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Chapter 27: The Inheritance of Daughters in the Promised Land
and Joshua's Ordination
Numbers 27:1-4 The Petition of the Daughters of Zelophehad
Inheritance of the land will be through the male line, but Zelophehad died without any male heirs. The daughters of Zelophehad brought their case to the entrance to the Sanctuary, which was probably the site of the judicial court, and they petitioned Moses and the entire community to allow them to inherit their father's share of the Promised Land and to allow his family line to continue through their sons.
Question: What is significant about the point they raise in verse 3?
Answer: The assumption is that the rebels in Korah's revolt have been disinherited from what would have been their portion of the Promised Land.
The land belonged to Yahweh who assigns it to the faithful clans of Israel for their use. Those who inherited the land cannot permanently sell it since they are only caretakers of the land (see Lev 25:23; 1 Kng 21:16-19; and Mic 2:1-5). In the Jubilee year, any land that was sold must revert to its original owner. Prior to the Jubilee, if a kinsman has fallen on hard times and has sold his land, it is the moral duty of the nearest relative to redeem it (see Jer Lev 25:24-25; Rt 4:1-12; 32:6-15). Such a benefactor is called a "kinsman redeemer" (see the chart on the "Kinsman Redeemer" and the chart on "Christ Our Kinsman Redeemer" in the Charts/Old Testament section).
Numbers 27:5-11 Moses' Ruling on the Inheritance of Daughters
As in all cases dealing with the Law of the covenant, Moses took the petition to Yahweh. It was Yahweh's ruling that the daughters could inherit land in the name of their father.
Question: What conditions were attached to this ruling?
Answer: If a man died without daughters or sons, the inheritance passed to the man's brothers or to the surviving members of his clan who were the most closely related to him.
Numbers 27:12-14 Yahweh Orders Moses to Prepare for His Death
The reason Moses is given for not being exempted from the death sentence on the Exodus generation is his action in striking the Rock at Kadesh in Chapter 20:1-13. The Kadesh in Chapter 20 is identified as the same Kadesh as Chapter 13, on the border with the deserts of Paran and Zin (see 13:21, 26). God will graciously permit Moses to view the Promised Land before he dies (Dt 34:1-4).
Mount Nebo
The Abarim is the mountain range that traverses the length of Moab (see Num 21:11 and 33:45). The mountain Moses must climb is identified with Mt. Nebo in Deuteronomy 32:49. This is the mountain where Moses saw the Promised Land, died, and was buried (also see Num 33:47; Dt 32:49-52; 34:1-8). Mt. Nebo is about 2,740 feet high (835 m) and makes a natural balcony, providing a panoramic view which includes the Dead Sea and the Jordan valley from the Judean wilderness from Tekoa to Jerusalem and up to the mountains of Samaria-it was Moses' only view of the Promised Land of Canaan (The Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. 4, "Nebo", pages 1056-57). Just as Aaron ascended a mountain to die, so will Moses.
Numbers 27:15-23 Moses' Request for a Righteous Successor and Joshua's Ordination
In verse 15 Moses addresses Yahweh with the same phrase he used in Numbers 16:22. In that passage Moses called upon God to distinguish between the guilty and the innocent in Korah's rebellion. In this passage, it is to distinguish one who is worthy since God is acquainted with the spirit of every individual and knows the heart of the right man to lead Israel.
Question: How does God describe Joshua?
Answer: As a man in whom God's spirit dwells.
Question: How will God's relationship with Joshua be different from His relationship with Moses? See Num 12:6-8.
Answer: God had always communicated with Moses face to face, but He will communicate His divine will to Joshua through the High Priest.
Question: In verse 17 we have the definition of the Mosaic leader and a foreshadow of what future shepherds of Israel? See 2 Sam 5:2-4 (literal translation reads "led Israel out and in"); 1 Kng 22:17; 1 Chr 11:2 ; Ez 34:5-6, 11-24; Jn 10:1-18 (the Good Shepherd Discourse, note verses 9, 11, and 14); and Mt 25:32-34 and comment how each passages fulfills the Mosaic image of a Shepherd over Israel.
Answer: It is the Mosaic model fulfilled in David of Bethlehem and in the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.
- David the Shepherd of Israel is the Mosaic model of a leader:
- In 2 Samuel 5:2-4 [NAB] the passage referring to David reads: In days past when Saul was our king, it was you who led the Israelites out and brought them back [led the Israelites out and in]. And the LORD [Yahweh] said to you, 'You shall shepherd my people Israel and shall be commander of Israel.' This passage repeats the Shepherd of Israel imagery and repeats the "out and in" phrase from Numbers 27:17 (the same is repeated in 1 Chr 11:2).
- In 1 Kings 22:17 God expressed His displeasure in the kings of Israel and David's descendants, the kings of Judah, through the prophet Micaiah: I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep without a shepherd.
- The promised Messiah is the model of the Mosaic leader who is the ideal Davidic king:
- In Ezekiel 34:5-24, Yahweh speaking through His the prophet says: For lack of a shepherd they have been scattered, to become the prey of all the wild animals; they have been scattered ... then He promises that He will take care of His flock and He shall gather them back from where they have been scattered across the earth by raising up "one shepherd, my servant David" who will have charge of God's people to be their Shepherd (verse 23) and God will judge between the sheep and goats (verse 17).
- Jesus of Nazareth is the model of the Mosaic leader and ideal Davidic king:
- In the Good Shepherd Discourse in John 10, Jesus identifies Himself as the "Good Shepherd" of God's people (10:11), who guards the gate to let His flock go "out and in" (10:9).
- In Matthew 25 Jesus tells the people He has the power to judge God's people and to separate the sheep from the goats (see Ez 34:23-24).
Chapters 28-29: Additional Legislation for the Sacrifice of the Daily Tamid
and for other Holy Day Sacrifices
Numbers 28:1-3 Introduction to the Sacrificial Requirements for the Communal Altar Sacrifices
In Exodus Chapter 12 Yahweh gave the instructions for the Passover sacrifice and the annual memorial of that historical event. Next, in Exodus 29:38-42 Yahweh gave the detailed instructions for the daily sacrifice of expiation and sanctification for the covenant community known in Hebrew as the 'olat ha-Tamid (literally "the standing whole burnt"; tamid means "standing" as in continual), and in Leviticus Chapter 16 Yahweh set forth the detailed instructions for a day of communal reconciliation, known in Hebrew as Yom Kippur and in English as the Day of Atonement.
Then, in Leviticus 23:1-44, Yahweh set the cycle of the liturgical calendar in the weekly and annual holy day festivals. The weekly Sabbath and the annual dates of the holy feasts were prescribed in Leviticus 23, but the kinds animals offered in sacrifice and the accompanying grain and wine libations were only given for the Feast of Firstfruits (of the barley harvest), which was to be celebrated on the day after the Sabbath of the holy week of Unleavened Bread, and a second festival of the first fruits of the wheat harvest fifty days later on the Feast of Weeks/Pentecost.
Numbers 28:4-8 The 'Olat ha-Tamid (Communal Daily Whole Burnt Offering)
In Exodus 29:38-42 the Tamid is described as a single whole sacrifice (Ex 29:42) of two lambs offered in a liturgical service in the morning and in the afternoon (evening for the Israelites). The daily liturgy of the Tamid was the most important of all sacrifices in the ritual of sacrifice for the people of the Sinai Covenant. The importance of the Tamid wasn't just that it was the most frequent sacrifice. Like our Eucharistic celebration, it was the heart of the liturgy of the Old Covenant Church. It was also the only sacrifice mentioned in Numbers Chapters 28-30 that must have precedence over all other sacrifices. That it was the center of the daily liturgical life for the covenant people is emphasized in the command that no other holy day sacrifices, including the Sabbath sacrifices, were to preclude the Tamid. This command is repeated fifteen times in the instructions for the weekly, monthly, and annual sacrifices (Num 28:10, 15, 23, 24, 31; 29:6, 11, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31, 34, and 38).
Question: What was the "pleasing odor" that was "food" for Yahweh associated with the Tamid?
Answer: What was pleasing to Yahweh was the self-surrender and obedience of the united body of the covenant people.
Numbers 28:9-10 The Sabbath Sacrifice
Question: What was the required Saturday Sabbath day sacrifice?
Answer: Two lambs with a grain offering and a wine libation.
Numbers 28:11-15 The Festival of the New Moon
The feast of the New Moon in Hebrew is Rosh Hodesh, meaning "first" or "head" of the moon". The Hebrew word hodesh can mean "new moon" and it can also mean "month". The calendar of religious festivals was determined by the lunar calendar. The chief priests determined the beginning of the new month based on the first sighting of the new moon.
Question: What did St. Paul mean when he wrote: Then never let anyone criticize you for what you eat or drink, or about observance of annual festivals, New Moons or Sabbaths. These are only a shadow of what was coming: the reality is the body of Christ (Col 2:16-17).
Answer: Christ fulfilled the Festival of the New Moon, as He fulfilled all the sacrifices of the holy days. Those liturgical celebrations with their sacrifices and communion meals were only shadows or a reflection of what was to come in sacrifice and the communion meal that is the Body of the risen Christ.
Numbers 28:16-25 The Festivals of the Passover and Unleavened Bread
This section begins the list of the annual holy days remembrance festivals in which the covenant people relived the Exodus experience.
Question: What did the Festival of the Passover commemorate? See Ex 12:1-7, 13-14, 21-28.
Answer: In reenacting the Passover sacrifice on the 14th of Abib, the covenant people relived the sacrifice of the lambs and goat-kids in the first Passover when the blood of the sacrificial victims smeared on the door-posts and lintels of their houses protected the people from death on the night of the tenth plague.
Question: What did the Festival of Unleavened Bread commemorate? See Ex 12:8-14, 29-34, 42; 13:3-8.
Answer: It commemorated the eating of the sacred meal of the Passover victims after sundown on the night of the 15th of Abib, as the angel of death "passed over" their houses on the night of the tenth plague and the beginning of the journey out of Egypt the next morning.
Question: How many days did Unleavened Bread last?
Answer: It lasted for seven days.
Question: What connection can be made to our New Covenant obligations?
Answer: We did not have to be present at the sacrifice of the Lamb of God in 30 AD, but we do have a covenant obligation to be present at the Lord's Day Feast and in a ritually pure state to take part in eating the glorified Body of the Lamb of God and drink His precious Blood in the Eucharistic banquet.
Numbers 28:26-31 The Festival of Weeks (called Pentecost in the New Testament)
There were two festivals where the first fruits of the grain harvest were presented at Yahweh's altar. The first was the offering of the "first-fruits" barley harvest in the midst of the seven day festival of Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:9-14) and the second was to be celebrated fifty days later in the "first-fruits" of the wheat harvest. Neither of these festivals was to begin until after Israel took possession of the Promised Land and the people turned from the occupation of semi-nomadic herdsmen to farmers. Leviticus 23:9-22 gives detailed instruction for these two festivals. They are the only two annual festivals that do not have prescribed dates. Instead, the Festival of Firstfruits fell on the day after the holy Sabbath of the week of Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:9) and the Festival of Weeks was determined by counting seven time seven weeks from Firstfruits and was celebrated on the 50th day (Lev 23:16-16).
Question: These festivals always fell on the same day year after year. What was the day they were celebrated? Remember the ancients counted without the concept of a zero place-value so any sequence of days began with counting the first day as one.
Answer: The Festival of the Firstfruits of the barley harvest fell on a Sunday and the Festival of Weeks took place seven weeks later, on the fiftieth day, which was also a Sunday.
Question: In the spring of 30 AD, during the Festival of Weeks, also called Pentecost, what amazing event took place fifty days after Jesus' Resurrection? See Acts 1:1-3; 12-14; 2:1-3; CCC 731.
