We have, as you know, went through the New Testament and we started the Old Testament with book overviews and the Wednesday night classes, our Wednesday night program. Each class gets lessons and goes over the book that we are studying on Wednesday night. And so I want to say again how thankful I am to everyone that helps us write it and puts it together, the drawings, just everything that goes into the Wednesday night overviews. So when you get to the book of numbers, it's very interesting. This idea of studying the Book of Numbers, I found in having thousands of books, and I say that just because of the number, that in my study, as far as I can tell, I only have one book that someone actually took the Book of Numbers and wrote about. I have many sets of commentaries that has the book of Numbers in it. So don't discard that. But as far as somebody just taking the book of Numbers and saying, you know, I'm going to write a book on the book of Numbers. I have an old 1800 writer, C. H. McIntosh. His book, he wrote on the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses. And so his book on Numbers is a treasure. And it was great to look in that old book again and glean from the writings on numbers. But I say that to you because sometimes, just like our last study on Leviticus, people will say sometimes, You know, I just, I don't even study that book. It just don't make no sense to me. And then right in that book is so much wealth of God and then application to our lives. So is the book of Numbers, okay? And so I want to say some things about the book of Numbers tonight. And there's 36 chapters. So we'll have to, as we're doing, do an overview of this book. But in the book of Numbers, the first 12 chapters can be put together, although the latter chapters could go into the next section. I chose to keep them in the first section, and I've titled that The Order. Because the book of Numbers in chapter number one, it is the census of the children of Israel. And so it's really this is where we get the name for the book of Numbers. There's a lot of numbers in the book of Numbers. But there's two main senses. There's the senses of the existing children of Israel, or as some have said, the old fathers of Israel. And then there is the senses of the new age, when you get towards the end. And so I'll just kind of give you this understanding of that. This senses is God dealing with order. And these first 12 chapters You can see a lot of order here. Matter of fact, in chapter number 1 and verse 18, you'll find the word pedigree. And that's really what's going on in Numbers chapter 1. He's saying, declare your pedigree. Whose family are you with? Who are you and whose seed are you? This is really their genealogy. It's their pedigree. And so we find that in chapter one. In chapter number two, the Lord then begins arranging the tribes around the tabernacle in the wilderness. And of course, the tabernacle would be the center. If you'll notice on your notes, we ran you off a chart on the very back. And of course, you'll find that this chart to be northeast and west. If you stand it straight up, as north is up and south is down, you'll find that. And on the inner part of this chart is the sons of of Aaron. You remember two of his sons in Exodus we taught or in Leviticus we taught that they were killed because of strange fire. Three of his sons were the three priest family and you'll see their numbers how many all of this is in chapter number two the numbers and the families and then of course Moses and the priests were there on the east side If you'll turn it up where the east is on the top, you'll see that it's in the shape of a cross. And of course, where the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle is exactly where Jesus hung on the cross. Now some people don't like analogy like that and statements like that, but you can't help but see it. And I know preachers that laugh when somebody says, well, five is the number for grace, and three is the number for this, and seven for perfection, and eight for new beginning. You know, we go on and on. Number 14 is just seen all through the Bible. The number 12 is seen all through the Bible. And I've heard preachers say, you're just stretching it, trying to put all them numbers together. And then all of a sudden you find God inspired a book called Numbers. And he's a number God. And there's no doubt that he's a God of order. And now he's ordering the arranging of the tribes. And in chapter number one, you see, they are declared their pedigree. And chapter number two, they're to fly their standard. In verse 17 of chapter 2, he talked about that they would have a standard. Well, this standard is really a banner or a flag, if you will. And so every man in his place by their standard. So they got in their order. And in their order, they stood under that standard. They represented not only the whole of all the children of Israel, but they represented their pedigree and their tribe. And we know the 12 tribes had specific instructions, and they were to do specific things when it came to the tabernacle and its order, its setting up and taking down, its ministration, and all of that. We know that these priestly families on the inner side, right there by the tabernacle, they had great jobs. of daily hands-on of the tabernacle. So what I'm trying to tell you is in this first section, chapters 1 through 12, God