Culture & Context: Numbers
Welcome to Culture and Context, a blog that will flesh out the context of the PATH journal and other content that we study here at True North.
It’s the "dog days" of summer and you are deep in the book of Numbers. You may be thinking, “why do I need to study this?” or “this is so hard to read” and “how can I apply this to my life?” Numbers is not an easy book to read, but:
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Numbers may not be full of theology but it tells the story of God and Israel, and that exact obedience to God is central by using accounts of disobedience. And yet there is mercy, because when Israel is at its lowest lows of rebellion and disobedience, God offers repentance and new obedience.
The Book of Numbers is the 4th book of the Bible and of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. Pentateuch is formed by the Greek words pente (five) and teuchos (case). The books of the Pentateuch tell the story of creation, the formation of the nation of Israel and the laws for civil and religious life.
In the 4th century, the Bible was translated into Latin and was called The Vulgate translation. “Numbers” is taken from the Latin Numeri. The Old Testament was also translated into Greek and called the Septuagint (also referred to as LXX, because 70 or 72 translators miraculously translated the OT in 70 days). The Greek title for Numbers is Arithmoi.
The Hebrew Bible calls this book B’Midbar, which means, “in the wilderness,” a very descriptive title since Numbers tells the story of Israel as the people camped and traveled through the Sinai Peninsula to the border of the Promised Land. The word “wilderness” is used 48 times in Numbers.
All of the books in the Pentateuch (including Numbers) were written by Moses. Exodus 17, 24 and 34 all contain instructions from God to Moses about writing down events. In Numbers 33:2
Moses wrote down their starting places, stage by stage, by command of the Lord, and these are their stages according to their starting places.
Deuteronomy 31:9 & 24 are further examples of Moses writing down the law. The New Testament also refers to the Law of Moses (Acts 28:23; 1 Cor. 9:9).
These examples make many scholars confident about Moses as author. There is, however, a move away from Moses as author because the stories after Number 22 suggest a time after Moses. They argue that the time between stories is longer than Moses’ lifespan, based on the appearance of stories in other sources.
Differences between scholars does not mean that the book of Numbers is to be doubted. Both Jews and Christians believe that every word in the Old Testament is the inspired Word of God. The Torah (the first five books of the Jewish Bible, including Numbers) was fully accepted by the Jews as God’s Word by 440 BC.
The entire canon of the Old Testament was accepted by the time of Jesus Christ; He referred to the Scriptures as the source of eternal life in John 5:39 when speaking to the Jews:
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
As a reminder, the canon of Scripture is “those books in the Jewish and Christian Bible considered to be Scripture and therefore authoritative in matters of faith and doctrine.” (Tyndale Bible Dictionary). Scriptures are the holy writings of Judaism and Christianity. The Jewish Scriptures contain the 39 books of the Old Testament, while the Christian Scriptures include the 27 books of the New Testament.
Back to Numbers. The ESV Study Bible lists four themes in the book: the land, descendants, covenant relationship with God and blessing to the nations. The land refers to the goal- travel to the land of Canaan, the Promised Land, bordered by the Jordan River.
The story of the descendants is the fulfillment of God’s promise that Abraham would have a LOT of descendants (as numerous as the stars, Genesis 15:5 and 22:17). His family through Joseph numbered 70 when they entered Egypt and by the time of the first census, that number had grown to over a million (603,550 fighting men, which does not count wives and children).
The covenant relationship between God and Israel continues in Numbers with the presence of God in the cloud and in times of crisis. The people were expected to keep God’s laws as their part of the covenant. They fail over and over, but God never breaks the covenant and continues to extend mercy while also administering justice.
Blessing of the nations is harder to see, since Israel encounters a lot of hostile nations on their journey to the Promised Land. Numbers 24:9 implies that nations that are good to Israel will be blessed:
He [God] crouched, he lay down like a lion and like a lioness; who will rouse him up? Blessed are those who bless you, and cursed are those who curse you.”
That verse echoes Genesis 12:3 and 27:29.
There are lots of parallels between Exodus and Numbers – here are a few:
Ex. 18:1 and Num. 10:29 Advice from Moses’ father-in-law
Ex. 16 and Num. 11, 31-35 Manna and quail
E. 17:1-7 and Num. 20:1-13 Water from a rock
The ESV Study Bible outlines Numbers in five sections, alternating between law-giving and the journey:
I. Law-giving at Sinai (Ex. 19:1 to Num. 10:10)
II. Journey from Sinai to Kadesh (Num. 10:11 to 12:16)
III. Law-giving at Kadesh (Num. 13:1 to 19:22)
IV. Journey from Kadesh to the Plains of Moab (Num. 20:1 to 22:1)
V. Law-giving on the Plains of Moab (Num. 22:2 to 26:13)
The physical structure of the book of Numbers alternates between narrative and accounts of lists and laws. Try not to get tripped up by the back and forth rhythm of the book; instead, look at the lists/laws/regulations as complementing the narrative story of the book.
I asked my Bible software this question: What can today’s culture apply from the Book of Numbers? The answers brought me back to some of the themes of Numbers. First, God is unchanging even as man fails Him over and over. We wander in our own type of wilderness- think of those dry times, or the times when you’ve had real questions about your place in God’s kingdom.
The key to getting through the wilderness is to make God central in your life I have a friend who signs off all of her emails with “keep looking up!” When we take our eyes off God and put them on our lives and ourselves, we will wander in the wilderness. Keep looking up to find your way through!
God never abandons us, no matter how cut-off we may feel. God fulfills His promises, but there are also consequences for defiance and sin. You may not escape the consequences but God does forgive when we confess and repent. He WILL help you through that wilderness when your repentance is true.
Citations
Ashley, T. R. (1993). The Book of Numbers. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible. Crossway Bibles.
Duffield, G. P., & Van Cleave, N. M. (1983). Foundations of Pentecostal theology. L.I.F.E. Bible College.
Elwell, W. A., & Comfort, P. W. (2001). In Tyndale Bible dictionary. Tyndale House Publishers.
MacArthur, J. (2003). The MacArthur Bible handbook. Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Penner, K. M., & Brannan, R. (2020). Introduction. In The Lexham English Septuagint (Second Edition, pp. ix – xvii). Lexham Press.
Stern, D. H. (1998). Complete Jewish Bible: an English version of the Tanakh (Old Testament) and B’rit Hadashah (New Testament) (1st ed.). Jewish New Testament Publications.
