BibleProject - Why Couldn’t Moses Enter the Promised Land? – Numbers E6

Episode Date: September 5, 2022

So far in the second movement of Numbers, the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel have rebelled against Yahweh, the people themselves have rebelled against Yahweh, and even the Levites have rebelled against Yahweh. In fact, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Caleb are the only people that haven’t rebelled. So what happens when those closest to Yahweh fail to obey his word, too? In this episode, Tim and Jon talk about Moses’ rebellion, the high cost of leading God’s people, and humanity’s deep need for a more faithful representative to intercede on our behalf.View full show notes from this episode →Timestamps Part one (00:00-14:55)Part two (14:55-39:37)Part three (39:37-55:08)Referenced Resources“Deir Alla Inscription”Interested in more? Check out Tim’s library here.You can experience the literary themes and movements we’re tracing on the podcast in the BibleProject app, available for Android and iOS.Show Music “Defender (Instrumental)” by TENTS"Spiritual Mind" by C Y G N"Easy Chair" by Tyler BaileyShow produced by Cooper Peltz. Edited by Dan Gummel, Tyler Bailey, and Frank Garza. Show notes by Lindsey Ponder. Podcast annotations for the BibleProject app by MacKenzie Buxman.Powered and distributed by Simplecast.

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it in. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

We are in the scroll of numbers, and we've been looking at a sequence of rebellion stories that all increase in intensity. First, all the people of Israel rebel, they don't want to go into the promised land. Then, the inner circle of Israel, the Levites rebel, they think God is playing favoritism, and now we get a third rebellion, focusing on two characters who are at the center of it all. And as we're going to see Moses and Aaron have their failure moment too, in the section that we're going to look at. It's a strange little story. Israel is thirsty, and so God tells Moses to take his staff and go to a rock and speak to the rock so that water can come out. Moses goes, and instead of speaking to the rock, he strikes the rock with his staff.

Water comes out, and you think, great, it worked. But then God says, God says to Moses here, you didn't trust me. And you didn't treat me as the holy one in the eyes of the people. And as a consequence, Moses can't go into the promised land, like the wilderness generation. And as you read the story, you might think,

and what's the big deal? So we hit the rock instead of speaking to the rock. Why is it so important that Moses does exactly what God says? This is Moses' test. Will he do what God says? The way that God says it, even if at this moment it seems rather counterintuitive. Because what God is after is a human partner

whose heart and desire and will is the same as the divine will. God designed all of humanity so that our wills and the divine will can be won. And the story of the Bible is us failing at that over and over. Moses is the first one who can stand in God's presence, who can speak on God's behalf. Perhaps Moses is our ultimate mediator. So, a whole story is leading you to this crisis of life, dude. Where's a human partner that will do God's will that leads to abundant life? This is our ultimate mediator. So whole story is leading you to this crisis of life, dude.

Where's a human partner that will do God's will that leads to abundant life for themselves and for the many? We don't have that mediator, even Moses can't rescue us, much less ourselves. And then the book of Numbers ends with a fascinating tale of a pagan sorcerer hired by one of Israel's enemies to curse Israel, yet God won't let him do it. Instead, this pagan sorcerer gives Israel seven blessings, like this one about the future king promised to Israel.

To be the ultimate mediator. I see him, that is the king, but not now. I behold him, but he's not near. A star will come out of Jacob and a scepter will rise up from Israel. We're talking about a earthly king ruler, but we're comparing him to a heavenly ruler, a star. So the future delivering king from Israel who will bring God's kingdom over the nations, he's both a land ruler and a sky ruler. I'm John Collins, this is Bible Project Podcast.

Quick apology. You're going to notice as we begin talking that when we recorded, I was dealing with a bit of a sickness. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. Hey Tim. Hey there, John. We are in the book of numbers.

Hmm. We're about halfway through. It's the funny. That's a sentence that sounds in no way exciting. We are in the book of numbers. The name in the Hebrew tradition is in the wilderness, Bamed Bar. And that does count. That sounds more exciting. We're in the book of in the wilderness.

Yeah. Or in the scroll. I guess we're trying to adapt our terminology here. We're in the scroll of in the wilderness. We're reading numbers, movement by movement. There's three movements. We're in the second one. But reading numbers, movement by movement. There's three movements. We're in the second one, but give us an overview of those. Yeah. Okay.

So we're in the heart of the Torah. The heart of the Torah is the three scrolls at the center, Exodus, Leviticus numbers. Exodus, of course, was their journey out of Egypt, two Mount Sinai. Then Mount Sinai takes up the center of the Torah at the end of Exodus, all of Lovidakis. And then as you walk into the numbers scroll, the first movement is about Israelites preparing to leave Mount Sinai and then leaving as a mobile Eden camp, it's like a mobile garden with the always tabernacle at the center. So the first movement, which is chapters 1 through 12, is about their arranging the camp as the series of concentric circles around the little Eden spot in the middle, which is the tabernacle and the Holy Holies.

And so that was about the arrangement of the camp and then how the camp is to remain a place of purity and life and holiness at the travel. And then that movement ended with chapters 10, 11, 12 with them actually leaving Mount Sinai, one calendar year later after they kept out there. So that's first movement. And that movement ends with signs of how this road trip is going to go. go because they're supposed to go on a road trip from Sinai to the land that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob lived in, the land that was promised to those ancestors to be a place where Israel would be fruitful and multiply and become a conduit of God's blessing to the nations. And so in the second movement, they are on their way. And things don't go well. From the first narratives after they leave are about the people grumbling and complaining, not trusting God. And we've then been covering in the second movement,

so which goes from chapter 13 to 25, there is a sequence all told in the wilderness journeys. There's a sequence of seven rebellion narratives where the people grumble or don't trust God. And it cycles through those three concentric circles around the camp. The outer circle was all the tribes. Then inside of that was a circle, which was the Levites, and then the center circle is the tabernacle itself where just the priests and the high priests can go in. And so in this middle section of numbers, the second movement, the rebellion narratives go from people from the outer circle, just keep like honing in. So the story of the rebellion of despise is about one of the spies that's from each tribe. That was the first circle around the camp.

So that layer, you know, rebels, and they God tells them, great, fine then, you won't enter the land if you don't want to. And they don't want to go into the land because there are giants there that they think will squash them. The Nephilim. The Nephilim, yeah, descendants of the Nephilim. Then in this middle movement of numbers, the second rebellion was rebellion of the Levites against Moses and Aaron, the high priest.

And so that didn't end well. And that leads to a de-creation of a whole bunch of Levites. And so that leaves now the center circle, the tabernacle itself, and the people who operate within that are Moses and Aaron, the high priest, and the two sons of Aaron. And as we're going to see, Moses and Aaron have their failure moment,

too, in the section that we're going to look at. It's kind of like a punchline, you know how jokes usually have a one, two, three. And so, you know, there's three stories of people rebelling or failing to live up to God's calling. And so what you expect, one, two, three, on the third one, what happens is a twist. It's like at the bottom, once you've reached the bottom of the bottom of the bottom of Israel's rebellion, what God begins to give them is water in the wilderness, victory over their enemies, and he turns curse into blessing. And that's the shape of the section we're going to be looking at in this conversation. Yeah, so what you're saying is there's three narratives

about rebellion and they intensify. They go from the outer camp to in the inner camp and they're intensifying. The first one is the tribes, they're not gonna go into the new land, they wanna rebel, go back to Egypt and God says, you're going to wander in the wilderness your whole life. That's the consequence. That's intense. Super intense. And God's summary of the problem is he says,

you don't trust me. It's the word belief or have faith. You don't have faith in me. And so you won't get to enter the land. That's right. Then the next story is this rebellion of the Levites. Yeah, that's right. The priests are from the family of Levites and there's this sense of why do only some of us get to be priests. We're all Levites and there's this rebellion and the intensity of the consequence of this one is even more crazy. They get swallowed up by the earth. So now you get to this, that's one, two, you get to the third, and we're going to read another rebellion, and it's going to be a rebellion from the inner circle.

That's right. And you should be anticipating, like, what kind of consequence is going to be worse than being swallowed up by the earth? Yeah, totally. And what you've already said, which is spoiler, is instead of a consequence, there's actually a blessing. Mm-hmm. Yeah, or in the overall shape of this last section, there's a severe consequence for Moses and Aaron. But right at the moment you think like, well, okay, I guess they're all dead. Everyone's gonna all dead.

Everyone's going to be dead. And then some surprise, blessings happen. Yeah. One other thing to note in this section, numbers 13 to 25, is there is a symmetrical shape to this whole section, or a chiasm shape. The rebellion of the spies takes place as the spies are sent out from a region or a chiasm shape. The rebellion of the spies takes place as the spies are sent out from a region or place called Kadesh, which is spelled with the Hebrew letters for holiness. So they're sent out from the holy place, the spies go into the land and they don't trust

God, and so they are excluded from the land. And then after that, the spies in Israel say, oh, no, we're sorry, God, we'll go into the land after all. And then God says, no, you already made your choice. And the people go into the land anyway, and they're defeated by Canaanites and Amalakites at a place called Horma. So what's gonna happen then is here, then we have the next rebellion,

which is of the Leviates against the priests. Then once we turn to chapter 20, we're all of a sudden at that place, Kadesh again. And what's going to happen is Moses is going to have a lack of faith. And he and Aaron are going to get the same consequence that the spies in that generation got of not entering the land. So there's a parallelism between the rebellion of the spies, both what happens and where it happens, is replayed in chapter 20 of numbers with the rebellion of Moses. So it's a, yeah, it has like a A, B, A, structure, where A is the rebellion of the spies at Kadesh because they don't believe in the canon of the land. B is the rebellion of the spies at Kadesh, because they don't believe in the canon of the land. B is the rebellion of the Levites,

and once we come to Moses, we're back at A, again, a rebellion at Kadesh of Moses and Aaron. They don't trust, and they too will not get to enter the land. So this whole section has been designed as a little meditation triad for you to think about how each of these three rebellions relate to each other and so on. Yeah, so anyone listening doesn't have the benefit of seeing this structure, but if you've

been listening long, you've realized structure is really important to the way the Hebrew Bible works, and there's all sorts of structure. And you're saying within this movement, the structure of these three kind of sections in this movement have an A, B, A meaning, a chiasm. Yeah, or a sandwich, as you like to call it. Yes, or a sandwich. Yeah, a rebellion sandwich. A rebellion sandwich.

