"Numbering For War And Miracles"
Parashat HaShavua BaMidbar / In The Wilderness
This Week's Reading List:
BaMidbar / Numbers 1:1-4:20
Hoshea / Hosea 2:1-22
Korintim Aleph / 1st Corinthians 12:12-20
Kefa Alef (1 Peter) {2:9} But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for G-d's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvellous light;
I can not remember ever starting one of my commentaries with a passage of Scripture from the Brit Chadasha (Renewed Covenant), so this may very well be a first. The reason I started with this passage of Scripture is because of what we learn from Parasha Bamidbar.
Bamidbar {1:47} But the Leviim (Levites) after the tribe of their avot (fathers) were not numbered among them. {1:48} For HaShem spoke to Moshe (Moses), saying, {1:49} Only the tribe of Levi you shall not number, neither shall you take the sum of them among beni Yisrael (children of Israel) ; {1:50} but appoint you the Leviim over the tent of the testimony, and over all the furniture of it, and over all that belongs to it: they shall bear the tent, and all the furniture of it; and they shall minister to it, and shall encamp round about the tent. {1:51} When the tent sets forward, the Leviim shall take it down; and when the tent is to be pitched, the Leviim shall set it up: and the Ger (Foreigner) who comes near shall be put to death. {1:52} Bnei Yisrael shall pitch their tents, every ish (man) by his own camp, and every ish by his own standard, according to their hosts. {1:53} But the Leviim shall encamp round about the tent of the testimony, that there be no wrath on the kehilah (congregation) of bnei of Yisrael: and the Leviim shall keep the charge of the tent of the testimony. {1:54} Thus did bnei Yisrael; according to all that HaShem commanded Moshe, so did they.
This Parasha is all about numbering bnei Yisrael. However, it was a special numbering. Only those twenty years to fifty years old that were able to go to war were numbered. That would mean that anyone fifty years and older were excluded from the census. The total numbers of able bodied men able to go to war were six hundred and three thousand, five hundred and fifty. Now of course, because the Liviim were in charge of the religious life of the congregation of Yisrael, their responsibility being HaShem’s representative to the people and visa versa, they were excluded from battle and therefore from the census.
I know some of you may think that I am going to talk about believers in Yeshua HaMashiach being conscientious objectors (against going to war for religious reasons) but that is the farthest thing from my mind. The fact is the Leviim did go to war; they just did not go into battle as we can see from the following passage of Scripture:
Y’hoshua (Joshua) {3:8} "You shall, moreover, command the priests who are carrying the Ark of the Covenant, saying, 'When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand in the Jordan. '" {3:9} Then Joshua said to the sons of Israel, "Come here, and hear the words of HaShem your G-d." {3:10} And Joshua said, "By this you shall know that the living G-d is among you, and that He will assuredly dispossess from before you the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Hivite, the Perizzite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, and the Jebusite. {3:11} "Behold, the ark of the covenant of the L-rd of all the earth is crossing over ahead of you into the Jordan.
Today, of course, there is no Mishkan for us, as a Royal Priesthood, to serve in and therefore, the supportive role as the keepers of the Ark of the Covenant and all the accoutrements of the korban (draw near / offering) system is no longer necessary. Yet in the verse I quoted from Kefa Alef above we are called a royal priesthood. Therefore, our role as priest has evolved a little since the days of the Mishkan and the Bet HaMigdash (Temple). As priest of G-d today, even though we are not responsible to maintain a Tabernacle or Temple with its system of offerings, we like the Liviim of biblical times are still responsible to represent HaShem (the Father) to the people. Therefore, I believe that a believer in Yeshua HaMashiach today, needs to be anywhere and everywhere possible to preach the Besorah Tovah (Good News) about Yeshua HaMashiach and His free gift of salvation. This of course would include the armed forces.
Countless stories of miracles happening on the battlefield and stories of battlefield salvations have come out of the wars being fought today by Canada, the United States and Israel. Now, I am not a proponent of war but sadly, like it was in biblical times, sometimes war is necessary. As for believers in Yeshua HaMashiach, even as a royal priesthood, we can not be conscientious objectors. Like the Liviim of old, we have a G-d to represent and what better place to represent Him then among soldiers who are facing the prospect of death everyday and who may have questions about their eternal destiny.
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Baruch HaShem
Rabbi Ya'acov Farber
Hallelujah for our Lord, our Teacher,our Rabbi, "YESHUA" King Messiah for ever and ever!!!
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