ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

 Pulelulu Sune 9, 2021 

Take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel

Lau ‘a e tokolahi ‘o e fakataha kātoa ‘o ha‘a ‘Isileli

Nomipa 1 (Numbers 1)

(v.1-2) 1  PEA folofola ‘a Sihova kia Mōsese ‘i he Toafa ‘o Sainai, ‘i he Tēniti Fe‘iloaki‘anga, ‘i he ‘uluaki ‘aho ‘i hono ua ‘o e māhina, ‘i hono ua ‘o e ta‘u ‘o ‘enau hū mai mei ‘Isipite, ‘o pehē, 2  Lau ‘a e tokolahi ‘o e fakataha kātoa ‘o ha‘a ‘Isileli, honau fa‘ahinga mo honau ngaahi ‘ulumotu‘a mo honau ngaahi hingoa, ‘a e tangata kotoa pē tāutaha.

(v. 1-2) 1  The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 2  “Take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel, by clans, by fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, every male, head by head.

 

*Commentary: David Guzik – Study Guide on the Book of Numbers*

THE CENSUS OF ISRAEL

Background to the Book of Numbers.

As recorded in the Book of Exodus, Israel escaped slavery in Egypt - God miraculously set them free from hundreds of years of bondage. They came through the Red Sea and saw God provide through the desert wilderness. They came to Mount Sinai where God appeared to them in a spectacular way; where Moses went up on the mountain to meet with God and receive the law. At Mount Sinai Israel also embraced an idolatrous image of a golden calf and was corrected by the Lord.

Encamped at Mount Sinai, Israel built a tabernacle of meeting and established a priesthood, receiving God's plan for the priests and the nation at large in Leviticus. At the end of the Book of Leviticus, they have been out of Egypt for a little more than a year.

Exodus covered a year; Leviticus only a month - but the Book of Numbers encompasses more than 38 years.

This third book of Moses tells us what happened during those 38 years. The Hebrew title of this book gives us an idea of the theme of Numbers. In Hebrew this book is titled In the Wilderness instead of Numbers.

The wilderness was never meant to be Israel's destination. God's intention was to bring them into the Promised Land of Canaan. The wilderness was intended as a temporary place - a place to move through, not to live in.

"The Hebrew word for wilderness (midbar) means a place for driving flocks. It is not a completely arid desert, but contains little vegetation and a few trees. The rainfall in such areas is too light, a few inches per year, to support cultivation." (Wenham)

The Book of Numbers is all about God's people in the wilderness - how they get there, how God deals with them in the wilderness, and how He brings them out of the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land.

"The theme of the book of Numbers is the journey to the Promised Land of Canaan. Its opening ten chapters, covering a mere fifty days, describe how Moses organized Israel for the march from Sinai to the Promised Land." (Wenham)

The Book of Numbers gives us a big vision: Where is God taking us? What will it take to get there? What inward qualities must God develop in us and demand in us along the way?

Promised Land people are very different from slave people. Israel emerged from Egypt a slave people, basically unsuited for the Promised Land. How would God transform them into a promised-land people?

"So the Israelites had been slaves in the land of Goshen; their tasks were appointed, and their taskmasters compelled their obedience. Their difficulties had been great, their bondage cruel, but they were free from the necessity of thought and arrangement. Having escaped from their taskmaster, they imagined that freedom meant escape from rule. They had been taught in their year of encampment under the shadow of the mountain that they had to submit to law, and it was irksome to them, and they became discontented. This discontent resulted from lack of perfect confidence in God." (Morgan)

The Book of Numbers approaches it all God's way. When we are in the wilderness, we are tempted to launch a hundred different schemes and plans to escape. But only God's way really works; and the Book of Numbers gives us God's way. The idea that the LORD spoke to Moses is repeated more than 150 times and more than 20 different ways in Numbers.