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This week we have a double parasha with Matot and Masei which translates to “Tribes” and “Journeys” Respectively. Parasha Matot covers Numbers 30:2–32:42 and Masei covers Numbers 33:1-36:13, this is also the final parasha for the book of Numbers. These parashas speak on the importance of vows and promises and teach us the importance of having our actions match our words.
We begin with chapter 30, the Lord commanded through Moses that if a man or woman makes a vow to Adonai or makes a formal promise that they must carry it out. This chapter does allow for a vow made by a wife to be cancelled by her husband if he hears it and acts on the same day it is made. This chapter makes it clear that to violate an oath or vow is a very serious sin and so they should not be made lightly.
Chapter 31 records the military campaign against the Midianites for their participation in causing our people to sin at Peor, recorded in parasha Balak. It is in this chapter we learn that the wicked prophet Balaam was the one behind the plan to have the men of Israel sleep with pagan women to cause God’s wrath to fall upon us.
Balaam is found and killed during the battles for his sinful actions. Balaam’s death represents the final fate of all those who would imitate his prideful behavior, known in God’s Word as the “Way of Balaam”.
Chapter 32, the final chapter of parasha Matot, records a major incident between Moses and the tribes of Reuben and Gad. These tribes wanted to settle in the land east of Jordan, and the boundary of Israel. Moses reminded them of the vow they had made to help conquer the Promised Land and that if they were to abandon their people to claim this land they would come under God’s holy wrath. The leaders of Rueben and Gad responded to Moses by promising to help with the conquering of the Promised Land. With their vow made Moses made it known that if they kept their word they would have the land they desired but if they did not completely follow their promises then they would experience Adonai’s anger.
Parasha Masei being in chapter 33, written to the second generation that was to inherit the land of Israel, and serves as a summary of the wanderings of our people in the wilderness.
There are 40 sites listed in this chapter where our people encamped. The number 40 is significant since it is the number of years we lived in the wilderness as the first generation passed away. We should probably understand this list as stylized by Moses through the Holy Spirit to serve as a reminder for the generations to come. The stylizing of the journeys listed in this chapter is quite interesting, if you were to read this list on its own you would think the journey went very well, which is something we will discuss later.
In verses 50-56 the Lord commanded the new generation of our people to utterly destroy the Canaanites. We were to destroy every religious site and item they possessed and to take complete possession of the Land. Israel was to be divided by tribe and then further subdivided by family. This passage also contains a powerful warning from the Lord:
“But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those of them whom you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell. And I will do to you as I thought to do to them.”
We are reminded again by the Lord to fulfill our promise to Him to take full possession of the Land. Should we decide not to complete our promise then we have the clear warning of constant trouble from those we did not destroy. The Lord also promises to remove us from the Land just like he will do with the Canaanites if we do not follow His command.
Chapter 34 contains the boundaries for the land of Israel and lists the tribal chiefs for the purpose of establishing a historical record.
Chapter 35 contains commandments concerning cities of refuge. The Lord commanded our people to establish six cities of refuge for those who had unintentionally killed another person. These cities were to be a safe place for them to live until they could be brought to trial, and served as protection from family members seeking revenge.
For cases involving the death penalty, at least two witnesses were required to convict a person of murder. A person on trial could not offer payment to escape execution, but must be executed if they intentionally spilled the blood of another person.
Chapter 36 concludes the book of Numbers and records an interesting incident. The daughters of a deceased tribal head were concerned that if they married outside their tribe they would lose their family’s land inheritance. The women went to Moses to seek council on how to resolve this predicament and through the Word of the Lord he allowed them to marry whomever they wanted within their own tribe. In this way the book of Numbers ends on a positive note, with godly women seeking and obeying the Word and the will of the Lord.
One of the major themes throughout parasha Matot and Masei is the importance of keeping a vow, oath, or promise. We began Matot with instructions concerning the limited times a vow could be broken without causing a serious issue.
Parasha Masei ended with the story about how a family of daughters and their tribe were concerned about keeping their inheritance in Israel, an inheritance promised by the Lord. So, throughout these parashas we can see the seriousness of vows and that there are serious consequences for breaking them.
There is an important theme here that our actions must follow our words. What we say needs to be what we do and the promises we make not to be taken lightly, especially with our Great Creator. Unfortunately, the book of Numbers and one of our Haftorah portions for today show our failure to match our actions to our words.
In the first parasha of this book, our people started on a high note, following the commands of the Lord, but then things begin to take a very sinful turn. The sin of unbelief of the generation that left Egypt was so great that they were condemned to die in the wilderness. In chapter 33 Moses chooses to leave out these shameful events, if you were to just read his summary you would think the journey from Egypt went incredibly well!
This is intentional by Moses because the sins of the previous generation were not being held against this next generation; they had the opportunity to succeed where their fathers had failed, and Moses implores them to not repeat those mistakes.
The “cliffhanger” ending of Numbers makes us wonder what happened next. We can read the subsequent books of our people’s history or we can turn to another summary of the journeys of our people. This summary is given by the Lord Himself and is found in the Haftarah portion, Jeremiah 2:4-24.
In this chapter of Jeremiah, Adonai makes it clear we have failed to keep our vows through the Mosaic Covenant with the Lord. Now many generations from Moses our people have not only failed to remove the Canaanites and other peoples from the land, but have imitated their practices, and the Lord is preparing to make good on His word to send us into exile. These verses are a scathing condemnation by God. He states, as Moses had previously, that the generation from Egypt decided to abandon the Lord and follow their own ways, breaking their promises to Adonai. Verse 5 states that “they went after worthlessness and became worthless”. He then turns to the generations that came after and states that from the priesthood, to the scholars, to the shepherds they all had departed from Him and worshiped the false gods of foreign nations. The Lord recounts in detail the shameful spiritual corruption of our people. We are compared to whores and slaves; it is a difficult chapter to read. The Lord promises that judgment is coming, in the form of a 70-year exile.
The rest of our people’s history is well known to us with all the subsequent blessings and sufferings that came from obedience or disobedience. It is a major theme of God’s Word and the reality of being fallen human beings that we walk through this life in many ways as hypocrites. We make promises we may never intend to keep, making promises without thinking, or failing to match our actions to our words.
As we come to the end of the book of Numbers each of us need to ask ourselves what vows have we made and how are we doing with keeping them?
If we have put our faith in the Lord and promised to walk with Him how is that walk going? We need to examine ourselves sincerely, maybe even asking those we trust and know us best to give us their insight as well.
Finally, we need to admit and not hide from the fact that all of us make mistakes, each of us fails every day, but we can lay claim to the promise of forgiveness given freely by the Lord.
Our Haftorah portion this week ends on a positive note with Jeremiah 4:1-2. The Lord invites us to return to Him, a sincere return setting aside our idols, and becoming loyal once again to Him. Renewing our vows and rediscovering our first love. Adonai is calling each one of us to a right relationship with Him through Messiah Yeshua. Yeshua taught that the road that leads to destruction is wide, but that the path that leads to salvation is narrow. Few walk down that narrow path, too few people follow the Lord’s way and not their own. I pray that each one of us walks down that narrow road, returning if we have strayed, on a journey whose ultimate destination is of a joy and peace that is beyond all understanding.