"Now these things happened to them (the children of Israel) as an example and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come!" (I Corinthians 10:11)
The book of Numbers begins with these words: "Then the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first of the second month in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 'Take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, by their families, by their fathers' households, according to the number of names, every male, head by head from twenty years old and upward, whoever is able to go out to war in Israel..."
Notice that the Lord God Almighty, the God of all creation, spoke to Moses many years ago in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting (otherwise known as the tabernacle, or sanctuary)--14 months after the children of Israel had made their exodus from Egypt! And called for a census to be taken of all the sons of Israel 20 years and older, in preparation for war as they would move from Sinai to Kadesh-barneo, to the plains of Moab to the Jordan River, opposite the city of Jericho and eventually enter the "promised land"!
And in the verses to follow, God names, and designates, a man from each of the tribes, except for the tribe of Levi, to assist Moses and Aaron in numbering the men! (The men from the tribe of Levi had responsibility, as noted in verses 44-53, for setting up, and carrying, and caring for the tent of meeting and all its furnishings, and so were excluded from being numbered and going to war!) And so the total number of men who would be able to go out to war totaled 603,550--allowing, MacArthur notes, for a total population of about 2 million people who left Egypt and came to Sinai! This in contrast with "the 70 in number," which Exodus 1:5 says first came from the loins of Jacob into Egypt! (Exodus 1:7 says, "But the sons of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly, and multiplied, and became exceedingly mighty, so that the land was filled with them!)
As we noted last week, the book of Numbers must be seen and studied in context with the larger story given in the five books of the Pentateuch, beginning in Genesis 17:7-8, where God called Abraham at the ripe old age of 99 and made a covenant with him (the "Abrahamic covenant")--promising to be a God to him and his descendants, miraculously giving him a son (Issac) through his 90-year old wife Sarah. Then Jacob, who was renamed Israel, and had 12 sons who would become known as "the children of Israel," all of whom ended up in Egypt, after a famine struck their land, where the betrayed brother Joseph had risen (by God's grace) to become ruler and saw to it that they would prosper in the land of Goshen!
You know the rest of the story--how after Joseph died and (Exodus 1:6 says) "a new king arose in Egypt who did not know Joseph," the children of Israel ended up spending 430 years as aliens in bondage! Exodus 2:23 says, "then the sons of Israel cried out to God...and God heard their groanings and remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob...and called Moses "in the midst of a burning bush" to stand before Pharaoh and tell him that the Lord, the God of Israel, said (in Exodus 5:1) for him to "Let My people go!" And after all the plagues were poured out on Egypt, and the night of the Passover, when "the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, beginning with the firstborn of Pharoah," the children of Israel were told to "rise up and get out" of Egypt! And thus the beginning of the exodus!
Exodus 13:9 says, "the powerful hand of the Lord used Moses to bring them out of Egypt"! And Exodus 19:1 says that "in the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt...they came into the wilderness of Sinai..and verse 20 says, "the Lord came down on Mount Sinai and spoke to Moses" and gave him the ten commandments and a whole bunch of other ordinances for the people to live by!
And in Exodus 25:1-9, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,"Tell the sons of Israel to raise a contribution for me; from every man whose heart moves him you shall raise My contribution...Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I am going to show you, as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all the furnishings, just so you shall construct it!" And that included the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat, covered by the wings of the cheribum, as well as the table of showbread and the golden lampstand!
And in verse 22, He says, "There I will meet with you, from above the mercy seat, from between the two cheribum which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel"!
Exodus 39:42-43 says that the sons of Israel "did all the work according to all that the Lord commanded," and Exodus closes with this in 40:34-38: "Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it...Throughout all their journeys whenever the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, the sons of Israel would set out; but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out until the day when it was taken up. For throughout all their journeys, the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel!" Wow!
And so this clarifies the significance of our passage in Numbers 1:1 where "the Lord spoke to Moses in the tent of meeting on the first of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt!
What do we see in this opening passage of the book of Numbers that has application for us as believers today?
First and foremost, we see that God wants to dwell with His people and accompany them, and lead them in their journey--and including through the "battles"-- of this life to the "promised land"!
We also learned from this passage that names are important with God! He's into names, and Revelation 2:17 notes (as Rod pointed out last night) that "to him who overcomes," God will one day give to them, among other things, "a new name, written on a white stone"!
And, we also saw from this passage how God is into design and order and all the "nitty gritty" things of our lives!
Makes you want to sing! Like the song we sang last night, "A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing; our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing..."
Or, "Am I a soldier of the cross, a follower of the Lamb? And shall I fear to own His cause, or blush to speak His name...?"
Or, "Count you blessings name them one by one; count your blessings, see what God has done..."
May God be with you, til we meet again!
Lowell
The book of Numbers begins with these words: "Then the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first of the second month in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 'Take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, by their families, by their fathers' households, according to the number of names, every male, head by head from twenty years old and upward, whoever is able to go out to war in Israel..."
