BOOK OF NUMBERS

Who Wrote This Book:  The evidence that points to Moses as the author of Numbers is similar to that for the previous books of the Pentateuch.  These five books form such a literary unit that they rise or fall together on the matter of authorship.

Date of Writing:  Numbers stretches over almost thirty-nine years (c. 1444–405 B.C.).  It records Israel’s movement from the last twenty days at Mount Sinai (1:1; 10:11), the wandering around Kadesh-barnea, and finally the arrival in the plains of Moab in the fortieth year (see 22:1; 26:3; 33:50; Deut. 1:3).

Why It Was Written:  The theme of Numbers is the consequence of disbelief and disobedience to the holy God. The Lord disciplined His people but remained faithful to His covenant promises in spite of their fickleness.  Numbers displays the patience, holiness, justice, mercy, and sovereignty of God toward His people.  It teaches that there are no shortcuts to His blessings—He uses trials and tests for specific purposes.

Numbers was written to trace the history of Israel’s wanderings from Sinai to Moab.  But the fact that there is almost no record of the thirty-eight years of wandering shows that Numbers is a very thematic history.  It selects those events that are important to the development of God’s redemptive program.  The sins of the first generation were written as a reminder and a warning to the second generation.  They must implicitly trust God before they can possess the Land of Blessing.

Key Verses

Numbers 14:22–23   “Because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it”.

Numbers 20:12 “Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them’ ”.

Key Chapter (14)—The critical turning point of Numbers may be seen in chapter 14 when Israel rejects God by refusing to go up and conquer the Promised Land.  God judges Israel “according to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My rejection” (14:34).

In Genesis God elected a people; in Exodus He redeemed them; in Leviticus He sanctified them; and in Numbers He directed them.  Numbers takes up the story where Leviticus left off, on Mount Sinai.

Leviticus describes the believers’ worship, Numbers their walk: