The book of Numbers tells of the People of Israel’s wandering in the wilderness as God prepared them to enter into the promised land. In this book we learn that despite being freed from slavery in Egypt, the people repeatedly rebelled against God. The word rebel as a verb is from a Latin word meaning insubordinate, which means “not submitting to authority.” We learn that the people of Israel frequently were seen not submitting to God’s or Moses’ authority. Because of their insubordination God promised that the insubordinate would not enter into the promised land where, as we have discussed before, might find the richness of the land to be a further stimulus to be insubordinate to God and his authority.
Even Moses was included in the prohibition from entering the promised land because of his intentions and actions in the desert we will learn about where God said “Take the staff and assemble the community. You and your brother Aaron are to speak to the rock while they watch, and it will yield its water.”
But Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels! Must we bring water out of this rock for you?” Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff, so that abundant water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.”
“But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust me to demonstrate my holiness in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this assembly into the land I have given them.”
Because Moses included himself in God’s miracle (“must WE bring water”), and because he displayed that HE was put out with the grumbling crowd and used an opportunity for GOD’S miracle to serve as a platform to display HIS displeasure, rather than doing, as God said, (“Just ASK and I will do it for you.”) Instead of demonstrating that all one needs to do is to trust and ASK God for relief and God will bring relief, Moses demonstrated to the people that Moses was an exasperated leader and that some form of action was necessary rather than just asking God’s provision. Moses failed to live up to God’s request for a teaching moment, a living demonstration of God’s miracles, and instead offered the people a exasperated parent’s magic show to “just get the kids to quiet down.”
Moses knows that HE will not lead the people of Israel all the way into the land promised by God (their ancestral home of Abram’s era). He also knows that SOMEONE will need to be the leader. And that is what we study today. We are to mentor and disciple those who come after us for we will not always be the leader of the group.
Usually training up the next generation falls to those with little children, and many people grow into adults having learned good life skills from their parents. But MANY lack the guidance to follow God well. Every Christian believer has a role to play in guiding someone who is less mature to grow in Christ, and draw closer to God.
Today we are looking at Numbers 27:12-23 where we see that God promised that the rebellious generation would not enter the promised land. Instead, Joshua would be appointed to lead the next generation of God’s people. In this Chapter we see Moses preparing for the next leader to assume his leadership role.
12 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go up this mountain of the Abarim range and see the land that I have given the Israelites.
13 After you have seen it, you will also be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother was.
14 When the community quarreled in the Wilderness of Zin, both of you rebelled against my command to demonstrate my holiness in their sight at the waters.” Those were the Waters of Meribah-kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin.
15 So Moses appealed to the Lord,
16 “May the Lord, the God who gives breath to all, appoint a man over the community
17 who will go out before them and come back in before them, and who will bring them out and bring them in, so that the Lord’s community won’t be like sheep without a shepherd.
One takeaway from these verses is to seek God’s direction in who will carry on after you. Despite the fact that Moses had acted insubordinately against God and would not be able to enter the promised land, God continued to speak to Moses.
In Deuteronomy God gives his reason why Moses was not permitted to enter the Promised Land: “because . . . you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites. Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.”
How disappointing! For more than 40 years he had worked to lead God’s people out of the world’s powers and into God’s power striving to teach them about God, God’s ways, and ultimately the laws of God. Now he was not going to make it to the “finish line.” The consequences for past sins are not always completely wiped away. While Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection serves as substitutionary atonement for our sins, we sometimes continue to live with some consequences of our behavior. The result of Moses’ and Aaron’s very visible insubordination against God was God’s NOT permitting them to make the end of the finish line and leading them into setting up a new nation. Choices have consequences and this was the consequence of Moses insubordinate exasperation. God was gracious in allowing Moses to see the land of promise.
The people of Israel rebelled, quarreled, and complained against God from the time they were rescued from slavery in Egypt. They complained about the food. They complained about the hardships of walking in the desert. They complained about Moses being appointed as their leader. Are we much different when we frequently complain about life’s difficulties and even, at times, about the difficulty of being a Christian in a world that is often hostile to God. For those of us who have been redeemed from sin and death, we should do all things without complaining or arguing (Phil. 2:14).
In this verse “Both of you” refers to Moses and his brother Aaron. These two men, whom God used to lead His people out of Egypt and who were supposed to be setting an example of faith, had refused to set that example when God called for them to do so. Moses and Aaron sinned against God by disobeying His command to speak to the rock to draw forth water. Instead, Moses struck the rock and said to the Israelites “Must we bring water out of this rock for you?”, either implying that it was Moses and Aaron bringing forth the water, or that they were equating themselves with God and showing their personal displeasure rather than God’s grace of performing a miracle of God in the presence of the people (How much more impactful would it HAVE been if Moses did as directed? “Please, God, give us water from this rock.” “Ok, here comes the water…all you have to do is ask me.” Verses Moses’ “I am the authority, and I am mad at you people. Must I do ALL the work around here. WHACK, WHACK… THERE! WE brought you water!”)
In these verses Moses had just been reminded of his past sin and its future result. He would not be allowed to enter the promised land and would not be able to participate in the promises given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. However, Moses did not sulk or feel sorry for himself. Instead, Moses began to appeal to God on behalf of the people thinking about the future of the people under his charge.
Moses did not ask God to approve a man Moses had chosen, nor did Moses ask God to delegate the task of choosing the next leader to someone else other than God. Instead, Moses asked God Himself to appoint a man to be the next leader of Israel. Moses had learned his lesson…subordinate yourself to GOD’S leadership and let God lead the way. We should never presume to know God’s plan or attempt to dictate to God what our next steps should be or who should carry on after us. Instead, we should give our lives and plans over to God and entrust them to Him.
Moses asked God for a man “Who will go out before them and come back in before them, and who will bring them out and bring them in.” Moses asked God to provide the people of God a leader who would lead the people of Israel in a manner similar to a shepherd – one who takes the sheep out of their enclosures meets their needs, guards them and who leads them back in again.
In Joshua God provided such a leader, in this case a military man who would lead the people of Israel, in a manner similar to a shepherd, taking the army of Israel out guarding them and meeting the needs of the nation, and then bring them back again. Isn’t it interesting that the word Jesus is just the transliteration of the word Joshua. Joshua (Jesus) would take up Moses’s prophetic and societal leadership role by continuing to lead and instruct the people of Israel. Isn’t it interesting then that Jesus (Joshua) becomes the perfect Moses-Mediator between humans and God?!
God loved the people of Israel. He cared for them and did not want them to be defenseless. It is not an accident that the Bible consistently refers to people as sheep. Sheep are notoriously unintelligent and dependent animals. Sheep who do not have a shepherd are vulnerable to all kinds of external threats—including attacks from wolves and other predators. The image of a shepherd is used throughout the Old Testament to describe God’s care for His people. In the Old Testament, poor leaders are sometimes pictured as being bad shepherds who do not care for their flocks. In the New Testament, Jesus used the same sheep without a shepherd concept when describing the crowds of people among whom He was ministering: “When he saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd”.
Does it seem that the sheep have “Good shepherds” in our current era?
18 The Lord replied to Moses, “Take Joshua son of Nun, a man who has the Spirit in him, and lay your hands on him.
19 Have him stand before the priest Eleazar and the whole community, and commission him in their sight.
20 Confer some of your authority on him so that the entire Israelite community will obey him.”
Mentorship includes instructing and empowering the one you mentor. Joshua is referenced throughout the Israelite’s time in the wilderness. From the time they left slavery in Egypt, he was Moses’s right-hand man. Joshua was even with Moses on Mount Sinai when he received the Ten Commandments and instructions about the tabernacle. Joshua had been learning from Moses for forty years. Along with Caleb, Joshua was one of only two out of twelve spies who believed the Lord insisting God’s people would be able to displace the people of Canaan and take over the land that had been promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Despite Joshua’s impressive resume of faith in God and loyalty to Moses, Moses did not just assume Joshua would be the one God appointed to next lead the Israelites. Moses waited for God’s direction for the next steps. God did indeed select Joshua to be the new leader of His people. The name Joshua means “The Lord saves.” This name is the Hebrew version of the name Jesus in the New Testament.
