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Dr. Manny Arango
Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango, and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the journey. To all my fellow pastors, I've got a question for you. Does your city know that your church exists? Listen, I get it. You're preaching, you're leading, you're discipling, you're doing ministry. We are in the same boat. And let's be honest, social media and marketing, not your strong suit. Not mine either. And that's probably the last thing on your mind. And that's why we chose to partner with Church Candy Marketing for our church Plant the garden. We out here, y'all. They help churches get more actual guests walking through the doors on Sunday without your eye having to stress over ads or algorithms or trying to crack the social media code. Right now, Church Candy is helping nearly 400 churches reach their communities with simple invite ads. And it works. It's super effective. I can tell you from firsthand experience. So if you're tired of being your city's best kept secret, how about you do this? Go to churchcandy.com Manny and book a free consultation book a discovery call. Their team will break it all down and show you how to start seeing new faces at your church this Sunday. I'm in the trenches with you, trying to grow the church. And how about we just start a whole campaign? No more empty churches. So let's partner with Church Candy and get our churches full. The glory of Jesus. Let's go. We are in numbers. Chapter 26, 27, 28, 29, and 30. We got a lot of chapters for today's reading, but it is a literary unit, and to be totally honest, numbers. Chapter 26. All the way to numbers. Chapter 32 is a literary unit. We felt like it would be absolutely cruel to give you that much reading for one day. So if you've done the reading, like always, I'm gonna go into some context clues, some nerdy nuggets, and then at the end, I'll give you a timeless truth. If you have not done the reading, pause the audio, stop the video, go do the reading. To be honest, today's reading may not be the most entertaining, but hopefully I can give you some context to bring it to life. So go do the reading, come back, and I promise that what I have to say about Today's content is going to make way more sense if you've actually done the work and done the reading. All right, let me actually give you a breakdown first of, like, what's in these chapters. So numbers. Chapter 26. We're going to get a brand new census now for a lot of you. You're going to go, wait, didn't we do this at the beginning of the Book of Numbers? Yep. There's two censuses, or sensei, is it Sensi sensei. There's two sensei, okay, in the Book of Numbers. Remember, in the Book of Numbers, the generation that comes out of the wilderness, rebels against Yahweh, does not want to go into the land. So Yahweh says, okay, great, then all of you will die and your children will go in. Therefore, the census at the beginning of the book is a census of the first generation that came out of Egypt. That's a generation that is supposed to go into the promised land. That's the generation that Joshua and Caleb belong to. But they are the only members of their generation that are allowed to survive. And now the children of that first generation are going to go into the land of possessed the land. Therefore, the second census is for this second generation. So the sensei are actually showing you that there has been a passing of the baton from one generation to the next generation. Numbers 27. We're going to deal with two things in numbers 27. The first things are, is going to be the daughters of Zelophehad. Okay? These are daughters who are gonna bring a really, really important issue to Moses that based on the patriarchal society that's set up, that their father didn't have any sons. And that means that the inheritance can't be passed down because they are daughters. Okay? He had five daughters. Moses is gonna hear from God, and God's gonna come back and say, hey, these girls are actually right. They should get their father's inheritance. Okay, so we're gonna talk about that. And then we're gonna get a transfer of leadership from Moses to Joshua. That's all. Numbers 27, numbers, chapter 28. This is gonna feel straight out of the book of Leviticus, but it actually belongs here in numbers. It's gonna be an outline of offerings and festivals. We're gonna get the same thing in numbers, chapter 29, we're gonna get offerings and festivals. And then numbers, chapter 30 is gonna be all about vows and pledges that if a wife makes a vow, then that her husband is actually able to veto that vow. And if a Daughter makes a vow, her dad is going to be able to veto that vow. So what we got for today is numbers, chapter 26. We got a new census. Numbers, chapter 27. We're going to have daughters of Zelophehad and then a transfer of leadership from Moses, Joshua. We're going to have a bunch of offerings and festivals in numbers 28 and 29, and then vows and pledges. Some laws around vows and pledges in numbers, chapter 30. That's what we got. Let's dive into some context. Okay? I don't know if anyone's like me when I read a census, it feels a lot like reading a genealogy. Okay? This is not the most riveting reading in the world, but as I was reading this a couple days ago, Holy Spirit convicted me. It was like, the reason that this census matters is because names matter to God, okay? Individuals matter to God. God does not just see groups of people. He knows people's names. And a good shepherd, okay? And we're gonna get some verbiage around shepherds and sheep in numbers, chapter 27. But a good shepherd, the Bible says, leaves the hundred to go after the one. Well, how do you know if you're looking at a group of sheep, how do you know that one has left? Well, you know that one is left because you've counted them, okay? You know that you've got 99 sheep as opposed to a hundred