Recognize if we have any desire to study your word, to learn more about our Lord and Savior, this is your work in our lives. There is nothing for which we can boast or take credit. We thank you that through the Holy Spirit we are strengthened in the inner man. To consider that which is than so much of this life, the vanity of this age. So we thank you for that promise that your word will not pass away. Heaven and earth will pass away, but your truth will continue to abide. So help us now in our study. We thank you for the book of Numbers that has been a great blessing to us. As we finish the final chapters, we ask for your continued direction that my words would be in agreement with your word. All of us we ask in Jesus' name, amen. We are getting close to the end of this great study and I believe this study has been a great blessing. One of the reasons it is good to go chapter by chapter, book by book, is probably likely we would not be tempted to study this just on our own, but when we do it systematically, I believe we make great progress and there is great blessing as we study God's Word. If we look at a very broad outline of the Old Testament, the history of the Old Testament, we can say that creation approximately 4,000 BC. We won't state that dogmatically, but approximately 4,000 BC. That means Abraham is about halfway 2,000 BC, approximately. And then David is halfway after that, approximately 1,000 BC. Abraham is a little more complicated. The dates for Abraham's life have been estimated to be 2,166 B.C. through approximately 1,990 B.C. So you can say he dies around the midpoint of Old Testament history. Genesis 15, Abram is not yet 86, approximately 86. In Genesis 16, that is the chapter with Hagar. Ishmael that comes from that, and that's where we know Abram is 86 years old at that point in time. So before that, Genesis 15, we can't date it exactly, but approximately right before he's 86. So approximately the year 2080 before Christ. In Genesis 15, we read this, on the same day, The Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, to your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates. The Canaanites, the Canaanites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Revaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Gergeshites, and the Jebusites. It's interesting. Verse 18, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates. That's the broadest description of what Abram has been promised. Then, verses 19 to 21, the different people groups that I say primarily are in what we would think of as Israel today. So there's two aspects to that promise. The much broader sweep, and then verses 19 to 21. And the greatest extent of this promise fulfillment would be under the time of Solomon. If you want to turn to 1 Kings chapter 8, this is the dedication of the temple. 1 Kings 8, let's start in verse 65. At that time Solomon held a feast. and all Israel with him, a great assembly from the entrance of the Moth to the Brook of Egypt. Before the Lord our God, seven days, and seven more days, fourteen days. From the entrance of Hamas, that would be one of the points of geography, and I have on the back of your map, on the back of this one handout, there is an estimate of where Hamas may be, how far north that is. So from the entrance of Hamas to the book of Egypt. So what Abram has promised in Genesis 15, at least it seemed like, it is fulfilled then under Solomon. And that is over 1,100 years later. Solomon from 971 to 931. So somewhere in that, what Abram has promised, it's over 1,000 years later before that is actually realized. And I think God's timing is definitely not our timing on these things. So these chapters in Numbers, they're easy to skip over, but really they are fundamental to helping us understand so much scripture. Here we have, in Numbers 34, the main focus, the borders of the promised land. Most of the description is that which is west of the Jordan, at least if you start from the Sea of Galilee down. But that portion, as you go much farther north, that does go east of the Jordan River. Of course, we've already noted that some of the tribes Numbers 32, some of the tribes have their blessing east of the Jordan River. So they're not the focus here in Numbers 34. That has already been dealt with and discussed in terms of the geography. So we're focused now mainly on west of the Jordan River. Let's look at verses 1 through 15. We'll look at this chapter in two parts, verses 1 through 15, and then verses 16 to 29. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land of Canaan, this is the land that shall fall to you as an inheritance, the land of Canaan to its boundaries. Your southern border shall be from the wilderness of Sin along the border of Edom, Then your southern border shall extend eastward to the end of the Salt Sea. Your border shall turn from the southern side of the ascent of Akrabim, continue to Zin, and be on the south of Kadesh Barnea. Then it shall go on to Hazar Adar and continue to Asmon. The border shall turn from Asmon to the brook of Egypt, and it shall end at the sea. As for the western border, you shall have the great sea for a border. This shall be your western border. And this shall be your northern border. From the great sea, you shall mark out your border line to Mount Hor. From Mount Hor, you shall mark out your border to the entrance of Hamas. Then the direction of the border shall be toward Zadad. The border shall proceed to Zifron, and it shall end at Hazar Inan. This shall be your northern border. You shall mark out your eastern border from Hazar Inan to Shefam. The border shall go down from Shefam to Riblah on the east side of Ein. The border shall go down and reach to the eastern side of the Sea of Chinereth. The border shall go down along the Jordan, and it shall end at the Salt Sea. This shall be your land with its surrounding boundaries. Then Moses commanded the children of Israel, saying, this is the land which you shall inherit by lot. which the Lord has commanded to give to the nine tribes and to the half-tribe. For the tribe of the children of Reuben, according to the house of their fathers, and the tribe of the children of Gad, according to the house of their fathers, have received their inheritance, and the half-tribe of Manasseh has received its inheritance. The two tribes and the half-tribe have received their inheritance on this side of the Jordan, across from Jericho eastward toward the sunrise. Well, Canaan is one of the sons of Ham. And in Genesis 9, 25, a curse is placed on Canaan after Ham's wicked act with respect to his father. This is about 2,340 years B.C., approximately 934 years or so before this chapter. And that curse on Ham, you know, it's been perverted, all black people are all sons of Ham, other versions of that. But it's specifically the land of Canaan, the people of Canaan, the descendants of Ham, they are under a curse. And you might say the fullest judgment would come then as Israel takes possession of the promised land. God gave them many years, we could say, to repent before that judgment came. 930 point years or so. In Genesis 11, 31, for the first time, the promised land is identified as the land of Canaan. Genesis 11, 31. We're in that transition chapter from the sons of Noah and then the start of the story of Abram. And then finally, Genesis 12, 5, Abram comes to the land of Canaan. This is when he is 75 years old, so this would be about 2095 BC. So there's a lot of time between Genesis 12 and now number 34. The promise is given, but we can say it's not realized. All Abraham has is a burial place for himself and his family. The fulfillment would come later. Well, now as we look Here at the boundaries of Canaan, we start with the south and we make our way clockwise from the south to the west to the north to the east. And there are nine or 10 geographical points here listed for the southern border. Some of these we can identify. Others are more difficult to identify. We start with the wilderness of Zin. That is an area farther south, and we know that it touches Edom. So this wilderness goes all the way to Edom and the Dead Sea. Then we move from that to the ascent of the Akra Beams, the scorpion stairs. It must have been an area that was a place you wouldn't want to go without shoes on, we could say. The ascent of Akra Beams, and notice that we've done this one map, the first page, they put a question mark. We can't be dogmatic where that is located. That is mentioned, the scorpion stairs, are mentioned also in Joshua 15, verse 3, and Judges 1, verse 36. We also have, again, continue to Zin, that must be a, there's a wilderness, maybe there's another particular area known as Zin, somewhere along the south, then Kadesh, Barnea. Kadash means holy, a holy place. And Kedesh Barnea has been a key location. If we go, turn to Deuteronomy 1 verse 2. Deuteronomy 1 and verse 2. These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on this side of the Jordan, in the wilderness, in the plain opposite Suph, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazaroth, and Dizahab. It is an 11-day journey from Horeb, by the way of Mount Seir, to Kadesh Barnea. This was the location before the rebellion that led to an additional 30 acres of wilderness wandering. And there is some question, if you look at the map, you probably studied this, there's some question where we locate Kate Barney and some people say, oh, that's ridiculous that you would put it where it's shown on this map. Obviously, there are people who believe in the Bible who don't think that's ridiculous. So some would say, no, it should be closer to where Petra would be located. So I cannot resolve those questions. But I'll just leave that for your own study. And Hazar Adar, only mentioned here in the Old Testament, Osmone, something strongly built, must have been a fortress type of a place. And that's mentioned here, and again in Joshua 15. The brook of Egypt is mentioned first here, and then we read in 1 Kings 8, 665, that's part of that southwest corner of the brook of Egypt. as it is known in scripture, and then that takes us to the Mediterranean Sea. So