Bamidbar – Torah with Joseph

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Joseph Shulam.

Shalom, my name is Joseph Shulam, and together with Brad TV in partnership, we are doing all the weekly portions of the Torah as they are read in the synagogues around the world.

This week we’re starting a new book, the book of Numbers in English. Now I have to say something about the names of the books in Hebrew and the names of the books in English and Latin and Greek, and in all the other languages. The names of the books in Hebrew, are a result of the fact that there were no names of the books.

And so, they divided the books, the running text, into sections that would be practical for the sake of the scrolls that they were written on. Then, they used one of the significant words in the beginning of the book, the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, who were at one time, one composition. They had to divide them for practical reasons because scrolls were made from leather from a goat or of a sheep and can become heavy. We’re talking about a scroll that is 100 feet long; it can become quite heavy. Normally our scrolls in our synagogue downstairs from this studio, weigh around 15 kilo, which times three makes it 45 pounds, which is not easy. Also, after the reading of every Sabbath, we lift them up; and whoever is the last reader, must pick them up and hold them there, and the people sing and praise and it’s heavy. But if it was all the five books of Moses together, it would be much heavier. So, it would be about 15 kilos, about 45 pounds.

But in the old days, they divided them into five books. So, when this one book starts, the other one ends and that’s how it goes; all the way to the book of Deuteronomy.

So now we are in the book of Numbers, chapter one, verse one. In Hebrew, the book is called Bamidbar, which means in the wilderness. Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of meeting, on the first day of the second month in the second year, after they had come out of the land of Egypt.

That’s the beginning of the book of Numbers. Why is it called in the Septuagint, Numbers? Because the first four chapters, which is this week’s Shabbat’s reading, is dealing with the census. We already read about the census in the book of Exodus and we read about how they made the census counting. Each person gave half a shekel of silver and they counted the half shekels of silver, and then they knew how many people they were. And now we have the details of that census, the results of that census in the first four chapters of the book of Numbers. And the first verse in my opinion is very significant because we know that the children of Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness. And here we have a date of when they left Mount Sinai, after the receiving of the law. They built the tabernacle and they collected all the collection for the tabernacle and they sanctified the tabernacle. And the sons of Aaron became the priests and they ordained them as priests. All of these things that happened, we know the date.

It was on the first day of the second month, in the second year, after they had come out of the land of Egypt. All that we read from Exodus, from chapter 12 of the book of Exodus until now, happened during those two years. That includes, the golden calf when Moses was 40 days and 40 nights up on Mount Sinai. It includes the collection for the tabernacle. It includes the murmuring about the bitter waters in chapter 17 of the book of Exodus. It includes the murmuring about the bread, the manna, in chapter 16 of the book of Exodus. It includes the murmuring about the fact we have no meat in the book of Exodus. And then it includes all the laws of the priests and the sacrifices; seven different sacrificial purposes of the sacrifices of the animals in the book of Leviticus. And then the purification laws, from touching a dead body and from leprosy. And then on with the curses and the blessings that we have in the book of Leviticus, that repeat themself again in the land of Canaan in the book of Deuteronomy, after they entered the land without Moses. All these things are here and now we are finally two years and two months later, the final consensus of the census and the children of Israel are on the way to spend 38 more years in the wilderness of Sinai. Very significant.

But let me give you the references. The Torah portion that is being read in this next Shabbat, is from Numbers chapter one, verse one to chapter four, verse 20. The parallel in the prophets is from the prophet Hosea chapter one, verse 10 to chapter two, verse 22, very difficult chapters, very, very harsh chapters. And from the New Testament, we are reading from Romans chapter nine, verse 25 to verse 32. Okay. What can we learn from these tedious texts in the first chapters of the book of Number?

