The reason we humans struggle with everyday occurrences, be it a loss of a job, economic woes or failing health, is because there is a battle raging for the control of our hearts and minds. Scripture exposes what lies beyond our senses; * how we live demonstrates the existence of two powers, good and evil. We make this distinction. The entire world understands this. The Bible opens the door for us to see why negative things happen to us and why we respond to them the way we do whether by faith or self-effort. Numbers is a Book dedicated to see behind the curtain the ever-present dangers the power of evil perpetrates on the world, especially on believers. For the sake of eternal realities, ministers must not fail to speak the truth of God’s Word in ways that shows how we can be set free and be at peace within ourselves. Peace is a welcomed commodity in this world. It’s what we want but many don’t have.
If ministry has a different agenda than to expound on these occurrences, the Church will find herself drifting from the power of God who grants us stability in this world. As recent times show us, some ministries resemble a money-making business than proclaiming the gospel. As a result, frauds have entered the Christian arena and are substituting the gospel for emotional fun times. And they remind me of the story of the Pied Piper, who came to town while the parents were in church and lured the children away by his fancy dress and magical pipe. He got their attention with the colorful sight of his dress and his music that appealed to the senses. Sights and sounds have become alluring to the Church at large. The book of Numbers is an attempt to understand what is behind such changing moods and how we might see through these tricks of the enemy. I am certainly not against praising and worshiping God, but I am against anything, which tries to pass itself off as worshiping God when, in reality it leads us further from Him.
The Bible is not just a religious Book demanding and commands our attention. It’s an incredible journey through life. It’s a story of a world alienated itself from her Creator. There are principles speaking to us in ways that if we look at the heart and meaning of spiritual life, these principles are outlined for us. They run throughout the OT. The First principle is obvious; you read it in the opening pages of Genesis; God IS! Not only that He exists but a God who loves to create for the benefit of His creation.
All though the O.T. you see who and what He is. I find the exuberance of God in Genesis, “Hello. I am God, and the One who made you. I want to tell you how this all started, how you came to live on earth with everything provided for your existence. I want to tell you why you go through difficult times. In your present state, these things will continue. However, it will come to an end. I have something of eternal value to say to you. Even so, before I can give it, I must tell you the Price I have to pay to give you a life of absolute bliss beyond what your senses tell you.” 1 Cor 2:9: “But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." This is the first thing, God IS!
The Second thing following in the order of revelation is God is to be worshiped. We have the history of our existence. He made us to enjoy Him, but we can only live with the Creator if we allow Him to be the Source of our life. This is what we find throughout Scripture. God does not enjoin our worship of Him because He has an ego. He calls us to worship Him, so we might not go after false ideas about who we are and where we came from which will ultimately bring separation between us and Him. To worship Him in spirit and truth is to keep us safe. We are created in a system of law. Things in our world work in very distinct ways. If we violate these laws, we suffer. To obey them is to live in harmony with our creation. Worship is built into us. We have a need to worship. It’s the law of our humanity.
The Third principle continually rings authentic through the Old Testament is where there is the failure to worship the real and living God disobedience replaces His life in us. All kinds of evil come from this. Then judgment follows. God will not continue to allow His world to be polluted by every wrong imaginable. And we know that evil comes from a spirit source other than God. This had no place in the beginning of our world, and God will be certain to snuff the evil out on Judgment Day. Not as a vindictive act, but as an act of mercy and justice on His part so the universe will again continue in peace and harmony.
The Fourth great truth in Scripture is--death must take place as a result of separation from God, or what we call sin. If God is going to save His world from evil living, He either has to destroy it, or He must pay the penalty for disobedience. He made the rules and the laws which operate our universe. No one but Him is capable of paying the price for His broken law. The only way to save His world and be true to Himself is to become a Human and die in our place. The word sacrifice describes this very act on His part.
Sacrifice is our way to God. Not our sacrifice, but His. He gives the Hebrew nation a visual picture of His Sacrifice through the Temple system. He gives us signs and clues on how we will recognize Him when He enters our world as a babe in Bethlehem. This will bring us back into harmony with Him. This is the theme of the OT. When Jesus enters our world, He tells the religious Hebrew leaders it is the OT that testifies to Him. On the road to Emmaus Jesus opened up the Old Testament and talked with two disciples and told them He is the One the Law and the prophets spoke about.
And the Fifth and final truth of the Old and New Testament teaching is the Messiah will one day set up His kingdom on this earth in a Holy City called the New Jerusalem. The redeemed will worship God and occupy the world in its perfection and beauty. It is not difficult to see this outline in Scripture. Everything ordained by God to bring us back into a relationship with Him is found in these five elements. You will never hear me say one of the reasons we should follow God is because we should fear the punishment the disobedient will suffer. Wrong! The reason we should follow God is because He has revealed Himself to us, we have seen Him in Christ, and we delight in the knowledge of a wonderful and gracious God created us and came to die our death, so we could live His life forever.
Let’s begin to look at this recurring theme in Numbers. I want you to get a good grasp of these principles so your walk with God through life grows stronger with every passing day, no matter what you go through. Num 1:1-4:
“Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying: 2 "Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, every male individually, 3 from twenty years old and above — all who are able to go to war in Israel. You and Aaron shall number them by their armies. 4 And with you there shall be a man from every tribe, each one the head of his father's house.”