that is the southern border. The western border is the easiest part to describe. It's the Great Sea. Interestingly, this is the first place it's mentioned in the Old Testament. And it's mentioned in Ezekiel 47, in the description of a reordered Israel. The Great Sea. Obviously, the term Mediterranean is something much later. The Great Sea, it is called. The Northern Order begins, here we have, from the Great Sea, You shall mark out your borderline to Mount Hoar. Now, there are two Mount Hoars in the Book of Numbers. One is associated with the death of Aaron. There's no way Aaron died up on the northern border. Hoar, interestingly, means mountain. So it's like Mount Mountain. It comes from the word to loom up, to rise up. So there have to be, obviously, two Mount Hoars. This one is mentioned in Numbers and in Deuteronomy 32, 50. Otherwise, the other time to find Mount Hoar, that's going to be the place where Aaron died. That's, obviously, much farther south. Then the entrance. of Hamath. I turn back to Numbers 13, 21. These are the spies. They went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin, as far as Rahab, near the entrance of Hamath. Now, on the first page that I've given you, there's no reference to Hamath. On the back page, Hamath is quite far north, as you see that. Now, Israel, again, is not a massive country today, about the size of New Jersey. The spies had time. They could have easily made their way that far north, making good, good progress. There's some questioning exactly where that moth is. These two maps, though they look different, they're similar in that here the border they put as Mount Orr and Zadad. It's north of Damascus, just as it is on the back of this map. You can see that northern border goes quite far north past Damascus. And then First Kings 865 also mentioned that entrance of Himmat. Zidad is only mentioned here, and again, Ezekiel 47, 15. Zidad is on the map here. So that's the far northeast portion. Ziphron is only mentioned here in scripture. And then we have another area, Hazar Inan. It means the yard of wells. Maybe it was a beautiful oasis. in the middle of a very dry place. The yard of wells, some estimate that as eight miles east of Damascus. Eight miles east of Damascus. So that is our northern border. This shall be your northern border. Then the eastern border. Starting in verse 10, the ESV study Bible says that this is the hardest to define, partly because it does sweep all the way from Zadad all the way down to what we normally think of as part of the land of Israel today, the Sea of Galilee. You have Hazar Adan, that was mentioned as the Yard of Wells. Shefem, Ridla on the east side of Ain, the eastern side of the Sea of Shirreth, the Sea of Galilee. And then we go down along the Jordan River to the Salt Sea. In total, approximately 23 geographical points. Notice just how detailed this is. And you couple what we have here, numbers 34, with everything listed in numbers 33. And you get the sense, God wanted his people to know where they lived. I mean, they do all of America today, who could not find probably could not find even the state they live in on the map. That's just kind of how ignorant we are, because we all have our GPS devices. But you ask people, where's Canada? Where's Mexico? I think you'd be surprised how many Americans have said, no clue. You say, God wanted his people to be aware of these details. So, the history that God gives to us, it's connected, obviously, in time and in space. I've been doing a little bit of reading of the Qur'an, and one of the things you get from the Qur'an, there's really no order to that at all. Long chapters, and then it kind of moves to shorter chapters, you know, all kind of bizarrely. God's Word really stands out. There's nothing, I mean there is nothing like scripture in any, you know, anywhere else. I mean the records, the details that we have here. Now, we cannot find most of the places here today. But think about it, that was 3,400 years ago. A lot has happened in 3,400 years. Maybe we will uncover more and more of this, but it's going to take a lot of archaeology. Just how much has happened in 3,400 years. That's eight times longer or eight times longer than the history of our nation. That's a lot of time, so the fact that we can't always locate these things, that should be of no concern for us. The detail, the sophistication, and the fact that some of these key places are mentioned elsewhere in Scripture, again, it shows the unity of Scripture. And we also observe it took Israel time. for them to fully extend the borders. Israel, when she first came into the land, she did not conquer all of her enemies. Even as she was promised, there was compromise, there was failure. Eventually, through David and Solomon, you would reach the furthest extent of this. David and Solomon are obviously pictures of Jesus in battle and in peace. And yet David and Solomon show that a true savior had to come, because their time was short, 40 years, 40 years approximately, and then Israel quickly fell again into sin. Ivor Wenham writes