Route 66: Numbers - The Desert Bridge Between Egypt and Canaan

Well, good evening everyone.

It's great to see you.

Let's take a Bible and go over to the book of Numbers.

The book of Numbers.

We're making steady progress to the beginning part of our series, route 66.

And Micah's encouragement was an interesting one for us to sort of follow with that.

So if you're able to kind of read these books in preparation or subsequent to the lessons, I think it'd be a good way to sort of increase your understanding of God's word.

I got a question for you how many of you have heard a sermon in the book of Numbers?

A few, just a few of you.

How many of you heard five sermons on the book of Numbers?

You have, I think so.

Okay, seminary class doesn't count.

I went to a Christian college, at chapel every day.

Oh yeah, that doesn't count either.

I don't think I've ever heard a whole series through Numbers.

Aha, that was going to be my next question.

So none of us, I think, have heard a whole series through the book of Numbers.

Yeah, I have been thinking about what to do after Matthew.

You'll tell me after this one time through whether or not that's a good idea.

The book of Numbers doesn't come immediately to mind when someone says to someone in their family or friends, hey, let's do a Bible study together.

Not many people are like numbers.

That's exactly the one we're going to do.

However, it's no less the Word of God than the ones that we might pick more quickly.

Right, ask the word of God than the ones that we might pick more quickly, right?

And you know, many of you, when you heard that numbers was going to be the focus tonight, might have went okay, numbers, I'll be there because I usually come.

But numbers, what has that got for us?

Right?

And people might, you know, just wonder if there is any connection to our life, because it has a lot of details that seem very far afield from where we're at today.

And I understand why it's hard to get through the book of Numbers.

I think Mary Noel mentioned that.

You get through that sort of Bible reading plan and you come to a sticking spot, right, and sometimes that sticking spot is just you get overwhelmed with things that have to be done and you look back and you go that's about three weeks since I read through this and you kind of lose.

You lose your momentum or you bog down.

You get into a section of scripture and you're like I don't know if I can slog through 20 more chapters of this right.

Be honest, we've all been there.

So you know, you read Exodus and you're excited about all the great movement, the plagues in the first chapters, the deliverance of the people, the first Passover, the Ten Commandments you've got Charleston Heston running in your head.

You know all of that.

And then the tabernacle.

How much do I have to know about all the curtains and all the rings and all the posts and all the dimensions?

Then you get to the book of Leviticus and then you start to realize this whole chapter is about the priest and all the purity rituals and the sacrifices and where each part goes.

And then you get to the book of Numbers and you realize they're still on the tabernacle.

We started this in Exodus.

We went through all of Leviticus and now we're through the first several chapters of Numbers and it's still about the tabernacle.

And you wonder is there anything beyond that?

You find out, if you've persevered, that there certainly is.

Numbers picks up speed again and it begins to move.

The people physically move again.

But I have to say it's good to keep going through there, but it's good to keep a perspective as you go through the book of numbers to understand that it truly does have applicability to us.

Now we call it the book of numbers because there are two numberings in the book of numbers, in chapter 1 and chapter 26,.

Just seeing if any of you might know that.

But really is that the focus of the book, those two numbers?

Not really right.

Someone took the Greek title and called it arithmoi, where we get our word arithmetic from right.

Arithmoi the numbers.

However, if you were to look at the Bible in Hebrew, you would see that it actually takes I think it's the fourth word in the text in the wilderness, in the wilderness.

It's called In the Wilderness and I think In the Wilderness is probably a much better title for the book than Numbers, because the emphasis of the book is definitely on the wilderness rather than the numbering in chapter 1 and the numbering in chapter 26 of the people.

Because when you read the book of Numbers you realize that the wilderness is that sort of bridge between Egypt and Canaan.

It's the bridge between the past and the future of the people.

It's the bridge between slavery and freedom.

It's the bridge between promise and fulfillment.

So I think In the Wilderness really stands to be a better title for the book.

But I say promise and fulfillment.

But even what was fulfillment to them?

