So You Think Sins Don’t Matter?

Introduction: Have you ever heard someone say, “Oh, sin doesn’t matter” or anything like that? There are plenty of times when, in the Bible, when it certainly did. Would you believe that only two major sins cost Israel thousands of their population? Let’s take a look.

Text: Numbers 1:44-46, KJV: 44 These are those that were numbered, which Moses and Aaron numbered, and the princes of Israel, being twelve men: each one was for the house of his fathers. 45 So were all those that were numbered of the children of Israel, by the house of their fathers, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war in Israel; 46 Even all they that were numbered were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty.

Thoughts: This was the census or total of all the men of Israel, 20 years of age and older, who were “able to go forth to war”—the men of war, in other words. Just after Israel left Egypt, the total of these men was 603, 550.

Text: Numbers 26:51, KJV: 51 These were the numbered of the children of Israel, six hundred thousand and a thousand seven hundred and thirty.

Thoughts: This second census took place at a later date; “after the plague (mentioned in Numbers 25)” according to Numbers 26:51. What has struck me as odd, for several years, is how the total population, after generations of increase, could suffer a decrease of nearly 2000 people!

What could have made this happen?

In a word, SIN.

Israel had committed any number of sins during their years after they left Egypt. One of the worst happened near the foot of Mount Sinai. Exodus 32 has the story: Moses was on the mountain, enjoying the LORD’s presence, and receiving the Ten Commandments. While he was there, the people conned Aaron into making a “golden calf” in order to worship the thing! Judgment fell, and 3000 Israelites, who had only recently before enjoyed their new freedom, died because of their sins.

And that wasn’t all. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram all united to basically protest how Moses had been appointed “leader”—but they hadn’t. The end result was that God showed the nation who He had appointed as leader and did so clearly.

The earth opened up and “swallowed” the rebels whole, and alive! The first section of Numbers 16 describes this and gives the total who died here: at least 250. Not good.

Israel still hadn’t learned to stop provoking God. The last few verses of Numbers 16 tell how, incredibly, some of the people accused Moses of killing some of “the people of the LORD”. God stepped in and sent a plague (unspecified) which took the lives of 14,700 additional people. That’s nearly 15,000 deaths in one day! Definitely not good.

Sadly, this wasn’t the last time a number of Israelites died before their time. Moving forward just a few chapters, we see in Numbers 21 that Israel grumbled “against God and against Moses (Num 21:5)” because they were tired of the manna (“light bread”, KJV). In reply, God sent fiery serpents among the people (number of these unstated) and “much people died (exact number unstated)”. God provided a remedy, when He had Moses place a “brazen serpent” on a pole so that those who looked would live. More deaths—none of them necessary.

By this time Israel seemed to have learned and followed God, but there was still one other incident where more Israelites died—needlessly. In Numbers 22-24, Moses relates the story of Balaam, a “prophet” who received an invitation from the king of Moab to curse Israel.

Balaam tried but couldn’t do it, several times, but left Balak, king of Moab, with a suggestion: if I can’t curse them, you can corrupt them (see Joshua 24:9 and Revelation 2:14). Sure enough, a number of Israelites fell for a number of Midianite and Moabite women, and fell hard. These Israelites not only commit adultery with these women but also “bowed down to their gods”.

But one of the worst things of this whole mess took place when an Israelite man brought a Midianite woman into a tent. Moses doesn’t relate what did or was about to happen but Phinehas, a son of Aaron, thrust a javelin through the bodies of both of these. The death toll of this one episode: 24,000 people in just this one day.

So when all of these are taken together, between the two summaries, censuses, or whatever the title may be, there were nearly 40,000 Israelites who didn’t have to die—but did—because of these blatant, “in Your face, God” kinds of sins. What these people could have done, and what they could have enjoyed is anybody’s guess but they lost that opportunity when they took part in these sins. Oh, yes, the commentators have any number of interpretations as to how the decrease in population took place, and they may be right, but one thing for certain: SIN.

Sin can take many things away from anybody. Don’t let any of them happen to you!

Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV).