Transcript
A (0:00)
Foreign. You are listening to A Year in the Bible with Daily Grace. And today we're talking through numbers, chapters 25 through 27. What's going on in these chapters, Scott?
B (0:16)
All right. Yesterday was our Balaam episode and how we talked about how instead of cursing the people of Israel like he had been hired to do, he instead blessed them. But, you know, and I previewed today's episode a little bit. But even though Balaam realizes he can't curse the Israelites, he does recognize he can still bring harm to them. He's not mentioned in chapter 25, but numbers 31, which we haven't got to yet in Revelation 2, say that it was Balaam's doing to get the Israelites to commit sexual immorality with the Moabite women and worship their gods, which we read about in today's chapters. And so they are harmed by Balaam still. And Psalm 106, 29 talks about this moment. It says that they angered the Lord with their deeds and a plague broke out against them. And so, situated as the Israelites are on the edge of the promised land, they're ready to go in. There's a warning here. Like the people they're called to do battle with in the land of Canaan, they worship false gods and they commit sexual immorality, a whole host of other sins. And I think this is a warning to them. There's going to be a lot of opportunities for them moving forward, for them to repeat this sin or something like it. And yet they get a powerful reminder here of the consequences of such sin. And so only if they're faithful to God will they prosper.
A (1:34)
So we see this take place, and then naturally we go into a census, because numbers is doing what numbers does, right?
B (1:41)
Numbers is going to. Numbers, yeah. So we had that census way back in chapter one, which was, like we said, for the purpose of determining who would be fighting against the Canaanites. But, you know, again, because of Israel's sin, that generation died off. So there's a need for a new census. These are the people who are going to go into the land and conquer it. And again, you know, it's not fun to read. Shall we? Let's admit that. But this is another demonstration, I think, of God's grace, like after. After everything we've seen Israel do so far in this book, in the wilderness, he's preparing them to enter the land he promised them by. By ordering the census. And I think another example of God's kindness is in him promising to raise up a new leader. Joshua for them after Mose. Moses request, I think, is really moving to me because these people have given Moses so much grief throughout these books. They don't ever seem to tell him, hey, thanks for leading us. It's really cool that you're doing this. That never happens, that we read about. But Moses is still concerned about them, and so he prays that God would not leave them without a shepherd when he dies. And so God has Moses commission Joshua for leadership.