Ever wondered where the preachers get those amazing stories from - you know the cloud and fire that accompanies the people of God, the talking donkey, the water coming from a rock, the manna from heaven - its the book of Numbers and you are going to love it! This book has it all. It begins with a census (it is called Numbers after all), it contains the first attempt to enter the promised land, and then the beginnings of the wanderings of the wilderness for 40 years. Ever wondered what happened the first time they tried to go into the promised land, what went wrong and what they did after they failed? Then this book is for you.
Have you ever sat in a sermon and thought, where are they getting all this cool information from? You know what I mean, the knowledge about the Passover that aligns with Jesus’ death, the understanding of the Levites which aligns to our worship today, the clouds movements, the quail from God, the bad report from exploring Canaan “we looked like grasshoppers in their eyes and therefore in ours” about vision and faith, the talking donkey - well ponder no more, this is all from Numbers. This book is preaching gold and you are going to love it!
The Bible calls us to not just read the Word but be doers of the Word.
What does that mean? It means as you read your Bible take note of the Bible in Action moments. This is an instruction manual for your life, so you are going to get a lot of take home things that you can do, things in your life you can change to align with the Word of God. Below are some things that I got out of Numbers that I am going to change in my life – my Bible in Action points!
The book of Numbers is a book that finds itself placed firmly in the back half of the Pentateuch, and as Walton, Matthews & Chavalas put it in their incredible work The Bible Background Commentary – Old Testament, “there are many reasons to consider the Pentateuch as a single, unitary piece of literature” and I want to emphasise that, not only concerning the Old Testament, in particular, the first 5 books, but in relation to the entire bible; the meta-narrative of God and His redemptive work. We can not afford to see these books, stories, prophecies, laws, genealogies, and covenants as isolated entities; rather they must all be surveyed within their contexts and framed within the larger context, lest we miss the insights and treasures available to be discovered within of the narrative and nature of God.
This Deep Dive, is an expose of some of the examples of covenantal affirmation by God, to the Israelites, as well as a look at why Moses himself was not permitted to enter the Promise Land.