Welcome to the Love and Context podcast, engaging in unscripted conversations with your hosts,
Ben and Spencer.
Whether you're tuning in from your car, your office, your home, or anywhere in between,
we are so happy to have you join us today.
Our mission is simple, to explore the Bible through a powerful lens of love.
Together we'll uncover fresh insights and gain deeper understandings of how we can love
God and love the people in our everyday lives.
So buckle up and join us on this spiritual journey as we discover timeless wisdom that
is just as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago.
Without further ado, let's dive right in.
Welcome to the Love and Context podcast.
This is Ben speaking now.
And this is Spencer speaking just then.
Yep.
Alright, so if you guys have been with us for a while, you know that we have been in
the book of numbers and actually we're going to wrap up the book of numbers today.
Yes we are.
Now the interesting thing, I was actually listening to some teaching on this and a lot
of the Jews, well actually the sages will look at this and they'll actually call this
the conclusion of Torah, not because Deuteronomy doesn't exist, but because Deuteronomy is
like Moses looking back over everything.
Which we're going to talk about next week as we introduce the book of Deuteronomy.
By the way, do you guys believe we're actually almost done with Torah?
Yeah.
One more book.
And hopefully you've been having fun with it, so have we.
Now if you think that we've covered everything, you are sorely mistaken.
We have barely skipped a stone across a lot of these things.
As is proof of us taking on like 10 chapters today.
Yeah, 10 chapters today, exactly.
But what we wanted to do is highlight like high level points.
And I did have a conversation with a guy and he's like, well how many episodes did you
do in Leviticus?
And I said, eight more than anybody else.
So.
It's true.
Yeah, so we spent a lot more time in these books, but I think what we found is that there's
a reason that these are the fundamentals for the faith.
These stories.
Now, book of Numbers, we told you early on, buckle up, it gets gnarly and it's been gnarly
for a while.
Yeah.
Right?
So just a reminder of where the book of Numbers starts.
They're coming out of Exodus.
They have received their instructions on the mountain.
And it says that God takes them here.
He sends a cloud, they follow the cloud.
The cloud moves, they follow the cloud.
And like for a long time, it's like they're being obedient, obedient, obedient.
It's looking like it's going to go real good.
Right?
And then it takes a sharp turn because the desert is really hot.
It is.
For any of you who have ever traveled or live in a desert, you would know this and you guys
are, you would be looking at us being like, really?
You state in the obvious here.
You're like, yes, we are 100%.
So what ends up happening is like different things start happening.
Like I remember back when Pastor Nick was on here, there was like this grumble, you
know, going on.
And then it starts just like growing.
Right?
And then all the way to the point where Moses and Aaron are told to go speak to the rock
and instead they strike it and like it's now permeated all of leadership.
They're not listening to God.
They come to the promised land and they're like, all right, let's go scope it out.
And they're like, ah, I don't know.
These guys are real big.
You got a real big.
I don't know if I can fight him.
And the only person who was like, we got this was Joshua and Caleb.
Yeah.
They're like, oh, we got, we got it.
Yeah.
And, and so ultimately Israel is going to have to spend a lot of time in the desert until
the next generation comes up and God says the next generation, if you're ready to go
in.
Now, I do think it's important to know once again, like we talked about in the episode
with Moses leadership, they've still got things to do while they're in the desert.
Yeah.
They're still supposed to be putting good on display.
They're just not going into the promised land.
You know, that's a big deal.
Yeah.
So that's where we've been.
Um, and then last week we talked about Balaam and Balaam, right?
And we had that fun conversation about like, are you going to be like Balaam or Balaam?
Are you going to be like Jethro or Pharaoh?
Where are you going to emulate?
Are you going to trust and see the goodness of God and raise and pull that out?
Yeah.
Or are you going to react in fear?
Now we'll get me Balaam, responsive fear.
And then this conversation with Balaam, are you going to be like Balaam or are you going
to be like Abraham?
Are you going to trust the word of the Lord and walk it out in obedience?
Or are you going to try to manipulate circumstances yourself?
