B’Midbar (In the Desert) Numbers 1:1-4:20
1.The name of this Torah portion is B’Midbar (In the Desert). Desert in Hebrew is Midbar, Diburim are the 10 words (commandments), Medaber is to speak. Desert, words, speak all come from the same Hebrew root – DBR. What do these things, desert, speak and words have in common?
The word B’Midbar is filled with meaning. It can mean desert as it does here, it can also mean “spoke” also found in Numbers 1:1. It can also mean “word” as in the Word of G-d. So in this one word is wrapped up a world of spiritual meaning.
The desert is a place of what? There is pretty much nothing in a desert, no people, no houses, very few plants or animals. A word spoken in a desert can be heard for miles, there is nothing to hinder it. This is where G-d took His people to teach them who they were and who He was. It is also where He takes us sometimes when He wants our attention. It is a place where things or activities won’t get in our way. It is a place that is quiet with no distractions. I expect we have all been there. When we do come to the desert our task is to focus on Him and what He is saying to us. We should remember it is where He took Israel, not because He didn’t love them but precisely because He did love them.
Our ability to do G-d’s will in our life depends on us being able to hear His voice. Sometimes the best environment for this to happen is in the quiet of the desert. Matthew 4:4 tells us life is more than bread, but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of G-d. My prayer for all of us is that we hear what G-d Almighty is saying to us each day.
2.All of Torah takes place in three places spiritually, Mitzrim/Egypt, Midbar/desert and the Promise Land. What spiritual lesson is G-d teaching us through this journey the children of Israel took that we can read about in Torah?
1.Mitzrim/Egypt
A constricting place where we are limited, cannot breathe, slave to sin.
2.The desert/wilderness Midbar
That in-between place
here we have the opportunity to put off what we were
We are no longer constricted (Egypt)
We can put away slavery
we can empty ourselves of the past
We can become new people,
We can hear the Father
We can be filled with G-d’s truth
But for this to happen we must let go of what was and become renewed in mind and spirit. It can be scary, letting go of old ways and growing in our new role as children of G-d. Going through Midbar is the only way to get to our destination – the Promised Land
3.The Promised Land
land flowing with milk and honey,
a land that flows unrestrained.
Heaven where we are eternally with the Father
3.This Torah portion seems to be quite repetitive. Why do you think it was important to list each tribe, where they were positioned around the mishkan followed by a long account of the Levites, their families and respective roles?
That long introduction, at the beginning of Bamidbar, is all about creating a sense of order within the camp. Hence the census, and the detailed disposition of the tribes, and the lengthy account of the Levites and their jobs.
It is as if G-d were saying to the Israelites, this is what order looks like. Each person has their place within the family, the tribe, and the nation. Everyone has been counted and each person counts. Preserve and protect this order, for without it you cannot enter the land, fight its battles, and create a just society
Genesis 1:1-11: G-d creates an ordered universe and fashions humanity from the dust of the earth into which He breathes His own breath. But humans sin: first Adam and Eve, then Cain, then the generation of the Flood. The earth is filled with violence. G-d brings the Flood and begins again, making a covenant with Noah. Humanity sin again by making the Tower of Babel (the first act of imperialism). So G-d begins again, seeking a role-model who will show the world what it is to live in faithful response to the word of G-d. He finds it in Abraham and Sarah. And so the story goes…
It is no coincidence that Bamidbar usually precedes Shavuot, the anniversary of the giving of the Torah at Sinai. G-d never tires of reminding us that the central human challenge in every age is whether freedom can coexist with order. It can, when humans freely choose to follow G-d’s laws, given in one way to humanity after the Flood and in another to Israel after the Exodus.
In the Messianic Scripture we again see a picture of G-d’s desire for order.
I Corinthians 12:14-20, “Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact G-d has placedthe parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.”
