Page 95 - Pentateuch - Student Textbook

12.3 From Sinai to Kadesh Barnea

Numbers is written in three sections based on geographic location. The beginnings of the
second and third sections are marked by travel reports.

Section I: Mt. Sinai, 1:1-10:10
Travel: From Sinai to Kadesh–Barnea, 10:11-12:13
Section II: Kadesh-Barnea, 10:11-19:22
Travel: From Kadesh-Barnea to Moab, 20:1-21:35
Section III: The Plains of Moab, 20:1-36:13

Yet these sections are divided differently by a huge contrast. The generation that came out of Egypt
rebelled against God over and over. Their rebellion was highlighted by a refusal to go into the Promised
Land out of fear for the inhabitants (Num. 14:20-23). Their children apparently learned from this
mistake. The first twenty-five Chapters record accounts of the older generation dying. Chapters 26
through 36 record no deaths.

11:1 “fire from the Lord burned among them and consumed”
11:33 “he struck them with a severe plague’
12:10 “Miriam’s skin was leprous”
14:37 “struck down and died of a plague before the Lord”
16:32 “the earth opened up its mouth and swallowed them”
16:35 “fire came out from the Lord and consumed”
16:49 “14,700 people died from the plague”
20:28 “Aaron died there on top of the mountain”
25:8 “he drove the spear into both of them”
25:9 “those who died of the plague numbered 24,000”

Thus Numbers has two general censuses, one of the older generation in chapter one and another of the
younger generation in chapter twenty-six. The children have the opportunity to succeed at the exact
same point that their parents failed.

The people are numbered in preparation for the journey from Mt. Sinai to Kadesh. One key issue faces
them and must be addressed: “How
do a sinful people live with a holy
God?” They are instructed very
precisely. Only the Levites may have
anything to do with the tabernacle,
the place where God meets Israel.
“Anyone else who approaches it is to
be put to death” (1:51) . The Levites
set up their tents around the
tabernacle so that God’s wrath
would not destroy the nation (1:53).
Yet even among the Levites
distinctions were made. Aaron and
his sons were selected among the
descendants of Levi to work in the

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