Pesach in the Wilderness
9: 1-14
Pesach in the wilderness DIG: Who feels excluded from this festival? Why would this first celebration of Passover since Egypt be so important to the Israelites? The first thing Moshe did to prepare for conquest was to celebrate the Pesach. Why was this an important thing to do?
REFLECT: Is your place of worship flexible in how things are done? Can you think of some examples? Can your place of worship be too flexible? How might either extreme hinder your relationship with God? How important is it that we stop and take time to remember the goodness of God?
God works with us where we are.
Throughout these early chapters of Numbers there is a topical presentation rather than a chronological arrangement of the material. They have been telling us the story of the Israelite’s preparations to leave Mount Sinai. In the first four chapters of Numbers, they took a census (to see link click An – The Levitical Census) and assigned the Levites to their various tasks (see Ar – The Four Camps of Levites). Numbers 7-10 is a flashback and relates how Isra’el was ready to depart from Mount Sinai. Chapters 9 and 10 tell of the final preparation before the departure from Saini as a flashback on the twentieth of the second month of the second year (10:11); the observance of the second Passover six days earlier (9:1-14); the pillar cloud and fire as a guide (9:15-23); the trumpet signals for assembling the people and its leaders and for breaking camp (10:1-10); the order of march (10:11-28), and a narrative relating a different marching order (10:29-36).136
Pesach in the wilderness (9:1-5): The Torah is not necessarily in chronological order. The book of Numbers begins with the census on the first day of the second month, two weeks after the Egyptian Passover (see the commentary on Exodus Bv – The Egyptian Passover). Numbers 9 begins several days before the second Passover. ADONAI commands them to keep the Passover. Why was it necessary for him to give this commandment when they have already received the instructions for Pesach in Exodus 12 and Leviticus 23? The Exodus passage made the celebration of the Passover seem as if it is contingent upon the children of Isra’el entering the Promised Land. And it will come about when you enter the Land which ADONAI will give you, as He has promised, that you shall observe this rite (Exodus 12:25). The Israelites had not yet entered the Land. One might say that they were running behind schedule. The incident with the golden calf had already cost them eighty additional days, so they were more than two months behind where they ought to have been. By all rights, they should have already been in the Promised Land, preparing to celebrate their second Passover. Instead, they were still encamped at Mount Sinai.
ADONAI spoke to Moshe in the Sinai Desert in the first month of the second year after they had left the land of Egypt; he said, “Let the people of Isra’el observe Pesach at its appointed time. On the fourteenth day of this month, at dusk, denoting that period of time between sunset and true darkness, which starts the fifteenth day of the month because the Jewish day starts at dusk, you are to observe it – at its designated time (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ke – Go and Make Preparations for the Passover). You are to observe it according to all its regulations and rules.” Moshe told the people of Isra’el to observe Pesach. So, they observed Pesach at dusk on the fourteenth day of the month in the Sinai Desert; the people of Isra’el acted in accordance with all that ADONAI had ordered Moshe.
What we learn here is the difference between God’s perfect will and His permissive will. Ideally, the Israelites should have been already in the Land of Isra’el celebrating their second Passover. However, they were still at Mount Sinai. Possibly some would have said, “There is no point in celebrating the Passover this year because we are not in the Land.” But God works with us where we are. Presently, the world is an imperfect place, and we are imperfect people. We rarely find ourselves in ideal circumstances.
The Torah worldview is idealistic, but it is also very practical. Those living according to the Torah’s teaching are much better equipped for dealing with God’s permissive will than those who continually are continually legalistic. Life is full of detours and unanticipated delays. As some have said, “Life happens!” Things rarely work out the way we planned or imagined. Therefore, we follow Torah to the extent that we are able. If we cannot celebrate Pesach in the Land, we will keep it the wilderness. If we cannot keep the Sabbath in its fullness, we will keep it to the extent that we are able. Learning to be flexible and working with any situation that arises is a valuable coping skill for life in general, but it is a crucial talent for navigating the topsy-turvy world of Messianic Judaism. In a very real sense, all of our Passovers are in the wilderness. We will not celebrate any of the festivals according to the perfect will of God until Messiah comes.
