Murder pollutes the land
Setting boundaries and cities for the Israelites: Numbers 34–36 Murder wasn’t something God wanted to see in a community. Murder attracted a …
Category Archives: Numbers
Trading wealth for destiny
Gad, Reuben and Manasseh stay, recounting the Israelite’s travels: Numbers 32–33 It’s hard not to see a parallel with Lot’s choice of …
Almost a scorched-earth approach
Making vows and revenge on the Midianites: Numbers 25–26 It wasn’t quite a scorched-earth strategy, but it was close. The …
Authority transferred to Joshua
Inheritance, Joshua and Sabbaths: Numbers 27–29 Joshua had been Moses’ assistant for more than 40 years. With Caleb, he’d seen the …
Food sacrificed to idols in Moab
Mixing with Moab and the final census: Numbers 25–26 We’re not entirely sure how it happened, but some Israelite men fell for …
A failed curse over Israel
Balak asks Balaam to curse Israel, blesses instead: Numbers 22–24 Israel’s start as a nation wasn’t all easy. Already the …
A bronze snake
Wandering in the wilderness, water, snakes, unexpected battles: Numbers 19–21 The story about snakes, and the cure for snakebite, is …
Hopeless
The Levites complain: Numbers 16–18 The reality of their situation was starting to bite: there would be no promised land for …
The politics of fear wins over faith
Exploring Canaan: Numbers 13–15 The 12 scouts came back from Canaan with a two-part report. One was positive, showing that …
Complain and consequence
Complaints: Numbers 11–12 Despite everything the people had seen God do, they didn’t cope with the hardship of desert life: …
Who finds the campsites?
The silver trumpets and leaving Sinai: Numbers 10 Moses seems to have wanted to have it both ways. On one …
To wrong a person is to betray the Lord
Purity in marriage and vows: Numbers 5–6 Doing wrong to another person was the same as betraying the Lord: Numbers …
The army that never was
A count of Israelite fighting men and Levites: Numbers 1–4 A census of fighting men gave the following: Numbers 1:45-46 They were …
The first desert Passover
Dedicating the Levites, the second Passover: Numbers 8–9 The Passover was an important celebration of God’s relationship with His people: it was …
God’s voice from the Tabernacle
Offerings of dedication: Numbers 7 Imagine this: in the middle of the wilderness, there’s a camp of hundreds of thousands if …
Manna
Manna has become the symbol of God’s miraculous provision to the Israelites, and generally. In Deuteronomy, Moses explained the reason …
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