I mentioned last week that we're going to finish the book tonight. I know there's several chapters left, but we're going to just kind of overview it and God willing start the book of Deuteronomy next week. We've worked our way thus far through the Pentateuch. So numbers 32.1 to 36.13 is what we're looking at tonight. I will read chapter 32, at least some of it, just to get the ball rolling and then I'll give you an overview of what's happening at the end of this particular book. Just by way of reminder, the book of Numbers records the wanderings of the children of Israel in the wilderness. Remember, the book Numbers, the title Numbers, comes from the two censuses. There's one in the first part, chapters 1 and 2, and then there's one in chapter 26. And basically, you have the first generation die out because of God's judgment, and then you have the second census in chapter 26. The name of the book in the Hebrew canon is in the wilderness and that's from the first few words in chapter 1 verse 1 So basically what you have is the children of Israel set out from Sinai They wander through the wilderness and then the latter portion of the book takes place on the plains of Moab That's where they presently are poised to go into the promised land, so the book of Deuteronomy takes up where Numbers leaves off, and it basically is the final exhortations of Moses to prepare the children of Israel as they go into the land for the conquest, and that is picked up by Joshua, and we see the negative sort of side of that in the book of Judges. I think after Deuteronomy, we'll just keep going through the former prophets, so Joshua, and then Judges, and Ruth, and 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings. If Jesus doesn't return by then, then we'll be studying what's called the former prophets. So Numbers chapter 32, I'll read beginning in verse one. Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock. And when they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, that indeed the region was a place for livestock, the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spoke to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the elders of the congregation saying, Adaroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimra, Heshbon, Eliela, Shabam, Nebo, and Bayon, the country which the Lord defeated before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock. Therefore they said, if we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants as a possession. Do not take us over the Jordan. And Moses said to the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, Shall your brethren go to war while you sit here? Now why will you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the Lord has given them? Thus your fathers did when I sent them away from Kadesh Barnea to see the land. For when they went up to the valley of Ashkel and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, so that they did not go into the land which the Lord had given them. So the Lord's anger was aroused on that day, and He swore an oath, saying, Surely none of the men who came up from Egypt "'From 20 years old and above shall see the land "'of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, "'because they have not wholly followed me, "'except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, "'and Joshua, the son of Nun, "'for they have wholly followed the Lord.' So the Lord's anger was aroused against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness 40 years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was gone. And look, you have risen in your father's place, a brood of sinful men, to increase still more the fierce anger of the Lord against Israel. "'For if you turn away from following him, "'he will once again leave them in the wilderness "'and you will destroy all these people.' "'Then they came near to him and said, "'We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock "'and cities for our little ones, "'but we ourselves will be armed, "'ready to go before the children of Israel "'until we have brought them to their place. "'And our little ones will dwell in the fortified cities "'because of the inhabitants of the land. "'We will not return to our homes "'until every one of the children of Israel "'has received his inheritance. for we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has fallen to us on this eastern side of the Jordan. Then Moses said to them, if you do this thing, if you arm yourselves before the Lord for the war, and all your armed men cross over the Jordan before the Lord until he has driven out his enemies from before him, and the land is subdued before the Lord, then afterward you may return and be blameless before the Lord and before Israel. and this land shall be your possession before the Lord. But if you do not do so, then take note, you have sinned against the Lord and be sure your sin will find you out. Build cities for your little ones and folds for your sheep and do what is proceeded out of your mouth. Amen. Well, as we look at these concluding chapters, chapters 32 to 36, there's three specific things that I want to notice. First, the inheritance on the east side of the Jordan, which we just read about here in chapter 32. It goes all the way from verses 1 to 42. So the inheritance on the east side of the Jordan. Secondly, the itinerary of the journey in chapter 33, verses 1 to 49. And then third, instructions for life in Canaan. And you find that in chapter 33, verse 50, all the way to chapter 36, verse 12. And then the formal conclusion of the book is in chapter 36 at verse 13. So we'll look first at the inheritance east of the Jordan. So basically what we have in the section that I read are the tribes Reuben and Gad. And then they're later joined by half the