Pesach Sheni (9:6-13): This section raises an issue not covered by the original Passover mitzvah of either Exodus or Leviticus. But there were certain people who had become unclean because of someone’s corpse, so that they could not observe Passover on that day. They had become ritually unclean, and one who was in that state was not allowed to make a sacrifice or eat the meat of a sacrifice (see the commentary on Leviticus Bk – Ritually Clean and Unclean Animals). So, they came before Moshe and Aaron that day and said to him, “We are unclean because of someone’s corpse; but why must we be kept from bringing the offering for ADONAI at the time designated for the people of Isra’el” (9:6-7)? In essence they were saying, “Why should we be left out.”137
Moshe answered them, “Wait, so that I can hear what ADONAI will order concerning you.” We may observe that Moses’ response to the genuine needs of believing people is a mark of his spiritual leadership, his humility before God, and his desire to be the spokesman not only for ADONAI to the people but also for the people back to ADONAI. In this scenario we have not only a historical instance but also a template for how such decisions should be made. Another dramatic example of this process is found later regarding the problem of the estate of a father who has daughters, but no sons (see Ey – The Daughters of Zelophehad).
ADONAI said to Moshe, “These people are right to ask. They can have their own Passover. But do it next month. The grace of the LORD can be seen, not only in the words of His response to Moses, but also in that He responded at all. We need to grasp again the concept of the audacity of faith: by what right, excepting only God’s great grace, did Moshe dare to go before YHVH, the Creator of the universe, and request a provision for exception from His demands? All God’s actions and words to His people were gracious, undeserved, and unmerited. That He spoke at all, was a mark of His condescension; that He spoke favorably in response to the request of Moses was astonishing. Throughout this section we have a sense of the ongoing wonder and grace.138 Tell the people of Isra’el, ‘If any of you now or in future generations is unclean because of a corpse, or if he is on a trip abroad, nevertheless he is to observe Pesach. But he will observe it in the second month on the fourteenth day at dusk. They are to eat it with matzah and bitter herbs, they are to leave none of it until morning, and they are not to break any of its bones – they are to observe it according to all the regulations of Pesach’ (9:8-12).”
The rabbis disagree how far away from the Temple an Israelite must live in order to be exempt from observing the Passover on its appointed date in the first month. Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yose apply this exemption to anyone who cannot reach the Temple threshold, whereas Rabbi Akiba (more logically according to Ramban) applies to anyone living beyond the city of Modin (the home of the Maccabees), that is, a radius of 28 kilometers or 17.5 miles.139
But the Torah also warns that Pesach Sheni was not to be used as an alternative Passover except by those who were unclean or unable to make it to the Tabernacle/Temple. In the context of the last plague in Egypt, the penalty for failing to observe the Passover was death at the hands of the Destroyer (see the commentary on Exodus Bx – He Will See the Blood and Pass Over that Doorway). The person who is clean and not on a trip who intentionally fails to observe Pesach will be cut off from his people; because he did not bring the offering for ADONAI at its designated time, that person will bear the consequences of his sin (9:13).