Tedious. Why are they tedious for me? Because they give us the census. How many tribes, how many people were in each tribe, who were the presidents of the tribe and all these names, difficult names, that appear here to us from chapter one. What was the census about? Verse two of chapter one, of the book of Numbers tells us, “Take a census of all the congregation “of the children of Israel by their families, “by their father’s houses, “according to the number of names, “every male individually from 20 years old and above, “all who are able to go to war in Israel, “you and Aaron shall number them by their armies. “And with you there shall be a man from every tribe, “each one, the head of his father’s house.” In other words, there was Moses and Aaron and they allocated to each tribe, men that would be in charge, responsible for the numbering of his tribe.

Now we’re living in the 21st century. The time of the Exodus from Egypt was 3000 plus years ago. What bothers modern women that read this text? It bothers them that only the men are counted. The women are not counted in this situation. The census was for military purposes, as it says, “You and Aaron shall number them by their armies. “And with you, there shall be a man from every tribe, “each one, the head of his household. “And these are men that are able to go to war. “They were the army of Israel “from 20 years old and above.” In other words, they didn’t count the little children, male or female, they didn’t count the women. They made a military census to see how many men from the age of 20 and up are able to go to war to become soldiers.

So dear sister, don’t get offended. Today in the Israel army, we have women who are generals. We have women who are fighters. We have women brigades. We have. Oh some of our terrorist neighbors are more afraid of our women than they’re afraid of our men. Because sometimes our women are much harsher than our men. They have to prove themselves that they’re capable of doing the military job today. But not in the time of Moses.

And what else can we learn from the names of the people that were the heads of their tribes? One thing that we can learn, is that their names have two marks of identity. One is the place and the relationship of the men of Israel with the Lord God of Israel. For example, when I look at the names, we have the head of the tribe of Reuben, who was the oldest son, Elizur ben Shedeur. Elizur the son of Shedeur. Elizur means God is my rock, that’s his name. God is my rock, Elizur. And he was the son, his father’s name was Shedeur, Shaddai is my light. The Almighty one, is my light. In the Christian Bible, if you don’t know Hebrew, it’s hard to discern, dear brothers and sisters, the importance of these texts. They tell us the names of the people that led the children of Israel. The heads of the tribes that led the children of Israel in the wilderness these 38 years. They describe their interests. People name their children according to their vision, according to their principles, according to their values, according to their professions; what’s important to them.

So here we have the presidents, the heads of the tribes of Reuben is Elizur and he is the son of Shedeur, God is my rock and his father is “the Almighty is my light.” Hallelujah. Judah, the president of the tribe of Judah, his name is Nahshon ben Amminadab. Nahshon means from the word snake, yeah? Mr. Sneaky,” the son of, my people are charitable.” Issachar, Netanel ben Zuar. Netanel means Nathaniel in English.

We have one of the disciples of Yeshua named Nathaniel. Nathaniel was a man in whom there’s no guile in the gospel of John. What does it mean? Netanel, Mattityahu, Yohanan, all have the same meaning. A gift from God. You missed that if you don’t know Hebrew folks.

It’s important to know what the people’s name are who left the land of Egypt. They were slaves in Egypt just two years and two months ago. And those names were not given to them when they left Egypt, those were the names that the leaders of the people of Israel had in Egypt. Then they were slaving in the mud baths of Egypt, in the stone quarries of Egypt, making bricks, farming for the hay to make the bricks. But their names preserved their identity; even during those generations of slavery in Egypt.

I get goosebumps, I get excited, when I read these things! These are the people that were slaves in Egypt. These are the people that put blood on their doorposts so that the angel of death will skip their houses and save their firstborn. These are the people who also murmured in the wilderness. But their names reflect their real character, their real identities.

