STUDY NOTES FOR PARASHAH SHELACH ~ LEKHA
(Numbers 13:1-15:41) Week 37
SHELACH-LECHA: Send on your behalf: “Send men on your behalf; reconnoiter.”
RECONNOITER: To patrol, investigate, search out, inspect
Y’HOSHUA: Moses added the Yud, changing Hoshea “to save” to Y’Hoshua, “God Saves”.
NIPHILIM: FALLEN ANGELS? GIANTS IN THE EARTH?
We meet the Nephilim again, after the flood, when Moses sends spies into the land of Canaan. The spies were great men. They returned with a report that struck terror into the hearts of the Israelites, offering their own negative opinion: the mission of occupying the land would be futile. They made sure to report on the fallen angels! The human soul is called a ‘neshamah’ meaning a breath, as in the verse that tells of how God created Adam; “He blew into his nostrils the breath of life.”
The breath from God cannot be disconnected from the life He breathed into it!
No matter where it may end up, how low it may have stooped, the neshamah is intrinsically bound to its origin from Adonai and receives the power to shine even in the darkness, to return to its TRUE ESSENCE: ADONAI!
NESHAMAH: Breath; the lifeforce in us, from Adonai.
We are created in HIS image.
The soul consists of three parts which are called by the Hebrew names, nefesh, ruach, neshama.
Neshama means“breath.” Ruach means “wind.” Nefesh comes from the root nafash, meaning “rest” as in the verse:
“On the seventh day, God ceased work and rested (nafash).” (Exodus 31:17).
God’s exhaling INTO a soul can be compared to a glassblower forming a vessel.
The breath (neshama) first leaves his lips, travels as a wind (ruach) and finally comes to rest (nefesh) in the vessel. Of these three levels of the soul, neshama is therefore the highest and closest to God, while nefesh is that aspect of the soul resting in the body.
The Ruach stands between the two, binding man to his spiritual Source.
It is for this reason that Divine Inspiration is called Ruach HaKodesh, in Hebrew.
Neshama is affected by thought, Ruach by speech, and Nefesh by action!
Spying Openly: Midrash says the 12 spies were openly traveling undisguised, and miracles abounded as they stayed 40 days…un-noticed by the GIANTS of Canaan.
Yet, even with this obvious FAVOR of Adonai, they FEARED!
They did not KNOW Adonai as:
OMNIPOTENT, OMNIPRESENT, OMNISCIENT
As the King of the Universe…in the deepest part of their souls!
The Sin of the Spies: LIST their sins!
- The people needed more proof than God’s command…to ‘GO IN AND TAKE THIS LAND WHICH I HAVE PROMISED TO YOU AND YOUR DESCENDANTS’
- The 12 Princes from the tribe of Levi allowed FEAR to overcome their FAITH!
- Upon returning after 40 days of reconnoiter, they CULTIVATED FEAR into the people!
- 10 of the 12 Princes convinced others the Giants in the land were too powerful for them…
- The entire community clamored for Caleb and Joshua to be STONED TO DEATH! Spiritual rebellion brings wandering and death!
- By disbelieving Adonai and trusting their OWN understanding of the situation the 10 Princes brought judgement upon the entire Nation with their LASHON HARA.
- The Lesson of the Sin of the Spies: When we search for MORE than what God’s Word clearly instructs, we seek in a spirit of disbelief and rebellion. This will lead to an open door for the enemy to use scare tactics in our minds, causing us to ACT in our own understanding, instead of trusting by walking out FAITH with FEAR and TREMBLING.
FEAR: The people feared the size of the giants! They shrunk back instead of ADVANCING into their inheritance! They MISSED OUT on subduing their inheritance!
FAITH: Caleb and Joshua trusted Adonai to GO BEFORE THEM to prepare the giants to be conquered by Israel.
Adonai had GIVEN the territory to Abraham for all generations!
They BELIEVED God’s promises! Caleb and Joshua along with the youngest generation left after the 40 year wandering, a year for every day of the 40 days of spying!
TZITZIYOT: The Fringe that REMINDS and BINDS!
Linen fringe that hangs on all 4 corners of an outer garment as a PHYSICAL reminder to Adonai of Israel as His chosen nation…and to Israel of God’s commands.
Tassels at the bottom of a robe, hand high, and touchable!
“For she said to herself, “If I can only touch his robe, I will be healed.”
“Yeshua turned, saw her and said, “Courage daughter, your trust has healed you, and she was instantly healed”.
(Matt) 9:21-22
MISHLEI / Comparison
FEAR: The Israelites SAW Goliath, later in the Torah, and were PARALYZED BY FEAR!
FAITH: The shepherd boy David SAW Goliath, and determined in his mind: He is so big, HOW CAN I MISS?
He took out his rock and sling shot, aimed, and HIT THE MARK!
David believed God was for HIM! His FAITH enabled His CONFIDENCE FOR VICTORY!
WHAT represents the Giants of our Lives in these times?
We must SPY them OUT, develop a strategy to OVERCOME and GO in the power of the Holy Spirit to TAKE our TERRITORY for the Kingdom of God.
The longer we wait, the more ground we give the enemy!
