Overview

"In the fourth book of the Bible, entitled Numbers, the story of Israel following their exodus from Egypt continues. The book begins with the people of Israel leaving Mount Sinai after a year-long stay and journeying through the wilderness towards the land promised to Abraham. The storyline of the book is divided into stages that correspond to their journey. The first section of the book of Numbers, Numbers 1-10a, deals with God's presence with Israel. In this section, a census is taken and the tribes of Israel are arranged in their camp around the tabernacle. The laws regarding ritual purity found in Leviticus are further developed here. This is an elaborate symbol of how God's holy presence was at the center of their existence as a people. In the next section, Numbers 10b-19, the rebellion in the wilderness begins. The cloud of God's presence lifts from the tabernacle and guides Israel away from Sinai into the wilderness. Immediately, things go wrong as the people complain about hunger and long to go back to Egypt. Moses' own brother and sister oppose and badmouth him in front of all the people. When they arrive in the desert of Paran, God tells Moses to send out twelve spies to investigate the land. Ten of them say that there is no chance Israel can survive because the Canaanites will annihilate them. Even though two spies say God can save them, the people are whipped up into a fearful rage and start planning a mutiny to appoint a new leader and go back to Egypt. God punishes them by sentencing that generation to wander in the wilderness for forty years until they die. Only their children will get to enter the land. Despite this consequence, the rebellion gets worse. A group of Levites begins a rebellion challenging Moses and Aaron's leadership. God deals severely with them and then renews his commitment to Moses and Aaron as Israel's leaders. As they leave the region of Paran, things do not improve for the Israelites. They complain about their thirst and ask why Moses ever brought them out of Egypt. Moses rebels and oversteps his bounds when God tells him to speak to a rock and bring out water for the people. He hits the rock twice and says, ""You rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?"" Moses dishonors God by putting himself in God's place, receiving the same fate as the wilderness generation-he'll die in the desert and never enter the promised land. The Israelites rebel yet again, and God brings a strange judgment upon them-venomous snakes to bite the people. Moses yet again intercedes for the people, and God tells Moses to make a bronze snake and lift it up on a pole so that whoever looks at it will be healed of the poison. The book concludes with a new generation of Israel ready to enter into the land. After another census is taken of this new generation, they win a number of battles with people groups on the edge of the promised land. These battles enable a few tribes of Israel to settle on the far side of the land. A moment of rest allows Moses to deliver his final words of wisdom and warning, which is what we find in the next book of the Torah."

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