Numbers Study - 2025-12-03

Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.

If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.

Thank you for joining us today.

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Just to get free movie tickets really.

Let's pray before we get started here.

Lord, we thank you for your goodness. Thank you for your word.

Such a good chapter, Lord, just pointing to you, Jesus. I just pray that it would just be evident,

the gospel would be evident, that you would just speak

insights, Lord, that you would touch each of us, whether one verse or multiple verses.

God, I pray that you would speak to each of us tonight and that your spirit would just be

so close and present to us as we break into groups as well. Lord, I pray that you would

just bring great discussion time, Lord, to just really draw us closer into your presence,

not to give us more head knowledge, but to draw us to be more like your Son, Jesus.

So we just thank you for your goodness. Amen.

So we're in chapter 27 of Numbers. We're almost to the end. This is exciting.

Getting close to Deuteronomy, where it all gets repeated.

So tonight's chapter is broken up into three parts or three stories, yet all of them are pointing

in one singular trajectory. And I'm just going to spoil right off the bat what that trajectory

is, because if you've been reading the word of the Lord, you already know what it is.

And that trajectory is the gospel of Jesus. This is a prophetic depiction of the gospel.

Not that this is prophetic writing, prophetic literature, but rather a historical real-time

account of people's lives, but it's a prophetic reflection of the gospel of Jesus,

who's the founder of grace, the finisher of faith, and the one who carries us into eternal rest.

So let's start reading in verse one.

Then drew near the daughters of Zalofahad, the son of Hephar, son of Gilead, son of

Makir, son of Manasseh, from the clans of Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, son of Joseph.

I am going to get all these names wrong, by the way. I'm just going to put that out there

at the beginning. The names of his daughters were Mala, Noah, Hogla, Milka, and Tirzah.

And they stood before Moses, and before Eleazar, the priest, and before the chiefs,

and all the congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting, saying,

our father died in the wilderness. He was not among the company of those who gathered themselves

together against the Lord in the company of Korah, but died for his own sin, and he had no sons.

Why should the name of our father be taken away from his clan because he had no son?

Give to us a possession among our father's brothers.

Moses brought their case before the Lord, and the Lord said to Moses, the daughters of Zalofahad

are right. You shall give them possession of an inheritance among their father's brothers,

and transfer the inheritance of their father to them. And you shall speak to the people of

Israel, saying, if a man dies and has no son, then you shall transfer his inheritance to his

daughter. And if he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers.

And if he has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father's brothers.

And if his father has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to their nearest kinsmen

of his clan, and he shall possess it. And it shall be for the people of Israel a

statute and rule as the Lord commanded Moses. We're going to stop there. Pause for the first

section. And first, I'll just note five daughters. I don't know if any of you had a lot of daughters,

but that's a lot. You're one of five. Okay, Jill's one of five. And I bet that was a fun house.

That's right, your dad. I grew up in a house quite the opposite. There were seven boys and one

daughter. And my mom had her hands full with us, and she homeschooled all of us, so she really had

her hands full. But I really vividly remember my mother saying, I'm glad I have boys and not

daughters. So poor Zellofahad, a lot of girls in the house. But one thing I want to point out

before we continue further is just the picture of their faith.

This was not a very fair society to women necessarily. It was all in God's order.

And this is a beautiful picture because we get to see how God is a gentleman, and he takes care of

these women. But I love the picture of their faith. Their father has died, and they really wanted to

clarify. He wasn't one of the rebels. He wasn't with the group that was led by Korah back in,

we saw that in chapter 20, where it actually said that the men that followed Korah disdained

the Lord. So they wanted to make it very clear. He wasn't one of them. But they're also being

very honest, because they didn't say he died of old age. They said he died of his sin. We don't know

what it was, but it's in there. But they had faith. They're looking at the river, they're

looking at what they're about to cross, and the land that they're about to go into and possess,

and they have full confidence in the Lord that he is going to give it to them. And so they

don't stand back, and they say, hey, we want some of this land. Our dad died, and we have no brothers,

nobody to claim this for us, because in this time, they couldn't claim it without a male head of

the house. But they have so much faith that the Lord is going to be faithful. They give

this land to them that they can't cross without saying something, saying, hey, we want part of this.

Another huge thing is being shown here in how the Lord answers. He's introducing the principle

of grace here, inheritance given by grace, not by status. These women have no male covering,

no cultural claim to inheritance, no natural right. Yet God said, give them a possession among their

fathers' brothers, verse 7. God makes a way for the inheritance to be received by those who would

have no right to it. This is huge covenant language. It's a picture of the gospel. Those

who have no claim on the inheritance, those who have no standing under the law, those who were

outside the normal line of blessing are now welcomed in and given a place among the brothers.

