Numbers
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Big Idea: God is shaping His people to value obedience over instant self-gratification using a 40 year road trip in the wilderness. Picking any one particular passage and trying to see the whole from it is impossible. To properly understand the book of Numbers, you must see it through the lens of the movement of the people from Mt. Sinai to the Promised Land. We see a recurrent cycle of Rebellion-Judgment-Salvation that God operates through to shape His people. We have two choices: First, we can rebel against God. God will honor our decision to make our own way but that way is hard and always leads to our judgment and death. Or, we can trust in God and find life and satisfaction. We are all on a journey and God is shaping us into people of obedience just as the Israelites. We do not have to experience the same repeated cycles of rebellion and judgment to find salvation…we have the choice to choose obedience as we trust in God as our leader.
I want to see if you guys can finish this sentence for me...
It’s not about the destination but the____________.
Here is the deal…that quote is only true if the journey is pleasant right?
Who in here has a terrible road trip story?
Tell the story of our road trip across the united states.
Why do I tell you this? When a road trip is awesome, there is nothing quite like the experience. When it is terrible, you will never forget the lessons you learned…like don’t leave your luggage unzipped in Arkansas in the middle of Brown Recluse season. Or, don’t take an entire handful of laxatives in the middle of the South Dakota Badlands dessert (that comes from part of the story that wasn’t shared).
I really like the road trip metaphor. This idea that life is a journey really conveys so much truth.
You see:
Our character, minds, bodies, and souls are shaped by an accumulation of experiences over time.
Do diet pill bit…we love the idea of something instant like that…and yet…explain long term faithfulness to diet, exercise, and rest is the real key. The accumulation of little healthy choices over a long period of time is the only real way to make lasting change.
Now, we know this truth but I just wanted to remind us of it because the book of Numbers is like the worst road trip in the history of road trips. And I don’t want to be insensitive about this next statement, but the best terrible road trips are other people’s terrible road trips because I didn’t have to live it to learn the lesson. Like, if you guys travel through the south in late spring…keep your luggage zipped up. Or, don’t take laxatives in the middle of the desert where you are an hour from the nearest restroom and be sure to check that the urgent care you are about to visit is in your insurance network…btw military folks…national park urgent cares aren’t covered by tricare…I know because we visited like three of them.
Here is the deal…I’ve always said there are two types of people…touch stove or watch someone touch stove bit...
God is using lessons learned for an entire generation of people on the worst road trip or journey ever to teach all of us some very important lessons.
Lessons like: How do we follow God when the future seems uncertain? Whose wisdom do we trust when conventional wisdom comes up short? What does it look like to live a life completely in-step with and following after God? Perhaps my favorite is this: If we aren’t leaning far enough forward that if God doesn’t show up we will fail, are we really even living in faith?
And here is the choice…you can either choose to make the same mistakes as those in the book of Numbers and experience the same judgment and consequences, or, you can learn from those.
I think these are just a few of the majorly applicable life questions that the book of Numbers addresses. But in order to see them, we have to remember something I taught you back in like week two of this series: We have to know the original intended audience or we will be prone to miss some of the beauty that Numbers is trying to communicate.
The book of Numbers was written to the Joshua generation to teach them how to trust in God and follow His leadership.
Explain who the Joshua generation is…the generation that will possess the promised land.
This generation was about to be put in a place where every single step they took was going to be life and death. They were an untrained and largely unarmed group that would have been easy pickings for even the smallest nation and yet God was bringing them into a land to fight against nations and armies much larger and more skilled in battle than them.
In chapter five of the book of Joshua, we get this story about Joshua meeting this random man the day before their first major battle in the land…explain commander of the Lords army bit...
Where do you think Josua learned this response from? I think he learned it from right here in Numbers chapter 14 verses 27-34
27 “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who are grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel, which they are making against Me.
28 “Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely do to you;
29 your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me.
30 ‘Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.
31 ‘Your children, however, whom you said would become a prey—I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected.
32 ‘But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness.
33 ‘Your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your corpses lie in the wilderness.
34 ‘According to the number of days which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your guilt a year, even forty years, and you will know My opposition.