Answer: After His Resurrection, Jesus taught the New Covenant Church for forty days. Just before His Ascension, Jesus instructed His disciples to return to Jerusalem and to remain in prayer. Ten days later, on the fiftieth day after Jesus' Resurrection, on the Festival of Pentecost/Weeks, God the Holy Spirit descended upon and indwelled the disciples praying in the Upper Room.
Chapter 28: Blessings for Covenant Obedience and Judgments for Covenant Failures
Perhaps you have heard of the prophecy of Christ's death. You ask to learn [from Moses] what is set forth concerning the cross. Not even this is passed over. It is displayed by the holy men with great plainness. For first Moses predicts it, and that even with a loud voice, when he says, "You shall see your Life hanging before your eyes and shall not believe.
St. Athanasius on Deuteronomy 28:66; On the Incarnation 35
Deuteronomy 28:1-14 The Covenant Blessings
The words "Yahweh your God" have been repeated frequently throughout Moses' homilies, but notice the frequency of the use of this phrase throughout chapters 27-29. Yahweh isn't just the God of the Israelites' ancestors; Yahweh is their God.
Question: What do all the promised blessings have in common and what is missing?
Answer: All the promised blessings are temporal; they are not eternal.
Question: What else do you notice that is associated with Israel receiving the promised temporal blessings? See 26:17-18; 27:10, 26; 28:1-2, 9, 13-14.
Answer: The blessings are conditional upon Israel's obedience to Yahweh's commands as stipulated in the covenant document.
Question: When did Jesus teach the New Covenant blessings? How were those blessings different from the Old Covenant blessings? See Mt 5:1-12 and Lk 6:20-23.
Answer: Jesus taught the New Covenant blessings in the Beatitudes atop the Mt. of Beatitudes and also in His sermon when He came down from the summit and taught crowds of people. Jesus' promised blessings were both spiritual and eternal.
Deuteronomy 28:15-26 Prophecy of Divine Judgment for Covenant Failures
The judgments in verses 15-19 are in contrast to the blessings promised in verses 3-6. It is uncertain if this section is to be included in the covenant renewal ceremony near Shechem or if this discourse concerning divine judgment for covenant failures is only addressed to the Israelites on the Plains of Moab. Notice in both the blessings and the judgments that the conditional statements in verses 1 and 15 are followed by promises of good things (for the blessings) and sufferings (for the curses).
Neglecting the Law or direct disobedience to the Law would result in afflictions and calamities which will finally result in death (verse 24). While health is a promised covenant blessing, pestilence and epidemics will afflict a disobedient and unrepentant people (verses 21-22). Not only will the people be afflicted; the land will also suffer.
The rains promised as covenant blessings will cease, no rain clouds will produce a hot, scorching sky and the ground will become as hard as iron and unable to support plant life. The once fertile land will be come a desert (verses 23-24).
The curse judgments in the last verses 23-24 are the converse of the promised blessings contained in verses 7 and 10. Man who was created to receive the blessings of fertility and mastery over the earth (Gen 1:28) will become infertile, the land will also become infertile and the earth will have mastery over the unfaithful Israelites who will be pursued by enemies, die and return to the dust of the earth.
Verse 25 is in contrast to verse 7-the blessing is that Israel's enemies will flee in seven directions (the number seven symbolizing completeness), but the curse is that Israel's defeat will be complete as they flee from their enemies in seven directions.
Deuteronomy 28:27-35 Diseases and the Consequences of Defeat
The specific identification of the four diseases listed is uncertain.
Verses 31-34 describe sufferings that would come after defeat by a foreign power. Verse 35 mentions another disease that affects the skin. It is reminiscent of the disease that Job suffered from in Job 2:7.
Deuteronomy 28:36-46 Exile, Failed Harvests and the Decline in National Status
The prophecy in verses 36-37 is that as a nation no longer under God's divine protection, the Israelites will be defeated in war and the people and their king will be exiled into a foreign land. The older Israelites listening to Moses' dire prediction could remember servitude in Egypt as children and their sons and daughters had heard the stories of the tribes' suffering under foreign domination. As Yahweh's faithful vassals the Israelites are promised His protection from enemies in the Promised Land, but if they fail in their obedience to their covenant obligations, God will withdraw His protection and they will become the prey of neighboring states.