God spoke of Joshua as “a man who has the Spirit in him” , indicating that God the Holy Spirit (as reflected by the capital letter “S”) empowered Joshua to carry out the leadership task he was given.
In these verses, this ritual was used to confer leadership to Joshua. Notice, however, that the Lord instructed Moses to “have [Joshua] stand before the priest Eleazar.” By standing before Eleazar, God indicated leadership functions would be divided between Eleazar the priest and Joshua as the community and military leader, just as they were between Moses and Aaron.
By being commissioned in the sight of the people and the priest Eleazar, Moses endorsed Joshua. The people had followed Moses for forty years. Despite his insubordination that kept him from being able to enter the promised land, the people trusted Moses and his leadership. They believed him to be a true mediator between themselves and God. God’s command to commission Joshua in their sight would encourage them to trust Joshua in the same way they had trusted Moses.
What was implicit in verse 19 is made explicit here in verse 20. Only some of Moses’s authority would be passed onto Joshua. Joshua was not from the tribe of Levi but from the tribe of Ephraim. As such, he was not eligible to be a priest. So, while Moses had performed priestly duties as well as general leadership functions, Joshua would not perform any priestly tasks. Those tasks would remain with the tribe of Levi.
However, in the New Testament, Jesus fulfills the roles of prophet, priest, and king. In doing so, Jesus showed that He is the true “chosen one” – the prophet of God, the High Priest and mediator between humanity and God, and King the ruling authority of the character and reputation of God.
Numbers 27:21-23
21 “He will stand before the priest Eleazar who will consult the Lord for him with the decision of the Urim. He and all the Israelites with him, even the entire community, will go out and come back in at his command.”
22 Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua, had him stand before the priest Eleazar and the entire community,
23 laid his hands on him, and commissioned him, as the Lord had spoken through Moses.
The Urim and the Thummim were uncertain objects associated with the priestly garments that were used to determine God’s will in certain situations. Exodus 28-30 says “Place the Urim and Thummim in the breastpiece for decisions, so that they will also be over Aaron’s heart whenever he comes before the Lord. Aaron will continually carry the means of decisions for the Israelites over his heart before the Lord.”
The word Urim may mean “lights” or may be from a Hebrew word Arrim meaning cursed, while Thummim means innocent, or perhaps perfection. So what the items carried over Aaron’s heart actually mean is open to a wide variety of speculation. The Arab tradition used a similar method of divination that may help to indicate what was practiced. They used two arrow shafts, just the shaft without point or fletching; one was marked command and the other was marked prohibition or similar words and those inquiring would ask a yes/no question and then draw the answer at random. Sometimes a blank rod was included for a “no response” answer.
The presumption is that the Holy Spirit would direct the selection of the appropriate answer by the High Priest to indicate the will of God. There is no mention of the Urim and Thummim beyond the death of David, scholars suspect that use of them decayed some time before the Babylonian conquest, probably as a result of the growing influence of prophets at that time. In the Second Temple the Urim and Thummim actually existed, but no longer functioned in the practical sense since the Holy Spirit no longer possessed the High Priest.
So in this verse God chose Joshua, Moses confirmed Joshua’s selection to the people, AND the High Priest consulted God and confirmed that God selected Joshua.
The phrase Moses did as the Lord commanded him stands in contrast to Moses and Aaron’s behavior at the “Waters of Meribah.” This time Moses demonstrated trust in God’s wisdom. God deserves and expects the submission of his family members to his authority.
In Jesus’s commission to His disciples in Matthew 28 he charged us to teach all nations to live by everything that He has commanded. God both deserves and expects obedience and sends His Spirit to empower obedience, even as He did in the days of Moses and Joshua.
As Moses did with Joshua, publicly affirming God’s work in the life of the one you mentor is a vital aspect of investing in others.
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