NUMBERS 22 THROUGH 31 - REQUIREMENTS AND PREPARATIONS FOR GOING INTO BATTLE

 

PART THREE

 

 

 

Numbers 28 and 29 - The Lord’s Calendar and Feasts Revisited - These chapters revisit the Lord’s Shabbat, new moon, and festival calendar found in Lev 23. It describes the various meat and meal offerings presented to the Lord on those days prior to the Israelites entering the land.

Lesson: As hard as it may be we see that the Lord’s calendar is different from the one that Christianity has designed. Unfortunately, the church mixed with pagan customs when Emperor Constantine decreed Christianity to be the religion of the Empire. In order to make the new religion attractive to pagans, feast days were created that coincided with pagan holidays.

Note: The seventy bulls sacrificed during Tabernacles/Sukkot in Num 29.12-40 were a sacrifice for the nations! Sukkot represents the wedding feast of the Lamb and all nations are to celebrate. When the temple was destroyed in 70 AD the sacrifice for the welfare of the nations ceased.

Sadly, Easter and Christmas are not feasts of the Lord. The true feasts are Passover, Pentecost or Weeks, Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles. This may be difficult to accept but once you study the meaning of the Lord’s Feasts it is easy to understand. You will see each feast had tremendous prophetical implications and is a dress rehearsal of things to come.

The Lord is patient and will allow you time to decide if this is offensive to you now. In order to move on it is necessary to understand and observe the Lord’s feasts. Begin by asking Him to show you the truth and study the meaning of each feast from a Hebraic roots perspective. It is part of “counting the cost” to follow Yeshua.

Numbers 30 - Annulling women’s vows and oaths - This chapter focuses on the annulling of vows and oaths which were connected to the votive and freewill offerings in ch 29.39. A vow is conditional. It binds a person only after God fulfills the requested blessing. An oath must be carried out after it is made--it is our promise to God to do something.

This section deals with men making vows and oaths and then on women who are married, widowed, or single. The husband or father can annul a vow he does not think is proper--but he must do it within a short period of hearing the vow or oath. A widow or divorcee responsible for their vows or oaths.

Lesson: Yeshua told us to let our yes be yes and our no be no. It is better to not make vows or oaths that will complicate our lives. Sometimes we may regret having made a vow or oath. In Psalm 15.4 it says, “but he honoureth them that fear the LORD. [He that] sweareth to [his own] hurt, and changeth not.”

Let our yes be yes, our no be no, and lets say what we mean and mean what we say. Once we give our word we need to do our best to honor it. The Lord will help us and bless us in this pursuit. Let’s try to keep things simple.

Numbers 31 - War of Attrition Against the Midianites - The divine command to defeat the Midianites in retaliation for their seduction of the Israelites is the focus of this chapter. The Israelites go out and defeat the Midianites. They come back with much spoil and women and children. In verse 8 we see that Balaam is slain by the sword and in verse 16 we see Balaam conspired with Balak in order to get his reward. He told Balak how to deceive and seduce the Israelites through idolatry with the Midianite women.

When Moses sees the women captives he becomes very angry. These are the same women who seduced them earlier! Moses is furious and tells them to kill every woman who has known a man carnally and only spare the virgins. Then those who have shed blood must stay outside the camp for cleansing for seven days. The booty is shared among the tribes with a levy on all received that went to the service of the Lord.

Lesson: We see how difficult it is to refrain from mixture in our lives! The Israelites brought back alive the very women that had seduced them into pagan rituals. This is a difficult lesson for us to learn! Mixture is an abomination to the Lord. We have to always be diligent to keep from falling into these things. The only way is to understand the Word.

Ref: Deut 4.16-24; Deut 7.1-6; Deut 9.4-6; Deut 12.29-32; Deut 18.9-12; Isaiah 47.13 just to name a few. Ask for discernment as to what is pagan in our day and age. It is so easy to be deceived--deception is very smooth and looks good. Beware!