Scattering & Gathering of Israel - Numbers 4

Chapter 4 is very long and TB makes a significant claim about it saying that Deuteronomy 4 is one of the top 10 chapters in the entire Bible that shows the nature and character of God and lectures for 2 ½ hours about it. I personally didn’t take it to be that way and I think that one of the reasons for that is because TB interprets the scattering and gathering of Israel to mean the literal dispersal of Hebrews from the land of Canaan and then the return of their DNA descendants that specific geographic space. From that perspective, yes, this chapter is very important to that narrative, I don’t share that perspective and we can talk about it later but that’s probably why I disagree with his emphasis on this chapter’s importance and I didn’t realize it until just now.

Moses remind the Israelites what happened when they rebelled by committing adultery with the foreign women that infiltrated them under king Balak. The punishments for that disobedience was severe and Moses wants them to remember how bad it was so that they would be motivated to avoid it in the future. But he knew that they wouldn’t so he’s trying to warn them away from that behavior. Interestingly, both Moses and the chapter heading say “they will be scattered among all nations when they worship other gods.” Notice that it says “when” and not “if”. I don’t know if Moses knew that the worship of other gods was what was going to get the people into trouble or if he just focused on that as a general principle but he talks about it extensively. I guess in reflection, the Israelite people do worship other gods a lot, like all the time. Their parents did it 38 years previously with the golden calf, they did it just recently because they didn’t just start having sex with these foreign women, they also started worshipping these foreign gods as well, so they do have a long history of doing that kind of stuff. And maybe it’s just me, but if I had been receiving food and water miraculously for 40 years in the desert, I would be loyal to that god, but maybe it’s not that easy. And maybe that’s not true for me either because I don’t eat manna from heaven but I’ve been blessed beyond measure financially in miraculous ways, and that is the same thing in my perspective.

Moses even tells them that he has been banned from entering the promised land because “they Lord was angry with me” and I think the point of that statement was like “look I’ve been in charge this whole time and even with all my status and calling and privilege, even *I* was punished for disobedience, so you guys aren’t special. If he’ll punish men then he’ll certainly punish you.” He counsels them against worshiping idols because if they do, when they do, “the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you.” This last statement is interesting to me, “whither the Lord shall lead you.” They are being punished for disobedience and where they are scattered to is still being controlled by God. It isn’t a free for all, it isn’t just whatever happens happens, let the chips fall where they do. Even in their punishment, God is still in charge, he’s still in control, he's still orchestrating everything for their own good. That’s something that I needed to hear. Even when the bad happens, even when we deserve it, God is still in control of what happens to us. This is something that I’ve been thinking about recently. Miracles are seen as being these unlikely, supernatural positive occurrences, but things like that happen in the negative as well. Like Jeremiah, Alma, Nephi, Daniel, Elijah, all of those people weren’t perfect but did their best to be righteous and they all experienced extreme hardship and difficulty regardless of their obedience. By all accounts, righteousness is supposed to bring good things to you but sometimes there are unlikely, supernatural negative occurrences that lead to the outcome of suffering and those can be just as God orchestrated as the positive miracles as well to achieve God’s desired outcome. It’s like the absolute value of numbers, a positive 4 and a negative 4 are the same distance from zero, an unlikely positive outcome can be just as miraculous and an unlikely negative outcome in accomplishing the will of God. It probably just takes a lot of time and distance to view the negative outcome as a miracle in the same way we view positive outcomes. Maybe that’s why after receiving the vision of Jerusalem being destroyed, Lehi praised God and rejoiced, because the bad can be just as important as the good to the progression of God’s will, plan, and purpose to work all things together for out good. It’s comforting to think that even in the darkest moments, even while living our worst nightmare, that even that is ordained of God to work for our good. And we know that God isn’t cruel and for him to allow for suffering that is pointless would be cruel, therefore any pain that we experience has to be understood that there is no other way. Even when being punished, it’s all controlled, God has his hand over all our experiences, even when it seems out of control.

Interestingly, and I don’t think that this has been discussed in the Torah yet before, when the Hebrews will be punished for their idolatry in the future, God will be available for them when they decide to reach out to Him, “for the Lord thy God is a merciful God; he will not forsake thee, neither destoy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.” Moses also asks, “Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out from the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?” I’ve said before that I ask myself a question usually as a thought experiment but more recently I’ve realized that I actually have to answer that question for real, and the question is, “if my belief in God just a mental illness that I’ve created to cope with a horrific life that has no meaning or purpose?” It’s like “is God real or am I making all this stuff up?” And this has basically been my mental and spiritual pursuit in earnest for the last 8 months. This question might not mean what I’m reading it to mean but I’m taking to ask “have you heard the voice of God from the fire?” And I’m assuming that he’s referring to the numerous times that God has presented himself to the people in fire form, the burning bush, the fire clouds, the fire that guarded them while they moved through the desert, etc. Moses also asks if God commanded them to go defeat their enemies and they did, and the miracles that delivered them from Egypt, and all this “unto thee it was shewed, that thou mighest know that the Lord he is God, and there is none else beside him. Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee.”

