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Chapter 12: The Challenge to Moses' Leadership within His Family
The theme of this chapter is the challenge to Moses' authority as God's representative to the people and the supreme covenant mediator. The chapter is divided into five parts:
- The challenge to Moses' authority as God's representative (verses 1-2).
- Moses character defined and God's affirmation of Moses unique role as covenant mediator (verses 3-8).
- Miriam's punishment (verses 9-10).
- Moses' intercession on behalf of his sister (verses 11-13).
- God's response to Moses' petition (verses 14-15).
Numbers 12:1-5 Miriam and Aaron are Critical of Moses
Question: What was the focus of Miriam's criticism?
Answer: Moses' marriage to a woman who was not an ethnic Israelite but an outsider.
Question: How did God defend Moses as His authoritative covenant mediator to Miriam and Aaron? How did God define His unique relationship with Moses?
Answer: God called the three siblings out of the camp and to the entrance to the Tabernacle where He appeared in the form of the Glory Cloud and described His personal relationship with Moses as unlike any other relationship between God and man.
Numbers 12:6-10 Yahweh's Defense of Moses
Yahweh's description of His relationship with Moses is expressed in verses of poetry laid out in a reverse chiastic pattern (The JPS Torah Commentary: Numbers, page 95). The first half of the poem describes how God communicates with other prophets (A, B, C). The second half of the poem describes God's unique communication to Moses (C* B* A*). The pivot point of the pattern expresses the theme of the poem: God confides in Moses as a friend and trusted servant.
Introduction: 6 Yahweh said: 'Listen to my words!
A. If there is a prophet among you,
B. I reveal myself to him in a vision,
C. I speak to him in a dream.
D. 7 Not so with my servant Moses;
D* to him my whole household is entrusted;
C* 8 to him I speak face to face,
B* plainly and not in riddles,
A* And he sees Yahweh's form.
Conclusion: How, then, could you dare to criticize my servant Moses?'
Numbers 12:7 Not so with my servant Moses; to him my whole household is entrusted ...
Question: What is the "household" of God?
Answer: The "household" of God is the Old Covenant Church.
Numbers 12: 11-16 Aaron's plea to Moses and Moses' Intercessory Prayer
A horrified Aaron, addressing his younger brother as his superior by the title "Lord", pleaded with Moses to intercede with God to heal Miriam.
Question: It is obvious that God accepted Moses' petition and extended His forgiveness to Miriam, but why did God insist that she should be an outcast for seven days?
Answer: It was her penance. Forgiveness is one thing, but forgiveness and mercy does not negate accountability for the sin committed.
Chapter 13: The Reconnaissance of Canaan
At the end of their journey, the Israelites arrived at the oasis in the region of Kadesh-Barnea (Num 13:26). The name "Kadesh" may mean "sanctuary".
At Kadesh there is an oasis that has been an important stopping off point for travelers and caravans making the journey from Egypt to Canaan for centuries beyond centuries. It is the largest oasis in the north Sinai and is fed by two springs flowing from beneath a rock cliff. Kadesh-Barnea was the location of the southern border of Canaan and the western border with Edom.
Numbers 13:1-16 The Selection of the Scouts
Each man was to be a chieftain (nasi) within his tribe, but he men were probably younger than the chieftains who took the census. Joshua was forty years old (Josh 14:7). Two names stand out in the list: Caleb representing the tribe of Judah and Hosea/Joshua, representing the tribe of Ephraim. You will recall that Joshua son of Nun had served Moses since he was a child (Num 11:28). Moses changed his name to Yehoshua, which means "Yahweh saves" or "Yahweh is salvation". It was Jesus of Nazareth's Hebrew name.
Caleb, whose Hebrew name means "dog" was the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite (Num 32:12; Josh 14:6, 14; 15:7; Judg 1:13; 3:9). Caleb was a Gentile convert who had been adopted into the tribe of Judah (probably by marriage) and had risen to a leadership role within the tribe.
Numbers 13:17-20 The Scouts are Sent Out
The Negeb is the southern part of Canaan below the central mountain range between Beersheba and the Sinai Peninsula. Unlike the Sinai which is low and flat, this part of the Negeb is four hundred feet above sea level. The Israelites would have seen green desert plants, birds and animals since the Negeb gets over two hundred days of dew a year. From the Negeb they were to ascend 3,000 feet to the highlands around Hebron (Walking the Bible, page 313).
Question: Why would God want to send the Israelites on this expedition? Is there a reason for the journey other than as a military expedition? See Genesis 12:6-9.
Answer: The purpose of the expedition wasn't just to reconnoiter the land. The expedition was to claim possession of the land symbolically just as Abraham had symbolically claimed possession of the land in his journey in Genesis 12:6-9. However, the tribal scouts' symbolic claim began in the Negeb whereas Abraham's symbolic journey ended in the Negeb.
