It’s amazing to believe the children of Israel spent nearly 40 years in the desert following the Exodus and yet their clothes and shoes never wore out. Sure, it’s one of the ways the L-RD took care of His people, to be sure, but they had all ages with them! I don’t know any kid who can keep a good pair of breeches more than a few months… Anyway, here’s my Matot-Masei commentary. Or listen to it!
Shabbat Shalom.
Today we have a double portion, so our parashahs for today are Matot or “tribes,” as well as Masei or “journeys of,” and covers Numbers 30:1 through 36:13, which closes out our time in the book of Numbers. There is a lot going on in these final two portions, so I have a couple asides to cover before we get to our main topic.
First, if this was your first time through the book of Numbers, it’s possible that you may have been surprised a couple weeks ago during our study of Balaam in the portion called Balak. Surprised because if you skim the surface of the text, Balaam seems to come off like an obedient servant of the L-RD, yet we discussed how his heart was becoming hardened and how he may not have been as obedient to the L-RD as he seems on the surface of things.
Well, in this week’s parashah, as Israel is making war on Midian and Moses is receiving a report from his soldiers, any room for doubt about Balaam is taken away when we read:
Numbers 31:14-16
Moses was angry with the officers of the army–the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds–who returned from the battle. “Have you allowed all the women to live?” he asked them. “They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the L-RD in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the L-RD’s people.
So we learn here that even though Balaam left Balak when he was unable to curse the people of Israel, it has Balaam who came up with the idea to send the Moabite women into the camp of Israel and tempt their men into sexual and spiritual sin. So indeed, Balaam’s heart was hardened against the people of Israel and, ultimately, their God.
With this understanding of events, it becomes that much easier to see why the L-RD sent an angel to oppose Balaam along his way to see Balak; he was sending Balaam warning after warning that Balaam was not following the L-RD’s true will for him, but was heading down a path to his own destruction. And that destruction is made complete as we learn the final fate of Balaam in:
Numbers 31:6-8
Moses sent them into battle, a thousand from each tribe, along with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest, who took with him articles from the sanctuary and the trumpets for signaling. They fought against Midian, as the L-RD commanded Moses, and killed every man. Among their victims were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba–the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword.
This instructs us on how unwise it can be to ignore the L-RD and go our own way. The tale of Balaam should remain a cautionary story, giving reason for each of us to pause as we seek the L-RD to ensure that – whatever we are doing in our lives – we are doing it truly seeking out His will and direction, rather than our own. The L-RD will allow us ultimately the freedom to do anything; yet only he knows which paths lead to destruction and we ignore His prompting at our own peril.
The next aside I’d like to travel down briefly concerns the daughters of Zelophehad, who we studied last week. The God of Israel granting women property rights was an important message by the L-RD that women are not property, even when surrounded by other cultures that treat them as such. So many people love to use the excuse, “Well, so-and-so was a product of their time,” as though right and wrong changes depending on time and culture. This is not so with the L-RD.
And yet, due to the patriarchal system in Israel, the ruling of the L-RD does raise other questions about the future of Zelophehad’s inheritance . We read about this in:
Numbers 36:2-4
They said, “When the L-RD commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance to the Israelites by lot, he ordered you to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters. Now suppose they marry men from other Israelite tribes; then their inheritance will be taken from our ancestral inheritance and added to that of the tribe they marry into. And so part of the inheritance allotted to us will be taken away. When the Year of Jubilee for the Israelites comes, their inheritance will be added to that of the tribe into which they marry, and their property will be taken from the tribal inheritance of our forefathers.”