Grace enters here as a new principle, and it perfectly sets the stage for the next two

sections that we're about to read. Now, there's one other really cool nugget in here

with their names. One thing that I always love in Scripture is that if there's a name in here,

it's intentional. I know Jamie just taught a whole chapter of names recently.

You can see how each name is purposefully put in here. Each of these names is purposefully

put in here, but I'm going to just hang that out as a golden nugget for you to anticipate,

and I'll come back to it at the very end. So, let's keep reading verse 5. No, I'm sorry.

Verse 12. The Lord said to Moses, Go up into this mountain of Abirabirim,

and see the land that I have given to you, to the people of Israel. When you have seen it, you

also shall be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was. Because you rebelled against

my word in the wilderness of Zinn, when the congregation quarreled, failing to uphold me

as holy, at the waters before their eyes. These are the waters of Marimba, of Kadesh,

in the wilderness of Zinn. He can see it, but he can't go in.

This is actually, I think I mentioned chapter 20 for Korah. That was chapter 16. This is what

happens in Erz being referenced to chapter 20, and I'm going to just read it. If you want to

verse 10 of Numbers 20, the Lord tells Moses, the people are, they're grumbling and complaining like

they did so many times, and they have no water, and the Lord has grace on them, mercy on them,

empathy towards them, and says, I want you to take the staff, assemble the congregation,

and I want you to tell the rock before their eyes, before their eyes to yield water. And then verse 10,

then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them,

here now you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand

and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation

drank, and their livestock. But what did the Lord say? Because you did not believe in me,

to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this

assembly into the land that I have given them. I've been leading this people for 40 years,

and it comes to one big blunder right there. They're less than 20 chapters away.

I didn't do the math on how many days away they are from entering the Promised Land,

but they're so close. But they put it on their shoulders. They grumble, they get angry.

Should we, talking about me and Aaron, should we bring water out of this rock for you,

instead of saying, hey God has empathy for you guys, and watch this.

Instead he was angry, and he disobeyed, and he lost the privilege of entering into the Promised Land.

God said, speak in his anger, and in his anger he hit with his staff. I remember reading this

a while back, and it just felt like kind of unfair that, you know, he was a good leader,

he was continually humbling himself before the Lord. They weren't easy to lead. I mean,

and just in a moment of anger, he loses it all. But then this chapter happens, and it's made so

evident and clear why he couldn't go in. Moses is a representation of what we would now call the

old covenant. For them it was just current events. The covenant of sacrifice, the law,

and the old cannot bring us into the Promised Land. Moses could not enter the Promised Land

if the gospel was going to be reflected, if Jesus was going to be pointed to.

Moses, as the picture of the law, he can see the inheritance, he can describe the inheritance,

he can probably smell the inheritance and point to the inheritance.

But he cannot bring anyone into it, and nor can the law. This perfectly matches section one.

The daughter's inheritance did not come through legal structure, Mosaic law. God must now show

that the law itself can't bring anyone into the inheritance. Section one introduced the need for

grace, and here section two reveals why the law can't give it. Now we're going to keep

reading to the end, starting in verse 15. In Deuteronomy, there's an account of what Moses said,

and then God's like, stop. He's like, come on, Lord, can I please go in? But they skipped that

here. Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, let the Lord, the God of the Spirit of all flesh,

appoint a man over the congregation. Who shall go out before them and come in before them?

Who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep

that have no shepherd? I love the language he uses there. Gospel language, once again.

So the Lord said to Moses, verse 18, take Joshua, the son of none, a man in whom is the Spirit,

and lay your hand upon him. Make him stand before Eleazar, the priest, and all the congregation,

and you shall commission him in their sight. You shall invest him with some of your authority,

that all the congregation of the people of Israel may obey, and he shall stand before Eleazar,

the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord. At his

word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he and all the people of

Israel with him, the whole congregation. And Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took

Joshua and made him stand before Eleazar, the priest, and the whole congregation,

and he laid his hands on him and commissioned him as the Lord directed through Moses.

So here we find our new Israel leader, Joshua, son of none.

Was anyone at the men's breakfast on Saturday? Chris, you were there, Matt, you were there.

So I know that I knew this, I'm sure, way back, but Chuck Wilson, was that his name? He did such an

amazing job. Was that recorded, by the way? It was just like, if you haven't heard it, you should

go listen to it. It was very, very powerful. He gave just a few chapters of the stories of

Joshua and the Israelites going into the Promised Land, and it was just really, really,

really powerful. But one thing that he mentioned is who Joshua represents. Joshua for us English,

Hebrew, Yeshua, Greek, Jesus.

