Law – Numbers 9-12

Once again we come back to join the Israelites in their camps which God had already set in order. Let us read on to see what warnings and teachings we can gather through this divinely recorded history of the people of God.

Bible Passage: Numbers 9 to 12

The Command of The Lord

This phrase, “at the command of the Lord” appears 8 times in chapter 9 alone. As readers and believers in the word of God, we know for certain that to obey the command of the Lord is of utmost importance to our Christian lives.

Our God is a God who always has our welfare in His mind, so whatever commands He tells us; it is for our benefit in all aspects. Indeed, His command is everlasting life for us.

And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever

I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.

John 12:50

We all know that the Passover Feast is an important event that the Israelites must keep, for it allows the Israelites to remember how God saved them out of the bondage in Egypt. But what caught my attention is when some men who had been defiled by a corpse came to ask Moses if they could still keep the Passover Feast.

Moses who delivered the laws of God very well knew that touching a dead body causes defilement (ref. Lev 21: 11), but he did not take matters into his own hand just because he was chosen by God to lead the people, he went to God to inquire of this matter for the men. Here we can see, and hope we all can also emulate, how Moses relied on God and revered His command.

The men who came to Moses are praise worthy too. They knew the importance of the Passover Feast, and they desired to keep the Feast, so they came to Moses to ask for instructions rather than to assume that there is no way that God would allow them to partake of the Feast. These men could have touched the corpse in order to bury it outside the camp, thus keeping the camp clean, they may not have touched the corpse out of rebellion against the laws of God.

Do we also see the importance of the sacrament of the Holy Communion like the men did? Every first Sabbath of the month, do we desire eagerly this Communion with our Lord, and always look into ourselves to see if we are worthy to partake of it?

The Israelites witnessed and obeyed the signal of God through the pillar of cloud and fire to camp or to break camp obediently throughout the wilderness journey. Majority of the people at that time may not know exactly why they had to look at the pillar to camp or to move on, but for us who are readers of the divinely recorded history, we know for the sure that this is the wisdom and almightiness of God. For God knows all things, do we listen to God’s command in everything that we want to do?

So from this chapter, Moses, the men who had touched a corpse, and the obedience of following God’s signal, they all give us a reminder regarding revering and doing the command of God. Never to be lords of our lives, but revere God as our Sovereign Lord and King. Remember what elder James exhorts us regarding this?

“whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life?

It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”

Jas. 4:14 – 15

Sounding of The Trumpets

God commanded the making of 2 trumpets in this chapter, and they have several functions, 1. for calling the congregation to Moses at the tabernacle of meeting, 2. for directing the movements of the camp, 3. to sound out during battle with the oppressor, and 4. to sound out over the offering made during the appointed feasts and at the beginning of the months.

Looking at these functions of the trumpets, I think it can be summed up as “be alert and listen!” Be alert to listen to the warnings and commands of God, be alert to listen and remember the protection and the mercies of God.

The sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow the trumpets; and these shall be to you as an ordinance forever throughout your generations.

Num. 10:8

The priests are supposed to blow the trumpets, an ordinance forever throughout their generation. The generation that wandered in the wilderness had past, but we are the spiritual priests of this generation of the spiritual Jew, are we not chosen to continue this work of blowing the trumpets to sound out the warnings and commands of God; and also to proclaim the protection and mercies of our Lord?

The following is a pictorial view of the movement of the camps mentioned in this chapter.

The Dire Consequence of Discontentment and Rebellion

The final 2 chapters of today’s reading we see the complains and grumblings of the people for not having food of their craving, meat. The people had been eating Manna which they find it too common and not satisfying as food. To make things worst, the people were influenced by the mixed multitude to long for the food they ate back in Egypt, the land of their bondage!

Here we see something serious in their time, and this also happens in our time, so we have to be warned. Egypt is a place of bondage, but God saved His children out of the evil clutches of Pharaoh with His mighty hands and with His heart of love, but the Israelites intended to return to Egypt due to the craving of food! Likewise, when we were still sinners, we spent our times without God, being under the clutches of Satan, but Jesus called and saved us with His precious blood and love. Do we still want to return to our old and sinful ways? Desires and lust of the world can never satisfy our souls; on the contrary, they can lead us to the destruction.

Do we feel that being a Christian is boring? Cannot do this, cannot do that! How nice if we can take leave from church and do something that can be more colorful and enjoying, rather than to listen to an hour of sermon. Or maybe we want to suggest to our ministers to follow other denominations’ styles of lively church worships? Because always listening, reading and studying the Bible can be very dry and boring like how the Israelites loathed the Manna.

The Bible, the Word of God is the food source of our spiritual life, without it we can be malnourished, and we can even lose our focus on God and His will. The Israelites were eyewitnesses to so many of God’s wonderful acts, yet they rebelled and grumbled against God’s doings. Even Aaron and Miriam, the siblings of Moses, after witnessing so many incidences where God spoke face to face with him, they still wanted to pick on him and accused him for ruling over the people alone just because he married a foreigner, an Ethiopian woman. These actions are clear examples of losing focus on God and His will, blinded by jealousy and pride that can leave foothold for the devil to work.

Hope today’s reading can drill in us to be ALERT to God’s commands and will, for He has, and always will have our wellbeing in His Fatherly heart.