As we have noted, Numbers 1-10 is about God preparing His people to leave Sinai and to enter the Promised Land as His instruments of judgment upon the Canaanites and receive the promises that Yahweh made to their ancestor Abraham. The first six chapters focused on the people themselves as the LORD counted, centered, guarded, …
Last week, we came to one of the climatic moments of these opening chapters of Numbers. Remember that everything in these first ten chapters is about preparing Israel to leave Sinai and enter the Promised Land, where God will fulfill His promise to Abraham and also use them as His instrument of judgment upon the …
Continue reading Spoken: The Dedication of the Altar | Numbers 7
Clinger. Clutcher. Grabber. The ESV footnote says that Jacob's name means 'to take by the heel' or 'he cheats.' If we called him Grasper, he certainly lived up to the name. While Esau let go of his birthright for a bowl of soup, Jacob clutched it away from his brother's hand. Then came Isaac's deathbed …
Continue reading Blessed: The Aaronic Blessing | Numbers 6:22-27
I haven't seen Christopher Nolan's Odyssey. I don't know if I will. The internet seems divided. Some call it one of Nolan's greatest achievements; others call it a desecration of Homer. I suspect the truth is somewhere between those extremes. Great artists have always reimagined great works, and viewers have always been free to embrace …
Continue reading Whether You See the Movie or Not, Read the Book
God is preparing His people for the Promised Land, and so far in Numbers, Israel has been counted, centered, guarded, assigned, and cleansed. As we have noted, these chapters have come in pairs. Chapters 1 and 2 concerned the whole congregation of Israel. Chapters 3 and 4 narrowed the focus to the Levites. Now, chapters …
Continue reading Consecrated: The Nazarite Vow | Numbers 6:1-21
Yahweh is preparing His people to enter the Promised Land. That is the big idea for all of Numbers 1-10. And He is not simply getting them ready for possession but for invasion. Four hundred years prior, God promised to give Canaan to Abraham's family, but He did not do so in the patriarch's day. …
Numbers 4 must be understood in the context of Numbers 1-10, which is primarily about Yahweh preparing Israel to be His earthly army, paralleling His heavenly army. That preparation began in Numbers 1 with the first census. God's people needed to be counted, both counted in for the privileges and counted on for the responsibilities. …
Continue reading Assigned: The Work of the Levites | Numbers 4
The overall purpose of Numbers 1-10 is that Yahweh is organizing and preparing Israel to be His earthly hosts. They are to be His earthly army through whom He will enact His judgment upon the Canaanites. So far, the first two chapters have given us the number and focus of the whole congregation. In Numbers …
Why Numbers? Because it was next. The first series I preached at Western Meadows was Genesis 1-11. Only three years since have been without a series through a portion of the Pentateuch. By the Lord's grace, we have completed Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus, which brings us now to Numbers. We will not study the whole …
Last week, we began the section of the Song of Songs that takes us today to the very center of the poem. It began in 3:6 with the question of who or what is coming up from the wilderness like a column of smoke? I made the argument that both of those translations are correct …
B. C. Newton 