Numbers is punctuated by five sections detailing the laws under which Israel was to live. The first, in chapters 5-6, responds the fact that God is Among Them, his Tabernacle is in the heart of the camp. The camp must therefore be clean. These chapters outline: Three things which defile the camp Two things which…
In the Wilderness the holy God living among an unholy people, the Levites were called to maintain the sacrifices and the tabernacle that protected the one from the other. In order to maintain the vertical relationship between each Israelite and his holy God, a great, horizontal network of relationships among the Israelites was necessary, with…
The careful detail of Numbers 2-3 concerning the layout of the Israelite camp focuses our attention on three things: The Place of the Levites The Service of the Levites The Substitution of the Levites
The first chapter of Numbers is a census of the Israelite people, but not the kind of census we might expect. It counts only men, and of the men it counts only the men able to fight in the army. This isn’t a simple numbering of the population, this is a preparation for war, this…
The book of Numbers stands in the Old Testament both as a warning and as a source of hope.