A sandwich of rebellion. I bet it would taste terrible. Why is that important other than that? It's nice to notice. Oh, interesting. This was intentionally designed so that this narrative is in a way parallel to this other narrative. Are they just having fun? What's the significance of that? Yeah, it's not just literary art for art's sake, though

it is definitely a creative expression. The point of literary design of Hebrew Bible literature from how biblical authors construct sentences and lines to how they construct collections of paragraphs into units and then into movements and the whole scrolls, is they're constantly designing things in symmetrical patterns, not just so that you notice it, but so you begin to compare things with other things. So the fact that the rebellion of the spies happens that Kadesh, it's the people don't trust, and so they don't enter the land, is set in design parallelism to Moses and Aaron's

rebellion at Kadesh, same place. They don't have trust, and they don't enter the land. And so the design is inviting you to hold those two narratives, which are seven chapters apart in our modern chapters, but to bring them as if they're next to each other in your mind. And then, read them both as if they're back-to-back and meditate on the similarities and the differences. And so oftentimes, biblical authors will put little puzzles or little riddles, or they will introduce intentional ambiguities into one narrative,

and those ambiguities will be answered or clarified by things that they've designed in the matching story. And so this story about Moses' and Aaron's lack of trust is a good example because it's illuminated by comparing it to its parallel, which is the rebellion of the spies. So actually here, let's just do it. Because the goal is actually, it's an invitation to the reader to gain more insight into the narratives through the literary design parallelism. But here, let's just jump into the story of Moses Nern's failure, and I think you'll

see some of Payoff. 10. Numbers chapter 20. Then the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came to the wilderness of Zinn in the first month, and the people stayed at Kadesh. Does this mean it's been another year since they've left? Or, oh, this is the halfway through the year, New Year? Okay, this is wonderful. It's wonderful.

Okay. First of all, you're told they are in the wilderness of Zinn. Okay. You're not like, okay, I don't know what's that about. What's interesting is that's exactly where the spies went up out into the Promised Land to spy it out back in chapter 13, they went out from the wilderness of Zine. So again linking to that story? Yep. So the introduction to chapter 20 is taking place at the same locations named in the rebellion of the spy narrative, and the people stayed there at Kadesh, which is exactly where the rebellion of the spy narrative. And the people stayed there at Kadesh, which is exactly where the rebellion of the spy stories begin.

So the technique of the people are at the same place. And what did I learn in that story? I learned that that generation because of what happened there, the consequence was for them to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. And there's been no time markers since chapter 13. You're just wandering in the wilderness.

And remember, this could be a less than two week trip to get from point A to point B. Yeah. So if you mapped it on on Google Maps, yeah, totally. Yeah. And Moses says at the beginning of Deuteronomy, like, it should take 11 days to get from where we were to where we wanted to be, and it took 40 years. So, the fact that we're seven chapters later, we're at the same spot, I think, as a literary way to say, it's like we're trapped in the wilderness vortex. We're lost. It's twilight zone. It's totally. Yeah.

And so, chapter 20 begins by saying, in the first month, but it doesn't specify the year. And you're going to have to read on. And what you're going to learn is that we're now in the 38th year later. Oh. You learn this later? Yep, you learn this in the next chapter. And so they're going to start seeding you time information

that's not fully enough for you to know, but you're going to be walked through a series of stories that are going to be all linking back to chapters 13 and 14. And then you realize, oh, this is 38 years later. And the people that are still acting the same way. Wait, okay, so, wait, chapter 20 takes place 38 years later from the spy rebellion. Correct. Now, you're not told that in the first line. What you're told is, in the first month, they came to the wilderness of Zinn at Kadas, and you're like, wait, that's where the rebellion happened, and they were told to go back

into the wilderness. So the first month of what year? Like you're not told. Yeah. What you are told in the next line is Miriam died there, the sister of Moses and Aaron died there. And then in chapter at the end of chapter 20, Aaron is going to die. So all of a sudden Moses's brother and his sister are like the last ones of his generation to die off. And so you just have a few people left

from the generation that's been wandering in the wilderness. And then you learn in chapter 21, and as you go on through the book, that we're near the end of the wilderness wanderings here. Okay. Yeah. We jumped ahead. Totally. Yeah.

