Numbers 33

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:32:33utc

III. The Conquest and Division of Israel 31:1-36:13C. The Summary of Israel's Journeys 33:1-49

This chapter gives us a digest of the forty year of wandering of Israel through the desert. All the experiences are condensed to a list of names, with the exception of a few places where a specific incident is recorded with the name of the place where it occurred.

The Pulpit Commentary sees in the existence of this list that is before us an additional proof of the Mosaic authorship of the book of Numbers, and remarks: "The direct statement that Moses wrote this list himself is strongly corroborated by internal evidence, and has been accepted as substantially true by the most destructive critics. No conceivable inducement could have existed to invent a list of marches which only partially corresponds with the historical account, and can only with difficulty be reconciled with it-- a list which contains many names nowhere else occurring, and having no associations for the later Israelites."

Matthew Henry's Commentary writes about this: "Some events are mentioned in this journal, as their want of water at Rephidim (v. 14), the death of Aaron (v. 38-39), the insult of Arad (v. 40); and the very name of Kibroth-hattaavah-- the graves of lusts (v. 16), has a story depending upon it."

What strikes us in this record of Israel's crossing of the desert is the minuteness of the details that are recorded. Every little place is written down, which is amazing in view of the fact that, with the exception of the first two years, Israel was wandering aimlessly through the wilderness to pay for their disobedience to enter the land. A careful record was kept of this exercise of futility; nothing was lost. It seems that the references to incidents connected to certain places are chosen at random. The most important one, the giving of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, is never even mentioned; nor is the great turn-about spoken of which began Israel's forty-year wandering in the desert. The list speaks more to us for what it does not say than for what it says.

Adam Clarke's Commentary says about this portion of Scripture: "We may consider the whole book of Numbers as a diary, and indeed the first book of travels ever published. Dr. Shaw, Dr. Pococke, and several others, have endeavored to mark out the route of the Israelites, through this great, dreary, and trackless desert, and have ascertained many of the stages here described. Indeed there are sufficient evidences of this important journey still remaining, for the descriptions of many are so particular that the places are readily ascertained by them; but this is not the case with all." The commentary then goes into a detailed description of all the 42 places mentioned in this section. Some worthy sages from the previous century have tried to spiritualize this record. Clarke does not back them up at this point, but he says: "Israel was the church of God in the wilderness, and its unsettled, wandering state under Moses may point out the unsettled state of religion under the law. Their being brought, after the death of Moses, into the promised rest by Joshua, may point out the establishment, fixedness, and certainty of that salvation provided by Jesus Christ, of whom Joshua, in name and conduct, was a remarkable type. Mr. Ainsworth imagines that the forty-two stations here enumerated, through which the Israelites were brought to the verge of the promised land, and afterward taken over Jordan into the rest which God had promised, point out the forty-two generations from Abraham unto Christ, through whom the Saviour of the world came, by whose blood we have an entrance into the holiest, and enjoy the inheritance among the saints in light. And Mr. Bromley, in his Way to the Sabbath of Rest, considers each name and place as descriptive of the spiritual state through which a soul passes in its way to the kingdom of God. But in cases of this kind fancy has much more to do than judgment."

The Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary introduces this section: "This chapter may be said to form the winding-up of the history of the travels of the Israelites through the wilderness; because the three following chapters relate to matters connected with the occupation and division of the promised land. Since several apparent discrepancies will be discovered on comparing the records here given of the journeyings from Sinai, with the detailed account of the events narrated in the Book of Exodus, and the occasional notices of places that are found in that of Deuteronomy, it is probable that, as 2,000,000 of people with their flocks would spread over a wide tract of country, and as few stations would be large enough to receive them all at the same time, the stations enumerated in Exodus refer to the halting places of Moses and the chief men, including as many of the people as were associated with them, while the catalogue in this chapter embraces, ever and above these, the intermediate and adjoining stations, in those parts of the desert over which the people spread in detached groups at the same time. This list was intended by the sacred historian to contain a full and particular account of all the stations where in the course of their journey they made a prolonged encampment, and whence they dispersed their flocks and herds to pasture on the surrounding plains. In short, the former is historical, while this is statistical. The catalogue extends from their departure out of Egypt to their arrival on the plains of Moab."

