Seder 114: Numbers 15---Instructions that Send a Message

 The book of Numbers deals with the final 39 of the 40 years that the children of Israel spent in the wilderness after their exodus from Egypt. Chapters 1-14 take place during year 2 of the wilderness sojourn, and chapters 20-36 cover events from year 40.  

That means that everything we are given about years 3-39 is in chapters 15-19.  In terms of narrative, we are only told about a few events from those years:

• a rebellious man (Num 15:32-36);
• Korah's rebellion and the ensuring plague (Num 16);
• the budding of Aaron's rod (Num 17).

The rest of Num 15-19 contains instructions much like those given in the book of Leviticus.  The book of Numbers as a whole has an unusual structure.  Sections of narrative are interspersed with sections of instruction.  The first time one reads the book, the organization can seem rather random.

To discern the full message intended in each section of instruction, we should pay close attention to the placement of those sections within the book.  Commentator Roy Gane identifies a chiastic structure in the first 21 chapters of Numbers:

A.  Organization for conquest (ch 1-10)

       B. Corpses at the "graveyard of greed" (ch 11)

             C.  Moses leadership, prelude to rebellion (ch 12-13)

                    D.  Rebellion (ch 14)

                          E.  Loyalty:  inadvertent versus defiant sin (ch 15)

                    D'.  Rebellion (ch 16)

               C' Aftermath of rebellion; Aaron's leadership (ch 17-18)

        B'.  Corpse contamination (ch 19)

A'. Conquests (ch 20-21)

Chapter 15, in the middle of the chiasm, sends some important messages.  It comes right after chapter 14, when the Israelites show they are not ready to enter the Promised Land and consequently learn that they will be spending 38 extra years in the wilderness.  So it is significant that Num 15:1-21 deals with offerings that will be made when the Israelites reach the Promised Land.  This is an affirmation that they will indeed reach the land, and that they will be blessed there with abundant grain, wine, and oil.  They will have bountiful harvests and offer the firstfruits of those harvests to God.  

They will continue to commit sins, including some pretty serious ones.  But if they remain loyal to God, those sins can be forgiven.  It is only when people defiantly reject God and the covenant that God cannot work with them (vv 22-31).  

Verses 32-36 give an example of the kind of defiant sin described in verses 30-31.  A man deliberately breaks the Sabbath and continues doing so when confronted about the matter.  The Israelites seek God's guidance on how to handle the situation, and God gives a sentence of death by stoning.  

Verses 37-41 instruct the Israelites to wear tassels on the corners of their garments.  The tassels will include a cord of blue.  The blue was (and still is) made with a valuable and expensive dye from murex snails.  This color was also part of priestly and royal garments.  In the tassels, it carried a message that the Israelites constituted a "royal priesthood and holy nation."  They should remember who they were are live accordingly:  

"And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after" (v 39). 

Verse 39 contains a reference to the rebellion in chapter 14.  The Hebrew word for 'follow after" means to "spy out" (see the ESV footnote).  The Israelites should live by faith in God, not by fear and human desire.  

There are lessons here for all the people of God during their time of sojourning.  Blessings are ahead if we remember who we are and walk in faith and loyalty to God.