Numbers 10:11-36 -- Having already noted the difficulty in dealing with head-counts in the text, it can be stated here that the primary purpose of any census in Israel was to determine the number of men available for war. They were divided into two groups. The professional soldiers (denoted by the word often translated "thousand") were fully armed, usually with the rarer metal weapons, and trained for war. It was safe to assume these usually noblemen, though the degree of social stratification is hard to know for certain. We have examples of apparent peasants rising to distinction because of demonstrated talent in warfare. Someone of that sort would be noticed and recruited by the wealthy and powerful, thus conferring some status, if none existed before.
It's easy to imagine a drafted peasant demonstrating a hitherto unrecognized talent for war. Draftees, the citizen-soldiers, were always counted in hundreds, presumably because they maneuvered in such groups. These latter were often armed with such weapons as any man might construct from available materials: slings and stones, spears, clubs, axes, etc. This was the common system of accounting in most Semitic cultures in ancient times. The numbers would be stated as so many professional soldiers, and so many hundreds of draftees. A reasonable reconstruction at this place in the text would be 600 professional soldiers and about 25,000 draftees. [See this footnote for details on Hebrew counting.]
A few final events took place at the foot of Mount Sinai before the nation marched out toward Palestine. The Tabernacle was dedicated in a lavish ceremony (ch. 7), and the clan of Aaron was vested with the authority of the priesthood. The other Levite clans were assigned their tasks, and there was short period of training for all. Three weeks after the troop census, and after the first official celebration of the Passover, the whole nation set out in specified order. This part of their voyage was through more desolate territory than their approach to Mount Sinai. After some initial generalized griping, fire broke out on the edges of the tent city. This was merely the first in a series of such events that attended the whole journey.
11:1-15, 31-35 -- Jehovah had been providing manna, appearing overnight with the dew. There is no known natural explanation for it. The pagan rabble still accompanying the march acted as a goad, and the natural contrariness of the Israeli character manifested itself repeatedly. After a year of manna, they whined about the monotony of the it, so Jehovah provided quail. These had appeared on the march to Mount Sinai, and a year later on the march away from it. This breed of quail typically flew in large flocks just a few feet off the ground. Migrating from Europe during April, they would often settle on the ground for a day or two to rest. In flight or at rest, they were easily captured by hand. Jehovah directed the flight path of the quail across the route of Israel both times. Along with quail they were given a plague to discipline them for whining. Quite likely, on the second event, the quail carried some sort of disease that affected humans.
11:16-30 -- At the same time, in a move apparently aimed at bringing some form of civil order to the nation, a fresh cohort of the Seventy Elders were appointed, and given a portion of Moses' spirit. The original Seventy Elders being displaced, essentially judges, had risen through tribal politics. These new officers were above the normal tribal leadership, which was based on birthright. They were clearly not volunteers for the job, as demonstrated by the two who refused to show up for their commissioning at the Tent of Meeting. When the spirit from Jehovah fell on the appointees, the two abstainers were overpowered by an urge to prophesy, even while still in their tents.
12 -- This newly empowered leadership may have helped for a while, but then Moses' older sister Miriam raised a controversy over his qualifications as national leader. By custom and by Law, Aaron, as the elder brother, would have been the civil leader as well as spiritual leader and High Priest. The issue of Moses' marriage to an Ethiopian woman was just a ruse. At the Tent of Meeting, Miriam was struck with leprosy. With the law excluding lepers from close contact with the general population, she would have been unable to stir up any more trouble for the rest of her life. Upon Moses' appeal on her behalf, the sentence of exclusion was shortened to seven days, and the leprosy was healed.
On the one hand, we are left wondering why God would have anything to do with these people. On the other hand, it's clear their frequent accusation that God intended to kill them in the wilderness was false. What lay ahead of them was far better than they ever deserved, though quite unpleasant at times. It is also solid proof of God's patience and steadfastness in the face of incredible provocation.
13 -- Moses sent spies, apparently the senior ranking soldier from each tribe, to assess the military strength of the enemy they were to conquer in Palestine. As they had been doing all the way from Mount Sinai, the nation had set up camp for a time. This Wilderness of Paran was not exactly a sandy desert like the Sahara of North Africa. It was a dry, rocky area of hills and valleys, with seasonal vegetation. Since this was the early summer, there would have been some vestiges of this greenery left from the spring rains that ended in April. The spies were directed to travel from there north across the Negev, a much drier area, into the southern hill country of Palestine. From there they spent a month or so wandering possibly as far north as Damascus. They brought back a cluster of grapes, plentiful and in season in the Hebron highlands. The bunch was large enough to require it be suspended from a pole carried between two men. They also brought back descriptions of fortified cities occupied by the "Sons of Anak," a term used to describe giants. The majority of the surveyors professed no confidence that the nation could overcome such obstacles to conquest.
