Book introduction
The book of Numbers
Numbers follows Israel through 40 years in the wilderness, from Sinai to the edge of the promised land. It takes its name from the two counts of the people. In between come complaints, rebellion, and God’s patience.
Read Numbers 13Start at chapter 1
Who wrote Numbers?
Jewish and Christian tradition names Moses as the author of the first five books, and the books themselves say Moses wrote down laws and songs. Many scholars think the five books were gathered from older written and spoken sources and reached their final form later, around the time of the exile in Babylon or after it. Some Christians hold to Mosaic authorship; others accept a longer process of writing and editing.
When was it written?
Covers about 40 years after the exodus. Its writing is dated as for the rest of the five books of Moses.
Main themes
- Unbelief has a cost
- The generation that refused to enter the land died in the wilderness.
- God stays faithful
- He keeps feeding, leading, and forgiving a people who keep grumbling.
- A new generation
- The second count shows God keeping his promise to the children.
Outline of Numbers
Key verses
‘May Yahweh bless you and keep you; may Yahweh make his face shine toward you and show you grace; may Yahweh lift his face toward you and grant you peace.’
‘Yahweh is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but he does not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’
God is not a man, that he would lie, or a human being, that he would change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill it?
Quoted from the Lumin Translation.
Where to start
Read chapters 13–14, the spies and the refusal. They explain the 40 years.
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Questions about Numbers?
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