Chukat (Regulations) Numbers/B’midbar 19:1-22:1
1.There have been many opinions on why G-d told Moses he would not enter the Promised Land. Why do you think G-d did not allow him to go? Also, in Numbers 20:8 G-d used the word Edah (assembly) when he talked about the children of Israel and Moses in Numbers 20:10 used the word Kahal(congregation). Does this tell us anything about how G-d saw the children of Israel and how Moses saw them?
There are many ideas on why G-d did this, one being that Moshe lost his temper and struck the rock. Another thought is that Moshe took the credit for the miracle instead of giving it to G-d when he said, “We extract the water for you” in Numbers 20:10-11.
I would like to offer another reason based on the Hebrew wording. In verse 20:8 G-d said to give the congregation to drink. In Hebrew that verse is Edah. But in Numbers 20:10 when Moses speaks of the congregation the Hebrew word is kahal.
The Hebrew word Kahal by definition is a disassociated group of people who come together with a common purpose, the purpose here being a lack of water. The root of Edah means a witness or testimony. This word expresses more clearly a group bound together by a common purpose and goal.
Later, in verse 10 we read where Moshe and Aaron gathered together the Kahal. The word used here, as we have seen, is not the same as the one used by G-d. It would seem that Moshe and Aaron had lost the vision of the people as G-d’s Edah and saw them more as a people with little or no common purpose outside of their thirst.
Moshe and Aaron, because of the limited way they saw the people, lost their ability to lead them into the next phase of their journey, entering the Promised Land. They possibly still saw them as slaves they had rescued instead of G-d’s chosen who would soon take possession of the promised land.
So for us, in our daily life, how do we see the people that cross our path? Do we see only the unredeemed actions or physical appearance of the person? We are challenged to cultivate G-d’s view of the people we come in contact with each day and to treat them with loving kindness.
2.In Numbers 21:8-9 it says, “And the L-rd said to Moses, Make a venomous serpent, and set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass, that everyone who is bitten when he looks upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked at the serpent of bronze he lived.” Wouldn’t it have been easier for G-d to just heal the people? Why did he ask Moses to make the serpent of bronze and why did they have to look at it to be healed?
We see a people who rebelled and rose up against Moshe and were punished by the venomous snakes that G-d brought among them. We also see G-d’s provision for them when He instructed Moshe to make a bronze snake. He held the bronze snake up before the people and whomever was bitten could look upon it and live. But to live that person had to look upon the snake. In a way this action was confession on their part that they had sinned.
This same idea is later found in Isaiah 45:22, “Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am G-d, and there is no other.” We might be willing to do a hundred things to earn our salvation, but G-d commands us to only trust in Him – to look to Him.
Sadly, even this G-d-ordained symbol was made into an idol. In II Kings 18:4 King Hezekiah, “broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan. This shows how easy it is for us to take the things of G-d and twist them into idolatry. We must never worship the tools or the people G-d chooses to use, but always bring the honor and glory to G-d alone.
From excavations at Timna about 15 miles (25 km) north of Eilat has come remarkable confirmation of the biblical story, or at least of its origin in the wilderness period. At the foot of one of the Pillars of Solomon in Timna, Rothenberg found a temple of the Egyptian god, Hathor, used in the 13th century bc. When abandoned by the Egyptians about 1150 BC, it was taken over by the Midianites who covered it with curtains to make a tent shrine, somewhat like the tabernacle. Inside this tent temple in the holy place was found a copper snake 5 in. (12 cm) long.”
We also see the snake mentioned in John 3:14-15, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up so that whoever believes in Him has eternal life.” Just as the serpent in the desert brought physical salvation from death, whomever looks upon the Messiah and believes in Him receives eternal salvation.
3.Look at the verses about the red heifer. What are the commandments concerning the red heifer? How can you compare them to the Messiah. Do you find any similarities?
Numbers 19:17-19. The ashes of the Red Heifer were used to cleanse someone who had become ritually unclean form being in contact with a dead body, either by touch or by being in the same structure with a dead person. This was the pinnacle of uncleanness. This meant, until you were cleansed by the ashes of the Red Heifer, you could not take part in the religious life of the community.
Read Numbers 19:5-10. Another odd thing about this statute was that the priest who prepared the ashes and the one who administered them became unclean themselves in order to cleanse the person. They were then excluded from the religious life of the community until the evening. Num. 19:1-10.
The same paradox is in the rituals of Yom Kippur in Leviticus 16.
a.After the purification ceremony of Yom Kippur the high priest needed to immerse again.
b.Also the man who released the goat into the wilderness needed to immerse before returning to the camp.
c.The priest that oversaw the burning of the carcasses of the sin offerings needed to immerse himself before returning to the camp.
Think about this a moment. The priest made himself unclean in order to help a fellow Israelite, someone he might have not even known. It was just something someone in his place was expected to do. You might say it was an act of loving kindness, helping out a person because that is what you are expected to do. We can easily see how Yeshua did this for us when He died for us.
G-d is telling us, through the ordinance of the red heifer, we are required to do acts of kindness, helpful to those around us, with no thought of reward. We do it because it is the right thing to do. It is how we are to act in the world. We may have to put ourselves out to be this kind of person. It is who we are.
The writer of Hebrews mentions the red heifer specifically in Hebrews 9:11-14. As the Red Heifer and the sin offerings were burned outside the camp so Yeshua suffered outside the camp (Jerusalem). As the Red Heifer cleaned a person from the defilement of the contact with the dead so Yeshua cleanses us from sin which leads to spiritual death.
4.To wrap up this discussion look back at the beginning of chapter 19 of Numbers. G-d said, this is the ordinance of the Torah or this is the essence of Torah. What does this mean to you?
This ordinance wrapped up the entire Torah and in fact the entire Bible. This is the guideline for our life as believers in the Messiah. As Yeshua did this for us we are to be His example to others.
There is a story that a convert to Judaism came to Hillel and asked him to condense the whole Torah while he stood on one foot. If he could do that the man would convert. Hillel’s answer was basically the golden rule. In Matthew 7:12 we read, “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Here, in fact, Yeshua equates it with summarizing the Torah and prophets