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Journal Entries

Numbers 27:12-23--Joshua to Succeed Moses

7/5/2021

 
Numbers 27:12-23
English Standard Version

Joshua to Succeed Moses​
12 The LORD said to Moses, “Go up into this mountain of Abarim and see the land that I have given to the people of Israel. 13 When you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was, 14 because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin when the congregation quarreled, failing to uphold me as holy at the waters before their eyes.” (These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.) 15 Moses spoke to the LORD, saying, 16 “Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation 17 who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the LORD may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.” 18 So the LORD said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him. 19 Make him stand before Eleazar the priest and all the congregation, and you shall commission him in their sight. 20 You shall invest him with some of your authority, that all the congregation of the people of Israel may obey. 21 And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the LORD. At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he and all the people of Israel with him, the whole congregation.” 22 And Moses did as the LORD commanded him. He took Joshua and made him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole congregation, 23 and he laid his hands on him and commissioned him as the LORD directed through Moses.

God had promised Moses that he would be able to see the Promised Land before he died, but would not be able to enter it because of his sin.  It is now time for God to make good on that promise and to execute the plan of succession that God seems to have had in place from the beginning of the Exodus (as we've seen Joshua's name all over the place since Exodus 17).  The LORD takes Moses up the mountain telling Moses that it was time for him to "be gathered to his people" (time for him to be united with all the people of God in heaven) just like happened with his brother Aaron not that long ago.  God gave Moses a chance to look back on his life and see his personal failures, the failures of the people that he led, and a look at what I'll call "missed opportunities" as he could have experienced the blessing of leading the people into the Promised Land and stepping foot into it if he had been obedient.  However, none of these failures surprised God, none of it changed the end result of Moses going to heaven, and God had a plan of succession all along and like the generation that died in the wilderness, God gave the blessings that could have belonged to one generation to the next generation.

Listen to the words that Moses speaks to the LORD right before he dies.  Do they sound familiar?  They should!  Jesus has the same concerns on his mind about the people of Israel that you can find in Matthew 9:36 and Mark 6:34.  In both places it says that Jesus looked on the people with compassion because, "They were like sheep without a shepherd."  (Matthew adds that they were harassed and helpless).  The LORD hears Moses' concern for the people and grants this request in the sight of Moses and all the people and does it in a way where the high priest is involved in the process so that it is clear that Joshua is God's choice and not the choice of Moses or any other man.

Commissioning Joshua is going to be one of Moses' last actions before the congregation (not the last though as we'll see from the book of Deuteronomy as he is going to make sure to pass on the Law to the people and give them a beautiful song before he dies), but there will be a significant difference as God spoke face-to-face with Moses like He did no one else, and God doesn't promise that for Joshua, but He does promise something else that is amazing if you catch what He's saying.  The LORD says that Joshua will have the high priest mediate for him as to the will of the LORD even for simple requests such as when the people should go in and come out (but more specifically when they should go to battle).  God seems to indicate that His answer to Joshua's requests are always going to be "Yes" (because Joshua is a man of God that's only going ask for what God already wants to give him and the people).  I'm getting this from Exodus 28 and Leviticus 8 where the high priest's breastplate is described and there is a white stone called Urim which is the lot for "Yes" and a black stone called Thummim which is the lot for "No," but God says that Eleazer will inquire with the Urim before the LORD.  That could just be an expression meaning both the Urim and the Thummim, but it could already be an indication that God saw that this was the kind of person that He wasn't going to have to say "No" to.  This also makes me think of this promise that we have from 2 Corinthians 1:20.


2 Corinthians 1:20
English Standard Version

20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.

​It also reminds me of something from the book of Revelation (I admit that this may not be the correct interpretation of this, but the Urim and Thummim come to mind when I read this description of the white stone that we will receive.



Revelation 2:17
English Standard Version

17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’


So Moses did as the LORD commanded and brought Joshua in front of all the people and in front of Eleazer the high priest and laid hands on Joshua and commissioned him (we still often lay hands on people to commission and ordain them, likely based in part on this passage).  God told Moses that he was to invest Joshua with just some of his authority (not all of it) so that the people would listen to Joshua and obey him.  Hopefully that is what happens.  Do you think it will?

This ends another portion of historical narrative in the book of Numbers and we will return to another section of commandments give to the people, but the narrative will pick back up again in Chapter 31.  For now though God is going to give the people a refresher about the sacrifices that they should be making.  Take some notes if you desire as we usually think of God only requiring the tithe and maybe the firstfruits from His people, but there are many, many offerings commanded here that are not what we would call "freewill offerings" (though there is a place for those as well as we'll see when we get to the section on vows).  If you add all this up, you'll see that God requires a significant investment from His people and that grace is not "cheap" (though I should not make it sound as if it something they are buying--I'm just saying look at all the innocent blood that needed to be shed so that atonement could be made for the people).  Now think about how great it is that Christ's sacrifice put an end to the need for this kind of sacrificial system.  We can ponder that more next time.

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    Daniel Westfall

    I will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others.

    Occasionally, I'll also post some true blog/opinion pieces focused on what the Bible has to say about current events or the importance of a particular spiritual discipline, or something more topic-related to orthodoxy (right belief) or orthopraxy (right living).  You can also find those blogs over at Faith and Culture.

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