is speaking of His order. And then in chapters three and four, the Levites and the priests would surround it on the four sides. Each had certain duties concerning the tabernacle. We just talked about that. And they had to do all of that to not only to set it up, but then to take it down. So I'm trying to point out that God's a God of order. It was not chaos out there in the wilderness. It didn't look like disorder and confusion. He not only had it down, as we study in the book of Exodus, the furniture and how it was to be built, and Leviticus, the holy settings and offerings, how they were to be, but now he put the people in such an order that everything looked like clockwork. when they would move. And so that's chapters 3 and 4. Now chapters 5 through 9 is more instructions on keeping the laws. and living holy. He deals with leprosy in chapter 5, adultery. He deals with some other sins in chapter 6, the vow of the Nazarite. Chapter 7 is the offering chapter. And so chapter 8, in the end of chapter number 8, I know this might interest some of us, when you got 50 year olds, you had a form of retirement. Go study that at the end of chapter number eight. Once they got to 50 year old, they would serve no more. And so a lot of people have called that the early retirement, 50 years old. Well, I'm all for that. Amen. 55 next week. But I say to you, he's in order. He brings out of the book of Leviticus is still some repetition in numbers of how they're to live whole. They're still to live holy. It wasn't just commands that you do it, but it was conduct when they did it. It all goes together. And so that is the order of chapter 5 through 9. Then in chapter number 9 and verse 15, he reintroduces to the Israelites about this pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. And of course, that was first introduced in Exodus chapter 13 and verses 21 and 22. where God was going to give them this covering by day, this cloud by day, and then this pillar of fire by night. Because God might want them to move in the night. Well, they had to have light to see. And then, if you know anything about the wilderness, it's hot. God put a cloud over them during the day. Can you imagine, and of course, later on, Moses pleased for God not to kill them. God's going to kill every one of them. And Moses pleads, he said, now we've already got the attention of all the surrounding countries that you've let us out of Egypt and you brought us out. And he talks about that cloud covering them and all. Can you imagine the sight? There was a bare wilderness at one time and now there's thousands upon thousands of people in a orderly fashion and they're moving through the Sinai desert at this point. They'll eventually go into Paran, but they're moving together and there's a cloud by day and then at night there's a bright light of fire covering them. And that's one of the reasons that didn't nobody want to come down there and mess with them for a long time because they knew that this was God and this was God's people. And Moses even acknowledges that. And so that is a chapter 9 verses 15 through 23. Then chapter number 10. Chapter number 10, the Lord introduced these two trumpets to them. Now this is not the trumpet made of ram's horn, the shofar, that was blown on the Day of Atonement. That is one of the biggest selling things in Israel. People trying to buy the shofar, the ram's horn, beautiful horn that they would blow on the Day of Atonement. These two trumpets were made out of a solid piece of silver beaten out, which is an amazing task in itself. Somewhere between 18 even to 24 inches. be a long pipe, if you will. And this chapter number 10 is this introduction to these trumpets for the movement of the people. If you know anything about numbers, you know when he started numbering them in chapter number 1, he started calling them armies. Sorry, calling them armies. And because they, to get to where they were going, they were going to have to fight to get it. And so these trumpets were blown. And the Bible talks about that it would be for, to alarm them for any movement and for their journey. And so two things that happened to the children of Israel. The book of Numbers basically covers year two to year 40. of their 40 years of being in the wilderness, the Book of Numbers is their journey. It is their journey. Now, what I want to say about that is, when did they know to move? When did they know to leave? When did they know to take down and set up? Well, two things happened. Number one, the cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night would move. And they would hear the certain blow of the trumpet. It could be a blow to a war. It could be a blow just to move. But they can make different sounds with these trumpets. And they knew what it was that sound made. And so therefore they moved. It's a great picture when you study types in the Bible. It's a great picture of the trumpets being the word of God. and that pillar of fire be in the Spirit of God. And we should never move without the Word and the Spirit agreeing in our hearts. Amen? And so that's chapter number 10. Chapter 11. Chapter 11, interesting. The children of Israel, they complain. And they start talking about how that they had better food in Egypt than they did in the desert. Now, later in chapter number 10 is when they move from Sinai to Paran, you know, that's when they're moving. And so they get