Thus far, on our journey through the Old Testament, Numbers has been by far the hardest to prepare for. Leviticus is usually where my flesh wants to get choked up. The laws are so heavy and some are incredibly difficult to understand from my modern view of the world, and also as a woman.
My husband and I spent last week in the hospital worrying over unusual and painful symptoms in our son who has significant special needs. We have a whole team of incredible specialists and surgeons who care for him. We were told to expect to have one of those surgeons round on him very early in the morning one day, because she was going into surgery.
I was determined not to miss her rounding because I desperately wanted to hear her most recent opinions and plans.
I woke up at 4 am and could not go back to sleep. My two guys were both snoring, and there was a soft, comforting rhythm of the night nurses swishing down the halls, quietly monitoring their patients.
So I did what any scared, exhausted, and confused mother would do- sat cross-legged on the hospital couch that turns into a make-shift bed and read the entire book of Numbers. Ha!
I’ve read Numbers plenty of times, but I can’t remember ever reading it in one sitting. And man, did that bring a whole new perspective!
It made it impossible to ignore the patterns God was laying out in His story. It was also immensely humbling.
I opened the book praying, “Ok, I need to find just the right story You want me to write about. What do You want me to say? Those silly Israelites are always up to something crazy in the desert, so the hardest part will be picking which wild story is the most intriguing.”
Before the doctor ever made it to the room, I closed the last chapter, holding the Bible to my chest and rocked a bit in humility. “I am them, and they are me,” is all I could think. It was less about what I was to say, than what I was to learn.
So let’s jump in at the beginning and we’ll cover some themes that stand out when you read the book as a whole, instead of focusing on just one chapter at a time.
Numbers 1 opens explaining the name of the book. God has ordered a census of all of the tribes. Remember, they have recently been rescued from Egypt. God has written out His laws of how they are to conduct themselves, and now it is time to get themselves into groups for orderly travel to the Promised Land.
One thing that jumped out to me here is that God specifically names one man from each tribe to begin registering their men from “twenty years old and upward, head by head.” (Numbers 1:18)
I was struck that God knew His people so individually, that while His relationship with Moses was unique, He called out men from their families, by name, to complete the task He set before them.
We see Him operating in a similar manner today. We see God save some, while others remain unrepentant. He calls us His handiwork, giving us unique gifts to do good works which He prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)
The people are counted, a few more regulations are described, and then we see how God can’t restrain Himself from His own goodness. Even in the midst of rules, He desires to pour out His love over His people.
“The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,
Numbers 6:22-27
The LORD bless you and keep you;
The LORD make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The LORD lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.’
“So shall they put My name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”
Think of the weight of this. The God of heaven and earth desires to gather His people to bless them. He already knows how the rest of their desert wandering is going to go- and spoiler alert- it’s not great. But He wants to keep them. To shine His face upon them as a mother lights up when her child enters the room.
He wants them to know peace. His peace.
And He will write His own Name on them, calling them His own.
He spends more chapters setting up His holy chambers, constantly reminding them that He is their God. (Numbers 10:10).
God has set up this story in such a way that displays His overwhelming desire to dwell with His people. He wants their good and His glory. What more could a person possibly want than to know that the God of the universe wants to put His name on him and call him His own?!
But it doesn’t take long before the sin in their hearts deceives them as the serpent did to Eve. Is God for their good?
And the people complained in the hearing of the LORD about their misfortunes, and when the LORD heard it, His anger was kindled, and the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the LORD, and the fired died down.
Numbers 11:1 & 2
God has promised and delivered His blessings. But it was not enough.
And if I’m honest. Sometimes my flesh thinks it isn’t enough for me either.
Only a few sentences later, they are complaining again that the literal miracle of manna covering the ground every morning was not enough.
Moses hears their complaints and is so frustrated with them, he prays, “I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. If You will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in Your sight that I may not see my wretchedness.”