The destruction and exile of the ten Northern Kingdom took place in 722 BC and the destruction of the Southern Kingdom of Judah and the exile of the two remaining tribes took place in 587/6 BC. The exiles of Judah were allowed to return in 539 BC. In 63 BC the Roman Empire made Judah a province of the Roman Empire, renaming the territory Judea. Rome exploited the resources of Judea, and began the deforestation of the entire region. There was a third fulfillment of the judgment, as prophesied by Jesus, when the Judeans revolted against Rome in 66 AD. The Roman army conquered Jerusalem and burned the Temple in 70 AD. Any of the Jewish towns that had resisted the Romans were burned and their inhabitants were sold into slavery and exiled into other Roman provinces.
The prophet Jeremiah recounted these same judgments, writing that the unfaithful covenant people would become an object of horror to all the neighboring nations (Jer 24:8-10).
Deuteronomy 28:47-57 Prophecies of War, Siege and the resulting Horrors
Question: What is the contrast between verses 47-48?
Answer: Verses 47-48 reveal the contrast between obediently serving Yahweh, their Great King, with a happy heart and with every need fulfilled in the Promised Land as opposed the judgment of disloyalty to Yahweh resulting in invasion by foreign powers and serving earthly kings who will abuse the people.
Verses 52-57 describe the horrors of a prolonged siege and the resulting cannibalizing of the town's own children.
Deuteronomy 28:58-62
The Curses of Egypt and the Revoking of the Promises to the Patriarchs
The mention of the book of the Torah (verses 58 and 61) is either a reference to the Deuteronomic Code or to Moses' entire instruction which is being recorded and will become the Book of Deuteronomy
Question: What did Yahweh promise the Israelites if they remained faithful and obedient in Deuteronomy 7:12-15? What is the significance of this passage compared to Deuteronomy 7:12-15? Also see Gen 15:5; 22:17; 26:4; Ex 32:13.
Answer: He promised them that He would be true to the covenant oath He made to their ancestors and that He would bless them, increasing their numbers, giving them all their material needs, protecting them from illness and that He would not afflict on them the evil plagues of Egypt. In this passage, Yahweh is revoking those promised blessings and protections, including the promise to the Patriarchs to make their descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven.
62 There will only be a small group of you left, you who were once as numerous as the stars of heaven. God always preserves a "faithful remnant" to carry on His plan of salvation. The first "faithful remnant" was the eight souls saved during the Great Flood judgment. There will also be a "faithful remnant" preserved in the return from the Babylonian exile, and the "faithful remnant" of the Old Covenant people of God will become the founders of Jesus' Kingdom of Heaven on earth, the Catholic (universal) Church of the New Covenant people of God.
Deuteronomy 28:63-68 The Conclusion of the Judgment Curses
The last sections of the judgment-curses are not told as a "could happen" but as a "when it does happen." The judgment curses in verses 33-68 were fulfilled when the Romans viciously put down the Jewish Revolt of 66 AD. The resulting invasion, sieges of towns, complete annihilation of the opposing Jewish forces, and the selling of the Jewish survivors into slavery and exile through the Roman Empire was literally the end of the world for the Jews. It was the beginning of what the Jews call the Great Diaspora.
