Defense

We were once very confident that the defense systems of our nations, especially those that were the most elaborate, sophisticated, and powerful in the world, were perfectly able to protect us against foreign attack...until the bright, clear morning of September 11, 2001. The world found out that no army, navy, or air force, no matter how advanced, was able to defend any nation in every circumstance. We were vulnerable then, and we remain vulnerable now. However, there is a Defense that IS sure, and cannot be shaken. In the Book of Numbers, or B'Midbar in Hebrew, which means "In the Wilderness", we read that the LORD divided the hundreds of thousands of Israelite men, whom the LORD called His armies, into divisions for war. Each tribal division, and in the case of the Levites, the priests, divisions within the division, camped under an identifying banner. The LORD armed His people with His Word, given to them from Mount Sinai, and the LORD covered His people, and enforced the placement of His anointed and appointed covering, Moses and Aaron. We saw last week that the people of God rashly rebelled against this covering the LORD had provided for them. The LORD's presence was strategically positioned in the midst of His people, in His Tabernacle. Sometimes the Israelite armies would go into natural battle against an enemy, but the greatest enemies they faced were not natural, but spiritual. However, the LORD had set in place a powerful defense system over His people. It is the title of this week's Sabbath reading portion, Chukkat, meaning "Ordinance of". The Hebrew letters that compose the word chukkat, or "ordinance of", are cheth, vaw, qoph, tav. Each of these letters have an individual meaning that, when joined together in this word, can mean "The fence, the tent wall, that separates and protects is joined together into a circle from the head and behind by a nail and a cross, the sign of the covenant". Chukkat, the ordinance of God, is the defense system for His people. The very first verses of Chukkat, this week's reading beginning in Numbers 20, reveals a wealth of information for us in order to study this defense system: "Then the children of Israel, the whole congregation came into the Wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh; and Miriam died there and was burried there. Now there was no water for the congregation..." (Num. 20:1-2a). The people were not journeying and encamping according to their own whims. They were being led by the Pillar of Smoke during the day, and the Pillar of Fire by night, and following the Ark of the Covenant (see. Num. 10:33-36). The people are now in the Wilderness of Zin, which means "a low palm tree, desert, to prick". They were staying in Kadesh. The root word of Kadesh in Hebrew, Qadas, means "holy, sanctify, be hallowed, be separate, sacred, purify, clean, the Sabbath, consecrated as a priest, to declare holy". As the people of God, we can understand the nature of holiness found in this word qadas. From this holy root word, qadas, we will move closer up towards our word "Kadesh" with the next root word, qades. However, something has happened to corrupt the holiness of qadas. Qades, contrarily means "unclean, male devotee to licentious idolatry of Venus or Astarte, consecrated prostitute to an idol". Finally, the word of the place mentioned in the above verse, Kadesh, means "holy, sanctuary, libidinous worship of Astarte or Venus, harlot". Why had God directed His people to such a place? The people of God were encamped in a place of spiritual warfare. Their enemy is a spirit that twists and perverts the idea of the holiness of God. Holiness is attacked by corrupting the principle of consecration, and twisting it into depravity. The people have arrived in "the first month", yet there is no mention of Passover, which was last mentioned in Num. 9, during another first month, when the people were in the Wilderness of Sinai. The LORD had to command them then to keep the Passover, even though the Feasts of the LORD had been established earlier as an eternal ordinance of God (Num. 9:1-5). Miriam, Moses' sister and prophetess, died at this time in the Wilderness of Zin. Also there was no water in the land. However, the people did not turn to their defense system. Instead, they turned against it: "And the people contended (rib - grapple, wrangle, debate, strive, seize one another by the hair, rend each other's garments, contend with blows, defend) with Moses and spoke, saying: 'If only we had died when our brethren died before the LORD! Why have you brought up the (aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) assembly of the LORD into this wilderness that we and our animals should die here? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt, to bring us to this evil place?" (Num. 10:3-5a). Of course, Moses didn't choose to be the one to deliver the people out of Egypt, or to determine their path to the Promised Land. This was done by God. We have additional information that this account was taking place at the time of the appointed Feasts of the LORD that were an ordinance for the first month, because the people were looking for grains, figs, vines and pomegranates (v. 5), which are the fruits of the Feast of Tabernacles. They could not find those fruits in this Wilderness of Zin at Kadesh. Because of the contention of the people against them, Moses and Aaron left the congregation and went to the door of the Tabernacle where they fell on their faces, and the glory of the LORD appeared (v. 6). The people had tried to defend themselves against the evil of that place by contending with Moses and Aaron. Moses and Aaron, on the other hand, would receive an ordinance of defense from the LORD: "Then the LORD spoke...'Take the (aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) rod: you and your brother Aaron gather the (aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; and you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the (aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) congregation and their animals..." (v. 7-8). In this "evil" place where the idea of the holiness of God has been defiled, leaving the land a barren, waterless desert, the LORD answered His complaining people with His glory, and with the Rock of His Salvation. It is a Rock filled