Introducing Numbers

            I spent way too much time this morning sorting through the various ways that people understand the number in Numbers.  Some argue for a literal numbering, that is, that Israel at Sinai had around 600,000 fighting men and a total population of some 2 million people.  Others say that the word ‘1,000’ ought to be taken as a ‘military unit’ with the result that Israel numbered between 20,000 and 100,000 fighting men and maybe 400,000 total people.

            There’s no one explanation that will make everyone happy. (I tend towards the literal interpretation; I think that the other effort is just about making the number of Israelites more palpable to modern sensibilities.)  Fortunately, it seems to me that the question is finally beside the point.  As I read Numbers 1, there are two underlying themes.  First, no matter of if Israel numbers 2 million or ‘just’ 400,000, the Lord is clearly providing—miraculously—for a lot of people.  (For comparison’s sake, Tulsa, OK, has a population of about 400,000 and Houston, TX, has a population of about 2.2 million.)

            Second, this is a census of fighting men.  Notice that the total population is speculation; only the men above 20 who are able to go to war are counted.  Notice also that Numbers opens at the end of the encampment at Sinai.  Israel has been at Sinai 11 months, and now they are beginning preparations to journey to and enter the land that the Lord had promised them.  Numbers is the story of the journey to that land, the refusal to receive what the Lord had offered, and the delay and judgment that refusal brought.

            The overall lesson, then, seems to be along these lines:  1) Israel had sufficient strength for the task at hand.  2) Moreover, she had evidence of the Lord’s provision and His promise to enter the land on their behalf.  3) Unfortunately, neither of those facts was able to overcome Israel’s doubt and disbelief.

            How about you?  Are you underestimating how the Lord has equipped you for the tasks of the day?  Are you embracing His promises, made certain in Jesus’ death and resurrection, so that you have the confidence to follow Him wherever He leads?

--reposted from 2/10/2011