Mattot Maasei (Tribes - Stages)
With Mattot Maasei we have reached the end of Bamidbar and according to our sages the Torah has finished with this book. The last book Devarim is also known as the Mishnei Torah (Devarim 17:18) or the second Torah. In Devarim (Deuteronomy) Moshe will no longer speak directly from G-d’s Words but in his own words retelling the Torah to the children of the generation that left Egypt. Bamidbar encompasses the entire 40 year journey of the people from Egypt to the Land with all their struggles and how they have grown into a nation. They have been through very difficult times where G-d’s discipline was at times very harsh and the only two of that entire generation to enter the Promised Land would be Joshua, from Ephraim, an Israelite and Caleb, a Kenizzite, who is Ger, a foreigner among us now part of Judah.
This portion gives us a panoramic vision of the last days in a very prophetic and spectacular way. Our people had to go through many changes before they would be ready to enter the Land — it was a process of purging and cleansing for them.
The portion begins with the teachings about vows which Yeshua also spoke about in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5: 33-37. Until today many Jews use the term when making a promise “Bli Neder” meaning without taking a vow. Yeshua was very clear that our yes needs to be yes and our no needs to be no. In other words, do make a promise that you cannot keep and do what you say you are going to do.
Immediately following this we read of how G-d tells Moshe to take vengeance upon the Midyanim (Midianites)—to kill every man, woman who had never known a man, and every male child. They could keep the animals and all the booty for Israel. Why would G-d ask us to do such a harsh thing? Is G-d a sadist? Sometimes people think that by keeping these people alive they would be more humane than G-d. Over the years we have learned that G-d always has a good reason for his requests to us.
There is an important lesson for us to learn from the fact that He ordered us to kill all the male children but to keep the girls alive. G-d was forming a special people who would be a light to the nations from our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Nowhere in Scripture does it say the descendants would come from Sarah, Rachel, Rivkah and Leah. Any mention of this is rabbinic invention. The seed of the male Midyanim was not part of G-d’s plan for our descendants. When Pharaoh ordered the death of all the male Israelite children he knew that our lineage came through the male. When the rabbis changed it to the mother, they changed the Word of G-d and have unwittingly destroyed the lineage of many of our people.
Being a Jew is not a matter of race or lineage, it is G-d choice. G-d put into His elected people, the seed of Messiah and they would become a new people, the new Israel consisting of both Jew and Gentile prefigured in Joshua and Caleb entering the Promised Land together.
Next we see the result of greed in the story of the descendants of Reuben and Gad who did not want to wait to see what portion of the Land that G-d had reserved for them. They saw the lush land east of the Jordan and decided this was for them. Each tribe was given an inheritance by lot according to the numbers of their tribes. The size of the land at that time was far greater than what Israel has today, consisting of ½ of Egypt, the Sinai, Iraq and part of Iran to the gulf of Aqaba to the border of Turkey. If we as a people had been faithful to the G-d of Israel, it would have all been ours but the small portion we have instead is a consequence of our disobedience. Reuben and Gad were forced to make a vow that they would never rest until the other tribes had their inheritance. In the end because of their greed, they lost everything. Greed causes selfishness and does not consider the good of the entire community.
This leads us to the next portion which speaks of cities of refuge. Greed causes strife which in turn causes deaths, some intentional and some unintentional. The cities of refuge were created so that those who killed someone by accident could have a safe haven from the families who would want to take vengeance upon them. There were signs outside these cities upon which were written, Miklat, Miklat which in gematria is 179 + 179 = 358 and equals the number of Mashiach. Messiah Yeshua came for more reasons than most people realize. He came to save all of humanity, not only the Jews. He came for the entire world, to heal the land, the animals and the people.
In Romans 8, Rabbi Shaul tells us that the earth is groaning waiting for His Redemption. We miss much when the Hebrew is translated. The word for earth is “dom”; Adam came from the earth and the color red is “dom” all pointing to the earth crying out for the blood of all those whose blood has been shed in it starting with Cain and Abel. Our sages speak of Goel Adam, the Redeemer of Blood being Mashiach. In sending Mashiach, he not only became the avenger but he was also the one upon whom all of G-d’s vengeance fell. It is also pictured in the two kids offered at Yom Kippur, one being the Azazel, the scapegoat set loose in the desert and the other being the sacrificial offering for sin, the Korban.
A deeper idea of vengeance is mine is repeated over and over. G-d applied His vengeance upon His beloved Messiah, ben Elohim. Only in this way can we truly understand how G-d could ask for the death of the Midyanim if He could give His only begotten Son to pay for the sins of mankind with his own blood. Blood has a far deeper meaning than the actual physical blood—the “life” is in the blood. With this picture, G-d is taking us back to the beginning, to the Garden of Eden, to our original state of innocence, where there was no corruption. He is calling us, through Messiah to do teshuva and return to Him. Only G-d can bring about this transformation of the world.
Today the earth is bleeding. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is like the earth’s blood being spilled out in the same way that the Nile River was turned to blood in ancient Egypt as the first plague. This is the beginning of very hard days ahead for the world until the return of Messiah and tikkun olam. We have a special calling in these days and that is to be the light that G-d called us to be. In the midst of darkness we are to shine the light and tell people of the brilliant future that lies ahead.
The story is not about religion which encompasses all the rules, regulations, doctrines and dogmas that man has created but it is a simple story of the love of G-d for His people and the relationship He desires to have with them. His people are the remnant of both Jew and Gentile alike who are returning to Him at His calling. We as a remnant must not be caught up in the religious rulings of man but in the transformation of the heart that only He can do. We need to stop trying to do and start being obedient to Him. We need to stop trying to be good because we are not. He is good. If you think that you do not do anything wrong but that everyone else does, you are a religious person. There is nothing worse than not admitting that we can do wrong and that we are limited. We need to be humble and allow G-d to make the changes in our lives which can only come when we admit them to Him. We can only change when we understand our humanity. Yeshua’s Sermon on the Mount was directed the religious people letting them know how they distorted and still distort the Torah and that their traditions changed the Word of G-d. Let us not be religious people but people who love G-d and want to be obedient to Him out of that love.
May G-d add blessings to His Word.