There is little sense for us, within the framework of our study, to trace the archeological and historical significance of every place mentioned in this chapter. What draws our attention is, of course, the few comments made at the verses 3, 4, 8, 9, 14, 38, 39, and 40.

The exodus started at Rameses on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the day after the Passover. It was the first month of the new calendar of the Jewish people. This was the day their history, as a nation, began. It was a crucial day in the history of salvation. The actual history of salvation began in heaven, before the creation of time. The book of Revelation calls Jesus "the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world."[ 1 ] But this day marked such an important event in the progression of God's plan, that He decided to turn a new leaf of His calendar. The people of Israel "marched out boldly in full view of all the Egyptians, who were burying all their firstborn, whom the LORD had struck down among them; for the LORD had brought judgment on their gods." These "gods" were not just Pharaoh and his cabinet but the spiritual powers of darkness that had ruled over Egypt, and kept Israel in bondage.

Israel's leaving of Rameses was wrought with symbolic meaning. Rameses was one of the cities built by the Israelites for Pharaoh in their slave labor. The city was dedicated to Ra. The International Standard Bible Encylopaedia says about this place that the Egyptian name for the place was "Ra-messu, 'Ra created him' (or 'it')," and that it was "One of the two 'settlements' … built, or 'built up,' by the Hebrews for the Pharaoh, the other being Pithom." Nothing symbolized more that tyranny of Egypt over Israel than this monument to Ra, which the children of God had been forced to build.

In the verses 8 and 9 the crossing of the Red Sea and the stops at Mara and Elim are mentioned without any further comment, yet these three names represent major events. Vs. 14 only mentions the fact that there was no drinking water at Rephidim, without reference to the miraculous way water was brought out of the rock when Moses hit it. The next comment is found in the verses 38 and 39 where Aaron died at Mount Hor. Vs. 40 dismisses the first major campaign of Israel against a Canaanite king, and the eradication of his kingdom [ 2 ] with the words: "The Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev of Canaan, heard that the Israelites were coming."

About the visit to Kadesh mentioned in vs. 37, The Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary says: "[Kadesh]-- or Kadesh-barnea-- is supposed to be the great valley of the Ghor, and the city Kadesh to have been situated on the border of this valley … But as there are no less than 18 stations inserted between Hazeroth and Kadesh, and only eleven days were spent in performing that journey [Deut. 1:2], it is evident that the intermediate stations here recorded belong to another and totally different visit to Kadesh. The first was when they left Sinai in the second month [Num. 1:11; 13:20], and were in Kadesh in August [Deut 1:45], and 'abode many days' in it, and complaining at the report of the spies, were commanded to return into the desert 'by the way of the Red Sea.' The arrival at Kadesh, mentioned in this catalogue, corresponds to the second sojourn at that place, being the first month, or April [Num. 20:1]. Between the two visits there intervened a period of 38 years, during which they wandered here and there through all the region of Et-Tyh (wanderings), often returning to the same spots as the pastoral necessities of their flocks required; and there is the strongest reason for believing that the stations named between Hazeroth [Num. 33:8] and Kadesh [Num. 33:36] belong to the long interval of wandering." The above comment seems to throw off the chronological accuracy of the account of this chapter. But then, the exact location of all the places mentioned is hard to pinpoint. That the visit to Kadesh, mentioned here, refers to the end of the wilderness wanderings is obvious from the fact that, immediately following, the death of Aaron on Mount Hor is mentioned.

The Pulpit Commentary writes about vs. 38, which mentions the death of Aaron: "This is the only place where the date of Aaron's death is given. It is in strict accordance with the Divine intimation that Israel was to wander forty years in the wilderness (ch. xiv. 33, 34), that period being understood, according to the usual mercy of God, which shortens the days of evil, to include the time already spent in the wilderness." D. Division of the Land West of Jordan 33:50-56

This section runs into the next chapter, and should have been fused to it to make a more logical division of the book of Numbers. The concluding verses of this chapter deal with the necessity to possess the land and to thoroughly cleanse it from all traces of idolatry, lest God's people should become contaminated themselves.

