The following commentary covers Chapters 34, 35, and 36.
God's
care over His people
Finally, God takes care of
His people in all respects; He marks the limits of the
country they were to enjoy. He settles the taking
possession, the portion of His servants, the Levites, who
were not to have any inheritance.
The six cities of
refuge, and Israel's present and future
Six of their cities were
to be refuges for those who had unintentionally committed
murder; a precious type of God's dealings with Israel,
who, in their ignorance, killed the Christ. In this
sense, God judges them to be innocent. They are guilty of
blood which they could not bear, but guilty in their
ignorance, like Saul himself, who is a striking figure,
as one born out of due time (ektroma, 1 Cor. 15: 8), of
this same position. Such a murderer, however, remains out
of his possession until the death of the priest living in
those days.
And so it will be with
regard to Israel. As long as Christ retains His actual
priesthood above, Israel will remain out of their
possession, but under the safe keeping of God. The
servants of God at least, who have no inheritance, serve
as a refuge to them, and understand their position, and
recognise them as being under the keeping of God. When
this priesthood above, such as it now is, ends, Israel
will return into their possession. If they did before, it
would be to pass over the blood of Christ, as if the
shedding of it were no matter, and the land would be
defiled thereby. Now, the actual position of Christ is
always a testimony to this rejection, and of His death in
the midst of the people.
God maintains the
inheritance, however, as He has appointed it (chap. 36).
The relationship
between the desert journey and the possession of the
promises and rest
This last part, then, of
the book presents, not the passage itself through the
desert, but the relationship between that position, and
the possession of the promises and of the rest which
follows. It is in the plains of Moab that Moses bore
testimony, and a true testimony, to the perverseness of
the people; but where God justified them, shewing His
counsels of grace, in taking their side against the
enemy, without even their knowledge, and pursued all the
designs of His grace and of His determinate purpose for
the complete establishment of His people in the land He
had promised them. Blessed be His name! Happy are we in
being allowed to study His ways!
Numbers 34 Bible Commentary
John Darby’s Synopsis
God's care over His people
Finally, God takes care of His people in all respects; He marks the limits of the country they were to enjoy. He settles the taking possession, the portion of His servants, the Levites, who were not to have any inheritance.
The six cities of refuge, and Israel's present and future
Six of their cities were to be refuges for those who had unintentionally committed murder; a precious type of God's dealings with Israel, who, in their ignorance, killed the Christ. In this sense, God judges them to be innocent. They are guilty of blood which they could not bear, but guilty in their ignorance, like Saul himself, who is a striking figure, as one born out of due time (ektroma, 1 Cor. 15: 8), of this same position. Such a murderer, however, remains out of his possession until the death of the priest living in those days.
And so it will be with regard to Israel. As long as Christ retains His actual priesthood above, Israel will remain out of their possession, but under the safe keeping of God. The servants of God at least, who have no inheritance, serve as a refuge to them, and understand their position, and recognise them as being under the keeping of God. When this priesthood above, such as it now is, ends, Israel will return into their possession. If they did before, it would be to pass over the blood of Christ, as if the shedding of it were no matter, and the land would be defiled thereby. Now, the actual position of Christ is always a testimony to this rejection, and of His death in the midst of the people.
God maintains the inheritance, however, as He has appointed it (chap. 36).
The relationship between the desert journey and the possession of the promises and rest
This last part, then, of the book presents, not the passage itself through the desert, but the relationship between that position, and the possession of the promises and of the rest which follows. It is in the plains of Moab that Moses bore testimony, and a true testimony, to the perverseness of the people; but where God justified them, shewing His counsels of grace, in taking their side against the enemy, without even their knowledge, and pursued all the designs of His grace and of His determinate purpose for the complete establishment of His people in the land He had promised them. Blessed be His name! Happy are we in being allowed to study His ways!