Numbers 13:1-2
VA’YE’DABER ADONAI (Y”H) EL-MOSHE LEY’MOR
SHE’LACH-LE’CHA ANA’SHIM
VE’YA’TU’RU ET-ERETZ CE’NA’AN
ASHER-ANI NO’TEYN LIV’NEI YISRAEL
ISH E’CHAD LE’MA’TAI A’VO’TAIV TISH’LA’CHU
KOL NASI BA’HEM
“The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Send forth men (–LE’CHA, “for you”, “to you”, “before you”: “IF YOU PLEASE”—STONE Tanakh translation),
that they may search the land of Canaan,
which I am giving to the sons of Israel;
of every tribe of your fathers shall you send a man,
every one a ruler among them.” [ref. KJV and STONE translations]
What is this expression, LE’CHA [“IF YOU PLEASE”]?
The STONE TANAKH, Orthodox-Jewish translators picked up on these rulers’ voluntary acceptance of the call to “spy out” the Land of Promise on behalf of Moses and the People of Israel from whom they went forth as representatives of the twelve tribes. The expectation was that they would go forth in faith with the confidence that God was about to give them victory over all adversaries as they began the process of possessing their corporate inheritance.
It is like the call to Abram, “LECH LE’CHA,” to go forth to himself, to the Man he would Become [AvraHAm] in the future of his pilgrimage. [Genesis 12:1a] It is like the description of this in Hebrews 11:8-10,
“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, no knowing whither he went.
“By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
“For he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
In a similar fashion, our Lord Jesus has SENT US FORTH away from our old selves, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, into all nations of humanity in order to bring forth from the ruin of the fall of man the Kingdom of God in Messiah, established in the hearts and souls of all peoples: a BRIDE OF CALLED OUT ONES for the Son of the Father unto His Majestic Glory forever and ever in the Eternal City of our Habitation. [Revelation 21-22]
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, side-by-side with their wives Sarah, Rebecca and Leah,* lie in repose in Hebron in the double-cave tomb in the field of Machpelah^ awaiting the Resurrection of the Just along with all who indwell the Promised Seed—Our LORD Yeshua ha’Mashiach. Until that great day—The Day of our Hope—we are called and commissioned to “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel.”
[The Call to Preach (Mark 16; Matthew 28; Luke 21; Acts 1) and to Faithfully Tend and Feed the Flock of God (John 21; Acts 20:28); ^Genesis 23; *Rachel is in Bethlehem, the birth city of David the King and of Yeshua Who is King Messiah: in effect, she is the Unique Matriarch, the Mother of Joseph, the Heir to the Birthright, who ties together the tribes of Joseph and Judah by means of her repose in the Kingly Tribe’s birthright (in Beit-Lechem, the House of Bread)—thus, Rachel removes the division of the two Kingdoms, North and South, by means of her embodiment of one interwoven, covenantal union of the Holy Nation].
Shall we go in faith, expecting the reward of faithful labor?
[Hebrews 11:39-12:29]
Yes, we shall.
[Philippians 1:19-21 seq.]
Amen. Amen.
