Book of Numbers - Bible Survey
Answered from the commentary of C. H. Mackintosh, Morrish Bible Dictionary, William Kelly and 9 others
Numbers is the book of Israel’s wilderness journey, setting out the people’s service, trials, and testing as they travel toward the promised land. It begins with the numbering and ordering of the camp around the tabernacle, the Levites’ service, and provision for the journey under God’s guidance.
The journey soon brings the people’s unbelief, murmuring, rebellion, and failure into view; after they refuse to enter the land, that generation is sentenced to die in the wilderness, and the journey is prolonged. Yet God’s patience, provision, and priestly intercession continue through their failures, and His purpose to bring the people into the land stands firm. The book also records Balaam’s attempts to curse Israel being turned into blessings, Israel’s later sin at Peor, and the numbering of a new generation ready to inherit the land.
Verses: Numbers 1:1, Numbers 1:2, Numbers 1:3, Numbers 1:4, Numbers 1:5, Numbers 1:6, Numbers 1:7, Numbers 1:8, Numbers 1:9, Numbers 1:10, Numbers 1:11, Numbers 1:12, Numbers 1:13, Numbers 1:14, Numbers 1:15, Numbers 1:16, Numbers 1:17, Numbers 1:18, Numbers 1:19, Numbers 1:20, Numbers 1:21, Numbers 1:22, Numbers 1:23, Numbers 1:24, Numbers 1:25, Numbers 1:26, Numbers 1:27, Numbers 1:28, Numbers 1:29, Numbers 1:30, Numbers 1:31, Numbers 1:32, Numbers 1:33, Numbers 1:34, Numbers 1:35, Numbers 1:36, Numbers 1:37, Numbers 1:38, Numbers 1:39, Numbers 1:40, Numbers 1:41, Numbers 1:42, Numbers 1:43, Numbers 1:44, Numbers 1:45, Numbers 1:46, Numbers 1:47, Numbers 1:48, Numbers 1:49, Numbers 1:50, Numbers 1:51, Numbers 1:52, Numbers 1:53, Numbers 1:54, Numbers 2:1, Numbers 2:2, Numbers 2:3, Numbers 2:4, Numbers 2:5, Numbers 2:6, Numbers 2:7, Numbers 2:8, Numbers 2:9, Numbers 2:10, Numbers 2:11, Numbers 2:12, Numbers 2:13, Numbers 2:14, Numbers 2:15, Numbers 2:16, Numbers 2:17, Numbers 2:18, Numbers 2:19, Numbers 2:20, Numbers 2:21, Numbers 2:22, Numbers 2:23, Numbers 2:24, Numbers 2:25, Numbers 2:26, Numbers 2:27, Numbers 2:28, Numbers 2:29, Numbers 2:30, Numbers 2:31, Numbers 2:32, Numbers 2:33, Numbers 2:34, Numbers 3:1, Numbers 5:1, Numbers 7:1, Numbers 10:11, Numbers 13:1, Numbers 15:1, Numbers 20:1, Numbers 22:1, Numbers 25:1, Numbers 25:2, Numbers 25:3, Numbers 25:4, Numbers 25:5, Numbers 25:6, Numbers 25:7, Numbers 25:8, Numbers 25:9, Numbers 25:10, Numbers 25:11, Numbers 25:12, Numbers 25:13, Numbers 25:14, Numbers 25:15, Numbers 25:16, Numbers 25:17, Numbers 25:18, Numbers 26:1, Numbers 31:1, Numbers 33:1
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What the commentators say
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Numbers is the book of Israel's wilderness wanderings. A journey that normally would take 11 days (Deut.1:2) was stretched out to nearly forty years because of Israel's faithless disobedience. Genesis is the book of life, that is, God's beginning His work with mankind in vital, living power. Exodus is the book of redemption, with God's authority established among the redeemed people. Leviticus then brings those people into the presence of God, for it is the sanctuary book which lifts us altogether above the level of the world. However, Numbers brings our feet down to earth again, where we are tested by the experiences of the wilderness. Four is the number of testing, so Numbers is the fourth book of scripture, and Israel's forty years in the desert emphasize this lesson.
It may be regarded as a divine history of the wanderings of the Israelites in the wilderness for about thirty-eight years and ten months, commencing with the first movement of the camp after the tabernacle was reared. And also, as a perpetual memorial of Jehovah's patient, tender, and unwearied care of His murmuring and rebellious people. It is emphatically a wilderness book, and characterized by journeyings, service, and all the vicissitudes of wilderness life. As such, it is deeply interesting, most instructive, and easily applied to the Christian in this present evil world. Compare Numbers 1 and 36:13, with Deuteronomy 1:3.