Zebulun, Eliab ben Helon, God is my father. Helon could be understood one way or another, but let’s understand it, a soldier. My father, God is my father and I’m a son of a soldier, a fighter. Joseph, the tribe of Ephraim, Elishama, God hears me. The son of Ammihud. My people’s glory was the name of the father of the tribe of Ephraim, the tribe of Joseph. Manasseh his brother and another son of Joseph. Gamliel ben Pedahzur. Gamliel, we know Gamliel from the New Testament; that was Paul’s teacher. But from the tribe of Manasseh there was a Gamliel, the head of the tribe of Manasseh during the Exodus, same name, Gamliel. Gamaliel, is the way they say it in English, which means, God has shown me favor. Hallelujah. Tribe of Manasseh, the head of the tribe’s name is God has shown me favor. And the rock of my redemption, the rock of my salvation was his father. The father of Gamliel, the head of the tribe of Manasseh during the exodus, his name was, God has showed me favor, Gamliel, and his father was Pedahzur, the rock of my salvation. Benjamin, Abidan. My father is a judge. The tribe of Dan, Ahiezer, my brother’s helper. And the father of my brother’s helper was Ammishaddai. Earlier we saw the same name, yes? Ammishaddai, the Almighty is, my people’s Almighty one.

And so on and so on. All the names have what is called a theophoric meaning. They include in them part of the character, the nature or the name of God. What does it mean? It means that while these people were still slaves in Egypt, they never forgot who their God is, and what is His meaning, and what is His place in their lives. During the misery of slavery, they kept the memory. They kept the understanding of the nature of God and it is reflected in their name.

That’s important folks. It’s very important because we don’t have a film or a video of how it was in Egypt. But if you visit Egypt and you visit palaces of the Kings that are mentioned in the Bible and in history, the Pharaohs of that period, whether you counted as the 1400 years BC or 1200 years BC, doesn’t make a difference. We know who the Pharaohs were all through these years, we have their records. We have their pictures if you want; statues, carvings and stone, paintings. Yes, dear brothers and sisters. We know what it was like in Egypt. The glory of Egypt is still visible if you visit Egypt. And these were the people that were slaves there; these were their names, and their names are also their identities.

So, I’ve been a believer for over 60 years. I’ve preached the gospel from the first day that I came out of the water of baptism in the Mediterranean Sea on the 2nd of September, 1962. I never heard, and I’ve been every week, at least once in some community, in some church, in some fellowship, I never heard anybody ever preach from the first four chapters of the book of Numbers.

It’s important, dear brothers and sisters, that we know that every word that the Holy Spirit has delivered to us, inspired, is profitable for correction, for instruction, for equipping the man of God to do all good works. Not one word in the Bible is irrelevant. Every word is relevant. It forces us, especially those of us who teach the word of God, to learn it. Not in only in Korean and Japanese and Chinese and English and French and Russian, but in the original languages. Because God saw fit to deliver his word to us in Hebrew and in Greek. And those of us who teach, also have responsibility. Have responsibility to understand the word of God and to pass it on as good news to the world around us, yes?

When Yeshua says, “Go to all nations and preach the gospel,” It means, the word gospel means, good news. Gospel is an artificial word in English. Bogeum is an artificial word in Korean. The meaning of the word evangel, means good news and dear brothers and sisters, even here in these texts, that are considered boring by a lot of Christians, they’re not boring at all. They have revelation like any other chapters, like any other text in any other book in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.

There is one more note. We talked about the theophoric names, the names that include a description of God or the nature of God, and the leadership, the heads of the tribes of Israel during the exodus from Egypt. But later on, in chapter three and four, we find a change in the names. And we find names that have to do with shepherding, shepherding sheep. And names that have to do with professions, with jobs that people had in the 38 years of exodus in the wilderness of Sinai. And we find out that many of them were shepherds; by their names we find out that they were shepherds. Like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were shepherds and their wives’ names Sarah and Rebecca and Rachel and Leah and Miriam; they are names of sheep at different stages of their maturity. Yes, we can learn so much from the names.

God bless all of you. Keep digging, keep studying, don’t give up. Every word of God is a refreshing revelation.

May God bless all of you and shalom from Jerusalem.