Instructions Given • Numbers 33:50-56; 34:13-15
By Ralph Henson
Israel stood at the edge of the Promised Land, where God instructed the people to remove the inhabitants and divide the land. God’s chosen people had come a long way from God’s promise to Abraham. Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing (Genesis 12:1–2 KJV). Abraham obeyed God, but not all of his descendants did.
God continually responds with grace to both obedience and disobedience.
First, God gave to Abraham the land, and he lived there. Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom (Genesis 13:12 KJV). While Abraham possessed parts of the land, and even cohabitated with the peoples, his great grandchildren moved away, and after 480 years in Egypt the people of the land had grown into powerful nations.
Then God promised Moses He would restore them to the land they left. And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites (Exodus 3:8 KJV).
God also promised Moses He would drive out the enemy. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land. And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee (Exodus 23:30–31 KJV). God said He would drive them out, but He also said the children of Israel would have to do their part.
Here in Numbers 33, when Israel was poised to take over the land, once again God demonstrated grace. When two tribes rebelled and did not want to go into the Promised Land, but desired to stay east of the Jordan, God allowed them to, as long as they also came to help fight for the land. Wherefore, said they, if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession, and bring us not over Jordan (Numbers 32:5,KJV).
The inhabitants of the land worshiped false gods with idols and with altars on high mountains. God specifically told Israel in today’s study passage to remove the residents, and remove their worship sites and idols, because He knew Israel would be tempted to worship those gods, or at least worship the one true God in those wicked ways. God’s directions here (and in Exodus) do not include death of all the people, but removal. Israel did not always obey God in their conquest.
As a sign of God’s power and a promise they would succeed, here He instructed them to divide the land they would possess based on family size, not on wealth or power. Even in the allotment of the land God demonstrated grace.
Finally, years later, after Israel came in and took over the land, God instructed Joshua to divide it according to the same plan. So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord said unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war (Joshua 11:23 KJV).
God’s plan was consistent from Abraham to Joshua. Israel was inconsistent. From the beginning to the completion of their taking the land, God blessed their obedience, and even in disobedience He showed grace. However, His warning in Numbers 33:56 indicated that as Israel turned to other gods and cohabitated with the residents, then He would turn to judgment; there would be a limit to His grace.
Henson is pastor of Mt. View Church, Meridian.
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