Fascinated by 'Numbers'. No, not the 'math' kind. The 4th Book of the Pentateuch -- an intro to its gems.

Day 32 of our self-isolation and we’re all hanging in.  Well, some of us more than others. I must admit I am very confused as to the authenticity of what we are told is going on. Everything I read and hear is putting to this being another fraud or scandal of the global elitists. Yes, people are dying and yesterday we received word of the second person that we could identify with that had died of Covid-19.  The first was a medical doctor and parent of our grand-daughters close friend at university. The second was my wife’s maid of honor. This is real. But does it merit the actions taken by government? Will it merit the use some will make of it to bring us closer to being totally under their control? That remains to be seen. Part of my frustration is that our church leaders are being ever so quiet about the whole thing.

We press on. I’m excited today to introduce you to the fourth book of the Old Testament – Numbers. We’re going hunting for gems together.  Hang in there.  Here goes.

An Introduction to the Book of Numbers

(I am indebted here to the publishers of the New American Standard Bible for the following comments on this, the fourth book of Moses.)

Numbers is a record of the wanderings of the Israelites after God led them out of Egypt and slavery. Its name comes from the two numberings (census taking) they experienced. The book’s lesson is very clear: While we may have to pass through the wilderness, we do not need to end up living there. Unfortunately, it took the Israelites 40-years to learn that lesson, the length of what otherwise would have been an 11-day journey back then.

There is, once again, sufficient ‘external’ and ‘internal’ evidence to support the belief that Moses was indeed the author. Even the use of the third person in parts was a common practice in the ancient world. Caesar was a prime example of such writing.

While Leviticus covered a timespan of only one month, Numbers covers almost 39 years (c. 1444-1405 BC). Its record covers Israel’s movement from the last twenty days at Mount Sinai, their wanderings, and finally their arrival in the plains of Moab in the fortieth year. According to the census in the book, over 2.5 million people were involved. Miraculously, God fed and sustained them, as well as preserved their clothing in the desert, no less.

Believe it or not, we will actually see Christ being referred to in this book. But we may have to wait until chapters 21 and 24 to discover the reference.

The ‘key’ word in the study of Numbers is the word “wanderings”. This is the story of the failure of Israel to believe in the promise of God and the resulting judgment of wanderings in the wilderness for forty years. I often wonder if we are all suffering from the “judgment of wanderings” in our world today because we fail to believe in the promise of God – not so much by what we say or what we think we believe – but by how we live. Until we make that believe the very modus operandi of how we walk and breathe each day, maybe we’ll never get out of our personal wilderness. Hopefully, we will learn to do that from the experiences of the Israelites.

There are some very key verses in the book which we will discover, and I’ll point those out when the time comes.  And even before that, we’ll come to the key chapter of Numbers and a critical turning point in the history of Israel.

Remember, throughout this book of Numbers, we see Israel changing dramatically. It begins as an infant nation in one sense (only 13 months after the exodus) but at the same time it is made up of the “old generation” described in Numbers 1:1-10:10. It then moves through a tragic “transitional period” (Numbers 10:11-25:18), and finally ends with the “new generation” (chapters 26-36) at the doorway to the land of Canaan.

Join us next time as we venture into this journey together.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.