this moving and they get irritable at this moving and they start murmuring. In chapter number 11, they said, you know, we had all this fish and we had all these cucumbers, we had all these melons. We had all of these onions and garlic and that's in there. Chapter 11, they started giving a menu of all this stuff they had and they said, all we got out here is a bunch of manna. All we got is manna. We're baking it and we're making cakes out of it and all of that. And of course, the Bible said it tastes like fresh oil. And so they were upset. They had all this selection in Egypt and out here in the desert, all they got is manna. And we want some flesh. Well, if you know anything about chapter number 11, you know that after they complained, Moses told God he needs some help dealing with all this. Moses said, I can't deal with this no more. And so the Lord gave him 70, told him to pick out 70 of the elders and gave him some help. But I thought it interesting that also in this chapter, the Lord said, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. He brought all that quail up. Remember that? He brought all that quail up. And the Lord said, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to make you sick on me. You want it so bad, I'm gonna make you sick on it. I don't have time to develop this, but I just want to tell you, sometimes what you think you may want, God may let you have it to find out you can get sick of. And that is a good message. I might preach that sometime. I need to be warned myself. Sometimes we don't need what we think we need and it wearies us once we get it. And so the Lord, He said, listen, He had enough quail. You just had to study chapter 11. He brought up quail from everywhere. And so that's chapter 11. Chapter number 12. is an interesting chapter because chapter number 12 is where Aaron and Miriam begin to complain to Moses that he's got too much authority. And they begin to complain to Moses. And it's a great lesson to us because you're going to find out most of the time you only hear about Korah, which we'll look at in chapter 16. But Miriam and Aaron did the same thing. And they came against Moses in verse 1 of chapter 12 because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married. And they were like, has the Lord not spoken by us? And I'm telling you, this made the Lord mad. And the Lord was angry to the point that he struck Miriam, Moses' sister, with leprosy. Okay. And so, I mean, you would think after, and then they had to wait on her to heal up before they moved. So it's just not something that was private. It was a public thing. You would think that from chapter number 12 to chapter 16 that Cora and his bunch would have You know, they would have took a little lesson from that. You don't want to say Moses is taking too much authority because God might give you leprosy. But we'll find out later, it didn't bother him at all. And so that's chapter 12. So the first parts of this, and I use chapter 11 and chapter 12 because God had an order. I added them in this first section because God had an order. If they had just stayed with the manna and if they had just stayed with Moses, God had an order. He's trying to get them to something better than fish and melons and cucumbers and onions and garlic. He's trying to get them to a land flowing with milk and honey. And they got impatient. So that is the order in chapters 1-12. Now let's look at the obedience. The obedience. Now, I use the word obedience because really there was great disobedience. I could have titled this disobedience, but yet God just wanted simple belief and obedience out of them. Chapter 13, how many of you remember Moses sent out 12 spies? Remember that? Two of them, Joshua and Caleb, came back and said, We can do this. Matter of fact, I put in your notes, they came back with faith and the ten spies came back with a report of fear. They were scared to death. Now, here's what Moses said. He said, I want you to go see what the land looks like, what the people looks like and what the food looks like. OK. Well, they come back and Joshua and Caleb said, the land looks good, the people, they're pretty good size, but they ain't too big for God. And then they come back, remember they brought back some fruit and some grapes and they brought back all of this stuff for them to try. I mean, this is where we want to live. Compared to this desert. This is where we want to be. But all the people sided with the ten spies instead of the two spies. And in chapter number 14, the people decided to return back to Egypt out of fear. This is one of the great chapters where they said they wanted to go back to Egypt. And matter of fact, the Bible says that they wanted to return into Egypt. They accused Moses that he brought them out there to die in the wilderness. And here's what they said, were it not better for us to return into Egypt. Let me say something to us tonight, a great lesson out of chapter 14 of the book of Numbers. It's never better for you to go back to the world. You hear me? It's never better. It may seem tough to go on towards Canaan, but it's never better to return to Egypt. And so their obedience should have been behind Joshua and Caleb, but it wasn't. And of course, this is where God tells Moses that everyone from 20 years and up will die in this wilderness. That's why they was out there 40 years, till they died off. Okay? And so that's