And then ultimately, even though a lot of blessings are poured out on Israel, they still
end up in the throes with a bunch of prostitutes.
Right.
And it turns out it does not end well for them in that, in that, in that capacity.
Right.
Yeah.
By the way, this, this is that section of scripture, which I've actually had, I had
somebody quote to me once talking about being zealous for the Lord.
And they were talking about the, in the section of scriptures where the guy takes the spear
and he spears it through the guy and the prostitute.
Right.
And he's like, we need to be zealous for the Lord in that capacity.
And I was like, listen, that story is really important because it was real corruption.
Right.
But when people look at you, they should see Jesus.
And I'm pretty sure that Jesus isn't sticking spears through people's innards.
No, Jesus actually had a different encounter with a prostitute.
Where like, where they brought a prostitute to Jesus being like, she was caught in the
act.
By the way, the man wasn't brought with her.
Different side.
Highly questionable.
Yeah.
So he was caught in the act and they're like, we need to kill her.
We need to stone her because this is against the law.
And what does Jesus do?
He says, all right, you without faults are the first stone.
And what do they do?
Right.
Walk away one by one.
They walk away one by one.
And then Jesus was like, do they, do any of these men condemn you?
Who's left here to condemn you?
And they're like, nobody's like, well, then I don't either.
And so Jesus has a different reaction to this encounter with a prostitute than this man
who spears both the prostitute and her lover at the time.
Right.
Well, and we've talked about frequently in Torah, there are some extremes example of
what happens.
And in this case, God actually says that it's actually Phineas and his zealous nature that
actually turns the anger away.
Yeah.
Right.
And I think that's what happened.
And I feel like God respects the zeal, maybe not necessarily the action.
Does that make sense?
Yeah.
Like this isn't actually like the desirable action.
The desirable action would have been for the people, even the ones prostituting themselves,
not to prostitute themselves.
That would have been the ideal reaction.
So this is where we pick up in Numbers 26.
Numbers 26 through the rest of Numbers.
So if you haven't read that, go ahead and just take some time, pause the podcast, go
and read it right now, unless you're driving, then don't read it right now.
Yeah.
Like listen to it.
That's fine.
But don't read it while we're driving.
Yeah.
So we pick up in Numbers 26.
And the first thing that happens here is a census.
Okay.
So this is actually kind of an important deal because they just had everybody kind of come
through their ranks.
They just had a bunch of prostitutes come through their ranks.
There was corruption.
There was a lot of sin that happened.
And so now what's taking place is the Lord's like, okay, we need to actually gather up
our people and see who's here.
And not to mention they're about to go into the land.
So they need to know who's from each tribe because they're going to get ready to divide
the land between the people.
Right?
Because this is just prior to Joshua being given command.
And as soon as Joshua has command, they go into the land and they start conquering.
Right?
I do want to point out that so in 26, they take the census.
And then something comes up at the end of this book that came up at the beginning.
It's Zellifahed's daughters.
Right?
Once again, their father had died.
They didn't have any sons.
And so they don't have any property because all the sons are dead.
Yeah.
And they come and they're like, hey, we're literally going to be without home if the
stuff doesn't happen.
So they brought a perform and they said, give us property among our father's relatives.
So because they're going into the land and they have nobody to have it allotted to.
Yeah.
So Moses brings her case before God and Lord said, what Zellifahed's daughters are saying
is right.
You must certainly give them property as an inheritance among their father's relatives
and give their father's inheritance to them.
Wow.
Because in this culture, that is a groundbreaking like massive difference.
Now in modern day, like that we're like, okay, so the daughters got the land.
That makes sense because it belonged to the family.
In general culture, God has just dropped some serious equality knowledge on them.
Yeah.
And just to like provide a little more context on this, if you only had a daughter or daughters
and you were about to pass away and your land was about to be passed down, guess what?
It would not go to your daughters.
No, no.
It would actually go to the next, the first born in your family line who was a male.
Right.
Further up the tribe.
Who would choose to take care of your family or not?
Yeah.
So typically for women to own property was non-existent.
