Numbers That Preach Understanding God's Mathematical Lingo

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as inspired by the book of Numbers

Let us pray. ... Numbers 23 19

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Let us pray. And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice, and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their breasts also. Numbers 20.11

Protect me, Lord, from doing anything that would hinder me from stepping into my promised land. As I learn from Moses in Numbers 20.21, I will intentionally set my life story before me, as I lead and guide others.

In this story, we learned about the weariness of Moses and how his past struggles with anger resurface, as inspired by the book of Numbers. Hello, I'm Jack Graham with today's episode of The Bible in a Year.

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Numbers is coming out before Christmas. That's the fourth book of my five books.

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We just went from the book of Numbers and now we're moving into Joshua, the last period left off on the eastern side of the Jordan River looking westward across the Jordan.

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Numbers is the narrative book, but Deuteronomy is a second law.

one of the things that we find out, it's like, as you noted, the narrative book being Numbers is typically I think for a lot of people, the one where we don't lose the story. We are traveling with the people of Israel and with the covenant people of God.

But at the same time, as you noted, the book of Deuteronomy has so many powerful words of encouragement, words of law, words of just direction from the Lord that can immediately be applied to our life, as well as the fact that Numbers can sometimes, well, even the fact that it's called the book of Numbers might mean that some sections might be a little bit hard to get through because they're not going to be so much narrative as much as it's going to be counting or giving off a list of names of people that we might not be familiar with.

But we pick up in the book of Numbers and it's important to realize that when Numbers starts, they are still at Mount Sinai.

So, yeah, that's where we're at with the book of Numbers. And the book of Numbers has an amazing chapter, chapter 33, that I would draw everyone's attention to and as you read it, it's going to be a really a cool reminder of everything that has happened. It's all the stages of Israel's journey from Egypt.

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The fourth book of Moses commonly called Numbers chapter one, the first census of Israel.

The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the tent of meeting on the first day of the second month in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel by families, by father's houses, according to the number of names, every male head by head from 20 years old and upward, all in Israel who are able to go forth to war.

So he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai. The people of Reuben, Israel's firstborn, the generations by their families, by their fathers' houses according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war. The number of the tribe of Reuben was forty-six thousand five hundred.

But the Levites were not numbered by their ancestral tribe along with them. For the Lord said to Moses, Only the tribe of Levi you shall not number, and you shall not take a census of them among the sons of Israel, but appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the covenant, and over all its furnishings, and over all that belongs to it.

So what did I tell you? I said that that first chapter of Numbers is going to be a doozy and it was. It was quite the doozy as they say. So but one important thing to understand, okay, this is the census. We're getting a very good sense, giving a good sense of how many people are in the wilderness. There's roughly 1.2 million men that were counted here in that numbering.

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And so please, my invitation is as we continue to journey through Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, these are the critical books, critical, critical books that I'm going to invite you, even if I don't make the connection on a daily basis in this kind of guide portion of our reading the Bible, if you can strive to make that connection for yourself between what the people of Israel were commanded to do back then and what you and I as Catholic Christians are commanded to do right now.

as we continue to read Exodus and getting to Numbers and Deuteronomy, we're going to find in all of these books a gap between us and them.

Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, every time it gets weird, every time it seems so strange and so foreign, realize, no, no, no, no. This is not strange.

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Way back in the book of Numbers, Moses told the people that they should connect tassels to their garment as a reminder of the commandments.

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We come to the end of Numbers chapter 36.

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We just went from the book of Numbers, and now we're moving into Joshua, the last period left off on the eastern side of the Jordan River looking westward across the Jordan.

It's kind of that sense of, okay, you've been protected, isolated in many ways out in the wilderness, but you're going to have to go into this land where you can't forget me. You have to remember what I've done.

In fact, those were the last words in Deuteronomy from Moses in chapter 4 and chapter 6. He says basically that you have to live your life as though two things. One, there's only one God. Number two, you've got to teach your children.

Although we actually had seen a number of stories towards the end of the book of numbers where they weren't necessarily protected.

you know what's really happening here, Father, is they've been in boot camp for a year at Mount Sinai in Numbers and Exodus, and it's showtime.

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This is another census of Israel, so just get your census caps on, get your names cap on and some numbers because we're going to go through the family of the house of Israel once again.

So we had the census at the very beginning of Numbers. Here we are with the census at the end of Numbers to kind of say, okay, after 40 years, what's going on? Who are the people?

Who are the people that are coming into the promised land who have made it through the wilderness? What are their names and how many are there?

The book of Numbers 26, another census of Israel.

The Lord said to Moses, To these, the land shall be divided for inheritance according to the number of names. To a large tribe you shall give a large inheritance, and to a small tribe you shall give a small inheritance.

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We're going to look at Numbers as the primary narrative book for the Desert Wanderings.

And those 40 years are covered by the narrative book in Numbers, which is interesting because one of the things that we find out, it's like, as you noted, the narrative book being Numbers is typically, I think for a lot of people, the one where we don't lose the story.

But at the same time, as you noted, book of Deuteronomy has so many powerful words of encouragement, words of law, words of just direction from the Lord that can immediately be applied to our life as well as the fact that Numbers can sometimes, well, even the fact that it's called the book of Numbers might mean that some sections might be a little bit hard to get through because they're not going to be so much narrative as much as it's going to be counting or giving off a list of names of people that we might not be familiar with.

But we pick up in the book of Numbers and it's important to realize that when Numbers starts, they are still at Mount Sinai.

So, yeah, that's where we're at with the book of Numbers. And the book of Numbers has an amazing chapter, chapter 33, that I would draw everyone's attention to and as you read it, it's going to be a really a cool reminder of everything that has happened. It's all the stages of Israel's journey from Egypt.

"

And so please, my invitation is as we continue to journey through Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, these are the critical books, critical, critical books that I'm going to invite you, even if I don't make the connection on a daily basis in this kind of guide portion of our reading the Bible, if you can strive to make that connection for yourself between what the people of Israel were commanded to do back then and what you and I as Catholic Christians are commanded to do right now, it is the preparation of God's people to worship him as he has asked to be worshipped.

Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. These are not ancient, not merely ancient books.

Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

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Way back in the book of Numbers, Moses told the people that they should connect tassels to their garment as a reminder of the commandments.

"

We just went from the book of Numbers, and now we're moving into Joshua.

In fact, those were the last words in Deuteronomy from Moses in chapter 4 and chapter 6.

It's kind of that sense of, okay, you've been protected, isolated in many ways out in the wilderness, but you're going to have to go into this land where you can't forget me.

"

And those 40 years are covered by the narrative book in Numbers, which is interesting because one of the things that we find out, it's like, as you noted, the narrative book being Numbers is typically, I think for a lot of people, the one where we don't lose the story.

But at the same time, as you noted, book of Deuteronomy has so many powerful words of encouragement, words of law, words of just direction from the Lord that can immediately be applied to our life, as well as the fact that Numbers can sometimes, well, even the fact that it's called the book of Numbers might mean that some sections might be a little bit hard to get through because they're not going to be so much narrative as much as it's going to be counting or giving off a list of names of people that we might not be familiar with.

So if you want a a mini story of the of the story, you can go to chapter 33 and you get from Egypt all the way till till the present.

And just remember it, Numbers is the narrative book.

And in Numbers chapter 24, we have one of the greatest real prophecies of the coming of Jesus, which is Balaam's prophecy. And he says, 'I see him, but not now. I see him, but not now.'

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One of the reasons one of the things we're going to see as they journey through the wilderness in the book of Numbers and Deuteronomy what we're going to see is here's God training his people to trust him that they're not in control just like you and I are not in control but God allows us he calls us and he calls us to walk in faith.

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So what we have is in Numbers, we're having the setup. We have the scene. We have all the tribes of Israel, right? There's the 12 tribes of Israel that are gathered around the tabernacle. That's what we're looking at for Numbers.

Numbers chapter two, order of encampment and marching. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, The sons of Israel shall encamp each by his own standard with the ensigns of their father's houses.

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I'm excited to start Deuteronomy with you tomorrow, but let's wrap up Numbers first.

The book ends on kind of a happy note, knowing that everyone is going to be provided for in God's plan for his people.

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Numbers is one of my favorite books of the Bible.

Tomorrow we'll be starting the book of Numbers. It's 36 chapters long.

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you might not think, John, that you can get a lot out of the book of numbers, but you'd be surprised.

So in the book of numbers, I wanted to focus in on one question. It comes from a verse, Numbers chapter 13, verse 33. Israelites are supposed to go in and take the promised land. And so Moses sends 12 spies in there and 10 of them come back and they're scared to death. They don't think they can do it.

They come back and they say to Moses, Moses, we can't do it. The people over there are giants. And then they say in verse 33, and we were in our own sight grasshoppers.

Now that's an interesting thing to see yourself as, right? That you look in the mirror and you see a grasshopper.

But I wrote down in my scriptures, how do you see yourself? And that can be different oftentimes than what the Lord sees.

Now notice, notice he doesn't say they don't believe in me. They believe in him. They just don't believe him.

I know that you've said all these wonderful things about me, but I just don't know if I believe you.

We want our listeners to be Joshua's and Caleb's in this world of grasshoppers, right? In a world of grasshopper, be a Joshua and a Caleb and say, no, I know who I am. I know the Lord sees greatness in me.

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go in your Bible to numbers chapter 13 and I want to look at a passage of Scripture That has been really helpful to me so many times through the years when I am caught between two thoughts and when one thought says You should and you can And one thought says you can't so don't try

And that happens to us all the time So what we see in Numbers chapter 13 verse 30, and I'm so excited to show you this I'm having to contain my excitement Is that There will always be a thought that God will bring you to deliver you There will always be a thought that the enemy will bring to destroy you

They said the land we explored devours those living in it All the people we saw there are of great size We saw the network There the descendants of a neck come from the Nephilim We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes and we looked the same to them

They wandered around and around and around in the wilderness for 40 years 40 years Not because of their enemy But because of their thought

And so now i'm fighting on the level of my feelings, but watch this Before it became a feeling Even paul it wasn't just like moses was a bad leader Even paul had to fight against opposing voices And thought systems that undermined the essence of the grace of god in the gospel