One of our great rabbis observed with great insight some striking similarities between the books of Exodus and Numbers noting that, “…they are both about journeys. They both portray the Israelites as quarrelsome and ungrateful. Both contain stories about the people complaining about food and water. In both, the Israelites commit a major sin: in Shemot, (Exodus) the golden calf, in Bamidbar (Numbers), the episode of the spies. In both, God threatens to destroy them and begin again with Moses. Both times, Moses’ passionate appeal persuades God to forgive the people. It is easy when reading Bamidbar, to feel a sense of déjà vu. We have been here before.
But there is a difference. Shemot is about a journey from. Bamidbar is about a journey to. Shemot is the story of an escape from slavery. Exodus, the English name of the book, means just that: departure, withdrawal, leaving. By contrast, in Bamidbar the people have already left Egypt far behind. They have spent a prolonged period in the Sinai desert. They have received the Torah and built the Sanctuary. Now they are ready to move on. This time they are looking forward, not back. They are thinking not of the danger they are fleeing from but of the destination they are travelling toward, the Promised Land.
If we had never read the Torah before, we might have assumed that the second half of the journey would be more relaxed, the people more optimistic, the mood more hopeful. After all, the great dangers had passed. After prolonged refusal, finally Pharaoh had let the people go. Miraculously they had been saved at the Red Sea. They had fought and defeated the Amalekites. What else did they have to worry about? They knew that when God was with them, no force could prevail against them.
In fact, though, the opposite is the case. The mood of Bamidbar is tangibly darker than it is in Shemot. The rebellions are more serious. Moses’ leadership is more hesitant. We see him giving way, at times, to anger and despair. The Torah, with great realism, is telling us something counterintuitive and of great significance.
The journey from is always easier than the journey to.” (Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks)
This is something we as believers can easily relate to. When God redeemed us from the slavery of sin and provided us with new life (2Cor. 5:17) we were excited for all that lay ahead. However, the walk of a believer along the pathway that leads to eternity is what often causes people to stumble and lose their way – fraught with pain and suffering that can be overwhelming. And sometimes in the midst of these things we cry out to God in anguish, “How much longer Lord must You allow us suffer?” Maranatha (Come, Lord, Come!) And then we make our declaration of faith: “Whom do I have in Heaven but You and without You I desire nothing on earth, My strength and my heart may fail but You are strength of my life and my portion for ever,” (Ps. 73) And God remind us that we walk by faith not by sight.
The theology may be simple but living it out can be complicated. As we near the finishing line of Counting the Omer, we become aware that God has His perfect timing in all things, is in full control of all things and so the future looks good no matter how grim things may seem even when the facts may contradict the reality. That is one reason we read Psalm 67 each of the 50 days that lead to the fulfilment of a promise – Shavuot, the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai and later the Ruach Ha Kodesh following Yeshua’s resurrection 50 days later – the Yovel of days – bringing restoration, new beginnings, power and authority in the Kingdom of God; and in a prophetic sense, the consummation of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb that every true believer awaits with great anticipation.
Psalm 67 (TREE OF LIFE)
1 For the music director, with stringed instruments, a psalm, a song.
2 May God be gracious to us and bless us. May He cause His face to shine upon us—Selah
3 so that Your way may be known on earth, and Your salvation among all nations.
4 Let the peoples praise You, O God. Let all the peoples praise You.
5 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for You will judge the peoples fairly,
and guide the nations on the earth. Selah
6 Let the peoples praise You, O God. Let all the peoples praise You.
7 The earth has yielded its harvest— God, our God will bless us.
8 God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth will fear Him.
Count the Omer: Today is forty-two days, which is six weeks of the Omer.
Verse: Tell the rich in the present age not to be proud and not to rely on so uncertain a thing as wealth but rather on God, who richly provides us with all things for our enjoyment. Tell them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, ready to share, thus accumulating as treasure a good foundation for the future, so as to win the life that is true life. 1 Tim.6:17-19 NAB
Focus Challenge: This week’s focus is on the foundation of your faith – Yeshua. We are to store up treasure in Heaven where moth and rust does not corrupt. Paul told Timothy to remind the congregation to store up this treasure as a good foundation for the future and in the age to come.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me to establish my foundation of Your Son. Help me to trade my earthly mindset for a Kingdom mindset and build my foundation on the Rock. Amen.