chapter number 14. But not Joshua and Caleb. They were going to be spared for their faith. Chapter 15, God goes ahead and gives them some laws for Canaan. And chapter 16 is where Korah and Dathan and Abedahab, I believe is how you say that, those three men led a rebellion. And they said, Moses, you take too much on me. You've got too much charge. We can do what you're doing. Here's the problem with this. God only wanted certain ones to end that tabernacle. That's His rule. And they were not allowed in, but they felt like they could do whatever Moses and Aaron did. They came against Moses and Aaron. This is the first scene in the burning hell that we reproduce in other languages. This is the first scene when Korah and Dathan and that crowd went against Moses. The first scene is in the desert there in Israel. They went over there and filmed it. in Israel. And the first thing is them rebelling and God opened up the ground and swallowed them up into the pit, literally into hell, into the earth. And so this is chapter 16 where we learn that because of this murmuring against Moses, God did this. Now, here's the thing. They kept murmuring. Miriam's got leprosy, and Korah and all of his followers are in the heart of the earth, and they still murmur. Still murmur. So God sends a plague upon them. And thousands died because of that. Chapter number 16. Well, chapter number 17, children of Israel still complain after seeing what the Lord did to Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. And then the Lord commands Moses to bring a rod from each tribe of Israel to the tabernacle. And the next day Aaron's rod was the only one. that budded. Y'all remember that story from tabernacle teaching? Aaron's rod that budded is one of the three things that is inside the chest, the Ark of the Covenant, where the mercy seat covers. There's the table of stones, the commandments of God, there is the pot of manna, and then Aaron's rod that budded. This is where this began. Aaron's rod budded when God took that rod, gave it life, to say this is the man that I'm going to use in my tabernacle. Okay. And so it's always been a great lesson here of obedience to wherever God wants you, whichever side of the tabernacle God wants you. Then that's where you need to be. And if God wants you in the tabernacle, then you need to be in the tabernacle. And so this is the teaching of chapter 16. Now, chapters 18 through 21, there's more ordinances given. This is the sacrifice of the red heifer. Miriam and Aerith, they die. They die. Moses, you remember in chapter number 20, Moses strikes the rock instead of speaking to it. And you know what Moses's punishment was. He'll never enter into Canaan. He got to see it. But he didn't get to go in because here's somebody said, well, what's the severity of that? I mean, he just hit the rock. Well, number one, we find out that that rock was Christ. We understand that. But one thing God says in the book of Numbers is that basically that Moses, you mocked me in front of all the children of Israel. You disobeyed me. This disobedient group needed to see an obedient leader. If anything they needed to see is somebody that trusted everything I said and you took it in your own hands and you struck the rock, smoked the rock instead of spoke to it, that's in chapter number 20. Also in chapter number 20, After they conquered Arad, they still murmured, and the Lord sent the fiery serpents to bite them. Remember that story in the Bible? They had the fiery serpents, they would bite them, they were dying. But God told Moses to make a brazen serpent, put it on a pole, and anybody that looked at that brazen serpent would be healed. Jesus used that in His teaching and used that to let everybody understand that whosoever would look unto Him could be saved. And so that's Exodus, or Numbers, chapter number 20. Chapters 22 through 25 is where Balak sends for Balaam to curse Israel. But God blesses them instead of curses them. That section is a teaching within itself. So for me not to stay there, I put one sentence. And all God's people said, Amen. Alright, last section. We looked at chapters 1-12 and the order. We looked at chapters 13-25, the obedience. And really, it's the obedience they should have had like Joshua and Caleb. But the last chapters, the last 26 through 36, I put the word onward. Because this journey is really a 38-year journey in the book of Numbers. It's going to end up there on the coast there of Moab, right outside of Canaan. Okay? And so they went onward. Chapter 26, Moses takes a new census. This is the second census, the numbering of the next generation that have grown up in the wilderness and watched their fathers die. This is the second and last census here in the book of Numbers. Chapter 27, the Lord allows Moses to see the promised land, but reminds him of why he cannot possess it. Moses showed unbelief toward the Lord in front of the people when he struck the rock. Moses asked the Lord to appoint a new leader. And God tells him that Joshua would be the next man in charge. And Joshua was one of the two spies that came back with faith instead of fear. This is where we learn that Joshua is going to be the one to lead them and command them after Moses has died and went off the scene. Chapter number 28 through 30, the Lord commands Moses to speak to the children of Israel concerning laws of the offerings. He talked about the seventh month