The Forty Years in the Desert
After the year spent at the foot of Sinai, the cloud lifts and gives the signal to set out: Israel takes the road toward the promised land. The journey was to be short; it will last forty years. The book of Numbers recounts these years of wandering, where the desert puts the heart of the people to the test. At every stage the same temptation returns: to doubt God, to long for Egypt, to rebel against Moses. And each time, God judges without ceasing to feed and to lead, until a new generation is ready to enter.
The ordered camp and the blessing
Before leaving Sinai, the people are counted and set in good order around the Dwelling, each tribe in its place, the Levites in the service of the sanctuary. God gives two silver trumpets to gather the assembly and to break camp: “Make yourself two silver trumpets; they shall serve you for the convocation of the assembly and for the breaking of camp.” Numbers 10:2. He also entrusts to the priests a blessing to pronounce over the people: “The Lord bless you and keep you! The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The Lord lift up his face toward you, and give you peace!” Numbers 6:24-26. To these words God attaches a promise: “Thus they shall put my name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.” Numbers 6:27. To put the Name of God on the people is to mark them as his and place them under his keeping; the priest’s blessing bears fruit because God himself blesses. To those who wish to attach themselves to God more closely, the Law opens further the vow of the Nazirite. The Hebrew word rendered “Nazirite,” nazir (נָזִיר), means “set apart,” “consecrated”: for a set time, the man gives himself wholly to God, cut off from ordinary usages. He abstains from wine and from every product of the vine, and bears on himself a visible sign of his vow: “The razor shall not pass over his head... he shall be holy, letting his hair grow freely.” Numbers 6:5. This vow, Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist will later keep.
The murmurs and the challenge
Barely on the march, the people begin to murmur again. The first of these murmurs is at once punished: “The fire of the Lord blazed against them and devoured at the edge of the camp.” Numbers 11:1. The people call on Moses, whose prayer halts the scourge, and the place is named Taberah, from the fire that had blazed there. The complaint soon revives, this time over food. The manna, that bread of heaven which feeds them each day, weighs on them; they long for the varied food of Egypt, forgetting the servitude they endured there: “We remember the fish we ate for nothing in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. Now our soul is dried up; our eyes see nothing but manna.” Numbers 11:5-6. They demand meat, and God sends it in profusion: a wind brings quails in such number that they cover the ground nearly two cubits deep (about a meter), a day’s journey all around the camp. The manna, though, followed another rule. God gave it only for the day, and each one relied on him for the morrow: “Let each gather what he needs for his food, an omer per head.” Exodus 16:16. But this time they fall upon the quails and gather a whole day, all night, and the next day again; the least greedy collects ten omers (more than twenty liters), ten times a single day’s portion, and they spread them all around the camp to keep them. This greed, which despises the bread of heaven and longs for Egypt, draws a chastisement upon them: “The flesh was still between their teeth when the anger of the Lord blazed against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague.” Numbers 11:33. They named that place Kibroth-hattaavah, the Graves of Craving, for there they buried those whom desire had consumed.
The challenge reaches even those closest to Moses. Miriam, his elder sister, and Aaron, his brother, reproach him for his unique place and claim to be his equals in the word of God. Yet Moses is the meekest man on earth: “Moses was a very meek man, more than any man on the face of the earth.” Numbers 12:3. And it is God himself who defends him, for he speaks to no prophet as he speaks to him: “I speak to him mouth to mouth, plainly, and not in riddles; why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” Numbers 12:8. Miriam is at once struck with leprosy, then healed at the prayer of Moses, who intercedes for the one who had attacked him. His meekness answers pride with pardon.
The seventy elders and the Spirit
Under the weight of the complaints, Moses feels crushed to carry this people alone. God answers by giving him companions: “I will take of the spirit that is on you and put it on them, so that they may bear with you the burden of the people, and you will no longer bear it alone.” Numbers 11:17. Seventy elders are gathered, and when the Spirit rests on them, they begin to prophesy. Two of them, who had remained in the camp, prophesy as well; some want to silence them, but Moses, far from defending his privilege, rejoices: “Would to God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!” Numbers 11:29. This wish reaches beyond his time: it announces the day when the Spirit of God will be poured out on all, which the Church will recognize at Pentecost.