Numbers 13:21-24 The Scouts fulfill their Mission
July/August was the season of ripe grapes according to the artifact known as the Gezer Calendar. If this was the season of "early" grapes, the scouts must have gone into Canaan in early July. The wilderness of Zin was above the wilderness of Paran. The oasis of Kadesh-Barnea was probably on the border between Paran and Zin. Rehob is unknown but a city known as Lebo-hamath stood at the Pass of Hamath that led to the Mediterranean Sea. Lebo coincides with the northern border of Israel during the reigns of Kings David and Solomon (1 Kng 8:65) and Jeroboam II (2 Kng 14:25; Amos 6:14), and is mentioned as forming the northern boundary of the Promised Land (Num 34:7-9; Ez 48:1).
The Valley of Eshcol is located near Hebron (Gen 14:13 records that Eshkol was the brother of Mamre at Hebron). The Hebrew word eschol means "cluster". Hebron is a town where the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob settled.
The tomb of the Patriarchs is located in Hebron, and God promised the land of Canaan to Abraham while he was living in Hebron (Gen 17).
Numbers 13:25-33 The Report
Numbers 13:25 After forty days they returned from reconnoitering the country. Forty is a significant number in Scripture, signifying consecration or testing.
Question: When has the number forty been significant in events in Scripture?
Answer: Some examples:
- The forty day sequences in the great Flood (Gen 7:4, 12, 17; 8:6)
- Moses ascent up Mt. Sinai for two forty day periods (Ex 24:18; 34:28)
- Israel ate the manna for forty years in the wilderness (Ex 16:35)
- The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years (Num 14:33)
- Joshua was forty years old when Moses sent him to reconnoiter the land (Josh 14:7)
- Forty years of rest was the period of peace between the rule of the Judges (Judg 3:11; 5:31; 8:28)
- Eli judged Israel for forty years (1 Sam 4:18)
- David ruled Israel forty years (2 Sam 5:4; 1 Kng 2:11)
- Solomon ruled Israel forty years (1 Kng 11:42)
- Jesus fasted and was tempted by the devil in the wilderness for forty days (Mt 4:2; Mk 1:13; Lk 4:2)
Numbers 13:32-33 And they began disparaging the country they had reconnoitered to the Israelites, saying, 'The country we have been to reconnoiter is a country that devours its inhabitants. All the people we saw there were of enormous size. 33 We saw giants there too (the Anakim, descended from the Giants). We felt like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.'
Question: What did the negative report of the ten scouts reveal?
Answer: They told the people that the land "devours its inhabitants", which either means the land did not produce enough food, which contradicts their earlier report, or that there is constant warfare between the inhabitants. They reported that the people were more powerful then the Israelites. The end result was that they did not trust God to keep His promised that they would possess the Promised Land.
Question: Who attempted to silence the negative scouts and declared that if they trusted God they would be victorious.
Answer: Caleb, the Gentile convert who was a leader in the tribe of Judah.
Chapter 11: Israel's Obligations Continued
Chapter 11:1-25 concludes the part of Moses' second homily that was an appeal for covenant loyalty based on the covenant documents of the Decalogue (chapters 5-10). Chapter 11:26-32 will be an introduction to the discourse on the series of laws known as the Deuteronomic Code. The Pentateuch contains three sets of law codes that expand the basic law of the Decalogue:
- The Book of the Covenant: at Sinai immediately after arriving (Ex 20:20-23:33)
- The Holiness Code: at Sinai during last 30 days (Lev 17-26)
- The Deuteronomic Code: on the Plains of Moab (Dt 12-26)
Moses' argument for obedience and covenant loyalty continue. He lays out his argument in three distinct paragraphs in verses 1-25. Moses' main theme in all three paragraphs is that loyalty to Yahweh's covenant provides the conditions for life and prosperity in Canaan. Each of the paragraphs in this section of Moses' address is distinct from the other; however, the paragraphs compliment each other and share many of the same features. Within each paragraph there is the command to:
- "love Yahweh your God" (Dt 11:1, 13, 22)
- "keep/keeping," samar/shamar (Dt 11:1, 16, 22, 32) and "obey/obeying," sama/shama (Dt 11:13, 27, 28) the commandments
- "keeping the commandments which I command you today/this day" (Dt 11:1, 8)
- "obey the commandments I enjoin on you today (Dt 11:13
- "keeping and observing/obeying all the laws [commandments] and customs [statutes] ... by me to you today" (Dt 11:22, 32)
Deuteronomy 11:1-9
Israel's Past Experiences
Question: In this first section, after repeating God's demand to love Him and keep His commandments, what argument does Moses use to persuade the people should obey the Lord?
