After 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, God gave Israel some final instructions before entering Canaan (Numbers 33:50-56), the land He had promised to Abraham hundreds of years before . God was very specific in commanding the Israelites to drive out all the inhabitants of Canaan (33:51-52a, 53), remove any objects or places used for the worship of false gods (33:52b), and divide the land evenly among the tribes (33:54). Failure to obey any of God’s commands would result in His judgment on Israel (33:55-56). Before moving forward into Canaan, God also appointed the boundaries of the land so that the children of Israel would know the borders of the land that was rightfully given to them (34:1-15). Eleazar, Joshua, and the leaders of the ten tribes were specified as the ones who would assign the portions of the land once Israel had conquered Canaan (34:16-29). The tribe of Levi was responsible for assisting the people in worship in the tabernacle and was given 48 cities throughout Canaan (35:1-8). Although the Levites did not inherit a plot of land for their tribe (Numbers 18:20), they were given places to live throughout Canaan so they could serve the spiritual needs of Israel.
Of the 48 cities given to the Levites, six of them would become cities of refuge (35:9-34). Cities of refuge were locations where a man who accidentally killed someone could flee and be protected from revenge until he could stand before a congregation in judgment (35:9-15). If the man killed someone with an object considered lethal, he would be guilty of murder and the avenger was permitted to put him to death (35:16-19). Any type of premeditated action that resulted in the murder of another would be considered punishable by death (35:20-21); however, if a murder took place without premeditation, the congregation would decide the motive and lay down a sentence (35:22-24). If the congregation found that he was not guilty of premeditated murder, the man could stay in the city of refuge without fear of vengeance (35:25-28). He would be permitted to leave the city of refuge and return to his city of origin when the High-Priest died (35:28b). In the event of a homicide, the guilty man would be put to death on the basis of the testimony of more than one witness (35:30). No ransom could be paid to free a murderer from the death penalty or a city of refuge (35:31-32). The murder of a human being was a serious matter and needed to be handled in accordance to God’s laws. If Israel did not properly handle incidents of murders, the land would become defiled and God could no longer dwell in their midst (35:33-34).
In Numbers 27:1-11 a situation had arisen concerning the inheritance of five daughters whose father had no sons to pass down his inheritance to following his death. It was determined that the daughters would rightfully inherit the land of their deceased father. However, if those daughters married men from other tribes, the land that the daughters inherited from their deceased father would now become the property of another tribe (36:1-4). This meant that a particular tribe’s total land would be reduced and the other tribe’s land would be multiplied. Moses listened to the complaints and commanded that any woman who had inherited land from her father was only permitted to marry within her own ancestral tribe (36:5-6). No land could pass from one tribe to anther (36:7-9). The five daughters of Zelophehad obeyed the command of Moses and married men from their ancestral tribe, which meant that the land would also stay with the tribe (36:10-12).
The book of Numbers concludes with these words, “These are the commandments and the judgments which the Lord commanded the children of Israel by the hand of Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho” (36:13). This statement confirms that the words written in Numbers were directly from God and intended to be obeyed by all of Israel. If Israel obeyed the commandments in this book, they would experience God’s blessings. But if Israel disobeyed that which was written in Numbers they would invite God’s judgment upon them.
Dear God, may I obey Your words.