One can see how this would certainly be a concern for the Israelites. God’s ruling, while just, needed further explanation to avoid the inheritance of land becoming a confusing mess in future generations as land passed from wife to husband to daughter and back again. Here is how the L-RD settled it:
Numbers 36:5-10
Then at the L-RD’s command Moses gave this order to the Israelites: “What the tribe of the descendants of Joseph is saying is right. This is what the L-RD commands for Zelophehad’s daughters: They may marry anyone they please as long as they marry within the tribal clan of their father. No inheritance in Israel is to pass from tribe to tribe, for every Israelite shall keep the tribal land inherited from his forefathers. Every daughter who inherits land in any Israelite tribe must marry someone in her father’s tribal clan, so that every Israelite will possess the inheritance of his fathers. No inheritance may pass from tribe to tribe, for each Israelite tribe is to keep the land it inherits.” So Zelophehad’s daughters did as the L-RD commanded Moses.
What does this tell us? Perhaps this: that God is a God of order and He desires to prevent sin, not permit it. Had this ruling not have been made, then as the portion points out, Zelophehad’s name would have been but a faint memory long ago. Had He not made this ruling, it’s a very real possibility that some among Israel would have sought out Zelophehad’s daughters simply to add to their own inheritance and take some of what had been given to another tribe for their own. By inviting the L-RD into our lives and decision-making, we are often protected from consequences we do not see and cannot foresee. What better reason could one come up with to allow God to take control?
Finally, the main teaching I’d like to explore today is the establishment of sanctuary cities in the promised land. These cities were to be among the cities of the Levites, with a total of six sanctuary cities in all, three on one side of the Jordan and three on the other side of the Jordan.
What are sanctuary cities? They are places where someone who has caused a death unintentionally and without malice may flee to escape the vengeance of a grieving relative who wants to take their life for the life that was taken by them.
You see, in the time of Moses, if someone became a murderer by intentionally killing someone, there had not always been a system of court trials, appeals and endless delays before justice was delivered. Instead, if a person’s guilt in a murder could be established by two or more witnesses, then a relative of the deceased could take on the role of a “blood avenger” and could take the life of that murderer at any time. We read this in:
Numbers 35:20-21
If anyone with malice aforethought shoves another or throws something at him intentionally so that he dies or if in hostility he hits him with his fist so that he dies, that person shall be put to death; he is a murderer. The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he meets him.
Prior to the establishment of sanctuary cities, there was nowhere for a person involved in the death of another to flee in order to escape these blood avengers. As a result, many who otherwise had not slain another person out of malice, but were simply involved in the accidental taking of lives, were themselves being unjustly put to death.
So sanctuary cities are established under the control of the priesthood, and in these cities blood avengers are not allowed to take revenge. Now, does this mean things are paradise on earth for the person who has caused an accidental death? Hardly. We read this in:
Numbers 35:22-28
“‘But if without hostility someone suddenly shoves another or throws something at him unintentionally or, without seeing him, drops a stone on him that could kill him, and he dies, then since he was not his enemy and he did not intend to harm him, the assembly must judge between him and the avenger of blood according to these regulations. The assembly must protect the one accused of murder from the avenger of blood and send him back to the city of refuge to which he fled. He must stay there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil. But if the accused ever goes outside the limits of the city of refuge to which he has fled and the avenger of blood finds him outside the city, the avenger of blood may kill the accused without being guilty of murder. The accused must stay in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest; only after the death of the high priest may he return to his own property.
So, imagine that. Even if you are judged innocent of murder – that you had caused a death unintentionally – the grieving relative, the avenger of blood, can still take your life if you wander out of the sanctuary city and he finds you, all without ever being considered guilty of murder himself. In fact, the only way one who has caused such a death can actually leave a sanctuary city and return to his home is if the high priest who was in that position at the time of the accidental death dies himself. Considering that a high priest could live decades beyond a particular event like that, this is no small matter. An older offender who causes an accidental death near the beginning of the tenure of a younger high priest might never outlive that high priest, and therefore must remain in that sanctuary city for the rest of their lives.
So where is the mercy in this regulation on sanctuary cities? The mercy is in the alternative; if you intentionally cause the death of another person and were found to be guilty of murder, you could be put to death yourself. Spending a lifetime in a sanctuary city may not seem merciful, but compared to a death penalty, it is.
