Getting Biblical in Daily Life
When you get down to it, Numbers is all about God's relationship with his people. Let's explore that, shall we?
You Gotta Have Faith
In the beginning (or a little bit after), God freed the people from slavery and started to lead them to a new life with him. At first, they're pretty down with this. God gives them lots of new laws and helpful travel tips (always unpack your tent poles first). Then, the people hit the road and things get a little crazy.
See, God's chosen people have taken a hard right towards disobedience. Even though God has a whole fabulous future planned for them (complete with laws and promised lands), the Israelites are not buying it. What has God done for them lately? (Aside from the whole freeing-them-from-slavery thing.) Apparently, they're gonna need time to settle into their new role as God's blessed and chosen people.
And God is happy to give them some time to think about it. Forty years to be exact. He's actually super patient and, even though he considers it a couple times, God never turns his back on his people. He stays with them until they finally figure it out (or die, whichever comes first). In the end though, the Israelites do learn to trust in God and to understand the super special love he has for them (Source 111).
Breaking The Law
Love? But isn't God kind of a big meanie in this book? Well, yes and no. Sure, God doles out punishments left and right when his people break his rules. But these punishments are all part of God's master plan to whip these guys into shape. Stay with us here (Source 111).
Think about it. When a young girl hits her little brother, she gets in trouble, right? And her parents are the ones that do the punishing. Sure, maybe her brother deserved that punch for being a little doofus. Or maybe she just likes smacking around people that are smaller than her. But overall, hitting people is not a good thing. The parents punish the kid to teach her that.
So, when God orders a guy stoned to death for collecting sticks on the Sabbath, at first this seems like a huge overreaction. It's just some sticks. But the same is true for the girl. She only hit her brother once. It's not like she drew blood or anything. Now, she has to sit in her room for the rest of the night with no TV. It's not fair!
But God, like the parents, is much more focused on the bigger lesson. Don't collect sticks on the Sabbath because God told you not to work on the Sabbath. Take a day off, man. Overall, having some down time every week to enjoy God and family is a good thing. Now that guy who collected sticks will know that. Or rather, he'll be dead. But you better believe that everyone else in camp is gonna know it.
Leaders Of The Pack
Okay, so God is really getting his hands dirty here, but he can't do it all on his own. He needs humans to help. That's why he appointed Moses. And Aaron. And Aaron's son. And the Levites. In fact, he's a big fan of giving everyone in camp a purpose and job. Don't like your job? Sorry, God's orders (Source 113).
Seriously. Nothing makes God madder than when the people question his divinely appointed leaders. Moses and Aaron are constantly fighting off challenges from the people. What makes you guys so special? And in a way, these rebels have a point. Why is Moses the only one who gets to talk to God? Maybe the rest of us would like to get in on tabernacle duties? Time to get some democracy up in here!
But democracy is not the name of the day. There's a clear chain of command. God → Moses → Everyone else. The key here is order. Follow Moses and you're following God. Follow God and good things will happen.
Really, this is no different from any other civilized society. It's pretty hard to keep hundreds or thousands of people living in peace without some rules or appointed leaders. In other words, there has to be something that keeps us all from smashing the conch and killing Piggy. For the ancient Israelites, that something is God.
Postcards From Exile
So, why write all this down?
Well, aside from the fact that it's a really amazing story, Numbers is also a reflection on what was going on at the time it was written. Even though the book takes place around 1500 BCE, many scholars think it wasn't physically written down until after 597 BCE.
This year is pretty significant because it is the start of the Babylonian Exile. The Jewish people had been living in the Promised Land (i.e. the Land of Israel) for quite a while. They'd built up a whole life there and lived for generations when, suddenly, some of their neighbors, the Chaldeans, decided they wouldn't mind enjoying a little of that milk and honey, too.
Once the Chaldeans conquered Jerusalem, they started deporting the people there in waves. It was mostly wealthy or important Jews that were kicked out. They were forced to relocate to Babylon. If you take a look at the famous psalm—"By the rivers of Babylon[…] we wept when we remembered Zion" (Psalm 137:1)—you can get an idea of how much this would have sucked.
So, you've just been kicked out of your homeland? What should you do? One solution is to write down the story of the time that God gave you that homeland. Record all the struggles and hardships you had to go through to get to it. Just make sure you don't forget this one big, hopeful lesson—if God gave this land to you once, he'll do it again. Hey, you gotta dream, right (Source 110)?