Numbers: God’s Show and Tell on Human Depravity

Reading through Numbers is rather like watching a train wreck in slow motion. You just know that after the Lord has defeated Pharaoh, freed Israel, and given them His Law, they will now love and follow Him obediently, right?

What happens instead both boggles the mind and saddens the heart. Not only do they grumble, complain about the menu, and fight against their leaders, they also refuse God’s offer of entering the Promised Land. A whole generation is sentenced to die in the desert (Numbers 14:20-38).

There are so many lessons here:
In spite of witnessing miracles, people rebel.
In spite of being fed without working, people complain.
In spite of knowing God has chosen key leaders, people question authority.
In spite of seeing God’s power against His enemies, people are fearful.
In spite of having God’s clear instructions, people go astray.

Each year I read through these accounts, and part of me hopes the story will end differently. It doesn’t, for them, but it can, for us.

That’s because, while God was testing them, He also was creating a record of their tests for us. Paul warns (1 Corinthians 10:5, 6, 11) that we need not, dare not, repeat their mistakes. After all, while they had seen the miracles, we have the record of their foolishness and how it ended in tragedy.

Experience is not the best teacher. Digesting the experience of others as recorded in God’s Word is a much better and more gracious instructor. May we learn from their folly, and not follow it.

“Now these things happened to them as an example,
but they were written down for our instruction,
on whom the end of the ages has come.”
1 Corinthians 10:11


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