Questions

Scriptural Reflection
Numbers 18:1–32

This week we shall continue the study of the book of Numbers in the Old Testament.

With the incident of Korah (challenging the priesthood of Aaron) behind them and the divine affirmation of the office of Levites, a clear demarcation of the awesome duties of priests and Levites is being drawn by the Lord. Perhaps a diagram of the Tabernacle will help us understand these stipulations better:

18:1-20—The Awesome Privilege of Priesthood

(1) The gift of Levites to assist the priests (vv. 1-7)

a. When does the Lord emphasize the “offence” against the sanctuary and the priesthood? Does it have anything to do with the people’s fear in 17:12-13?

b. In general terms, what role is the Levites limited to and why?

c. In general terms, what is the role of the Priesthood in distinction from that of the Levites?

(2) The Priest’s share of the offering was “not consumed by fire” (vv. 8-10: the portions consumed by fire have been all burnt to the Lord anyway). 

a. Eat it as something “most holy." What is the reason?

b. Only “every male” of the priest’s family shall eat it: Why?

(3) The portion set aside in wave offerings (v. 11 — some commentators call them “the lesser holy contributions”, if there were such things):

a. Everyone in the priest’s family can eat it. Whom might they include? (see Lev. 7:34; 14:24 and 23:20)

b. The only condition is that they have to be ceremonially clean: Why is this?

(4) Other things which the people bring to the Lord are the priest’s:

a. First fruits of the harvest (vv. 12-13)

b. Every first-born son — he must be redeemed (vv. 14-16):

1. How?
2. Why

c. Every first-born “unclean” animal: Why must they be redeemed?

d. Every first-born “clean” animal” (vv. 17-19):

1. What do these animals include?
2. Why are they not to be redeemed?
3. What part of these animals is burnt?
4. What parts are retained for the priest?
5. Who in the family can eat them?

(5) Why does God call this “an everlasting covenant of salt”? (v. 19 - you may look up 2 Chr. 13:5 to get an idea)

(6) V. 20 says, “You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any share among them; I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites.”

a. If you were a priest or a family member of the priest and you looked at other people with houses, lands and possessions while you did not have any permanent possessions but God, how would you feel about this “everlasting covenant”?

b. How would you feel having to “depend’ on the contribution of others to survive?

c. How then can one count this as a special privilege of the priest?

18:21-32—The Awesome Privilege of the Levites

(7) The Levites, like the priests, “have no inheritance among the Israelites”:

a. What does the Lord give to them as their share? (v. 21)

b. How privileged is their role? (vv. 22)

(8) What are they to do with their share of the tithes from the people? (vv. 25-29)

(9) In tithing the tithes they receive, what portion should they present to the Lord? Why? (vv. 29-32)

(10) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?

Scriptural Reflection
Numbers 19:1–22

As those 20 years of age and over would be dying in the wilderness in the ensuing 40 years (or 38 years to be exact), simple arithmetic would indicate that death would become a daily occurrence among them, so the need to ensure ceremonial purity was needed (this might also prevent the spread of disease in a practical sense):

19:2-10—The Preparation of the Water for Cleansing

(1) Which priest is chosen to perform the duty?

(2) Why does the red heifer so used have to be without defect and to never have been under a yoke?

(3) What part of it is burnt? What does it signify?

(4) The priest, the man who burns the heifer and the man who gathers up the ashes will both be unclean. Why is that?

(5) What will the ashes of the heifer be used for in the future? (v. 9)

(6) What are the emphases in v.10 about?

19:11-21—Using the “Water of Cleansing”

(7) How does the first kind of persons become unclean in vv. 11-13?

(8) How does the second kind of persons become unclean in vv.14-15?

(9) How does the third kind of persons become unclean in v. 16?

(10) How is “the water of cleansing” made? (v. 17)

(11) How is it applied for cleansing? (v. 18)

(12) What is the consequence for those who do not go through such a process of cleansing? Why? (v. 20)

(13) Why does the death of a person carry such serious consequences to those who come into contact with or are in the presence of the death?

(14) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?