sheep, because in some systematic way they've been tracked, they've been numbered. And so this convicts me as someone who's a pastor because I'm like, woo. Are we doing a good job counting sheep or are we just trying to do it based off memory? Are we just trying to do it based off. I feel like I haven't seen Sister so and so in a while. Or are we actually using data to track people? If Moses can create data in order to track people out in the wilderness via a census, then we have no excuse as leaders and pastors in church. Names matter, individuals matter. Order matters. Organization matters. So this entire movement of the Book of Numbers is actually a massive callback to the first nine chapters of Genesis. So we're going to see a lot of echoes. And what this census is communicating is that the children of Israel have multiplied and they've been fruitful. Okay? So the census is a. It serves a practical need that the children of Israel are being tracked. They're being ordered, they're being named, and they're being recorded. That they're being a record of who. Whose family and whose name People come from, like, that stuff's important to God because God doesn't want people falling through the cracks. I don't know if you've ever had this experience where, you know, and. And this is also, like, statistically true. So I'll. I'll say two things at the same time. So the first is, I don't know if you've ever gone to a restaurant and instead of the waitress or the waiter writing down the order, they just. They just listen and then they just. They just go to the kitchen and. And, you know, repeat it back. This is just statistically true, right? Waiters and waitresses who write things down, even if they don't think that they need to get, on average 25 to 30% higher tips. Okay, so writing things down, A, just gets more tips, but B, it's just a safer way to. To, like, keep track of information. And I, I know, I know there's a lot of pastors who listen to our content and watch our content. There's a part of you that's like, oh, I'm gonna remember Sister Susan, man. She's been in my church for years. And. And actually, the book of numbers may challenge you to go, ah, if Moses needed a census, maybe you need some church software that, like, keeps track of, like, people's names, that keeps track of how long they've been at your church. Maybe there has to be a system for volunteers to check in so that you actually know their name, so that when you go to a staff person. I remember we had a new executive pastor come to our church back when I was a youth pastor. And prior to that, I hadn't taken attendance or, like, made kids check in. And then this new youth pastor was adamant. No kids need to check in. Nope, you need to take attendance. And I remember, you know, pushing back like, ah, like, why do we need to do that? Like, numbers don't matter, man. Only souls matter. And I remember the executive pastor saying, first of all, if the souls matter, then, then they matter enough to count them. What do you. You think you're being hyperspiritual? You're not being hyper spiritual? If they matter, then there should be a record of who is there. Because names matter to God, people matter to God, individuals matter to God, and most importantly, order and organization that matters to God. God doesn't operate in chaos. He operates in order. And so if things are gonna be orderly, then, hey, let's do a census. Bible nerds. I have an announcement. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos, releases May of 2025 in pre orders are officially open. When I began to learn Genesis in its proper context, I learned that the creation account is not primarily about God creating something out of nothing, but rather God bringing divine order to the chaos of the cosmos. That one nugget was a game changer for me because I've been preaching to all the kids in my youth group that peace was a solution for their anxiety. But really, God's solution to chaos is never peace, but rather order. Peace isn't something that you stumble into. It's something that you intentionally step into, and that starts with aligning your life with God's order. I think that this book is a game changer. It's nerdy, it's practical, it provides a very contextual understanding of the book of Genesis. And if you grab a copy, you'll learn why there's a huge dragon on the COVID Head to the link in the show notes to pre order, or head to crushingchaos.com to see the really dope trailer that we made for this book. I think it's time for you to crush the chaos in your life. And that starts with grabbing a copy of this book. Now back to the podcast. Some more context. Okay, I'll say it this way. There can't be accountability if there's no account. Okay? You can't have accountability if you don't have an account. And What Numbers chapter 26 tells us is that God orders Moses to give an account of this generation, their names, who they are, and therefore, once there's an account, then there can be accountability. Jesus says at the end of his ministry, hey, I've not lost any of the sheep you've committed to me. I can be held accountable for these sheep because I know who they are. I know how many there are. How many people are you actually responsible for? Tell me who they are. Who's in your small group? I need to know their names because I can't hold you accountable if we never have an account of who's actually there. Let's move into numbers chapter 27. Okay? Numbers, chapter 27. So if numbers chapter 26 is actually showing us that the people of Israel have multiplied and they've been fruitful, okay? They've lived out a Genesis chapter one promise. They've multiplied and they've been fruitful. Now we're gonna get the daughters of Zelophehad, which, again, okay, if we go back to Genesis chapter one, God's ideal was for men and women to be leading together. So this ruling over the daughters for the daughters of Zelophehad to actually be landowners. Inheritance. People