Mattot and Massei “Tribes” and “Journeys”
It is customary for religiously practicing Jews to read from an annual cycle of weekly Old Testament readings called Torah Portions. This is said to be the same reading schedule that was taught every Sabbath in the Synagogues during the times of Jesus in the first century.
As Christians exploring the Torah portion cycle we must maintain a balance of including the Old Testament, the prophets, and the gospels in our weekly bible study.
Torah Portion Name and Readings-
This week we have a double Torah portion! Mattot is the Hebrew word for tribes, Massei is the Hebrew word for stages or journeys, and these are the names for the weekly Torah Portion reading for the Book of Numbers starting in chapter 30 verse 1 and going through chapter 36 verse 13.
Prophets and New Testament-
It is also important to point out that along with the Torah portion readings and teachings, there are what are called Haftarah portions which are readings from the Bible in the books of the prophets. This week’s haftarah readings come from the book of Jeremiah in chapter 2 verse 4 through chapter 2 verse 28, and chapter 3 verse 4.
The gospel readings incorporated with the weekly Torah portion readings come from the book of Mark in chapter 11 with verses 12 through 25.
Torah Portion Overview-
This next Torah portion has an interesting set of commandments regarding the Levitical cities and the subset of them that were to be set aside as cities of refuge (Numbers 35:9-29, Deuteronomy 4:41-43, 19:1-10, Joshua 20:1-9). These refuge cities were a place that a person who had committed accidental manslaughter could flee to in order to escape the vengeful relative of the victim. In order to better understand this we must first start by examining the sixth commandment of the decalogue.
Exodus 20:13 (ESV)
“You shall not murder [rāṣaḥ].
The Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon entry for rāṣaḥ (רָצַח) defines rhetorical word roughly in two categories:
Murder, slay, with premeditation
Slayer, manslayer, without intent
The Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament explains that this Hebrew word doesn’t have many similar words in other languages (cognates). The word is also lacking in Ancient Near Eastern legal codes. Because of this it suggests that the word was not a legal one but a word in common use. In my opinion, the double use of the word to convey intent and non intent (murder vs manslaughter) also implies this. TDOT also points out that this word is never used of warfare or killing in defense of one’s life (or even suicide), however, it is used once to describe the actions of the avenger killing his family members murderer. All this points to the reality that “thou want not murder” includes premeditation and intent as well as accidental deaths. Either way we are commanded not to kill, whether murder or manslaughter.
When someone is murdered the land becomes ritually unclean.
Numbers 35:33 (ESV)
“You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.”
The only way to “cleanse the land” or “atone” for the land is to put to death the murder. This is a fascinating idea. Traditionally atonement theology teaches that the Blood of Christ atones for our sins because He never sinned and is the perfect sacrifice (and I believe this to be true). However, this leaves us with a question. How can the death of a wicked man atone for land that has been polluted with blood? This idea traces back to the times of Noah.
Genesis 9:6 (ESV)
“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.”
Was this to stop the kind of widespread wickedness that resulted in the flood from happening again? It was before the flood that it says man’s heart was always evil. Was this because murder went unchecked?
Genesis 6:5 (ESV)
“The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
When murder goes unchecked and injustice reigns, men began to walk in wickedness. Thus, even though the Torah was not given until Moses, God gave a command. Interestingly this command was not “though shalt not murder” but that if someone does commit murder his blood is to be shed. This does not stop injustice but it does put an end to it. In other words, it may occur but if it does the sin has a quick ending, that is, the criminal is executed.
Murder left unchecked will result in wicked hearts. Does this provide a connection between the land being polluted and hearts being polluted? Is it possible that the true pollution of the land is the pollution of men’s hearts?
Remember that the land had varying degrees of sacredness (or lack thereof). The tabernacle/temple must be kept clean in order that God would be free to live among His people. The Torah was often about protecting sacred space and thus, protecting the worship of God. If the land were to be polluted then so too would be the tabernacle. Remember that they viewed uncleanness as something that was contagious. Because of this, a person walking in a polluted land would bring pollution into the tabernacle when he brought his offering. This is why they took great pains to whitewash tombs that were not obvious; so that someone walking around Passover wouldn’t accidentally walk over a grave and defile themselves and the tabernacle when they came to offer their sacrifice.
What is interesting is that when Jesus came He called the Scribes (Priests) and Pharisees, the most ritually clean people of the day, whitewashed tombs!
Matthew 23:27-28 (ESV)
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
This shows us that sin defiles! This is further made clear when Yeshua is discussing washing hands before eating.
Mark 7:1-5, 14-15 (ESV)
“Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”… “And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”
Thus the focus is not on being ritually clean only, but on being clean of sins. It is sin that truly defiles us!! We should seek them to fight sin in our hearts and lives, looking at it as a defiling contagious disease. Seeking to be pure, we look to our great High Priest who died and cleansed us from our sins! Now we serve Him in holiness and love.
Torah Portion Scriptural Highlights-
Numbers 30:1 How men and women are held to vows
Numbers 31:1 Israel wars against Midian and takes captives and plunder
Numbers 31:13 Moses commands only virgin girls to live because of Balaam’s entrapment
Numbers 31:19 Israel purifies from death and war
Numbers 31:25 The plunder is divided and an offering to the Lord
Numbers 32:1 Gad and Rueben inherit east of the Jordan but agree to help fight in the land
Numbers 33:1 The stages of Israel’s journey
Numbers 33:50 Dispossess the inhabitants, destroy their idols and high places, and cast lots for inheritance
Numbers 34:1 The borders of the Promised Land
Numbers 34:16 The tribes and their chiefs
Numbers 35:1 Levites inherit forty two cities and six cities of refuge and pastures
Numbers 35:9 The law of the cities of refuge
Numbers 35:30 Murder laws
Numbers 36:1 Inheritance stays in the tribe
Haftarah (Prophets) Scriptural Highlights-
Jeremiah 2:4 Israel has forsaken Yahweh
Jeremiah 3:4 Israel calls to Yahweh
Brit (Gospel) Scriptural Highlights-
Mark 11:12 Jesus cursed the fig tree
Mark 11:15 Jesus cleans out the temple
Mark 11:20 The fig tree teaches us to have faith
Mark 11:25 Forgive that you may be forgiven
Bibliography
Raymond F. Collins, “Ten Commandments,” The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992) 383.
Baruch A. Levine, Numbers 21–36: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, vol. 4A of Anchor Yale Bible (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2008), 554–555, 558
Baruch A. Levine, Numbers 1–20: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, vol. 4 of Anchor Yale Bible (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2008), 138.
R. Dennis Cole, Numbers, vol. 3B of The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 553–555.
Gordon J. Wenham, Numbers: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 4 of Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1981), 264–266.
A. H. McNeile, The Book of Numbers in the Revised Version with Introduction and Notes, The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1911), 187–188.
Raymond Brown, The Message of Numbers: Journey to the Promised Land, ed. Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball, The Bible Speaks Today (England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2002), 300.
R. Schmid, “מִקְלָט miqlâṭ” Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997) 552, 556.
Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs, Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), 953–954.
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