The coming into the land, was really just promissory, as it anticipated a greater promise that is to come, because the people of Israel, in their form of worship and their priesthood, worship and their priesthood and their sacrifices and their presence in the land are all preparatory to the fulfillment of something else, because it is part of God's progressive unfolding of his revelation to bring all things together in Christ, because Paul said that Jesus is the teleos, or the focal point, or the fulfillment, or the end of the law.

And so when we read the book of Numbers, we're reading something that's moving us, a direction.

It's moving us toward Jesus Christ, to his life, to his teaching, to his death and burial and resurrection, to the outflow of the gospel, the promises that give us eternal hope in a new heaven and a new earth.

That goes beyond just the parameters of the land of Canaan, the parameters of the land of Canaan.

We also, when we read the book of Numbers, along with Leviticus, as it gives that broad focus of the tabernacle, we read about its laws, about the sacrifice, about the cleansing rituals, about the priesthood and the tabernacle.

We're receiving instruction that is foundational to our understanding of sin and sacrifice and forgiveness.

It brings us directly into the life of Jesus Christ, of sin and His sacrifice and our forgiveness.

We wouldn't understand the Lord's death without these books.

This is why the book of Hebrews goes so often back to the book of Leviticus and often brings out as I'll talk about in a moment things out of the book of Numbers.

Jesus himself said that the book of Numbers applied to him and was directly about him.

Luke 24, after he rose from the dead and spent time with his disciples.

It says that he took time with them to speak to them about all the different parts of the Old Testament and how they related to him.

And then in Luke 24, verse 44.

Luke 24:44

This is what I told you while I was still with you.

Everything must be fulfilled which is written about me in the law of Moses.

And he goes on again.

And so the book of Numbers, along with other books in the Old Testament, direct us to Jesus Christ, direct us to his person, his life, his death, his resurrection, the ministry of the gospel.

We saw that very clearly, I think even this morning, didn't we?

When you see even little nuances of information that are pulled together by the gospel writers out of the Old Testament to give us an understanding of the identity of Jesus and the character of the king and the kingdom.

So the Bible has a unity as we read it together.

But it's important to read it not just from the back to the front but to remember, as it comes to fulfillment in Christ.

You can't not read it in the realization of the fulfillment of Christ, as you see those things beginning to move that direction and you can start to say, aha, I've got it, I'm getting it.

So don't read the book of Numbers in isolation.

Don't read it simply as regulations about the tabernacle or remarks about the disobediences of the people or some sense of preparation for the land of Canaan for the second generation.

Spend more time more broadly thinking about where it's heading thematically.

Let's get a structure of the book of Numbers.

I think since we're in the book of Numbers, let's talk about Numbers so you can break it down into thirds, right into three sections.

I think it's easy to split it into three.

The first section would be obviously chapter 1 and verse 1, all the way into chapter 10 and say verse 10.

And that gives us the events at Mount Sinai before the people actually pull up tent stakes and begin to move.

They're still sat there, as they have been since near the end of the book of Exodus and all through the book of Leviticus, sitting there getting instruction about the construction, the worship of, and then the packing up and moving of, the tabernacle itself.

Inside of those ten chapters.

In this first third, you have the numbering of the people, you have the outlining of their positions around the tabernacle as it sits in the middle of the people.

You've got a discussion about the duties of the priests.

You've got a discussion about the duties of the priests, the regulations that pertain to their service and the worship in the tabernacle.

That's the first third.

The second third records a journey, a journey from Mount Sinai through to the plains of Moab, and this is the section of Scripture that gives us the most information about the wilderness wanderings, and it lasts about 38 years.

Most of the time is spent in the neighborhood of Kadesh Barnea, which is in the southern part of the nation of Israel.

Now I've been there.

It's a desolate place.

You can look around and wonder is there any living thing out there?

It's that stark For those of you that have perhaps been to the Mojave Desert and been there in the middle of the summer.

Imagine what that would be like to live in for 38 years.

Wouldn't be easy.

The final, third beginning in chapter.