Moses is asking the people these questions and it would be easy for them to justify to themselves that they made it all up, their belief in God, that they didn’t really hear God’s voice in the fire or that they won their battles because they were a better army. It’s easy for me to say that I’m making up every single spiritual experience that I’ve ever had and that it’s all just in my head. That would be easier I think, but would it be true? Is all my faith, all my testimony, just something I made up to soothe myself during suffering that I couldn’t have dealt with otherwise? That’s the question. And Moses asks rhetorically here that same question to the people. Are all these spiritual experiences real? Because if it is, then there are a lot of factors that suddenly come into play here, like obedience to the God giving the commandments, evaluation of his teachings and application of them into our lives. That’s the point right, the point that Moses is trying to make to the Israelites, and that I’m trying to determine for myself, if God is truly the creator, master, and controller of the universe, if He truly is all these things that he says he is, and we’ve been shown that that’s true countless times throughout our lives, then why wouldn’t we always try out best to be obedient to Him? Why would we rebel? Why wouldn’t we trust in all His promises? Why wouldn’t we be at peace with His comfort? Maybe this chapter really is that important in describing the nature of God.

Even though Moses knows that the people will rebel and be scattered, he also knows that the covenant that God had with Abraham was that Israel would be gathered again back to the promised land of Canaan, and historically they were, repeatedly whenever they were scattered, at least some of them were regathered back to Canaan. But after the 70 A.D. scattering the gathering has been put off until the Latter-days and the timing of that is subject to debate. TB insists that the current political entity that is occupying Canaan as the country of Israel is the fulfillment of that covenant and that we all must do all we can in order to support that government structure. I completely disagree with that. There are a couple of reasons why I think that that is wrong. I do recognize that part of the covenant fulfillment is for the promised land to be inhabited by Abraham’s descendants at some point so I’m not discounting that that does have to happen, but I don’t think that currently the country of Israel is that fulfillment. First, when the 10 tribes were lost thousands of years ago, I think that they just assimilated into the local cultures that they were scattered to thus making many people descendants of Abraham that way. I don’t know what it was about small-town Utah back in the 60’s but my mom was convinced that the lost 10 tribes of Israel had been taken by aliens to another planet and were going to show up one day as invading spaceships and ask to be taken to Salt Lake to the church leadership. I personally just think it was a mixing of the population and that those tribes are scattered throughout the world. In fact, from what I’ve heard now that we have missionaries in all types of remote locations, as people join the church and get their patriarchal blessings, they are being pronounced as being from the tribes of Asher and Gad, etc. In fact, my patriarchal blessing, even though I’m from Ephraim, it says that I get it from direct bloodline, so I think there is more blood lineage that we think throughout the world that will reveal itself over time.

Secondly, when Jesus was on the earth, after the atonement and his death, the gospel was opened to the gentiles as well and as we learned as we went through the New Testament, there was a huge problem integrating gentiles into the Christian teachings brought to them by the Hebrews. As circumcision went away as a requirement for entry into the covenant, and the gospel was opened to the gentiles, acceptance into the Abrahamic covenant became a spiritual matter instead of a biological one. Thus the gathering of Israel isn’t about finding those who have direct blood relation and instead is about finding those who accept the gospel and adopting them into the house of Israel. And again, as demonstrated by my patriarchal blessing the direct blood line thing might be more liberally inclusive then they suspect.

Finally, the Israelites were scattered that final time in consequence for rejection and crucifixion of their Messiah, therefore the only way that they will be able to accept their rightful place in the land of Canaan as their promised land is after they accept Jesus as their Savior. We have two places in 2nd Nephi that clarifies this for us, first 2 Nephi 9:2 which says, “That he has spoken unto the Jews, by the mouth of his holy prophets, even from the beginning down from generation to generation, until the time comes that they shall be restored to the true church and fold of God; when they shall be gathered home to the lands of their inheritance, and shall be established in all their lands of promise.” Additionally, 2 Nephi 6:11 says, “Wherefore, after they are driven to and fro, for thus saith the angel, many shall be afflicted in the flesh, and shall not be suffered to perish, because of the prayers of the faithful; they shall be scattered, and smitten, and hated; nevertheless, the Lord will be merciful unto them, that when they shall come to the knowledge of their Redeemer, they shall be gathered together again to the lands of their inheritance.” These verses are pretty clear that Israel will not be granted the land of Canaan as their promised land by God until they accept the Savior and His gospel, and it’s not up to the British to decide when to partition the land and let people go back there. I would liken the current situation in Israel to when they rejected God’s command to go destroy the Amorites but then changed their minds later and decided to go fight them after God told them no and they were destroyed. Israel obviously isn’t destroyed right now, but the fighting, etc. is indicative to me that this isn’t something that God has approved of and lent his power to their victory. God’s house of Israel is for everyone who accepts the gospel and Israel in the promised land is contingent on them accepting the Savior as their Messiah. That’s how I disagree with TB on what the scattering and gathering of Israel means.

The last several verses are about Moses partitioning 3 sanctuary cities on the east side of the Jordan river where Rueben and Gad will be staying for places of refuge for the people who accidently kill someone so that they will be safe from the vengeful family members. When this concept was first introduced, I was surprised that it was even a thing because house common of a problem could this have been? I thought that it would have been pretty unusual of an occurrence but to set aside 6 cities, 3 on each side of the river just to serve this purpose, maybe it was more common of a problem than I initially suspected.