Bible In 365 Days

Numbers 35-36

Numbers 35

It will be remembered that the Levites were not permitted to hold, any inheritance in the land. Jehovah was the portion of their inheritance. Provision was now made for them. Forty-eight cities scattered throughout the whole land were to be the places of their abode. This scattering of the servants of the Tabernacle through the length and breadth of the land was a beneficent arrangement. Nothing is said of religious service to be rendered by them in their own cities. They were rather to go up in courses to the center of worship. According to the divine purpose, their residence would have an influence for right on the whole life of the nation.

Among these forty-eight cities of the Levites six were to be set apart as cities of refuge. This was a tender and just provision among a people naturally fierce and vindictive. The law of God had made life sacred, and the punishment of taking it had been solemnly declared in the words, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." Nevertheless, there might be extenuating circumstances. For premeditated murder there was to be no final refuge or forgiveness. For killing in haste, that is, unpremeditated killing, provision was made. These cities were not provided that men might evade justice, but rather that justice might be ensured. The fact that a man slayer reached one of these cities did not ensure him against inquiry and investigation. It rather made such inquiry necessary and thus gave him opportunity of explanation and ensured the certainty of just action.

Numbers 36

The question of the inheritance of women, which had already occurred through the application of the daughters of Zelophehad, came up once more, raised by the heads of the tribes. It was possible that these women might marry men who were members of other tribes. In such case their inheritance would pass over. It was therefore provided that they must marry only within the border of their own tribe.

Thus closes the Book of Numbers. It is essentially a book of the wilderness. The nation was on the eve of entering the land. The actual history is again taken up in the last chapter of Deuteronomy with the account of the death of Moses.

It is impossible to read this book without being impressed first with the failure of the people. It is a record of long-continued stubbornness and foolishness.

Yet what right have we to think or speak harshly of the people, for the book is also the story of the unwearying patience and perpetual faithfulness of God.

Throughout there is manifest the forward movement of God along the highway of His own purpose. This forward movement is not of man but of Jehovah. The book is a revelation of the sure procedure of God toward the final working out into human history of the regeneration of humanity, the first movements of which were recorded in the close of the Book of Genesis, the central forces of which came in the Incarnation of the Son of God, and the final victories of which are not yet.