So, verse two of chapter 20, and there was no water for the congregation, and so they assembled themselves against Moses and Aaron. You're like, wait, I've been here before, too. No water? This was the problem all the way back on the other side of Mount Sinai, all the way back in Exodus chapter 17. So right here at this

so cool in the opening lines of the story it's like I use this image of I think a harpoon a few episodes ago but imagine we're like we're trying to lock together oh this is this parable is gonna get really excited we're locking harpoons I told I was but not for whales what I'm thinking excited. We're locking our pins. What do we put on? I have, but not for whales. What I'm thinking is like some Arctic explorers that were out on their boats and they were serving some ice, but the ice cracked apart.

And you've got like three teams on three different icebergs floating apart. And so what do we have in the boat? We have our pins. This is ridiculous. So what we're gonna do is launch a harpoon with a rope attached over the water gap and it locks in to the other team's iceberg and we start pulling it close. So the opening line of the story of the wilderness of zine at kadesh, it fires a harpoon

back to chapter 13 anchor. And so now I'm reading the story, bringing it close to Numbers chapter 20, and I'm now going to read Numbers 13 and Numbers 20 as if they're next to each other. But then this line, there was no water for the congregation, and the people contended with Moses saying, if only we had died when our brothers died before the Lord. Why have you brought us out into the wilderness and our animals to die here? Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this wretched place? There's no grain or figs or vines or pomegranates here, and there's no water. This is almost identical to how the story of Israel

confronting Moses about no water in the wilderness back in Exodus 17. So we've now fired another harpoon to an iceberg floating like really two scrolls back and it locks there and you bring it close and now you're reading these three stories next to each other in your mind. What movie or story did you read? I don't know.

To get Arctic Harpoons in your mind. I told you. No, I'm just making it up. I'm making it up. I did. I've been watching, just going to be watching with the boys, like an Arctic survival show. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. It's about 10 people who go out into the Canadian far north.

The goal is last 100 days. And you get to take 10 items with you. And that's it. By the time of day, like 80s, it's like negative 20 every day, Fahrenheit. And so there was one guy, the guy who won went out ice fishing, but he'd never fired Harpoons to bring icebergs together. That's just my imagination. Anyway, but it helps me kind of paint the picture of like one story is firing something back to a nerther story, linking them together so that you now read the stories and compare and contrast them. Yeah. Anyway. So Moses and Aaron's response is to come in from the

presence of the assembly. They go to the door of the tent of meeting. Great idea. They fall in their faces. The door would be would this be right for the holy place? Correct. Yeah. This would be walking in front of the altar that is outside the tent, and they would be walking and kneeling down in front of the first doorway into the holy place of the tent. Yep. The glory of Yahweh appeared to them. In some form, we're not told either fire or cloud. And Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, take that rod.

You and your brother. and, sorry, will quick. Yeah, hmm, to singular verb, you singular, take the rod, and you and your brother, Aaron, assemble all the congregation, and speak to the rock before their eyes, so that it may give its water. This is how you will bring forth water for them out of the rock and then let the congregation and their beasts drink. So pretty clear instruction. Speak to the rock. Which is kind of a fascinating, we'll see into imagine, like what's he supposed to say? Take your rod. Yeah. And speak to the rock. Okay. Now, this is a good example of my little harpoon metaphor. The parallel story in Exodus 17 began with the congregation of the sons of Israel,

camping at the wilderness of Seen, the people quarreled with Moses, their thirsty for water. Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us? What God said to Moses in Exodus 17 was, take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, go, I will stand before you on the rock at Hordeb and you will strike the rock and water will come out and the people can drink. So there, Moses takes the staff and he strikes the rock and that's how the imagery works. Here in Numbers 20, you can see the parallelism where God says, take that rod, but then there's a twist, which is talk to the rock, which both sounds odd.

And it's kind of a surprise, because you're like, oh, last time, what do you need the rod for? Yeah, what do you need the rod for? And last time you actually used the rod. Mm-hmm. So you want to take the rod. Totally. But you're going to speak to the rock.

Yep. So this is Moses' test. Will he do what God says? The way that God says it. Even if at this moment it seems rather counterintuitive. I think that's what's going on here. So Moses took the rod, this verse 9, from before the Lord, just as the Lord commanded him. So notice how it's drawing attention to Moses

did what God commanded in taking the rod. You're like, okay, good, so far, so good. Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly in front of the rock. Okay, sweet, that's exactly what God said to do. of the rock. Okay, sweet, that's exactly what God said to do. Then Moses said to them, listen, you rebels. Are we supposed to bring out water for you from this rock? Then Moses lifted up his hand and he struck the rock two times with his rod. And water came out abundantly and the congregation and their beast drank. Okay, so before we go further, you tell me what you're noticing and no observation is too simple. This is okay. So he strikes the rock like he did an Exodus. But this time he wasn't told to strike the rock. He was told to speak to the rock, but it still worked. Yes.

Okay. No, no, and then, but he does speak, doesn't he? But he doesn't speak to the rock. He doesn't speak to the rock. He speaks to his people. And he's got a, he's bummed on him. Yeah. So he speak to the people.