Did I give you the chapters for that?

For the second one I didn't.

So chapter 10 and verse 11, all the way to chapter 22 and verse 1.

So 1 to 10.11, or 10.10, 10.11 to 22.1, and then from 22.1 to the end.

36, gives us an understanding of the people's activity while they're encamped in the plains of Moab.

So that's one way to look at it.

In those thirds, another person decides to look at it in a different way, but to break it down, and one of these will catch with you.

I think he said the book of Numbers can be looked at geographically, it can be looked at thematically or it can be looked at theologically.

So let's take each of those three and see if this is helpful for us.

So geographically, 1 to 10,.

What happens at Sinai?

10 to 20, what happens around Kadesh, barnea, 20 to 36, what culminates in Moab.

So three locations right.

So three locations right, and in each of those phases you've got an interspersed of law giving promises, offered, rebellion of people, divine discipline.

They all intermingle in each of those areas they have some sort of common threads.

Thematically, the same guy takes the same structure that we started with the third section and he says the community formed, the community in a journey and the community preparing for national settlement.

I think that's a helpful way to look at it too.

And then theologically he breaks it up into two ways.

You've got the death of the Exodus generation and you've got the shifting to the conquest generation.

Two generations the people that came out of Egypt who die in the wilderness, the second generation who is about to be the conquest generation, into the land of Canaan.

So 1 to 25 would be the death of the Exodus generation and 26 to 36 would be the shift toward the conquest generation and 26 to 36 would be the shift toward the conquest generation.

This is what Warren Wiersbe does.

If you want to look for easy alliterated outlines, warren Wiersbe is your guy, even more than me.

He does alliteration like a champ and what he does is he breaks it down into 1 to 20, the old generation set aside, and then 21 to 36, the new generation set apart.

Right, the old generation set aside, the new generation set apart.

As you read the book of Exodus, even though it spends a lot of time or the book of Numbers sorry, I didn't mean to say Exodus.

You read the book of Numbers.

It spends a lot of time talking about the Exodus generation.

The focus is really moving toward that conquest generation, instructions given to them about actually entering the promised land and around all those structures.

Any way you want to divide it are those two things that give the book its name the numbers of the people in chapter 1, the numbering of the people in chapter 26,.

And each has a purpose.

When you enter into the book of Numbers, you might think it's a little strange that it starts off by numbering the people.

Why would that be strange?

The people had just come out of Egypt, right?

Did they have to fight the Egyptians to get out?

They did not.

When God told them that they were going to the land of Canaan, did he tell them to sharpen their swords because they were about to fight?

He did not.

He told them watch and I'll take care of it.

So it does seem a little odd that the first thing that happens in the book of Numbers is a numbering of the warriors Numbers.

Numbers 10 · chapter mention

Chapter 10 tells him that a battle is going to happen, and it does happen, the Amalekites.

You read deeper into the word of God.

In 2 Samuel 24, you find David gets in trouble for numbering his people.

But the difference is God calls for the numbering In chapter 1 and chapter 26, not Moses.

This first census is a census of the warriors, and all the tribes are counted not by the number of people there are not even all the men that there are but how many warriors of certain age there are.

And so it's to tell them that, look, the numbers are sufficient, but you shouldn't be trusting them.

You should be trusting the Lord who's carrying you through.

The last census is a pledge of hope to the people.

This second generation, this conquest generation, is getting numbered, and in Numbers, chapter 26, in verse 64, we read the conclusion of this numbering.

Numbers 26 · chapter mention

It says this conclusion of this numbering.

It says this among them there was not one of those who had been registered by Moses and the priest Aaron.

When they registered the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai, they were all dead, for the Lord had said to them that they would all die in the wilderness.

They would all die in the wilderness.

None of them was left except Caleb, son of Jehudah, and Joshua, son of Nun, two people out of all of those people that had left Egypt.

What was the numbering for?

To let them know, just as God had told them that this generation would go but a new generation would arise in which he would carry them into the new land.

