Love Israel

Guest (Male): Shalom and welcome to V'ahavta Yisrael, a Hebrew phrase which means "You shall love Israel." We hope you'll stay with us for the next 30 minutes as our teacher, Dr. Baruch, shares his expository teaching from the Bible. Dr. Baruch is the senior lecturer at the Zera Abraham Institute based in Israel. Although all courses are taught in Hebrew at the Institute, Dr. Baruch is pleased to share this weekly address in English. To find out more about our work in Israel, please visit us on the web at loveisrael.org. That's one word, loveisrael.org. Now, here's Baruch with today's lesson.

Dr. Baruch Korman: Well, we are going to continue in the same chapter we started last week. I'm speaking about the book of Numbers and chapter 26. For the most part, a census is being taken. We're going to continue. We went through many of the tribes, but there are still a few tribes that are left. We're going to see as God always does, he makes a distinction between the children of Israel in a general sense and the Levites.

The Levites are called uniquely to serve God. Now, we're all called to be servants of the living God. In fact, redemption positions us to serve God. But what I want you to realize is that the Levites, in a unique way, were called to serve God and to come alongside the priests, the Kohanim. They were both from the tribe of Levi, but the priests were of the lineage of Aaron. We'll talk more about that in a few moments.

With that said, take out your Bible and look with me to the book of Numbers and chapter 26. We're ready to begin with verse 38 and the tribe of Benjamin. Numbers 26:38 says, "And the sons of Benjamin according to their family: the first one we have is the man by the name of Bela, from the family of the Belaites. Also, we have another individual, Ashbel, from the family of the Ashbelites. And then we have Ahiram from the family of the Ahiramites."

Verse 39, "Shephupham from the family of the Shuphamites and Hupham from the family of the Huphamites." Verse 40, "And these were the sons of Bela: Ard and Naaman. Of the family of the Ardites. To Naaman, and the family of the Naamites. These are the sons of Benjamin according to their family. And the counting or the census was 45,600." So, we have an additional tribe that's now being accounted for.

Let's move on to verse 42. "These are the sons of Dan according to their family. And the first one is Shuham of the family of the Shuhamites. These are the families of Dan according to their families." Verse 43, "All the family of the Shuhamites according to their census was 64,400."

Verse 44, "The sons of Asher according to their family: we have Imnah of the family of Imnah. Then we have Ishvi of the family of the Ishvites. And then we have Beriah of the family of the Beriites." Verse 45, "Of the sons of Beriah were Heber from the family of the Heberites and Malchiel of the family of the Malchielites." Verse 46, "The name of the daughter of Asher was Sarah." Verse 47, "These are the families of the sons of Asher according to their census. And we have 53,400."

Verse 48, "The sons of Naphtali according to their family: you have Jahzeel of the family of the Jahzeelites. You have Guni of the family of the Gunites. Jezer from the family of the Jezerites and Shillem of the family of the Shillemites." Verse 50, "These are the families of Naphtali according to their family. And the census was 45,400."

Verse 51, "These are the countings of the children of Israel." Now we're having the summary of all the tribes. And it says that it was 601,730. So, at this time, there were 601,730 of the children of Israel. But remember, we have not counted one tribe, and that is the tribe of Levi.

Let's press on. Look to verse 52. It says, "And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, 'These you are to divide the land with an inheritance according to the number of names.'" Then we have a principle. "To many you shall increase his inheritance and for less you shall lessen his inheritance. A man according to his number, it shall be given his inheritance."

Verse 55, "But according to the lot, it shall be divided. The land according to the names of the tribes of their fathers, they shall inherit. Accordingly, the lot shall be divided of his inheritance between many and between few." We see this principle being taught to us in the Scripture, that a larger tribe will receive a larger portion of land. Obviously, there are more people. A smaller tribe will receive a smaller portion of land because there are fewer people.

We see an order. We also see a logic to what God is doing. It's a wonderful thing when we have the ability to agree with God, to understand the perspective of God. Let's press on to verse 57. It says, "These are the census of the Levites according to their family. And we have the three primary families: Gershon, Kohath, and the final one is Merari."

Verse 57 again, "These are the census of the Levites according to their families. To Gershon of the family of the Gershonites, to Kohath of the family of the Kohathites, and to Merari of the family of the Merarites." Verse 58, "These are the families of the Levites: the families of Libni, of the family of the Hebronites, of the family of Mahli, of the family of Mushi, of the family of Korahites. And Kohath begat Amram."

Amram is going to be a very important individual. Notice what it says in verse 59. "And the name of the wife of Amram was Jochebed." That should be familiar because if you're a student of the book of Exodus, we know that Amram was the father of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. Of course, his wife was Jochebed.

Let's press on. "She is the daughter of a Levite, which she bore to the Levites in Egypt. She bore to Amram, Aaron and Moses and Miriam their sister." We see here that this family is being set aside in a unique way. They are not given an inheritance. They are not going to receive a portion of the land of Israel. Why? Because the Lord is their inheritance.

This is telling us they should not be consumed with or concerned for the physical. They have a spiritual inheritance. That inheritance begins with service. They are called to serve the Lord in this unique calling as the Levitical family. What was their primary role? To come alongside. The term Levi or a Levite is derived from the Hebrew word for being an escort, meaning to walk alongside someone, escorting them.

The Levites were called to come alongside and serve the priest in his purposes, his calling, and his objectives. Look to verse 60. "And were born to Aaron: Nadab and Abihu and Eleazar and Ithamar." Verse 61, "And Nadab and Abihu died when they brought near a strange fire before the Lord."

