STUDIES IN THE BOOK OF NUMBERS – PART 1

(Published in The Presbyterian Network, Autumn 2003)

Dr Peter J Naylor

We cannot understand the book of Numbers unless we read it against the background of God’s covenant with Abraham and his seed, found in Genesis 12-22. The covenant promises run through Numbers and co-ordinate its detail as the nervous system spreads throughout the human body. When we make the connection between the main promises of God and what we read in Numbers, we gain great light on it. For example,

·        God had promised Abraham that He would multiply his seed until they became as the stars, innumerable. The first thing we read is the counting of the people (Nu 1). The generation that came out of Egypt was numerous – 603,550 men over the age of twenty years (Nu 1:46), not counting Levites, women, children and Gentiles who came out of Egypt with them – but they were not yet too many to count. Already, they were so many that they inspired fear in the nations through whom they passed (Nu 22:3-5).

·        God had promised to be their God; and He was among them (Nu 5:1-4) and His name was put upon them (Nu 6:23-27).

·        He was preparing them to possess the land which He had promised to Abraham (Nu 13:2; 14:16,23).

·        The promise of Genesis 12:3 and 22:18 is also echoed in the book as in Numbers 22:6; 24:9.

The book falls into three parts. In 1-10, we read how, at Mount Sinai, Israel, the emerging nation, was set in order by God and prepared for its future. In 11-25, we trace their experiences in the desert for almost forty years, waiting until a whole generation had passed away. In 26-36, the second generation, assembled in the plain of Moab, is instructed in matters that would concern it in the land of Canaan.

When we read how God ordered His people, we can observe what characteristics He required in them. Since we too are the seed of Abraham, and have been grafted into the same olive tree, we can look back to those formative days and learn lessons for the church today. Here are some of those lessons.

1. We must be a people directed by the Word of God.

The Lord was directing His people by His word. Throughout the first ten chapters, we read repeatedly, “And the LORD spoke to Moses” (1:1; 2:1 etc.) We find a pattern: the LORD commands; Moses obeys; Israel is blessed. As long as that happens, it is well with them. But as soon as they leave Mount Sinai, the Mount of God’s revelation, the whole scene changes. From chapter 11, it is the people who speak. They complain, they grumble and murmur. And now, the LORD is the one who hears and, instead of blessing, we hear of judgment. The pattern is reversed.

This is fundamental to our peace as God’s church today. As long as we are hearers of His Word and doers of it, we shall be safe. As soon as we introduce the words and ideas of men, to replace or supplement God’s Word, we shall be in trouble. This applies to us in so many ways. Reformed churches acknowledge the ‘regulative principle’: the only authority for our faith and practice is the Word of God. We dare not add to it or take away from it. How many times in Scripture, this lesson is impressed on us (for example, Deu 4:2; Prov 30:6; Matt 15:2-9; Rev 22:18,19). Can we read 1 Kings 13 and shrug off its implications for us? As soon as we drift away from the revelation of God in Scripture, we are in peril.

We can look back at Israel departing from Mount Sinai, and realize that they are then leaving the Mount where God spoke to them. That is a big step! Thereafter, they will be on test whether they have learned and profited from what they heard. Something similar happens to us each week. For a day, we sit under the Word of God and we do the hearing. But the Lord’s Day ends and we must go home and out into the week. Then, our hearing of the Word of God comes under test. Will the Word of God still direct us from Monday to Saturday? Will what we heard on the first day of the week still be clear and fresh in our souls on the last? Or, will we discover that when we leave, the Word of God ceases to prevail and we return to our own thinking and ideas and we let those thoughts rule our life, and we get into trouble?

We must be a people directed by the Word of God.

2. God has constituted us a body, ordered, and under authority.

In Nu 1:2, we read that the LORD commanded Moses, “Take a head count of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, by the number of the names of every male individually.” He did not say to the people, ‘Would you mind if I counted you?’ Can you imagine anyone saying, “Count me out!” The idea is ridiculous. To be an Israelite meant that you came under authority and you were part of a body, the people of God. This strikes at our individualism! It rebukes every Christian who refuses to recognize his own place within the church of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice certain things about the instruction to take a census. Every male over twenty years old had to be included. But every man was placed within his family structure and he was under the headship of that family. Not only was he subject to the authority of the Word of God, he was also subject to the authority of the men whom God had placed over him. Notice Nu 1:4: the census was taken by the leaders of the tribes. Notice also the purpose of the census: it had in view wars that must be fought. Every one counted had to bear his responsibility to engage in the fight ahead. And what should we think about church members who stand back and fail to engage in the task of the church? What of those who pick and choose how they would like to ‘serve’ God?

As we read through the book, we encounter this principle time and again. The tribes were told where to pitch their tents. God did not say to them, ‘Would you like to camp here?’ He did not leave them to decide for themselves. He commanded them where to be.

God’s people were a body under authority and ordered, not by democratic will, but by God. If this was true of Israel, it is emphatically true of the New Testament church. The New Testament has nowhere replaced corporeity with individualism. It knows of no such development. Quite the opposite: in Christ, we are one body. No one can say, “I am not of the body” or “I have no need of you” (1 Cor 12:15,21). The church is required to conduct its affairs today “decently and in order” (1 Cor 14:40).

The corporate oneness of Israel is underlined in Nu 32. Should two tribes pull away from the rest and do their own thing? If they did, Moses warned them, “Be sure your sin will find you out!” Each tribe had an obligation to stand with the others. A similar obligation lies on the congregations of the church in our day. Paul was not slow to remind the congregations that he planted of their duty to other congregations (1 Cor 16:1-2;  2 Cor 9:1). This also challenges the notion of independency and isolation which is sometimes found in particular churches. And we cannot slide out from under our responsibility by taking refuge in the doctrine of the invisible church! How can we claim to love the brothers we don’t see if we fail to love the ones who live next door, whom we know? John Murray has rightly warned against this abuse of the doctrine of the church invisible: “Too often, however, the fact and sense of corporate responsibility are suppressed if not overlooked … With respect to the comfort derived from the idea of the ‘church invisible’ a few things have to be said. The concept of the ‘church invisible’ is, to say the least, far too precarious upon which to build for the fulfilment of the obligation incumbent upon us to foster unity and fellowship in the church of God. Suffice it to ask: Where in the New Testament do we find the ‘invisible church’ as an institution in which we may exercise in any concrete and practical way the fellowship claimed? When Paul enjoined upon believers all diligence ‘to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace’ (Eph 4:3), he was surely thinking of the relations that obtain within the church in its visible character and expression (cf., Phil 4:2).” (Collected Writings, I, 235). Surely, we must maintain that the principle of our corporate identity applies to the individual Christian as he must belong to a particular local church and to the local churches as they must seek to outwork their wider unity. Independency as much as individualism falls short of the biblical standard. The church is a body with a Head. We are not living as in the days of the judges, when there was no king.  And we should not have to say, “And every man did what was right in his own eyes.”

Thus far, we have observed two things about Israel in Numbers. They were directed by God’s Word. They were a body under authority. The church today would do well to bear these two marks.

It is hoped that further lessons can be drawn out in a subsequent article