And, you know, he insults them. You rebels. But, you know, they kind of had it coming. Especially if you're comparing this to the other story. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Listen now, you rebels, and then notice this, shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock? So who's that we? Is he referring to himself an arid? On one level, yep. That seems to be the most natural reading,

because he doesn't mention Yahweh. He doesn't mention God, you know? Are we with the help and power of God going to bring forth water? So this line is really interesting, and it might seem minute to us, but this is not what God told him to do. He's not doing what God told him to do. He's not doing what God told him to do.

He doesn't speak to the rock, he speaks to the people, and he hits the rock. So on multiple counts, he's not doing it. And this is just after the narrator highlighted the two things that he did do that is exactly what God told him to do. So God said, take the rod, gather the people, speak to the rock. Somosus, takes the rod, he gathers the people, it's designed here to build it up. And then he speaks not to the rock to the people. So it has the one, two, three punch that highlights. He doesn't do what God says. Now, you could kind of forgive him for getting confused. I mean, last time this happened, he was told to strike the rock.

You're totally, yeah. And God said, bring the rod. I could imagine like, I'm like sitting there and bozising, I'm like, oh, I got the rod. And last time I struck the rock. Yeah, totally. So I'm gonna strike the rock. Yeah, that's right.

What's the big deal. Yeah, totally. So I'm going to strike the rock. Yeah, that's right. What's the big deal? Yep, totally. And so I think what the clues that the author gives is that by comparing it to the earlier Exodus 17 story, what we're highlighting is that the command that God gave in this instant was different. We're not told why. But God didn't tell Moses to do what he did next at a 17. He gave him a new set of instructions for this moment. And Moses, he doesn't do what God says. That's so clearly the way the narrative is designed to leave you up to that third moment of like, oh, he obeyed God's word in 1 and 2.

So I think we're back to the theme in the melody all the way back to Genesis one, where God's word is life. God's word is the way to life. Yeah, that's what God's speaking 10 times and creation is all about. God's word is what sustains and generates life out of non-life. And then in the Eden story, following the word of God is what allows God's partners to continue enjoying the gift of abundant Eden life. So, that true life is still a gift from God's word in the Eden story. So, that's up to Smotif, and so the idea of people doing what God says exactly and it leads to life life that the major theme in

the flood story when God gives no all the commands about how to build the Eden box. And it's been a major theme here in Numbers where God said, hey, don't be afraid, go into the land. I'm going to deliver the giants into your hand. And the people don't trust. In fact, God's accusation against the people back in rebellion as a spies is exactly the same thing of what God says to Moses here. You didn't trust me.

And you didn't treat me as the holy one in the eyes of the people. Yeah. Moses is now being given the same consequence that the people got because of the rebellion of the spies. And for the same reason, you failed to trust me. You didn't treat me as holy. So I'm with you.

In terms of for many years, I had the same reaction. I was like, what's the big deal? But the design of this story, the two parallel stories that are hyperlinked are meant to slowly help us focus on the moment that Moses did the opposite of what God told him to do. And you remember how we kind of have this feeling back in Leviticus when the sons of Aaron take the incense, you know, and waltz into the tent, like it's there as the waltz into. And the narrator said they did what Yahweh had not commanded them to do. And these are the people selected out of the tribe of Levi who were selected out of the

Israelites to be the image of God representatives on behalf of all the people. So the stakes are higher. The closer you operate to the tent, the stakes are higher. And so there's a severe consequence for Moses and Aaron because of the position that God has elevated them to. And so I think those are all factors that are really there in the text that are highlighting why Moses gets this severe consequence. Moses is like the best person we've had in the story so far. He's not perfect, but he's the only character who's ascended to heaven in the biblical story,

except Enoch, back in Genesis. Yeah, him and God are like... They're tight? Yeah. His right arm is God's right arm. Yeah. So the fact that now Moses is excluded from entry into the Eden land, it's a huge blow, man. This is like major downer moment in the story. Yes, okay, I get it.

Like he didn't do exactly what God said. Mm-hmm. But it's such a small detail. Yeah, totally. And it's not like God was like, hey, Moses don't murder and he was like, Hey, Moses, don't, don't murder. And he's like, oops, I killed someone. Yeah. Though he, though he did, he did murder somebody. Yeah. Yeah. You know, something of like much consequence. Yeah. That's going to like, yeah.

Have ripple effects throughout the community or something. It was just a small detail of like how God wanted to perform this, this miracle. Yeah, yeah. Why is such a, I mean Moses being disqualified from going to the promised land is a big deal. And it's such a small detail. Are we supposed to learn or think and meditate on that? I think so, yeah. Yeah, and I don't think the takeaway that we should have primarily is, oh man, like I'm walking on egg shells with God at all times every day. Yeah. I don't think that's the takeaway.

Why not? It kind of feels that way a little bit. I can understand why. And why would I say I don't think that's the takeaway. Moses is not an average person. This whole story has about God selecting a special partner out of the many and then giving more, first of all, more generous abundance to them and also more instruction, more clarity about God's purpose and will and desire. And so to those, to whom, this is, what is it, Spider-Man? It's, you know, to those, what is it with great power?