About the phrase: "And the Lord spake," The Pulpit Commentary says: "It is quite obvious that a new section begins here, closely connected, not with the Itinerary which precedes it, but with the delimitation which follows. The formula which introduces the present command is repeated in ch. xxxvi., thus giving a character of its own to this concluding portion of the Book, and to some extent isolating it from the rest."

While Israel is still east of the Jordan River God tells them: "Drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish all their high places." This warning was a repeat of the charge God had given to the first generation that came out of Egypt,[ 3 ] but those people had all died in the desert, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb. Therefore, these instructions are repeated here to those who had been too young to hear it the first time, or who had not been born yet.

We understand from the warnings God gave to Israel what the actual danger was for Israel in entering and occupying Canaan. The people in Canaan had been practicing spiritism for centuries, and their land was full of images that connected them to the unclean world of darkness. In attacking Canaan, Israel attacked Satan himself. If they would leave any of the symbols of Satanism intact, or allow any practice of spiritism to remain, they would soon be polluted themselves. This, in fact, did happen, and the one who re-introduced the heathen practices in Israel was the wise King Solomon, who must have considered himself too broadminded to take God's injunction seriously . We read: "He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods."[ 4 ]

The New Unger's Bible Dictionary writes about the religion of the inhabitants of Canaan: "New vistas of knowledge of Canaanite cults and their degrading character and debilitating effect have been opened up by the discovery of the Ras Shamra religious epic literature from Ugarit in N Syria. Thousands of clay tablets stored in what seems to be a library between two great Canaanite temples dating from c. fifteenth-fourteenth century B.C. give a full description of the Canaanite pantheon. Canaanite fertility cults are seen to be more base than elsewhere in the ancient world. The virile monotheistic faith of the Hebrews was continually in peril of contamination from the lewd nature worship with immoral gods, prostitute goddesses, serpents, cultic doves, and bulls. El, the head of the pantheon, was the hero of sordid escapades and crimes. He was a bloody tyrant who dethroned his father, murdered his favorite son, and decapitated his daughter. Despite these enormities, El was styled 'father of years' (abu shanima), 'the father of man' (abu adami, 'father bull'), i.e., the progenitor of the gods. Baal, the widely revered Canaanite deity, was the son of El and dominated the Canaanite pantheon. He was the god of thunder, whose voice reverberated through the heavens in the storm. He is pictured on a Ras Shamra stela brandishing a mace in his right hand and holding in his left hand a stylized thunderbolt. The three goddesses were Anath, Astarte, and Ashera, who were all three patronesses of sex and war. All were sacred courtesans. Other Canaanite deities were Mot (death); Reshep, the god of pestilence; Shulman, the god of health; Koshar, the god of arts and crafts. These Canaanite cults were utterly immoral, decadent, and corrupt, dangerously contaminating and thoroughly justifying the divine command to destroy their devotees [Deut. 20:17]."

It is obvious from the above that pornography had been raised to the level of a religion among the people of Canaan. This is the worst possible deviation of human sexuality. God intended sexuality to be a means to express, on a physical level, the deepest human emotions, and ultimately the deepest spiritual experience. That is why the Apostle Paul could write: " 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' This is a profound mystery-- but I am talking about Christ and the church."[ 5 ] In perverting human sexuality, Satan scored a major victory. Because of their practice of religion, the Canaanites would never be able to worship God in spirit and in truth, as Israel could.

Another abomination was the murder of children who were sacrificed to the idols. This practice made a complete caricature out of the worship of God. This is why God warns His people: "You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods."[ 6 ]

The chapter ends with a severe warning to their own spiritual wellbeing, if all traces of filthy idolatry were not wiped out in the country God gave them.

