The Pathway to Parenthood

Numbers 30:1-36:13, Massei, “Tribes”

As I read through this week’s Torah portion and the various study materials I refer to, the first thing that jumped out at me was the connection between the word massei (Tribe) and the root word from which it is derived which is masei which means journey.

This immediately made me think of Isaiah 66:7-8 "Before she travailed, she brought forth; Before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy.  "Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons.

Very often this verse is used in connection with the forming of Israel as a nation in 1948.  It is said that because the nation was created in a day that this prophetic scripture was fulfilled.  Personally, I take a different approach and this approach really helps me understand what this “journey” with God is all about.  For me, when I read this scripture, I am actually hearing God mocking those who believe that a “nation” can be formed in a day.  What I hear God saying is that a nation is not a physical place but a people.  For the purposes of this blog, let’s say a tribe, even a tribe of priests.  Wouldn’t you agree that this is what the entire journey of Israel has been from the very first moment that God came into Abraham’s life?

According to the Oxford Languages definitions, the word travail means to “engage in painful or laborious effort, (of a woman) be in labor”.  In other words, what this verse is saying is that it takes great pain and the process of labor to bear children.  It just is what it is.  A girl can’t go from a girl to a woman and a mother without lots of pain.  Not only is this true in the physical sense, but for sure in the spiritual.  How much time does a mom dedicate to preparing her little girl for motherhood?  Then later, after the physical child is born, how many years does it take that woman with a child to become a true “mom” to her own children.

When I read the final line in the scripture and hear the word “sons” I think of so much more than just a boy child.  There is something in the word “son” that makes me believe that this boy child has a relationship with his parents.  I picture a relationship that is founded on love, respect, and understanding.  I know that in the physical sense, as soon as a boy child is born, they are a “son”.  But I am hearing something more.  What I am hearing is a young man of maturity, a boy that is no longer a boy but a young man ready to start his own family and begin the long journey of becoming a “dad” for his own sons and daughters.

As I consider the progression from Abraham to the promise of him becoming the father of a great nation, I picture this slow progression.  Not just a physical progression of reproduction, but a spiritual progression.  The foundation of this spiritual progression is the family dynamic with God at the center.  As physical parents through the love, respect, and relationship that they have with the previous generations they grow from children and become spiritual sons and daughters.  As spiritual sons and daughters they can then preserver what they have received and pass it along to the next generation.  Each generation going through their own life experiences.  These life experiences shape us and lead us to a place of humility where we are to bend our knee to God, His ways, and grow in our respect of those that came before us.  This is the process of allowing Him to be our ultimate father where we are His spiritual sons and daughters in co-harmony with our earthly parents.

Through this journey we have images of those that came before us who walked closely with God.  And, sadly, we all have images of those who didn’t.  As we move to the end of the book of Numbers, we come to this pinnacle moment just prior to the people of Israel entering the promised land.  Almost the entire generation that had come before them has passed away in the wilderness.  It has been 38 years.  During the last two years before leading the people into the promised land God leads this new generation into a final preparation.  They are to face the physical battles of war and the spiritual battles of sin and temptation.  They have been traveling through the dessert for 40 years because of the decisions of their parents.  Their parents have died, and they are at the end of their journey.  But before they are prepared to enter the promised land, they have this final preparation that they must endure.  As we read last week, they did not do too well.  They had the faith to fight the physical battle of war but they didn’t do too well with the spiritual battle against sin and temptation.

I think one of the biggest points of the maturing process and what leads us to the capability of moving forward into all the promises that God has for us, and the ability to be true moms and dads, is the humility failure brings.  As easy as it is to look at the failures of those that came before us and to learn from their mistakes, it is equally important to drop to our own knees and realize that we too are totally capable of falling prey to the temptations and sin that will lead us off track where Satan will use our failures to destroy the generations that come after us.

As Satan would like to use these opportunities to destroy the family tree that God is attempting to create, I believe that it is the sovereignty of God that puts this entire dynamic into play.  You see, a nation simply can not be born in a day because moms and dads can’t be created without some failures, a little humbling, and a whole lot of growth.

As I think about God’s plan of salvation and the creation of this nation of priests, I see a pattern that I believe represents the same pattern that each of us go through on our own journey through life.  You could probably add to this, but right off the top we have the people who came out of Egypt who wondered in the desert for 40 years and had a final preparation just before entering the promised land.  Skipping forward a few thousand years, and we are told that prior to Yeshua’s return to earth and the setting up of His kingdom here, temptation will grow, there will be a great turning away, and there will be physical war.  Finally, at the end of the 1,000-year physical kingdom and just prior to our moving into the new heaven and the new earth, God will release Satan one last time.

 I pray that as each of us goes about our days and as we walk through our own personal journeys, and as the trials, temptations, and battles come that we remember to lean on these verses.  I pray that we allow God to use these moments to humble us, to mold us, and to grow us.  I pray that each of us learns to see these moments not as a time to be fearful, but as a time of promise.  I pray that we can start seeing these times as moments that might just be telling us that we are reaching the end of one season and are about to enter a new one.  I pray that we each have the strength to endure the test, allow God to use it for His purposes in and through us, and that we become the leaders that He has called us to be.   I pray that each of us pass our own tests and that we are allowed to move into the next season along with those that He has entrusted us with.  Those that we have been called to lead and as such, those that we have come to know as our “sons” and “daughters”.