Author: Not stated but traditionally
attributed to Moses.
Date: Approximately 1400 BC.
Ten Words or Less: Faithless Israelites wander forty years
in the wilderness of Sinai.
Details, Please: Numbers begins with a census - hence the
book's name. Fourteen months after the Israelites escape to
Egypt, they number 603,550 men, not including the Levites. This
mass of people, the newly formed nation of Israel, begins a
march of approximately two hundred miles to the "promised land"
of Canaan - a journey that will take decades to complete. The
delay is God's punishment of the people, who complain about food
and water, rebel against Moses, and hesitate to enter Canaan
because of powerful people already living there. God decrees
that this entire generation will die in the wilderness, leaving
the Promised Land to a new generation of more obedient
Israelites.
Key Verses: The LORD is longsuffering, and of great
mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression. (14:18)
Unique and Unusual: Even Moses misses out on the Promised
Land, punishment for disobeying God by striking, rather than
speaking to, a rock from which water would miraculously appear
(20:1-13).
So What?: God hates sin and punishes it.
We can be thankful that Jesus took that punishment for us.