tribe of Manasseh, which we then call East Manasseh. They are joined because they want to settle on the east side of the Jordan, or what we call the Transjordanian tribes. So Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh. And the reason is very simple. They were livestock herders, they had animals, and that place was very rich. and very plentiful, and so they wanted to bed down there, and they wanted to receive that as their tribal allotment. And the supposition is, is that that portion of the region was already dispossessed of any enemies, they had already found pasture there, they had already found stability, they already wanted to settle in, and that's their presentation to Moses and to Eleazar in chapter 32, in verses one to five. Then Moses responds with a specific question in verse 6. He says, to the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, shall your brethren go to war while you sit here? His question is pretty pointed and pretty direct, and essentially it's this. So you guys found a safe harbor east of the Jordan, Now the other nine tribes are tasked with going into the land of Canaan, and they now have to dispossess that land, and now they're three tribes or two and a half tribes short. They're lacking manpower when it comes to the conquest that God had commanded. That presents a problem. And then Moses basically goes on to rehearse what happened when he sent out those spies to recon the promised land itself, and the division that came as a result of that. Remember they sent out those twelve spies, and two spies, Joshua and Caleb, gave a favorable report, and then the ten spies gave an unfavorable report. Of course the congregation of Israel sided with the unfavorable report, because they didn't believe God, They didn't believe in His promise to give them the land that He had swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they believed the ten spies who said that there were too many giants in the land and we can't take it. And so there was division as a result of that, and that brought God's judgment, and that was the section, Numbers 13 and 14, where God promises that He's going to destroy that first generation, and that none of them, save Joshua and Caleb, were going to enter into the promised land. And so Moses invokes that particular scenario, and he says division amongst the tribes is not good, and that's what you're doing when you settle here on the east side of the Jordan. So then the men of Reuben and Gad respond by saying, we're going to go ahead and settle down east of the Jordan, but we will assist the other nine and a half tribes in the battle. We will accompany them, and then after that conquest, we will return to the east side of the River Jordan. So the Transjordan was already conquered so that Eastern tribes needed to assist the other tribes in the conquest of the promised land. So that's the back and forth that is going on here. And so the favorable response on the part of Reuben and Gad is in verses 16 to 19. Note specifically in verse 18, So they agree. They see the problem. They see the potential difficulty. And so they agree with Moses that they're going to go ahead and leave their families and leave their animals stationed safely on the east side of the Jordan. They're going to assist their brethren in the conquest to dispossess the land of the Canaanites. So Moses then responds favorably to them, but gives them this caution in verse 23. So that's the specific issue there in terms of the Eastern tribes and the necessity for them to join the other tribes in the conquest of the promised land. So as I said, later we see half the tribe of Manasseh joins with them as well. So Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh settle in the Transjordan region. Now secondly, the itinerary of the journey, chapter 33, verses 1 to 49. For obvious reasons, we're not going to go jot by jot through that particular list. Fun fact, however, I think it was the second sermon I ever preached, which was probably 33, 34 years ago, actually 30 some years ago, at a prison. It was actually numbers 33-4. You might wonder, why would you choose that text? The previous sermon I had preached in that context was, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So why then Numbers 33, 4? For the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whom the Lord had killed among them, also on their gods the Lord had executed judgments. Just a very stunning statement in terms of a haunting view of God's sovereignty, and I think it capitulates for us or recapitulates the Exodus. For the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whom the Lord had killed among them, also on their gods the Lord had executed judgments. Remember in Exodus 12.12, one of the reasons why God does what he does in terms of the situation in Egypt is not only the deliverance of his people from that house of bondage, but also judgment, a verdict of judgment and punishment upon the gods of Egypt. So the itinerary there in chapter 33, verses 1 to 49, rehearses the wanderings of the children of Israel throughout the wilderness. And then that brings us then to the instructions for life in Canaan. So chapter 33, verse 50, on to chapter 36, verse 12. So first, the conquest of Canaan. Notice in chapter 33 at verses 50 to 56. It says, Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, a cross from Jericho, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, when you have crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their engraved stones, destroy all their molded images, and demolish all their high places. You shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land and dwell in it, for I have given you the land to possess. And you shall divide the land by lot as an inheritance among your families. To