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Let's get started!
Parasha Matot is the 9th Torah Portion in Numbers.
It goes from Numbers 30:1-32:42 and includes the vows of a woman,
the battle against Midian, the counting of the plunder(prey),
the contribution and gift to YHVH, the tribes of Gad and Reuben
asking for the land on the other side of the Jordan,
the promise that they would help the rest of their brothers get their inheritance, and lastly the cities that Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh built.
This torah portion starts out with the instruction
about the vows of a man or woman to YHVH.
When we make a vow to YHVH,
it can NEVER be broken, or we will be punished by it.
A vow is the same thing as a promise,
so it is of upmost importance not to play around with ANY promise,
especially to YHVH. Let's look into the Ancient Hebrew and
see if we can't find a deeper meaning into this word:
Nadar
נדר
Meaning:
The head of life's door
Wow! Think about it. What is the MOST important vow that is made?
Our vow with YHVH! Our promise that we will serve, love,
and obey Him with all our heart, mind, and strength.
t is the most important covenant(another meaning of vow) we can do.
And what's the 2nd? Marriage! And guess what? The 2 go together!
When we vow to YHVH and come into the covenant which is sealed by
Yahshua's blood, we become part of His bride, Yisra'el.
And in the last days:
Revelation 19:6-9
And I heard as the voice of a great crowd, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunders, saying, “Halleluyah, for YHVH El Shaddai reigns!
7 “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him praise, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife prepared herself.”
8 And to her it was given to be dressed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the set-apart ones.
9 And he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who have been called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he said to me, “These are the true words of Elohim.”
HalleluYAH!!
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Now in chapter 31 we see the last time that Moshe
leads the people out against the Midianites.
YHVH told Him to take 1,000 people from each tribe, 12,000 people in all.
I want to look at verse 6 as we will see something very interesting:
Numbers 31:6
And Moshe sent them on the campaign, one thousand from each tribe,
them and Pineḥas son of Elʽazar the priest on the campaign,
with the set-apart utensils and the trumpets for sounding in his hand.
Remember Pinehas(Phineas)? He was the one that took
the plague away from Yisra'el in chapter 25.
As we can see here, he was a man who had a mind for battle.
YHVH blessed this man and made him a leader for Yisra'el all the way
to even past Joshua and many of the judges. YHVH truly gave him a long life!
Anyway, they go on and battle Midian and
destroyed all the cities and the males, including Balaam.
Remember that Balaam was the one
who prophesied on Yisra'el in Numbers 22-24.
But they kept every one of the women, and the children,
and all the animals and goods. As we see in verses 14-18,
Moshe was very displeased about the women being alive
Numbers 31:14-18
But Moshe was wroth with the officers of the army, with the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, who had come from the campaign.
15 And Moshe said to them, “Have you kept all the women alive?
16 “Look, they are the ones who caused the children of Yisra’el,
through the word of Bilʽam, to trespass against YHVH in the matter of Peʽor,
and there was a plague among the congregation of YHVH.
17 “And now, slay every male among the little ones. And every woman
who has known a man by lying with a man you shall slay.
18 “But keep alive for yourselves all the female children
who have not known a man by lying with a man.
Yisra'el was always like this, mixing, mingling,
and forgetting everything they were taught NOT to do.
I mean, they had JUST gone through the plague that killed 24,000 of them
and already they are going back with the same people.
Moshe knew what was going to happen if they kept all the women
so he gave them this instruction because if he didn't,
there would have been a repeat of what had just happened a few chapters before.
As we read in the rest of this chapter with the counting of what they got
from the battle, we see in verses 48-50 how the commanders of the army
of Yisra'el give an offering to YHVH because not one man died in the battle.
Numbers 31:48-50
And the officers who were over thousands of the campaign, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, came near to Moshe,
49 And they said to Moshe, “Your servants have taken a count of the fighting men under our command, and not a man of us is missing.”
50 “So we have brought an offering for YHVH, what every man found of
ornaments of gold: armlets and bracelets and signet rings and earrings
and necklaces, to make atonement for ourselves before YHVH.”
They knew that it was only YHVH who could do a miracle like that.
We should be the same way. When there is a battle in our lives
and we win it victoriously and get stronger and more blessed because of it,
we should thank Him because without Him, it couldn't be possible.
When we get blessed above and beyond what we need,
we have a responsibility to give some of that back to YHVH.
Praise Yah!
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We go now to chapter 32 and we read a very interesting point in the lives
of the children of Yisra'el. Before we read some of the verses, picture this:
You are in the wilderness, close to the Jordan,
you have been preparing to get ready with all your family
for the last 40 years to cross into the promised land,
and all of a sudden this happens:
Numbers 32:1-5
And the children of Re’uben and the children of Gad had much livestock,
a large number. And they saw the land of Yaʽzer and the land of Gilʽad
and saw that the place was a place for livestock.
