Numbers - Lesson Eighteen Outline

I.    Order in the Camp.  The Israelites had been out of Egypt for a year and the time was drawing near for them to resume their journey to Canaan, the Promised Land. 

A.    Celebrating Passover (9:1-14).  On the fourteenth day of the first month of the second year out of Egypt the freed nation was to celebrate the Passover in the desert of Sinai. 

B.    Numbering the soldiers (Chapter 1).  God commanded Moses, Aaron and the Israelite leaders to take a census of the men available to serve in the army.  In Genesis 15:16 we read: "In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure."    

"The Amorites were one of the nations living in Canaan, the land God promised Abram.  God knew the people would grow more wicked and would someday need to be punished.  Part of that punishment would involve taking away their land and giving it to Abram's descendants.  God in his Mercy was giving the Amorites plenty of time to repent, but he already knew they would not.  At the right time, they would have to be punished." (NIV Life Application Study Bible)

C.    Organizing the tribes (Chapter 2).  Whenever the camp moved, the tribes moved in a prescribed order.   

D.    Assigning the priestly duties (Chapters 3-4).  Chapters 3 and 4 record two numberings of the Levites and the duties assigned to them.  The men of the tribe of Levi were charged with the care of the tabernacle.   They were to transport the tabernacle and its furniture when the camp moved and when the camp rested, to erect the tent, take care of it and assist the priests in their work.     (The New Westminster Dictionary of the Bible)

II.   Divine Provision for the Journey.

A.    The Cloud (9:15-23).    

1.      There are two significant verbs used in these verses to describe the presence of the cloud as the symbol of God's nearness.  One is the verb meaning "to cover" (V. 15); the other is the verb meaning "to settle" (V. 17.  The expression "wherever the cloud settled" contains the significant verb sakan, which is the basis for the idea of the "Shekinah glory" of God.  The English rendering "shekinah" is built on the verb meaning "to dwell" and the shortened form of the divine name Yahweh.  The Hebrew text rings with the sound of sakan, as it is also the basis for the term for "tabernacle," miskan. This phrasing symbolizes both God's nearness and his remoteness.  He is present as a cloud but hovers above. 

2.      James Philip (The Preacher's Commentary: Numbers) says that there are some spiritual lessons that emanate from the symbol of the pillar of cloud/fire.

a.      The pillar was the token of God's abiding presence with His people. 

b.      In spite of all the whining and turning away from God the Israelites did (and they aren't done with that yet!), God's presence was always and unchangeably with them.

c.      The pillar was the guarantee of God's shelter and protection. 

d.      The Lord provided divine guidance by leading them where they were to go, when they were to move on and when they were to stay put.

e.      Implicit in the idea of the pillar is the concept of revelation.  God revealed Himself to Moses and to Israel in the cloud.

f.      Also implicit in the idea of the cloud is the concept of communion.  When the pillar of cloud came down and stood at the entrance to the tabernacle, "the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend." (Ex. 33:11). 

B.    The Silver Trumpets (10:1-10).  The journey of the Israelites from Sinai to the Promised Land was to be determined by the movement of the cloud and announced by the sounding of the trumpets. 

1.      The Bible talks about two types of trumpets.  One is the silver trumpet, which we see in these verses.  The other is the ram's horn trumpet, or shofar mentioned in Joshua 6:4. 

2.      Two trumpets were blown for assembly of the people (V. 3) and one for assembly of the leaders (V. 4).  Trumpets were also blown for a signal to the people to set out on their journey (VV. 5-6), at times of battle (V. 9) and during festivals of worship (V. 10).  

3.      In times of battle the trumpet tattoo for war would be blown so that (a) Israel would be remembered before the Lord and (b) the people might be rescued from their enemies.   In this usage of the trumpets, they are similar to the function of prayer.

4.      The role of the sons of Aaron as the sole players of the silver trumpets signals the sacred function of the music. 

5.      V. 10 ends with the assertion "I am Yahweh your God." 

III.      Departure from Sinai (10:11-36).  These verses present Israel at last on the move, on their way to victory in Canaan.

A.    The March Begins.  After eleven months in the region of Mt. Sinai, the people moved out for the first time led by the Lord in His cloud - the second year, the second month, the twentieth day.   The whole journey, from Sinai to Kadesh Barnea in the desert of Paran, is succinctly recorded in VV. 11 and 12.  From Sinai to Kadesh Barnea was in fact a journey of only eleven days (Deut. 1:2).