And then to have God say, no, we're going to take care of these women.
We're going to make sure that they have land is huge.
Right.
And he actually carries it more than just the daughter.
So he actually institutes this thing so that families don't get forgotten.
Remember what we said at the beginning of numbers, everybody counts?
Listen to this.
Say to the Israelites, if a man dies and leaves no son, give his inheritance to his
daughter.
If he has no daughter, give his inheritance to his brothers.
If he has no brothers, give his inheritance to his father's brothers.
If his father has no brothers, give his inheritance to the nearest relative in his clan that he
may possess it.
This is to have the force of law for the Israelites as the Lord had commanded.
Okay.
Why is that important?
Because no tribe is getting left behind.
No clan is getting left behind.
We're going to make sure that you're remembered, that you matter, that you're a part of us,
even if there's not a clear line of succession.
And the other thing with land, just before we get too much further along, is you have
to view land as money, as currency.
Because here, I mean, in America nowadays, you cannot own any property, but you can still
have a lot of money, right?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Right?
You don't have to have real estate to be wealthy.
They didn't back in this day, if you had land, that was currency.
If you had cows, so you got property, right?
That's currency.
If you had land, you then could have livestocks or crops that you grow that then could be
traded and bartered, and that was currency.
That was more valuable than if you had a few coins in your pocket.
That's not to say there wasn't money.
It's like, so somebody is typing on there, and they're like, oh, are you saying that
they didn't use...
No, of course they used money.
But we're saying that we're talking about real wealth, like real sustainability, right?
They didn't define wealth as just as the amount of physical money they had.
They defined it as what they owned.
Right.
Yeah.
So once again, here in the book of Numbers, we see God, we're making sure that we know
everybody counts.
It's what happened at the beginning of Numbers.
It's what's happening at the end of Numbers.
Everybody counts.
There is provision for everybody.
So after this, Moses has a conversation with God because he's like, well, we got to appoint
somebody to lead them when I'm gone, because I don't know if you know this, but when you
have 600,000 people and the one person everybody's been listening to dies without a clear line
of succession, what do you think happens?
Where does everything go?
Right.
There's going to be a lot of people like vying for authority, right?
Now it's already been happening while Moses was still alive.
How much more do you think it would happen if Moses died without a clear succession plan?
Yeah.
God tells him this in its chapter 27, and we're going to start in verse 18.
So the Lord said to Moses, take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit of leadership
and lay your hand on him.
Love him stand before it before Eliezer, the priest and the entire assembly and commission
him in their presence.
Give him some of the authority so that the whole community, Israelite community will
obey him.
He is to stand before Eliezer, the priest who will obtain decision for him by inquiring
of the Urim before the Lord and at his command, he and the entire community of the Israelites
will go out and at his command, they will come in.
By the way, if you want to talk about the Urim before the Lord, that is a Q and A episode.
So somebody asked that question.
We'll talk about it.
Moses did as the Lord commanded him.
He took Joshua and had him stand before the Eliezer, the priest and the whole assembly.
Then he laid his hands on him and commissioned him as the Lord had instructed him.
Now we've talked about this a few times, commissioning, right?
What is Moses doing?
He's taking his identity, he's placing it on Joshua.
What I am is now going into who you are.
You were going to take up the mantle that I leave behind.
Like we are imbuing his identity, this whole idea of sacrifice, right?
You're laying hands on, like you're leaning on, casting your identity, your favor, your
authority on the next person.
This becomes really important for us to know as a church because when we commission people
out to be missionaries, when we have new pastors who we're bringing in who are being meant
to equip us, the whole assembly is there, recognizing the authority that's being placed
on there, recognizing the identity that's being cast, and they are also participating
in the commissioning, right?
Now ultimately the power and responsibility comes from God.
Though we are involved because we're a family.
That's what it's supposed to look like.
So church people, if you have somebody getting ordained at your church, show up.
If you have somebody who's leaving your church to go start like an orphanage, show up.
If you have somebody who's leaving your church to move to another area to do ministry, show
up.
