Numbers 1-3
In this “bible-in-a-year” journey there’s something about starting a new book that’s pretty satisfying. Especially when the books has been long and harrowing like Leviticus! But I’ve gotta say that starting Numbers hasn’t exactly got me jumping out of the bath shouting “Eureka!” (sorry about the visual there everyone). Numbers is a book with a pretty bad rap and the first few chapters help you to see why – “from the descendants of Zebulun… 57,400… from the descendants of Ephraim… 40,500, from the descendants of…” YAWN…
But to be fair, I think we’ve gotta see the bigger picture. By the time we get to the end of Numbers we’ll see that it’s actually a book full of action as God prepares his army (did you notice the way Israel is organised into “divisions”?) for their entry into the promised land. We’ve also gotta see the way this episode of God’s history is about God’s faithfulness to his covenant promises even in spite of the people’s sin. As we read in Leviticus 26, God’s desire is to dwell among his people in a good land and to bless them but that can only happen if it’s a desire that the people also share
We need to ask ourselves, is it a desire that we share as we journey together to the new creation? How do we express that desire?
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