the larger you shall give a larger inheritance, and to the smaller you shall give a smaller inheritance. There everyone's inheritance shall be whatever falls to him by lot. You shall inherit according to the tribes of your fathers. But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you dwell. Moreover, it shall be that I will do to you as you thought, or as I thought to do to them." So the instructions for holy war, essentially, are the dispossession of the land of the Canaanites. You see this in Exodus chapter 23, in verses 20 to 33, and then Exodus chapter 34 verses 11 to 13, but most profoundly in Deuteronomy chapter 7 in verses 1 to 5. And so what you see in this brief section is the command to dispossess the land of the Canaanites in verses 50 to 53. Now make no mistake about it, they dispossessed the land of the Canaanites by killing them, by breaking things, by engaging in warfare. Remember along the way in the Book of Numbers they've been preparing for war. They were not a military people. They did not have abilities with weaponry and with military or martial arts or anything like that. They came out of slavery in Egypt and one of the functions in their wilderness wanderings was to prepare them to battle in the promised land. In fact, that's the purpose behind the census, the first census in the Book of Numbers, and the second census in the book of numbers. It wasn't just to find out if you had extra rooms in your house so that immigrants could live there. That wasn't the purpose of the census. The purpose of the census was to find out what men were of age and ready to fight in battle. And so along the way they fought in a few battles and they've done well under their God. And so they're going to go into the land of Canaan and they're going to dispossess it by killing people, by breaking down all of their articles of religion. God knows that if they go in there and they don't do that, it won't be long before they're worshipping with those articles of religion. So in Deuteronomy 7, they're to have no social alliances. They're not supposed to marry the Canaanites. They're not supposed to have political alliances. They're not supposed to do government with the Canaanites. And they're certainly not supposed to have religious alliances. Again, God knows that if they don't dispossess the land of the Canaanites, it won't be long before they themselves are like the Canaanites. And that's the trajectory that we have in the former prophets. So Joshua presents a favorable view of the conquest. But even in Joshua, we see that the land was not utterly dispossessed of the Canaanites. So when we get to the book of Judges, it really starts to get dark, and it really starts to show decline, and it shows the Canaanization of the children of Israel. That brings us then to 1 and 2 Samuel. some good times under David, Solomon, and 1st and 2nd Kings, but some dark times as well. So they were to dispossess the land of the Canaanites, according to verses 50 to 53. They were to divide the land, according to verse 54, and then a failure to dispossess the land in verses 55 and 56. I'll read that again. But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, from before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you dwell." That's exactly what happens. It's already there a bit in Joshua. It is certainly there in the book of Judges. And then verse 56 basically is programmatic for much of what happens, from this vantage point, in the future for Israel. Moreover, it shall be that I will do to you as I thought to do to them." So when Israel does take possession of the land, once they start acting like the Canaanites in the land, then God raises up the Assyrian army to judge the northern tribes in 722 BC. When Judah, the southern tribes, do not learn that lesson from the decimation of the northern tribes vis-a-vis the Assyrians, God raises up Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians in 586 BC to decimate the southern kingdom. And then, of course, the Judahites go into Babylon, and then they're there for 70 years, and then under the decree of Cyrus, they're able to return to Judah, but it's not anywhere near the amount of people that they had, it's not anywhere near the sort of glory that they once possessed. And what they brought out of Babylon was a distortion of what they had had religiously. The Babylonian Talmud, I think a lot of times people assume that this is another religious document. It is vile to the core. It is wretched. It is godless. It is anti-Christ. So don't think for a moment that it's just another book of books out there that have some information about the Lord. It is not a good book. It is not a good collection of laws and regulations and things of that nature. So dispossess the land. If you don't dispossess the land, the Canaanites that you leave behind are going to be irritants to you. And then you're going to find out that I'm going to be against you the way I was going to be against the Canaanites. In fact, in some ways, the Israelite guilt was even worse because they had the oracles of Yahweh. They had the direct influence of Moses. They had the written law of God Almighty. And yet they reject that. They refuse that. And so they reap the consequences involved with that godlessness. So instructions for life in Canaan begin with the conquest of Canaan. You're not going to have life in Canaan unless you go dispossess the land. Secondly, in chapter 34 and verses 1 to 15, you have the borders or the boundaries of Canaan. It was a specific land with specific borders. You had specific boundaries involved in what God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It wasn't just, oh, the whole world is yours, or the whole world is the Canaanites. No, there's borders. There's nothing wrong with