who can actually receive an inheritance from their father is elevating the role of women. Why? Because God sees the land of Canaan as a new Eden, okay? The land of Canaan is flowing with milk and honey, and it's fruitful. The descriptions of Eden are in contrast to the wilderness. And remember, Eden is a garden surrounded by wilderness, okay? And if you go to Israel, to this day, it looks like a fertile, fruitful. I mean, it looks green and lush. And against this backdrop of wilderness all around it, or desert all around it. Also remember, desert and wilderness are synonymous words, interchangeable terms, okay, throughout the Bible. So they are on the. The precipice, not just of Canaan, but of a new Eden, okay? Of a land that's fruitful, of a land where their needs are going to be met, and a land where God is going to give them rest. So these are all Eden themes. Now, as they go into Eden, God is trying to set them up with rules that elevate the roles of women. Because the original design for men and women were to function in a complimentary role to one another. The original vision of Adam and Eve is not a picture where Adam dominates over Eve, but is a picture where the man and the woman work together to bring about the vision in the future that God. That God wants for them. And so these daughters of Zelophehad is not random. We're actually getting a narrative around women and their dynamics as it relates to men that is promoting more equality, that is trying to get back to the Edenic ideal that God set up with Adam and Eve. Okay, next, let's keep moving through numbers, chapter 27. Now we have to ask a question. Okay? Who's this Joshua guy? Okay, so Moses is now going to set up Joshua. Now also, let me kind of put this in context, and then we'll move into some nerdy nuggets. Okay, let me put this in context when you read Numbers chapter 27, okay? God is going to command Moses to go up onto the mountain and look at the land that I'm going to give the people of Israel. I want you to go look at it. And then you got to set up Joshua to be the leader who's actually going to bring the people into that land. God commands him to do this in Numbers, chapter 27. This does not actually happen until Deuteronomy, chapter 34. So from Numbers chapter 27 all the way to Deuteronomy, chapter 34, Moses doesn't die until Deuteronomy chapter 34. So the book of Deuteronomy is going to be Moses essentially on the edge of Canaan, the people about to go in, and he's going to give a final speech or sermon. So it's kind of looking like, oh, Mose about to die. But we got a whole nother book of the Bible before Moses dies. And if you want to look at numbers, chapter 27 in context, you got to read it along with Deuteronomy chapter 34. Okay, Deuteronomy chapter 34, numbers, chapter 27, they actually go together. So we're actually going to reference Deuteronomy chapter 34 in a little bit. Let's get into some nerdy nuggets. Okay? If numbers 26 is telling us that the people of Israel have multiplied and they've been fruitful, if numbers happen, 27 is helping us with the relationship between men and women, then we're going to get into the second half of numbers chapter 27, which is going to highlight a man by the name of Joshua. Joshua is a new Moses, but he's also a new Adam. How was he a new Adam? Well, go to numbers chapter 27, and I'll read this to you. It says this in verse 15, Moses said to the Lord, may the Lord, the God who gives breath to all living things, who breathed into Adam's nostrils so that he could become a living being. That is an echo back to Genesis. Okay, so the Torah wants Adam on our minds, said to the Lord, may the Lord, the God who gives breath to all living things, AKA Adam, appoint someone over this community to go out and come in before them, which is a biblical Hebraic euphemism for. For leadership. Go in and come. Go out and come in before them. One who will lead them out and bring them in. So the Lord's people will not be like sheep. So the Lord's people are now getting compared to animals. They won't be like sheep without a shepherd. Okay, who was the first man, a.k.a. shepherd, to lead animals, a.k.a. sheep? That's Adam. Okay. Adam's role over the creation was to be a shepherd over sheep, to be a male human leader over all of the beasts of the field, over all the animals. So this is another echo back to Genesis. This is something that Numbers is doing on purpose. It's calling us back to Genesis, calling us back to an ideal. Okay, let's start. Let's break this Joshua character down just a little bit more. In the time that we've got left, Joshua is going to essentially be I don't want to, not in a literal way, but kind of is going to take half of Moses's role. Okay, so Moses has really functioned as king and priest. Okay. The reason that Jesus or that Moses is a pre figurement of Jesus is because Moses functions as prophet, priest and king. Okay? Prophet, priest and king. And Jesus is going to function as prophet, priest and king. Moses is the only character outside of Jesus in the biblical canon to function in all three roles. Prophet, priest and king. Joshua is not gonna function as prophet, priest and king. So now there has to be a transfer of leadership. And what's gonna happen is that Joshua is gonna take all of Moses royal attributes and Eleazar, the high priest is gonna take all of Moses's priestly attributes. And what we're going to see going forward is that there's always going to be prophets that are going to get added who are going to hold the priests and the kings into what we would call maybe a balance of power. Okay. In the United States of America, this would be like the legislative branch, the executive branch and the judicial branch who all create a balance of power. Last thing about Joshua, Joshua is said to get a spirit of wisdom. Okay? A spirit of wisdom. Now there's only a couple of people who are going to have a spirit of wisdom in the Bible. The first is