We get the name Numbers
from the two censuses that occur in the book but the Hebrew name for the book
is Bemidbar, meaning “In the
Wilderness”, which is taken from the first sentence “The LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai” (Nu 1:1), and
is probably more appropriate as it describes the time of Israel in the desert for
almost 40 years before they entered the Promised Land. Traditionally it is credited to Moses writing
in the final year before he died. It is
also a book that I think points in a number of ways to Jesus.
Numbers can be broken into three main sections. I have heard
them described as Preparing to March,
On the March, and Completing the March. But more than just the historical aspect, it’s
a story of development; a developing nation, a developing perseverance, and a
developing discipleship. Most if all I
see it as a developing faith.
As a nation Israel had
been ripped out of Egypt where they had been at least provided with
necessities, and indeed some would have had pretty good lives. They had endured being pursued by Pharaoh and
his army, the being marched across the desert and witnessing some pretty
dramatic interventions from God. But in
that time they had also witnessed some of the greatest miracles of
history. Yet they remained a disparate group,
more interested in self-preservation and self-comfort and without a true national
identity, very probably struggling to understand just what was happening to
them. In a way it is much like what the
disciples must have experienced as they were called to follow by Jesus. From experience as one snatched from a
secular and unbelieving world, I can relate to that confusion and doubt as you
struggle to make sense of a world around you that suddenly looks and feels very
different.
Preparing to March
The first 10 chapters describe
the preparations Israel made to prepare themselves to march into Canaan. They spent 11 months, and 20 days, receiving
instructions from the Lord and carrying out those instructions. The tribes were counted, at the instruction
of the Lord, and they are ordered into groups.
They are told where to camp and given specific duties. The tribe of Levi is singled out for special
treatment and specifically given tasks related to the construction and
transportation of the tabernacle. The
family of Aaron is appointed as the priests and Aaron himself is ordained as
the first High Priest, and he is given words by which God will bless the nation
.
Finally they celebrate
Passover and at the sounding of silver trumpets they break camp and march on to
what they believe will be a land waiting for them to step into.
On the March
I am sure most of you
have been on a family road trip. I
remember many of them as a kid, travelling to Taupo for the Christmas
holidays. Mum and Dad in the front, us
kids in the back. It all starts off
great, thoughts of the holiday to come, days at the beach, sleeping in,
catching fish, messing with my younger cousins.
It lasts maybe an hour, and then the niggles start, then the whining,
the complaining and finally attempted mutiny.
Things have not changed in 3500 years really.
No sooner had the
Israelites broken camp and started the march, led by the shekinah, the symbol
of God’s presence on earth, than they started complaining. First they grumble and within three days then
they start to vocally challenge God on the fringes, not the wisest thing to do
when there is a cloud of smoke and fire at the centre of your camp. But Moses had faith, even though many others
didn’t, and he prayed and they were ok for a bit. A bit like Dad threatening to pull the car
over and let everyone out, but mum steps in and keeps the peace, for a while.
Then they start
complaining about food “And the people of
Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the
fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks,
the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there
is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” (Nu 11:4–6). And the murmuring grew. With us it as always a fight over what flavour
chippies we would have. I wanted salt
and vinegar, but my sisters liked chicken.
Isn’t it always the way, when
things start to get a little difficult, murmuring and complaining starts to
grow, and as it grows it eats at people’s faith. Even Moses was affected, and he complained to
God “Why have you dealt ill with your
servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden
of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them
birth, … Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep
before me and say, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ … If you will treat me
like this, kill me at once” (Nu 11:11–15).
At times, I can so
empathise with Moses here, can’t you! But
in his answer, Moses himself demonstrated a lack of faith in God. His plea is all about him, his troubles and
self-pity, and his doubt as to whether God will provide. There is very little patience or discipleship
shown. But God is our teacher and leads
by example, and here He demonstrates amazing patience with Moses and the people
of Israel. He calls 70 elders to help
Moses, and places the Spirit on them, an early sign of what will happen in days
to come with the disciples of Jesus and to those on the day of Pentecost. And to quell their complaints, God provides
them with quail to eat.
But the troubles ran
deep, and the faith ran a little shallow.
Now Aaron and Miriam challenge their brother Moses and question whether
he really was the one appointed by God to lead the Nation. You know things are bad when the high priest
is questioning Gods will. It is here we
see one of only two healings of leprosy in the OT, and both involved sinners
being cleansed of their sins. In the NT
we see the only other healings through Jesus healing leprosy in the same manner,
through forgiveness of sin.
Then the Nation reaches
Kadesh and they spy out the land. All
but two report that Israel has no hope of defeating the occupying tribes and
claim that they would be better off returning to Egypt or maybe wandering in
the wilderness to die.
It’s at this point in
our family trip that Dad pulls the car over in the middle of the desert road
and says, right, everybody hand over the chips and get out of the car!
Have you ever noticed
how you sometimes have to be careful not just in what you ask God for, but how
you ask, especially when your faith is ebbing.
First, when they
originally complain about wanting meat, they are given more than enough “You shall not eat just one day, or two days,
or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, but a whole month, until it comes
out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected
the LORD who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we come
out of Egypt?” ’ (Nu 11:19–20).
Now when they show no
faith when asked to enter Canaan, they again are given what they ask for “none of the men who have seen my glory and
my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the
test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I
swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.”
(Nu 14:22–23).
You would think they
might start to learn, to understand that God can do anything, and He is on
their side. He’s not asking them to do
it on their own. But still they don’t
learn. Both their request for meat and
request to not have to go to war are granted, but not in any way they
wanted. So what do they do?
“When
Moses told these words to all the people of Israel, the people mourned greatly.
