This week we
shall continue the study of the book of Numbers in the Old Testament.
It is helpful to remember that the Tabernacle was set up on the 1st day of the 1st month in the 2nd year after the Israelites had left Egypt (Exod. 40:17), and the book of Numbers began its narrative on the 1st day of the 2nd month of the 2nd year, a mere gap of one month.
8:1-4—Positioning of the 7 Lamps on the Golden Lampstand
It appears Aaron had not set the position of the golden lampstand correctly and the Lord needed to let him know through Moses.
(1) What is the symbolic significance of the seven lamps in the Bible? (see Zech. 4:2 ff and Rev. 1:12 ff; 4:5)
(2) What is the practical purpose of the seven lamps? (Exod. 25:37)
(3) What does the emphasis of its golden quality point to?
8:5-22—Setting Apart of the Levites
As the journey towards the Promised Land was about to begin, and the constant taking apart and setting up of the Tabernacle would be part of the regular duties of the Levites, God had commanded Moses to set them apart:
(4) The reasons for the ceremony of purifying the Levites before they could do their ministry are explained in vv. 15-19. Read these verses carefully and list the reasons given one by one; then sum up in one sentence in your own words why such a ceremony was needed at this time.
(5) The purification rites:
a. They needed to be ceremonially clean:
- Cleansing by sprinkling of water; (v. 7)
- Their whole bodies were to be shaved; (v. 7)
- Their clothes washed; (v. 7)
b. Their sins needed to be atoned for:
- Atonement for the Levites (v. 12) by laying their hands on the following:
1. One young bull with grain offering for burnt offering (v. 8)
2. One young bull for sin offering; (v. 8)
c. They needed to be presented before the people:
- The ceremony was to be performed in front of the Tent of Meeting (v. 9)
- They are assembled before the whole of Israel and the representatives of the people laid hands upon them; (v. 10)
- They are presented to the Lord as a wave offering from the Israelites (vv. 11, 13) — see Note below.
d. The result: “so that they may be ready to do the work of the Lord” (v. 11) and “the Levites will be mine” (v. 14).
What principles can you discern from each of the above categories that needed to be applied to our service to the work of the Lord today?
8:23-26—Age requirement for service
(6) What do you think was the reason for setting the minimum age?
(7) What about the maximum age?
(8) Did the maximum age signify total retirement?
(9) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
Note:
It may be helpful to refresh our understanding of a wave offering as follows:
The wave offering is
“peculiar to the peace-offerings and the consecration offerings: the priests laid the object to be waved upon the hands of the offerer, and then placed his own hands underneath, and moved the hands of the offerer backwards and forwards in a horizontal direction, to indicate by the movements forwards, i.e. in the direction towards the altar, the presentation of the sacrifice, or the symbolic transference of it to God, and by the movement backwards, the reception of it back again, as a present which God handed over to His servants [sic] the priest” (K&D, 539).
In this
particular consecration of the Levites, the people
“might transfer to the Levites the obligation resting upon the whole nation to serve the Lord in the persons of its first-born sons, and might present them to the Lord as representatives of the first-born of Israel, to serve Him as a [sic] living sacrifices” (K&D, 681).
9:1-14—Reminder of Passover Observance
It was at the 1st anniversary of their Exodus when they were about to celebrate the Passover for the first time outside of Egypt that the Lord spoke to Moses to remind Moses to observe it “in accordance with all its rules and regulations” (9:3).
(1) What is the significance of the observance of Passover? (Exod. 12:26-27)
(2) Why would the failure of its observance invite the severe penalty of being “cut off from their people”? (9:13)
(3) At this first observance outside of Egypt, what practical issue had surfaced? (9:6)
(4) Shouldn’t Moses have wisdom to deal with it? Why did he have to inquire of the Lord?
(5) What does the answer of the Lord (9:9-13) reveal
about the following?
a. The significance of the observance of the Passover. How?
b. The holiness demanded by God in our drawing close to Him
c. The non-legalistic approach of God toward the observance of such an important feast
9:15-23—God’s Presence and Guidance with the Pillar of Cloud
(6) In giving specific directions to the people concerning their movements, the Lord used the lifting and the setting of the cloud above the Tabernacle as an indicator:
a. Since this was a phenomenon that the people would see every day in the next 38 years, would it gradually lack its “miraculous” aspect over time? Why or why not?
b. Would it not be better that the Lord spoke to them each time they should encamp or decamp?
c. What might be some of the daily “miracles” that we have taken for granted?
(7) Judging from the narrative from vv. 15–23, what might be the longest and the shortest periods of time of encampment?
a. How would they feel when the encampment (with all its chores of setting up and taking down of the tents) lasted only for a night? (v. 21)
b. How would they feel when the encampment lasted for a year? (v. 22)
c. What important lesson(s) can you learn from their experience?
(8) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
10:1-10—The Functions of the Trumpets
It is understandable that trumpets were needed to assemble the people together to begin their march, but other functions are also mentioned by the Lord:
(1) What function do the trumpet blasts serve as they call the people to go into battle? (v. 9) Why?
(2) What function do the trumpet blasts serve as they call the people to bring burnt offerings and fellowship offerings during their appointed feasts and festivals? (v. 10) Why?
10:11-36—Departure from Mount Sinai (see Note below)
(3) Vv. 14-28 set out the order in which the Israelite divisions marched off from Mount Sinai. Compare it to Numbers 2:3-31. Did they march in the exact order as commanded by the Lord?
(4) When did they leave Mount Sinai? (Num. 10:12)
(5) What did they do in the preceding week before they marched off from Mount Sinai? (Num. 9:1-3) How did it prepare them for the journey?
