Wandering's End

Numbers 25-36

Well, here we are finishing up the fourth book of the Torah. We will see a bit more about the stubborn foolishness of the Israelites as they fall into worship of the Moabites idols. Again Yahweh destroys those that have no faith in Him. These are the early days of the Israelites and Yahweh is shaping them to be a nation of holy people to be an example to all the nations of the earth. You can't make a holy omlette without breaking a few eggs. As we end the book of Numbers the Israelites are on the edge of the land promised to them by their God. After culling the herd Yahwe tells Moses he must once again take a census and appoint leaders for the community. Finally we round out the book with a summary of the journey through the desert and the establishment of the boundries of the promised land.

I did find some interesting information concerning the Torah. Some scholars believe that the Books of Moses are actually the first four books of the Torah, with Numbers completing the story. There are three documents known to scholars today that are thought to be the early source material for the early books of the Old Testament. They are known as the Deuteronomist (D), which is what the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Samuel and Kings are based off. The other two are known as the Yahwish/Jahwish (J) which contains mostly the story of Genisis, but the material is the oldest documentation of the name YHWH as the diety in the story rather than the substitute word 'Lord'. The scribes felt that the name of God was too holy to write down so it was substituted with various terms such as Lord, God, El, etc. Finally there is the Priestly Source (P) which contains the rituals and rules of the Law. These documents (DJP) date back to the 7th century B.C. and were probably written during the time of the Babylonian exile as a way to keep the traditions and culture of the Israelites alive in a time when it seemed their future was not so certain. As we will see in the book of Kings there is a King that comes to power during these tumultuous years named Josiah. Josiah orders the renovation of the Temple and during that process there is discovered a book. It turns out to be the writings of the Law of Moses and is probably what was used to create the early books of Jewish History over a span of hundreds of years, by many scribes or priests of the community.