Invariable when I mention the Book of Numbers to someone I get a “What’s it all about?” response. It is the same with Hebrews we recently completed. And just like Hebrews, we will find some great road signs into understanding a little more what God wants us to know about Him. Some of these road signs have funny sounding names. With a little work, we will see that there is great meaning behind them for us as well as for them. One of the key ideas to keep in mind when reading the OT is found in 1 Cor 10:1-5:
“Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, 2 all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. 5 But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.”
The original name given to this book is not Numbers. Numbers is the name generally given because of the numbering of the clans of Israel. However, the Hebrews called this book, “Bemidbar," which means “in the desert.” And the “in the desert” or “in the wilderness,” events covered a period of 38 years. The desert wanderings begin at Mt Sinai and end on the border of the Promised Land of Canaan. Here was a nation God wanted to redeem and all they continued to do was to rebel against Him repeatedly. In these scenes of sacred history, we read the record of the Church.
Notice how 1 Cor 1:11 sums up the wilderness experience. “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition (caution or warning), upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” This latest phrase refers to the last generation of believers. So don’t be like them, going back and forth between believing and not believing in God as they did in the wilderness.
In the opening verses of Numbers, we find the first recorded genealogy in history. During the nineteenth century in the United States, genealogy became associated with membership, in particular, lineage societies. Only those who could prove they were descended from a particular group of people (e.g., Mayflower passengers, participants in the American Revolution) were eligible for membership in specialized societies. By the late twentieth century, many states and local genealogical societies were established where extensive library collections were made available to anyone who wished to research family trees.
Numbers is quite unique in this. If you are like most people reading the Bible, you probably don’t spend much time in reading lengthy genealogies. The value of having them ties the history of Israel and Church together. The exact numbering of family trees in this book can be followed from the time of Christ back to this first chapter. In Matt 1:4 the name of Nahshon appears in the ancestry of Christ. In Num 1:7, we find the name of Nahshon, who was of the tribe of Judah. Critics delight themselves with saying with a population of around 2 million people. It would not be possible for people to exist in such a desert with no apparent supply of food to keep them alive.
However, when statistical experts examine the genealogy and their numbers, the experts say these genealogies have a tone of reality that cannot be denied. God’s people are numbered. 2 Tim 2:19, “The Lord knows those who are His.” In Num 16, a spiritual battle is seen between God’s chosen leaders and some who wanted to oust those leaders and put themselves in positions of authority. When this came to the ears of Moses, he was disturbed because these men who were clamoring for a position. They were not challenging Moses; they were challenging God’s choice. Num 16:4-5, “4 so when Moses heard it, he fell on his face; 5 and he spoke to Korah and all his company, saying, "Tomorrow morning the Lord will show who is His and who is holy, and will cause him to come near to Him. That one whom He chooses He will cause to come near to Him.”
In the Book of Acts, when Paul was converted to Christianity by Christ Himself, Jesus sent Paul to Ananias, a disciple of Christ. Here is what Jesus said to Paul, Acts 9:11-12, “So the Lord said to him, "Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying. 12 and in a vision, he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight." It should be abundantly clear to all believers we are called and chosen by God and are as surely known to Him by name as those in the genealogy here in Numbers. And we must not forget that our value to God is recorded in the NT when Jesus said in Matt 10:30, “The very hairs of your head are all numbered,” and this from the very God who commanded Moses to number the tribes of Israel.
With this book, like Israel in its last chapter you and I stand on the banks of entering the Promise Land. God knew then as He knows now, all those who will enter the Heavenly Canaan. And remember this; the saints of the last generation are not entering eternity with God because we have arrived at perfection. As He told Moses in Deut 9:5-6
“5 it is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6 Therefore, understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.”
For the Joshua’s’ and Caleb’s among us, we are called by God to be diligent in our spiritual affairs with Him. Never doubt what God can use us for in this time of history. Some of the greatest heroes for God will remain obscure until the day when they are numbered in the Kingdom. Here’s an example. Rev 2:12-13
12 "And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, 'These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword: 13 "I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.’” We have no real knowledge of this person. There isn’t even a legend or story about him. Even so, in Rev 2:13 Christ calls him “My faithful martyr.”
This is a book for our times. It is all too obvious people who profess to believe in God today jump between the two extremes between believing and not believing or just plain indifference to God because the world seems to hold out something worth holding onto over what God promises to the faithful. Keep in mind as the Book of Revelation Jesus calls the last generation Church for its carelessness in being lukewarm, or indifferent towards enlarging the kingdom of God on earth, which is the Church.
In Numbers, we will explore the tactics used by Satan to keep us distracted from our mission of proclaiming the gospel where we live. Remember although there were many who did not turn their backs on God; they were still nonetheless, careless in relation to God. However, within the history of God’s people, in Old and New Testament there were the faithful ones and steadfast churches. We can be numbered with the faithful ones if we so choose. By God’s grace, we here today can rewrite the history of where we live and worship. And it can happen in unusual ways!