We have a responsibility to show up for our brothers and sisters and our family because
they need our identity, they need our support, they need our authority to go with them wherever
God leads.
And with that, think of ministries that had leadership transitions where people didn't
show up.
Right.
I'm just going to tell you right now, the ones I have been a part of and the ones I
have seen where a leader left and then a new leader came in and nobody really showed up.
Everyone's kind of like testing the waters with this new leader that was brought in.
It usually doesn't go well.
No.
There's usually a season of time and it's usually two to three years where there's a
really rocky road that that leader is walking down.
Rocky road is delicious.
Well, I wasn't talking about ice cream.
I was talking about the quality of Southeast Alaska's roads.
There's this road that they're walking down where they're kind of to, instead of rocky
road, they're walking on eggshells.
So this new leader oftentimes is walking on shards of glass because they're like, okay,
these people don't trust me.
They had, whether it could have been good or bad experience, lastly, but they're like,
there's a trust that's been broken because leadership left and there wasn't really a
good process that brought me into this ministry.
That person gets to walk on shards of glass for like two to three years as they rebuild
trust, right?
I just want to pose the question.
Is that a healthy way to transition leaders?
No.
I'd say no because what you're doing is then you're putting them in a spot where they're
going to fail and get burnt out quick and then potentially leave.
And then you're right back to where you started.
Well, and to your point, we've talked about this a number of times about how the dirt
has to think generationally.
What?
Number of times.
Okay, I got you.
I heard you say something, but I was talking and I couldn't get past my own brain.
It was so funny.
I had a lead over.
I laughed.
That's a number of times.
That makes sense.
But we've talked about that, that we have to think generationally, right?
I want to talk about tamarisk trees.
Can I talk about that for a second?
What?
Tamarisk tree?
Yeah.
So when Abraham comes to the land that God and God gives him the vision, it says, hey,
this is going to be your land.
He plants a tamarisk tree, which takes generations to grow, which means that it has to be tended
in and grow for like decades, hundreds of years maybe.
I'm not a botanist, so please don't hold me on this.
But a tamarisk tree you plant for the next generation, not for you.
It takes a really long time for a tamarisk tree to grow.
So you don't plant a tamarisk tree for yourself, you plant it for your children or maybe your
children's children, right?
So the tamarisk tree can take close to 400 years to grow to its full height.
So you don't necessarily plant it for you.
You plant it for your kids' kids' kids' kids', right?
And one of the things that I always wonder is, I think that we always need to live investing
in the moment.
But a lot of times churches live like Jesus is coming back tomorrow, which I think is
a great way to live.
Mm-hmm.
The disciples live that way.
Right.
We should live like Jesus is coming back tomorrow because we want to share with every single
person in the way that we live.
But we also have to plan like he's going to not come back for a thousand years.
This goes back to a conversation we had probably 20 episodes ago.
What would it be like if we had an entire generation that planted tamarisk trees?
The world would be changed, right?
Like we live in the moment because Abraham still lived in the moment.
He still lived with everything he had to do, but he planted trees for a future promise.
Now, I think it's interesting it takes about 400 years to grow because God says you're
going to come back and take this land in about 400 years.
So when Joshua and Caleb and all these guys are coming back in, they're actually going
to come and see the very tamarisk tree that Abraham planted.
Mm-hmm.
Which is crazy.
Yeah.
Crazy.
Churches, we need to start thinking generationally.
Correct.
Because we need to be looking at the young people in our congregation and asking how
can we build them up for leadership?
Is there anything to make you feel like you're getting older than you're talking about young
people in your church?
Yeah.
I was working with some middle schoolers the other day and I mentioned something that happened
20 years ago and they were like, what?
That was forever ago.
And I was like, it really wasn't.
It really wasn't.
We need to start looking at the young people in our church and saying, hey, how can we
build them up for leadership?
And how can we pass the torch to them when the time comes?
And this idea of making everybody count in numbers and thinking generationally and knowing
where you come from and all these different things.
We need to be like that in our churches.
We need to know our history, but we also need to know where we're going and we got to be
planting for tomorrow.