Who is it that must take the people into the Promised Rest of the Lord? Joshua, a reflection

of Jesus. This is why Moses was told, you can't enter. He did sin, he did disobey the Lord,

and there is a consequence for that. But this is why it's so severe, because he couldn't go in,

because the representation of Christ could be the only thing that brings them into the Promised

Rest. It couldn't be the law.

Here is where the solution arrives. Joshua, Yeshua, Jesus leads the people into the inheritance,

brings the grace that the daughter's story hinted at, and accomplishes what Moses, the law, could not

do. God's sequence in this chapter is very intentional. Grace must be introduced,

the limits of the law have to be exposed, and then a true Savior has to be revealed.

This is exactly the gospel pattern.

John was going to teach tonight, and he had surgery. I haven't actually heard if he's

doing well. I'll pray for him after this. He is doing well. Okay, praise the Lord.

But I only had a few days to prep for this, and I was like, oh boy, it's numbers.

Normally I need like two weeks to prepare. But then I read through this chapter, and I was like,

oh wow, that's just the gospel. That's kind of easy. Isn't this awesome? It's literally just

the gospel right before us. To quote Ken Bailey in the video he shared on Sunday

with slightly different words, if you look for Jesus, you will find him.

And right now, if we look for Jesus, it's so evident that he's right in this chapter.

So that is chapter 27. There's a lot more to dig into, and I would highly encourage all of you

to get out a commentary. Go to blueletterbible.com. They have a section called Interline where you can

read it in English, and then you can see the Hebrew. And every single verse is just like, whoa,

whoa, whoa. But we would be here literally all night, and I didn't have enough time to do all

that. So that brings us to the end. But there's one more nugget I just wanted to share.

And that is the names in the very beginning of this chapter.

So we have the father that's mentioned of the five daughters,

Zelo Fahad. I think that's how you pronounce it. That's how the Bible app guy pronounces it.

The meaning of his name most likely is shadow of fear, or another translation is protection from

dread. It's two Hebrew words, and I don't know how to pronounce these. Tosel,

which is shadow, and Fahad, which is fear. Some other translation is gloom. Why does this matter?

Israel is about to enter a land filled with enemies and fear. And the first story in this chapter is

about a family whose name literally carries the idea of fear, yet God grants them inheritance.

He's setting up the theme, inheritance isn't given to the fearless and the strong,

but to those who put their trust in God's word above fear.

And then the names of the daughters. These five names are not random, and they're not in random

order. They paint a picture of restored life, movement, beauty, and delight.

The first name mentioned mala, which means tender or weak. Some translate it even as sickness and

disease. Significance, she represents the weak, the vulnerable, those most likely to lose inheritance

under normal laws, yet she receives a portion. Then there's Noah, not the same as Noah of Genesis,

different spelling, meaning movement in English, it's the same in Hebrew, it's different.

Meaning movement, or motion, or my favorite translation, wandering, which I have a feeling

that's where she got her name from. Israel has been wandering for 40 years,

and God is now bringing motion toward inheritance, not wandering. Then there's

hogla, meaning partridge, a bird known for running on the ground rather than flying.

And according to the famous song, they live in pear trees.

This is symbolic of running forward, moving into new territory, a perfect wilderness to

promised land symbol. The fourth name is milka, meaning queen, or council.

Inheritance makes them part of a royal line. God treats them with dignity and status they did not

naturally have. A picture of us believers receiving adoption into a royal standing with Christ

in Hebrews. And then finally there's terza, meaning delight, a very strong and beautiful word.

Later it's in Song of Solomon 6-4, terza becomes a symbol of beauty and belovedness.

God is saying, the inheritance I give you is a delight, not a burden.

I'm not super into languages necessarily, and by that I just mean I'm bad at learning languages.

And I never learned Hebrew. It was, courses were offered at Bible College, but I knew it would be

tough one, so I just said, ah, that's okay. But when you put all the Hebrew names, all these names

together, it's not just a list of names, but almost a small story. From fear, through weakness,

wandering, struggling forward on foot, to being made royal and receiving delight. Once again,

it starts with the gospel, finishes with the gospel, the whole chapter is the gospel being

displayed. Similar to us, we are coming from a place of fear. Through our own weakness,

we can't do anything. We're struggling forward on foot,

but God calls us, He makes us royal, invites us into His family, and receives us with delight.

Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you for this chapter. I pray, Lord,

that you would just continue to propel new insights and encouragement as we discuss

further as a group. We love you, and we just thank you. Amen.

Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss His word.

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Be blessed and have a great day!