Moses sent twelve spies into the land to check it out before they came in to take it over and the only two that came back trusting God’s plan were Joshua and Caleb…these men watched an entire generation die over the next forty years of wilderness wandering. They watched an entire generation touch the stove so that the next time Joshua runs into the commander of the Lords army his response is: As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.
The book of Numbers is written for us to take the same exact lesson from it.
Before we watch an entire nation touch the stove in the Story Overview, however, I want us to look at our study concept for the week:
Study Concepts
Study Concepts
Do different genres are read different ways bit...
The book of Numbers is primarily narrative and to properly read a piece of narrative, the story arrangement is key.
We have seen this before even just last week and it actually was an enormous key in understanding the book of Leviticus. I didn’t draw much attention to how that process works last week, I just simply showed it to you through how the book was arranged. This week, I want to dive a little deeper and give you a couple of concepts to help you see that for yourself.
Numbers isn’t just narrative, though. It falls into the sub-category of historical narrative. We have to understand that:
We typically view history from a secular or, human perspective and yet, Numbers is rooted in theological history as it views past events through God’s perspective.
READ:
Here is what I mean by this. Modern historians do not invoke the mind of God to explain the origins of the Second World War: rather they look to the economic crisis of the 1920’s or to the psychological make-up of Hitler and the social climate following the first great war.
In discussing historical events the Bible does not ignore human agency, but it is much more interested in the relationship of God to events, and in how his purposes, often declared in advance by prophets or dreams, were worked out in the life of Israel. Numbers is a prophetic or theological history in that it interprets Israel’s founding events in terms of God’s promises made to the patriarchs. It offers an explanation of Israel’s situation that is based on these events and shows through its exposition of the law how Israel must behave in the present, if she is to hold the land of Canaan promised to her ancestors.
You see, while poetry is primarily concerned with involving all of your personhood into the story (that is to say your intellect, your emotions, and your senses) narrative conveys its message primarily through details and storyline.
The problem is that details and storyline are at war with one another. Details want to draw you into the particulars of a story, while at the same time, the stories arrangement is conveying a truth on a much larger scale than any of the particular details can communicate.
END READING
To properly read narrative, we must constantly be evaluating the details of each story within the context of the overall storyline to see how they support the larger message.
That may have been confusing so let me explain. We actually have no problem doing this when it comes to modern literature. We will read a story and come to details we don’t fully understand or that even may be presented as a mystery we will just keep on reading with those details in our mind. We can do this because we understand that good writing will clear up any unclear details or mysteries in time if we just zoom out and consider them in light of the overall context that will be made clear as we read more.
Its like when you are reading a book and all of a sudden a character who you’ve not previously met just starts talking and you can tell there is a huge back story there and that they are important to the overall plot. We don’t let the unclear details of that characters origin story freeze us do we? No! We understand that we just have to zoom out, keep reading, and we will understand those details as the narrative progresses.
For some reason though, when we read biblical narrative, we have the hardest time with this. We will come to a single passage or story within a book and not understand what is going on so we stop and zoom in closer to comb through the details like a detective to see if we can get a clearer picture. Stop! Don’t do that. Rarely will we find resolution for our questions by approaching the text that way.
All of this to say, when you don’t understand something in narrative texts, in particular the book of Numbers this week, zoom out and continue reading with those details in mind. Don’t lose sight of them. Don’t lose focus on the overarching story because you get tripped up in the details. But at the same time, don’t abandon the details because they are the key to understanding the theological truth within the overarching story.
Clear as mud?
I think the best way to show you what I mean is for us to just dive into the text for this week in our:
Story Overview
Story Overview
In English, we call the fourth book in the Torah Numbers because of the two census’ that act as book-ends at the front and back of the story. This is a real shame because I think that many people avoid the book of Numbers simply because of it’s name. In the past few weeks alone, I have had three different conversations where people said that exact thing to me in fact.
In the Hebrew Bible Number is called Bamidvar (במדבר) which means: “In the Wilderness.”
Personally, I think that is a much more rad name and it drives at the heart of what Numbers is actually all about. If you avoid Numbers because you are afraid of all the different census’ then you will actually miss what is one of the wildest roller-coaster rides in the entire Bible.
The Numbers narrative is recounting Israel’s journey from Mount Sinai to the Promised land.