Yeah. Comes great responsibility. You can't believe I'm quoting a Marvel movie at this point in our conversation. But that is naming a dynamic at work in the story. And so what the narrative is doing is it saying, God selects humans, gives them an instruction. They don't do it. And they bring death on themselves instead of life and blessing, which was what was on offer.

And then the next generation steps up to the plate, and the biblical story just keeps repeating, so God selects a whole family. And then God selects one tribe out of that family. Then God selects one clan out of that tribe, and it's Moses and Aaron. And they have received more instruction and logged more time with Yahweh face to face, especially Moses than anybody. And I think that's what we're meant to feel. And you know, Moses didn't just mistake, I mean, when he gives his speech, when God told him to speak, and he does speak,

but he doesn't speak to the rock, he speaks to the people. And you know, he's mad at them, you rebels, and he says, show we bring forth water for you out of the rock. And you know, he's mad at them. You rebels. And he says, show we bring forth water for you out of the rock. That's interesting. You know. And this is actually not the first time Moses has showed displeasure and anger about the role God gave him to be the leader of the people. We didn't talk about the story in the podcast conversations, but back in numbers 11, he actually asked God to kill him. I would rather die than have to lead these people anymore. Let's get a little contakers.

Totally. So that's at the beginning of their wilderness wanderings and here we're at the end. So Moses is also depicted as like a character on the edge, along with the people from the beginning to the end of the the wilderness narratives. And then I think we're back to the first point having gone through that, or the first angle, which is to those whom God invests, high degrees of power, influence, ability to represent Him. God asks for a high degree of adherence to the divine will and instruction.

And because what God is after is a human partner whose heart and desire and will is the same as the divine will, right? A human partner for whom God's will and their will are the same thing. And so now I'm thinking forward to depictions of the ideal servant, like in the book of Isaiah. And there's a big emphasis on how the coming king from the line of David and that suffering servant will love to do God's will. And God's will is their pleasure.

And so this is a big meta-themed, throughout the melody, cycling through the Hebrew Bible. And so the fact that Moses has been so in sync with God's will through Exodus and Leviticus, and then here in Numbers, it starts to crack. And Moses begins to gripe about God's will. And then here, he just straight up doesn't do what God told him to do. So you're saying, if you take all that into account, like his grumbling before, you read this and you think he didn't make a mistake. He knew what he was supposed to do and he decided not to do it.

It was an act of rebellion. I'm going to do this my own way. Yeah, what God says. You didn't have faith in me and you didn't treat me as the holy one in front of the people of Israel. Those are the two things that God says. Yeah, he doesn't say like, hey, you forgot a step. You did this on purpose. Yes, yeah, that's right. Yeah, so the last thing about why I don't think the takeaway from the story is, we're walking on egg shells.

The story of Israel selected out from among the nations and the story of the Torah and the prophets is all about how even when God selects a special one out, gives them more instruction, more revelation, more proximity to the divine presence than anybody else, and even they keep repeating the failed choices of Adam and Eve in every generation, leading to death. So, whole story is leading you to this crisis of like, dude, where's a human partner that will do God's will that leads to abundant life for themselves and for the many? And so, that is the vocation that falls upon the expected coming royal servant, that falls upon the expected coming royal servant, royal priest, that is portrayed in the prophets. And that is exactly how Jesus presents himself and is presented in the gospels, as Israel's

representative and humanity's representative. And this is really highlighted in the gospel of John, where Jesus talks about how he's come to do the will of the father. And the father has given everything into my hand. And I do my father's work. What my father wants to do. That's what I do. That's a big theme in John. And he's tapping into this right here. Adherence to the divine will leads to true life, even when it looks like death. Yeah. So that's where this theme is going. And so I think where we should walk away from this story is to say, man, what we need is a human partner for God who will do the divine will that leads to life for the many. Because if we don't have that mediator, even Moses can't rescue us, much less ourselves. That's what I think it means to read this in light of the kind of the Messianic trajectory of the Hebrew Bible. As opposed to thinking, you're like, oh man, I'm screwed.

Yeah. Which is, this is a study in human nature. And so you are, that is a takeaway. But that's not the end of the story, because God provides water, even though Moses fails. And God keeps the promise of a future coming mediator, even though Moses fails. and God keeps the promise of a future coming mediator even though Moses fails. And I think that's where the story is meant to point our attention. After After the failure of Moses, they start journeying to the east side of the Jordan River, and Aaron dies. And you're like, oh, bummer. Yeah, okay, Aaron's dead. And then right at the point where you think, okay, Moses is going to die, I think they're all going to die. And starting in Numbers, chapter 21, you get all of these reversal twists after the third

most climactic rebellion of Moses and Aaron. So chapter 21, a place called Horma, which is where the Israelites were defeated after the rebellion of the spies, a Canaanite king attacks them, and God gives them victory. So the place of defeat has turned into a place of victory. Next, you get another grumbling story about the people grumbling because of no water. And so that's the story of the snakes and the bronze staff. Oh, it did. That story is so amazing. We don't have time. But then, after the people grumble for no water and that grumbling leads to death, Moses intercedes for them.

