Page 87 - Pentateuch

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 generations in chapter one and another of the
younger generation in chapter twenty-six. The children have the opportunity to succeed at the 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 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
tabernacle (3:10, 38) and to pack
up the furnishings (4:15, 18-20). The rest of the workforce carried the materials. The nation of Israel had a
unique place in the relationship with God, but they did not have direct access. The Levites were allowed to
come closer, and the sons of Aaron closer yet, teaching very powerfully. Not just anyone would do. Not just
any method or system was acceptable.

Besides this graded approach to God, instructions were given to help keep the nation as a whole in the right
condition. People with skin diseases or who had touched a dead body had to be outside the camp for a time
(5:1-4). Restitution had to be made for wrongs done to others (5:5-10). A man who suspected his wife of
unfaithfulness (or probably a woman who suspected her husband of unfaithfulness) could bring her before
God through a fairly elaborate test (5:11-31). People who wanted to make special vows to God were given
specific instructions so that they did not do so in a light manner (6:1-21).

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