borders. That's how a nation maintains its sovereignty. Notice then, thirdly, the commanders in Canaan, chapter 34, verses 16 to 29. These would be the men initially that would provide command and leadership when they settle in Canaan. Then we have the cities for the Levites in chapter 35, verses 1 to 8. Remember, the Levites didn't get a tribal allotment. So they had cities carved out in the promised land for them that each tribe would afford to the Levites so that they could live. Remember that the Levites basically had their livelihood because of their service with reference to the tabernacle and then the temple. So you had the Levites and the priests, they were sustained by the cult, the religious cult. And so they got these portions, or rather these cities from the various tribes in terms of Levitical cities. They didn't farm, they didn't have big patches of ground. They may had a family cow, they may had a few chickens, something like that. they didn't have enough for a good livelihood, so they reaped the benefit from the sacrificial system. Not all, but some of the sacrifices offered up to Yahweh, a portion was set apart for the priests and for the Levites to participate in, because they were religiously, serving religiously, therefore they ate and fed based on the kindness of God revealed in that sacrificial system. So the cities of the Levites You'll see that in Joshua chapter 21, in verses 1-42. And then next, in chapter 35, in verses 9-34, you have cities of refuge. Cities of refuge. You see this in Deuteronomy 19, verses 1-13, and then Joshua chapter 20, verses 1-9. And the cities of refuge were very important. And basically what you have in this legislation, in chapter 35, verses 9 to the end of the chapter, is legislation concerning the cities of refuge. So basically what you have is a distinction between murder and manslaughter within the chapter. If you look specifically at manslaughter, for instance, notice in verse 11, Then you shall appoint cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person accidentally may flee there. They shall be cities of refuge for you from the avenger, that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation in judgment. So when it speaks of manslaying there, or when it speaks of manslaughter there, notice specifically at the end of verse 11 that the manslayer who kills any person accidentally may flee there. That is manslaughter. That's not murder. There's no malice aforethought, there's no premeditation, there's no hatred in the heart of the particular individual. Rather, it is an accidental death. Notice in verse 12, you've got that language of avenger. Avenger is probably a male in a family whose family member was killed, either through manslaying or through murder. And that avenger of blood functioned in a legal capacity to render vengeance upon the manslayer. whether he was a, well, specifically for the crime of murder. So the avenger, again, likely a family member that was tasked with going after the manslayer, and if the manslayer was in fact guilty of murder, then that manslayer was executed by this avenger of blood. So you've got accidental homicide, or what we call today manslaughter. I know manslaughter sounds a lot more vicious than accidental homicide. Slaughter just involves, you know, you can't even say slaughter without sneering and wielding a sword. Manslaughter sounds almost worse than murder, but it's not. Manslaughter is accidental. Now notice murder in verse 16. And again, you're looking at the concepts of hatred, malice aforethought, premeditation, all those sorts of things. So verse 16, if he strikes him with an iron implement so that he dies, he is a murderer. Notice, he's striking him with an iron implement. The murderer shall surely be put to death. And if he strikes him with a stone in the hand by which one could die and he does die, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. Or if he strikes him with a wooden hand weapon by which one could die and he does die, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death. The Avenger of Blood himself shall put the murderer to death when he meets him. He shall put him to death. If he pushes him out of hatred, or while lying in wait, hurls something at him so that he dies, or in enmity he strikes him with his hand so that he dies, the one who struck him shall surely be put to death. He is a murderer. The Avenger of Blood shall put the murderer to death when he meets him. So this distinction between murder and manslaughter is absolutely crucial. Now, the underlying passage behind this is Genesis chapter 9 and verse 6. And remember in Genesis chapter 9, you have something of a new beginning with Noah. It's after the flood. One of the things that was true prior to the flood is that the earth was exceedingly corrupt and it was filled with violence. That was one of the reasons, one of the predicates by which God judged the then known world. So coming out of the ark, God gives Noah a command. with reference to man's life and the sanctity of life. He says, whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood will be shed, for in the image of God he made man. Now, that seems like it would entail not only the murderer, but the manslaughterer, but later legislation does show us the difference between manslaughter and murder. So the principle is that murder is always a capital offense. Murder demands the execution of the murderer. There is nowhere in the Bible that that has ever been suspended. There is nowhere in the Bible that that has ever been done away with. In fact, most people that study the Bible, I say most people, I wouldn't actually say that, most people that have a clue who study the Bible, especially with reference to covenant, realize that Noah's covenant is universal, It is