Darash Chai Experiment

This week we reach the end of the first third of the book of Numbers. The bags are packed and Israel is ready to set out on the road.  But there are a few small items to go over before the trip begins.  And there is one important reminder to be given that will hold Israel true though the next 39 years.

As we open the book of Numbers we read of the characteristics that were to define Israel. Twelve distinct tribes united into one nation. Each warrior with honor. Everyone working together with a united purpose. And yet there is still one thing missing. The human leadership that is in place is not popular. And herein lies the crux of the problem. Israel is not led by human leadership. Israel is to be led by God.

In Numbers 7 we once again encounter a chapter of extreme repetition. And yet, in this chapter there is a word that is used for the first four times in the Bible. Dedication. Hanukkah. A word that has come to be associated with a winter festival, dreidels, miracles, and fried foods. And yet we find none of that here. Instead, hanukkah, dedication is a topic that transcends the festival and gets to the very heart of intentions.

The Nazarite vow is a thing that is shrouded in mystery. What does it mean to be a Nazarite besides the thing that a person is to avoid? What kind of duties or benefit does the Nazarite vow give to a person? And for the sake of the flow of the text, who is the Nazarite vow directed towards? There is a class of person that was just passed over for the priesthood. How is it that this vow is addressed to them?

Numbers 5 contains a ceremony that has caused no end of confusion and consternation for quite a long time. A ceremony that not only seems barbaric to a degree, but also seems completely out of place in the text. Why now, or all places, does the text move to describe the water trial for the woman suspected of adultery? What is the context that this trial is speaking into, and what does it demonstrate about God?

We often hear the title Lord of Hosts applied to God. But what does this word mean? Hosts? Usually this word is translated as armies and we think warriors, but if we examine where this word is found, we might find that it is used in some interesting ways that have nothing to do with warfare. Or does it?

The book of Numbers begins as one of the more boring parts of the Bible to be found. Long lists of numbers and positions that really don’t matter today. What does it matter to us if the tribe of Zebulun had 57,400 men and that they camped on the east side of the tabernacle? The fact is that it is super easy to skip over these chapters, but if you were to do so, you would miss the key to something amazing. Something that is all to easy to miss.

The last chapter of Leviticus contains some of the most counter cultural teachings in the Bible, as well as being one of the most confusing chapters. What exactly is going on with these valuations of a person? And what about putting things under the ban? And how does all of this fit in with Leviticus anyway?

At the end of Leviticus we read a list of blessings and curses. Things that the nation of Israel can expect to occur in response to obedience or disobedience to God’s Instruction. The blessings point us backward to something that we have already read in Scripture, and the curses point forward to something that will occur in Scripture. And not a single one of these blessings and curses are for the individual. They are a response to the community at large. And they give a picture of things yet to come.

Here in Leviticus we find a command that is given that embodies the ideals of justice, restoration, and redemption. Ideals that are at the heart of the Torah. And yet if we continue in scripture we find that these instructions were never once carried out by Israel. In fact, we read later in the Hebrew Scriptures that it was Israel’s failure to keep this command that was the reason for 70 years of captivity in Babylon. But this command, these ideals are at the heart of the Torah, and they are at the heart of Yeshua’s ministry.