Hi James and Ellen,
Numbers is the Pentateuch’s fourth of five tomes. Moses is the Pentateuch’s author. Moses scribed the Numbers Book between 1445 B.C. and 1406 B.C. 1445 B.C. corresponds with the year that a Pharaoh finally gave the Israelite people group – who are God’s specially chosen people, the okay for them to leave Goshen, Egypt for Canaan – which had been the homeland of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – the patriarchs of the Israelite people group. It took ten crippling plagues before the Pharaoh succumbed to God’s desire that Abraham’s living descendents return to the area of land which He had Abraham homestead. A debilitating famine about four centuries earlier – in 1876 B.C., led to Jacob, his kids and their families to relocate from Canaan to Egypt where over time Jacob’s descendents – the embryonic Israelite people group, became the Egyptian’s forced labor pool. 1406 B.C. corresponds with the year when a still physically fit, 120 years old Moses climbed to the top of Mount Nebo where he could eyeball the land which God wanted His specially chosen people – the Israelites, to have to always to live in as their very own land if . . . and where he died.
The Numbers Book in Hebrew is called In The Wilderness. The Numbers Book chronicles incidents that took place during the forty years that God had His specially chosen people meander about the searing, barren Sinai Desert. God had His specially chosen people become Bedouin like to punish them for having taken their eyes off His objective of what He wanted them to do – which was to simply march into and take ownership of a land which was filled with milk and honey and which had once been their patriarch’s land. After Moses safely led his people group through the Red Sea into the Sinai Desert, God instructed Moses to take a comprehensive census of the entire Israelite people group. One reason for God having Moses take a census of His specially chosen people was for Moses to know how many twenty year old and older guys who could be conscripted into the Israelite people group’s fighting force. A little over 600,000 guys were found to be in the twenty year old and older age bracket. The Numbers Book documents exactly where each Israelite people group clan was to camp around the tabernacle or the Tent of Meeting, the placement of each Israelite people group clan relative to the other Israelite people group clans whenever the Israelite people group was on the march and the task assignments for each Levi tribal clan’s extended family unit. Moses had the first census taken before twelve guys – each representing a different Israelite people group tribal clan, snuck into Canaan to spy out the lay of the land. Two of the guys – Caleb and Joshua, returned ready to go through Kadesh Barnea into Canaan while the other ten guys returned having been intimidated by the giants who they saw while in Canaan. When the over two million guys, gals and kids who made up the Israelite people group at this time found out that even though Canaan would be a great place to live, they decided that they would rather go back to Egypt then do giant purging. This selfish, faithless mindset ticked off God big time. God’s response was to give His specially chosen people a forty year time out by having them do desert survival. The Numbers Book candidly shares anecdotes that reflect a people group often challenging their God through self-pity, through impatience and through malevolence. Even Moses’ own siblings – Miriam and Aaron, per what Moses wrote what became the Numbers Book, decided while Moses was on Mount Sinai waiting for God to go on their own to make out of the pile of gold that they had collected from the Israelite people group clans a gold calf to worship. Korah is someone else who per what Moses wrote what became the Numbers Book was able to induce a bunch of others to rebel against him. Rebelling against Moses was rebelling against God. There is always a consequence for rebelling against God. Miriam ended up being a leper for seven days. Korah and his cohorts ended up being swallowed up by the earth. Every guy and gal who was twenty years old and older would all die – with the exception of Caleb and Joshua, before God would give His specially chosen people a second chance to go into Canaan.
God had Moses take a second census after the Transjordan region had been conquered. There were again a little over 600,000 twenty year old and older guys among the Israelite people group’s twelve tribal clans. God – through Moses, ends the document which would be later assigned the name of Numbers with some housekeeping. God – through Moses, explained to His specially chosen people that in some cases gals are to receive an inheritance. God also – through Moses, outlined the stipulations for giving offerings, for observing festivals and for making vows. One of the things that your grandpaa really appreciates about Moses is that Moses was very intentional about making sure that Joshua was up to speed to replace him as the Israelite people group leader. Your grandpaa would have preferred that Moses chose Caleb to replace him but . . . your grandpaa has over the years expressed his concern that so little is done by an agency or by a church in the context of insuring that there is a plan for succession in place when the moment invariably arrives when . . . the Numbers Book to your grandpaa is one of the most instructive, less read Bible books.
Numbers (66)