Numbers 19 gives the recipe for concocting the water of purification from the ashes of a burnt red heifer and some other ingredients. We expect a Reformed theologian like Edwards to reach immediately for Christological analogies. Instead, the heifer becomes a type of the martyr church ( Notes on . . . . Continue Reading »
Numbers contains two censuses, one in chapter 1 and another in chapter 26. The total numbers are almost identical. In the first census, the count is 603,550 (1:46), while the second counts 601,730 (26;51). Israel dies in the wilderness, and Israel is reborn. But the people counted in the two . . . . Continue Reading »
Numbers 11:23: Yahweh said to Moses, Is Yahweh’s hand short? Now you shall see whether My word will come true for you or not. Isaiah 50 alludes several times to the exodus. It also alludes several times to episodes during Israel’s wilderness period. “Is my hand too short?” . . . . Continue Reading »
In a brief discussion of tithing, Kapic ( God So Loved, He Gave: Entering the Movement of Divine Generosity , 153) notes that the Levites received tithes from the people and then tithed the tithe to the priests “who had no other means of income.” That is somewhat overstated, since . . . . Continue Reading »
In her Jacob’s Tears: The Priestly Work of Reconciliation , Mary Douglas summarizes her argument (from In the Wilderness: The Doctrine of Defilement in the Book of Numbers (Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. Supplement Series, 158) ) that the book of Numbers is a ring construction . . . . Continue Reading »
Musing on Numbers 23:24, Augustine discovers Christ: “He, after all, is the cluster of grapes that hung on the tree.” . . . . Continue Reading »
When the Israelites listen to the unfaithful spies at Kadesh, Yahweh threatens to smite them and begin again with Moses (Numbers 14:12), just as He threatened to do when the people worshiped the golden calf (Exodus 32:10). Moses’ response is the same: He will damage His reputation among . . . . Continue Reading »
When you enter the land, Yahweh says, you will offer ascension offers with tributes of grain and with wine. The wine is the new thing, the addition to Yahweh’s diet as Israel enters the land. Yahweh is the model Nazirite, refraining from wine and strong drink until He has driven out the . . . . Continue Reading »
Jordan’s reflections on “leprosy” help to explain why Miriam, and not Aaron, becomes leprous in Numbers 12. Jordan notes that the term for “plague” used in Leviticus 13 is actually “touch,” and suggests that the leper is “touched” by Yahweh, . . . . Continue Reading »
In Numbers 12, Miriam and Aaron object to Moses’ Cushite wife. Miriam becomes leprous, is excluded from the camp, and restored on the eighth day. That is to say: The Messiah’s Jewish sister objects to the Gentile bride, and is cast out of the camp, but then she is cleansed and restored. . . . . Continue Reading »
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