Numbers
1 – 3
Verse 1:2 opens with why this is named “Numbers”:
Add up exactly how many Israelites
there are, but don’t merely count them. Identify all the people by
their clans and families, right down to the individual name of every male.
As with many chapters in other books, these first few verses
are full of lineage and sizes of the tribes. It’s quite mundane for the most
part. I am sure people of the nation of Israel can dig through their lineage
and find their families, but most Christians do not have a tight coupling to
the tribes of Israel and therefore it is difficult for us to dig in an enjoy
these chapters.
Verse 1:19 shows the difficulties Moses had completing God’s
orders:
This Moses did in the wild desert
area of Sinai, just as the Eternal One had directed him to do.
Imagine being in a hostile environment moving a truckload of
pennies and then suddenly the person who you were moving the pennies for asked
you to count them. It’s very similar what God was asking Moses to do, but there
was a reason, so they would know the manpower they had when taking the Promised
Lands. Of course God did not reveal that reason to them and eventually this was
the reason they spent 40 years wandering the wilderness.
Verse 3:12-13 are difficult to get when you take it into
perspective:
12-13 As
you know, all firstborn children of each woman belong to Me. I made
that clear when I killed all the Egyptian firstborn but spared Israel and its
animals, setting them apart just for Me. But rather than giving all Israel’s
firstborn to Me, I accept the Levites as a substitute. They will be Mine. I am
the Eternal One.
Most people, including me, don’t really understand this.
They immediately apply this to animals and sacrificing the first born from each
in the flock. We get into the meaning and see that the Levites are the
substitute sacrifice for the human children just as Jesus is the substitute
Lamb for a sin sacrifice. See how it all ties together when you look at the OT
with a “Jesus filter” on.