A lot of times we're like, oh, we need to reap, reap, reap.
And Jesus absolutely says, look at the fields, they're ready to go.
But you also plant the fields for tomorrow.
We got to be able to do both.
And so we need to be about the work of reaping.
We also need to be about the work of sowing for generation and generation.
And on people who aren't perfect, but God is going to use.
Do you know what a farmer does before they harvest?
Probably take a nap.
But one of the big thing a farmer does before they harvest is they're planning for the next
harvest.
Right.
Because as soon as they harvest, they have to have a plan for what's going to go on the
ground next for the next harvest.
Yeah.
Well, and interesting thing about modern farming techniques.
So obviously, we're not talking about like ancient Israel, but a lot of times farmers
will grow multiple crops depending on the season.
Right.
And that requires a fair amount of planning, organization, thinking ahead, like thinking
about the future, but also living in the present.
And that's what we're talking about.
Harvest is happening in the present, but you also have to know, okay, what's after this?
Right.
So with that being said, like now Joshua has been ordained.
He's been commissioned.
He's going to be the leader.
So God then reminds them of some very important things that are coming up.
Right.
So he says you need to remember where you come from.
So he talks about reminding them about their daily offerings.
Right.
These are daily connections with God.
Yeah.
Sabbath offerings.
Are you going to connect to your identity and who you are?
Monthly offerings, making sure that you have like a time, like once a month, man, is connecting
you.
Talking about the Passover, like you got to remember that God brought you out of Exodus.
And then he starts talking about like this festival of weeks, this festival of trumpets.
He's going to talk about the day of atonement, the festival of tabernacles.
Like all of these things that are going to tie them back to their history and what God
has done.
Yeah.
Right.
Because he knows like this is a new generation.
They're getting ready to go.
Joshua is now in command.
He's reminding him, don't forget where you come from.
Yeah.
We're going to talk about in a few weeks, we're going to talk about when Moses comes
back and talk about the 10 words again in Deuteronomy.
The first one is I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
You will have no other gods.
And I said that if you forget he's the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of
Egypt, you're going to have other gods.
Yeah.
So you have to remember where you come from.
So like in all this talk about planning for tomorrow, it's not that we forget today and
we definitely don't forget yesterday.
All of those things have to exist almost like the God who was the God who is the God who
will be.
We got to remember all of those things.
You mean scripture ties together?
It's this crazy concept.
Yeah.
Okay.
It's this crazy theological concept I've been working through that scripture is actually
connected to each other.
Yeah.
Some of you who don't understand sarcasm are going to be like, wait, I'm hoping that people
who like watch will be able to see my facial takes and be like, oh, he's joking.
But I do have a pretty dry delivery.
So we'll see.
Yeah, we'll see.
We'll see.
So then you get into Numbers 30.
Yeah, there's not a lot that I want to really reference in Numbers 30 except that he talks
about a vow.
There's a few instructions that are going to be coming up about like how do you live
in harmony when you're going to be in one spot, right?
And that's going to be this huge section here.
But in Numbers 30, I want you guys to put a pin in that because at some point we're
going to talk about the Book of Esther.
And there is a story in the Book of Esther that actually connects to Numbers 30.
And I will give, you know what, actually, this is a good challenge.
If somebody can help or can write into us on our email and explain to me the connection
between Numbers 30 and Esther, we will send you a shirt of The Desert is Really Hot.
I'll order you a shirt and I'll get it sent to you.
You'll have to give me your size because I'm not going to try to guess.
That's rife with like, that is rife with miscommunication.
Please put Ben through that.
Please put him through that.
By the way, I was talking to my wife about the shirts and I was like, oh yeah, I'm going
to go order myself a shirt.
I was like, whoops, I almost ordered myself an extra small.
And she's like, please do and wear it.
And I was like, huh?
So in 30, and I'm going to skip over 31, there's some stuff going on with the Midianites and
I would really love to talk about that, but we're just going to skip over that today.
So if you have questions about it in Q&A, right?
Again, we're covering 10 chapters today.