And then the next story is about how God gives them a surprise well of water in the wilderness. So you get these pivots of grumbling leads to death, but then Moses mediates and then that leads to water and life. And then, chapter 21 ends with two giant kings, like two kings, Og and Sikhon, who were Amorite kings on the east side of the Jordan. They hear that Israel is marching to their territory, and they come out to attack. And they're giants, and God gives them victory over the giants.

And this is the ironic reversal, because the spies were afraid of the giants, but now God gives them victory. So these become little reversals of the curse and death, even out here in the wilderness. And that leads up to the ultimate reversal at the climax of movement too, which is what we call numbers 22 through 25, which is a story which has this figure named Balum at the center of it, who's the pagan sorcerer. We could do a whole conversation on Balum. Totally.

So Balum was a well-known sorcerer for hire. He's actually mentioned in Canaanite literature outside the Hebrew Bible too. Oh, well, yeah. Oh, yeah. Listeners the podcast. Google the Deir Allah inscription. D-E-I-R-A-L-L-A-H. Deir Allah. That's the name of the excavation site where it was found over on the east from side of the Jordan. and it's this inscription talking about bail him as a really influential source for higher that was you know consulted by kings and would pronounce the fate of the nation's and so on well it's really cool. So what's interesting is what we're taking the biblical author's taking an actual figure of historical memory from this region and this time. And then this narrative is just like, it's Saturday Night Live, the story is total satire, literally comparing Bailem to a talking

ass, a talking donkey. Yeah. Because there's a talking donkey in the story, but the literary design of the story is comparing Bailem as the talking pagan sorcerer to the talking donkey. And God speaks truth through an ass, and God speaks truth and blessing through a pagan sorcerer. The whole thing is really awesome. In our numbers videos, we try and portray this as like the surprise blessing where the King of Moab hires this guy to pronounce curse and death on his enemies.

This relates. And why does the King of Moab do this? Oh, yeah, because he sees the camp wandering into the edge of his territory. So huge migrant camp just came onto the borders of his land. And he says, like, I want nothing to do with these people. They're going to overwhelm us. So he hires this guy to start pronouncing curses of death and destruction upon these migrant camps. And what God does is he takes the three attempts of the King of Moab to curse through the sorcerer,

and God turns the curse into a blessing in the mouth of the talking sorcerer who's compared to a talking donkey. So the King of Moab makes three attempts, and Baylon, the sorcerer, speaks three poems of blessing. And then after the third attempt, the king of Moab gets so mad that Bailems just like, oh three wasn't enough for you. Well, here's a fourth to fifth, the sixth and a seventh oracle. So we utter seven poems total, and all of them are about how God is going to raise up from Israel a future king who God is going to raise up and deliver out of Egypt,

just like he delivered Israelites out of Egypt, and that that king from Israelites is going to bring God's rule and kingdom over the nations. And it's one of the most explicit, like Messianic prophecies in the Torah, right here. Numbers chapter 23 and 24. Explosive about. Ah, in terms of promising that a future coming king

will arise out of Jacob, actually here, I'll read some of the lines because these became really important in second temple Judaism and in the New Testament. So this is in the third oracle that Baelum utters. He starts describing Israelites and keeps this imagery here. This is numbers 24, verse 5. Baelum says, How Tove, how good are your tents, O Jacob, how good are your dwellings, though Israel, like valleys that stretch out, like gardens beside a river, like aloe trees planted by Yahweh, like cedar trees beside the waters. You're like, oh yeah,

it's like Eden. So he's looking down at these migrant camps from a cliff. And they got to be looking pretty rough at this point. Yes, in the middle of the wilderness, from a cliff. And they got to be looking pretty rough at this point. Yes, in the middle of the wilderness, and what this guy sees is Eden. These are Eden people out here in the middle of the wilderness. It's great. Water will flow from his buckets. So it's depicting the Israelites as carrying buckets of water, which in the wilderness

water is very precious. But gods made them like a garden here, and Israel is going to have overflowing buckets, like buckets overflowing with water. And then the next line of the poem is, and his seed will be in the many waters. So the future seed of Israel coming out of this Eden life is like drops of water spilling up over an abundant bucket down onto the ground. So cool. And then that water and seed in Eden life is compared to a king that will be exalted higher than a Gog. Is it a more

up king? Yeah, a Gog is a king, a sub-clan connected to a group of Israel's enemies called the Amalakites. Oh, okay. Yeah. So God is going to exalt a king and a kingdom from the abundant seed of Israel who is going to have a kingdom that's exalted, even over Israel's hostile relatives. And we're told that God brings him, that is God brings that future king up out of Egypt. That's very specific. Yeah. In other words, Bailem is comparing the past Exodus of the Exodus scroll as telling a story that is actually pointing forward to a future Exodus.

