Day 54: Introduction To Numbers

Welcome to 5 Minute Bible, your daily guide for your daily reading. Today's February the 23rd and we're going to be looking at an introduction to the book of Numbers.

Now today we begin the book of Numbers and the English title comes from the census that is delivered in chapters 1 and 26, you know, the people are counted, therefore numbers.

But the Hebrew title for this book is actually more revealing of its purpose. The Hebrew means in the wilderness, which is the real theme of the book because all of it happens in Israel's wanderings in the wilderness.

Now if you remember, Exodus showed us how God redeemed the sinful people. Leviticus shows us how

God is going to live with the sinful people and Numbers is going to show us what life looks like between salvation and inheritance.

Remember, Israel was delivered from Egypt and they were promised that they were going to go to this land of promise, that God was going to give them rest and he was going to give them victory on every side, but yet in the book of Numbers, the promise hasn't fully arrived yet.

They're literally standing between where the promise was given and where the promise will be possessed.

And the wilderness is not just geography, it is the proving ground of whether or not they are going to trust

God. And in that way, Numbers covers roughly 40 years, which is interesting because in the

Bible, the number 40 usually represents a prolonged period of trial or suffering.

So those 40 years in the wilderness was a test to see if the people would be faithful. Now the book opens up at Mount Sinai with Israel counted, arranged around the tabernacle and prepared for battle and prepared to move.

The camp is ordered this way because God is meant to dwell at the center and the people of Israel are to dwell around him.

By chapter 14, however, at Kadesh Barnea, there's going to be a great crisis that comes.

Twelve spies are sent into the land and 10 of them actually interpret their report through fear and the people believe their eyes more than they believe the word, the promises of God.

They believe that the Canaanites are too big, too strong, too fast, too powerful in order for the people to defeat.

And yet this is the point. After seeing God deliver Israel from Egypt with 10 astounding acts of judgment, now the people are standing in front of the land that God has promised them too dull and too unbelieving to actually enter.

And the moment defines the entire book. An entire generation is going to die in the desert because of their lack of faith.

Now this is not merely a book about failure. However, it is a book of relentless covenant faithfulness on the part of God.

Yes, the people fail over and over and over again, and if anything, they deserve to be abandoned. And yet God sends them manna every single morning.

He brings water from the rocks and nourish them. He preserves his presence in cloud and fire.

He disciplines them, but he doesn't depart from them. And the wilderness in that way becomes both a graveyard and a classroom.

It becomes an act of judgment and also mercy intertwined together. Now as you read through the book of numbers,

I want you to ask the following question. Will a redeemed people trust the God who redeemed them when obedience looks dangerous and delay feels unbearable?

And numbers reveals just how quickly the people forget God's grace. Now there's several major themes in the book you need to pay attention to as well.

The first is the presence of God. The tabernacle stands at the center of the camp and every tribe is arranged around the presence of God because worship identifies the people.

It is their identity to be a people in the presence of God. Second major theme is testing.

Complaints arise in chapter 11 and 12. Rebellion erupts in chapter 16. And the pressure of not seeing

God's promises fulfilled in their concept of time, it's going to create frustration and it's going to create faithlessness in that generation.

Now the third theme is mediation. Again and again, Moses falls on his face and intercedes when judgment is deserved.

He mediates between God and the people. And the survival of Israel doesn't rest on their consistency, but on God's covenant mercy to hear the prayer of the mediator.

That's the third theme. The fourth theme is generational transition. The first sentence counts those who were rescued out of Egypt.

The second one counts those who are prepared to enter the land of Canaan. And this is not the same group of people.

An entire generation dies in the wilderness for their lack of faith. And the second generation is going to enter the promised land because God's promises are true even if an entire generation misses out on them because his promises outlive our unbelief.

Now, Numbers points unmistakably to Jesus because Israel is the one who's wandering in the wilderness and fails, yet Christ for 40 days entered into the wilderness and obeyed.

Israel grumbles over their bread and Jesus says, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Jesus succeeds in the test where Israel fails. In Numbers 21, a bronze serpent is lifted up so that the dying may look to the one that is lifted up and live, which is an astounding way to point to Christ, who is the perfect fulfillment of the bronze servant in that all who look to him as he is elevated up on this cross will find healing.

The cure for judgment is not in our human resolve, but by looking to the one who is lifted up and there we find healing.

Moses also intercedes to delay God's wrath, which is what Christ ultimately perfectly and beautifully does.

He intercedes on behalf of the people who continue to fail and continue to fail over and over and over again.

He intercedes and God hears his prayers and we are rescued. Numbers in that way ultimately teaches us that our hope does not rest on the steadiness or consistency of our faith, but on the faithfulness of our mediator.

Now I want to explain just for a second how you were to read the book of Numbers and get something out of it. You do need to read it slowly and carefully, but you also need to be watching how quickly the complaint replaces gratitude in the people.

I want you to notice how often their memory of redemption fades under trial and pressure. And I want you to also observe how relentlessly faithful God remains throughout the process.

The wilderness reveals the heart of man, but it also reveals the faithfulness of God. And as we enter into these opening chapters today,

I want you to see God ordering his people around his presence before he moves them towards the promised land.

And the journey begins with structure, worship, and preparation, but beneath all of it lies the deeper question.

Will this redeemed people trust their Redeemer? And with that, I want you to read your

Bible carefully, devotionally, and joyfully, and may the Lord use his word to sanctify you completely and we will continue our journey tomorrow.