Parsha #39 Chukat and #40 Balak
Torah: Num 19:1-22:1, 22:2-25:9;
Haftarah: Judges 11:1-33; Micah 5:6-6:8;
B’rit Chadashah: Hebrews 9:11-28; John 3:10-21; Rom 11:25-32
[Apologies, I'm a bit all over the place, and got confused - I think this is one parsha split into two? or two read together?]
Episodes in this portion include:
- The ordinances of the red heiffer, and the waters of cleansing
- Water from the rock
- Edom denies Israel passage
- Death of Aaron
- Battle with Arad
- The bronze snake
- Battle with Sihon and Og
- Balaam and his donkey
- Balaam’s oracles
- Israel’s ‘harlotry’ with the Moabite baal of Peor
The most famous sections of this portion are of course ‘Balaam and his donkey’, and ‘the snake lifted up in the desert’.
The thing which strikes me about this parsha is how much battling Israel had to do so early on - the decision not to go into the land at the outset didn’t just result in 40 years of peaceful wandering, I rather imagined that they didn’t have to do any fighting until they took Jericho when they were ready to go into the land, but on the contrary, the wanderings took place through hostile territory, and would prove to be long and arduous. If only they had trusted and obeyed at the outset, how much suffering they would have saved themselves! That seems to be a picture lesson for us as believers. I have to constantly remind my children that their lives will be so much easier if only they learn to obey.
On the other topics, I suppose this portion gives me more questions than answers - what is the significance of the snake lifted up in the desert? If it is somehow meant to represent Messiah Yeshua, why is the sybolism a snake which is usually used to represent the evil one?
What is the significance of the red heiffer? What is its connection with the third temple to come? In A. L. Jacobs’ funny and irreverant book “The Year of Living Biblically”, he came across American farmers who are trying to breed a red heiffer for the coming temple. Does the red heiffer also somehow represent Messiah? will the birth of the perfect and spotless red heiffer herald the return of Moshiach?
On curses and blessings, how much power or significance do they have? Does it depend on who makes them? who believes them? What about all the constant cursing upon Israel made at the present time by the surrounding countries who hate her so much? Wouldn’t it be amazing if YHVH would prevent curses from coming out and make those people bless Israel?
I just want to copy some of the blessings Balaam pronounced, and may these be our prayers for Israel today:
“How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the LORD has not denounced?
From the rocky peaks I see them, from the heights I view them. I see people who live apart and do not consider themselves one of the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob, or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and may my end be like theirs!”
“Arise, Balak, and listen: hear me, son of Zippor. God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should change his mind. Does he speakand then not act? Does he promise and not fulfil? I have received a command to bless; he has blessed it, and I cannot change it.
No misfortune is seen in Jacob, no misery observed in Israel. The LORD their God is with them, the shout of the King is among them. God brought them out of Egypt; they have the strength of a wild ox. There is no sorcery against Jacob, no divination against Israel. It will now be said of Jacob and of Israel, ‘See what God has done!’ The people rise like a lioness; they rouse themselves like a lion that does not rest till he devours his prey and drinks the blood of his victims’ .”
“How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel!
Like valleys they spread out, like gardens beside a river, like aloes planted by the LORD, like cedars beside the waters. Water will flow from their buckets, their seed will have abundant water. Their king will be greater than Agag, their kingdom will be exalted. God brought them out of Egypt; they have the strength of a wild ox. They devour hostile nations and break their bones in pieces, with their arrows they pierce them. Like a lion they crouch and lie down, like a lioness - who dares to rouse them! May those who bless you be blessed and those who curse you be cursed!”
“I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a sceptre will rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the sons of Sheth. Edom will be conquered; Seir, his enemy7, will be conquered, but Israel will grow strong. A ruler will come out of Jacob and destroy the survivors of the city.”
This last section is clearly messianic prophecy, and again I wonder at the fact that the symbolism used is a ’star’, which so often is used as part of idolatrous religion (Ishtar, for example, and the pentacle) but as with so many things in scripture and religion, the false is a corrupted image of the pure and true - not quite a mirror image, but having enough apparent truth to deceive and mislead, to take our eyes off the real thing.
“Let us fix our eyes on Yeshua, the author and finisher of our faith.”
Shabbat Shalom!