In a little over a year from the Exodus there had to be a numbering of the people. When we come to Numbers 26 we find there had to be another numbering just before they entered the land; and from these two occasions the book gets its name. It is the Book however in which we get details of the journeyings of the people in the wilderness. If it opens at the end of the first year in the wilderness after the law had been given, it closes with the people on the border of the promised land at the end of the forty years.
Literally, the book of Numbers is evidently the history of Israel's wilderness-life from Sinai onward, — that is, after their formal incorporation as the people of God under the legal covenant. It is a history of sad and terrible failure, — instead of a rapid march to Canaan, a sojourn of forty years in the desert, during which the entire generation that left Egypt as grown-up men (except two persons) perish under the judgment of God. But a new generation is led on to the borders of the land, conquerors over all opposition, until just opposite and ready to enter Canaan, the history ends; Deuteronomy being simply a review, and not a history.
Now the specific object of Numbers is to set out the journeyings of Israel through the wilderness, and this typically as usual in scripture. It is no longer access to God. This we have seen in Leviticus, where the tabernacle stood in the foreground, out of which Jehovah caused His communications to be given to Moses, as well as to Aaron, or even to the people through Moses. In the book of Numbers the Spirit of God has the desert before Him, rather than the sanctuary. We shall find of course the sanctuary, but the question here is not one of drawing near to God as far as this could be then, but of the walk of the people of God on the earth. I say the earth, because it does not always set before us the earth as it now is — a wilderness, but the earth even as it shall be when the Lord Jesus takes the kingdom. We shall find the importance of this remark before we have done with the book of Numbers. Still it is everywhere the earth as the scene through which the redeemed of the Lord are passing.
The events of the last year, with a list of all the halting places from Egypt; Num. 20 — Num. 36. As a whole the book may be said to give the service and walk of the people, their trials and testings under responsibility: typical of the spiritual service and walk of Christians now in the wilderness. In the Hebrew the title of the book is "In the Wilderness."
The book opens with the numbering of the people, and then the arrangement of the tribes around the tabernacle. Each tribe had an individual place and interest before the Lord: type of God's saints being acknowledged and their place appointed in reference to His testimony. There were twelve tribes besides the Levites, who were reserved for the service of the tent of testimony, and would be located round the court. All were placed as appointed, and each was to pitch his tent near the standard to which he belonged. See CAMP.
1880 52 The Book of Numbers gives us the history of the journeying of the Israelites in the wilderness and of their continual rebellion. As the history of God's people, it is most encouraging, inasmuch as it exalts God and shows all His patience toward His people. Toward the end of the journey, God gives this judgment that He has not seen iniquity in Jacob.
Israel encamped at the commandment of the Lord; the ark of the covenant conducted them. God gave them in everything directions. After that the ark had directed them for three days, they complained of fatigue. It is the first time that Israel complains of the road, and the beginning of the action of unbelief, even in the hearts of the faithful. After having passed the Red Sea Israel sang the song of perfect deliverance. But when it is needful to march through a desert where there is no water nor road, and where one must depend for everything on God, flesh begins to get weary and regrets the enjoyments it had in Egypt!
Numbers is a book very clear in its general meaning, and its witness for the numerical structure is so much the more evident. It is the history of the wilderness, as one of its Hebrew titles indicates, of Israel's journeyings from Sinai to the land of Moab, over against the promised land, where Deuteronomy gives them its final word. It is essentially their history; for though Exodus gives the account of the first part of the way as far as Sinai from the Red Sea, yet its object is very different, namely, to show God's care over them and provision for them, according to the grace of that deliverance which is the theme of the book. And surely Numbers is not wanting in this grace; but that it may be grace, the people are permitted to show out fully what they are, — what we are, no less than they. Then the resurrection-priesthood displays its virtues for them; and the root of sin being reached and judged in the brazen serpent, the accusation of the enemy is turned into full unchallengeable blessing.
The story of Numbers is of deep interest. We do not need to follow here the events in detail as recorded in the different chapters; this will be our happy task as we study this book. The Lord had the people numbered first. They had to show their pedigree that they really belonged to the people of God. Then the camp was set in order. The service of the Levites in connection with the tabernacle was appointed. Everything was in readiness for the journey towards the land and the possession of the land. Jehovah Himself went before the camp. Then comes the sad history of Israel 's failure, their murmuring and unbelief. They became wanderers and their carcasses fell in the wilderness.
Numbers needs not more than a word of reminder. A well ordered camp, the forward journey, marred almost at once by unbelief and departure from God; the priestly intercession of Aaron; the certainty of final blessing spite of all failure, and of the desire of the enemy to curse: — such are some of the themes of this book of trial and testing in the wilderness of this world.