Scriptural Reflection
Numbers 20:1–13

See Note below to understand why commentators in general see that these events happened on the first month of the fortieth year of their wandering:

(1) The death of Miriam was only mentioned in one short sentence: How might you remember Miriam? Write a short, honest eulogy for her. (You may want to refresh your memory of her by rereading Exod. 15:20ff, Num. 12:1ff and also Mic. 6:4.)

(2) Was it the first time the people faced a shortage of water? (see Exod. 17)

(3) What did they mean by “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the LORD”? To whom were they referring?

(4) How did they look upon the past forty years of pilgrimage? What was their focus?

(5) What could they have focused on instead?

(6) What did Moses and Aaron do immediately? (v. 6)

(7) What was God’s specific order to Moses? Contrast v. 8 with Exodus 17:6. What does the difference between them point to?

(8) What did Moses say to the people? (See Ps. 106:32-33)

(9) What did he do? How different was it from God’s specific command?

(10) Note that the rebuke by the Lord was directed to both Moses and Aaron:

a. What did “they” do that demonstrated that “they” did not trust God enough in the sight of the Israelites?

b. Was it the striking of the rock twice by Moses (but not Aaron) or what they said?

c. What was the “punishment” on them?

d. Was it too harsh? Why or why not?

(11) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?

Note:

“As the people had begun their wilderness wanderings at Kadesh (14:25), so they ended them there. According to 33:36-38, the Israelites came from Kadesh to Mt. Hor, where Aaron died on the first day of the fifth month of the fortieth year. According to Deut. 1:3, it was on the first day of the eleventh month of that same year that Moses began speaking to the people on the plains of Moab. The year in the current verse should probably also be the fortieth year after the exodus from Egypt. Support for this conjecture may be drawn from the fact that the people were soon to be allowed to make progress toward Canaan again (beginning in 20:14), which would only happen at the close of the wilderness wandering (cf. 14:22-35). Also…ch. 20 gives the rationale for Moses’ and Aaron’s deaths outside Canaan, and this story would be most relevant close to the events narrated.”
(NICOT, Numbers, 380)

Scriptural Reflection
Numbers 20:14–29

20:14-22—The Sin of Edom

Toward the end of the ordained 40 years of wandering, the people of Israel were about to enter the Promised Land at last. However, the entrance from the east appeared to be less treacherous geographically except that they had to go through Edom:

(1) What made Moses think that Edomites would allow such a huge mass of people (with armed men) to go through their land? (Gen. 36:9) How did Moses call themselves? (Num. 20:14)

(2) What further guarantees did Moses give them as an  assurance?

(3) Why didn’t the Edomites agree to let them simply pass through?

a. What legitimate concerns should they have?

b. If they let them pass through, what might be the reasons?

(4) As it turned out, the Edomites not only refused Moses’s request, but they later acted treacherously against Israel at their destruction by Babylon. In the O.T., many prophecies are directed specifically against Edom: e.g. Psalm 137:7; Isaiah 34:5ff; Ezekiel 25:12ff; 35:15; Joel 3:19; Amos 1:11-12 and the entire book of Obadiah. Why do you think God is so angry with Edom?

20:22-29—The Death of Aaron (see Note below)

(5) What was the reason why Aaron could not enter the Promised Land? Why did God choose to remind both Moses and Aaron at this point?

(6) Now, at his death, Aaron was able to pass on his mantle to his son, Eleazar. What might it mean to him?

(7) Write a short but honest eulogy for Aaron and, in particular, consider the following:

a. What might be the highlights of his life?

b. What might be the greatest regret of his life?

c. How should he be remembered?

(8) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?

Note:

According to Exodus 7:7, Aaron was 83 when he took part in leading the Israelites out of Egypt, and he died at the age of 123 according to Numbers 33:38-39.

Scriptural Reflection
Numbers 21:1–9

21:1-3—The Second Battle of Hormah

(1) Read Numbers 14:40ff and see what happened at the first battle at Hormah:

a. What was the outcome of that battle?

b. Why?

(2) Now that the Israelites were back to the same place 38 years later, why did these Canaanites choose to attack such a large number of Israelites?

(3) What would you have  expected from these Israelites in reaction to such an attack and the capture of some of them? How did they react? What does this tell you about them?

(4) What was the outcome of the ensuing battle?