with enough water to provide not only for the hundreds of thousands of numbered males plus women and children, but for their flocks and herds as well. Jesus spoke of Himself as an infinite supply of living water: "Whoever drinks of this water (a well established by Jacob) will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." (Jn. 4:13-14). Jesus gave this revelation promise to a woman whom many would have considered to be immoral, and her land, Samaria, was also despised by the religiously minded, for worshipping God in an unacceptable manner. The New Testament also clearly identified this Rock at Kadesh as Christ: "...all our fathers...drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ." (1 Cor. 10:4). In the Wilderness of Zin, the LORD did not deal with the spirits of darkness by contending with them, but by overcoming them with the glory of His holiness, and with the provision of His Son, the Messiah, as water to His rebellious people. In the same way, the LORD did not manifest His Son to us because we deserved Him. Scripture says that while we were yet sinners and enemies of God, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8-11). However, not only is this the Rock of Salvation, but it is a Rock of defense, as we read in the Psalms: "The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength (rock), in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies...He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved...the LORD has been my defense, and my God the rock of my refuge." (Ps. 18:2-3, Ps. 62:2, 6, Ps. 94:22). As Moses was given the command to take the rod and speak to this rock before all of the (aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) congregation, The holiness of the LORD was again profaned by bitterness in this place of Kadesh. Moses, in His outrage, did not speak to the rock, as he was commanded, but struck the rock twice with the (aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) rod, saying: "Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?" (Num. 20:10-11). For this error, Moses and Aaron were told by the LORD that they would not be bringing His (aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) congregation into the (eres) land/earth/world which the LORD had given them because "...you did not believe Me, to hallow (qadas - see above root of Kadesh) Me in the eyes of the children of Israel..." (v. 12). The LORD brought His (aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) congregation to this forsaken place, made desolate by the perversion of holiness, in order to be enthroned in His qadas holiness. However, this would now be known as "the water of Meribah (meaning strife, contention, provocation)" because the children of Israel contended with the (aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) LORD (Yehovah) here (v. 13). The LORD had brought His people to this desolate place for a reason and a purpose - not to punish them, but to exalt Himself and establish His holiness over the spirits of darkness in this place. Psalm 99 is also assigned reading for this Sabbath of Chukkat or "Ordinance". It says in part: "The LORD reigns...Let the earth be moved...He is holy (qados/qadas)...Exalt the LORD our God, and worship at His footstool - He is holy (qados/qadas) ...You were to them God-Who-Forgives, though You took vengeance on their deeds. Exalt the LORD our God, and worship at His holy (qados/qadas) hill; For the LORD our God is holy (qados/qadas)." (v. 3, 5, 9). This is something for us to keep in mind today also as we see darkness twist the holy character of the LORD before the people. As God's people left Kadesh, they traveled to Mount Hor, where Aaron would die by the Word of the LORD, and his son, Eleazar, would become high priest in his place. Mount Hor in Hebrew means "mountain mountain". It is also referred to as "the everlasting mountains" and "the eternal hills". The LORD said that this was the place where Aaron shall be gathered to his people and die there" (Num. 20:26). It is south of the Dead Sea, and the local people have referred to it as "the Mountain of Aaron the prophet". Aaron would be gathered to his people at this place and time, "for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against My (aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) word at the water of Meribah." (v. 24). Here the LORD gives us an idea of what He intended to accomplish with the Rock at Kadesh. It is not something that we would immediately be able to see and understand without looking at the Hebrew words involved. Moses rebelled against the (aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) "word" of the LORD regarding the Rock. The Hebrew used for "word" is not dabar, as we usually see, but pe. Pe/pa'a means "mouth, lip, commandment, blowing, breathing/splitting, cleaving, break in pieces, shatter, blow away, scatter with wind". This (aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) "word" was going to blow , scatter, shatter, those perverse spirits of darkness that had tried to rule over that area. Psalm 68:1-2 describes how God's enemies are scattered (pus - shake, break, or dash to pieces, scatter abroad) and driven away (nadap - diffused, dispersed, driven about especially by wind) like smoke. The Chukkat ordinance or command of God regarding the Rock at Kadesh was like a blowing of holy wind from the mouth of God in order to break His enemies to pieces and scatter those pieces in the wind. Unfortunately for Moses and Aaron, they did not keep this "blowing" pe word from the mouth of the LORD. We can learn from this lesson, can't we? If you would like to know more about God's perfect plan of defense on behalf of His people, you can pray with me: "Lord, You are my Rock of defense and Salvation (Yeshua/Jesus). The breath of Your mouth scatters Your enemies, and the throne of Your holiness will never be overcome. The whole earth is filled with the glory of the LORD, and we shout, "GLORY!" to the LORD who reigns in holiness. Guide me by Your Holy Spirit, and use the steps of my appointed journey with You to establish Your holiness in the earth, as it is in heaven. Let me not lean on my own understanding, nor be subject to the spirita of this world, but to trust in You only as my defense. I ask this in Jesus' name. AMEN."