perpetual that it obligates all men everywhere. It's a common grace covenant. As long as there is this earth, the ramifications of Noah's covenant hold true. But not only does Noah's covenant in Genesis 9 affirm this, but the sword given to the magistrate according to the apostle Paul in Romans chapter 13, verses 1 to 4. The civil government wields the sword for the execution of God's wrath in history against criminal doers. And so the idea behind murder and death penalty is that any nation that doesn't execute murderers is guilty of blood. It ought to cause us actually to tremble, and the fact that no government, at least that I know of, or at least our government, never even entertains the thought that this is something a civil government should do. I think it was last week, either North or South Carolina, there was an execution, and it was by firing squad. Praise God, they're doing their job. Vicious, vile, murdering criminals deserve to be executed. That is simply God's work. Why do I say that? For in the image of God, He made him. There is a theological rationale. As Voss says, that in life slain, it is the image of God that is assaulted. And so when it comes to this, as we see it repetitiously throughout the Pentateuch, it is an emphasis by God that when you have criminal offenders in a society that take the lives of other people, those criminal offenders should be executed by the civil state. We don't have the Avenger of Blood, a family member at this point. That would eventually evolve into civil government, judges, courts, higher courts. adjudication, guilty sentences, and then punishment consistent with that. But this is it in seed form. So we've got this distinction between murder and manslaughter. Now, one of the purposes for the cities of refuge was that the manslayer could go there and get a fair hearing. That's the emphasis in this legislation. Because if the Avenger of Blood finds the guy and kills him, but the guy's not actually a murderer. He didn't try to bury the axe head in that man's brother's head, but rather the axe head flew off and found its way into that man's brother's head. So if the Avenger of Blood kills somebody that's not actually a murderer, then the Avenger of Blood himself is guilty. And so you need these courts set up so that they can listen to this and adjudicate it. If it is the case that the man is a murderer, then he is sentenced to die and the Avenger of Blood is there to take that particular prerogative. So there is a demand in this for due process. Again, look at verse 12. They shall be cities of refuge for you from the avenger, that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation in judgment. You mustn't ever miss this, because oftentimes biblical law is mis-caricatured as being this vicious barbaric code, and if we implemented it, then the gutters would run with blood. No, there's law, and courts and evidences and examination, all that stuff comes to play. Notice in verses 22 and 23. We've already read that. Look at verse 23. "...or uses a stone by which a man could die, throwing it at him without seeing him, so that he dies while he was not his enemy or seeking his harm. Then the congregation shall judge between the manslayer and the avenger of blood according to these judgments." So the congregation shall deliver the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall return him to the city of refuge where he had fled, and he shall remain there until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil." The difficulty of that is not lost. Some suggest it's the beginning of a new era, the end of an old era, that's why. But if the manslayer at any time goes outside the limits of the city of refuge where he fled, and the avenger of blood finds him outside the limits of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the manslayer, he shall not be guilty of blood. Because he should have remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest, the manslayer may return to the land of his possession. So there's this period of time, it's so that things can cool off, and it's so that parties can get a fair shake and be examined under witnesses, and if the man is guilty, then he is subject to the death penalty. If he's not, well then he's not subject to the death penalty. So then notice the necessity of witnesses in these proceedings. Again, biblical law isn't, oh, I think this guy stole my car. Let me shoot him. That's not it. Notice in verse 29. You see this in Deuteronomy 17 and 19 as well. You see this mandate for two or three witnesses. That is absolutely crucial. You can't have death penalty without two or three witnesses. Notice in 29. These things shall be a statute of judgment to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings. Whoever kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the testimony of witnesses. But one witness is not sufficient testimony against a person for the death penalty. You had to have a couple of witnesses in order to enact the death penalty. This is crucial. This is absolutely necessary. And interestingly, in Deuteronomy 19, there's something built into the law of God there, that if I allege something false, let's say against Micah, and I bring him to the court, and it's a capital offense, and the judges find that I'm lying, I'm false. Do you know what the penalty is? I get whatever he would have been penalized with. Do you know how good that would be to reduce frivolous lawsuits? If I knew that my case was not absolutely winnable, I have a lot of incentive to go into that courtroom ready to win. Because if there's any thought that I might lose, I may be subject to death. So the Old Testament law, far from being barbaric and antiquated, it's even the law of retribution, the eye for eye, tooth for tooth. How many