Prayer for a New Leader

Numbers 27

After God blesses the Israelites and curses the Midianites, and Balak the Midianite king stands alone in fear of the people, the Israelites almost manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Balaam, who had spoken God's blessing over Israel, urges the Midianites to attack the Israelites at their weakest point: morally.  His plan is to use Midianite women to lure Israelite men first into bed, and then into the obscene worship of a sensuous idol - Baal-Peor.

A plague sweeps through the Israelites, killing 24,000 people before it is ended by the death of the Baal-Peor worshippers, and Phinehas's slaying of the Israelite man and Midianite woman as they were engaged in sex.

God orders Israel into war with Midian, and Midian is totally destroyed, their five kings killed, the towns looted and burned; and they captured the Midianite women, children, and herds.

As the soldiers return, Moses orders them to kill all the Midianite boys, and the women who have slept with a man, but to save for themselves every girl who has never slept with a man.

Moses shares God's commands about purification after all the killing, and how to appropriately divide the spoils of war among the soldiers and the rest of the community.

Next, after the second census of the Israelite people, Moses receives some news on a very different topic.

The Lord said to Moses, “Go up this mountain, Abarim [The Passage, The Crossover, The Way], and look at the land that I’ve given to the Israelites. You will see it and then join your ancestors just as Aaron your brother has, because in the Zin desert, when the community confronted you, you rebelled against my command to show them my holiness by means of the water.” (These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the Zin desert.)

What will Moses's response be?  Protest?  Complaint? Self-justification and excuses?

Moses spoke to the Lord:  “Let the Lord, the God of all living things, appoint someone over the community who will go out before them and return before them, someone who will lead them out and bring them back, so that the Lord’s community won’t be like sheep without their shepherd.”

Moses is truly a humble man.  He continues to look after the people, not himself.

The Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua, Nun’s son, a man who has the spirit, and lay your hand on him. Place him before Eleazar the priest and the entire community and commission him before them. You will give him some of your power so that the entire Israelite community may obey. He will stand before Eleazar the priest, who will determine for him the decision by lot before the Lord. At his command, he and all the Israelites with him, the entire community, will go out, and at his command they will return.”

Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua and placed him before Eleazar the priest and the entire community. He laid his hands on him and commissioned him as the Lord had spoken through Moses.

That seems nice and quiet.  A transfer of leadership - and no one rebels, no one is swallowed by the earth or struck with plague.  There are no snakes, and no one catches fire like a torch.

There is an interesting story (and warning) about a fight over Moses's body between Michael and Satan in the book of Jude.

And, on another tangent from Keri's question about reconciliation between God of the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament: I see that God - except for notable individuals - is dealing with Israel as one body.

In a similar way, the writers and authors of the New Testament deal with sinful aspects of the believer ruthlessly: crucify our old, sinful nature; kill the old man; put our old ways to death.  And so on.

Our westernized, Hellenic society elevates the individual above his or her society.  We are very used to this; maybe to the exclusion of being able to think of a different way. But that doesn't make our way applicable to the way ancient societies operated.

Upcoming, we will review the prayers in Deuteronomy, as Moses recaps the history of the Israelites to the people as he prepares to turn over his leadership role to Joshua.