The Complain-O-Meter: 7️⃣ 8️⃣ 9️⃣…
Approaching Peak Capacity.
Based on the negative report of the 10 spies, the people give up and start forming a plan to return to Egypt.
They really didn’t get it, did they? They’re acting as if settling in Canaan and driving out the giant clans was optional – as if they were looking at real estate and just decided that this property wasn’t for them.
This was something Yahweh was asking them to believe Him for – to trust Him and obey.
The bawling and blubbering and complaining and having a hissy fit to the point of talking about stoning Joshua & Caleb – it’s not just fear. It’s rebellion. 😭🤬
“Do not rebel against the Lord, and don’t be afraid of the people of the land. They are only helpless prey to us! They have no protection, but the Lord is with us! Don’t be afraid of them!” Numbers 14:9 NLT
That phrase in Hebrew about them having no protection is literally “their shadow has left.” Think about how Yahweh was a cloud to provide a shade or shadow for them. Now think about these texts:
“The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand.”
Psalm 121:5 ESV
“Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings,”
Psalm 17:8 ESV
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.”
Psalm 91:1 ESV
(Incidentally, That’s God’s emergency number. When you’re in trouble dial 911. ☎️ Psalm 91:1. You’re welcome.) ☺️
Before we move on, let’s look at the Hebrew word here for shade and shadow. Note that this is not the word every time you see the English word shadow. For example, it does not appear in Psalm twenty-three’s “valley of the shadow of death.” That’s a different shadow.
The Hebrew word is just 2 letters:
It’s tsade (t-sah-dee) and lamed (lah-med).
Tsade makes the ts or tz sound. Well…. It’s just easier if you hear it. It’s is the sound you hear when they say “Czar” in this clip from Fiddler on the Roof.
In paleo-Hebrew, the letter tsade was a pictograph of a stickman lying down on his side. So the letter means to lie down. Or lie in wait. Or just to wait. Or simply the idea of the side.
Lamed – you may recall – was a picture of a shepherd’s staff and means shepherd, guide, toward, teach(er), instruct, lead.
When you put them together you have the picture of lying down at the side of the Shepherd. To be in the shadow of the Shepherd means you are very close to Him.
Joshua & Caleb tell the congregation that the wicked inhabitants of Canaan have had their shade removed. They are exposed. This may hint at something in the supernatural realm – that the demon gods of these tribes – have already been driven out and can no longer provide them any help.
And on top of that, Yahweh is with Israel.
But no… the people rebel.
Here is some inspired New Testament commentary on this event:
“As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.”
Hebrews 3:15-19 ESV
Unbelief = disobedience, sin, and rebellion.
We tend to think of unbelief as something sinners need to be cleverly argued out of; as if their only problem is a lack of evidence.
That is not how the inspired commentary frames this. Let’s read some more:
“God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it. For this good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God.”
Hebrews 4:1-2 NLT
The Good News – the Gospel – of the OT is foreshadowing of the NT Gospel: God has provided a saving rest for us – freedom from captivity and a home. God has provided this. Our part is to consistently believe and obey.
People today do the same thing as the Israelites. Only instead of the actual giants, we face their disembodied (demonic) spirits that still dwell in strongholds- but no longer fortified cities made of brick and stone. Now they are spiritual strongholds like drugs, alcohol, illicit sex, porn, pride, greed, and more…
(The sooner we grasp that the whole New Testament Church Age is a mirror image in the spiritual of the Old Testament congregation of Israel in the natural – the quicker the whole picture of history comes into focus.)
Those giants are no match for Yahweh, the Lord of Hosts. Does it look like certain failure from the outside? Yup. Does it look like a bunch of rag-tag farmers against elite fighting forces? Uh huh. But remember what we said about equations when you put the LORD into them. Joshua & Caleb were right. They were well able to conquer.
The people heard the Good News. But they refused to believe that their “rational” arguments could be wrong and that the wild claims of Joshua (Yeshua) and Caleb could be right. So the Good News did not benefit them. They died in their disbelief. Quite literally.
Interesting that the complaints and cries of doom from the congregation of Israel became prophetic. “We’re all gonna die” became true.
If Moses and Aaron hadn’t interceded for the people, the book of Numbers would’ve ended right here and the book of 2nd Genesis would be next – where God takes an elderly Moses and gives him a bunch of children and promises to give them the land.
But God is SO amazingly merciful. Half of Moses’ prayer of intercession is just quoting God’s name back to Him. If you compare Num. 14:13-19 and Ex. 34:6-7 you’ll see it.
So God relents from outright destroying them then and there, and opts instead to lead them back into the wilderness to wander for the next 40 years until they all die. Then Yahweh will lead their children into the land.
