The Second Census Of Israel - The "Daughters Of Zelophehad" -Appoin tment Of Moses' Successor -

Sacrificial Ordinances - The War Against Midian - Allocation Of Territory East Of The Jordan - Levitical

And Cities Of Refuge.

(NUMBERS 26-36)

BEFORE describing the closing scene of Moses' life, we may here conveniently group together brief notices

of the events intervening between the judgment of "the plague" on account of Israel's sin (Numbers 25) and

the last discourses of Moses recorded in the Book of Deuteronomy.

1. A second census of Israel was taken by Divine directio n (Numbers 26). The arrangements for it were in all

probability the same as those at the first census, thirty-eight years before (Numbers 1).44 The "plague" had

swept away any who might yet have remained of the old doomed generation, which had come out of Egypt.

At any rate, none such were now left (Numbers 26:64). This may have been the reason for taking a new

census. But its main object was in view of the approaching apportionment of the land which Israel was so

soon to possess. Accordingly, the census wa s not taken as before (Numbers 1), according to the number of

individuals in each tribe, but according to "families." This corresponded in the main  45 with the names of the

grandsons and great-grandsons of Jacob, enumerated in Genesis 46. In reference to the future division of

the land, it was arranged that the extent of the "inheritance" allotted to each tribe should correspond to its

numbers (Numbers 26:52-54). But the exact locality assigned to each was to be determined "by lot" (vers. 55,

56), so that each tribe might feel that it had received its "possession" directly from the Lord Himself.

The proposed division of the land brought up a special question of considerable importance to Israel. It

appears that one Zelophehad, of the tribe of Manasseh, and of the family of Gilead, had died - not in any

special judgment, but along with the generation that perished in the wilderness. Having left no sons, his

daughters were anxious to obtain a "possession," lest their father's name should be "done away from among

his family" (Numbers 27). By Divine direction, which Moses had sought, their request was granted,46 and it

became "a statute of judgment" in Israel - a juridical statute - that daughters, or in their default - the nearest

kinsman, should enter upon the inheritance of those who died without leaving sons.

In all such cases, of course the children of those who obtained the possession would have to be

incorporated, not with the tribe to which they originally belonged, but with that in which their "inheritance"

lay. Thus the "name" of a man would not "be done away from among his family." Nor was this "statute"

recorded merely on account of its national bearing, but for higher reasons. For this desire to preserve a name

in a family in Israel sprang not merely from feelings natural in such circumstances, but was connected with

the hope of the coming Messiah. Till He appeared, each family would fain have preserved its identity.

Several instances of such changes from one tribe to another, through maternal inheritance, are recorded in

Scripture (comp. 1 Chronicles 2:34, 35; Numbers 32:41, and Deuteronomy 3:14, 15, and 1 Chronicles 2:21-23;

and notably, even in the case of priests, Ezra 2:61, 62, and Nehem. 7:63 and 64).

2. God intimated once more to Moses his impending death, before actual entrance into the Land of Promise

(Numbers 27:12-14). In so doing, mention of the sin which had caused this judgment was repeated, to show

God's holiness and justice, even in the case of His most approved servants. On the other hand, this second

reminder also manifested the faithfulness of the Lord, Who would have his servant, as it were, set his house

in order, that he might meet death, not at unawares, but with full consciousness of what was before him. It is

touching to see how meekly Moses received the sentence. Faithful to the end in his stewardship over God's

house, his chief concern was, that God would appoint a suitable successor, so "that the congregation of the

Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd" (vers. 15-17). To this office Joshua, who had the needful

spiritual qualifications, was now set apart by the laying on of Moses' hands, in presence of Eleazar the priest

and of the congregation. Yet only part of Moses'" honor" - so much as was needful to ensure the obedience