As far as being cut off from his people, rabbinic literature calls the penalty karet, or being “cutting off.” In priestly literature, the penalty of karet was understood to include a series of related punishments at the hand of God, ranging from the immediate death of an offender, as in 20:17, to his premature death at a later time, and even to the death of his descendants. In Mishnah Sanhedrin 9:6 and Mishnah Keritot 1:2, this penalty was characterized as mitah biydei shamayim, or “death at the hands of heaven.” Since in 7:20-21 karet is mentioned as childlessness, there is the implication that it took that course as well.140
Historically, the application of Pesach Sheni occurred during the reign of Hezekiah (Second Chronicles 30:1-27). After the reestablishment of worship in the Temple, messengers were sent throughout Judah and the Israelite territories to the North inviting the Israelites of all the tribes to celebrate the Passover. Matters of purification and distance are both cited in the text as the reason some were unable to celebrate Pesach in the first month. An adequate number of ritually pure priests were not available to carry out the festival, and many people were so remote when the initial invitation was sent out that they were unable to travel to Jerusalem in time. Thousands of Jews gathered in Jerusalem, and the priests were enlisted to carry out their duties for those who were not ritually clean. Hezekiah prayed that ADONAI would bless the people who ate the Passover, and God responded faithfully.141
Some Messianic communities have begun hosting a special event on Pesach Sheni to remember the mitzvah of Nicodemus and Joseph of Aramathea (see The Life of Christ Lx – The Burial of Jesus in the Tomb of Joseph of Arimathea). They were the two secret believers among the Great Sanhedrin who removed the Master’s body from the cross. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus then wrapped the Lord’s body with the spices, in strips of clean linen cloth. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. They washed the body as best they could before placing it in the tomb.
But, by touching the body of the Master, both men rendered themselves ritually unclean. As a result, neither of them would have been allowed to partake of the Passover that evening. Both Nicodemus and Joseph were men of prestige and influence. They both could have sent servants to take care of the burial of Yeshua so as not to forfeit their Passover Seders that evening. However, those two obscure disciples of the Master showed their love and devotion by attending to His body personally.
One month later, somewhere in Jerusalem, on the fifteenth day of the second month, Nicodemus and Joseph of Aramathea sat down to make their Seders. Perhaps, as they reclined at a table together, they lifted the third cup (see The Life of Christ Kk – The Third Cup of Redemption) and gave thanks to the resurrected One.
The foreigner and Pesach (9:14): If a foreigner is staying with you and wants toobserve Pesach for ADONAI, he is to do it according to the regulations and rules of Pesach – you are to have the same mitzvah for the foreigner as for the citizen of the land. Gentiles were forbidden to make a Passover sacrifice or to eat from the Pesach sacrifice unless they were circumcised. An uncircumcised Gentile might still participate in the other elements of the Seder; in other words, the bitter herbs, the matzah and the wine, but he would not be able to eat the Pesach lamb. This prohibition is, of course, irrelevant in a world without a Temple or sacrifice on the bronze altar.142
This was the last Passover the Jews celebrated until Joshua led them into the Promised Land nearly forty years later (Joshua 5:10). Because of their unbelief and rebellion at Kadesh-Barnea (see Bv – The Sin of Kadesh-barnea), the people twenty years old and older were rejected by Ha’Shem during Isra’el’s wilderness wanderings. After their forty year trek when they reached the Promised Land for the second time, the Passover was celebrated at Gilgal after the circumcision of the males born in the wilderness. When Joshua led the new generation into Canaan, the males received the sign of the covenant (see the commentary on Genesis En – Every Male Who Is Eight Days Old Must be Circumcised), and ADONAI restored His people into His good favor (Joshua 5:2-9). It was a new beginning for Isra’el in their new Land.143
Dear Heavenly Father, Praise You for Your love in passing over those covered by the blood at the Passover. Thank You for Messiah Yeshua’s great offer of sacrificing Himself as the Lamb of God (John 1:29) so you can pass over those who love You. Your gift to those who love you, of Messiah’s death, satisfied the demands of death because of sin (Romans 6:23). So graciously You then bestow Messiah’s righteousness (Second Corinthians 5:21) on Your children so they can enter into Your holy heaven and have a relationship with you living in them. Yeshua answered and said to him: If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him (John 14:23). Just as the first thing Moshe did to prepare for conquest was to celebrate the Pesach, so the first thing Your children should do to prepare for conquering temptation and problems, is to prepare their hearts to celebrate Messiah’s death and resurrection so You could pass over our sins and bestow Messiah’s righteousness on those who love You. In Messiah Yeshua’s name and power of His resurrection. Amen
Leave A Comment