Like the child who has been clearly warned and defiantly disobeys anyway (just to see if a parent means business) then cries on repeat, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” when he realizes said parent is reaching for the paddle… It is too little too late.
After crying all night, a bunch of them decide to go up and “take the land” at dawn but God isn’t with them and they are routed before the Canaanites.
There is much we can learn here. If a sinner will not trust God and rather bails out – it’s too hard! I can’t live for God! Then the Lord will likely lead them back into the wilderness of wandering until the proud, self-enthroned nature is finally ready to die.
In chapter 15 there are some interesting instructions on what to do if one guy sins and it defiles the congregation but they aren’t aware. hmm.. It’s almost like they’re gonna need to know that in a few more chapters or something. 😏
Then we get the 2nd execution by stoning. The first one was back in Leviticus 24- with that guy who blasphemed Yahweh. Remember him? In both cases…
“The people who found him doing this took him before Moses, Aaron, and the rest of the community. They held him in custody because they did not know what to do with him.” Numbers 15:33-34 NLT
Have you ever asked yourself the Bible why such a harsh penalty for working on the Sabbath?
Do you remember what we said that the Sabbath represents?
Something about a thousand years of rest? 🤔
Yes. The weekly Sabbath is a reminder of the coming 7th “Day” – the 1000 year reign of Christ usually called “the Millennium.” (And it’s very appropriate that this post would originally drop on a Sabbath.)
I’m not sure exactly what that time will be like, but I’m pretty confident that even if we do “workish” things, it won’t be work.
You know how kids will “work” all day long to build a playhouse or fort or a contraption of some kind to attempt manned flight? Do you remember doing that as a kid? I do. Did it ever feel like work? If it did, nobody would wish they could be a carefree kid again.
I kinda wonder if that’s how it will be. I very much look forward to having “my own vine and fig tree,” (Micah 4:1-4), 🍇🌳 but I think it’ll be like every day is a Saturday where I can just putter in my garden. That kind of “work” isn’t work at all.
But the writer of Hebrews also points to Jesus Himself as the fulfillment of the Sabbath.
“For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world.”
Hebrews 4:10 NLT
Jesus IS the completed work. What did He say on the cross? “It is Finished!” We are not made righteous by works (whether helping little old ladies cross the street or keeping the Torah itself). We are made righteous by entering into [resting in] the finished work of Christ by faith.
So when this guy is found working on the Sabbath, what is his disobedient action saying?
It’s saying: The work isn’t finished. There’s more that I have to do.
It’s a picture of works-based salvation. It’s also a picture that says, “There’s no such thing as a future reign of Christ where the whole world will be at rest.” It’s a picture that defies God’s plan and provision.
And – it’s a sobering picture of the destiny of the souls who reject the rest – the finished work – provided in Christ. They will die. And I don’t mean normal physical death. I mean that they will die in their sin. And they will be stuck in that state of death eternally.
You either cease from work [for salvation] and trust Jesus to save you or you’re out there doing a good thing out of a disbelieving heart.
“Hauling wood for a fire is not exactly wickedness. I know what Moses said, but surely God wouldn’t mind. Fires are practical. I think I’ll just trust my own judgment over what God said.”
And that’s how innocuous sin can be.
Moses: Lord, the people seem to have trouble remembering to rest and wait on You. They so easily go off and do their own thing.
God: Hmm. So they need some kind of reminder to rest and wait by my side?
Moses: Yes. How about tying a string around their finger? ☝🏽
God: Or how about tzitzit?
Moses: Tweet tweet? You want me to Tweet a reminder to them? 🤔
God: No. Tzitzit. It’s a string. But not around their fingers. Have them tie it to their clothes.
Tzitzit looks like a T with 2 zits…
(🙄 really Lacy? Zit jokes? 🤦♀️)
… but it sounds kinda like a bird chirping: tsee-tseet. That’s the Hebrew word for the “tassles” God tells Moses about.
It’s spelled tsade tsade tav.
Tsade we talked about above. It was the picture of the man lying on his side. It means rest, lie down, wait, side.
And there are 2 of them. Anything doubled is emphatic. Rest! Wait!
The tav is the last letter of the aleph-bet. The paleo form looks like this: ✝️ It means THIS thing, strong indicator, or mark.
So…
side side this thing
Wait WAIT HERE
Lie down beside THIS
REST beside HERE
Beside what thing? Rest where?
Well, it’s also a man lying down with a mark.
A mark on his side.
Maybe that’s where we are to rest.
New Covenant believers do not need to wear tzitzit on their clothes in order to remember God’s Word. The real tzitzit is attached to our very souls; reminding us to rest and wait beside the Shepherd – under His protecting shadow.
May your Sabbath be blessed as you rest in the finished work of Jesus.
To The Reader 