Pulelulu Siulai 14, 2021
Mei he tui ki he tui
From faith to faith
Nomipa 36 (Numbers 36)
G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible
The question of the inheritance of women, which had already occurred through the application of the daughters of Zelophehad, came up once more, raised by the heads of the tribes. It was possible that these women might marry men who were members of other tribes. In such case their inheritance would pass over. It was therefore provided that they must marry only within the border of their own tribe.
Thus closes the Book of Numbers. It is essentially a book of the wilderness. The nation was on the eve of entering the land. The actual history is again taken up in the last chapter of Deuteronomy with the account of the death of Moses.
It is impossible to read this book without being impressed first with the failure of the people. It is a record of long-continued stubbornness and foolishness.
Yet what right have we to think or speak harshly of the people, for the book is also the story of the unwearying patience and perpetual faithfulness of God.
Throughout there is manifest the forward movement of God along the highway of His own purpose. This forward movement is not of man but of Jehovah. The book is a revelation of the sure procedure of God toward the final working out into human history of the regeneration of humanity, the first movements of which were recorded in the close of the Book of Genesis, the central forces of which came in the Incarnation of the Son of God, and the final victories of which are not yet.
David Guzik :: Study Guide for Numbers 36
(v. 13) Ko e ngaahi fekau ia mo e ngaahi kupu‘i konisitūtone ‘a ia na‘e tu‘utu‘uni ‘e Sihova ki ha‘a ‘Isileli, ‘o fakafai ‘ia Mōsese ‘i ‘Alapā-Moape ‘i he ve‘e Soatani-Sielikō.
(v. 13) These are the commandments and the rules that the Lord commanded through Moses to the people of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
The Book of Numbers began in the wilderness (Numbers 1:1). It now finished as close to the Promised Land as you can get without actually being there.
As the Children of Israel stood across from the city of Jericho, we should consider what it took to take them from Egypt to this place across the Jericho.
From their encampment at Mount Sinai, God gave Israel the opportunity to grow from being a slave people to being a Promised Land people. He taught them how to be ordered, organized, cleansed, separated, blessed, how to give, to be reminded of God's deliverance, given God's presence, and received the tools to advance to the Promised Land.
Then, as the nation actually set out from Mount Sinai to the Promised Land, they found themselves struggling with the flesh - they murmured, complained, and rebelled; most of all, they failed to enter into what God had set before them by faith - and a generation of unbelief was condemned to perish in the wilderness.
God led the nation for some 38 years in the wilderness, with much motion but no progress - enduring more rebellion and murmuring, but essentially waiting until the generation of unbelief had died and a generation willing to trust God for big things had come to maturity.
So they set out towards the Promised Land again, and faced the same challenges of the flesh - but dealt with them better this time, until they made their way to the threshold of the Promised Land.
By spiritual analogy, many Christians die in the wilderness because they will not trust God, and will not enter into what He has set before them. Many Christians also see the evidence of that lack of faith display itself in a weakness towards the things of the flesh. Sadly, many Christian live more in the wilderness than on the threshold of the Promised Land.
Finally, consider what it would take to move the Children of Israel from across from Jericho to the Promised Land. Staying on the shores of the Jordan River is better than being in the middle of the wilderness; but it isn't the Promised Land yet. They came this far by faith, and will need faith to take them the rest of the way.
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