The book is arranged like this:
INSERT PICTURE ONE HERE
Explain that picture…
Now, if you picture that chart like the vehicle that moves the storyline along, then here are the wheels that the vehicle sits on:
INSERT PICTURE TWO HERE
The book of Numbers should be seen through the recurring cycle of Rebellion, Judgment, and Salvation.
The road trip from Mount Sinai to Canaan should have only taken about two weeks, and yet the journey takes them 40 years. They shouldn’t have lost a single person along that journey and yet an entire generation dies out. Why? Its the recurring cycle of Rebellion, Judgment, and Salvation. It not only shape the way we read the book, but is the key to understanding the theological truth that impacts our life today. Do hotwheels bit...
Let’s look at an example from something we’ve already talked about:
2 All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!
3 “Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?”
4 So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”
Did you catch the rebellion? God had told them He would fight for them and lead them successfully into the Promised land and yet they hear the report from the spies and are immediately ready to go back to Egypt. It’s not too late. Maybe they will overlook the fact that we killed Pharoah and the entire army and take us back as slaves.
Rebellion just doesn’t even really capture the true essence of it. Ya’ll it was an all out mutiny…you catch that in verse four? They were ready to throw Moses out and elect a coward to lead them back to Egypt.
So what does God do?
20 So the Lord said, “I have pardoned them according to your word;
21 but indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.
22 “Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice,
23 shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurned Me see it.
God is about to unfold an act that is both Judgment and Salvation simultaneously.
28 “Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely do to you;
29 your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me.
30 ‘Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.
31 ‘Your children, however, whom you said would become a prey—I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected.
32 ‘But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness.
33 ‘Your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your corpses lie in the wilderness.
34 ‘According to the number of days which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your guilt a year, even forty years, and you will know My opposition.
God is carrying out an act of judgment against the Israelites because they failed to trust Him and follow Him into the land He had promised them. Don’t miss this though, God was judging them by honoring their decision. Here is a very practical point to take away from this:
God will honor your decision rebel against Him. This, in itself is its own judgment because true life is only found in Him.
You can waste your entire life in rebellion against God’s law and He will allow you the freedom of choice to do that. He forces no one to follow Him. Now, you may be thinking what choice did they have? Didn’t God sort of put a gun to their heads? Like, if you don’t follow me, your only other option is to go back to Egypt and die at the hands of Pharoah or wander the wilderness until you die there?
It is for this very argument that I chose this example. The answer is no! God didn’t have a gun to their head. They were just under the same delusion that we fall victim to. We think that we can do better. We think that we can find life and satisfaction apart from God’s design and law.
We think we know better for our morals, our marriage, our finances, our furutre, our sexuality, our business ethics, our relationships, or fill in the blank. Here’s the deal: God will totally honor your choice in all of those. You are completely free to run your life however you want to.
The deep truth this story is conveying though is that if we believe that, we’ve believed a lie. There is no true life or satisfaction to be found in any of those areas as long as we are in rebellion to God. Don’t read God’s judgment and anger against the Israelites as rage and spiteful vengeance.
God is frustrated because He knows the amazing plans and wonderful blessing that awaits them if they follow Him and yet they’ve chosen a slow death in the wilderness because they think they know better.
And yet, we still see God’s mercy and grace extended to those who did choose to follow him. Caleb and Joshua will get the chance to enter into the promised land because they did trust God. And here is how the story impacts us: There is an entire generation that is too young to make that decision that is just watching it all happen. They are learning the lesson that the stove is hot…said another way…that there is no life and promised land apart from trusting God.
They will get a chance to make that decision of trusting God and his plan and law for themselves one day. What do you think they choose? Yeah you guessed it…with just a few exceptions, they are hands down, the most faithful generation that will ever exist in Israel. We are meant to see this story the same way and learn from the pattern of Rebellion, Judgment, and Salvation.
There is more to the book of Numbers than just this one story though, so let’s quickly run through the rest of the story overview and then we’ll close it out with an amazing picture of Christ and the Gospel.
Chapters 1-10 detail the census of Israel, an assortment of laws for living in the promised land, and their marching instructions.
Chapters one through nine really break this whole process down so tediously that you don’t really see what’s happening until the plan goes into motion. It’s like what I was saying…you read a bunch about all these different armies and their arrangement around the Tent of Meeting and can easily bet bogged down in the details. Like, who cares that the tribe of Gershon and Merari are to walk first in line before the Kohathites.