God wanted Israel to be the instrument of purification of His land. Unless we see the conquest of Canaan against the background of the eternal confrontation between God and Satan, the whole of this part of history is debased to the same level as the colonial expansions of Western nations in centuries past, or of the territorial ambitions of Nazi Germany, and Japan during World War II. As God cleaned the world during the Flood, and kept Noah to replenish our planet with a cleaner human race, so God reclaimed His land from the Canaanites who had polluted it, and replaced a race, perverted by sin, with a holy kingdom of priests. At least, this was His intention. The fact that Israel, in the end, became worse than the original inhabitants of Canaan [ 7 ] is one of the darkest pages in the history of salvation, and in world history. God had told His people in the book of Leviticus: "Be holy, because I am holy."[ 8 ]

The fact that both Noah and Israel failed does, in no way, change our position in the Kingdom of Heaven. Many Christians compromise and make deals with the enemy. But God wants us to "be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, [and] put on the full armor of God so that [we] can take [our] stand against the devil's schemes."[ 9 ] He intends to defeat the enemy, not with armies of angels, but by men and women who had fallen victim to his schemes. That is the reason the Apostle Paul can write to the church in Rome: "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you."[ 10 ] This is what the grace of our Lord Jesus will do; it crushes Satan under our feet.

Vs. 54 actually belongs to the next chapter in which the division of the land is spelled out in greater detail. The allotment of the land to the various tribes was done by lot. How exactly this was done is not known. We read in the Joshua: "Joshua then cast lots for them in Shiloh in the presence of the LORD, and there he distributed the land to the Israelites according to their tribal divisions."[ 11 ] Ultimately, this meant that the people left the matter of which parcel would be given to whom, in the hands of God. We consider casting of lots as an equivalent of leaving things to chance, but in this instance the dice, or whatever was used for casting lots, was a means to determine the will of God. The Bible is quite emphatic about this: "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD."[ 12 ]

This chapter ends with a very vivid illustration of what it will be like if all traces of evil were not wiped out of the land. We read: "'But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live. And then I will do to you what I plan to do to them." "Barbs in [the] eyes and thorns in [the] sides" are foreign bodies of the worst kind, that not only mean torture, but that can lead to blindness and death through infection. Adam Clarke's Commentary comments on this: "Under these metaphors, the continual mischief that should be done to them, both in soul and body, by these idolaters, is set forth in a very expressive manner. What can be more vexatious than a continual goading of each side, so that the attempt to avoid the one throws the body more forcibly on the other? And what can be more distressing than a continual pricking in the eye, harassing the mind, tormenting the body, and extinguishing the sight?"

On the surface, God's injunction to Israel seems to overlook the sinful nature of the people themselves. It sounds as if the only threat to their spiritual health came from the outside. Some Christians, usually those of charismatic persuasion, believe that sin is demonically introduced in each human life, and that every sin can be overcome by casting out the demon that causes it. This verse seem to sanction such faulty theology. We are, however, obviously wrong if we draw such conclusions from God's warning to His people. Sin is the enemy within. Jesus said: "The things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man 'unclean' "[ 13 ]

It hard to understand that God would use people, who by the very fact that they are polluted inwardly, and who are susceptible in the extreme to temptation, to crush Satan. Yet, this seems to be the essence of God's plan of salvation for the world. The defeat of the devil will ultimately be brought about by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of the testimony of the follower of Christ, and by their willingness to give their lives for Jesus.[ 14 ] It is brought about by the grace of God.

The last words of this chapter: "then I will do to you what I plan to do to them," is one of the rare promises of God in the Bible He has not kept. The existence of Israel in our present day is proof of it.

[ 1 ] Rev. 13:8

[ 2 ] See ch. 21

[ 3 ] See Ex. 23:24, 31-33

[ 4 ] I Kings 11:5,7,8

[ 5 ] Eph. 5:31-32

[ 6 ] Deut. 12:31

[ 7 ] See II Chr. 33:9

[ 8 ] Lev. 11:44,45; 19:2; 20:7,26

[ 9 ] Eph. 6:10,11

[ 10 ] Rom. 16:20

[ 11 ] Josh. 18:10

[ 12 ] Prov. 16:33

[ 13 ] Matt. 15:18-20

[ 14 ] See Rev. 12:11