What can we draw from this? Well, as we saw in Genesis in how the L-RD dealt with Kayin, the first murderer, marking him as someone not to be murdered himself, to how he suggests here the Israelites are to deal with those who cause a death unintentionally, the L-RD is not lacking in compassion even for those guilty of the heaviest of sins. While He remains a holy God who cannot allow sin to enter into His presence, he does offer everyone any possible chance for genuine repentance, for them to turn away from their sin and live a life devoted to the L-RD and obeying his teachings.
While many who cling to replacement theology claim that the Torah is nothing but judgment and paints a picture of a God lacking in mercy, the establishment of these sanctuary cities in Israel paints a contrary portrait of the L-RD. As we are advised by Peter in this passage from:
II Peter 3:9
The L-RD is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
May this teaching on sanctuary cities remind us of the patience of the L-RD, and to pray for those who have strayed from obedience to Him, desiring to see them turn away from sin and experience His forgiveness, just as we have enjoyed the protection of our spiritual sanctuary city, the Messiah Yeshua.
Shabbat Shalom.
Tags: breeches, Masei, Matot, Matot-Masei, Torah commentary
This entry was posted
on Monday, July 27th, 2009 at 1:57 am and is filed under Torah.
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You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
My Matot-Masei Commentary
July 27th, 2009 by Craig Hansen
It’s amazing to believe the children of Israel spent nearly 40 years in the desert following the Exodus and yet their clothes and shoes never wore out. Sure, it’s one of the ways the L-RD took care of His people, to be sure, but they had all ages with them! I don’t know any kid who can keep a good pair of breeches more than a few months… Anyway, here’s my Matot-Masei commentary. Or listen to it!
Shabbat Shalom.
Today we have a double portion, so our parashahs for today are Matot or “tribes,” as well as Masei or “journeys of,” and covers Numbers 30:1 through 36:13, which closes out our time in the book of Numbers. There is a lot going on in these final two portions, so I have a couple asides to cover before we get to our main topic.
First, if this was your first time through the book of Numbers, it’s possible that you may have been surprised a couple weeks ago during our study of Balaam in the portion called Balak. Surprised because if you skim the surface of the text, Balaam seems to come off like an obedient servant of the L-RD, yet we discussed how his heart was becoming hardened and how he may not have been as obedient to the L-RD as he seems on the surface of things.
Well, in this week’s parashah, as Israel is making war on Midian and Moses is receiving a report from his soldiers, any room for doubt about Balaam is taken away when we read:
So we learn here that even though Balaam left Balak when he was unable to curse the people of Israel, it has Balaam who came up with the idea to send the Moabite women into the camp of Israel and tempt their men into sexual and spiritual sin. So indeed, Balaam’s heart was hardened against the people of Israel and, ultimately, their God.
With this understanding of events, it becomes that much easier to see why the L-RD sent an angel to oppose Balaam along his way to see Balak; he was sending Balaam warning after warning that Balaam was not following the L-RD’s true will for him, but was heading down a path to his own destruction. And that destruction is made complete as we learn the final fate of Balaam in:
This instructs us on how unwise it can be to ignore the L-RD and go our own way. The tale of Balaam should remain a cautionary story, giving reason for each of us to pause as we seek the L-RD to ensure that – whatever we are doing in our lives – we are doing it truly seeking out His will and direction, rather than our own. The L-RD will allow us ultimately the freedom to do anything; yet only he knows which paths lead to destruction and we ignore His prompting at our own peril.
The next aside I’d like to travel down briefly concerns the daughters of Zelophehad, who we studied last week. The God of Israel granting women property rights was an important message by the L-RD that women are not property, even when surrounded by other cultures that treat them as such. So many people love to use the excuse, “Well, so-and-so was a product of their time,” as though right and wrong changes depending on time and culture. This is not so with the L-RD.
