Bird's-eye view
In this chapter, we are given what amounts to the divine title deed for the Promised Land. As Israel camps on the plains of Moab, poised to enter Canaan, God speaks through Moses to lay out the precise geographical borders of their inheritance. This is not a vague promise of "some land over there." It is a detailed, specific, and legally defined territory. God, acting as the sovereign King and Divine Surveyor, draws the lines on the map Himself. He defines the southern, western, northern, and eastern boundaries with reference to specific geographical landmarks. This act underscores the absolute sovereignty of God over the earth and the concrete nature of His covenant promises. The land is a gift, an inheritance, and its dimensions are determined by the giver, not the recipient. This passage serves as the foundational charter for the subsequent division of the land among the tribes, and more importantly, as a tangible, historical type of the far greater, spiritual inheritance that is ours in Jesus Christ.
The specificity of these verses is the central point. In an age that loves ambiguity and bristles at boundaries, God reveals Himself as a God of order, precision, and definition. The inheritance is real, the borders are fixed, and the promise is sure. This detailed description was meant to give Israel profound assurance. Their God was not just giving them a general idea; He was giving them a particular place, a home He had measured out for them. For the Christian, these verses are a powerful reminder that our inheritance in the gospel is just as certain and well-defined, secured for us not by rivers and seas, but by the precious blood of Christ.
Outline
- 1. The Divine Charter for Canaan (Num 34:1-12)
- a. The Command to Define the Inheritance (Num 34:1-2)
- b. The Southern Border Defined (Num 34:3-5)
- c. The Western Border Defined (Num 34:6)
- d. The Northern Border Defined (Num 34:7-9)
- e. The Eastern Border Defined (Num 34:10-12)
Context In Numbers
Numbers 34 comes at a crucial juncture in the book and in the life of Israel. The generation that came out of Egypt has perished in the wilderness due to their unbelief. A new generation has been numbered (Numbers 26) and now stands ready to accomplish what their fathers could not. The preceding chapters have dealt with final preparations for conquest and settlement: laws of inheritance for daughters (Numbers 27), regulations for offerings (Numbers 28-29), and laws concerning vows (Numbers 30). The defeat of the Midianites (Numbers 31) and the settlement of the Transjordan tribes (Numbers 32) have already occurred. This chapter, therefore, is part of a block of instructions that organizes the nation for its life in the land. By defining the borders before the conquest, God is acting on the certainty of His promise. He is treating the land as already theirs, providing the legal framework for its distribution. This chapter is immediately followed by the naming of the leaders who will oversee the apportionment (Numbers 34:16-29) and the designation of Levitical cities and cities of refuge (Numbers 35), all of which presuppose the divinely established boundaries laid out here.
Key Issues
- God's Sovereignty Over Creation
- The Tangible Nature of God's Promises
- The Land as a Type of a Greater Inheritance
- The Goodness of Divinely Appointed Boundaries
- The Legal Basis for Israel's Claim to the Land
The Divine Surveyor
We moderns can be a strange lot. We want our God to be transcendent and mighty, but we want His promises to be gauzy, spiritual, and vague. We are comfortable with a God who gives us "peace" or "joy" in the abstract, but we get skittish when the Bible talks about real estate. But the God of the Bible is the God of heaven and earth. He made the dirt, the rocks, the rivers, and the seas, and He is not ashamed to deal in them. This chapter is a profound offense to any sort of Gnostic spirituality that wants to float away from the created world. Here, the Lord of all glory gets out His surveying equipment and draws the property lines for His people.
This is not a tedious geography lesson. This is a theology lesson, teaching us that God's covenant faithfulness is not a hazy sentiment. It is concrete. It is measurable. It has borders. He is giving His people a home, a place, a tangible inheritance that they can walk on, plow, and build upon. He is telling them, "This particular piece of my world, from this wadi to that sea, from this mountain to that river, is yours. I am giving it to you." The sheer detail is meant to bolster their faith. A God who knows the land this well is a God who can certainly give it to them. And for us, it is a picture of the inheritance we have in Christ. It is not a vague hope, but a purchased possession, with benefits and blessings as real and specific as the landmarks mentioned here.
Verse by Verse Commentary
1-2 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Command the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land of Canaan, this is the land that shall fall to you as an inheritance, even the land of Canaan according to its borders.
The entire enterprise begins with the authoritative Word of God. Yahweh spoke to Moses. This is not a human plan. Israel did not form a committee to decide which territory they would like. God speaks, and He commands. The instruction is for when they enter the land, an event spoken of with certainty. Notice the language: the land shall "fall to you as an inheritance." An inheritance is not earned through merit; it is received as a gift by virtue of a relationship. They are sons, and this is their patrimony. And this inheritance is not a boundless, undefined expanse. It is the land of Canaan according to its borders. From the outset, God establishes that His gift is both generous and defined. He is the one who sets the terms and draws the lines.
