The books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers portray in typology God’s need for a people to be saved and to go on with Him to enjoy His Christ, to receive His revelation, and to be built up with Him as the processed Triune God, that they may be formed into a priestly army to journey with Him and to fight with Him. These books also show that God’s people need to be disciplined by passing through certain difficulties and undergoing different kinds of frustrations. In Exo. chs. 12—14 Israel as God’s people was redeemed from God’s judgment by the passover and saved from Egypt by the saving power of the Triune God. Then, they enjoyed the heavenly provision and the divine care in their initial journey in the wilderness (Exo. chs. 15—17). In Exo. chs. 19—40 and Lev. chs. 1—27 they received the divine revelation and training in knowing God, in being built up together with God as His dwelling on earth for His expression and testimony, and in the building up of the priesthood for the divine service. All this took place at the foot of Mount Sinai, where the people were given the law as a portrait of what God is in His attributes. The book of Numbers records how God’s chosen and redeemed people were formed into a priestly army to journey with God and to fight with God for His interest on earth (chs. 1—4; 9:15—10:36; 12:16; 20:1—21:35; 31:1-54; 33:1-49). In Numbers the children of Israel also passed through various frustrations, trials, and disciplinings for their purification. Eventually, in ch. 32 and in 33:50—36:13 God’s people received the prearrangement for the distribution of the promised good land. After all the foregoing, God’s chosen and redeemed people were ready to cross the Jordan, enter Canaan, consume its inhabitants, and possess the good land promised by the faithful God (Josh. 1:2-3). With the exception of Joshua and Caleb, those who were qualified to take possession of the land were the younger ones, the second generation of those who had come out of Egypt. This younger generation had received the benefit of all that the first generation had experienced. With a rich inheritance and strong background, they were qualified to be formed into an army to fight with God and for God for the accomplishing of His economy. This history of Israel is a full type of the history of the church in its accomplishing of God’s eternal economy in the mystical union with the all-inclusive Christ, who is the embodiment of the processed and dispensing Triune God (1 Cor. 5:6-8; 10:1-13; Heb. 3:7-19; 4:1-13). See note Deut. 1:1¹.

The marriage of Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus, to Joseph may be a marriage that fulfilled this statute (see note Matt. 1:16¹). Thus, the statute in this chapter was actually ordained by God for Christ’s incarnation. All Scripture reveals Christ and is a record concerning Christ, either directly or indirectly (Luke 24:27, 44). The cities of refuge in ch. 35 are a type of Christ, and the settlement of the problem regarding the inheritance in ch. 36 is related to Christ. If Christ had not been incarnated, He could not have become the cities of refuge for the human race. Thus, in a very real sense, the refuge cities in ch. 35 depend on the statute in ch. 36.

This signifies that as our inheritance Christ is not transferable and that we should cling to Him as this inheritance. In principle, for a believer to marry an unbeliever is to make Christ as the inheritance transferable (cf. 2 Cor. 6:14). Cf. note Num. 27:7^1a.

God allowed the daughters to marry according to their taste but only within the family of the tribe of their father. This indicates that although the Lord gives us freedom, this freedom must be exercised within the limit, the boundary, of God’s regulation (cf. Gal. 5:13).

Lit., become wives for. So throughout this chapter.