try to rationalize our politically or logically. The fact of the matter is the route of the problem that is scripted about and comes back to the promises of God to Israel of the land.

In judgment he does what he said. He has taken them off the land as he did in the Syrian captivities, he did in the Babylonian captivity, he brought them back. Then under the Romans he judged them again and you and I live in the day of gentile salvation. We enjoyed the special favor of God as he worked salvation for the gentiles, but you come back to it and here we are. 3400 years plus after Moses gives these instructions from God you turn on the news and it’s all about what is going on in this section of land that God has promised to his people. You and I are proud to belong to this God. He is the one who has called us to himself. I am glad He is going to keep everyone of His promises. I am glad that Timothy says even when we are unfaithful, He is faithful, why? Because he can’t deny himself. Where would we be? How quickly we write off the Jews because? Oh, they are unfaithful. They are under judgment. They deserve it. They shouldn’t have a future as though we had been perfectly faithful. Doesn’t think things are unfaithfulness, but it does remind us that God keeps us promises.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for your great grace. Thank you for your promises. Thank you for this beautiful section of your world. Sometimes it is difficult for us many of these places we don’t have knowledge of. Many of these sights are lost to present day knowledge, but that nothing has lost to you. None of your promises will fail. Every word that you have spoken must be fulfilled, not one jot, not one title can pass away unrealized. Thank you for your promises to Israel. Thank you for the demonstration of your grace and mercy and love and kindness to a people that you chose for yourself. For no reason, but you chose them, calling Abraham from a life and family of idolatry to the glory of belonging to you and fathering a nation.

Lord we thank you that we as your people today the Church have great comfort and confidence that the promises you have given to us cannot be changed. We will experience and enter into the fullness of all those promises and so will your people Israel experience the final fulfillment of all that you have promised. Some day they will dwell in the land that you have given to them and your son, their king, the Messiah, the savior will rule and reign in glory and we will rule and reign within. May we will live the days of this week in light of the truth of your word, in the destiny of the desires. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.