Man Rebels - Numbers

My theme for the book of Numbers is the rebellion of the people of Israel.


At the beginning of Numbers, God prepares the people of Israel to enter the promised land, but when the spies come back with a bad report, "a land that devours its inhabitants and all the people that we saw in it are of great height," the people rebel against God (Numbers 13-14).

So God promises judgment on all who have rebelled:

...None of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it...

(Genesis 14:22-23)

Even Moses rebels against God at Meribah by striking the rock, causing God to also forbid him to enter the promised land.  By the end of Numbers, Israel really is ready to enter the promised land because of these two things:

1. The old generation who rebelled have all died in the wilderness (Numbers 26:63-65).
2. Joshua is appointed to lead the people into the promised land, thus replacing Moses (Numbers 27:16-20).

It seems that this truth is inescapable:  no matter how much of God's power or glory or _____ (fill in the blank) that we sinful people see, we always rebel and separate ourselves from God.  And so, once again, my Old Testament reading really is pointing back to the need for a perfect Messiah to come and change the rebellious hearts of man in order to restore our relationship with our holy God.  

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One other part of Numbers that I was really interested by was the story of Balak and Balaam.  This story is referenced quite a few other times in Scripture, so I was happy to finally read its full context with the rest of the book of Numbers.  Anyway, what I found so interesting about it was the fact that even though Balaam is a greedy man who is hired by Balak to curse Israel, all Balaam can do is bless Israel and speak truth about God, literally.  Surprisingly enough, as I was reading Balaam's second blessing/oracle, I realized that I had actually memorized one of the verses around 4 years ago!

I wish that when I was memorizing this I would have looked into the context and significance of this verse more because it really adds great depth to the meaning.  I have now changed my method of memorizing the Word though, so that should keep me from doing this again (more on that later).