And yet, due to the patriarchal system in Israel, the ruling of the L-RD does raise other questions about the future of Zelophehad’s inheritance . We read about this in:
One can see how this would certainly be a concern for the Israelites. God’s ruling, while just, needed further explanation to avoid the inheritance of land becoming a confusing mess in future generations as land passed from wife to husband to daughter and back again. Here is how the L-RD settled it:
What does this tell us? Perhaps this: that God is a God of order and He desires to prevent sin, not permit it. Had this ruling not have been made, then as the portion points out, Zelophehad’s name would have been but a faint memory long ago. Had He not made this ruling, it’s a very real possibility that some among Israel would have sought out Zelophehad’s daughters simply to add to their own inheritance and take some of what had been given to another tribe for their own. By inviting the L-RD into our lives and decision-making, we are often protected from consequences we do not see and cannot foresee. What better reason could one come up with to allow God to take control?
Finally, the main teaching I’d like to explore today is the establishment of sanctuary cities in the promised land. These cities were to be among the cities of the Levites, with a total of six sanctuary cities in all, three on one side of the Jordan and three on the other side of the Jordan.
What are sanctuary cities? They are places where someone who has caused a death unintentionally and without malice may flee to escape the vengeance of a grieving relative who wants to take their life for the life that was taken by them.
You see, in the time of Moses, if someone became a murderer by intentionally killing someone, there had not always been a system of court trials, appeals and endless delays before justice was delivered. Instead, if a person’s guilt in a murder could be established by two or more witnesses, then a relative of the deceased could take on the role of a “blood avenger” and could take the life of that murderer at any time. We read this in:
Prior to the establishment of sanctuary cities, there was nowhere for a person involved in the death of another to flee in order to escape these blood avengers. As a result, many who otherwise had not slain another person out of malice, but were simply involved in the accidental taking of lives, were themselves being unjustly put to death.
So sanctuary cities are established under the control of the priesthood, and in these cities blood avengers are not allowed to take revenge. Now, does this mean things are paradise on earth for the person who has caused an accidental death? Hardly. We read this in:
So, imagine that. Even if you are judged innocent of murder – that you had caused a death unintentionally – the grieving relative, the avenger of blood, can still take your life if you wander out of the sanctuary city and he finds you, all without ever being considered guilty of murder himself. In fact, the only way one who has caused such a death can actually leave a sanctuary city and return to his home is if the high priest who was in that position at the time of the accidental death dies himself. Considering that a high priest could live decades beyond a particular event like that, this is no small matter. An older offender who causes an accidental death near the beginning of the tenure of a younger high priest might never outlive that high priest, and therefore must remain in that sanctuary city for the rest of their lives.
So where is the mercy in this regulation on sanctuary cities? The mercy is in the alternative; if you intentionally cause the death of another person and were found to be guilty of murder, you could be put to death yourself. Spending a lifetime in a sanctuary city may not seem merciful, but compared to a death penalty, it is.
What can we draw from this? Well, as we saw in Genesis in how the L-RD dealt with Kayin, the first murderer, marking him as someone not to be murdered himself, to how he suggests here the Israelites are to deal with those who cause a death unintentionally, the L-RD is not lacking in compassion even for those guilty of the heaviest of sins. While He remains a holy God who cannot allow sin to enter into His presence, he does offer everyone any possible chance for genuine repentance, for them to turn away from their sin and live a life devoted to the L-RD and obeying his teachings.
While many who cling to replacement theology claim that the Torah is nothing but judgment and paints a picture of a God lacking in mercy, the establishment of these sanctuary cities in Israel paints a contrary portrait of the L-RD. As we are advised by Peter in this passage from:
May this teaching on sanctuary cities remind us of the patience of the L-RD, and to pray for those who have strayed from obedience to Him, desiring to see them turn away from sin and experience His forgiveness, just as we have enjoyed the protection of our spiritual sanctuary city, the Messiah Yeshua.
Shabbat Shalom.
Tags: breeches, Masei, Matot, Matot-Masei, Torah commentary
This entry was posted on Monday, July 27th, 2009 at 1:57 am and is filed under Torah. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.