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Parashat Bamidbar

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Parashat Bamidbar THIS WEEK’S TORAH PORTION NUMBERS 1:1-4:20 תשרפ רַבְּדִמְבּ / Parashat Bamidbar In this week’s guide… Have you ever felt the need for guidance and direction? Rabbi Jason’s COMMENTARY highlights the value of an experience most of us do everything we possibly can to avoid: time in the desert. In the natural, deserts consist of extreme challenges: radical temperatures, wild creatures, scant resources, and few landmarks. In the spiritual, these challenges also exist but as a Kingdom paradox, they are the conditions for our growth and maturity. This article serves as a guide for those of us in wilderness seasons............................................................................................. 1 Our NEW TESTAMENT TIE-IN connects the closing section of this week’s parashat with another story in the Hebrew Scripture: the tragic events surrounding the death of Uzzah as King David ushered the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. We are also invited to examine a technical prohibition in light of an apostolic declaration in the New Testament. This piece will deepen your appreciation of Yeshua’s sacrifice on Calvary and our new standing in Him........... ....................2 BY THE NUMBERS helps us prepare for this weekend’s holy and glorious celebration: Shavuot. Amazingly, there is a connection between this ancient spiritual holiday and the contemporary civic holiday called Jerusalem Day… revealed by the numbers (of course!). The numbers also bring us back through Israel’s history to the patriarchs—an incredible saga of contending for God’s promises..................................................................................................................... ....................3 _________________________________________________________________________________ OVERVIEW Welcome to the fourth book of Moses: Numbers. Aside from being the title of this week’s portion, Bamidbar is also generally used as the Hebrew title of the entire book. Bamidbar is a Hebrew word meaning “in the wilderness of”— referring to the Sinai Desert. The English (Western) name of this book is not entirely unfounded, however, as this portion begins with the Lord instructing Moses to number the people. This passage leads us to a description of the camp as well as a breakdown of the Levites and various clans involved in the priesthood. FUSION GLOBAL WITH RABBI JASON Weekly Torah Portion תשרפ רַבְּדִמְבּ / Parashat Bamidbar Numbers 1:1-4:20 COMMENTARY by Rabbi Jason Sobel This week’s Torah portion begins the book of Numbers, which in Hebrew is Bamidbar, or “in the wilderness.” We always read it just before Shavuot/Pentecost. But why? The reason is that God gave the Torah in the desert. It might seem that the Lord should have given the Torah in the land of Israel. Why was it given in them the desert wilderness? What is significant about this location, and what does it teach us? The desert is a place of intimacy and connection. The serene silence and lack of distractions make it a perfect setting for God’s new bride to discover her Bridegroom, the Lord, intimately. A key aspect of spiritual intimacy is communication. The desert is where God first spoke to Moses at it is the place where the Lord would speak to Israel. The word for “desert” or “wilderness” in Hebrew is midbar. The root of the word midbar is davar, which means “word” and is also related to midabber, meaning “to speak.” Judean Desert The desert (midbar) is the place where God speaks (midabber). Speaking is directly connected to the revelation of the Ten Commandments, which contains the same root davar in Deuteronomy 10:4—“the Ten Words [Asert ha- Devarim] He had spoken [dibber] to you.” The root of the word midbar is used to describe another location where the Lord spoke: The Holy of Holies, called the dvir in 1 Kings 6:5. The word dvir can also be translated as “inner sanctuary,” which corresponds to the desert. Just as God spoke in the most removed part of the temple, the place where only the high priest was allowed to enter, so the Lord spoke in the desert, a place that is removed from civilization. Don’t be discouraged by your wilderness season. The Lord can turn your desert into a dvir, a Holy of Holies where He intimately speaks to you. God revealing His word in the desert also hints to the Messiah, who was baptized in the Judaean wilderness (midbar). In the same way that the Lord spoke to Israel in the desert and thus proved that God indeed sent Moses, the voice of the Lord confirmed Yeshua as the Messiah and the greater than Moses in His wilderness baptism (Matt. 3:16–17). As we have seen, the root word of “desert” is davar, which means “word.” In John 1:1, Jesus is called “the Word” (HaDavar). In the same way that God revealed His word (davar) in the Sinai wilderness, so He revealed Jesus (HaDavar) as “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14) in the desert (midbar). This thought connects to the following verses in John 1:15–27 as John testified to HaDavar and baptized Yeshua in the wilderness. - 1 - As we’ve seen, the desert is a place of intimacy and connection. A desert is also a place of dependence. Dependence is about trust. If Israel would be free from years of oppression and dependence on human masters, the nation needed to learn to trust the Lord. Yet, the Israelites frequently wanted to stone Moses and return to Egypt because they lacked faith in the Lord. This attitude needed to change if Israel was going to take the Promised Land and start a new life as God’s people. The people needed to depend on God for direction. The children of Israel had to learn to listen to God as though their lives depended on it. They also needed to rely on Him for the provision He sent them “bread from heaven”— but only enough for each day, except Friday, when He would provide a double portion of manna so that no one needed to gather on the Sabbath. Can we do the same as we walk in the wilderness? Can we seek God in intimate ways, through prayer and study of His word? Can we seek to depend on Him for our direction and not on ourselves or what others tell us? Can we depend, when in the desert, on Him for provision? As prices escalate or jobs are lost, can we say, “God is my provider?” This Torah portion is an excerpt from my latest book, Mysteries of the Messiah, available where books are sold. We also just released a Mysteries of the Messiah study guide and DVD teaching available at Amazon. NEW TESTAMENT TIE-IN One of the most tragic and puzzling stories in the entire Hebrew Bible involves a man named Uzzah (which means, “Oh [Yahweh or God, my] Strength,”i). In 2 Samuel 6, we read that the Israelites transported the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem on a cart (much like the Philistines had (see 1 Sam 6:10-14). Things were seemingly going well until the text informs us that “when they reached the threshing floor of Nahon, Uzzah reached out to the ark of God and grasped it, for the oxen had stumbled. Then the anger of Adonai was kindled against Uzzah. God struck him down there for his irreverence, so that he died there beside the ark of God” (2 Sam 6:6-7). Yikes! This story has roots in this week’s Torah portion (Bamidbar), which provides detailed instructions for transporting the Tabernacle and its furnishings. For starters, the text clearly states that rather than using carts drawn by animals, “When Aaron and his sons have finished covering the Sanctuary and all its holy implements, and when the camp is ready to move out, after this the sons of Kohath may come to do the carrying” (Num 4:15). God always intended for people—image bearers—to carry His Presence, not equipment or technology. God’s Presence is not a matter of practicality but position and purpose. He created humans to be bearers of His Presence, as He “made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and majesty!” (Psa 8:6) Many have wondered (including King David, apparently): why would God strike down Uzzah for merely touching the Ark? He was only trying to help, after all. The first and most obvious point is that God never needs our help. Ever. But Bamidbar adds another layer of complexity to this tragic tale. - 2 - At the end of the portion, it reads, Adonai spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, “You are not to let the families of the tribe of the Kohathites be cut off from among the Levites. Do this for them so that they may live and not die whenever they approach the most holy items—Aaron and his sons are to go into the Sanctuary and assign each man his job and his responsibility. But the Kohathites are not to go in to look at what is holy, not even momentarily, or they will die.” (Numbers 4:17-20 emphasis added) Forget touching the Ark—the Levites (Kohath was a son of Levi) were not even allowed to look at it! This restriction highlights the significance of Yeshua’s life and ministry for us today. His death, burial, and resurrection (and Ascension, as we’ve recently learned!) transformed reality. The Ark was the location of God’s “manifest” Presence in the earth—pure holiness that dwelled in the “Most Holy Place.” As we read in the above text, only Aaron and his descendants could access it. And then, as Yeshua hung on the cross, “the curtain of the Temple was split in two, from top to bottom” (Matt 27:51).
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