We learned this a few weeks ago, but I want to repeat myself. If you look at this text, it says, "Vayamot Nadab va'Abihu," which means "and died Nadab and Abihu." There's something that is grammatically at first sight confusing because we have two individuals. We have Nadab and Abihu. This would be plural. But we have only a singular verb.

Normally, this is not good grammar, but it's good theology because it's teaching us something. This passage of Scripture wants to show us that they died for one sin. That sin was when they offered up a strange fire, "esh zarah," before the Lord, one that he did not ask for. We should take our generosity unto the Lord and to others very seriously. Faith in him should cause us to be generous, not because there is a financial blessing.

There's a blessing coming from obedience to God. That's what we're called to demonstrate. It shows great faith when we obey God, not for any motivation of what we're going to get for doing it, but simply because it's the right thing to do. This is the type of people that we need to be, and God is admonishing us to be here.

Let's press on to verse 62. "And these were their census: 23,000 was every male from one month and above. Because they were not counted among the children of Israel." Why? Because there was not given to them an inheritance among the children of Israel. God is doing something. This is a huge biblical truth. God makes a distinction. God makes a separation.

God distinguishes between things. We want to be distinguished by him first as his people through a covenantal relationship with him. Ultimately, we want to experience this redemption whereby we are restored to the will of God. Redemption restores us to the will of God. Redemption gives us a desire to submit to the will of God. Realize this: things are only going to be a blessing to you when you are committed to God's will.

All the while that you are committed to your will, your plans, and your objectives, you are chasing away the joy of the Lord. You are also rejecting the blessings of God. It is only in a spirit of submissiveness that we can experience what God wants us to know and what he wants us to have. Humility, submissiveness, and obedience all produce a positive outcome.

We grow, we mature, and we become like God wants us to become. He goes to work to change us. Going back to the book of Genesis, it's not by accident that God created the heavens and the earth "Tohu wa-Bohu." Most of the time it's translated "empty, void, and formless." But a better understanding is "out of order." God created the heavens and the earth, and everything in them, he did so while they were out of order.

This was to teach us that we are in need of a "Tikkun," or a repair. That's what redemption does. It repairs us spiritually so that we can agree with God, we can serve God, and we can demonstrate God's will in our life. That's what we're called to do. When people look at us as the redeemed of the Lord and as the body of Messiah, we should have something unique: we are not pursuing our desires and plans, but rather we have come under the authority of the living God.

We need to have a testimony that shares with others this commitment, that we acknowledge God's will. Let me just pause and go off on a small tangent because I think this is an important truth. It is incorrect biblically to think that the dietary laws have been done away with. We don't see that in the Scripture. I know all the places that people go to to try to justify that; it's not the case. God doesn't change his mind.

These commands that God has given to us, he's given to Israel for the world. That's why Israel is called a light to the nations. I was teaching a lesson in Hebrew to an Israeli audience from 1 Corinthians chapter 6. It says that food is for the belly and the belly is for food, but if we're not careful, God will destroy both of them. Why? Because we are not called to be led by our stomach, what we want to eat, or what we want to experience.

We are called to be listening to God. Whatever God says, this is what we want to implement with our life. We want to submit to the authority of God by recognizing his authority through obeying his word, his commandments, and his instructions. Look now to verse 63. "These were the census of Moses and Eleazar the priest, which they took the census of the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan river, presumably a place near to Jericho."

Verse 64, "And with these, there was not a man of the census with Moses and Aaron the priest which they counted the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai." Now we see that this census was in the wilderness of Sinai. That's important because they're on the journey, but they haven't arrived. That teaches us something very important because we're all on a spiritual journey, but we have not yet arrived. But we will.

Look to our last verse, verse 65. "For the Lord said to them, 'Mot Yamutu Bamidbar,' which means 'They shall surely die in the wilderness.' And there will not be left one that remains from them, a man except for Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun." Caleb and Joshua had a reputation. That reputation was that they believed in God.

Therefore, in a unique way, they did not die off during this time in the wilderness. They made it through in order to enter into the promised land. That's what God wants to do in each one of our lives. God has paid the price. God has promised. God cannot lie. We are going to be brought into the kingdom of God by faith in the same way that Joshua and Caleb were brought into the land of Israel by their faith.

They believed God and accepted the word of God. That's what true faith will bring about in our life. True faith will cause us to believe this book, that we will revere it, and implement its truth into our life so that we are found faithful. That is the objective of every believer: that we should be found faithful when Messiah gathers us up before the wrath of God begins. This is the blessing that we can have when we're brought out of this world and into the kingdom of God.

God makes this distinction. In Hebrew, there are things which people eat, but God does not call them food. We should agree with God. God is the one who sets everything in their proper order. There are certain things that God says may be edible, but he does not call them food. He calls them "treif," or that which is forbidden and not acceptable to God for food.

Let's agree with God. You will never regret agreeing with God. But every time that you say no to him, you are going to regret the consequences of that disobedience and rebelliousness. Only two men of faith, Caleb and Joshua, made their way into the promised land. Most of them died in that desert. We don't want to die; we want to arrive where God wants us to be.

Chapter 26 shows us God's order. God forgets no one, but he counts all the children of Israel and even the tribe of Levi. God does not forget any of his people. I'll close with that. Until next time, Shalom from Israel.

Guest (Male): We hope you'll benefit from today's message and share it with others. Please plan to join us each week at this time and on this channel for our broadcast of loveisrael.org. Again, to find out more about us, please visit our website loveisrael.org. There you will find articles and numerous other lectures by Baruch. These teachings are in video format. You may download them or watch them in streaming video. Until next week, may the Lord bless you in our Messiah Yeshua, that is Jesus, as you walk with him. Shalom from Israel.