Week 6 Numbers
About a week ago I was reading the first chapter of Numbers.
The tribes were being enumerated in a long and repetitive and not-too-interesting name & number list. That census was taken to assess military strength for the purpose of conquering the Promised Land.
Between chapter one and chapter twenty-six a number of things happened but the key one – as far as the census list goes – is that the tribes were afraid to conquer the Promised Land. I guess natural fear is normal enough. But being afraid wasn’t the real problem.
They also wanted to go back to slavery in Egypt. But that wasn’t the real problem.
They wanted to fire Moses. But that wasn’t the real problem.
Plus they wanted to kill Joshua and Caleb. But that wasn’t the real problem.
According to the Lord the real problem was this: they have seen my glorious presence and the miraculous signs I performed…but again and again they tested me by refusing to listen…None of those who have treated me with contempt will enter (the land). Meaning that 603,550 men enumerated in chapter one – who disregarded the Lord and who treated him with contempt – all died-out in the wilderness. The census was an obituary column.
So even though when I get to Numbers twenty-six and it sounds just like chapter one and is just as labourious and repetitive to read it’s happening forty-years later with a totally new group guys who aren’t-so-contemptuous of the Lord.
Note: quote from Numbers 14:22-23 (NLT)