HEBREW WORD STUDY  – THESE ARE THE GENERATIONS – TOLEDOTH תולדה  Taw Vav Lamed Daleth Hei

Numbers 3:1-2: “These also [are] the generations of Aaron and Moses in the day [that] the LORD spake with Moses in mount Sinai. (2) And these [are] the names of the sons of Aaron; Nadab the firstborn, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.

When it speaks of the generations of Moses and Aaron it only lists the sons of Aaron and strangely it lists Aaron before Moses. Normally Moses is listed first.  The Midrash teaches that this is to show that Aaron and Moses were of equal importance in the eyes of God.  Strange how we consider some Christians to be more important than other Christians.

How often is the pastor considered to be more important than a deacon or even the janitor in the church?  We honor the pastor, we have a special pastor appreciation days, we recognize his birthday, we give him gifts and other honors, while a servant of the Lord cleans up the mess after the party and gets barely a thank you.  Many Christians would be aghast over the idea of the pastor cleaning up my mess or even the toilets that were used in the celebration.  Why that would be almost as ridiculous as Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. 

For some reason, I grew up in church believing that Moses was really more important than his brother Aaron. After all, it is Moses that God spoke face to face, it was Moses who was the leader. That alone makes him more important than Aaron.  Yet, in God’s eyes, everyone share equal importance and the mission God calls them to perform is of equal importance, even if that job is to clean toilets. 

Another thing strange about this passage in Numbers is why were Moses sons not mentioned as leaders, only Aarons sons? The Midrash again gives an answer. Moses sons were living with his father in law.  They did not experience the Exodus from Egypt. They did not experience the miracles of God during the Exodus.  This is an important lesson for the church today. Personal experience in one’s relationship with God is an important requirement when considering leadership.  So many pastors are chosen because of their educational background and not their experience with God. 

Along these lines, it is curious that Scripture does not say: These also [are] the generations of Aaron…” since it is only the sons of Aaron that are mentioned.  Why are the sons of Aaron considered the generations of Moses?  The word generation in Hebrew is toladah which means the descendants as we would normally understand the word generation, but it is also used to express the idea of the results of someone’s involvement or the accounting.  This comes from the root word yalad which means sons or children but not necessarily children by birth.

I remember we had a couple in the church I grew up in named Bill and Gerry Oldham.  They were unable to have children of their own but they were foster parents and both taught Sunday School.  I had Bill as a Sunday School teacher in the Junior department and his wife Gerry when I was in Primary Sunday School.  Bill was also one of my leaders in Awana.  My own parents instilled in me a love for God but Bill and Gerry reinforced that love for God in me. I read something interesting in the Talmud this morning in Sanhedrin 19a.: “He who teaches the son of another man the Torah it is ascribed to him as if he had begotten that child.”  This is why Moses is considered part of the toladah generation of Aaron’s sons for he taught them the Word of God.

D.L. Moody as a young man was given a job in his uncle’s shoe store on the condition that he would attend church and Sunday School every Sunday.  Sunday Schools were rather new around the mid 19^th Century, many churches did not have them and many objected to them.  The very idea of an uneducated person teaching the Bible, even to children was reprehensible. Only those who have graduated from colleges and seminaries should teach the Bible.  But the church Moody attended was progressive and quite radical.  Why it even taught a personal relationship with God and this is what Moody’s Sunday School teacher taught.  In fact he would regularly stop by the shoe store where Moody worked to encourage him to accept Jesus as his personal Savior which Moody one day did.  Five years later he rented an old building and invited children into that building to teach them the Bible. Moody was so uneducated that he could barely read the Bible to his one student, a young black child.  But within a year that school grew to 650 students with 60 teachers/volunteers from various churches that longed to teach the Gospel but did not have the credentials. 

Moody went on to become the world-famous evangelist bringing thousands to the saving knowledge of Jesus even though he was just Mr. Moody and not Rev. Dr. Moody. He established Moody Bible Institute with a two or three-year program to prepare Christians for ministry and not the usual seven-eight years of college and seminary needed to be ordained in mainline churches.

As a graduate of Moody Bible Institute myself I am a toladah of D.L.Moody, a part of his generation. Although I have many years of college, seminary and graduate school degrees behind me, I consider my three years at Moody to be my real education and when people ask me what school I attended, I don’t waste time listing the seven or eight schools I have attended, I simply say: “I am a Moody graduate.”  I am a toladah of  D.L. Moody.