So this is a very jolly surface level dive on this one.
So then they talk about the Transjordan tribes and how they're going to reach their deals
and what they're going to do because some of them are going to stay on one side of the
Jordan.
Some of them are going to go on the other side.
And so how are they going to work together?
And then in chapter 33, they retell the story of where they've been.
And they said they went from this place, then they counted here, then they went from here,
they went to here.
And it's one of these sections that I think we're tempted to read over really quickly.
And it's so important.
And we've talked about this on the podcast, but remembering where you come from, right?
Like remembering your story is so important because you can't be thankful for where you
are at right now if you don't remember where you come from.
Exactly.
And yes, there's an assumption.
I am playing into the assumption that the Lord has changed your life, that he's drawing
closer to him, that he's fundamentally changed who you are from the day you said yes to Jesus.
That's the assumption I'm going off of here.
But like we, at least in my life, I can't, I am more thankful about the goodness of the
Lord in my life when I take time on occasion to remember where I came from.
To remember the bad in my life.
To be like, oh, this was a craft in my life that the Lord's delivered me from.
And here I am now, right?
It allows a lot of the struggles I'm dealing with right now to kind of fade away and be
like, man, I am so blessed.
So in chapter 33 in verse 50, it says, on the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from
Jericho, which is a familiar place you've probably heard of, the Lord said to Moses,
speak to the Israelites and say to them, when you cross the Jordan into Canaan, drive out
all the inhabitants of the land before you, destroy all their carved images and their
cast idols and demolish all their high places, take possession of the land and settle in
it for I have given you the land to possess.
Distribute the land by lot according to your clans.
There's a bunch of things coming up with either.
But in verse 55, it says this, if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those
you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides.
They will give you trouble in the land where you will live.
And then I will do to you what I plan to do to them.
Like here's the thing.
God is not going to allow other things in your life that are going to draw your affection.
He's not going to deal with this whole idea of other gods.
He's not going to deal with it.
He says, no, you're going to be mine.
And if you're not going to be mine, I'm going to make sure that the story is so ingrained
in you that you can't help but put it on display.
It ties back to Exodus, I believe it's 34, 14, where God says, put no other gods before
me for I the Lord your God, whose very name is jealous is a jealous God.
There's the things in our life that pull us from God and the Lord is saying, drive those
out.
Yeah.
Now, he is saying that those things that draw you away from me, drives them out of your
lives.
Get them away from you.
And what that is, is that's the father saying, I love you so much that I don't want that
in your life.
Yeah.
Like that's going to bring you no good.
Yeah.
Right.
And I don't know about you, but there's been things in my life that the Lord has driven
out that I'm so thankful that he's driven out and called me to help drive out.
Right.
I think the tendency is sometimes, especially with militant Christianity is to see this
and be like, oh, we're supposed to go toward evil.
No, God towards evil.
The Israelites were not a strong nation.
They were strong because God walked with them.
So we're supposed to go wherever God commands.
And if God has commanded you to go into the heart of evil and to proclaim the gospel,
then go do it.
But I also know that God has commanded you to love your enemies as he has loved you.
Right.
So you have these weighing commands, so you have to see everything through the lens of
loving God and loving other people, which is what Torah is all about.
Right.
We've talked about that.
Yeah.
Now there are some hard stories because God has to speak into a context of ancient warfare.
Yeah.
Right.
But these stories are meant to actually bring about something else.
Yeah.
So I do want to point out here in chapter 35, we talk about these cities of refuge,
which is where people can flee if they make an accident and actually kill someone.
This is once again, these are rules that are going to help them live at peace with each
other when they're in a land.
Right.
So that they have somewhere to go.
There's also going to be some cities set aside for the Levites because they don't have an
inheritance because their inheritance is God.
Right.
And so they said, we still need to have some cities for them because they got to have somewhere
to go.
Right.
Then chapter 36, we have one more time, we have this inheritance of Zealot, Fahad's daughters.
Right.
And God just kind of walks through here once again and making sure that they're not going
to be left out.