times is that invoked as if it's just this horrific principle? It's the law of retribution. Do you know what it means? Simply, the punishment must fit the crime. we all operate based on that principle in Western civilization, or at least we're supposed to, the punishment must fit the crime. And far from allowing unbridled penalties and punishments, it actually is an imposition or a restriction on the amount of punishment that is meted out. If I knock out your tooth, you don't get to gouge out my eye. Arguably, the eye is far more important than a tooth. I mean, you can look like a hockey player without a tooth, but you can't look if you don't have an eye. So you see, it actually restricts a vicious and a mindless sort of a punishment when it comes to the body politic. So for us today to say, well, you know, that Old Testament, it's full of barbarism, and nope, absolutely positively not. Witnesses, cross-examination, decency, order, all that sort of a thing absolutely positively obtains in Old Testament law. So the necessity of witnesses, verses 29 to 30, notice the necessity of capital punishment for murderers, verse 31. Moreover, you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death. One commentator says, excuse me, that in the ancient Near Eastern world, other countries, other nation states, had it such that a man, if he had enough money, could basically pay that money and not go to the death, get the death penalty. Not so in Israel. If you murdered, then you were to be executed. No ifs, ands, or buts. There was no mitigating of circumstances. If you murdered somebody, again, it had to be proven, there had to be witnesses, there had to be a courtroom and all of the proceedings, but if you murdered somebody, you were to be executed. And then notice in verse 33, you shall not pollute the land where you are, for blood defiles the land and no atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it. You look at a nation that doesn't execute murderers and saturates the earth with aborted babies and with euthanasia. I mean, it's an amazing thing that fire isn't raining down upon our nations each and every day. It is an amazing thing that we don't experience Sodom and Gomorrah type judgment every moment of every day. In fact, some of the things that we practice on just a regular basis, the pagan nations around Israel would have said, we haven't even done that. murdering babies in the womb. I mean, they did do that. They threw them into the arms of Moloch. But the euthanasia and the barbarism, child mutilation for sexual ends, it's vicious and vile. So when Western civilization gets on the high horse and starts to condemn biblical law, they have no ground upon which to stand. They are godless, vile, Christ-rejecting, wretched people. And what we find in God's law is equity and justice. And then the last section in chapter 36 deals with female heirs. We already saw this in chapter 27 and verses 1 to 11, the daughters of Zelophehad. Remember the daughters of Zelophehad? Their father died, but he wasn't, you know, extra sinful. It's basically their argument. He was a sinner, but he wasn't one of those wretched sinners like in Korah's rebellion. So basically, it's not that he wasn't a sinner, but he wasn't a notorious sinner with Korah's rebellion or with the others that rose up against Moses and Aaron. And so Moses seeks out counsel, and God says, yeah, they're right. They have no male heirs in their family. The daughters of Zelophehad get to take the land. They get that tribal allotment. They shouldn't be gypped or bypassed because they don't have brothers or some male blood that is a recipient of that tribal allotment. So that's revisited here in chapter 36. Why do you think that is? Because they're going in to inherit the promised land. They're going in to divide up the land. These kinds of things are very important when you're going to go conquer a land and start to divvy it up. You want to get this stuff worked out and figured out before you start shedding blood and start carving up the land. So basically, the emphasis here is that if the daughters of Zelophehad or any female heirs to tribal allotment marry outside their tribe, then at the time of the Jubilee, the outside their tribe is going to inherit that portion of land. So the safeguard for these female heirs is that they marry within their tribe. And if they marry within their tribe, then they get to keep that land in their tribe. So that's the legislation in 36, 1 to 12. Kind of an interesting way for the book of Numbers to end. Again, those who say, oh, God hates women, God's a chauvinist, all that. He ends the book of Numbers making sure that the women are looked after. And then the summary statement in 36, 13, these are the commandments and the judgments which the Lord commanded the children of Israel by the hand of Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho. Timothy Ashley in his commentary says, the last section of Numbers 33, 50 to 36, 12 dealt with matters of property and land within the land of promise. Thus the book ends on a forward-looking and open-ended note. What will happen in the land of Canaan? There is one major event to take place before the people can cross over the Jordan under the leadership of Joshua. Moses must die and entrust the leadership to a new generation. Preparation for life in the land of Canaan without Moses is a major theme of Deuteronomy. So it provides for us that necessary step to get to the plains of Moab in Deuteronomy, where Moses gives his final addresses or exhortations to the children of Israel to prepare them for the conquest. And then, of course, Deuteronomy ends with the death of Moses. Joshua begins with the succession of Moses as the leader and the one tasked with going to dispossess the land of the Canaanites. Well, just a few thoughts and then we'll close. First, I mentioned this when we looked at the book initially, the ideal and the real in the book of Numbers. Now, in the history of philosophy, there's philosophical schools called idealism and realism. That's not how I'm using it. I'm using ideal in the sense of something the way it ought to be, and real the way things are. So for instance, 1 John 2, my little children, I write these things so that you may not sin. That's idealism. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous. That's realism. It's what we sang tonight, prone to wander, prone to leave the God that I love. Well, the book of Numbers does display that very clearly. If you turn back to Numbers chapter 9, Numbers chapter 9, verses 15 to 23. We won't read the whole section. But the point is, the idealized version of what this wilderness wandering should look like. God will guide you. In fact, you see this in Exodus chapter 40, verses 33 and 34. This pillar of cloud and fire, God is going to be present among them and He will be in their midst and will be that one who guides them through the wilderness to their destination. That's the idealized version. Well, on the heels of that, we get realism. We've got the children of Israel complain, chapter 11, verses 1 to 9, chapter 12, verses 1 to 2. The people are fearful and unbelieving, chapter 14, verses 1 to 10. The people reject God, the one who said, I will guide you, I will be that pillar of cloud and fire, or pillar of fire and cloud, and I will be in the midst of you. They reject God, 14, 11, 23, 27, and 35. The people engage in whoredoms. or they engage in defilement. They depart from the true and living God, 1433 and 1443. The people rebel against Moses and Aaron, Korah's rebellion. Dathan and Abiram, their rebellion. What we have with Korah is this jockeying for position, namely with reference to the priesthood. What you have with Dathan and Abiram is jockeying for position, specifically with reference to leadership of the body politic, with reference to Moses' job. So just completely rejecting the men that God had put in that particular position. The people are impatient and fearful. Chapter 21, remember God sends those fiery serpents to bite those Israelites grumbling in the wilderness? It wasn't just because they were, you know, a little off. They were viciously rebellious against God. And the people engaged in idolatry. We saw that just a few weeks ago in chapter 25 in verses 1 and following, at the behest of Balaam, that false prophet, that prophet for prophet, who basically enticed the Midianites and the Moabites to play the harlot with the children of Israel. Well, they do that in Numbers 25. We see the vengeance upon the Midianites. We see the vengeance upon the Moabites. But the Israelites were just as complicit. They didn't have to jump into bed with these prostitutes. They didn't have to bow to Baal at Baal Peor. They did that willingly. So you've got the ideal. God is in the midst of his people. But then you've got the real. They are prone to wander and prone to leave the God that they love. As well, you see the sovereignty of God in numbers. I mean, how else do we get these people from point A to point B with all of the whining, with all of the grumbling, with all of the sniveling, with all of the idolatry, with all of the defilement, and all the whoredoms? How do we do that? Well, we don't. Moses doesn't. In fact, Moses at certain points says, you know, if I have found favor in your sight, God, then kill me, is what he says. I mean, that's kind of a prayer that expresses, you know, destitution and desperation. That's in Numbers 11. You can look there, verse 10. Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families. Everyone at the door of his tent and the anger of the Lord was greatly aroused. Moses also was displeased. So Moses said to the Lord, why have you afflicted your servant? Why have I not found favor in your sight that you have laid the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I beget them that you should say to me, carry them in your bosom as a guardian carries a nursing child to the land which you swore to their fathers? Where am I to get meat to give to all these people? For they weep all over me saying, give us meat that we may eat. I am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too heavy for me. If you treat me like this, please kill me here and now, if I have found favor in your sight, and do not let me see my wretchedness." That's desperation. So it wasn't Moses that got these people from point A to point B, it was God. And lest you think that this prayer was untoward or was somehow ungodly, God answers it. God answers it. He says specifically in verse 14, I am not able to bear all these people alone. Well, then in verses 16 and following, God says appoint 70 men to help you. God took that prayer seriously and answered that prayer, not only with reference to Moses' fellow leaders, but also to meet. And it was a judgment. They want meat, they're going to get meat. They're going to get so much meat, it's going to come out of their nostrils. They are going to be judged via meat to teach them not to complain about the manna. And that brings us then, thirdly, to the people in the wilderness. Now, this is where we can make a new covenant application, I think, very appropriately. We have, or we are, the recipients of God's promises. They were from bondage in Egypt. They received the promise that came through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that they would receive the land. Right? Well, they expected everything that was good about the land to be in their present. And it's just not that way. You're going to have to eat manna. You're going to have to battle. You're going to have