The refusal to enter
Israel comes at last to the gates of the promised land. Moses sends twelve men to explore it. They return marveling at its richness, but ten of them spread fear: the land is held by formidable men, fortified cities, giants before whom they feel like grasshoppers: “We were in our own eyes, and in theirs, like grasshoppers.” Numbers 13:33. The people give way to discouragement and refuse to enter; they go so far as to want to appoint a leader and return to Egypt: “Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” Numbers 14:3. Only Caleb and Joshua keep their trust, sure that God will give the land as he promised. This refusal is the decisive fault: after seeing so many wonders, the people still doubt that God can keep his word. The judgment falls, one year for each of the forty days of exploration: “As many days, so many years, you shall bear your iniquities, forty years.” Numbers 14:34. The forty years of wandering begin there.
The revolt of Korah
In the desert, the authority of Moses and the priesthood of Aaron are challenged once more. Korah, a Levite, draws behind him leaders of the people and defies the two brothers, claiming that all are equally holy and that none has the right to raise himself above the others: “The whole assembly, all are holy, and the Lord is in their midst. Why do you raise yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” Numbers 16:3. God’s judgment is immediate: the earth opens and swallows the rebels: “The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, them and their families.” Numbers 16:32. To put an end to all challenge, God gives a sign: the staff of each tribe is placed in the sanctuary, and only Aaron’s, the next day, has blossomed and borne ripe almonds: “Aaron’s rod had blossomed: it had put forth buds, opened flowers, and ripened almonds.” Numbers 17:23. God alone calls to the priesthood, and he confirms it by the life sprung from a dead branch.
The red heifer
In the desert, contact with a dead body makes one impure and bars one from the sanctuary. God gives a rite to remove this defilement. A red heifer is chosen, without blemish and that has never borne the yoke; it is slaughtered and wholly burned: “A pure man shall gather the ashes of the heifer and place them outside the camp, in a pure place; they shall be kept for the assembly of the children of Israel, for the water that removes defilement.” Numbers 19:9. Sprinkled with this water, the one defiled by death becomes pure again and may appear before God. This rite already says that death separates from God, and that to rise from it requires a purification that comes from him. Tradition has seen in it a figure of the blood of Christ, which cleanses in depth what the ancient rites could only touch on the surface.
The water of Meribah and the fault of Moses
The years pass, and the murmurs with them. At Meribah, the people lack water and turn again against Moses. God commands him to speak to the rock so that it may give its waters: “You shall speak to the rock in their presence, that it may give its waters.” Numbers 20:8. But Moses, at the end of his patience, grows angry at the people and claims the miracle for himself, as if the water came from him and Aaron, not from God: “Listen now, rebels! Shall we bring you water out of this rock?” Numbers 20:10. Then, instead of speaking to the rock, he strikes it twice with his staff. The water gushes out and the people drink; but God reproaches Moses and Aaron for not having fully trusted him nor given glory to his holiness before the people, and announces to them that they too will not enter the promised land: “Because you did not believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I give it.” Numbers 20:12. The failing of a moment closes to Moses the land toward which he has walked all his life. It is in these same years that Miriam dies, at Kadesh, and Aaron, on the summit of a mountain, his priesthood passing to his son Eleazar. The leaders themselves depart; the promise alone remains.
The bronze serpent
One last time, the people complain of the way and of the manna, and fiery serpents bite them. When they return to God, the remedy given is strange: God commands Moses to set on a pole a bronze serpent, the very image of the bite, and whoever looks at it is healed: “Make for yourself a fiery serpent and set it on a pole; whoever has been bitten and looks at it shall keep his life.” Numbers 21:8. Salvation passes through a gaze lifted toward the sign raised on high. Christ will take up this image to announce his cross (John 3:14), he who will be lifted up from the earth that every man who looks on him may have life.
