The Third Stage: From Mount Hor to the Plains of Mo’ab
33: 41-49
The third stage: from Mount Hor to the plains of Mo’ab DIG: What impression does this travel log give you of the twists and turns in their journey? How might a list like this help the Wilderness Generation who had not actually experienced the early parts of the journey? How might it affect their belief in the reality of God’s power? Why is the LORD so concerned that the Israelites drive out all of the Canaanites?
REFLECT: What parallels do you see in the Exodus and Wilderness experiences of the Israelites as compared with the pilgrimage of many who come to faith in Messiah today? What would you add to this list from your own journey with ADONAI? When has He “parted the waters” for you? When has He helped you find “water from a rock?” When has He led you from the desert to the Promised Land?
Once the Tabernacle was completed while the Israelites camped at Mount Sinai (Exodus 25-30), it was taken apart and carried every time the Israelites traveled to a new encampment. There were 40 such journeys (to see link click Gc – Isra’el’s Travel Log).
These were the [three] stages and 40 encampments between the Exodus and the staging area to the Promised Land on the plains of Mo’ab. As the people of Isra’el left the land of Egypt, they divided into groups under the leadership of Moshe and Aaron (33:1). Moshe recorded each of the stages of their journey by order of ADONAI; here are the starting-points of each stage (33:2):
34. After mourning Aaron for thirty days (20:29), the Israelites left Mount Hor and camped at Zalmonah (Numbers 33:41).
35. They left Zalmonah and camped at Punon (Numbers 33:42).
36. They left Punon and camped at Oboth (Numbers 33:43). We do not know exactly where it happened, but according to Numbers 21:10, between the time they left Mount Hor and when they arrived at Oboth, the Israelites had yet another rebellion. This time Ha’Shem sent poisonous snakes among the people; they bit the people, and many of Isra’el’s people died (21:6). In order to stop it, YHVH instructed Moses to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole. When anyone who has been bitten looks at it, he will live. Obediently, Moshe made the bronze snake (see Di – The Healing Snake).
37. They left Oboth and camped at Iye Abarim, on the border of Mo’ab (33:44). Not mentioned in the Scriptures, so this location is unknown.
38. They left Iye Abarim and camped at Dibon-Gad (Numbers 33:45). Dibon-Gad was in the country just north of Mo’ab, on the east side of the Jordan River. It was while the Israelites were getting ready to begin the conquest of the land of Canaan, that the tribe of Gad, particularly after Isra’el was victorious against Og (see Dl – The Defeat of Og of Basham), settled in some of the cities of Basham. Dibon was one of them, for Moses wrote: We have overthrown them; Heshbon is destroyed (see Dk – The Defeat of Sihon of Heshbon) all the way to Dibon. We have demolished them as far as Nophah, which extends to Medeba. So Isra’el settled in the land of the Amorites (Numbers 21:30-31). Isra’el would have remembered this place as one of the locations in which they first began to settle after their traumatic Exodus and forty-year journey through the wilderness. These would have been happy thoughts for the children of Isra’el.
39. They left Dibon-Gad and camped at Almon Diblathaim (Numbers 33:46). Not mentioned in the Scriptures, so this location is unknown.
40. They left Almon Diblathaim and camped in the mountains of Abarim, near Nebo. The Israelites left the mountains of Abarim and camped on the plains of Mo’ab by the Jordan across from Jericho. There on the plains of Mo’ab they camped along the Jordan River from Beth Jeshimoth to Abel Shittim (Numbers 33:47-49). This was to be their staging area for Isra’el’s conquest of the Transjordan. This was also the place where Isra’el’s “Travel Log” was being written (see Gc – Isra’el’s Travel Log). Isra’el spent a fair amount of time encamped on the plains of Mo’ab. While they were there, unknown to them, a spiritual battle was raging in the mountains above and to the east of them when Balaak summoned Balaam to curse them (Numbers 22:2 to 24:25). But ADONAI intervened for them. In the valley where they were living, during the same time period, they faced rampant sin when the daughters of the Midianities and Moabites began enticing some of their men into immoral sexual relations. But Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the high priest, stood firm for the LORD and thrust his spear all the way through two of the most blasphemous, having sex right before the eyes of Moshe and the elders of Isra’el, as they were praying and weeping at the gate to the Tabernacle (see Ea – Taking a Stand for God).
Each stage ends with a significant event. And here, at the end of the third stage, we read that Moses died. Because of his sin of striking the rock twice with his staff instead of speaking to it, YHVH did not permit Moshe to enter the Promised Land (see Dd – The Sin of Moses and Aaron). Therefore, after viewing the Land, Moses died and ADONAI, and Michael the archangel, buried him on Mount Nebo in a grave no one could ever locate or identify (see the commentary on Jude Ao – Michael Disputed with the Devil about the Body of Moses). So, Moses, the servant of ADONAI, died there in the land of Mo’ab; he was 120 years old when he died (see the commentary on Deuteronomy Gj – The Death of Moses). And as the Bnei-Yisrael had done for Aaron (Numbers 20:29), they also wept for Moses in the plains of Mo’ab thirty days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moshe were ended (34:5-8).
Noticeably missing in this “travel log” of Numbers 33 is any mention of Kadesh-barnea (see Bv – The Sin of Kadesh-barnea). This is a different “Kadesh” than the one mentioned in the Second Stage, location number 32 at Kadesh, in the wilderness of Tzin. Why is there no mention of Kadesh-barnea? Perhaps because they would like to have forgotten it! It was at Kadesh-barnea that the spies went out to check out the Land (see Bx – Spying Out the Land). When they returned, only Joshua and Caleb were in favor of rising up to take it. As a result, Ha’Shem severely disciplined the Exodus Generation and told them that they would all die in the wilderness for the next 38 years. A new generation, the one listening to this “travel log” would enter the Promised Land. They would never forget Kadesh-barnea because it was there that the divine death penalty was pronounced against their fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, and older siblings. But a new generation stood ready to follow a new leader, Joshua. They were on the verge of entering into their inheritance and faced the opportunity to begin to live out the Torah which they had received at the hands of Moshe.
As they listened to the “travel log,” not only would they have remembered all the historical events which took place at each location. Then they would have remembered their God, and the many different things that He did for them. Repeating those locations, as would have taken place over an evening campfire, they would have discussed all the different things that those places would have reminded them about their God.756
Dear Heavenly Father, praise Your great love that provided Messiah as the sacrificial lamb (John 1:29) so Your children could live after being “bitten” by sin. Sin’s bite is poisonous and brings death to all who follow its ways (Ephesians 2:1-2). Isra’el was so close to entering the Promised Land when they were at Kadesh-barnea. They sent out twelve spies to gather information so they could conquer the Land, but information was not what they needed. What is most important is to have faith in YHVH who had delivered and rescued them from slavery in Egypt. It was one thing to praise God when He did all the work for them, but now the freed nation would have to trust ADONAI to help them conquer a new enemy.
Isra’el knew God’s mighty power as He had just delivered them from Egypt, but they did not have faith enough to trust and obey Him. Only “trusting” God in the easy times of deliverance is Not real trust/faith. Isra’el’s lack of faith kept them from entering the Promised Land. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief (Hebrews 3:14-19). Please, heavenly Father, open the hearts of family and friends who know about You, but whose hearts are full of pride in themselves, not wanting to worship or love you as their Savior. Thank You for making an eternal home in heaven for all who love You. In Messiah Yeshua’s holy Name and the power of His resurrection. Amen
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