And they rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill
country, saying, “Here we are. We will go up to the place that the LORD has
promised, for we have sinned.” (Nu 14:39–40)
They do not listen, and
they go off to battle, out of spite or stubbornness, not faith and
obedience. Doing it in their strength,
not Gods, and suffer a heavy defeat. The
moral of the Nation now hits rock bottom.
Yet even at this lowest ebb, God offers then hope that all is not lost for
them, that His promise will be fulfilled “When
you come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving you” (Nu
15:2).
So they are led away
from Canaan, to spend 38 years camping out as the old generation who lacked
faith faded away, and the new generation replaced them.
But old habits died
hard and during that time their faith was still weak, their selfish wills still
strong. There were more challenges, open
rebellion, more complaining, and even Moses succumbed. At Meribah, he and Aaron disobey God and
instead of acting in faith, they take things into their own hands, an event
that cost them a chance to enter the promised land.
Completing the March
As their time in exile
neared an end, the travelled once more towards Canaan, yet when the trip became
difficult the complaining began again.
This time snakes were sent to punish those that challenged God. But something was different, the people of
Israel had learned, they recognised where the fault lay and they turned to God and
repented “And the people came to Moses
and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you.
Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for
the people.” (Nu 21:7).
And God responded, but probably
not how they expected. God is never
predictable and what happened next would not be understood properly for over a
thousand years. He ordered Moses to
erect a bronze snake on a pole and place it were anyone could see it. When someone was bitten they just needed to
look at the snake and they would be cured.
This strange and almost glossed over image was, I think, an important turning
point in the development of the Israelite nation.
This action of Gods
required two things of those asking his help; it required faith and it required
obedience. It required the person who
was bitten to acknowledge their sin and have faith that in this symbol they
would be healed. They had to obey Gods
instructions, turn to this symbol, look at it and be healed.
This is not some
metaphorical story added in for an object lesson. Yes we can look at it that way, and many
scholars have. The snake is a
well-recognised symbol of sin and bronze is always associated with fire and purification,
think of the pillars and lavers in the Temple.
So symbolically it represents being purified from sin. Looking at it is representative of putting
your faith in God.
Yet it is so much more
than that. God had spent 38 years
getting the nation of Israel to recognise who He was, getting them to put their
faith in him completely, to turn to Him for strength and not rely on
themselves. Only then could He
demonstrate that through their faith and their acknowledgement of His will,
that anything was possible. For years
they had walked in the presence of God, daily the manna had rained down and sustained
them. They witnessed miracle after
miracle, but they refused to turn to him, possibly too proud, possibly too
selfish, possibly afraid to hope.
But to this symbol of
hope they now turned, they raised their eyes and their hearts, acknowledged God
and he healed them, not just in body, but in spirit. And in this the Nations faith and their
perseverance had grown to the point where they were prepared to face
insurmountable odds to take the land they had been promised, with the confident
faith that God would guide them to victory.
But there is more to
the story of the bronze serpent. It reaches
far beyond the early days of Israel. We
know more about this object, it survived for centuries. It is mentioned in 2 Kings, as Hezekiah
cleans the Temple “He removed the high
places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces
the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of
Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).” (2 Ki 18:4).
In those days it had
become diminished, something to be compared to pagan altars poles. How had this great symbol of hope fallen so
far? It had become Nehustan, literally a
thing of brass. Once again the nations
worship had moved towards idols and their faith had turned inward to themselves
instead of towards God and this is what finally led to Israels fall.
We also hear about it
again in Johns Gospel, but this time in a very different sense “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him
may have eternal life” (Jn 3:14–15).
And finally the fullness
of what happened there in Numbers is revealed.
Moses lifted up the serpent, the symbol of hope and purification of sin,
so that anyone who turned to it and acknowledged their sin could be saved and
healed. Over a thousand years later, God
lifted up his Son, who literally became sin for us, and who offers us salvation
from sin if we just turn to him and put our faith fully in Him. So now we turn to the cross and look to it
like the Israelites did in the wilderness.
It is a symbol of hope and salvation.
But we have to be
careful we don’t turn it into the same thing the Israelites did in the times
before Hezekiah, we have to remember not to worship the cross as an idol, but
to use it as a way to focus our faith in God, and as a pointer to the real
saviour.
Like the people of Israel
found, it is a lesson that is difficult to learn, that it is our faith in God
that leads to salvation, not the strength of our own efforts. And while God calls us to do many things, he
guarantees us that we never have to do them alone.
Once Israel had figured
this out they were able to finally complete their march, a march that took 40
years to complete but would end with them entering the Promised Land. So sure were they now in victory, their faith
in God so firmly intact, that we end Numbers with them deciding how to split up
the land they hadn’t even entered yet, and they defined the cities that had yet
to be built.
From a nation worried
about where their next meal would come from, so short on faith even though the
Lord dwelt amongst them, to a nation so empowered by faith in the Lord that
they could achieve anything. It was a
long journey, a difficult journey, but a worthwhile journey. It’s one that all of us are on as well as we
develop and grow, as disciples, as followers of Jesus. It’s like a roller coaster and the more you
fight, the more twists and turns are thrown in your way, yet opening your eyes
can be terrifying until you realise that you are safely strapped in, wrapped in
the arms of the Lord who only wants to bring you peace, a peace that you can
only find through faith.
I would like to close
today with the blessing that Moses instructed Aaron to pray over the Nation of
Israel, it’s a blessing you have heard many times before. It’s a blessing that God himself instructed
Moses to have Aaron say so that God could answer and bless the people:
“The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon
you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give
you peace.” (Nu 6:24–26)
Amen
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