The first victories
On its march toward the promised land, Israel asks to cross the country of Edom, the brother people descended from Esau, who refuses harshly: “You shall not pass through my land, or I will come out against you with the sword.” Numbers 20:18. Israel goes around Edom rather than fight a brother. But other kings bar the road. Sihon, king of the Amorites, refuses passage and goes out to war: “Israel struck him with the edge of the sword, and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok.” Numbers 21:24. Then Og, king of Bashan, advances in turn with all his army: “Do not fear him, for I deliver him into your hands, him, all his people, and his land.” Numbers 21:34. These two victories, east of the Jordan, are the firstfruits of the inheritance, the first land God gives to his people. The psalm will sing them, recalling his faithfulness: “Sihon, king of the Amorites, Og, king of Bashan, and all the kings of Canaan. And he gave their land as an inheritance to Israel, his people.” Psalm 135:11-12.
Balaam and the oracle in spite of himself
At the gates of Moab, King Balak takes fright before this people so numerous, camped at his borders. Too weak to fight them, he sends for Balaam, a renowned seer, to come and curse Israel and strip it of its strength. On the road, the angel of the Lord stands across the way, sword drawn, to bar the passage. Balaam does not see him, but his donkey sees him and turns aside three times; three times the seer beats her to force her back onto the path. Then God opens the mouth of the beast, who calls her master to account: “The Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam: What have I done to you, that you have beaten me these three times?” Numbers 22:28. Then God opens the eyes of Balaam, who at last sees the angel of the Lord and bows down. The one paid for his vision was blinder than his mount, and he learns that he will say only what God puts in his mouth.
Led by Balak to the heights from which the camp of Israel can be seen, Balaam was to call down a curse on Israel; but it is a blessing that comes to him, for none can curse whom God blesses: “How shall I curse when God does not curse?” Numbers 23:8. In vain the king moves him from one summit to another and grows angry at receiving only blessings; the seer remains held by a constraint stronger than the promised gold: “Must I not take care to say what the Lord puts in my mouth?” Numbers 23:12. At the end, from the mouth of this pagan come to curse, God brings forth the announcement of a king to come: “A star comes forth from Jacob, a scepter rises from Israel.” Numbers 24:17. Tradition has recognized in this star the figure of Christ, the king born of Israel; and at his birth, at Bethlehem, Magi from the East saw his star and came to worship him (Matthew 2:1-2). The curse turns into blessing, and the strength of God appears even in the powerlessness of the one who sought to harm his people.
The apostasy of Peor
What Balaam could not obtain by cursing, he obtains by cunning. On his counsel, the daughters of Moab draw the men of Israel into their worship, and the people, who had held firm before weapons, give way to seduction: they join themselves to the foreign women and bow down before their god, Baal-Peor. The anger of God blazes against Israel: “Twenty-four thousand died of the plague.” Numbers 25:9. At the height of the scourge, a priest, Phinehas, grandson of Aaron, rises with zeal against the evil and stops it. God acknowledges his zeal and answers it with a promise: “It shall be, for him and for his posterity after him, the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God.” Numbers 25:13. The enemy who could not curse the people from without nearly destroyed it from within: the seduction of the heart did what the curse could not.
Provisions for the promised land
As the new generation draws near the land, God orders in advance its division and its justice. The daughters of Zelophehad, whose father died leaving no son, ask to receive their father’s portion. God answers: “The daughters of Zelophehad have said what is just. You shall give them a property as an inheritance among their father’s brothers.” Numbers 27:7. The right to inherit is thus opened to daughters. God also establishes cities of refuge for the one who has killed unintentionally: “These cities shall serve you as a refuge against the avenger of blood, so that the slayer may not be put to death before standing trial before the assembly.” Numbers 35:12. Blood shed by accident is not paid for like murder, and the community takes care to distinguish the one from the other. The Law thus prepares a people in which the land is shared with equity and justice protects even the one who has killed without intending it.
The forty years in the desert are a long time of testing, where the heart of the people is laid bare. Unbelief closes the promised land to a whole generation, and Moses himself will not enter it. But through the revolts, God never ceases to lead, to feed, and to pardon, until a new generation rises. And already, in the night of the desert, shine the signs of the grace to come: the serpent lifted up that heals with a look, the blessing wrung from a false prophet, the star announced over Jacob.