3-5 And your southern sector shall extend from the wilderness of Zin along the side of Edom, and your southern border shall extend from the end of the Salt Sea eastward. Then your border shall turn from the south to the ascent of Akrabbim and continue to Zin, and its termination shall be to the south of Kadesh-barnea; and it shall reach Hazaraddar and continue to Azmon. And the border shall turn from Azmon to the brook of Egypt, and its termination shall be at the sea.
God begins the survey in the south. He doesn't just say, "down there in the desert." He names names. The Wilderness of Zin, the Salt Sea (Dead Sea), the ascent of Akrabbim, Kadesh-barnea. That last one should ring a bell. Kadesh-barnea was the site of the previous generation's catastrophic failure of faith (Num. 13-14). God is now defining their inheritance as including the very place where their fathers forfeited it. This is a profound statement of grace. The failure of the past does not nullify the promise of God. He is giving this new generation what their fathers threw away. The border is meticulously traced from the Dead Sea all the way to the "brook of Egypt," a wadi that served as a natural boundary, and finally to the Mediterranean Sea. This is a real, traceable line on a map.
6 ‘And as for the west border, you shall have the Great Sea, that is, its coastline; this shall be your west border.
The western border is the simplest and most magnificent. It is the "Great Sea," the Mediterranean. The coastline itself is the property line. This is an unmistakable, God-made boundary. He sets the shore as the limit, reminding Israel that while their inheritance is great, He remains Lord of the sea. This provides a definite and secure edge to their territory. There is no ambiguity here. God's gifts are not fuzzy around the edges. They are defined, and in that definition there is security.
7-9 ‘And this shall be your north border: you shall draw your border line from the Great Sea to Mount Hor. You shall draw a line from Mount Hor to Lebo-hamath, and the termination of the border shall be at Zedad; and the border shall proceed to Ziphron, and its termination shall be at Hazar-enan. This shall be your north border.
The northern border is described with another series of specific, though to us more obscure, locations. It begins at the sea and runs to a "Mount Hor" (distinct from the one where Aaron died) and then on to Lebo-hamath, a location that often represented the northern ideal extent of the kingdom. The point here is not that we must be able to identify every one of these ancient towns on a modern map. The point is that God could. He knew every hill, every village, every road. He is not speaking in generalities. He is giving them a precise, multi-point survey line. This is the act of a sovereign who knows His domain intimately and is deeding a portion of it to His children.
10-12 ‘For your east border you shall also draw a line from Hazar-enan to Shepham, and the border shall go down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain; and the border shall go down and reach to the slope on the east side of the Sea of Chinnereth. And the border shall go down to the Jordan, and its termination shall be at the Salt Sea. This shall be your land according to its borders all around.’ ”
The eastern border runs down from the north, east of the Sea of Chinnereth (the Sea of Galilee), and then follows the Jordan River valley all the way down to the Salt Sea, where the survey began. This closes the loop. The Jordan River, the very obstacle they are about to cross, will become the eastern spine of their new home. The description is emphatic: This shall be your land according to its borders all around. The inheritance is a complete, enclosed, defined territory. It is a secure holding, a place with known boundaries. God has put a fence around this gift, marking it as uniquely theirs.
Application
First, we must see that our God is a God of glorious specificity. He does not save us into a vague fog of spiritual well-wishing. He saves us from specific sins, by the specific blood of His Son, into a specific body called the Church, and gives us a specific book, the Bible, full of specific promises. Like the borders of Canaan, the doctrines of our faith are clearly defined. We should love this clarity and resist the modern urge to blur every line into a meaningless gray smudge. God draws lines, and He calls them good.
Second, the land is a type of our inheritance in Christ. That inheritance is not something we have to earn; it is something that has "fallen" to us by grace. And it is not a small thing. It is an "inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you" (1 Pet. 1:4). It includes the forgiveness of sins, adoption as sons, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and a sure hope of resurrection. Like the Israelites, we are called to explore the vastness of this inheritance, to survey its riches, and to live in the security that it provides. It is a defined territory of grace, bordered by the finished work of Christ.
Finally, we must recognize the goodness of boundaries. Israel was given a huge and fertile land, but it was not the whole world. It had borders. In the same way, God gives us our callings, our gifts, our families, and our stations in life. These are our assigned lots, our spheres of responsibility. Our task is not to covet our neighbor's inheritance or to erase all borders in a fit of prideful rebellion. Our task is to be faithful within the boundaries God has sovereignly drawn for us. It is within these God-given limits that we find true freedom, fruitfulness, and joy. God surveyed Canaan for Israel, and He has surveyed our lives for us. Our part is to trust the Surveyor, and to thankfully possess the inheritance He has given.