The Custody

Studies in Numbers

III The Finale

C The Configuration

2 The Custody, Text: 33:1-56

Title: The Stages of Life

INTRODUCTION

Here are recorded the stages of Israel’s journey to the promised land. They are comparable in a unique way to the stages of our lives. This chapter does not report on the happenings at these stages for the most part. It just lists where they were. Very few of us can find any meaning in the names of the places. In fact, great scholars don’t even recognize the some of the names here and cannot associate them with places. We read in verses 1 and 2, Here are the stages in the journey of the Israelites when they came out of Egypt by divisions under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. At the Lord’s command Moses recorded the stages in their journey. This is their journey by stages. The Expositor’s Commentary advises, “Our backward glance, especially on the actual path from one spot of earth to another by which men have gone in trial and anticipation, must not hinder the efforts called for by the circumstances of our own time. The way of the desert, especially, may well lie half obliterated in the distance, since we know the spiritual fruit of the dealings of God with Israel, and can bear it with us as we follow our own road.” The stages we focus on here are salvation, sadness, and sanctification.

I THE SALVATION

There are stages to your life and mine, and even though we may not keep a record of them like this one, God does. Here He commands Moses to write it down so the Israelites may be reminded of what God has brought them through. Verses 3-5 record an event that they could not and should not forget. Neither should we. It is their salvation deliverance. The Israelites set out from Rameses on the fifteenth day of the first month, the day after the Passover. They marched out defiantly 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. The Israelites left Rameses and camped at Sukkoth. Verses 6-8 touch on the next very important stage, their baptism. They left Sukkoth and camped at Etham, on the edge of the desert. They left Etham, turned back to Pi Hahiroth, to the east of Baal Zephon, and camped near Migdol. They left Pi Hahiroth[a] and passed through the sea into the desert, and when they had traveled for three days in the Desert of Etham, they camped at Marah. Why do I call this baptism. Because the Bible does. Paul writes in I Corinthians 10:1-3, For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Those of us who were baptized in infancy probably cannot remember the occasion. However, I would counsel faithful parents that it is their job to remind their children each time they view the ceremony in church that they passed through the water also and that they belong to the Lord.

II SANCTIFICATION

I am sure there was much sadness in many locations along their journey. We are informed in Scripture of their thirst which is mentioned in verse 14, They left Alush and camped at Rephidim, where there was no water for the people to drink. God had started them off with a pleasant place in verse 9, They left Marah and went to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there. They were in a beautiful oasis. But, as we observe in verses 11 and 15, they spent a lot of their time in the desert. They left the Red Sea and camped in the Desert of Sin. They left Rephidim and camped in the Desert of Sinai. Let me tell you that that was no picnic. With our family we took a long trip of thousands of miles across the United States and back hauling a tent trailer. We actually camped in the Mojave desert. First of all, it was an area where there were few places to refuel or obtain any amenities. Secondly, it was hot! Thirdly, it was dry. It was so dry that the family took showers and they didn’t need towels or hairdryers. All my wife and kids did was walk out and shake their heads a few times and everything including their hair was dry. This was what the desert was like for Israel, but much worse. They didn’t have an adequate supply of drinking water, they had little food, no water to wash anything, and unlike us they weren’t driving an air conditioned car, nor could they find a lonely campground, They were hiking. I have been to the desert of Sinai and it is worse. Another occasion of sadness is found in verses 37-39, They left Kadesh and camped at Mount Hor, on the border of Edom. At the Lord’s command Aaron the priest went up Mount Hor, where he died on the first day of the fifth month of the fortieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt. Aaron was a hundred and twenty-three years old when he died on Mount Hor. Aaron had served the Lord, Moses, and the people. He was beloved by most. Both beloved leaders are taken from them just before the promised land is entered, Aaron and Moses have spent forty years leading and now new leaders must take over. Think of losing your much beloved pastor after 40 years. Roman Catholics may think of the death of a beloved Pope, and citizens may think of the loss of a beloved president like Lincoln. This was indeed a sorrow, even though Aaron was translated to glory. All of this was a cause of sadness including all of the other locations in their travels and travails in verses 10 and following, They left Elim and camped by the Red Sea. They left the Desert of Sin and camped at Dophkah. They left Dophkah and camped at Alush. They left the Desert of Sinai and camped at Kibroth Hattaavah. They left Kibroth Hattaavah and camped at Hazeroth. They left Hazeroth and camped at Rithmah. They left Rithmah and camped at Rimmon Perez. They left Rimmon Perez and camped at Libnah. They left Libnah and camped at Rissah. They left Rissah and camped at Kehelathah. They left Kehelathah and camped at Mount Shepher. They left Mount Shepher and camped at Haradah. They left Haradah and camped at Makheloth. They left Makheloth and camped at Tahath. They left Tahath and camped at Terah. They left Terah and camped at Mithkah. They left Mithkah and camped at Hashmonah. They left Hashmonah and camped at Moseroth. They left Moseroth and camped at Bene Jaakan. They left Bene Jaakan and camped at Hor Haggidgad. They left Hor Haggidgad and camped at Jotbathah. They left Jotbathah and camped at Abronah. They left Abronah and camped at Ezion Geber. They left Ezion Geber and camped at Kadesh, in the Desert of Zin. The Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev of Canaan, heard that the Israelites were coming. They left Mount Hor and camped at Zalmonah. They left Zalmonah and camped at Punon. They left Punon and camped at Oboth. They left Oboth and camped at Iye Abarim, on the border of Moab. They left Iye Abarim and camped at Dibon Gad. They left Dibon Gad and camped at Almon Diblathaim. They left Almon Diblathaim and camped in the mountains of Abarim, near Nebo. All of these difficult experiences which elicit sadness in us are designed for our training. As we read in Hebrews 12:4—7 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children.

III SECURITY

Like Israel we are first delivered and then disciplined and the end result is the determination that we are truly God’s children. As it also says in Hebrews 12:7-13, Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. “Make level paths for your feet,”so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. It could have been written for israel in the wilderness but it is written to first century Christians, and, of course, for us today. In our text God commands Moses with regard to the israelite’s settlement in the land of promise. We read in verses 48-56, They left the mountains of Abarim and camped on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho. There on the plains of Moab they camped along the Jordan from Beth Jeshimoth to Abel Shittim. On the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, 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. Take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess. Distribute the land by lot, according to your clans. To a larger group give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group a smaller one. Whatever falls to them by lot will be theirs. Distribute it according to your ancestral tribes.“‘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.’” The instructions all have to do with survival in the land of promise. First the allotments of territory are to be done in a way that avoids conflicts between the tribes. Second the instructions are given to keep the nation isolated from the idolatry and wickedness of the pagans among whom they were settling. The pagan idolators are to be driven out or exterminated, and their places of idol worship and idols destroyed. Extreme measures indicating a perilous situation demanding decisive action. There is a stern warning that they must not fail in the final verse, 56. Sadly the sad fulfillment of this warning came to pass many years later when they failed to obey and were overcome, first by the Assyrians and then by the Babylonians. God did to them exactly what He had previously reserved for the heathen nations. The history of Israel is indeed a pattern for our own salvation, sanctification and survival. In the end we are survivors, being more than conquerors in Christ Jesus, however, we must distinguish between temporal judgments such as plagued Israel and the grace and love of God that surpasses our understanding. It is possible to suffer for our sins in his life and still be preserved by God for glory.