Numbers 11: 14 & 15
It is interesting here, that in Moses’ complaint, he seems to also forget His place before this Almighty God. God selected Moses, more meek than all the people who were on the face of the earth (Numbers 12:3) with the honor of redeeming His people, and He surely has provided the grace needed each day to lead them.
Even in a great calling, Moses forgot the strength of the One who called Him.
How many would desire God’s verbal command for their lives, and yet still grumble when the task becomes uncomfortable?
And this is where I begin to get uneasy in my reading. For I grumble far too quickly at discomfort. I’m prone to wander in my own deserts, whining whilst standing in the midst of God’s miraculous provision.
To look across the hospital room at the son God lovingly commanded me to adopt, and to cry out that the pain of his suffering is to great for me to endure.
I look at the Israelites and all I see are the same sins rooted in my own soul.
Let’s press onward.
The tribes arrive at the Promised Land and send in 12 spies to canvas the area. Only 2 trust the Lord is strong enough to give them the land. As if God parted the sea to bring them to slaughter.
Our fears are so loud and our memories so short.
The people side with the 10 doubters and God declares:
And none of those who despised Me shall see it.
Numbers 14: 23
You can almost hear the pain and anger dripping in His words. He has cradled them as children and they still do not trust. The entire generation will die away in the wilderness, before He brings their children back to take the land.
Some chapters later, the Israelites thirst for there is no water. God commands Moses to tell the rock to bring forth water before their eyes (Numbers 20:8).
Moses gathers the people, lifts his staff and strikes the rock, not once, but twice.
As God promised, water flowed abundantly (Numbers 20:11).
But with all disobedience comes a consequence. God immediately tells Moses he did not believe in Him and uphold Him as holy in the eyes of the people, he will not enter the Promised Land.
These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the LORD, and through them He showed Himself holy. Numbers 20:13
Numbers 20:13
It is important to note that God is recording these details for a reason, and He tells us why. To show that He will always prove Himself holy, regardless of our disbelief and disobedience.
When Moses’ time on earth comes to an end, God grants him one final climb up the mountain, the theme of his life, and He lets him soak in the view of this land He has spent his life in search of.
I imagine Moses leaning on his staff, his wrinkled eyes blinking away tears as they scan the horizon- a land flowing with milk and honey before him, just as God promised. Hear his sigh as He sees God has faithfully finished the journey, and the groan as he knows he will not taste its goodness.
My heart wants to find this part of the story unjust. Moses spoke with God face to face for decades. God called him friend. He carried the burdens of a grumbling people and knew the holiness of His Maker. He dishonored the Lord once.
But if I stop, and consider all of the books Moses wrote as a whole, this is no strange act on God’s part. God is a God of justice, and His holiness will not be mocked. Perhaps we find this part of the story unfair because our fear of the Lord is too small.
We all want justice until it applies to us. Then we want mercy.
Nevertheless, God did as He saw to be good. But before Moses was gathered up to his fathers, He petitions the Lord again. A true leader to the core, he asks that the Lord will “appoint a man over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the LORD may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.”
To his last breath, Moses wanted a shepherd for his people.
The God of all goodness graciously appointed Joshua to lead them. But centuries later, He recalled the prayer of His friend, Moses, and sent another Shepherd- One who would lead His people to the final Promised Land.
Numbers is a book of oddities. The earth swallows people whole, fire comes down from heaven and burns sinners to a crisp. But if you look closely, you’ll see God slowly pulling the curtain back further and further, showing us who He is.
He is a God of complete Holiness.
One sin is enough to prevent our entrance into the Promised Land.
He will not give His glory to another.
He wants to bless and dwell with His people. And He spares no detail in teaching them how to do so.
But His diety, His holiness, is so otherworldly from our own flesh, He cannot be in the presence of sin. So He goes to great lengths to provide His people with the opportunity to fellowship with Him.
The sin of man, however, is so all-consuming, the law would not suffice forever. And so to satisfy His own justice, He Himself would come to tear the veil separating us from His holiness.
Numbers is a promise that Jesus is coming.