Answer: Having been eyewitnesses to God great works on behalf of Israel as well as His mighty judgments for disobedience, this generation should be able to understand better than any future generation that Israel's success, both in conquering the Promised Land and in keeping it, depends on Israel's obedience and loyalty to God.
Moses tells his people that not only are they the chosen people but they are the chosen generation of the chosen people.
Deuteronomy 11:10-17 Promises and Warnings
This paragraph contrasts the Promised Land with the land of Egypt.
Question: How will the sowing of the soil and the harvest of the Promise Land be different from Egypt?
Answer: In Egypt they irrigated their fields manually with water from the Nile, but in the Promised Land they will have to depend on God to give them water for their crops.
Deuteronomy 11:14 I shall give your country rain at the right time, rain in autumn, rain in spring, so that you can harvest your wheat, your new wine and your oil.
Question: From what Moses says about rain in the Promised Land, what can the Israelites conclude about adequate rainfall for crops?
Answer: Since the Promise Land is going to be watered by God, rainfall is conditional upon obedience to Him.
Deuteronomy 11:18-25 Conclusion
Verses 18-21 are a repeat of the commands concerning the wearing of tefilin/teffilin and the posting of mezuzot on doorposts that were given in Deuteronomy 6:6-9. In verse 24 the extent of the land promised to Abraham in Genesis 15:18 is repeated.
Question: What three points can you identify as the focus of Moses' message in this section of the second homily?
Answer:
- Victory over the Canaanites is assured if the Israelites remain obedient.
- However, the blessings of living in the land that Yahweh promises to Israel depend on the Israelites' obedience to the Law.
- Therefore, the Israelites should continuously remind themselves of God's laws and Moses' instructions, teaching them to future generations so as to obey them and to avoid a disastrous fate.
Deuteronomy 11:26-32 Introduction to the Deuteronomic Code
This section is a summing up of the preamble to the laws from 5:1-11:28 and also serves as an introduction to the Deuteronomic Code. The promises for covenant obedience and the warnings of punishments for disobedience are predominantly addressed to the people in the plural "you," stressing the communal responsibility of Israel as people in covenant with Yahweh.
Question: In his second homily, Moses has essentially offered the Israelites what two choices concerning their future in the Promised Land?
Answer: He has offered them a future full of God's blessings if they remind faithful to the covenant and obedient to God's Law or a future filled with divine judgment and disaster if they fail in their covenant obligations.
Question: What was significant about the Oak of Moreh? See Gen 12:1-7.
Answer: The Oak of Moreh was where Abraham erected his first altar to Yahweh after arriving in the Promised Land (Gen 12:6-7). The covenant renewal ceremony after the invasion took place near the very place where God made His covenant promised to Abraham and where Abraham showed His faith in Yahweh's promises by building his first altar and worshiping Yahweh with sacrifices.
It may also have been where Jacob buried foreign idols (see Gen 35:4) and the site where Joshua later set up the desert Tabernacle (Josh 24:26). The two mountains face each other south (Gerizim) and north (Ebal) of Shechem. It was on Mount Gerizim that the Samaritan's built their Temple.
CHALLENGE: “Catholics should not use crucifixes because Jesus is no longer on the cross.”
DEFENSE: The reason that the cross is important is because of the Crucifixion. This objection has more to do with group identity markers than serious theological reflection. Every group has practices that mark its identity with respect to other groups (e.g., circumcision and keeping kosher among Jewish people).
In Western Europe at the time of the Reformation, Protestants began to distinguish themselves from Catholics by certain practices. One was an avoidance of three-dimensional images of Jesus, though two-dimensional images (e.g., paintings and illustrations) were retained.
The aversion to three-dimensional images of Christ led to the use of bare crosses, without the figure of Christ. There is nothing wrong with bare crosses. They were used long before the Reformation, and they are still used in Catholic circles. The reasons for them are not theological or ideological but practical (e.g., a cross may be too small to accommodate a figure of Christ) or artistic (e.g., so that a cross can be specially decorated).
There is also nothing wrong with crucifixes, which depict Jesus hanging on the cross. They are more vivid reminders of what Jesus did for us. The cross was not important for its own sake but because Jesus died on it. Thus, Protestants also create paintings and illustrations of Jesus hanging on the cross.
This reveals that the objection sometimes made to crucifixes is not based on an aversion to depicting Jesus on the cross. A three-dimensional depiction of the Crucifixion is not intrinsically any different than a two dimensional depiction, which suggests that the Protestant preference for bare crosses over crucifixes is a matter of culture rather than theological principle.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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