11/11/11

"It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea."  Deuteronomy 1:2

Horeb is also known as Mount Sinai and Kadesh-barnea is a place located just SW of Canaan, the land that God promised to give to the Jewish people.  Moses speaks to the people at Horeb and says;

"The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying 'You have stayed long enough at this mountain.  Turn and set your journey, and go . . . See, I have placed the land before you;  go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to them and their descendants after them.'"  Deuteronomy 1:6-8.

The Jewish people get to Kadesh-barnea but then are afraid to go further.  They come up with a plan to send 12 spies into the land.  Moses agrees to the plan and we know the rest.  Ten spies put more fear and doubt into the peoples hearts, and only Joshua and Caleb give encouragement.  Israel does not enter the promised land and now must wander 39 more years in the wilderness.  Because of their lack of faith God judges the people of Israel and no one (not even Moses) who was at Kadesh-barnea over the age of 20, except for Joshua and Caleb, are allowed to enter the land of God's promise.  On the eleventh day the people entered into unbelief and God judged them.

The number eleven is an interesting one in scripture.  11 is used 24 times, 11th 19 times, and 1100 twice.  The usual sense of the number in scripture is one of disorder, imperfection, judgement, and lack of faith.  Jacob had 12 sons who would become heads of the 12 tribes.  The brothers sold Joseph into slavery and for awhile there were only 11.  Jesus had 12 apostles but only 11 after Judas betrayed Him.  The apostles then choose a replacement to bring the total back to 12.  God gave Moses the 10 commandments.  If we were to add to what God has commanded we would then have an 11th.

To me the use of 1100 is even more interesting.  Both are found in the Book of Judges.

In chapter 16 we see that the five lords of the Philistines each give Delilah 1100 pieces of silver to betray Samson to them.  Samson is the mighty judge and deliverer of Israel, although quite a carnal man.  The Philistines were a major foe of Israel and lived along the coastal area of the Mediterranean Sea in a region we now call the Gaza strip.  Samson talks too much, reveals to Delilah that he has been dedicated as a Nazirite to God from his mother's womb. and that his strength is because of the length of his hair.  Delilah cuts Samson's hair, the Lord (the real source of Samson's strength) departs from Samson, and he is captured.

The next chapter relates the beginning of the history of idolatry associated with the tribe of Dan.

"Now there was a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah.  He said to his mother, 'The eleven hundred pieces of silver which were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse in my hearing, behold, the silver is with me;  I took it.' "

Micah returns the 1100 pieces of silver to his mother and she dedicates the money to the Lord, but in a strange way.  She has Micah take 200 pieces to the local silversmith who makes them into a graven image and a molten image.  These become Micah's household idols.  Later on a man from the priestly tribe of Levi visits on a journey from Bethlehem in Judah and Micah hires him to live in his house and be his personal priest.

Around this same time the tribe of Dan, who were not able to secure their allotment of territory, were migrating through Ephraim, looking for land in which to settle.  They recognize Jonathan the Levite and ask him to inquire of God if they would be blessed if they settle at a certain area of land they were considering.  After Jonathan tells them what they want to hear they ask him to become the priest of their tribe and to take the household idols with him.  The tribe of Dan then settle in the area of Laish and do prosper for awhile.    However this results in two major problems.

The first is that this area becomes the main area of idol worship in the Jewish nation - "So they set up for themselves Micah's graven image which he had made, all the time that the house of God was at Shiloh."  Idol worship and unbelief are the main reasons the Jewish people undergo judgment from God again and again in scripture.  And this also leads to the tribe of Dan being omitted from the list of Jewish tribes found in Revelation chapter seven, 144,000  Jewish men from the 12 tribes who are sealed by God in the last days to perform a special service for Him. A tribe named after one of the sons of Joseph is substituted.

Does this mean anything for what might happen on 11/11/20011?  I don't know.  It might be one of those days where you check on events that happen in the world, i.e.  stock markets, Israel, earthquakes, storms, wars etc. and see if they may point to something else.  Unbelief?  Judgement?  Disorder?  If you put 1 and 1 together do you get 2, or do you get 11?