21:4-9—Bronze Snake

(5) What might the victory at Hormah have caused the Israelites to think about having to “go around Edom”?

(6) Why didn’t Moses choose to attack the Edomites, just as they did the Canaanites at Hormah?

(7) What happened to the Israelites when they made the same complaint before? (Num. 11:33)

(8) Why hadn’t they learned their lesson?

(9) Have you ever repeated a sin in your life again and again? Why haven’t we learned our lesson?

(10) How different was this punishment from the last one (in Num. 11:33)?

(11) Jesus used this lifting up of the bronze snake as an analogy of His death as He spoke to Nicodemus (see Jn. 3:14). Compare the two events in terms of the following:

a. What the cause of death is

b. What the provided cure is; the one who provides it

c. How the people can get cured

(12) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?

Scriptural Reflection
Numbers 21:10–35

21:10-20—Prelude to the wars with Amorites

This passage describes the journey of the Israelites into the Amorites' territory as they moved north-eastward from Edom to Moab. Many of the cities mentioned are unknown to us (different commentators have had different speculations over the years), but the general locale is already clarified by the passage itself as Israel moved from “the wilderness that faces Moab toward to the sunrise” to “the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites”, then to “the top of Pisgah (which) overlooks the wasteland (the north-eastern border of the Dead Sea)”.

Two things are worth noting:

(1) The Book of Numbers draws materials from another book called “the Book of the Wars of Yahweh”, and uses it to confirm the itinerary of this part of their journey. While no fragments of this book can be found, what does the name of the book signify to us?

(2) The Israelites celebrated the digging of a well with a song: What do the words of the song convey?

21:21-35—Defeat of Sihon and Og

(3) Vv. 21-26: Israel sent messengers to the Amorite King, Sihon, asking only for safe passage and giving the same assurance as they gave the Edomites:

a. What did King Sihon do? Why?

b. What was the outcome?

(4) Vv. 27-30: A Song of Victory—This was a major victory by the Israelites and they captured quite a large number of cities and territories (you may want to refer to  the map at the back of your Bible to get a sense of how large an area it was from Heshbon to Jabbok). Based on the words of the song, consider the following:

a. What might this victory do to the confidence of the Israelites?

b. What might this victory do to the people of Moab?

c. What might this victory do to the people on the other side of Jordan, i.e. the Canaanites?

(5) Vv. 31-35: Having taken a good part of the Amorite territories, the Israelites had, for the first time, a more “permanent” base to launch their invasion into the Promised Land. However, before that there were more enemies to deal with this eastern side of Jordan

a. The Lord said to Moses, “Do not be afraid of him…” which indicates that the people were still afraid of enemies like Og, the king of Bashan. Why?

b. What then was the key to Israel’s victory over their enemies?

(6) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?

Scriptural Reflection
Numbers 22:1–41

Although this is a long chapter, it is helpful to reflect on it in its entirety:

22:1-6—Fear Engulfed the People of the Region

(1) Why did Balak and the Amorites and Midianites resort to sorcery to defeat the Israelites?

(2) Why did they pick Balaam to curse the Israelites?

(3) Do you think sorcery would work? Why or why not?

22:7-14—The First Invitation

(4) Balaam was a diviner who used sorcery (see 24:1).

a. Of whom would he normally enquire?

b. Why did he choose Yahweh to enquire of  this time?

(5) Why did God choose to respond to him?

(6) What was His response?

(7) Why did Balaam comply with God’s command?

22:15-20—The Second Visit

(8) What did king Balak do this time?

(9) Did it work?

(10) As much as Balaam insisted that he would not do anything beyond God’s command, consider these questions:

a. Why did he ask God again, since God told him clearly already the first time?

b. Should he have asked God the second time?

c. What did God tell him to do?

22:21-41—Willful Disobedience

(11) Was God pleased with Balaam’s decision to go?

(12) Why then did He tell him to go? (v. 20)

(13) What lesson can we learn from this?

(14) How did God seek to stop Balaam?

(15) At what time should Balaam have known that he was acting against the will of God?

(16) Now God told him to go the second time, if he had learned his lesson, what should he do?

(17) What did he do?

(18) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?