Notice that the Lord God Almighty, the God of all creation, spoke to Moses many years ago in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting (otherwise known as the tabernacle, or sanctuary)--14 months after the children of Israel had made their exodus from Egypt! And called for a census to be taken of all the sons of Israel 20 years and older, in preparation for war as they would move from Sinai to Kadesh-barneo, to the plains of Moab to the Jordan River, opposite the city of Jericho and eventually enter the "promised land"!
And in the verses to follow, God names, and designates, a man from each of the tribes, except for the tribe of Levi, to assist Moses and Aaron in numbering the men! (The men from the tribe of Levi had responsibility, as noted in verses 44-53, for setting up, and carrying, and caring for the tent of meeting and all its furnishings, and so were excluded from being numbered and going to war!) And so the total number of men who would be able to go out to war totaled 603,550--allowing, MacArthur notes, for a total population of about 2 million people who left Egypt and came to Sinai! This in contrast with "the 70 in number," which Exodus 1:5 says first came from the loins of Jacob into Egypt! (Exodus 1:7 says, "But the sons of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly, and multiplied, and became exceedingly mighty, so that the land was filled with them!)
As we noted last week, the book of Numbers must be seen and studied in context with the larger story given in the five books of the Pentateuch, beginning in Genesis 17:7-8, where God called Abraham at the ripe old age of 99 and made a covenant with him (the "Abrahamic covenant")--promising to be a God to him and his descendants, miraculously giving him a son (Issac) through his 90-year old wife Sarah. Then Jacob, who was renamed Israel, and had 12 sons who would become known as "the children of Israel," all of whom ended up in Egypt, after a famine struck their land, where the betrayed brother Joseph had risen (by God's grace) to become ruler and saw to it that they would prosper in the land of Goshen!
You know the rest of the story--how after Joseph died and (Exodus 1:6 says) "a new king arose in Egypt who did not know Joseph," the children of Israel ended up spending 430 years as aliens in bondage! Exodus 2:23 says, "then the sons of Israel cried out to God...and God heard their groanings and remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob...and called Moses "in the midst of a burning bush" to stand before Pharaoh and tell him that the Lord, the God of Israel, said (in Exodus 5:1) for him to "Let My people go!" And after all the plagues were poured out on Egypt, and the night of the Passover, when "the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, beginning with the firstborn of Pharoah," the children of Israel were told to "rise up and get out" of Egypt! And thus the beginning of the exodus!
Exodus 13:9 says, "the powerful hand of the Lord used Moses to bring them out of Egypt"! And Exodus 19:1 says that "in the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt...they came into the wilderness of Sinai..and verse 20 says, "the Lord came down on Mount Sinai and spoke to Moses" and gave him the ten commandments and a whole bunch of other ordinances for the people to live by!
And in Exodus 25:1-9, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,"Tell the sons of Israel to raise a contribution for me; from every man whose heart moves him you shall raise My contribution...Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I am going to show you, as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all the furnishings, just so you shall construct it!" And that included the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat, covered by the wings of the cheribum, as well as the table of showbread and the golden lampstand!
And in verse 22, He says, "There I will meet with you, from above the mercy seat, from between the two cheribum which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel"!
Exodus 39:42-43 says that the sons of Israel "did all the work according to all that the Lord commanded," and Exodus closes with this in 40:34-38: "Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it...Throughout all their journeys whenever the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, the sons of Israel would set out; but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out until the day when it was taken up. For throughout all their journeys, the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel!" Wow!
And so this clarifies the significance of our passage in Numbers 1:1 where "the Lord spoke to Moses in the tent of meeting on the first of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt!
What do we see in this opening passage of the book of Numbers that has application for us as believers today?
First and foremost, we see that God wants to dwell with His people and accompany them, and lead them in their journey--and including through the "battles"-- of this life to the "promised land"!
- John 1:14 says that "the Word (speaking of Christ) became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth!"
- Romans 8:11 says that "if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit who dwells in you!"
- I Corinthians 3:16 says, "Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are!"
- And Paul prays in Ephesians 3:16, "that God would grant you, according to the riches in His glory to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and heights and depths, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with up to all the fulness of God!"
We also learned from this passage that names are important with God! He's into names, and Revelation 2:17 notes (as Rod pointed out last night) that "to him who overcomes," God will one day give to them, among other things, "a new name, written on a white stone"!
And, we also saw from this passage how God is into design and order and all the "nitty gritty" things of our lives!
Makes you want to sing! Like the song we sang last night, "A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing; our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing..."
Or, "Am I a soldier of the cross, a follower of the Lamb? And shall I fear to own His cause, or blush to speak His name...?"
Or, "Count you blessings name them one by one; count your blessings, see what God has done..."
May God be with you, til we meet again!
Lowell
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