Dear Diary
Here we are at the last parasha in Numbers, Masei. It begins at numbers 33:1-36:13. If there is any chapters people want to skip over in the Scriptures, this could be one. It appears like just a lot of recordings of journeys, naming off different places the Israelites stopped. But let's see if we can pick up a few other things here along the way. It says in the beginning chapter they departed Rameses on the fifteenth day of the month. What do you see here? This tells you by the numbers they just completed a Sabbath. Sabbaths come on the fourteenth day of the month (on YHVH'S calendar that is), so the fifteenth day was the first day of that week. Always notice the numbers in the Scriptures when you read. This portion of Scripture records all the forty two stops the people experienced during their forty years in the desert. Nothing is put in Scripture just to fill up space. Therefore, there must be some hidden meaning behind the names and places listed. It's our job to dig out the information. You notice YHVH 'commanded Moshe' to write down these journeys. We know there were forty-two stops total in the wilderness journey. The first fourteen took place before the mission of the twelve spies. There were eight stops in the fortieth year after Aharon's death (he was 123 yrs. old), thus leaving only twenty stops during the thirty eight intervening years. So it wasn't like they were pulling up stakes and moving every other month during the entire journey! You will notice in their instructions from YHVH, they were told to destroy the inhabitants of the land.
We're talking 'totally destroy' here! If they didn't, YHVH told them the remnant would be a thorn in their flesh in the future. He went so far as to tell them that if they didn't get rid of the bad seed, He would do to them what He was intending to do to the bad guys. Yikes! Then you'll see a strange statement that says, YHVH would execute judgment 'on their gods'. Now we know a statue is just simple wood or stone, why would he say He would execute judgment on some innate object? It really wasn't judgment against the 'object' that was the point. The point He was making was this, if He struck down their gods, it would show the people their gods never really had any power to begin with. It would prove to them that HE was the one true GOD. It was an 'object' lesson you might say:. We also see the cities of refuge being designated in this parasha. Also, we see other cities being given to the Levites. The names of three of the six cities of refuge are given in Deu. 4:43 and the other three are listed in Joshua 20: 7. Joshua 21:11-40 gives the names of the other forty two cities. Sometimes people get the mistaken idea that if you killed someone, you could just run and hide in these sanctuary cities and be a free man. These cities were not for intentional murderers, they were for accidental killings. You still had to face the Sanhedrin for judgment when you were taken to these cities. Also, if you left the city, the person who was the relative of the person you had killed, could kill you and would not be guilty of murder! A good incentive to stay put:. The man was sentenced to stay in the city of refuge until the High Priest died if found guilty. I don't believe the High Priest died back then at an early age either, since Monsanto Company wasn't around yet:. I don't believe they had to worry about getting GMO wheat in their grain offerings:. Then we end up the chapter going back to the daughters of Zelophehad. These girls just keep on popping up:! We did not go into all the limitations involved with these women inheriting property in the previous parasha. We'll do so now. YHVH allowed these women to inherit the land that would have gone to their father or brothers, except they were all dead.
But there was one little catch to this decree. They had to marry within their own tribal family. YHVH wanted the land to stay in the family which it had been given too. If they had married, let's say a Simeonite, then the land they inherited would automatically go over to the tribe of Simeon. The land allotment always followed the man, not the woman. So they ended up marrying their cousins on their father's side, descendants of Manassah, the son of Joseph. So it's time to put away the pen at least for the book of Numbers. We've learned a lot and now at the end, we see YHVH having Moshe to write 'what I call their diary', at least as far as their stops in the desert are concerned. It's really their mini-diary in comparison to their entire journey in the desert, but a diary of sorts none the less. Let's compare it to a day in one of "our modern day diaries"? Let's see, dear diary, today I was feeling great and then I woke up:. My first stop was the kitchen where I ate some toast and eggs for breakfast. Later, I found out the eggs had been recalled for health reasons. Stop two in my journey, the doctors office, where I'm getting treated for the bad eggs I had for breakfast. Stop three, had a hamburger for lunch after getting out of the Drs. office. Stop four, had to go to the hospital EM with cramps. It turns out the beef in the hamburger was contaminated. I knew I shouldn't have eaten at that fast food chain. My friend tried to tell me that I should eat kosher, but I wouldn't listen! Maybe I'll rethink that kosher idea in the future. Stop five in today's journey, they released me and I'm back home now. So far it's been a bad day diary9. Now I just want some tasty, safe, home cooked food. I know, I'll cook up a batch of nice soy flour pancakes.
