AM Bible Study Group; February 17, 2010

Numbers, introduction

Theme: An introduction of the book of Numbers.

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This morning, we begin a study of the Old Testament book of Numbers. It’ll help us if we see how Numbers fits-in with the rest of the five books in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible, given to us by God through Moses):

— The book of Genesis tells us the story of God’s creative work; and tells us the beginnings of His covenant people Israel through whom the promise at the beginning of Genesis, of the Seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15), would be provided. It also tells us of God’s promise to Abraham of a land that He would give to His descendants (Genesis 12:1-3). It takes us up to the time of the beginning of the Jewish people’s stay in Egypt.

— The book of Exodus tells us the story of the delivery of Israel from their bondage in Egypt, and the covenant God enters into with them at Sinai. It tells us of the giving of God’s law; and concludes with the building of the tabernacle and the beginning of the priestly service of the tribe of Levi.

— The book of Leviticus is contemporary with the book of Exodus. It has very little history in it. It’s main focus is to give the details of the ceremonial law God had given them; and of how God sanctified His people to Himself.

— The book of Numbers resumes the history of Israel after the details of Leviticus. The story from the time that God gave the law to the people of Israel to the beginning of the book of Numbers is only around 15 months. But the book of Numbers covers a time frame of over thirty-eight years. It tells the story of the people’s departure from Sinai unto the promised land. But it also tells us of the unfaithfulness of the people along the way, and of their failure to enter the land God promised them. Very little is told to us about the long wandering of the people in the wilderness. The book closes with the story of the next generation of the people of Israel about to enter the promised land.

— The book of Deuteronomy tells the story of God’s renewal of the covenant with that second generation, and of His words of instruction to them as they are about to conquer the land that their fathers failed to receive.

The book of Numbers, then, is a book that is mainly about the faithfulness of God in the light of the unfaithfulness of His people. Though they failed to keep the commands He gave them, He nevertheless kept His promises to them.

The Hebrew title of the book (Bemidbar) was taken from the first few words in 1:1—"In the wilderness". But the reason we know it as Numbers is because that was the title given to it from the Greek translation of the Old Testament. It is called Numbers, because its main division concerns the first numbering (or census) of the people in chapter 1, and the next numbering of the next generation in chapter 26. The book of Numbers is truly filled with numerical statistics.

This is an important book for we who follow Jesus as ‘pilgrims’ and ‘strangers’ in this world. There are many spiritual lessons that the New Testament draws our attention to from this book (see Romans 15:4, 1 Corinthians 10:1-11; Hebrews 11:13; 1 Peter 2:11).

A good way to outline this book is through the phases of the advancement of the people to the promised land:

I. THE FIRST GENERATION’S PROGRESS TO THE PROMISED LAND (1-10).

A. Organization of the tribes (1-4).

B. Sanctification of the people (5-8).

C. Forward-march (9-10).

II. THE PROGRESS HALTED AND THE WANDERING BEGAN (11-25).

A. Complaints and murmurings along the way (11-12).

B. Disobedience and loss of opportunity (13-14).

C. Rebellions and death (15-21).

D. Curses from a pagan soothsayer turned to blessings (22-25).

III. THE SECOND GENERATION’S RESUMPTION OF THE PROGRESS (26-36).

A. New numbers for a new generation (26)

B. Various laws and instructions (27-30).

C. Vengeance on the Mideanites (31).

D. Eastern tribes settled (32).

E. Records and borders (33-36).

The key verse of the book is 33:1; "These are the journeys of the children of Israel, who went out of the land of Egypt by their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron." But a good verse to emphasize the spiritual lesson we should draw from it would be Numbers 14:9, "Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them."