to resist temptation. You're going to have to resist sin. The blessings of the promised land flowing with milk and honey does not necessarily obtain in that interim period. So we likewise are the promises of an eternal Canaan with all of the milk and the honey, but that doesn't mean our present isn't going to be punctuated with a bit of affliction and hardship and trial. In other words, we can't expect the blessings of the promised land in the here and now. The blessings of the promised land spur us on enable us to persevere, cause us to reflect that these are momentary light afflictions, but they give way to an exceeding weight of glory. You see that problem amongst the children of Israel in the book of Numbers. They whined and they complained. Why? Because they wanted the promises of the promised land right here and right now. Well, that's just not the way it is. We have the blessed promises of God. We enjoy every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, but we've not yet fully entered in to all that is going to be ours in the eternal state. In other words, there's going to be affliction in our journey. There's going to be hardship. There's going to be travail. There's going to be tribulation. Our section in the high priestly prayer and the end of the upper room discourse, in this world you will have tribulation. but be of good cheer, for I've overcome the world." We cannot bring the blessings of the eschaton and make them ours presently. We have to persevere by the grace of God, enjoying the benefits that He gives us along the way, making use of the means, coming to Bible study, going to church on the Lord's Day, participating in prayer, reading and praying on your own, family worship. All of these are down payments of the Canaan to come, But we have some struggles in this present evil age. So there is a parallel in terms of the new covenant Israel of God and the old covenant Israel of God. And then I would suggest finally, the Lord Christ in the book of Numbers. The Lord Christ in the book of Numbers, the presence of God with his people, that bit 9, 15 to 23. Jesus guides us, Jesus directs us, Jesus is present in our lives. Second, He is the compassionate shepherd. Look at Numbers 27. Numbers 27, at verse 15, Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, 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. That is applied specifically to the Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter 9. He looks at the multitudes and He feels compassion for them. Why? Because they were like sheep having no shepherd. Christ is in the book of Numbers. Third, He's greater than Joshua. If we continue reading in this particular section, Joshua the son of Nun is appointed to be that military commander that takes them from the plains of Moab over into the land of Canaan to lead the conquest in the land of Canaan. He serves well, he serves admirably, he sums it all up at the end of his book when he says, as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. Joshua was a faithful servant, Hebrews 4 tells us of a greater than Joshua, one who leads us into an eternal Canaan, into an eternal rest. Fourth, you've got Jesus, the great high priest, typified in the priestly activities of Aaron and Phinehas. You've got Aaron and Eleazar mitigating the wrath and fury of God when He pours out judgment upon the nation of Israel. You've got Phinehas in that scene in Numbers chapter 25, when he takes that javelin and he drives it through that Israelite, that Midianite woman. What is he doing? Yes, he's bringing judgment upon that sinful wretch, but he is mitigating the effects of God's wrath. He's effectively interceding on behalf of Israel. And then the final place, and there's more to be sure, but the final place that I'm going to suggest is that he is the sacrifice of atonement, according to chapter 21, After God sends those fiery serpents to bite the Israelites, Moses is instructed to make a brazen serpent, lift it up into the wilderness, and everyone who looks at that brazen serpent will live. Well, of course, Jesus invokes that image in John 3, 14 to 16, when He says, just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. The implication being, He is the sacrifice, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. All those who look to Him in faith will have everlasting life. So when you read Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus numbers, and God willing, as we move through the book of Deuteronomy, you need to see Jesus in those books. You need to see Jesus all over the Old Testament, because Jesus is all over the Old Testament. Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for this wonderful book of numbers. We thank You for what it teaches us concerning Your sovereign power and Your glory, what it teaches us concerning sacrifice and intercession, what it teaches us about our own hearts and that we are prone to wander and prone to leave the God that we love. And we thank you that there is grace. We thank you that we have a great high priest, that blessed Lord Jesus, who intercedes for us, who has lived for us, died for us, and has been raised again for us. And we thank you for all of the mercies that you have showered upon us in and through him. We ask that you would go with us now, watch over us in the remainder of this week, be with all of our brothers and sisters, be with our brethren in Philippines. May you give them grace and strength and help. and cause them to minister well the truth of God and love for people there. Bless Wim and his family as they go to Holland tomorrow. Give that brother a safe trip and a blessed time with his family. And we ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Well, any questions or comments on any of that material? All right. All right.