The 38 years of wandering was going to end and in the numbering of the people in Numbers chapter 26, they were able to go.

Numbers 26 · chapter mention

We're actually going to go home.

We're actually going to go home.

I want to back up and go to that thematic movement a little bit and sort of go back in again.

Let's go back in again.

Chapters 1 to 10, with the focus on the tabernacle, the focus on the priestly activities of worship.

We have a discussion about the ideal Israel as God has informed them of how to meet with Him, how to deal with their sin, how to live a life in the assurance of forgiveness, how holy he is and yet he can be approached, as they do so in the right and proper way.

However, chapters 11 to 21, we see Israel's rebellion against God, their unbelief in rejecting his plan and then, like I said, chapters 22 to 36, the renewal of God's purposes as he takes up the conquest generation and brings them into the inheritance of the land.

So these divisions move from positive to negative to positive again.

As you go from the first section into the second and into the third, and as you do so, there are two big themes that show themselves in the book of Numbers Israel's sin and God's faithfulness Shows the interaction between those two themes.

God is faithful to his promises even despite Israel's unfaithfulness.

I want to take those two themes up for just a minute.

Think about the unfaithfulness of the people.

When you come into the book of Numbers, you come into the book of Numbers with a sense of anticipation.

Hundreds of years have passed from the giving of the Abrahamic promises, 2000 BC to 1400 BC.

Hundreds of years have passed.

We're now at the point where the people at long last are at the very, very edges of the fulfillment of some of the promises that Abraham was given.

He was given a promise of an heir.

He was given the promise of land.

He was given the promise of a blessing to the nations and here Israel was for the very first time under strong leadership, given God's code of life for them to live by very clear understanding of how to conduct themselves.

They were given a new sense of national identity and purpose.

They had God's promises at their back.

They had God's promises at their back.

They were beginning to know the very character of God as he revealed himself in Egypt in the plagues and as he explained himself in Sinai.

They were understanding that God was holy.

And yet God gave them a way of approach and that their sins, though daily, could be forgiven and they could commune with this God.

All these hopeful possibilities are there as we come into the book of Numbers and it seems like in a moment, they're obliterated by their refusal to enter into the land that God had called them to and their lack of faith.

Rebellion, I would call it cost that whole.

Exodus generation the opportunity to enter into the physical land of Israel.

Exodus generation the opportunity to enter into the physical land of Israel.

They spend the rest of their lives, 38 years, journeying among hostile people in a barren, barren place.

However, god's promises remain intact.

Despite that, these 40 years are marked by sin after sin after sin.

In Numbers 11, they grumble about the food that they're given from God.

Chapter 14, they rebel by refusing to enter into the land, even in the face of the promises of God Chapter 14, they rebel by refusing to enter into the land, even in the face of the promises of God, caleb and Joshua saying we can do it, we can do this.

They defy Moses' leadership and Aaron's in chapter 16.

They grumble about the water in chapter 20.

They've already grumbled about the water and or about the manna in chapter 11, but they do it water in chapter 20.

They've already grumbled about the water or about the manna in chapter 11, but they do it again in chapter 21.

And in chapter 25, they're seen to be just going headlong into sexual immorality and idolatry.

They're a faithless generation.

Yet the second part is even more clear God's faithfulness to his promises.

In the first section, god gives them a lot of provisions.

He provides them with an order and a structure of life and worship.

He gives them order and arrangement around the tabernacle where His presence is seen and experienced.

He prescribes for them ways of movement that provide order and structure, even for their journey.

He takes care of their every need as they travel through a land that wasn't resource rich and able to sustain them.

The first 10 chapters we see God's provision.

The next section, chapters 11 to 21,.

We see God's patience with them.

The Israelites fail to obey, but he doesn't desert them.

He's still there.

He hasn't crushed them totally.

He patiently deals with them, not because he can't, not because he's weak, but because he is patient.

And he manifests his care for 38 years among a generation that refused him.