B’MIDBAR (In the desert) Num.1:1–4:20; Hos.2:1–2:22; Luke16:1–17:10
“Adonai spoke to Moses in the (Sinai) Desert [B’midbar].” (Num 1:1)
It’s interesting that God gave the Israelites the Torah in the desert rather than in a fertile place which beautifully illustrates how God’s Word is the only thing which makes our empty lives full and waters the barrenness within us. As believers we know that Yeshua is the Word and He alone transforms our lives from a spiritual desert into one of rich abundance. He came that we might have abundant life, from desolation to fulfilment; from death to life. But, without the desert there can be no life. And so, the psalmist, David cried out from the depths of his being:
“God, You are my God, the One in whom I trust. I seek You with every fibre of my being. In this dry and weary land with no water in sight, my soul is dry and longs for You.” (Ps. 63) and again, “I reach out my hands to You; My throat thirsts for You, as a parched land [thirsts for water].” (Ps.143:6)
The desert represents a dry place for preparation and is, therefore uncomfortable. Yeshua was in the desert for 40 days prior to His public ministry. Paul was in the Arabian desert for 3 years prior to the commencement of His ministry. And God placed the Israelites in the desert for 40 years where He prepared them for entering the Promised land.
The exile of the Jewish people has often been compared to a wilderness, a place of dryness and harshness, but it was always for a reason and for a season – never permanent, and this is something we are reminded each day during this period of the Omer.
There are various examples of counting in the Tanakh with respect to a census of the Jewish people. For example, in Ex. 30 is recorded a census for keeping a record keeping of donations to the Tabernacle. In the Haftarah, the prophet Hosea prophesied about the number of the children of Israel that would be beyond measure (Hos 2:1). But why God would want the people to do a head count if He already has all the information? Yeshua stated that the very hairs of our head are numbered meaning that God knows infinitely more details about us than we ourselves can ever fathom! But something that it does demonstrate far exceeds our imaginations regarding His amazing and profound love and acceptance of us which embraces every part of our being as individuals in the very smallest detail, despite our manifold imperfections. He regards us as individuals not as a collective number.
In the B’rit Hadasha, we also read of a census that was taken when Yeshua was born (Luke 2:1-6) that ensured that He would be born in Bethlehem as prophesied in the Book of Micah. The prophet Jeremiah adds that at that time “once again flocks will be cared for by a faithful shepherd who will count each and every one of his sheep. 14 Look! The days are coming when I will fulfill the promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah. 15 In those days, when the time is right, I will cause a righteous Branch to sprout from the old stump of David’s lineage; He will do what is right and just in the land.” (33:13-15)
God’s love for us is so great, that to even taste the smallest bit from afar will ruin us for life. How much more so when we experience it in its fullness in Heaven when God provides us with new bodies that flesh and blood cannot do without exploding in a million pieces of fragments!
Yeshua longs for us to draw ever near to Him as a friend. The 5th month of Elul is known as a time where the “ King is in the field” representing the “field” of our lives where His presence is most accessible. It is in this place that we have the choice to see Him “Panim el’panim” (Face to face, instead of “Achor el’achor,” (Back to back). This is a graphic picture of redemption. God is not in the business of long distance friendships and we will never be able to view Him whist we are positioned back to back – we need to be turned around in order to embrace Him. This is the character of true repentance. “I have decided to follow Yeshua – no turning back, no turning back!”
And here in this parsha we encounter the incredible statement made where God spoke to Moses ‘face to face’ (Panim el Panim) in the ‘Mishkan’. Taken at face value (excuse the pun) it is somewhat puzzling since no man has ever seen God and lived! And in this respect we are given a clue in Ex.33:11 when: “…the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” And so we see the connection that the phrase “Face to face” speaks of the type of intimate friendship Moses had with God. What was his secret? “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” (Matt.5) His passion for God was unparalleled but nonetheless something that we as believers can no less mirror.
This is demonstrated in John 15, when Yeshua confided something staggering to His disciples, “I no longer call you servants but friends.” Friendship with God goes beyond a one time acceptance of Yeshua as Saviour to know Him as Lord (I.e., our precious friend). The very Creator God, the King of the entire universe tabernacles with those who choose to walk in close friendship with Him. These are the people He calls His friends available to every believer yet sadly, “Many are called but few are chosen because few choose.” A servant serves but a friend lays down his life…
When God speaks we do well to listen and obey! Sometimes, it is in the thunder or with the sound of many waterfalls (Rev.14:2) On other occasions such as in 1Kings 19, when Elijah fled from the intimidations and threats of Jezebel and became so depressed and downcast that he even despaired of life itself, he heard the voice of God as a still, small voice or a gentle whisper.
Sometimes, when we struggle to hear God’s voice, especially in times of great challenges, remember we are in good company and never forget that even in the worst of times He is as closer to us than the breath we breathe. Yeshua promises us, “I will NEVER leave nor FORSAKE you.?” God remains entirely faithful to His promises at all times in every circumstance!
This helps us better understand why God gave the Israelites the Torah in the desert rather than in a fruitful place. It was not an arbitrary or accidental decision but with the objective to focus the Israelites attention upon Him. It was in the desert that the Israelites made a covenant with God and received the Torah under His sovereignty. It is the desert that provided the setting for four of the five books of the Torah where the Israelites experienced their most intimate contact with God, who sent them water from a rock, manna from Heaven and surrounded them with Clouds of Glory.
