Delve Into Covenant History Sample

 DAY 6 – EXODUS, LEVITICUS, AND NUMBERS

The books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers continue the story of how God forms the nation of Israel to play a special role in his plans for the whole world. The Israelites are enslaved in Egypt, but God works miraculously through Moses to deliver them. The Israelites travel from Egypt to Canaan through the wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula. 

These books devote considerable attention to the time the nation spends at Mount Sinai. There, God gives his laws, including the Ten Commandments, and the Israelites build a “tabernacle,” or “tent of meeting,” so that the glory of God can dwell in their midst. 

On the way to Canaan, the nation experiences failures and setbacks but also achieves some triumphs. All of these become occasions for revealing more of God’s law. At the end of Numbers the people have reached the borders of the Promised Land after forty years in the wilderness. 

The boundaries between the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers aren’t sharply drawn. The beginning of Exodus describes the plagues that force the Egyptians to set the Israelites free. After that, a single structuring pattern extends all the way to the end of Numbers. The various places where the Israelites stop on their way to Canaan are noted, and what happened at each place, whether much or little, is described. 

The second half of Exodus, all of Leviticus, and the beginning of Numbers describe what takes place at one location, Mount Sinai, where the law is first given and the tabernacle is built. Leviticus consists, in its own words, of “the decrees, the laws and the regulations that the Lord established at Mount Sinai between himself and the Israelites through Moses.” It presents these laws in collections about specific subjects, such as burnt offerings, grain offerings, sin offerings, etc. These specific collections are grouped together into larger collections based on shared themes, such as offerings in general. Numbers then reports how the people are organized into a fighting force and how they move toward Canaan, overcoming dissension and opposition and receiving more of God’s law along the way. 

Numbers reaches back across Leviticus and Exodus to Genesis through literary allusions. When it announces early on, “This is the account of the family of Aaron and Moses,” it picks up the phrase that structures Genesis. Then, near the end of Numbers, the prophet Balaam says to the people of Israel, “May those who bless you be blessed and those who curse you be cursed.” This recalls God’s promise to Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse.” These allusions show that all of these books make up a single story of God’s work in the world, beginning with one family and nation. 

PRAYER: Lord, I’m excited to learn more about You and Your purposes in Your Word.