This article is about Numbers 1.

Source: The Monthly Record, 2009. 2 pages.

Numbers 1

At a time in history when the new and novel is king and we have all bought into the cult of youth, the ancient book of Numbers has to be rediscovered by the Church. William Faulkner reminds us, ‘The past is never dead. It’s not even past.’

Origen didn’t rate it as a book: ‘if the book of Numbers is read, the hearer will judge that there is nothing ... as a remedy for his weakness or a benefit for the salvation of his soul.’ We beg to differ; Jesus told us that ‘all the Scriptures’ concerned Himself. We concede that few will have Numbers as their favourite Bible book. The Greek word for it is arithmoi. The Hebrews had a better name for it; they called it ‘in the wilderness’ or ‘and he spoke’.

In 1:2 God says, ‘take a census’. We shall see behind the statistics: this is more than a numbers game.

God Loves to Communicate with His People (1:1)🔗

The Lord spoke to Moses and told him to record words. In the aftermath of 9/11, a TV documentary silently surveyed the wasteland which was Ground Zero. The ubiquitous sound of Bette Midler was heard: ‘From a distance God is watching us’, as a Godlike face suspended in space was transmitted into our living rooms. God is not at a distance; He spoke to Moses ‘in the Tent of meeting’, and in these days He speaks to us in His Son, not suspended in space but enfleshed.

All the surrounding nations had gods but they were silent. In Numbers ‘the Lord spoke’ over 150 times.

The Time Scale is Worth Noting (1:1)🔗

This was a whole eleven months after they had left Egypt. Why the delay? Like most delays, it was a test. It was during this period that they got involved in worshipping the golden calf which exposed their idolatry, impatience, disloyalty and ingratitude. If you think the church is a place for goody-goodies you are soon mistaken. Why did God stick with them? Try grace and covenant for starters.

So 1:1 puts scripture at the heart of the church. Is that why we ought to be obsessed with scripture? Is that why we sing it, read it, explain it, and by God’s grace, apply it?

God loves to save His people. Do you see it? ‘The Israelites came out of Egypt.’ You see that God does not just speak, He acts and He redeems. He said that He would take them out of captivity and into a land flowing with milk and honey. The gospel is not just about salvation, it is also about making us lifelong disciples of Jesus and eternal worshippers of the triune God. As we follow this band of people we will learn about sanctification as well as justification. The names are foreign to us, e.g. Gamaliel son of Pedahzur, but don’t be fooled by the exotic – just fill in the names of their descendents: Angela and Andrew, Harry and Harriet.

God Cannot Be Taken for Granted🔗

Look now at the census in the rest of the chapter. This is the first census; there is a second one in chapter 26 and it’s a different list. Quite simply, these guys did not make it; they did not enter the Promised Land because they would not obey God’s voice or trust His power. This could be a list of some of the people in our churches, the people who used to lead camps, those who used to organize conferences. It was always the case. There comes a time when we are struck by the fact that ‘this is a hard saying’.

Look also at the numbers, or trust us to look at them for you! There are 603,555 armed men. What is significant is the unequal strength of the tribes. Why is that? Look at Genesis 49 and note Jacob’s assessment of his sons, e.g. Reuben was ‘turbulent’ and had sinned greatly when he slept with his father’s concubine. No great king, judge or prophet ever came from the line of Reuben. The great biblical leaders essentially came from three tribes: Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim. There is such a thing as the entrails of our sin; our lives and choices have consequences for the generations to come. Think about that when you are tempted by the lure of the affair or you find yourself gossiping about church leaders in front of your family.

God Knows Us Each by Name🔗

Chapter 1 and much of Numbers is a list of names. We live in a dehumanised society which is non-personal. I wonder if you feel abused this week. At work you feel that you’re just a number as you have been selected for redundancy. You are trapped on a human resources treadmill and your shelf life is over. Do you ever feel this in the church as the elder looks you in the eye and you know that he doesn’t know your name? You are not just a name to God. Verse 1:2: ‘listing every man by name, one by one.’ Have you noticed how often Jesus called people by their names? God has indeed set the solitary in families.

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