going to be Bezalel, this was back in Exodus. He got a spirit of wisdom to work in crafts, to build a tabernacle. The second is going to be Joshua. And the third is, is actually going to be Isaiah, chapter 11, which is a prophecy about Jesus. Okay? The spirit of wisdom. This is a rare thing in the Bible and we're gonna see it here in Numbers, chapter 27. But we're also gonna see it in Deuteronomy, chapter 34, verse 9. A spirit of wisdom. In Hebrew it's called Ruach Hokmah. Ruach is spirit. Hokma is wisdom. Spirit of wisdom, Ruach Hokman. All right, the last thing that we'll get into is that all of these feasts. So we're going to get a bunch of feasts and festivals for numbers, chapter 28 and 29. These feasts and festivals are trying to get us back where? To Eden. Okay, So a lot of these festivals are going to have Edenic themes because that's God's ideal for humans. Humans flourish when they are in Eden. Humans flourish when they're in the garden that God has created for them. And then last, we're gonna get numbers. Chapter 30 is about vows and Pledges. And what is the core crux of the chapter? It's the negotiation between the relationship between men and women. Because if men and women are gonna be in this new Eden called Canaan, then male, female relationships are gonna matter deeply to God. So this whole movement of numbers, numbers 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, is all about preparing God's people to walk in to Eden, to walk back into the garden that Adam and Eve got kicked out of in Genesis chapter three. Is it literally Eden? No, it's an Eden type. It's an Eden shadow. The tabernacle is a type of Eden. Canaan is going to be an even greater Eden if the people can actually obey. But we know that they're not going to be able to obey. Okay, and where in Hebrews is going to tell us that the rest that God wanted to give them is actually laid up for you and I? Because Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of that rest, that we're not gonna get Eden until we get the new creation. So we're gonna keep getting glimpses of Eden, a hope for Eden, all throughout the Bible. All right, here's our timeless truth. We've done context clues. I've given you some nerdy nuggets for the day. And here's our timeless truth is that God is working from one generation to the next. He's a generational God. He's the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. One time someone asked me, tell me the vision for your grandchildren. And I remember thinking, I don't have a vision for my grandchildren at this point in time. He said, oh, then the vision God's given you, it must not be from God, because if God's vision to you only incorporates you, then you're thinking way too small and you're thinking way too Western and you're thinking way too individual. The Jewish mindset is God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And there's certain things that we're not able to accomplish in one generation, but it takes three generations in order to actually accomplish what God has called you to. And we're seeing this from a transfer. There's a census from one generation, census to the next generation. A transfer of leadership from Moses to Joshua. Just because there's a new generation doesn't mean that God is no longer working or on the move. God works from one generation to the next. And for every leader, we actually have to have a multi generational vision for what God is gonna do. Can I ask you a really, really hard question? I know when I moved to North Carolina, My pastor asked me, give me your five year plan, give me your ten year plan. And at that point that seemed daunting. You wanna know what I'm thinking about right now as a 36 year old with a son and a wife? I'm thinking about, what's my hundred year plan? What's the plan for my son and for my grandchildren? What's the plan that's going to outlive me? Because if my plans stop at my death, then my plans are kind of selfish. But if my plans live beyond me, then man, my plans or the vision that God's given me requires that I cooperate with the next generation and requires that I have vision that actually outlives me. When you go to Europe, you see cathedrals that are built and there's a clear marking on the cathedrals of one generation laid a foundation and they died without ever stepping foot in this cathedral. They tithed and they gave and they sacrificed so that a cathedral could get built. And then the second generation, you can see where the bricks have a different color. And then it's not until the third generation that they actually inhabit or worship in the cathedral that their grandparents started building. And we have to start having a Abraham, Isaac, Jacob kind of mindset as we build church and think about church and think about strategies, not just how they impact us in our generation, but God. Our prayer is that you give us a vision for our children and our children's children, our children's children's children. Right? That's my timeless truth. That's how we can take what's happening in numbers, which seems like it doesn't apply to us in any way and actually apply it to our lives. We pray that God give you vision not just for your life and for yourself, but for everyone that's coming after you in Jesus name. We pray that. All right, family, I hope that you got a lot out of the reading today. Tomorrow we've got three chapters ahead. Okay, we've got numbers. Chapter 31, 32 and 33. I hope that if you're on a streak, you don't break it. If you're not on a streak, hey, start one. All you need is two days to start a streak. So if you're a faithful today, be faithful tomorrow. I'm so proud of you. I love you. I'll see you right here tomorrow as we dig into the next couple of chapters of the Book of Numbers. Love you guys. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show at the Bible Department and on Instagram. Hebibledepartment if you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.