When God will deliver a future king out of slavery and bondage to the nations and exalt them to a place of rule over those nations. And then God will enable that king to devour the nations that are his enemies and crush them. You know, I call snake crushing, just like God raised up Moses and crushed Pharaoh who became sneaky, so there will be a future Moses or a future king. Then in verse 9, Baelum quotes from the promise that Jacob said to Judah back in Genesis 49. He crouches down like a lion, like a lion who dares to arouse him. That's what Jacob said about Judah in talking about the future

king from the line of Judah. And then Baylem says, blessed is everyone who blesses you, cursed is everyone who curses you. And that's what God said to Abraham. Yeah, when he came out of Babylon. So we're bringing together all the main themes of the Torah here in these poems. And then just real quick. And the next one, Baileum starts talking about that future king again in 2417 and says, I see him, that is the king, but not now. I behold him, but he's not near.

A star will come out of Jacob and a scepter will rise up from Israel. Ooh, notice how this. We're talking about a earthly king ruler, but we're comparing him to a heavenly ruler, the star. Yeah. So the future delivering king from Israel, who will bring God's kingdom over the nations is compared. He's both a land ruler and a sky ruler.

Yeah. These poems are amazing. So who saw this coming? It's just like, I thought everything was about to, everybody's going to die. And God's going to drop these people like a bad habit. You're saying as you read through this section of numbers, it's like everything's going wrong. Everyone's rebelling all these consequences

and then we get to most rebellion and then everyone's dying. But then a series of blessings, essentially, like they're winning battles, they get water and a well. And then as they are coming into Moab, which is going to be, I remember correctly, this is kind of the staging ground for then going into the land. Correct. Yeah, they're right. They're going to be right at the river across from Jericho

to cross and go in. Yeah. The wandering is almost over. But the king of Moab throws a gauntlet. If you want to mess with someone in the ancient world, you hire a like a pagan sorcerer guy. Yeah, totally. And like, let's let's curse these guys and let's and then let's see if we can destroy them. Yep. This pagan sorcerer comes and he can't curse them. Yeah. It steadied blesses them. And his blessing is pulling together the whole story and with all this hope and blessing that God wants to now very explicitly leading to a king. Is this the first time that we're hearing about this kind of Messianic king in the Torah? No, no, that little quotation from Jacob's blessing on Judah. It's a straight-up copy and paste quotation. And is that the first time the blessing to Judah? It's the first time

that a royal figure is described. A blessing to Judah. Yeah. I mean, you knew from Genesis 315 that we need a human, a seed of the woman, to overcome the snake. But in Genesis 49, all the genealogies have led you to expect that it will be a royal figure from the future line of Judah. And now that promise is picked up and developed explicitly. Yeah, it's cool. It's super cool. Yeah. So, it's very similar to when God exiles Adam and Eve from Eden, but provides them with the promise of a future snake crusher.

So here, you know, the last people are dying off in the wilderness in exile, not being able to go into the Eden land, and yet, even here at the end of the exile of that rebellious generation, God. Unbeknownst to them, like this is all happening on a cliff way far away. Right? And unbeknownst to the people, like they think, you know, they're like just barely surviving down there, but from the heavenly perspective up above, they are actually still a little eaten away, sis, with the promise of the Messianic King attached to them. That's kind of this ironic contrast here at this conclusion of the second movement. It's a, this is a grace moment.

God is giving them an Eden gift and promise, even while they're down there grumbling, wondering if God is with them in the wilderness. It's a powerful scene of contrast. And so this is how the second movement of numbers ends them in the wilderness. It's a powerful scene of contrast. And so this is how the second movement of numbers ends with Balum's poems. That's right. Okay, cool. And then that launches us then into the third movement of numbers.

Yeah, yep. The third movement is going to begin with everybody of that last generation dead except for Moses. And then the two spies who didn't rebel Joshua and Caleb, and they're the only ones alive, and now we're going to turn our attention to the drive into the Promised Land. And so that's going to be the main theme. We're going to trace in the reading journey for the app through the third movement of numbers. It goes from chapters 26 to 36, and it's all about the entry of Israel, getting them ready to go into the Eden Promised Land. Thanks for listening to this episode of Bible Project Podcast. Next week, there's a gap in the laws of the Torah.

There's a scenario that the laws don't address, and the laws as currently stated will lead to what they're trying to say is injustice. A whole branch will be lost from the family tree just because women can't inherit land and what God says is they are right. There shouldn't be a family that loses possession of the land just because there is a patriarch. Today's show is produced by Cooper Peltz edited by Dan Gummel and Tyler Bailey, Lindsey Ponder with the show notes, Ashlyn Heiss, and Mackenzie Buxman have provided annotations for our annotated podcast in our app. Bible Project is a crowdfunded non-profit,

everything that we make exists to experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus, and it's all free because of the generous support of thousands of people just like you. So thank you so much for being a part of this with us. Hi, this is TJ Anton, a picture with the Cincinnati Reds. I first heard about the Bible project through my church, where my pastor showed us a YouTube video. I used the Bible project daily, whether that's listening to the podcasts throughout the

week or watching YouTube videos to better help my Bible readings. My favorite thing about Bible Project is how easily they make difficult topics understandable. We believe the Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus, where a crowd-funded project by people like me find free videos, study notes, podcasts, classes, and more at BibleProject.com.