B.    The Ark.  The procession leaving Mt. Sinai was led by the ark of the covenant, carried by the Levites and following the pillar of cloud.  When the ark set out, Moses prayed for guidance and safety and when the ark came to rest, Moses prayed that God's presence would rest with His people.  The ark would be put into the holy of holies and the pillar of fire would rest over the tabernacle during the nighttime.

IV.      Grumbling (Ch. 11).  In the first ten chapters of Numbers we see a nation obeying God.  However, Chapter 11 and continuing into Chapter 14 traces the development of a spirit of discontent among the people and their consequent murmuring against Moses and God.

A.    People's Complaint No. 1 (11:1-3).  Three days after leaving Mt. Sinai for the Promised Land, the people begin complaining about "their hardships" (11:1). 

1.      It is interesting to remember that three days after the Israelites had crossed the Red Sea and had praised God for His victory over the Egyptians, they complained against Moses and God because they had no water to drink.

2.      Whatever the cause of the complaint about hardships, God heard the complaining, became angry and caused fire to fall on the outskirts of the camp. 

B.    People's Complaint No. 2 (11:4-10).  V. 4 tells us that the mixed crowd of Egyptians and others who had followed Israel out of Egypt began to crave food other than the manna that God had continued to provide.

1.      Warren Wiersbe says that this is the only place in the Old Testament where the Hebrew word that the NIV translates "rabble" is used and it is used to describe that mixed crowd. 

2.      The complaining of the rabble caused the Israelites to complain about their lack of meat. 

C.    Moses' Grievance and God's Response (11:11-35).  The people's complaining profoundly disturbed Moses.  The verses which follow this section describe how God helped Moses to solve two difficult problems.

1.      Problem No. 1: How to govern so many people.  God commanded Moses to select 70 elders so they could be empowered to help him manage the people.

2.      Problem No. 2: How to provide meat for all the people.  God delivers fresh meat in the form of quail, sending a wind that blows quail in from the sea.  The people gather and eat quail for a month until they loath it (V. 20).  Before the meat is cut off by God, he strikes them in judgment for their behavior with a divine plague.  Whatever the precise nature of this plague resulting from the quail, it is deadly, as implied by the name given to the place: Kibroth Hataavah ("the graves of craving," 11:34).   

D.    Complaint of Miriam and Aaron (Ch. 12).  Chapter 12 gives us a further example of murmuring in Israel.  Here the opposition comes from those closest to Moses, his own sister and brother. 

1.      The heart of the issue for Miriam and Aaron lies in the challenge they made against Moses' position as leader of the people and his right to speak for God.  Underlying this pretext was resentment at Moses' authority.

2.      James Philip has an additional thought here.  He says that they were also reacting against the word that Moses spoke from God and against the "word" that his dedicated and consecrated life spoke to them.     

E.    Spirit of Murmuring.

1.      At Kibroth Hattaavah God comes down hard on the grousing Israelites.   When the people grumbled about food, it was not just complaining; it was a rebellious refusal to trust God.       

2.      The murmuring, complaining spirit of the Israelites reached its climax at Kadesh Barnea where God turned the people back from the Promised Land and kept them in the desert for 40 years. 

3.      James Philip says that the point is not that that generation was lost but that they were "disqualified in the purposes of God." 

"What it amounts to is this: God had bestowed on Israel the dignity and privilege of a spiritual calling and destiny; He had made bare His holy arm on their behalf, shown them the bright and glorious prospect that faced them if they were prepared to walk in His ways - and they sneered at it, reacted against it, lightly esteemed it, and turned their backs on their destiny, in sheer carnal worldliness.  Discontent with a spiritual calling - this is the theme, and its relevance and importance are surely obvious for us, in relation to how He dealt with them for their sins."  (James Philip)      

F.    Lessons for the Here and Now.  

1.      In the scripture for today we have seen two kinds of opposition to the Lord's work: On the one hand resistance from the worldly rabble and on the other resistance from those who should have known better, those who "knew the higher and chose the lower."

"The really dangerous problems facing the work of God arise not so much from the worldliness of a mixed multitude as from the refusal by God's own people of the Word and the Cross that alone can discipline, fashion, and transform their lives.  And the real enemies of His work are not the unconverted and the graceless, but those who have a name that they live and are dead, who pay lip-service to evangelical truth but have said no to the heart-bruising, life-changing, character-forming word of the Cross and have desired an easier way."  (James Philip)

2.      One way to combat negative thoughts and emotions is to keep everything in perspective by remembering God's faithfulness and His blessings in the past as well as the present.

3.      Complaining is alive and well today.  But there is a better way.  I call it "From Grumbling to Groaning," based on Romans 8:16 which says: "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  We do not know what we ought to prayer for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express."  In Philippians 4:6-7, we read "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."                

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