The Highlights Series Part 1 by John Luke RobertsonSample

As with Genesis and Exodus, Numbers is recorded or written by Moses, who is the main character of this book. This book is named Numbers because of its many statistics and populations counts, tribal and priestly figures and numerical data. If numbers are not your thing, think about it a different way. Think about it as being a book of tests.

Let’s look at the tests. God faithfully shows His people how to walk with Him, letting them know that walking with Him brings peace, protection and promises fulfilled. But, the Israelites have a hard time learning their lessons. They test God’s patience over and over again. God, who will not be mocked, tests their endurance and faithfulness. Over and over God showed up and lit (literally) the way for the Israelites while they repeatedly turn their backs on him. God continues to remind His people that He will not tolerate their complaining and whining and rebellion and, ultimately, that generation lost their reward—The Promised Land. 

There are three key elements in the book of Numbers.

1. God prepared His people to walk with Him and how to succeed to receive the Promise Land.

 2. They didn’t believe or trust God’s promise to protect them as they entered the Promise Land, so they missed out on the promise.  

3. God raised up another generation to receive the Promise Land, but they too had to be faithful to God’s laws. The book ends with this generation preparing to enter the Promised Land. 

2020 was a counting of the numbers in our lifetime. Each day we watched the numbers recording cases of covid-19. It seemed there was no escaping the numbers. As tired as we got of hearing the numbers, those numbers provided important information that led to organization and problem solving, which ultimately leads to peace. God values all of those things.