Keep reading to chapter ten and it all begins to make sense.
11 Now in the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth of the month, the cloud was lifted from over the tabernacle of the testimony;
12 and the sons of Israel set out on their journeys from the wilderness of Sinai. Then the cloud settled down in the wilderness of Paran.
13 So they moved out for the first time according to the commandment of the Lord through Moses.
14 The standard of the camp of the sons of Judah, according to their armies, set out first, with Nahshon the son of Amminadab, over its army,
Then we get a list of some other tribes that traveled next, then we get this:
17 Then the tabernacle was taken down; and the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari, who were carrying the tabernacle, set out.
Then the travel log finishes with a few more tribes in the rear guard position and the details of their journey end this way:
33 Thus they set out from the mount of the Lord three days’ journey, with the ark of the covenant of the Lord journeying in front of them for the three days, to seek out a resting place for them.
34 The cloud of the Lord was over them by day when they set out from the camp.
35 Then it came about when the ark set out that Moses said, “Rise up, O Lord! And let Your enemies be scattered, And let those who hate You flee before You.”
36 When it came to rest, he said, “Return, O Lord, To the myriad thousands of Israel.”
Let me show you a picture that will help you get what’s going on in this first section:
SHOW PICTURE OF THE CAMP
The idea being conveyed through their camp setup is that God is equally close and at the center of their entire lives.
And when they march out, here is what that looks like:
SHOW PICTURE OF MARCHING ORDER
Explain God going before them. God was giving them a very visible picture of how He is constantly going before them and will lead them to where they will go if they will just follow after him. Couple of other practical things to take from this setup.
Did you notice who is leading the pack? It’s Judah. Conventional wisdom of the day would say that the eldest tribe of Reuben should be leading. God is giving them a picture of their leadership. Judah is the tribe of the kings. Judah is the tribe that our ultimate leader Jesus would come from too.
Gershom and Merari go before the Kohathites. That is so they could go ahead and get the Tabernacle set up at their destination before all of the holy objects of worship could just be brought directly in out of view of the people and avoid becoming ceremonially unclean.
Chapters 10-12 detail the journey to the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh and show the multiple rebellions of the people on their journey.
After two years camped at Mount Sinai, the people set out and three days later this happens.
4 The rabble who were among them had greedy desires; and also the sons of Israel wept again and said, “Who will give us meat to eat?
5 “We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic,
6 but now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna.”
This kicks off a cycle of three different rebellions. One between the people and God over meat. One between Moses having to lead the people. Ya’ll, leading people is a tough job. At one point in this chapter Moses is so fed up with them he actually asks God to just kill him. Finally, there is a rebellion of the leadership (Aaron and Miriam the brother and sister of Moses) against Moses.
God is conditioning the Exodus Generation to trust in Him through these trials.
God is conditioning the people to trust him for their provision. God is conditioning Moses to trust Him to bear the burden of leadership because Moses’ journey wit this people has only just begun and he doesn’t know that yet. God is conditioning the leaders of Israel to trust Moses as God’s representative. Although all of these trials and rebellions could have been avoided, God was still using even their rebellion to forge a faithful people.
I often times see people in moments of crisis. It is hard to convince someone in the flames of crisis that God can still be, and is often most effective, at shaping our character in and through crisis. Its like the fires of a crucible. Forging something valuable is hot and violent work. Without that violent process, however, we wouldn’t get the valuable thing that comes out the other side of it.
Numbers chapters 13-19 record the rebellion of Israel that caused them to wander the wilderness for 40 years and the death of an entire generation.
We have already touched on the main message of this section, that God will honor our decision to reject him and to waste our entire lives going another way. We also get Korah’s rebellion in this section. There is a large group of people that are understandably quite upset with God’s judgment against them and rebel against Moses and God intervenes and opens the ground up in an earthquake and swallows them whole.
Then something neat happens. We get this large section where Moses begins restating and even adding on to many of the laws already given. He is telling them how to live faithfully in the land of promise. Who is he talking to? Think of this section like children’s church. God is speaking to the Joshua generation preparing them to enter into the land.
