Page 101 - Pentateuch - Student Textbook

3. How many fighting men were in Israel? How many Israelites were there all together?

4. What is the name of the special vow a person could make?

5. How did Israel know it was time to move from one place to another?

6. When the people complained about the manna, what did God give them?

7. What happened to Miriam when she questioned Moses’ authority?

8. What happened to Israel when they refused to enter the Promised Land?

9. What happened to Korah and his friends for questioning Moses’s authority?

10. How was a person cleansed from coming into contact with a dead body?

12.5 Let’s Personalize this Lesson…

Can you see a mom tucking her kids in bed for the night? She pauses to tell them again how
Abraham was asked by God to sacrifice his son and then given a substitute. Like all children they
have favorites and might clamor for the story of Noah and the ark with the animals two-by-two.
They learn ethical lessons about lying and scheming through the stories about Jacob and Esau.
Certainly Mom and Dad, who have not yet joined Egypt worship, would tell of a coming Savior. They
would tell of the “Seed” promised to Adam and Eve who would crush Satan. They would tell of that
same “Seed” promised to Abraham as a blessing to all the earth.

These names speak, at least faintly, of faith in the gospel. At the same time Israel was being warned of
the dangers of coming too close to Yahweh if unauthorized, they have a memory of the grace of God
promised to past generations. They have the option of embracing this grace for themselves, living up to
the names their parents gave them. Law warns not to come to God in just any way. Grace speaks of a
welcome in his presence despite sin. Many lessons are learned in the wilderness for the Israelites, but
they have a good beginning. Even before Moses was born, God had plans for them, good plans.

As always, we wonder about the Israelites who understood about the coming Messiah. Is such a
believer’s faith deepened? A future sacrifice can pay for my sins. A sacrifice made outside the camp can
make me clean, approachable to God. The lesson becomes clearer after Christ, of course, but the lesson
speaks just the same. “The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are
ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the
blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to god, cleanse our
consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God (Heb. 9:1-14).”

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