Numbers

Numbers is a book that fits its name because it deals pretty much entirely with numbers.  Numbers is the first official census of Israel ordained by God as they come out of the land of Egypt.  Numbers contains some of the stories about the Israelites march on towards the Promised Land.  The two censuses of Numbers are an overbearing theme of the book.  Notice that as the numbers grow for the Israelites the strife grows as well.  Many individuals going into the ministry think that having a big church is a great delight.  However, the book of Numbers presents the idea that the larger the group you are leading is, the larger the number of insane nuts you have to put up with and the larger the number of brain cells that die in the leader of such a group.  This is the case with Moses as he tries to lead the people of Israel.  In chapter 11, the angry side of Moses shines forth as even his sister and brother ridicule him.  In chapter 17, there is a straight up outright revolt against the leadership of Moses by Korah.  Moses challenges Korah to a test of leadership where the earth ends up swallowing Korah and his followers.  In the same way, anyone who tries to revolt against the estabished authority of God over a people is in danger of the same actions.  Although revolt is sometimes necessary in standing up against a leader whom you have evidence of that they are not of God.  Otherwise, we would be required as a church body to submit even to those ministers who follow the same path that Jimmy Swaggert and Jim Bakker followed.  Yet, before you stand up against such authority make sure that you have the evidence that that authority is not leading a godly life.  Then confront them privately and give them a chance to respond to your claims before your claims are made known to the public.  Then if you have evidence and have given them the chance to admit their flaws to the congregationa dn to step down appropriately, then revolt against the leadership is necessary.  In both cases in the book of Numbers, those who revolted paid a dear price.  In Numbers 20 we find that Moses does not obey the specific word of God at the waters of Meribah at Kadesh Barnea.  The people are not complacent in the wilderness as they are having a difficult time coping with the struggle for suvival through food and water.  Thus, they become thirsty and Moses gets angry at their complaints.  God then tells Moses to speak to the rock and it will send forth water.  Moses does not obey the specific instructions of God, but rather ends up striking the rock with his staff.  This is the reason that Moses and Aaron do not get to lead the people into the Promised Land although they do share in the heavenly promise.  In the same way, no matter how hard a leader of humankind tries to lead a group of people into the Promised Land, he will not be able to because he still has to deal with the power of sin which overcomes everyone but Christ.  We have established that Moses is a type of us in the sense that he was drawn out ffrom drowning in the water which is precisely what his name means.  Thus, we see that the exegesis of scripture fits together even further as Moses has the same temper problem and the porblem overcoming the hurdle of sin that is contained with all of the others who are drawn up from drowning in the water.  That problem and that hurdle is what kept Moses from getting the credit for leading the people into the Promised Land.  To find out the rest of the story click of how the names Moses and Joshua fit in in relation to the New Testament check out my page on Joshua which continues along this line.  The next few chapters of Numbers continue to deal with the incomplacency of the people.  God works through these circumstances though.  Numbers 22-24 tells the story of Ballam son of Beor, a false prophet who was sent to curse the Israelites but as he went to curse them the angel of the Lord which is believed to be the manifest presence of Christ in the Old Testament appears to Balaam's donkey and the donkey talks.  Balaam gets angry at the donkey but the donkey actual saved Balaam's life.  Thus, Balaam had contact with  the one true God and was instructed that he had to bless the Israelites.  Though false prophets always exist among the people, it is God who allows them to exists and he controls their speaking.  Just like in Numbers he does not allow them to speak in  such a way of cursing that they will not prevent the establishment of the physical nation of Israel.  In the same way, he will not let them prevent the estbalishment of his reign in power and majesty.  Throughout the rest of the book of Numbers, there is yet another census taken of the people as many have died as judgment upon their incomplacencies.  The book concludes with a retelling of the events the Israelites have been a part of from their quest out of Egypt onwards towards the Promised Land.