There is no moment in the story that says, and then 40 years passed. The story just assumes that it has taken places and shifts the focus to this new generation and their journey towards the Promised land. That’s when the next travel section begins.
Chapters 20 and 21 tell about the move out of the wilderness of Paran to the border of Canaan at the plains of Moab.
There is another set of rebellions but this time it is with the new generation. They still have to learn these lessons for themselves. You are left with the question at the end of this travel section of whether or not this generation will make the same mistakes as the last and get sent into the wilderness for another 40 years.
The final section in 22-36 detail the arrival at the border of the Promised land and Moses’ final instructions to the people before entering.
In this section, Moses begins a list of instructions that will be continued for the entire next book of Deuteronomy and is about how they are to remain faithful to the God who brought them into the promised land.
So, that’s the story overview in a nutshell.
Let’s close it out with an amazing picture of Christ in the book of Numbers.
Pictures of Christ & The Gospel
Pictures of Christ & The Gospel
5 The people spoke against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food.”
6 The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.
7 So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and you; intercede with the Lord, that He may remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people.
8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.”
9 And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.
10 Now the sons of Israel moved out and camped in Oboth.
Alright, so as I read that story, hopefully you kept in mind this cycle of Rebellion, Judgment, and Salvation that we’ve been talking about. Did you catch the different aspects of it?
Once again, the people were ready to rebel against God because they were tired of the food and the lack of water. God sends these venomous snakes into the camp and killed a lot of people. Ya’ll God is reaching back to Genesis three imagery here.
Such as to say, you have bought the lie of the serpent that you can rebel against Gods provision and define good and evil for yourself. It is the lie of the serpent that led to the death of every human since Adam and Eve. God has concentrated this truth in a deadly and painful object lesson for the people.
God could have made Moses put anything up on that pole. Honestly if it were me, I think I would have put a lamb up on it. That imagery seems to make more sense. Actually though, I think the image of the serpent is perfect and here’s why.
In that moment, the serpent on the pole was a visible symbol of the consequences of their sin and rebellion. Their recognition of the consequences of their sin and Gods ability to deliver them from it was what saved them.
Here is how that relates to Jesus.
In John chapter three, Jesus is having a conversation with a man named Nicodemus. Jesus is trying to tell him why He came into the world. Nicodemus is an educated man and should have understood the deeper spiritual realities that Jesus was speaking of. When he obviously isn’t getting it, Jesus re-adjusts his tactic and gives him an example from a story Nicodemus knows quite well. Look what he says:
9 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?”
10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?
11 “Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony.
12 “If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
13 “No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.
14 “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up;
15 so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
18 “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Here is what Jesus is saying:
READ VERY VERY SLOWLY
There is coming a moment in my ministry when I will be lifted up on a pole just like that fiery serpent. In that moment I will be representing the accumulated collection of mankind's rebellion against God. In that moment I will also be representing the judgment due mankind because of their rebellion. It is to that moment that you must look and see the consequences of your rebellion and sin because in that moment I will be absorbing the judgment that you could never pay for as I offer salvation to all who will believe in me.
Jesus is pictured in the fiery serpent on a pole as the one who took our rebellion, endured the judgment on our behalf, and offered salvation to anyone who would look to him and believe.
Here is the deal. We aren’t Israelites thirsting for water. We aren’t ready to stone our leader and go back to Egypt. At least not physically…at least I hope not.
No, our thirsts are much more subtle and sophisticated. I want to define what is good for my own morals, marriage, relationships, generosity, love for others, work, rest, and a thousand other areas. It isn’t just these individual areas. We do this on the whole scale of our life too. I know best for me and my life. I can run my life better than anyone else.
God will honor your decision to do that....just know that the book of Numbers is saying that you won’t find the life and fulfillment you think you are going to find at the end of that road. Only as we trust God in our whole life as Lord and in every single area will we find true life.
And perhaps you are in this moment right now where there doesn’t seem to be any water. Perhaps the future is uncertain or perhaps you are going through some fiery trials. The good news from the book of Numbers is that these are the things that God often uses to shape us into the type of people who can trust in him and find life. He didn’t necessarily bring that hard thing but the good news of today’s lesson is that He can definitely use it in the accumulation on your road trip of life to point your eyes towards Him and towards life.
So that’s the book of Numbers. Let’s pray.