(6) Vv. 29-32 is a small interlude concerning Moses’ father-in-law whose name was Jethro, but now called Hobab (some commentators opine that Hobab was the son of Jethro). Judging from Judges 1:16, Hobab did decide to go with the Israelites. What might be the significance of his decision to stay with the Israelites? For whose benefit was his decision?
(7) V. 35 resembles an “Invocation prayer” and v. 36 a benediction, uttered by Moses now as a habit:
a. How important was this “Invocation” as they set out for their journey?
b. How important was this “benediction” as they came to rest?
c. By so praying, what did Moses seek to express?
(8) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
Note:
Paran is an obscure name, but based on the biblical texts,
"Paran was north of the traditional site of Mount Sinai and west of Midian…It may have extended as far north as Kadesh-barnea, since Numbers 13:26 identifies Kadesh as a site within it. It may be that Paran was a general term descriptive of most of the wilderness areas of the Sinai” (NICOT, Numbers, 193).
Numbers 11:1–12:16 can be considered a literary unit narrating specific problems that arose from the people at Taberah (11:1-3); at Kibroth-Hattaavah (11:4-35) and Hazeroth (12:1-16).
11:1-3—Complaint of hardship of the journey
This appears to harken back to the three-day journey of 10:33.
(1) What kind of hardships might the people experience in travelling in the wilderness?
(2) Although they had only travelled for three days, did they have any idea how long the journey might take?
(3) Was their complaint justified? Why or why not?
(4) Why did the Lord react with such anger? Was He justified? Why or why not?
(5) How did the people know that the punishment was of the Lord?
(6) If you were Moses, what did such an experience show you?
11:4-23—Complaint of Food
(7) Who were the ones who stirred up the complaint? (Num. 11:4; Exod. 12:38)
(8) Why were they not thankful for the provision of manna from heaven? Did they really prefer to stay in Egypt?
(9) What was their core problem in your opinion?
(10) While the Lord was exceedingly angry, Moses was troubled (vv. 10-15).
a. On whom did Moses lay the blame?
b. How did he view the people?
c. How did he view his mission?
d. What did he ask God to do?
e. In his complaint, did he ever try to empathize with God’s feeling?
f. Was Moses’ ranting justified? Why or why not?
(11) In addressing Moses’ complaint, what did the Lord do immediately? (vv. 16-17) Why?
(12) Was this something Moses expected or asked for? Why or why not?
(13) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
(1) Then the Lord promised to give the people meat to eat. (vv. 18-23)
a. How soon did the Lord indicate that the people would have meat?
b. How much meat did He promise?
c. What do you think about Moses’ reaction in vv. 21-22?
d. How would you describe Moses’ frame of mind at this time?
(2) How did the Lord demonstrate that His spirit also rested upon the seventy leaders?
(3) Was the sharing of Moses’ burden a punishment by God? Why or why not?
(4) Did Moses regret that he complained and that his leadership was somehow shared (and thus diminished somewhat) by these “Spirit-filled” leaders? How do we know? (v. 29)
(5) God sent quails to satisfy the carnal desire of the people:
a. In what quantity did the Lord send quails to their midst?
b. Based on the way the people gathered the quails, do you think the people looked upon it as the accomplishment of their complaint or something that made them see their follies? (Note: 10 homers is likely equal to 2.2 kilograms.)
(6) While God appeared to have satisfied their carnal desire, He also inflicted them with punishment (vv. 31-34). What lesson(s) were learned through this ordeal by the following persons?
a. the people
b. the seventy leaders
c. Moses
(7) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
(1) While we cannot be certain if this “Cushite” woman was Zipporah, the Midianite, it is certainly bewildering why Miriam and Aaron would choose such a time (in Hazeroth) to challenge Moses’ leadership. Did the incident in chapter 11 involve Miriam and Aaron? What might have ignited the jealousy of Miriam and Aaron?
(2) K&D points out that the verb “spoke/ תְּדַבֵּ֨ר” in v.1 is a “feminine verb”. How does it indicate who the instigator was?
(3) How honored a position did Miriam and Aaron already occupy? (See Exod. 15:20; 7:1; 28:2; Num. 3:10 etc.)
(4) While Miriam and Aaron seemed to have an issue with Moses having married a non-Israelite, what did they actually say against Moses in v. 2? Why?
(5) To whom did they make their comment in v. 2?
(6) What is meant by “the Lord heard this”?
(7) If you were Moses, how would you respond to such a challenge by your own siblings? Did he bring it before the Lord at all?
(8) According to the Lord, how unique was Moses as His servant? Why was that the case?
(9) How did the Lord express His displeasure against Miriam? What about Aaron?
(10) How did Aaron address his brother, Moses in v. 11? Why?
(11) What might this experience mean to Miriam?
(12) How did this incident and the one in chapter 11 demonstrate the meekness of Moses?
(13) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
(1) Since God was leading them into the Promised Land, why was it necessary to have them explore the land in advance?
(2) Why did it take twelve of them? Shouldn’t they send a smaller party to avoid suspicion?
(3) As leaders of their respective tribes, what qualities should they possess?
(4) Why did Moses see the need to give Hoshea (he saved) the name, Joshua (Yahweh saves)?
(5) What were the specific tasks of their mission? (vv. 17-20)
(6) What did Moses hope to achieve with their exploration?
(7) How long and how far did their exploration take them? (vv. 21-25)
(8) What positive report did they give? (v. 27)
(9) What negative report did they give? (v. 28)
(10) Did Caleb dispute the truth of the negative report?
(11) What then accounted for the difference in attitude between the spies?
(12) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?