Shelach
Torah Portion Numbers 13:1-15:41
Halph Torah Portion Joshua 2:1-24
Brit Hadassah Matthew 10:1-15
This is a test to see what the heart of the people is. If you notice through this exchange between Moses and the people at one point it evolved to the people wanting to kill Caleb and Joshua. Then YHVH stepped in to wipe them out. If it was not for Moses and Aaron’s intervention YHVH would have started over with the descendants of Moses to make a mightier nation.
The people tested YHVH 10 times to see whether or not they would obey YHVH. In this life, we are presented with many tests to see what we would do. The test revealed to the people what was in their hearts. It is apparent to me that they not only did not want to leave Egypt they did not want to go into the land, and they were looking for any excuse not to enter the land. Rather than take the attitude of Caleb and Joshua, when they saw the “Giants”, they seized the opportunity to convince the people not to listen to the other two witnesses so much so that the people wanted to silence their testimony.
This is not the only time that rabble-rousers try to get the people to return to Egypt. This is crazy speech, who in their right mind who were slaves set free want to trade their freedom to return to become slaves? Caleb said the giants were bread for them. This is what YHVH is saying to them that none of that generation would enter into the land. They all died from the age of 20 years and up. For every day that they were in the land, they would spend a year in the wilderness until all that generation died.
Mat 20:1-16 MKJV
(1) For the kingdom of Heaven is like a man, a housemaster, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard.
(2) And when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
(3) And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace.
(4) And he said to them, You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you. And they went.
(5) And he went out about the sixth and ninth hour and did likewise.
(6) And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, Why do you stand here all day idle?
(7) They said to him, Because no one has hired us. He said to them, You also go into the vineyard, and you shall receive whatever is right.
(8) So when evening had come, the lord of the vineyard said to his steward, Call the laborers and pay them their wage, beginning from the last to the first.
(9) And when they who were hired about the eleventh hour came, they each one received a denarius.
(10) But when the first came, they supposed that they would received more; and they also each one received a denarius.
(11) And receiving it they murmured against the master of the house,
(12) saying, These last have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and heat of the day.
(13) But he answered one of them and said, Friend, I do you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?
(14) Take yours, and go; I will give to this last one the same as to you.
(15) Is it not lawful for me to do what I want with my own? Is your eye evil because I am good?
(16) So the last shall be first, and the first last, for many are called, but few are chosen.
Mat 22:2-14 MKJV
(2) The kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king who made a marriage for his son.
(3) And he sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they would not come.
(4) Again he sent out other servants, saying, Tell those who are invited, Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatlings are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the marriage.
(5) But not caring, they went their ways, one to his field, another to his trading.
(6) And the rest took his servants and treated them spitefully, and killed them.
(7) But when the king heard, he was angry. And he sent out his armies and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.
(8) Then he said to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they who were invited were not worthy.
(9) Therefore go into the exits of the highways, and as many as you shall find, invite them to the marriage.
(10) So the servants went out into the highways and gathered together as many as they found, both bad and good. And the wedding was filled with reclining guests.
(11) And the king coming in to look over the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment.
(12) And he said to him, Friend, how did you come in here without having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
(13) Then the king said to the servants, Bind him hand and foot and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
(14) For many are called, but few chosen.
Mat 7:12-14 MKJV
(12) Therefore all things, whatever you desire that men should do to you, do even so to them; for this is the Law and the Prophets.
(13) Go in through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who go in through it.
(14) Because narrow is the gate and constricted is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
From all this, we see that there is a test and just because you are with the right people does not mean that you will be saved. The odds are not good that many will be saved, rather it is the ones who are doing the Father’s business. In the case of Noah only he and seven others were saved, so, out of 7 to 10 billion people only 8 were saved from the flood. Out of Sodom and Gomorrah, only 3 people were saved. So how many make up a remnant that will be saved? We must live a life that glorifies YHVH.
What do know is that when the resurrection all those who have died that were following God will be there and they will be without number.
Something that caught my eye is the word that is used and often interpreted as search out or spy out the land. I would have thought that there were different words, but I found out that the same word that was translated search out is the same word that was translated as spy out.
It is the Hebrew word Ragal which is the Strong’s number 7270 that means to search out and it can mean to spy out. In the Modern King James version, I found that the first usage, in this passage, was translated as search out, Num 13:2 Send men so that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give to the sons of Israel. You shall send a man from every tribe of their fathers, everyone a ruler among them. In
Num 13:16-17
(16) These were the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun Joshua.