At every turn, as he prepares the next generation for their arrival in the land of Canaan, he directs these people as they watch their fathers and mothers and uncles and aunts die for a movement into a land that those people had refused to receive, to a land that those people had refused to receive.

And God patiently disciplines and instructs them along the way.

And then, when we get to the last section in chapters 22 to 36, we see not just God's provision and God's patience, but his persistence to be a faithful God to his promises as he leads the people to the threshold of the land of promise.

He's been faithful to them despite their obedience, even though the first generation rejected him.

The new generation is now prepared to go in and, as we read in Numbers in this last section, we see God's promises superseding and colliding with the unbelief of the first generation.

They had refused to believe.

But God is still there.

He's still directing their steps.

He's still supplying all that they need.

He's renewing his promises and revealing his laws.

As early as chapter 15, let me read this to you the Lord instructs Moses Speak to the Israelites and tell them, when you enter the land I'm giving you to settle in.

As early as that, he's taking up the words of promise to the new generation and telling them you're going to go in, you're going to go in.

And when you get to Numbers chapter 34 and 35, moses is instructed to etch out the boundaries of land for people that haven't yet even entered into it.

Numbers 34 · chapter mention

This is going to be your turf.

This is going to be your plot.

This is going to be your area, tribe by tribe.

This is going to be your plot.

This is going to be your area, tribe by tribe, to section it off before they even breach the borders of the area.

And when the book ends, israel's punishment ends and Moses prepares them for what's about to happen.

And this is what brings us to an application in our day as we think about all of these things, god being faithful to his promises.

You see, god has given us a new covenant.

He's given a new heart to his people.

He's given us a leading by his spirit.

He's given us a malleability to his word and a desire to obey.

And he's also given the provision for us, in our daily sins, the blood of Jesus Christ.

And we look to him as the one and only one who could be truly obedient to all of God's laws, that he alone is the one who deserves to enter into heaven.

And if we're in him we can go in.

But if we're trusting ourselves we will not.

And so through his entrance into heaven, by the blood that he shed, he goes ahead of us and he prepares a place for us, as he said, and he cleanses us by his blood in the new covenant so that we might inherit the promises with our sins forgiven and our hearts cleansed.

But we're still on a journey, just like they were on a journey, and the writer of Hebrews, in chapters 3 and 4, picks up all the themes out of the book of Numbers and talks about that first generation and uses them as an example.

It says they were on a way to a land of promise, but they refused to believe God, they refused to submit themselves to God, they refused to listen to God and they died in the wilderness.

He said you're on your way to a promised inheritance.

You're on your way to a place that God has for you.

Don't refuse him like the Israelites refused him.

Don't reject Jesus, his plan, like they rejected his plan.

Don't seem to be entering the land of promise and yet fail to do so like they did.

And so, when our pilgrimages to heaven were warned about disobedience and neglect and lack of faith, and then Paul in 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, verses 1 to 10, picks up a number of these incidents in the book of Numbers, or in Romans, or in Corinthians rather, and brings the book of Numbers, romans, or in Corinthians, rather, brings the book of numbers, into our lives and tells us don't be like that.

1 Corinthians 10:1–10

We should be encouraged that God is faithful, that his promises are true, that he means to fulfill what he's given us, and so we simply trust and we obey.

It's that simple.

And so we sing that song, don't?

We Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus.

But we also sing another hymn, which we're going to sing in just a moment, and I appreciate your flexibility.

A song that kind of picks up themes of Exodus, themes out of numbers, brings us a little bit past Deuteronomy into Joshua.

Guide me, o thou great Jehovah Pilgrim, through this barren land.

I am weak, but thou art mighty, hold me with your powerful hand.

Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more.

Open now the crystal fountain whence the living waters flow.

Let the fiery, cloudy pillar lead me all my journey through.

Strong deliverer, strong deliverer, be thou still my strength and shield.

And when I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside Death of death and hell's destruction.

Land me safe on Canaan's side.

Songs of praises, songs of praises.

I will never give to thee.

I will never give to thee.

So let's sing as pilgrims headed to a better land than the land of Canaan.