numbers

Woooo! I finished Numbers!

It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I was expecting boring genealogies - and even though there were some very repetitive chapters (like chapter 26, oh! and 29..), - there was also heaps of action and even some jaw-dropping moments.

Take for example this excerpt from Numbers 16, Moses is trying to show everyone that Korah, Dathan and Abiram have sinned against God. The people were not entirely convinced so Moses says...

Numbers 16:29-34 If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men; then the LORD hath not sent me. But if the LORD make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the LORD. And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them: And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation. And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them: for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up also.

:O Whoa.... That beats the genealogies for sure.

But Numbers is really a book about God's leadership of His people and their defiant rebellions in the wilderness. Ken Casillas gave us some really good points during the Old Testament Survey in EBI. Casillas took a closer look at the many rebellions of the Israelites in the book of Numbers - complaints about food, water, going to battle, and pretty much everything else they had to do. Add to this idolatry, immorality, demands for power and it amazes you that God still gave them a second, third, fourth (and it goes on) chance - you really see just how merciful God was (and still is).

We also see the different causes of rebellion and we realise that the causes back then are the same causes for rebellion today. Casillas identified five:

1. Discontentment (with God's provisions is really discontentment with God Himself)
2. Inordinate physical desire
3. Ambition
4. Faithlessness (failure to trust what God had said)
5. Ungodly influences

So another book is done and dusted and I am one small step closer to finishing the Bible in a year.