Ahhh, pancakes…comfort food! Stop six, the living room to lie down, my head doesn't feel so good, what was that article I read on something called GMO soy??? I think it was in one of those class handouts I get, but I never take time to read all those anyway, too much information to read in my tight schedule. Oh well, probably wasn't important anyway, besides, the pancakes tasted great. I just need a good nights rest is all, now where's my sleeping pills? That's all for today diary, hope tomorrow is better. I know it will be though, no more eggs for me, they can't be trusted. Tomorrow I'm eating healthier foods beginning with breakfast. I'll have some nice thick slices of pork bacon and some soy flour biscuits with bacon gravy drippings. Yep, I'm getting back to healthy:!! Forget that kosher thing, all those mishaps with food today was just a quirk in life. Yes, tomorrow will be better, a new day, a new diet, goodnight diary! Smile, YHVH 'does' have a sense of humor you know! A bit different than Moshe's diary, don't you think:? So we'll continue on next time using "Moshe's diary" as we begin our journey through the book of Deuteronomy. See you there! Shalom
We're talking 'totally destroy' here! If they didn't, YHVH told them the remnant would be a thorn in their flesh in the future. He went so far as to tell them that if they didn't get rid of the bad seed, He would do to them what He was intending to do to the bad guys. Yikes! Then you'll see a strange statement that says, YHVH would execute judgment 'on their gods'. Now we know a statue is just simple wood or stone, why would he say He would execute judgment on some innate object? It really wasn't judgment against the 'object' that was the point. The point He was making was this, if He struck down their gods, it would show the people their gods never really had any power to begin with. It would prove to them that HE was the one true GOD. It was an 'object' lesson you might say:. We also see the cities of refuge being designated in this parasha. Also, we see other cities being given to the Levites. The names of three of the six cities of refuge are given in Deu. 4:43 and the other three are listed in Joshua 20: 7. Joshua 21:11-40 gives the names of the other forty two cities. Sometimes people get the mistaken idea that if you killed someone, you could just run and hide in these sanctuary cities and be a free man. These cities were not for intentional murderers, they were for accidental killings. You still had to face the Sanhedrin for judgment when you were taken to these cities. Also, if you left the city, the person who was the relative of the person you had killed, could kill you and would not be guilty of murder! A good incentive to stay put:. The man was sentenced to stay in the city of refuge until the High Priest died if found guilty. I don't believe the High Priest died back then at an early age either, since Monsanto Company wasn't around yet:. I don't believe they had to worry about getting GMO wheat in their grain offerings:. Then we end up the chapter going back to the daughters of Zelophehad. These girls just keep on popping up:! We did not go into all the limitations involved with these women inheriting property in the previous parasha. We'll do so now. YHVH allowed these women to inherit the land that would have gone to their father or brothers, except they were all dead.
But there was one little catch to this decree. They had to marry within their own tribal family. YHVH wanted the land to stay in the family which it had been given too. If they had married, let's say a Simeonite, then the land they inherited would automatically go over to the tribe of Simeon. The land allotment always followed the man, not the woman. So they ended up marrying their cousins on their father's side, descendants of Manassah, the son of Joseph. So it's time to put away the pen at least for the book of Numbers. We've learned a lot and now at the end, we see YHVH having Moshe to write 'what I call their diary', at least as far as their stops in the desert are concerned. It's really their mini-diary in comparison to their entire journey in the desert, but a diary of sorts none the less. Let's compare it to a day in one of "our modern day diaries"? Let's see, dear diary, today I was feeling great and then I woke up:. My first stop was the kitchen where I ate some toast and eggs for breakfast. Later, I found out the eggs had been recalled for health reasons. Stop two in my journey, the doctors office, where I'm getting treated for the bad eggs I had for breakfast. Stop three, had a hamburger for lunch after getting out of the Drs. office. Stop four, had to go to the hospital EM with cramps. It turns out the beef in the hamburger was contaminated. I knew I shouldn't have eaten at that fast food chain. My friend tried to tell me that I should eat kosher, but I wouldn't listen! Maybe I'll rethink that kosher idea in the future. Stop five in today's journey, they released me and I'm back home now. So far it's been a bad day diary9. Now I just want some tasty, safe, home cooked food. I know, I'll cook up a batch of nice soy flour pancakes.
Ahhh, pancakes…comfort food! Stop six, the living room to lie down, my head doesn't feel so good, what was that article I read on something called GMO soy??? I think it was in one of those class handouts I get, but I never take time to read all those anyway, too much information to read in my tight schedule. Oh well, probably wasn't important anyway, besides, the pancakes tasted great. I just need a good nights rest is all, now where's my sleeping pills? That's all for today diary, hope tomorrow is better. I know it will be though, no more eggs for me, they can't be trusted. Tomorrow I'm eating healthier foods beginning with breakfast. I'll have some nice thick slices of pork bacon and some soy flour biscuits with bacon gravy drippings. Yep, I'm getting back to healthy:!! Forget that kosher thing, all those mishaps with food today was just a quirk in life. Yes, tomorrow will be better, a new day, a new diet, goodnight diary! Smile, YHVH 'does' have a sense of humor you know! A bit different than Moshe's diary, don't you think:? So we'll continue on next time using "Moshe's diary" as we begin our journey through the book of Deuteronomy. See you there! Shalom