Verses
- Numbers 1:1–541And Jehovah spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the tent of meeting, on the first of the second month, in the second year after their departure from the land of Egypt, saying, 2Take the sum of the whole assembly of the children of Israel, after their families, according to their fathers' houses, by the number of the names, every male, according to their polls; 3from twenty years and upward, all that go forth to military service in Israel ye shall number them according to their hosts, thou and Aaron. 4And with you there shall be a man for every tribe, a man who is the head of his father's house. 5And these are the names of the men that shall stand with you for Reuben, Elizur the son of Shedeur; 6for Simeon, Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai; 7for Judah, Nahshon the son of Amminadab; 8for Issachar, Nethaneel the son of Zuar; 9for Zebulun, Eliab the son of Helon; 10for the children of Joseph for Ephraim, Elishama the son of Ammihud; for Manasseh, Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur; 11for Benjamin, Abidan the son of Gideoni; 12for Dan, Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai; 13for Asher, Pagiel the son of Ocran; 14for Gad, Eliasaph the son of Deuel; 15for Naphtali, Ahira the son of Enan. 16These were those summoned of the assembly, princes of the tribes of their fathers, the heads of the thousands of Israel. 17And Moses and Aaron took these men who are expressed by their names, 18and gathered the whole assembly together on the first of the second month. And they declared their pedigrees after their families, according to their fathers' houses, by the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, according to their polls. 19As Jehovah had commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai. 20And the sons of Reuben, Israel's eldest son, their generations, after their families, according to their fathers' houses, by the number of the names, according to their polls, every male from twenty years old and upward, all that went forth to military service 21those that were numbered of them, of the tribe of Reuben, were forty-six thousand five hundred. 22Of the sons of Simeon their generations, after their families, according to their fathers' houses, those that were numbered of them, by the number of the names, according to their polls, every male from twenty years old and upward, all that went forth to military service 23those that were numbered of them, of the tribe of Simeon, were fifty-nine thousand three hundred. 24Of the sons of Gad their generations, after their families, according to their fathers' houses, by the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that went forth to military service 25those that were numbered of them, of the tribe of Gad, were forty-five thousand six hundred and fifty. 26Of the sons of Judah their generations, after their families, according to their fathers' houses, by the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that went forth to military service 27those that were numbered of them, of the tribe of Judah, were seventy-four thousand six hundred. 28Of the sons of Issachar their generations, after their families, according to their fathers' houses, by the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that went forth to military service 29those that were numbered of them, of the tribe of Issachar, were fifty-four thousand four hundred. 30Of the sons of Zebulun their generations, after their families, according to their fathers' houses, by the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that went forth to military service 31those that were numbered of them, of the tribe of Zebulun, were fifty-seven thousand four hundred. 32Of the sons of Joseph of the children of Ephraim their generations, after their families, according to their fathers' houses, by the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that went forth to military service 33those that were numbered of them, of the tribe of Ephraim, were forty thousand five hundred. 34Of the children of Manasseh their generations, after their families, according to their fathers' houses, by the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that went forth to military service 35those that were numbered of them, of the tribe of Manasseh, were thirty-two thousand two hundred. 36Of the sons of Benjamin their generations, after their families, according to their fathers' houses, by the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that went forth to military service 37those that were numbered of them, of the tribe of Benjamin, were thirty-five thousand four hundred. 38Of the sons of Dan their generations, after their families, according to their fathers' houses, by the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that went forth to military service 39those that were numbered of them, of the tribe of Dan, were sixty-two thousand seven hundred. 40Of the sons of Asher their generations, after their families, according to their fathers' houses, by the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that went forth to military service 41those that were numbered of them, of the tribe of Asher, were forty-one thousand five hundred. 42Of the sons of Naphtali their generations, after their families, according to their fathers' houses, by the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that went forth to military service 43those that were numbered of them, of the tribe of Naphtali, were fifty-three thousand four hundred. 44These are those that were numbered, whom Moses and Aaron numbered, and the princes of Israel, the twelve men each one was for the house of his fathers. 45And all those that were numbered of the children of Israel, according to their fathers' houses, from twenty years old and upward, all that went forth to military service in Israel, 46all they that were numbered were six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty. 47But the Levites after the tribe of their fathers were not numbered among them. 48For Jehovah had spoken to Moses, saying, 49Only thou shalt not number the tribe of Levi, neither take the sum of them among the children of Israel. 50But thou, appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of testimony, and over all the vessels thereof, and over all things that belong to it they shall bear the tabernacle, and all its vessels; and they shall serve it, and round about the tabernacle shall they encamp; 51and when the tabernacle setteth forward, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle encampeth, the Levites shall set it up; and the stranger that cometh near shall be put to death. 52And the children of Israel shall encamp every man in his camp, and every man by his own standard, according to their hosts; 53but the Levites shall encamp round about the tabernacle of testimony, that there come not wrath upon the assembly of the children of Israel; and the Levites shall keep the charge of the tabernacle of testimony. 54And the children of Israel did so; according to all that Jehovah had commanded Moses, so did they.