Numbers 36 – The Value of Numbers

Numbers 36:13 These are the commandments and the ordinances which the LORD commanded to the sons of Israel through Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho.

So concludes the book of Numbers.

What value does the book of Numbers have for Christians today? It’s original role was as that of “case law”. Leviticus gave the laws by which the Israelites were to live in order to be faithful to God; but, Numbers provided examples of how those laws played out in every day life. For instance, what happens in the year of Jubilee if you have inter-tribal marriage; do inheritances change tribes? This was important for Israel, not so much for a contemporary Christian.

The takeaways have more to do with a general call to faithfulness. We are called to trust that God will provide for our needs and that God can be trusted to follow through on promises.

There is also a general theme of caring for one another. Israel is not a collection of individuals, nor a collection of tribes; it is one people who must work together, with mutual support and cooperation, and do what God has called them to do. This is an incredible example for the Church today. The Church is not a collection of people, or individual churches, or even denominations. The Church is one people, committed to Christ, who must work together, with mutual support and cooperation, and do what God has called the Church to do.

The value in Numbers is the example it sets for us on how we are to be the Church.

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