4.Since Sunday evening is the beginning of Shavout and the book of Ruth is read during this festival, I would like us to look at some passages in this story to see what G-d has to say to us. As you read the story of Ruth this week see what answers you can find to the following questions?
a. Is there any reason found in scripture that Israel might be having a famine in this story? Possible reason is found in Deut. 11:13-17 G-d specifically promised there would always be plenty in the land if Israel was obedient. Therefore, a famine in the land meant that Israel, as a nation, was not obedient to the L-RD.
b. Why do you think G-d dealt bitterly with Naomi in Moab? She felt that the calamity which came upon her family came because they were disobedient. They left the Promised Land of Israel. Their sons married Moabite women. This was not in obedience to G-d; G-d commanded the Israelites to not marry among the pagan nations surrounding them.
c. Is there any spiritual lesson for us in the part of the story where one daughter-in-law journeyed on with Naomi and one returned to her family? She kissed them…they lifted up their voices and wept: The emotion shown is evidence of the real relationship of love between Naomi and her daughters-in-laws.
They lifted up their voices and wept again: Both Orpah and Ruth deeply loved Naomi; both were anxious about the future. But a choice had to be made, and Orpah chose to stay in Moab, while Ruth clung to Naomi. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth stayed with her.
There comes a place in our following after G-d where it comes down to doing – not just emotions. Ruth and Orpah both felt the same feelings, but Ruth acted differently than Orpah. Some are content with feelings – with feeling love for G-d, with feeling love for His word, with feeling love for His people. G-d didn’t just feel His love for us; instead, “For G-d so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.” John 3:16.
d. What does it teach us that in her great loss and grief Naomi returned to Israel? We sometimes think we can move away from our problems, but find we just bring them with us. No matter where you go, you bring yourself with you – so the same problems can continue in a different place. She must have realized she was not where G-d wanted her to be. Like the prodigal son who returned home, in Luke 15 Naomi got up and returned to Israel.
It would have been easy for Naomi to just sit down and focus on what she had lost. She had lost a husband, two sons, and one daughter-in-law. She had lost all kinds of material possessions. All she had left was one daughter-in-law, Ruth. But instead she started the long difficult journey home. Sometimes it is the same with us when we find ourselves out of G-d will.
She was honest with the people around her that she had lost everything. Naomi didn’t accuse G-d of doing something wrong against her. She acknowledged His total control over all circumstances. She did what she knew G-d wanted her to do. Even in making this long difficult journey she had no idea how she would be blessed in the future by following G-d in her difficult times.
e. In Ruth 3:11 Boaz calls Ruth a virtuous woman or a worthy woman. Do you remember another place in scripture where this phrase is used?
Proverbs 31:10, “Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.”
f. In reading the entire story of Ruth what do you think is the main theme for us?
The story of Ruth demonstrates how the G-d of Israel works within the everyday lives of obedient people to bring about personal, national, and universal redemption.
Ruth was motivated to abandon her pagan religion and put her faith in G-d out of a deep, loving commitment to her Jewish mother-in-law. In desperation to keep Naomi from setting out alone, Ruth swore an oath to her saying,
Ruth 1:16-17, “Wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your G-d will be my G-d. Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the L-rd do this to me and more so if even death separates me from you.”
In this moment, we see this foreign woman display a kind of love that is usually attributed to G-d Himself in the Scriptures: hesed (Psalm 103:8). This Hebrew word has no parallel in English. It denotes a passionate commitment to bless another. And it’s the word used twice in this story to describe Ruth’s actions (1:8 and 3:10) and once to describe the love of G-d for His people (2:20). Ruth demonstrated her conversion, not only in an outward show of solidarity, but in an inner expression of the same love expressed by the G-d of Israel.
G-d’s own hesed was shining through this marginalized, foreign woman to bless Naomi and Boaz. What’s more, we see that this blessing from G-d overflows to the whole nation through David and later the Messiah Himself.
The subtle message of the story of Ruth shows us what it looks like for faithful people to live lives shaped by G-d’s law of love (Matthew 22:35–40). And it reveals how G-d works through those lives to bless a community, a nation, and the world.
That’s why it makes so much sense that this is the story from Scripture that accompanies the celebration of Shavuot. In celebrating the harvest of G-d’s provision and the giving of the Law at Sinai, Jewish people remember a Gentile woman who was brought to faith in Israel’s G-d and written into the story of Israel’s kings through her sheer, unrelenting love for her Jewish family members.
That hesed love is the very heart of G-d that we see throughout the Tanakh—which might be why this Gentile woman became the namesake of a book in the Hebrew Scriptures. I pray that G-d will give us the grace to follow her great example.