Part 1: Youth | Part 2: Exile | Part 3: Call | Part 4: Confrontation | Part 5: Deliverance | Part 6: Preparation | Part 7: Covenant | Part 8: Law | Part 9: Faithlessness
With the 40 years of Wilderness Wandering completed, and the faithless generation removed through attrition, God now leads his people to leave Sinai and proceed to the Promised Land. So they leave Kadesh (Num 20.22) and move northeast.
They’re going to enter the Land from the east, not the south; so they begin to march east of the Dead Sea (and, north of that, the Jordan River). Of course there are already people living there, organized under kings. First they will come to Edom, east and south of the Dead Sea; then to Moab, east of where the Jordan enters the Dead Sea from the north; then Ammon (whose name survives today in the capital of Jordan, Amman); and finally Bashan, east of the Sea of Calilee.
But before they reach Edom, they face an attack from King Arad south of the Dead Sea. (His name survives in the modern city of Arad, in the south of Israel. Arad claims to be the oldest continuously active city in the world–but so does Damascus.) Despite Israel’s complete lack of combat experience, they make short work of him.
Moving north, they handle swiftly the Amorites who are currently occupying Edom (Num 21.21-26)–after first asking permission to transit through and being rejected.
They move north to conquer Bashan (Num 21.33-35) and then pitch their tents back in Moab in preparation for entering the Land. The king of Moab hires a Mesopotamian prophet, Balaam, to curse them (Num 22.1-41), and as we all know, Balaaam ends up blessing them instead (Num 23.1-24.25). (An inscription naming Balaam and recording some of his other prophecies has been found at Deir Alla.)
And then, true to form, Israel breaks the covenant once again, engaging in sexual sin as part of worshiping the Moabite gods–the very gods that Balaam had identified as false (Num 25).
And how does God respond? He judges the sinners, of course. But then he tells Moses to take another census–and how many men do you suppose they have in their army? About 600,000 (Num 26.51)–the same as they had before all those people died in the wilderness.
God keeps his promises.
And now it’s time to finalize things for entering the Land. Moses settles a question about land inheritance when there are no sons (Num 27.1-11), and then he learns that he will not be entering the Land because of his sin of striking the rock (Num 27.12-17). Joshua, his successor, will take the Land (Num 27.18-23).
God reviews the sacrificial laws (Num 28-30) and then commands Moses to fight–and win–one last battle, against the Midianites, a regional tribe. Israel defeats them handily and takes an astonishing amount of loot (Num 31.1-12). This calls for another policy in preparation for the coming battles in the Land–how the loot from these victories is to be distributed (Num 31.13-54).
In a surprising development, two and a half Israelite tribes decide that they like the east side of the Jordan and would like to settle there. God, betraying no sense of insult, approves their choice, with the proviso that their men will help the other tribes defeat the Canaanites in the Land before returning to their homes (Num 32).
After a quick reprise of the Wanderings (Num 33.1-49), some final instructions regarding the Land: what to do with the Canaanites (Num 33.50-56), where to set the boundaries (Num 34.1-15), how to divide the allotments (Num 34.16-29), the administration of the levitical cities and the cities of refuge (Num 35.1-34), and finally the marriage restrictions on women who inherit tribal property (Num 36.1-13).
Now Moses has one more job to do: summarize the Covenant in a formal legal document before his people enter their Land without him.
That’s Deuteronomy, and that’s next time.
Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash
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