With the book of Numbers, we encounter one of the more difficult books of the Pentateuch, the first five books of Moses. What makes the book harder to read? Well, there’s a lot of variety going on in it. It is a bit easier to read than Leviticus, because the book resumes the storyline of the Pentateuch. However, many laws regarding Israel’s religious and social life together are found throughout the book. This makes it more difficult to grasp what the book is all about. Keeping two themes in mind may be helpful – provision and testing. God provides for his people, but he also tests them to see if they will trust and obey him.
In terms of the storyline of the book, the book depicts the numbering and wandering of the people of Israel in the wilderness. The wanderings lasted for two generations, approximately forty years (13 months after Exodus to the end of forty years of wilderness wanderings; see Numb. 1:1; Deut. 1:3). The starting point was Mt. Sinai (where Leviticus left off), and the end point was Mt. Nebo (where Deuteronomy will pick up the story). There are two censuses during this time. The first one is of all males twenty and older from those who had been redeemed from Egyptian slavery. The second one numbers the same group of people among the next generation. The purpose of both censuses was to discern how many men of war were present in Israel. One of God’s major concerns was to transform the Israelites into a military force.
Why are there two occasions for censuses? Well, the Israelites were not ready to enter the Promised Land for conquest. They did not trust and obey God, so God did not lead them into that land. You might recall that God had promised Abraham and his descendants three things – abundant descendants, a special relationship with God, and the gift of the Promised Land. While God had fulfilled the first two, the Israelites were still waiting for the first one. Despite God’s faithfulness to these promises, they could not place their faith in God’s power and goodness.
A good place to see all these themes come together is Numbers 14:26-33. It’s a long passage but worth taking the time to read:
26 And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 27 “How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me. 28 Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the Lord, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: 29 your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, 30 not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. 32 But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. 33 And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness.
The faithfulness of God is contrasted with the “faithlessness” of God’s people. Even though God had provided for them, they grumbled against him. Thus, they did not pass the test of trusting and obeying God. But God remained faithful to God’s promises and God’s people. God would lead the next generation, their “little ones,” into the Promised Land. And the next generation would pass the test.
As followers of Jesus, we can learn lessons of faith and obedience from this book. God provides for us in ways we might not always understand. There may be times in the wilderness, where we do not see God at work. But God can be trusted with our faith and obedience, as we await our promised land of the New Creation. In Romans 15:4, Paul says this of the Old Testament, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” Let us not follow the example of the wilderness generation. Let us trust and obey God and our Savior.
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