this, the land described here is an ideal. The territory promised by God to the people of Israel, but never fully occupied by them. I think we can say controlled. but not necessarily fully settled. The land, but the fact that the land is defined here in Numbers 34, does correspond to the geographical entity of Canaan, as known from Egyptian texts of the 14th and 13th centuries BC, is a clear sign of the antiquity of this section. And he writes, the size of the land and Israel's inability to occupy it all reminds us of God's liberality, who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. So there are different points of reflection that we can make on this. But here we see a beautiful picture of what God promised to Abraham and now promised to his people as they're ready to enter the land. Any questions or comments? If not, let's look at verses 16 through 29. Numbers 34, 16. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, these are the names of the men who shall divide the land among you as an inheritance. Eleazar, the priest, and Joshua, the son of Nun. And you shall take one leader of every tribe to divide the land for the inheritance. These are the names of the men from the tribe of Judah. Caleb, the son of Jephuneh. From the tribe of the children of Simeon. Shemuel, the son of Mahud. From the tribe of Benjamin, Eladad, the son of Shishlon. A leader from the tribe of the children of Dan. Buki, the son of Jogli. From the sons of Joseph, of Manasseh. Haniel, the son of Iphad, and a leader from the tribe of the children of Ephraim, Kenuel, the son of Shiphtan, a leader from the tribe of the children of Zebulun, Elesiphon, the son of Parnak, a leader from the tribe of the children of Issachar, Peltiel, the son of Azan, a leader from the tribe of the children of Asher, Ahaiud, the son of Sholomi, and a leader from the tribe of the children of Naphtali, Petahel, the son of Amahud. These are the ones the Lord commanded to divide the inheritance among the children of Israel in the land of Canaan. The word land is the term Eretz. I think there's a newspaper in Israel that has that name, Eretz, the land. is used over 1,500 times in the Old Testament. It can be used in a variety of ways, but much of the time, it's speaking of what God promised to Israel. Now, the two Nab tribes already have their possession east of the Jordan, towards the sunrise, so now the question is the remaining tribes. Here's a question that I thought of, but it's not given an answer. Were the other tribes jealous of these two Nat tribes that got their territory before? I mean, if you have children, you know you give one to something that you don't give to the other, and wow. It starts a conflict. Now, that's not mentioned at all. It would be speculative entirely for us to read into that, but it's just an interesting question, because part of the blessing was at least their families and animals had a place to settle. The men said, no, we'll go to battle. We're not going to just stay in our possession east of the Jordan, but nothing in Scripture speaks to this issue, so it would be speculative for us to go farther. So there are key men that are listed here. Eleazar, the priest, and Joshua, the son of Nun. Otherwise, we have the other men that are listed here. And it's interesting to compare the order here with the order earlier in the Book of Numbers. For example, in Numbers 1, if you want to turn there, Number one, we start, this is the first of the censuses, and we begin with Reuben, and we go from Reuben, to Simeon, to Gad, to Judah, to Issachar, to Zebulun, to Ephraim, to Manasseh, Benjamin, Dan, Asher, Naphtali. That's the order of Numbers 1, and there's a reason for that. Some of it has to do with Ruben is the firstborn, and then who their first mothers were, basically, is part of it. Here, what about the order here? Well, we notice it begins with Judah. In part, Ruben has already received an inheritance. But if you look at the map here, The map begins with Judah, and as we start, Judah is the tribe farther south. And basically, we make our way from the south to the north. And if you turn the page, we start with Judah in the south. Remember, Simeon basically gets absorbed by Judah. That's promised. Jacob discusses that in his prophecy of the future. Levi and Simeon become mixed among the tribes, and that's what we do see in the future. So we start with Judah, and basically we're making our way to the north. It's interesting how the listing here becomes part of the fulfillment that ended with Joshua moving on. So, thought briefly we could discuss some of the names of the men here. Caleb Ben-Jafune. He's the only one, outside, obviously, of Eleazar and Joshua. He's the only one that we know anything else about in Scripture. The other names, they're just mentioned here, at least in terms of these specific individuals. By the name Caleb, maybe you know this. The name means a dog. It's not a cute little puppy. It's a fierce, hungry dog that devours dead bodies and splits blood. When you hear the word dog in scripture, it's not man's best