I do think it's interesting that this is actually the conclusion of the book of numbers.
Yeah.
That the daughters and the women are not going to be left out in the cold.
Like this is the last action scene that happens in Torah.
This actually echoes all the way forward to the book of James.
Yeah.
So at the end of James chapter one, James is saying, hey, this is true religion.
I can take care of the orphan and the widows.
Okay.
And we read like oftentimes what we'll do in our modern Christianity is we'll read that
as a new command.
But do you have to look back at the beginning of James and who's James writing to?
He's writing to the 12 tribes of Israel scattered amongst the nations.
Okay.
So James is writing to the 12 tribes of Israel scattered amongst the nations.
And he's saying, remember this command.
He's not stating it as a new command for them.
He's saying, remember this command.
This is true religion.
Take care of the orphans and widows.
Right.
It's not anything new.
No.
This has been, this has been around for a long time.
God wants to take care of those who are being left on the outside.
And once again, we want to remind people that God actually values women incredibly.
They're not subservient.
They're equal in what God calls them to be.
So I want to point out one thing because we've talked about a lot, a lot of like skipping
stones across numbers.
So there is a very interesting section in the book of numbers and I want to come back
to really quick before we close.
It's in chapter 32 and it's going to be in verse 39.
Says the descendants of Makur son of Manasseh went to Gilead, captured it and drove out
to the Amorites who were there.
So Moses gave Gilead to the Makarites, the descendants of Manasseh and they settled there.
Jair, the descendant of Manasseh captured their settlement and called them Havath Jair
and Nabath captured Kenath and its surrounding settlements and called it Noba after himself.
How many of you have done an in-depth study on that?
I mean, probably no one, probably no one.
So I'm going to explain to you why spending a lot of time in Torah is really important.
So I'm going to give you some pieces of stories here.
What if I told you that little section is actually connected to Genesis 31?
And people go, what do you mean?
It says, where is the last time that you've heard of this place called Gilead?
Genesis 31.
It says that, so Jacob is fleeing Laban and Laban comes after him and there's this whole
thing about like the gods and the idols and all the things that are happening in there.
And they have food at this place and they call it something.
And the two words when you put them together actually becomes Gilead, it's the same word,
right?
Same thing here, Jacob has a child through Rachel by the name of Joseph, who has two
children, one named Manasseh.
In here it says that Jair is a descendant of Manasseh.
Okay, well, here's the problem.
In the book of Chronicles, Jair is not a descendant of Manasseh.
He's actually a descendant of Judah.
So you're like, okay, well, which one is right?
Well, it turns out when you actually go into the genealogies that Jair, his maternal side
is in Manasseh and his paternal side, which is where you track it from, is from Judah.
So why in the book of Numbers do they track Jair through Manasseh?
Because the text is cluing you in that something that happened in Genesis 31, this curse that
was coming on to Jacob and his family that showed up in his family and that is repeated
through the life of Joseph and his brothers and the torn coat, the blood, all the things
that are happening is actually being completed and righted right here in the book of Numbers.
Now I know I just said that to some of you who are listening, you're like, I have no
idea what he's talking about.
And that's the point.
There's so much going on in this text.
But in the book of Numbers, God is actually bringing completion to what's going on.
And so this is my encouragement because we've been going through Torah for a while and Numbers
is a hard book and Deuteronomy is not going to be that much easier.
Because there's a lot of questions we're going to have to ask about places we've been and
things that Moses says and things like that.
So the women are not commonly mentioned or not commonly held at high esteem.
And so there's this constant underdog story that actually happens throughout Genesis as
well.
And that's actually echoed here.
So bear with me for about 30 seconds.
Sorry, I just wanted to be a bear.
You'll see where I'm going with this.
So Abram, also known as Abram, has two sons.
Abram also known as Abram?
Yeah, Abram also known as Abraham has two sons.
He has Ishmael and Isaac.
Isaac's his second born.
So Isaac is mentioned in the family line, not Ishmael.
And usually the first born is mentioned in the family line.
Correct.
Okay.
