Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Numbers chapter 33 verses 50 through 56:
50 In the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 51 Speak to the Israelites, and say to them: When you cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 52 you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their figured stones, destroy all their cast images, and demolish all their high places. 53 You shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess. 54 You shall apportion the land by lot according to your clans; to a large one you shall give a large inheritance, and to a small one you shall give a small inheritance; the inheritance shall belong to the person on whom the lot falls; according to your ancestral tribes you shall inherit. 55 But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those whom you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides; they shall trouble you in the land where you are settling. 56 And I will do to you as I thought to do to them.
Another difficult passage from the Old Testament.
These chapters in Numbers give instructions on what to do with the nations which lived in the Promised Land before the Israelites arrived. Depending on which scholars you read, it is either a story of dispossession and genocide or civilizing conquest. Justifications can be made: the Land was first promised to Abraham, the former inhabitants filled the Land with war and slavery. But in whatever case there were 7 nations driven out in all to make way for the 12 tribes of Israel.
Which leads me to an interesting New Testament point. Almost everyone remembers Jesus fed the 5,000 and there were 12 baskets of bread left over, symbolic of the twelve tribes of Israel. But a lot of people forget another large feeding — 4,000 people — in which 7 basketfuls were left over. And the really interesting thing is that the feeding of the 4,000 happened in a Gentile area where many of the descendants of the nations which were supposed to have been eradicated from the Land by the Israelites had taken refuge.
It is an interesting point. Like maybe the Bible is saying that a new vision must be embraced, and that former command about dispossession and annihilation must be replaced with a new command of salvation and provision.
And the latter word is greater than the former . . .
Tomorrow’s Lesson will be from Deuteronomy chapters 1 and 2.
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