The fact that the Torah was given in the desert, before they had even entered the land, meant that they would survive with their identity intact even in exile. Why was this? “…because the law came before they entered the land, so even when Jews lost the land they still had the law … which meant that, even in exil they were still a nation. God remained their sovereign. The covenant was still in place. Even without a geography, they had an ongoing history. Even before they entered the land, Jews had been given the ability to survive outside the land.” (Rabbi Jonathan Sacks)
Sometimes, God takes us through desert experiences in order to reinforce to us that He alone is our all in all who makes empty lives full. The psalmist decreed a powerful declaration in Psalm 73: “Whom have I in heaven [but You]? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the rock and strength of my heart and my portion forever.” And in Psalm 84, we are promised how “Blessed and greatly favoured is the man whose strength is in You, In whose heart are the highways to Zion. 6 Passing through the Valley of Weeping (Baca), they make it a place of springs; The early rain also covers it with blessings. 7 They go from strength to strength [increasing in victorious power];”
God’s Living Word gives life to the barrenness buried within us. He alone can transform our lives from something akin to a spiritual desert to one of rich abundance; from desolation to abundance. God’s desire is to teach us to depend upon Him in every circumstance and what better way than when He removes all our props and we discover ourselves in a desert place. “Who do I have in heaven and without you I desire nothing on earth. My strength and my heart fail but you are the strength of my life for ever!” (Ps.73:25) He is a God of more than enough and if we are ever faced with a situation where we find ourselves stripped of everything that supports us in this world, we can confidently place our full trust in Him as our all-sufficiency because He never fails to meet our deepest needs in the perfect moment and fullness of time!
God taught the Israelites how to depend upon Him over and above their own natural resources and abilities. It has been the same throughout history. And yet the Torah pictures the Israelites as a rebellious and obstinate people. They eventually entered Canaan and became established in the land of abundance, overflowing with milk and honey but instead of growing closer to Him their lives were characterised with endless cycles of ‘ups and downs;’ blessings-apostasy-judgement-repentance-blessings. And always they became most vulnerable whenever they became too comfortable with God’s abundance. When He gave them manna (described as ‘angels food’) they craved for quail, so ‘God gave them the desires of their hearts but sent leanness to their souls’). Their relationship with Him degenerated and became reduced to a good habit and a shell without substance; religious observance without relationship that became a legalistic stranglehold that led to rebellion and apostasy.
However, the Prophets portray things differently and describe how it was in the wilderness where God bonded with the Israelites in love that neither exile nor tragedy could break. In the Book of Hosea God promised the Israelites: “I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her . . .There she will respond as in the days of her youth, As in the day she came out of Egypt.” Hos. 2:14-15 And Jeremiah declared God’s promise that He would: “…remember the devotion of (their) youth, how as a bride (they) loved Me and followed Me through the wilderness, through a land not sown.” Jer. 2:2
The Song of Songs displays the future promise of the bride of Yeshua, “…who is coming up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved.” (Shir HaShirim 8:5)
Each of these texts feature the desert as a honeymoon between the bridegroom and bride consummating their union in love which refers to both Israel in the present and the “Bride of Yeshua” in the future age. And so we see the Torah and the Haftarah representing different sides of the same coin – God’s judgement and His covenant; His holiness and His mercy; His faithfulness and His discipline; His love and His indignation. But in all these things, He seeks to draw us closer to Himself and here it can be seen when God commanded Moses to conduct a census of every eligible individual using the Hebrew words “se’u et rosh,” literally, “lift the head” (Num.1:2). There are in fact several words in Hebrew meaning “to count”: limnot, lifkod, lispor, lachshov. Why doesn’t the Torah use these words instead of the roundabout expression, “lift the heads” …of the people?
The simple answer is encapsulated in the incredible love of God. We find that in any census there we tend to focus on the collective number and by virtue of this it devalues the individual. For example, no matter how successful a person may be, when it is time to leave their employment another will take their place. As the saying goes, “No-one is irreplaceable.” Yet this is not how God views us; to God we are unique and precious in His sight possessing significance as individuals with an eternal destiny. Indeed, this is how the Sages viewed life whereby we would see ourselves as if our very next act could change the course of world events. Because He is the “lifter of our heads” we never lose our individuality to collectivism.
God tells Moses to “lift people’s heads” to demonstrate that each person is of inestimable value as an individual in their own right. To “lift someone’s head” is a gesture of love – God’s love that demonstrates that we are precious and irreplaceable.
During the period of Counting the Omer, may we be those who embrace God “Panim el’panim” for He is indeed “my glory and the lifter of my head” (Psalm 3:3) worthy of all honour, praise and glory! Our past is not of prime importance because God has wiped our slate clean and as “far as the East is from the West so has He removed our transgressions from us.” God is seeking out for Himself those whose heart is made perfect towards Him, prepared as a bride pure and undefiled, washed in the blood of Yeshua, restored into His presence who choose Him above all things regardless of the circumstances or challenges we face in life.