14 -- That the nation gave more credence to the negative report was the final straw. Jehovah determined that his earlier threat of killing the nation was to be imposed half-way: the current generation of whiners would have to die before the nation could enter Palestine. Ex-slaves in a new land seldom make good warriors. The new generation would grow up in the semi-desert wilderness, struggling for a living, but free. They would have developed a wholly different set of attitudes and expectations from life. That it only took a few decades pointedly testifies to the softness of the slave generation. Those that conquered the Canaanites were indeed a different people.
16The same rebelliousness that was demonstrated by the belated and ill-fated assault at Hormah, on the hills of southern Palestine was amply expressed in other ways. At one point there was a dual rebellion. Korah, of the Kohathites -- responsible for the Tabernacle furnishings -- objected to what he felt was an arbitrary choice by Moses that only Aaron's family could serve as actual priests to make offerings. The Reubenites objected to the apparent disregard Moses had for the tribal leadership system. He had appointed the Seventy Elders with special powers above those of the tribes. These princes of Reuben wanted to reassert the traditional government of Semitic tribes of that time. As descendants of the first-born son of Israel, this put the Reubenites at the head of the line, never mind that their ancestor lost that privilege for them.
A particular sore point was no doubt the failed assault on Canaan. In their eyes, Moses had prevented the Ark of Covenant being moved, so the people went to war without their sacred talisman, and their tribal god had consequently not aided them in battle. In both cases, the rebels clearly demonstrated a complete failure to grasp the radical difference between their God, Jehovah, and all the other so-called gods of which they had heard. As far as they were concerned, their problem was Moses, who held a monopoly for his family as the primary servants of Jehovah. This was the same view generally held by most of the Israelites, as they blamed Moses for the deaths of the rebels the following day. Whether they ever discerned that Moses had little control over the miraculous events they witnessed seems unlikely.
It requires we take a moment here to paint a clear portrait of the attitude and mindset of the rebellious leadership. It's rather hard to picture just how deeply sunk these people were into superstition, at the same time holding a deep cynicism. They had adopted the concept that supernatural powers were generally available to anyone who took the time to grasp them, or managed to discover the secrets. The gods were often seen as not entirely interested in the human state, and offered their powers to the highest bidder, as it were. They did not at all doubt the reality of the powers Moses seemed to wield; they doubted that the God who gave them really cared much who was His representative. They assumed He was as venal as any ruler, and would use first one, and then another servant, as His whims and vanity might incline Him. Moses' declaration that he was chosen was just so much politicking to them. Thus, if they could pry the monopoly over the secrets from him, any man could take his place. They sought to compel Moses to reveal the secret rituals that persuaded Jehovah to empower men. Not everyone thought like this, at least not all the time, but the attitude was present in the nation as a whole, much as any culture might have it's own collection of old wives' tales.
There was a clear collusion in this revolt between the Reubenite princes, who sought to wrest political control from Moses, and Korah, who sought to displace the priests loyal to Moses with another group gathered from all the tribes, who would be loyal to the Reubenites. It would have been easy for the conspirators to be geographically close to each other in the tent city of Israel, given the ordered layout they had. The Kohathites formed a row between the Tabernacle and the three tribes on the southern quarter, the quarter led by the Tribe of Reuben. The fissure that opened up beneath their family tents was a symbol of the shaky ground on which their rebellion was built. Jehovah was careful to take only those who dared question His choices. The plague that followed from the next day's grumbling was less precise in the choice of its victims. What could hardly be missed was the clear reinforcement of the Aaronic priesthood. First, he offered incense on behalf of those in the path of the plague, an act that had just the day before caused the immolation of 250 men aspiring to priesthood. Not only did he not suffer the same fate, but the plague was stopped. Secondly, his carved almond staff, a symbol of tribal authority, was the only one that blossomed with foliage and fruit. Whether in their minds it was the choice of Jehovah or of Moses, no one was in a position to object any longer.
[ Return to Lesson Index ]
[ <-- Previous Lesson ]
[ --> Next Lesson ]
Ed Hurst
revised 12 February 2004
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: People of honor need no copyright laws; they are only too happy to give credit where credit is due. Others will ignore copyright laws whenever they please. If you are of the latter, please note what Moses said about dishonorable behavior -- "be sure your sin will find you out" (Numbers 32:23)