Skip to main content

Numbers, Faithfulness of God

The Israelites have been freed from slavery. They have been rescued from the hand of Egypt. God has given them his Law and has pitched his tent among them. They have a righteous leader in Moses who continually points them to God. They are now ready to enter the Promised Land. Nothing could possibly go wrong, right?

Well, the Israelites manage to mess it all up. Repeatedly. Welcome to the book of Numbers.

Background

The book of Numbers was written, once again, by Moses. It was probably written as the Israelites wandered for forty years and when they camped at Shittim near the end of Moses' life. It records the journey from Mt. Sinai to the banks of the Jordan River; the border of the Promised Land. 

This book gets its name from two censuses that occur within it; one at the beginning and one at the end. Since God commands a count of the people two times, it is called Numbers. As with the last three books this is the Greek name for the book. In Hebrew the name comes from the first words of the text. The Hebrew name for Numbers is "In the Wilderness." More fitting than the Greek name, if I do say so myself.

Themes

WHINING!

The Israelites constantly whine throughout this book. It seems that at every turn they don't have enough food or water and want to go back to being slaves in Egypt. They try to rebel, refuse to enter the Promised Land, and challenge Moses' authority repeatedly.

Another big theme here that started in Exodus and was continued through Leviticus is God's use of Moses as his spokesman. God has only ever spoken to the entire nation once. The rest of the time he has spoken through Moses. In many ways Moses is the first prophet to Israel; he serves as the model of all those to come (including Jesus, in many respects). 

Also continuing from previous books is the theme of God's holiness (though you could accurately say that is a theme of the whole Bible). Here we see what will become the centuries long struggle between Israel and the holy God who lives among them. Israel constantly falls away and God constantly brings them back.

The last big theme in Numbers is another theme that runs throughout all of Scripture; the faithfulness of God. No matter how much Israel whines and complains, no matter how far away they fall, God remains faithful to them. Israel breaks the covenant repeatedly, but God never wavers. Even when, by the terms of the covenant, he has every right to back out God stays true.

Theological Point

God is faithful. He never abandons his people, even when his people have abandoned him. When reading Numbers a lot of times we focus on the whining and complaining. We find it shocking that even after all they have seen God do in front of them the people of Israel still don't obey. What is even more shocking is that God stays with them!

God had every right to destroy this fledgling nation. He had every right to abandon them, but he didn't. God, remembering his promise to Abraham, stayed true to Israel. He guided Israel every step of the way. 

Reading about the Israelites reminds me of me. How much has God done for me? How has my life been blessed and transformed by his divine hand? Yet how often do I whine and complain and rebel against God? Still God is faithful. The Holy Spirit is with us through every challenge, every good and bad day.

Conclusion

The book of Numbers is an excellent example of God's faithfulness. Israel deserved nothing from God. It was nothing that they did that caused God to remain with them. God stayed true to Israel because that is who he is. God is faithful.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We Need More Images

What is your favorite way to describe God? Is there a particular name of God in scripture that you are drawn to? What images and pictures come to mind when you think of God? These are questions I don't think we ask often enough. We all have an image of God in our heads that we work with. It may not be a literal picture, though it might be, but ideas and concepts we tend to associate with who God is. Some of those images and associations may come from the Bible, but some may not. These things are influenced by our upbringing, Bible reading habits, personalities, relationships, culture, and more. The way we picture God has a dramatic impact on the way we live our lives. For example, if the primary idea you have of God is "Healer," when you hear or read that you are made in God's image you will likely feel called to heal, be it physical ailments or spiritual wounds. But, if your primary image of God is "Judge," that changes things. You very likely might tend to...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thankful

Today is Thanksgiving, the day that we are supposed to celebrate all the things we are thankful for. It is a time of family reunions, football, and turkey eating. I sincerely pray that each and every one of you has a good day today. I'll admit that being thankful has not been easy for me this year. As pretty much all of you know, my mother passed away December of last year. Though she had been in the hospital for months, we were not expecting it. In fact I was sure she would be finally able to come home within a matter of weeks. Instead she peacefully passed on into the arms of Jesus, whom she loved more dearly than anyone else. As you can imagine, the entire family was heart broken. After what can easily be described as the worst Christmas ever, I returned to home to Illinois. It was here that I finally broke down. I spent the next months doing everything except being thankful. I cursed God, wept, screamed, begged to have her back, and was generally not the nicest person to be...
3 comments
Read more

The Early Middle Ages: Historical Friday

The next segment of history that we are going to overview is the Early Middle Ages. This dates roughly from AD 450 to AD 1100. This is intended to be a very general overview. There are probably historians that would classify some other time period as the "Early Middle Ages" or a more specific time period. For our purposes this will cover the aforementioned time period. This was a very influential period in the history of Christianity. It saw the formation of what we now call the Roman Catholic Church and its separation from what we would now call the Eastern Orthodox Church. Before this time there was only ONE church. There weren't different denominations or groups. It is hard for us to think about in our modern context, but there was a time when Christianity was visibly unified. Brief History The first major thing to happen during this time period is the remaining three ecumenical councils. We discussed the first four several weeks ago. These councils discussed va...
Post a Comment
Read more