The Numbers Recorded (Num 1:17-47)

11/29/2008 10:35 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                        Focus:  The numbers recorded

Bible Reading & Meditation                        Reference:  Numbers 1:17-46

            Message of the verses:  I want to explain how I am going to do this SD because it may be a bit different than the others.  The section that is explained in Dr. Wiersbe’s book, “Be Counted,” is from verses 17-26 and then the next section in his book goes from 47-54 and there is not commentary done on verses 27-46 so I will write something about these verses in this SD.  I will not copy and paste all the verses because of the great number of them.

            “17 ¶  So Moses and Aaron took these men who had been designated by name, 18  and they assembled all the congregation together on the first of the second month. Then they registered by ancestry in their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, head by head, 19  just as the LORD had commanded Moses. So he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai. 20  Now the sons of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war, 21  their numbered men of the tribe of Reuben were 46,500.  22  Of the sons of Simeon, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, their numbered men, according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war, 23  their numbered men of the tribe of Simeon were 59,300. 24  Of the sons of Gad, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war, 25  their numbered men of the tribe of Gad were 45,650.  26  Of the sons of Judah, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war, 27  their numbered men of the tribe of Judah were 74,600.”  Now this is a sampling of what the verses do say all the way to verse 45 & 46, which gives the total number of men in each tribe that was twenty years and older at this time.  “45  So all the numbered men of the sons of Israel by their fathers’ households, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war in Israel, 46  even all the numbered men were 603,550.”

            Every one of these men died in the wilderness with the exception of Joshua and Caleb because of the sin of not trusting that the Lord would indeed use Israel to destroy the Canaanites that were in the land that was given to Israel.  Now after all of these men died there was another census taken and the results of that census is given in 26:51, “51  These are those who were numbered of the sons of Israel, 601,730.”  This seems like a miracle to me because the number of men is only a couple of thousand less that it was forty years before and all of those men died in those forty years of wandering in the wilderness.  There was an average of 417 funerals a day of just the men who died in that forty year span.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  God surely kept His Word that He made to Abraham, in that the family of Abraham did grow into a mighty nation.  God does indeed keep His promises and so it is important to me that I keep up the faith that I have in Him and not become a person who does not trust the Lord for there are many, many promises in the Scriptures that have to do with His children of which, by God’s grace and by Christ’s death and resurrection, I am one of them and must hold onto those promises.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1. Give myself to the Lord for service and worship.
2. Trust the Lord to guide my path today.
3. Trust the Lord to teach me, and me to learn contentment.
4. Recon my old self to be dead.

Memory verses for the week:                                              Romans 6:1-7

1. What shall we say then?  Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2. May it never be!  How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3. Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4. Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5. For if we have become untied with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6. knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves of sin;
7. for he who has died is freed from sin.

11/29/2008 11:14 AM