Numbers Intro - Chapter 6

Book: Numbers
           The Septuagint, (the greek translation of the Old Testament) names the book "arithmoi. Which in English is translated "Numbers." The book was named Numbers because of the two censuses mentioned in the book. To be fair, the book has a lot of numbers. But I think to name  the book numbers is to miss our on the main theme of the book. In Hebrew, the name is"b'midbar" which means "in the desert." I think that this more accurately reflects the message of the book, because this book of the Torah chronicles the time that Israel spent traveling from Egypt to the promised land. There is considerably less law in this book than Leviticus, though there is still law, but there is still considerably less narrative than Genesis, though much more than Leviticus had. There will be more devotional material in Numbers than there was in Leviticus.
              
Author: Moses
Date: According to a traditional date, Numbers would have been written around the same time as the rest of the Torah, at 1440 BC. I reject the documentary hypothesis, and the late date (approximately 400 BC) that it proposes. 

General outline:

I.    At Sinai (1:1-10:10)
    A. The First Census (1:1-54)
    B. The Arangement of the Camps. (2:1-4:49)
    C. Legislation (5:1-8:26)
    D. Final Events at Sinai (9:1-10:10)
II.  From Sinai to Edom (10:11-20:21)
    A. To Kadesh (10:11-12:16)
    B. At Kadesh (13:1-20:21)
III. From Edom to the Jordan. 
    A. Aaron's Death (20:22-29)
    B. The Destruction of Arad (21:1-4)
    C. The Bronze Serpent (21:5-9)
    D. The Journey to Moab (21:10-20)
    E.Initial Victories (21:21-35
    F. The Plains of Moab (22:1-36:13)

This brief commentary will begin with an explanation of the purpose of the Nazarite vow, and a brief exposition of the Priestly blessing and it's theological significance in Christianity. 

The Nazarite Vow is described in chapter 6:1-21. As we have seen in Exodus and Leviticus, the ministers were essentially Levites. Now, it is often said that Israel had a priesthood, but now we are all priests. And that's not entirely accurate. Every Israelite was a priest, in a sense, just as every Christian is a priest. But there was a specific group of Israelites that were considered priests in an exclusive sense. Just as there is a specific group of ministers who have special duties in the church. The major distinction was that the Levites were born into their priesthood. But what if a person wanted to separate themselves for God's exclusive service? 

The Nazarite Vow would fulfill that specific purpose. A person who took on the Nazarite Vow could do so either permanently, or temporarily. They were to abstain from three things. 1) Cutting their hair. 2) Eating or drinking anything from the vine. So no grapes, no wine, no olives, no oil. 3) They could not come into contact with anything or anybody dead. As long as these three conditions were met, this person could serve the Lord in a special capacity, though he is not a priest.

So who in scripture has taken a Nazarite vow? Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist all were very important characters in biblical history who have taken the vow from their birth. But there were others who have taken the Nazarite vow. Paul did in Acts 18:18, Four Christians with Paul took the vow in Acts 21:23-24, 26.

Now, many have mistakenly said that Jesus Christ had taken a Nazarite vow. This is a common mistake. Jesus was a Nazarene. A Nazarene was a person who was from Nazareth a city.

From Chapter 6:22-27 we find a very beautiful priestly blessing. Let's break it down a bit.

"The LORD said to Moses: Speak to Aaron and his sons and tell them: This is how you shall bless the Israelites. Say to them:

The LORD bless you and keep you!
The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you!
The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!

So shall they invoke my name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them.

The first thing that is obvious is that Aaron and the priests are to pronounce this blessing. This is a blessing that is within the context of covenant worship. The priest here stands in the place of God, to the people. Aaron is not the source of the blessing, but is the vessel that God is using to announce this blessing.

The three parts of this blessing all begin with the divine name. YHWH. Translated above as LORD. It is imperative to understand that the name of the LORD is being invoked over the people in covenant setting. Notice also that this can be seen as a sign of the Trinity in the Old Testament. This is significant.

From a Oneness Pentecostal perspective, David Norris argues that the name of the Lord is being invoked over the believers and in fact, the name of the Lord is being called down over the Israelites. He connects this verse with Acts 2:38, where he would place an importance of the name of God being called down in baptism, that name being Jesus, as it means "YHWH saves."

But using the same argument, a trinitarian can look at the same verse, and see in it that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all share the same name, that is YHWH. They could see this same portion of scripture and baptize in the Name of Yahweh the Father, and of Yahweh the Son, and of Yahweh the Holy Spirit.