February 12 - Numbers

Pastor considers the Book of Numbers to be one the more important books of the Bible. The Book of Numbers is the story of the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness starting 13 months after their deliverance and shares the importance of following God. 

The book opens with God having Moses take a census. And we see that the group was as many as 2 million total. The numbers show the incredible provision of God to guide, direct and feed this many people. God even provided the first “fast food” by providing manna for them to eat. We also see the hand of God teaching the Israelites to do things in His strength, to go where He leads, to go when He says to go and to go where He tells you to go.   God is into details and this book is a carefully and accurately kept book of numbers!

Chapter 1-10 are about the first 20 days beginning at the 13 month after deliverance from Egypt. God organizes them as they prepare to set out for the promised land. He goes into detail about how each tribe is situated, who goes first, how to lead, how to mark the tribes and which tribes go where with lots of details.

Pastor shares the location of the Levites around the Tabernacle which was located in a position of being in the middle of everything. God dwelling right in the heart and center of His people. Pastor then follows up with the locations of each tribe. They are clustered into 4 groups with 3 tribes/each group and placed around the 4 locations of the Levitical groups. There is significance to Judah - the tribe from which Jesus will come - being positioned in the east and given the lead position. 

We are told each group had a specific flag for their group. Pastor shares what the image on each group’s flag was according to ancient Hebrew tradition. Pastor draws some significance of the flags to Ezekiel chapter 1 and Revelation 4 and the living creatures described there. (Lion, Man, Ox and Eagle.)

God’s visible presence came down on the tabernacle as a cloud and by night was like a firelight. As it was in the center of the camp, all 2 million Israelites would see a visible sign of the presence of the Living God right before them. It was God’s way of saying, “I am dwelling in your midst. You belong to me. You are precious to me. Follow me, go where I lead, don’t do anything other than what I tell you to do and when I tell you to do it.”  When did they brake camp? They did so if the cloud lifted and they followed wherever the cloud lead them and when the cloud came down that’s where they camped until the cloud again rose.
  
Number 9:12 discusses the celebration of the Passover and compares it to John 19:36 and not breaking the sacrificial lamb’s bones where we read that like the Israelite lambs of Passover, not one of Jesus’ bones as the Lamb of God were broken.

Twelve spies are sent into the promised land. When they return they say the land does flow with milk and honey, BUT the people there are powerful. Caleb advised to go and attack and take the land, but the other spies said it would be impossible because the people there were stronger. Even though Caleb and Joshua said God is faithful and would give them the land He had promised, the Israelites side with the negative accounts of 10 and say they would have been better off in Egypt. At this point God says that the spies spied for 40 days and that the people will wander one year for each day. Joshua and Caleb are the only two spies that live through the years of wandering in the dessert. 

The rest of the book of numbers is about the refining and purifying that God brought the Israelites through in preparation to enter the promised land. We see Moses, God’s chosen, lead the people. Moses has authority but God is directing and leading. We see “The LORD said to Moses…” over 150 times throughout the book of Numbers.

We close with the story of the bronze snake and how the people were instructed to look to the bronze snake on the cross to be saved from the venomous bites and we see how this points to Christ - John 3:14-16 “‘Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.’ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Throughout the book we learn how important it is to do what God says, to obey Him, and to honor Him. God wants to be treated as holy because He is holy.

 
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