(17) And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, Go up this way, southward, and go up into the mountain.
Then they switched back to the Search out
Num 13:21 So they went up and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, as men come to Hamath.
Num 14:2 And all the sons of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. And the whole congregation said to them, Oh that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or, Oh that we had died in the wilderness!
Num 14:28 Say to them, As I live, says Jehovah, as you have spoken in My ears, so I will do to you.
Num 14:34 According to the number of the days in which you searched the land, forty days, each day for a year you shall bear your iniquities, forty years; and you shall know My alienation.
Something else came to mind as I read through this, I saw Judah and Ephraim. This will be mentioned later on as the Kingdom of Israel would be divided Judah would be the leader of the Southern Kingdom and Ephraim would represent the Northern Kingdom.
Num 13:6 Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh.
Num 13:8 Of the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea the son of Nun.
1Ki 11:26-39 MKJV
(26) And Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephrathite of Zereda, Solomon’s servant, whose mother’s name was Zeruah, a widow, he too lifted up his hand against the king.
(27) And this was the cause that he lifted up his hand against the king. Solomon built Millo and repaired the breaks of the city of David his father.
(28) And the man Jeroboam was a mighty man of war. And Solomon, seeing that the young man was doing work, he made him ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph.
(29) And it happened at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh found him in the way. And he had clothed himself with a new garment. And the two of them were alone in the field.
(30) And Ahijah caught hold of the new robe on him, and tore it in twelve pieces.
(31) And he said to Jeroboam, Take ten pieces for yourself. For so says Jehovah, the God of Israel, Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to you,
(32) but he shall have one tribe for My servant David’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel,
(33) because they have forsaken Me, and have worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the goddess of the sons of Ammon, and have not walked in My ways, to do what is right in My eyes, and to keep My statutes and My judgments, as David his father did.
(34) But I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David My servant, whom I chose, because he kept My commandments and My statutes.
(35) But I will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand, and will give it to you, ten tribes.
(36) And to his son I will give one tribe, so that David My servant may have a light always before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for Me, to put My name there.
(37) And I will take you, and you shall reign according to all that your soul desires, and shall be king over Israel.
(38) And if you will listen to all that I command you, and will walk in My ways, and do what is right in My sight, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as David My servant did, it shall happen that I will be with you and build you a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel to you.
(39) And for this I will afflict the seed of David, but not forever.
In the line of Judah Messiah would be born. We know Him as Yeshua and through His death and resurrection, the Kingdom would be restored as the Prophet Ezekiel stated in chapter 37.
Eze 37:15-28 MKJV
(15) And the Word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
(16) And you, son of man, take a stick and write on it, For Judah and for his companions, the sons of Israel. And take another stick and write on it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and all the house of Israel, his companions.
(17) And join them to one another into one stick. And they shall become one in your hand.
(18) And when the sons of your people shall speak to you, saying, Will you not declare to us what these mean to you?
(19) Say to them, So says the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions, and I will put them with him, with the stick of Judah, and will make them one stick, and they shall be one in My hand.
(20) And the sticks on which you write shall be in your hand before their eyes.
(21) And say to them, So says the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and will gather them on every side, and will bring them into their own land.
(22) And I will make them one nation in the land on the mountains of Israel, and one King shall be king to them all. And they shall not still be two nations, nor shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.
(23) Nor shall they be defiled with their idols, even with their filthy idols, nor with all of their transgressions. But I will save them out of all their dwelling places, in them where they sinned, and will cleanse them. And they shall be to Me for a people, and I will be to them for God.
(24) And David My servant shall be King over them. And there shall be one Shepherd to all of them. And they shall walk in My judgments, and obey My Laws, and do them.
(25) And they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, the land in which your fathers have lived. And they shall dwell in it, even they and their sons, and the sons of their sons for ever. And My servant David shall be their ruler forever.
(26) And I will cut a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them, and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in their midst forever.
(27) And My tabernacle shall be with them. Yea, I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
(28) And the nations shall know that I Jehovah sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary shall be in their midst forever.
Continuing to the Halph Torah Portion Joshua ordered two spies into Jericho to report as to the condition of the city. Contrasting the 10 leaders who gave an evil report, the spies gave a good report as YHVH His fear of Him in them.
In all of this let us guard what we say for YHVH is listening to what we are saying. The request that we make unaware of His presence He may grant to us as asked. If we speak evil towards His plan then be ready for the consequences that follow.
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