friend. It's a clean, cruel scripture, you could say. So he would have been, along with Joshua, he would have been the oldest of all of these leaders. And I do believe we see with this listing, as has been prophesied, Judah starts to take prominence among the tribes. listed first here, and Caleb is a faithful man and a powerful leader in Israel. Then we move to Simeon, and Simeon's appointed leader is Shemuel. Now, normally we hear this name as Samuel. I don't know why, but here it's Shemuel, and the name likely means the name of God. Maybe because of Samuel's prominence, the name is rendered differently. There are one or two other men in Scripture in 1 Chronicles 6, 33, and Chapter 7, 2, that name also found. Benjamin. Notice there's a little bit of a variation. Sometimes it's from the tribe of Benjamin, or a leader from the tribe of the children of Dan. There's a slight variation here. From Benjamin, it is Elidad ben Shishlan. Elidad is the son of Shishlan, and the name Elidad means God knows. El is God, Yadah is a verb to know something, and David, one of his sons, had that name. From Dan is Buki. the son of Joghly. And Bukuki is a shortened form of a name that comes from a word that means to chatter or coo or rumble in your stomach. Not sure what his parents were thinking there. There's another Bukuki mentioned in Ezra and first Chronicles. From Manasseh, Hanel. The name means God is gracious. It's a beautiful name, isn't it? There's another man with this name found in 1 Chronicles. And then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Unfortunately, we know their Babylonian names sometimes better than their Hebrew names. But recall their original names were Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So, Hananiah, similar to Haniel. Just the ending is different. From Ephraim, a man named Kenduel. And the meaning of the name is not certain. One suggestion is God as Arisen Qum can mean to arise. Here it's Kem, but that's just our English transliteration. There are two others in Scripture with this name, including the son of Nahor. The other is the father of the leader in Levi, listed in 1 Chronicles 27. So this would be an older name, going back all the way to Abram's family. From Zebulun, Elefhan, which is a name God has protected. God has protected. There's one other man with this name, a chief of the Kohathites. in the tribe of Levi. From Issachar, Peltiel. The name means God is my deliverance. Beautiful name. Another man with the same name found in 2 Samuel 3.15. From Asher is Ahud. And probably Ach is because the name means my brother has majesty. So imagine you're given that name. Hey, what about me? My brother has majesty. No one else, at least that I can find, has this name in the Old Testament. Then from Naphtali or Naphtali, Pedahel. God has made me free. That's another beautiful name. The only time this name is found in the scripture. So if you look up those names, quite a few of them have the E-L referring to God. Just one or two don't have that. I guess two of them have a slightly different meaning. My brother has magic, for example, and boogie. Otherwise, they're all very godly names. These men were all chosen by God. prove perhaps the recognition they had among their own tribe. We live in a culture today where people are going to get 15 minutes of fame, and you have to do something stupid usually. It's so foolish. And we say, God is the one who lifts up and casts down. These men, they're unknown to us. But they think of the great blessing and privilege the Lord gives them for imagining them in heaven. They say, what did you do in life? Well, I was one of the leaders who divided Promise Land. What a blessed gift these men were given in their service. And the call to scripture is we do our work unto the Lord. That's always the call of Scripture. It's never about man feeding flame and fleeting fame. I should say, God is the one that we seek to serve with everything that we do. Many comments or questions on this chapter. Next week, Lord willing, the Cities of Refuge, number 35. And then we have one chapter after that, a shorter chapter about marriage and the daughters of Zelopheha that have appeared several times in the Book of Numbers. So Matt will lead us next week. We'll link to chapter 5. I'll do a summary of the Book of Numbers and with chapter 36. And then we'll jump right into Deuteronomy. So let's pray. Heavenly Father, again, we thank you. We have such rich detail. Some of these places known to us very well today, others not so known. But we consider just how ancient this record is. And again, we thank you that you have preserved your word. That we can trust it. We are the ones uncertain. We are the ones confused. But there is no confusion with you. And we thank you, then, for the promises that you have given strength in us, O Lord, wherever you have placed us, also in service to you. We know it is not about building up our own name. It is about the name that is above all names, the name of our Lord, Him we serve. We ask for this blessing and encouragement now, in Jesus' name, amen.