ACTIONS HAVE consequences. In the case of Israel, the decision to rebel against Moses after the “bad [or ‘evil’] report” of the spies sent into Canaan led to forty years of wandering in the wilderness.

We discuss the intercession of Moses for the people when God declared that He would “strike them with the pestilence,” and the possibility that “Pestilence,” the Canaanite pestilence-god Deber, was an angel sent to carry out His judgment.

The reaction of the Israelites to God’s alternate punishment, which was to keep Israel from entering Canaan until everyone over the age of 20 (except Joshua and Caleb), was about what you’d expect: They decided to go ahead and attack the Amalekites and Canaanites anyway, and were badly defeated in battle.

We also look at God’s reiteration of certain sacrificial laws, including sacrifices for unintentional sin, and a death penalty for a man caught gathering wood on the Sabbath.

Then we skip to Psalm 90, a psalm of Moses that appears to have been written about this time, with special attention to his prayer for wisdom and cry for the Lord’s return.

Some striking differences were noted in this week’s reading between the Masoretic Hebrew text, the basis for our modern English Old Testament translations, and the Septuagint, which was translated around 300 BC by Jewish scholars working with older Hebrew texts. Specifically, we noticed references to other aspects of the personhood of Yahweh (such as His Name, Right Hand, Spirit, and Glory) that are missing from our English Bibles, apparently because the Masoretes, Jewish scholars who completed their Hebrew Old Testament text by the 10th century AD, de-emphasized the “Second Power in Heaven” in scripture after Christians identified that figure as Jesus Christ.

IT’S EASY to criticize the Hebrews of Moses’ day for their lack of faith. After all, hadn’t they seen the plagues that compelled Egypt to let them go, the parting of the Red Sea, and the manna that miraculously appeared six days a week?

We’re not in their shoes. When we take a good, hard look at ourselves, we see that we’re not all that different.

This week, we discuss that complaints of the Israelites that provoked God into sending so much quail to eat that it became “loathsome” to them, followed by “a very great plague.”

Then we look at the mission of the twelve spies sent to reconnoiter the land of Canaan. We explain why the “descendants of Anak” at Hebron were probably not literal demigods but worshipers of the demonic Rephaim (spirits of the Nephilim destroyed in the Flood), why Anakim, contrary to what you may have heard, does not mean “long-necks,” and then Sharon surprises Derek with an important connection between Anak and “king” that will be in his next book.

WE’D LIKE to say that we planned to read about Israel’s first Passover celebration after leaving Egypt on this Passover weekend, but we didn’t. God’s scheduling is clearly much better than ours.

We discuss the importance of the Passover and the reason the Israelites waited more than a month to decamp and begin moving from Sinai, the connection between Sinai and Paran, and the significance of the silver trumpets God directed Moses to create to summon and warn the tribes of Israel.

We also share a few of the reasons we believe Sinai was in the vicinity of Petra in Jordan rather than further south in Arabia—and why we believe it was the site of the original Kaaba.

THE NAZIRITES were men and women set apart for God by a vow so serious that not only were they forbidden to drink wine, they couldn’t even eat grapes or raisins.

We discuss the Nazirite vow, the priestly blessing, and the first consecration of the Tabernacle before Moses and the Israelites began their journey from Sinai toward the Promised Land.

GOD CLAIMED for Himself the tribe of Levi in lieu of the firstborn sons of all Israel. We discuss the duties of the clans of the Levites—the Kohathites, Gershonites, and Merarites—and why it was imperative that only the high priest entered the Holiest Place.
We also discuss rules concerning unclean people, confession of and restitution for sins, and a test for adultery that seems odd, if not unfair, by the standards of today.

ISRAEL PREPARES for war: This week, we study the arrangement of the tribes around the tabernacle and their order as they organize for the march to Canaan.

We discuss traditions regarding the banners under which the tribes marched and compare that to the prophecies of Jacob over his sons in Genesis 49.

GOD MADE His promises to Israel contingent upon following His statutes and commandments. The blessings He promised for obedience were wonderful—harvests in abundance, peace and safety in the land—but the punishments for rebellion were severe.

We’re in the middle of a long war for control of God’s creation, Earth, and those He charged with serving as His imagers—God’s moral agents—on it. His instruction to the Israelites at Mount Sinai was intended to show them just how serious is this conflict.

We also discuss the Hebrew word translated “idols” and its origin with a fallen angel/false god who dared to call himself “god of gods,” the presence of other “destroying angels” among the curses Israel would suffer for disobedience, and the connection between God’s warning and the prophecy of 70 weeks in chapter 9 of the Book of Daniel.

THE JUBILEE of YHWH is diametrically opposed to the way the world has set up our modern financial system—which shouldn’t be a surprise.

This week, we discuss the Jubilee, a system that God designed specifically to prevent the kind of debt servitude that’s all too common in our modern world.

We also explain the theology of “the Name,” which does not at all refer to God’s reputation.

GOD’S HOLINESS requires perfection—a standard we can never meet on our own.

This week, we discuss rules for the priesthood: Marriage, mourning, and physical qualifications; things the priests were forbidden to eat; and physical disqualifications for sacrificial animals.

We also discuss the Feasts of the Lord and some of the odd connections between the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Feast of Tabernacles with the arrival of asteroid Apophis in 2029.

SPEAKING WITH SPIRITS was strictly forbidden by God. This might seem to be a quaint and antiquated notion, but the fact that we encounter the prohibition three times in our reading today indicates that this was a serious issue in ancient Canaan.

Scholars are not entirely agreed on the meaning of the words translated into English as “mediums” and “necromancers,” ʾobot and yiddeʿonim. There are various terms used  by translators, including “spiritists,” “wizards,” “enchanters,” “divining spirits,” and “familiar spirits.” In the context of the culture of Canaan in the time of Moses and Joshua, this was a prohibition on the veneration of the “dead”—actually, demons—that was an essential part of Amorite religious and social customs.

We also discuss prohibitions on the mixing of animals, crops, and fabrics; unjust weights and measures; and various deviant sexual practices, some of which were encouraged in the worship of the goddess Astarte, better known to history as Ishtar or Inanna (or Aphrodite or Venus).

Child sacrifice is also condemned, as we encounter twice more God’s command that giving children to Molech was absolutely forbidden and punishable by death.

With all of the laws handed down by God, there was a purpose. And it appears that many, if not all, of them had been transgressed by the people of Canaan who were to be displaced by the people of Israel.