Chapter 34 deals with the boundaries of the promised land and tells us which men of Israel were assigned with parceling out the land to the people.
"The Lord said to Moses, 'Command the Israelites and say to them: 'When you enter Canaan, the land that will be allotted to you as an inheritance is to have these boundaries:'"(Numbers 34:1-2) You'll recall that the tribe of Reuben and the tribe of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh wanted for their inheritance the area on the opposite side of the Jordan from the promised land: the area known as the Transjordan. That land, which those tribes wanted for their many cattle, lies outside the boundaries of Canaan and is not part of the land being discussed in today's segment.
"Your southern side will include some of the Desert of Zin along the border of Edom. Your southern boundary will start in the east from the southern end of the Dead Sea, cross south of Scorpion Pass, continue on to Zin and go south to Kadesh Barnea. Then it will go to Hazar Addar and over to Azmon, where it will turn, join the Wadi of Egypt and end at the Mediterranean Sea." (Numbers 34:3-5) It was at Kadesh that the Israelites were camped when the twelve spies were sent into Canaan on a reconnaissance mission, so we see that Kadesh lay along the southern edge of the territory the Lord plans to give Israel as an inheritance. This inheritance could have been theirs forty years earlier if their faith had not faltered at the negative report of ten of the spies. I can't help wondering how many times my blessings were delayed---or missed altogether---because I faltered in faith.
"Your western boundary will be the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. This will be your boundary on the west. For your northern boundary, run a line from the Mediterranean Sea to Mount Hor and from Mount Hor to Lebo Hamath. Then the boundary will go to Zedad, continue to Ziphron and end at Hazar Enan. This will be your boundary on the north. For your eastern boundary, run a line from Hazar Enan to Shepham. The boundary will go down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain and continue along the slopes east of the Sea of Galilee. Then the boundary will go down along the Jordan and end at the Dead Sea. This will be your land, with its boundaries on every side." (Numbers 34:6-12) The Mount Hor mentioned in our section above is not the same Mount Hor upon which Moses' brother Aaron died and many scholars believe it was either a second mountain with the same name or the reference is actually to Mount Hermon.
A map of the borders described in Numbers 34 would look something like this one below. This map does not contain the territories that will be given to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh. We will look at an updated map in tomorrow's session that includes the land occupied by those tribes.
The Lord has repeatedly called the land of Canaan, otherwise known as the promised land, an "inheritance". An inheritance is something we are given which we didn't earn or build up. An inheritance is built up by the work of someone else and bequeathed to us. Israel didn't make the land of Canaan into a land flowing with milk and honey; God did that. This is a rich and fertile land but Israel had nothing to do with making it that way. God is giving it to her as a gift. Israel didn't build the cities and towns and walls of Canaan; she will be moving in and inhabiting what the Lord already allowed the pagan Canaanites to construct. Israel will have to do some work in taking over and maintaining the promised land, but that's true of any inheritance. For example, if I had a great-aunt who passed away and left me a million dollars, I'd be receiving a gift I didn't earn by working with my own hands but I would still have to do the work of managing and investing the money. I would be responsible for deciding how to wisely make use of every dollar of my inheritance, which might include things like paying off all my debts, giving money to friends and family in need, giving to my church and other charitable institutions, and investing portions of the money in various ways in order to earn interest or dividends.
The Lord keeps calling the promised land an "inheritance" because He intends to bequeath it to Israel. It's His land (because everything is His) and He gives it to whom He pleases. The tribes of Canaan turned away from Him long ago and preferred to worship false deities who don't require holy living. They've rejected the Lord's repeated attempts over the centuries to bring them back to the truth. They've covered their ears to His pleas to repent. Their time in the land is now up and the Lord will uproot them and plant Israel---a people who know Him and honor Him as Lord---in their place. It is the Lord's right to make such a decision and it is all His doing, even if Israel must fight battles to take over and occupy the land. The Lord chose this land for Israel. The Lord rescued Israel from Egypt to bring her to the promised land. It is a gift. It is an inheritance. It isn't something Israel thought of for herself or earned for herself or built up for herself. It's already there, in all its glory, to be taken and kept by Israel. If it were not the Lord's will for Israel to take over the land then she would not be able to do it, for she will be doing it through His strength and protection.
In the same way my fictional wealthy great-aunt would have the right to leave her money to whomever she pleased, even if that means disinheriting some of her closest relatives in favor of giving it to a relative who cares about her the most and stays in touch with her the most, the Lord is bequeathing the land of Canaan to the people to whom He feels closest. The Canaanite tribes want nothing to do with Him. The land may be in their possession right now in Numbers 34, but the Lord has the right to disinherit them and gift the land to the Israelites who believe in Him and worship Him.
It's amazing how much more God gives to man than man gives to God, for we've seen the Israelites faltering and stumbling in the faith several times already in the Old Testament. Their faith isn't always strong. They aren't always giving to God all the honor and glory that is due Him. Yet He still intends to give them this good land. Our faith is so puny sometimes, isn't it? If what we receive from God depended solely on our own goodness, instead of on His goodness, we'd never be worthy to receive much of anything because what we give to God is so weak and so imperfect. We are often filled with doubts and fears. We sin against Him regularly, both accidentally and on purpose. Yet He doesn't turn His back to us and stop showing us His goodness. He still has a great inheritance in store for us. He has shown us so much mercy! We have had only a little strength, sometimes only enough strength to believe the gospel message and to declare the Lord's name (Revelation 3:8), but He has mercy on us in our weakness because "He knows how we were formed, He remembers that we are dust" (Psalm 103:14). Not much can be expecting of beings who were formed from the dust of the ground except for those beings to remember and acknowledge that He breathed life into them. We'd be nothing without Him. There are going to be days in life when all we can do is hold on to the knowledge that we have a Creator who gave breath to our bodies and placed a soul within us. On those days when we can hardly keep putting one foot of faith in front of the other, and when we're overwhelmed with doubts and confusions and fears, our Maker remembers that we are dust and He has mercy on our weakness. He knows there is very little that dust can do on its own.
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