The Samples of the Fruit of the Promised Land:
The symbols of the GRAPE CLUSTER, THE FIG, THE POMEGRANITE are used in Jewish linens, pottery, calligraphy! The story of the Sin of the Spies is still famously alive!
Moses intercedes AGAIN for the people:
The faithfulness of Moses to intercede to Adonai for the Nation is a sign Moses WAS a humble man! Only by HUMILITY can we SEE our own depravity and unfaithfulness, as we walk out the journey through the wilderness with the Nation of Israel, in Torah Study.
It is in our depravity that we FIND a MERCIFUL FATHER, who loves us while YET in our SIN, and is patient to wait for us to journey through our lack of faith, into faith and obedience. Can we SEE the journey of Israel as a MIRROR of our own lives?
Please consider ADONAI’S responses to Moses’ interceding for the Nation of Israel!
Please consider Moses’ USE of Adonai’s 13 ATTRIBUTES as a defense for the Nation against the judgement of Adonai!
THIS WAS CHUTZPAH! (Audacious Faith!)
There is nothing MORE powerful than prophesying God’s words back to Him!
Moses is someone to imitate!
Adonai did not NEED Moses to convince HIM to forgive. Adonai had already listed his MERCY and FORGIVENESS and PATIENCE to the people months before!
ADNONAI WAS ON THE JOURNEY TO FAITH WITH MOSES AND THE PEOPLE, AS AN ACT OF THE COVENANT WITH HIS PEOPLE, AS THEIR GOD!
The Judgement of the Sin of the Spies: Adonai removed the blessing of entering into their inheritance for the adults of the REBELLION. The children of the rebelling adults would be the ones to live out the 40years, and be granted entry into Canaan!
The Graves of THOSE WHO CRAVED! Please see the rebellion of the 10 Prince / Spies was a manifestation of the Clamoring and Craving of the Nation of Israel only 3 days into the migration toward their promised land. Lack of Faith breeds Fear!
Consider the IRONY: The adults 20 years old and older, each year before the beginning of the new year, would dig their OWN graves in the desert, and lay in them for the night, to be sure if they were struck dead by Adonai they would already be in a grave!
This continued until the last of that generation had passed away and what was left were the children of the older generations, Caleb and Joshua, and Moses.
THE ARMY OF STRANGE FIRE: Please consider the zeal, fueled by the fleshly desire to CORRECT the SIN of the SPIES without Adonai’s blessing as Strange Fire.
Do we rush in where fools know not to tread?
WHY DOES THE PARASHAH VEER OFF BACK INTO SACRIFICIAL LAW?
Adonai was reminding the Nation HOW TO DRAW NEAR TO HIM!
HAFTARAH (Old Covenant) READING Joshua 2:1-24:
The MISHLEI! (Comparative verses)
“The King of Yericho sent a message to Rachave, “Bring out the men who came to you and are staying in your house because they have come to reconnoiter all the land”. Joshua 2: 3
The faithful spies! Caleb and Joshua lead out to spy out Jericho, and arrive at the Inn, house of Rahab the Inn-keeper (and prostitute). There is debate here as to which she really was, or BOTH. Please see the burgeoning FAITH of Rahab, and her own desire to DRAW NEAR to this Adonai!
She believed the God of the Nation of Israel was POWERFUL.
Please see the truth which was distrusted by the generations of Israel who died in the desert!
The Spirit of God PUT FEAR of the Nation of Israel into the HEARTS OF THE NATIONS IN THE PROMISED LAND!
THIS IS THE DELICIOUS IRONY OF THE LORD!
Fear in the hearts of the Nation of Israel was not based on God’s TRUTH!
The FEAR placed in the hearts of the people of the Promised Land was based on God’s sovereign WILL!
If only it would have been as easy to take the Egypt OUT OF THE PEOPLE as it was to take the PEOPLE OUT OF EGYPT!
Rahab became the mother to Boaz, who married Ruth, the Great, Great-Grandmother to King David, and thus the lineage of the Messiah was preserved!
Rahab had faith to let down the SCARLET CORD as a symbol of her faith in Adonai!
This was a supernatural faith! ALL FAITH IS SUPERNATURAL and from GOD!
BRIT CHADASHAH (New Covenant) READING:
Hebrews 3:7-19 “The Lesson of the Sabbath”
“Today if you hear God’s voice, don’t harden your hearts as you did in the Bitter Quarrel on that day in the Wilderness when you put God to the test. Yes, your fathers put me to the test, and they challenged me, and they saw my work for forty years! Therefore, I was disgusted with that generation – I said “Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not understood how I do things; in my anger, I swore, that they would not enter my rest.” Heb. 3 7-11
This reading makes it clear, Adonai DESIRES for us to step into FAITH in HIS 13 Attributes. For it is by FAITH that we are SAVED!
The Lesson of the Sabbath, like the Lesson of the Manna finds power in one word. FAITH!
In order to find His Sabbath rest we must place our faith and trust in the God of Torah, who offers us the FOUR CUPS of overflowing mercy and love, set before us and freely given!
We must reach for the cups and put them to our own lips!
This is a willful step into the RED SEA of our life!
HIS delight for is to find our rest because of HIS promises, provisions, and power experienced in intimate relationship with Him.