| Prophecies in Deuteronomy 28:33-68 | Prophecies Fulfilled by the Romans |
| 49 Against you Yahweh will raise a distant nation from the ends of the earth like an eagle taking wing: a nation whose language you do not understand, a nation grim of face, with neither respect for the old, nor pity for the young. | In 66-62 BC, Roman general Pompey began his campaign in the east, conquering Pontus, Bithynia and the Greek Seleucid kingdom of Syria. In 63 he besieged and conquered Jerusalem, beginning Rome domination of Judah, which became the Roman province of Judea. The imperial eagle was the symbol of Rome. An eagle statue was place above the Temple entrance by Herod the Great (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 17.6.2-3). |
| 51 He will eat the yield of your cattle and the yield of your soil until you have been destroyed; he will leave you neither wheat, nor wine, nor oil, nor the young of your cattle, nor increase of your flock until he has made an end of you. | As with their other provinces, the Romans stripped Judea of its resources to feed its empire. |
| 52 He will besiege you inside all your towns until your loftiest and most strongly fortified walls collapse, on which, throughout your country [land], you have relied. He will besiege you inside all the towns throughout your country [land], given you by Yahweh your God. | In 66 AD, the Jews revolted against Rome. In 67AD, four Roman legions descended upon Judea, besieging and destroying any town that resisted, beginning in the Galilee. |
| 53 During the siege and in the distress to which your enemy will reduce you, you will eat the offspring of you own body, the flesh of the sons and daughters given you by Yahweh your God. | Josephus wrote an account of the Jews eating their children during the Roman siege (The Wars of the Jews, 6.3.4 [201-208]). |
| You will be torn from the country [land] which you are about to enter and make your own. 64 Yahweh will scatter you throughout every people, from one end of the earth to the other; there you will serve other gods made of wood and stone, hitherto unknown either to you or to your ancestors. 65 Among these nations there will be no repose for you, no rest for the sole of your foot ... | Almost a million Jews were sold into slavery throughout the Roman Empire. Josephus: ... and because the very soldiers grew weary of killing them, and because they hoped to get some money by sparing them ... and sold the rest of the multitude, with their wives and children, and every one of them at a very low price, and that because such as were sold were very many ... the number of those sold was immense (The Wars of the Jews, 6.8.2) Now the number of those that were carried captive during this whole war was collected to be ninety-seven thousand; as was the number of those that perished during the whole siege eleven hundred thousand (The Wars of the Jews, 6.9.3). |
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Deuteronomy 28:69/29:1 End of the Second Homily
This concludes Moses' second homily and the Sanctions section of the Covenant Treaty. The last verse does not suggest that this is a treaty in addition to the Sinai Covenant. There is still only one covenant treaty between God and Israel-a covenant treaty that is a renewal resource for every generation. This verse only instructs that the additional instruction given by Moses in his homilies on the Plains of Moab are in addition to and are just as binding as the Law spoken by God through Moses at Mt. Sinai.
CHALLENGE: “The argument from change (see Day 73) is flawed: (1) The future already exists, so time and change are illusions; (2) some things cause themselves to change, as when an animal opens its eyes; (3) there could be an infinite regress of prior causes; (4) there could be a causal loop where an event in the future causes a change in the past; and (5) God would need a cause.”
DEFENSE: None of these objections overturn the argument from change. First, although modern physics commonly proposes time is another dimension, like the dimensions of space, and the future already exists, this does not make time or change illusory. Things are different at one moment in time than another, so change occurs across time, even if all history exists at once from God’s eternal perspective.
Second, apparent cases of self-motion disintegrate on close analysis. When an animal opens its eyes, the eye is not the cause of its own opening. The eyelids are moved by muscles, which are activated by neurons, which fire based on processes taking place on the subatomic level in the animal’s nervous system.
Third, Aquinas agrees there could be an infinite regress of prior historical states (ST I:46:2). However, we are discussing what causes a change at the moment it happens, not about the history leading up to that moment. If a painting is being made, an artist needs to be applying paint to canvas at that moment. There cannot be an infinite series of simultaneous causes of the painting any more than an infinitely long brush could paint by itself.
Fourth, although physicists have speculated about the possibility of events in the future producing effects in the past, at present we have no evidence this happens.
Further, as in the previous example, we are not talking about events elsewhere in history (either the past or the future). We are discussing what causes the change at the moment it takes place. Even if an artist traveled from the future to make a painting, the painting is still being made in the present and requires a cause at that moment.
Fifth, God does not require a cause because, per the argument, God is changeless and the argument only proposes that things that change need causes.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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