2 So the children of Gad and the children of Re’uben came and spoke to Moshe, and to Elʽazar the priest, and to the leaders of the congregation, saying,
3 “Ataroth, and Diḇon, and Yaʽzer, and Nimrah, and Ḥeshbon,
and Elʽaleh, and Sebam, and Nebo, and Beʽon,
4 The land which YHVH had smitten before the congregation of Yisra’el,
is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.”
5 And they said, “If we have found favour in your eyes, let this land be given
to your servants as a possession, and do not let us pass over the Jordan.”
After ALL this waiting and all this preparation and everything else,
all of a sudden you find that 2 of the tribes want to stay behind!
After all this waiting and fighting and teaching and plagues and
everything else, now they don't even want to cross the Jordan.
Now, think about it. What would you have said to them?
It probably shocked the rest of Yisra'el to hear such a thing,
which is why Moshe right then and there made sure that they knew
that this was discouraging the rest of Yisra'el from crossing over.
Numbers 32:6-7
And Moshe said to the children of Gad and to the children of Re’uben,
“Are your brothers to go into the battle while you yourselves sit here?
7 “Now why do you discourage the heart of the children of Yisra’el
from passing over into the land which YHVH has given them?
He knew that if they did what they wanted to do, YHVH would punish
them the same way which He did to their fathers.
He continues in these next verses by warning them that if they turn away
from YHVH's plan for them, YHVH would consume
them and go through the same process of being in the wilderness over again.
But as we see in the following verses, the tribes of Gad and Reuben
knew this, which is why they said:
Numbers 32:16-19
Then they came near to him and said, “Let us build sheep-enclosures
here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones,
17 But let us ourselves be armed, hastening before the children of Yisra’el
until we have brought them to their place. And our little ones shall dwell
in the walled cities because of the inhabitants of the land.
18 “We shall not return to our homes until every one of the
children of Yisra’el has received his inheritance.
19 “For we shall not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has fallen to us on this eastern side of the Jordan.”
As we see in this chapter, Moshe made absolutely sure
that they were going to do as they said.
He made them make a promise(vow, look back in this portion)
that they would come with them and fight with the rest of the tribes,
and then told Joshua, El'azar, and the leaders of Yisra'el to
make absolutely sure as well that they kept their promise.
As we see later in the Scriptures, they kept their promise and YHVH
gave them this land as an inheritance but they sure had to work for it.
One last thing that I want to make mention of is in verse 33:
Numbers 32:33
So Moshe gave to the children of Gad, to the children of Re’uben, and to half the tribe of Menashsheh, son of Yoseph, the reign of Siḥon sovereign of the Amorites and the reign of Og sovereign of Bashan, the land with its cities within the borders, the cities of the land round about.
Now, why did Moshe give land to the 1/2 tribe of Manasseh?
They didn't ask for it. Why did he give to them?
There was a reason. In Joshua 17 we see why
Moshe gave a part of this land to Manasseh:
Joshua 17:14-18
And the children of Yoseph spoke to Yehoshua, saying,
“Why have you given us but one lot and one portion to inherit,
seeing we are a great people whom YHVH has blessed until now?”
15 And Yehoshua said to them, “If you are a great people,
go up to the forest and clear a place for yourself
there in the land of the Perizzites and the Repha’ites,
since the hill country of Ephrayim is too narrow for you.”
16 Then the children of Yoseph said, “The hill country is not enough for us,
and all the Kenaʽanites who dwell in the land of the valley
have chariots of iron, both those who are of Beyth She’an
and its towns and those who are of the Valley of Yizreʽel.”
17 And Yehoshua spoke to the house of Yoseph,
to Ephrayim and to Menashsheh, saying,
“You are a great people and have great power, you are not to have one lot,
18 For the hill country shall be yours. For though it is a forest,
you shall cut it down, and its farthest limits shall be yours.
For you are to drive out the Kenaʽanites,
though they have iron chariots and are strong.”
Well, what would have happened if Moshe
would have stuck all these people into a tiny space?
They would have had even bigger troubles in the future!
YHVH must of mentioned to Moshe or showed him to that this would happen. YHVH is always in control, even when things get tight.
He knows what's going to happen before it happens, so if we trust
and obey Him, He will bless us even when things get tough!
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I pray that this week's portion was a blessing
to you and I pray that you will be able to find something
new yourself and that we will be able to share it together.
Until next time...
Shalom!
Christian Montanez Dodd
Servant and Emissary of Yahshua, Child of YHVH
HalleluYAH!!