Numbers - Introduction

Taking these repeated statements of the covenant all together, four main covenant promises can be seen. First, God promised that He would maintain a personal relationship with His people: He would be their God, and they would be His people. They would enjoy fellowship with Him; they would be His sons and daughters, His family (Romans 9:4–5; 1 Peter 2:9). The development and maintenance of this relationship, this fellowship with God, is the single most important goal of all mankind, and it is the central concern of the entire Bible.

The second covenant promise concerns the land; God promised to give the Israelites a land of their own. In the Old Testament, the “promised land” was Canaan (modern Palestine and Israel). But according to the New Testament, Canaan was but the beginning, the firstfruits of the fulfillment of this promise. Paul says that Abraham received the promise that he would be heir of the world (Romans 4:13). God planned to redeem not only Canaan for His people but the whole of creation as well (Romans 8:18–23). Even Abraham was looking forward to something beyond Canaan, to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God (Hebrews 11:10). The Old Testament patriarchs were longing for a better country—a heavenly one (Hebrews 11:16). In all this we can see that the promise of Canaan was the foreshadowing of a much greater promise–the promise of an inheritance in heaven.

The third covenant promise concerns the Israelites themselves: God promised that they would become a great nation (Genesis 12:2)—as numerous as “sand” and “stars.” And indeed they were becoming so. They had started in EGYPT as a family of seventy (Genesis 46:27); by the beginning of Numbers they had become a nation of two million.

The fourth covenant promise concerns the blessing that is to come to the whole world through Abraham’s offspring (Genesis 22:18). The ultimate fulfillment of this promise is found in Jesus Christ, a direct descendant of Abraham (Matthew 1:1; Galatians 3:16). Jesus is the light of the world (John 1:4,9; 9:5), and we His followers are also to be lights in the world (Matthew 5:16). Through Christ, we too are Abraham’s spiritual offspring, and we have been commissioned to spread the blessings of the covenant–reconciliation and fellowship with God–throughout the world (Matthew 28:19–20; Acts 1:8).

Numbers, then, reveals to us one further stage in the unfolding of God’s great plan for mankind. But though we can rejoice in God’s faithfulness, let us also learn from the sins of the Israelites (1 Corinthians 10:1–11). Our God will punish SIN and unbelief; He is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). Today as we journey toward the “promised land,” toward our eternal home and rest, let us not fall short of it, as the Israelites did in the desert; they heard the word of God, but they did not combine it with faith (Hebrews 4:1–2,11). The lessons of the book of Numbers are as relevant to us today as they were to ancient Israel.