Take a Number

Numbers 1 & 2

The English name of this book is based on the census lists we find in these early chapters.  Census taken to determine the number of men of military age.  But the Hebrew title is “bemidbar”, which means “in the desert”.  This seems just as fitting, since Numbers follows the 38 years of Israel’s desert wanderings from Mt Sinai to the plains of Moab, on the border of Canaan.   “From here to there”, as Bill Hybels is fond of saying. 

Yesterday I thought about how Promised Land Living might differ from Kingdom Living.   How what we see and hear and learn about God and His relationship with people in the Old Testament bears on our lives today…on us as a Post Resurrection people, living God’s Kingdom already come, alive and present.  

I didn’t come up with an answer.

But this lingers. 

Numbers begins 13 months after the Exodus.

We see a number total.

Israel has grown from a mere 70 that entered Goshen to force of over 600,000 fighting men.  The math indicates that a population of 2,000,000 people sprung up during the 400 years Israel lived in Egypt.  God’s faithfulness to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Numbers has really different themes from Exodus.

Even in these first few chapters we see order being established in the camp, from counting all the covenant people, to where they would camp in relation to the tabernacle and how they were to break camp and march out. 

Military precision. 

Military preparation, because the milk and honey of Promised Land is not going to be poured into Israel's lap.  It's going to take some conquering. I'm not sure that is what they expected.  And that's a big part of the Numbers story and drama. 

In Exodus the theme was holiness and Numbers touches on God’s wrath against His disobedient people.  So I love this story of God and His People.  I love how it raises questions and how it provides answers somewhere along the way.   And I love that this continues to be a story of journey.   

I love that you're coming along!