So by cultural standards, Ishmael should be mentioned before Isaac.
Right.
Okay.
So then Isaac, he has two boys, Jacob and Esau.
Okay.
Jacob is a second born.
Second born.
He is mentioned in the family line, not Esau.
Because you have the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Okay.
You get to Joseph.
Joseph has two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh.
Ephraim's the first born, Manasseh's the second born.
And then when Jacob goes to bless them, he blesses Manasseh over Ephraim.
And so along with this story of elevating women and actually mentioning the maternal
side, you're doing that from the second born who's been given the blessing of the first
born.
Right.
And so you have this constant underwriting throughout Genesis and it's echoed here in
Numbers of saying that the Lord blesses, quote unquote, the least of these.
Right.
Which is echoed in the New Testament.
Yeah.
In the writings of James as well.
And so you have this underlying theme that's happening where he's like, okay, now Manasseh
is getting this land.
When in reality, if you're going to go traditionally with how birth orders go, it should be Ephraim.
But God's saying, no, it's going to be Manasseh.
Right.
And there's a lot in understanding Torah.
And so my encouragement with you is I think sometimes we read these stories and we take
them wildly out of context because we don't even understand the context.
Yeah.
Now, for example, like reading this story right here, like if you don't understand that
it connects to Genesis 31, you might be like, okay, why is this important for us to see?
Okay, they took over the land.
But this is actually incredibly important.
Right.
This understanding is actually very incredibly important because it's going to help us see
the conclusion of something that happened back in Genesis.
And God has been redeeming that story since that point.
He's been doing it over 400 years.
It's almost like God thinks about the moment, the history, and the future and invites us
to be the same.
Yeah.
Now, I once again, I'm sure that there's somebody who's listening who's like, man, I really
want you to deep dive into that.
Great.
Ask a question.
We'll talk about it in the Q&A.
I don't want to lose sight of what we're talking about today, which is that everybody counts.
Yeah.
We plan generationally.
We plan for the future.
And we work now, but we also think about what's coming up.
Right.
And here's the thing.
I have people ask me all the time, they're like, what is your opinion on the book of
Revelation?
And this is my opinion.
God is the one that determines when the world ends.
My job is to be faithful until then.
Amen.
Right.
Amen.
And if Jesus Christ didn't know when the hour is, chances are Benjamin Edwards isn't going
to know either.
Yeah.
We want a prediction right now.
Yeah.
Late time, down to the second.
Yeah, right.
And here's my point.
The book of Revelation is a book meant to bring hope to a world where Jesus is king,
but the kingdom has not fully been realized.
Where evil still has authority, but the kingdom is moving forward.
Go live like that.
Make sure everybody counts.
Live your life in such a way that you elevate the people around you that you lift up Jesus
and you pull out the kingdom in its midst.
Amen.
Right.
Amen.
All right.
Well, that is going to be the book of numbers, guys.
Next week we are starting Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy.
And so Deuteronomy is a great book.
There's a lot of love.
There's a lot of lament.
There's a lot of arguments on whether there's accurate storytelling.
We'll dive into all that, but it is a great book.
So that will be starting next week.
Again, you can follow us on Instagram, Facebook, the Tickety Talk.
Where else?
YouTube.
Yes, YouTube.
You can actually see our faces on YouTube.
Yeah, you can see our faces.
Which I don't know if I'm apologizing for anymore because if you're here again, it's
kind of on you.
This is the face the Lord gave me, so it's actually not.
He changed it.
I just hide it under a beard.
You changed it.
You changed it to this face.
That's the questionable thing.
Yeah.
So yeah, you can find this on YouTube, all those places.
And then if you do want merch, we do have a merch store up as well.
Link will be in the bio and all that stuff.
So all right, until next time.
That's a wrap for today's episode.
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I look great in my jacket, actually.
So note, we both did it jinx 12345678910.
You owe me a coffee.
I don't want that coffee.
I wasn't giving it to you.
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Instead, I just I saw myself on the camera and the stupid move I made.
I'm like, well, it looks dumb.
I look like a whale trying to breach itself.