and then he dealt with vows. If anybody makes a vow, he deals with that in those three chapters. But chapter 31, the children of Israel have a great victory against the Midianites. and the spoils were divided among the people. Now this is interesting because there was a great spoiling of this victory and then God gave, again, order in how this would be divided among those that were able to fight, those that were able to go, and so that's chapter 31. Now, chapter 32 is interesting because the children of Reuben and Gad wanted to settle outside the promised land. Now this was not a good thing. This is not what the Lord wanted, them to be outside of the promised land. And you can read chapter 32, and it looked as if they were not trying to do the will of God, which was to go and possess it. And so the only way that the Lord would allow this is that they would still fight, not fought, my bad on that, still fight with the rest of the children of Israel to occupy the promised land from their enemies. They could set up in this land outside the promised land, build their fortress, if you will, for their children, but they that could fight still had to help the rest of the children of Israel Take the land of Canaan. And so that's chapter 32. Chapter 33 is just basically a reviewing of the book of Numbers. Of their wilderness journeys. And so you can jump over to chapter 33 and read it first and kind of see their route. And how, I mean, they departed from all kinds of places and went to all kinds of places. And it kept talking about how they pitched here and they pitched there and they pitched here. And so, it was a long, long journey. That is chapter 33. And then chapters 34 through 36, Moses tells them how everything would be divided or allocated once they got into the Promised Land. And this would be their inheritance. The cities were divided up among the Levites, and then they would have refuge cities as well. And then he talks at the end about the inheritance due to marriages there in chapter number 36. So with all that being said, the Book of Numbers was literally the wanderings of the children of God. And we get this idea of numbering from the census that was taken in the beginning and at the end and all of the other order that God put in. And so I guess the key thought, as one of our writers put, is this is a book of discipline. It's a book of discipline. You can certainly see discipline all through the book of Numbers, but it is a discipline to the things of God and the word of God. And can I just remind us about the book of Numbers? There's so many lessons about trying to do opposite of what God has for his people to do. And we just can't do it. I don't care who we are. God has got a will and a way. You know, we've been preaching on He created all things for His good pleasure, His will, His desire. Well, the book of Numbers, there's so many tragedies in the book of Numbers that could have been avoided had they just trusted God to start with. And in the end, they possessed that land. So many missed it because they got impatient. One of the biggest sins in the book of Numbers was impatience. They didn't want to wait on God. They didn't want man another day, although if they had just hung on, they could have had honey. They could have had all of the fruit of the vine. It wouldn't have took them no time to get from Egypt to Canaan had they went in faith. But unbelief made them wonder for 40 years. And the book of Numbers is a revealing of that in detail of their undisciplined unbelief that cost them many years of their life. Alright, any questions? Anybody got any questions tonight? I guess we could get a person with a microphone to walk around and say if you've got a question. Anything that we flew by that you may have a question about? Did anybody know that they had onions and garlic in Egypt? And cucumbers? Alright, anything? You know, Moses is a huge character in the Bible. Moses is mentioned in the book of Revelation. And to think that Moses didn't get to go into the promised land, I mean, really, we all might think, well that, compared to what some of them folks, you know, all they did was hit the rock. But in all of the sins of the people of Israel, I mean, they had all kinds of sins. God dealt with it. But it's that not believing God. Isn't that the chief thing with sinners when they die and go to hell? It's going to be their unbelief. It's not going to be their adultery. I know that we can point out sins. It's not going to be their fornicating. It's not going to be their drug use. The ultimate sin that will send them to a lake of fire is unbelief. not believing in Christ as their sacrifice. And the book of Numbers is just full of the consequences of just not taking God at His word. And Moses, of all people, was punished because instead of just speaking, He smoked. I tell you what the book of Numbers could remind us of is a lot of mercy. God's been merciful. He could have dealt with us. We've done a lot more than smoked. And thank God for His mercy. Amen. Yes, ma'am. I believe he was. I believe that Moses was... They were impatient with Moses and Moses was impatient with them. You know, and you see that when he cried for God to give him some help. You know, he was just, you know, they about to drive him crazy. Because anything that went wrong, he got to blame. But he also got the Word of God. So, a great lesson in that, Ms. Darlene, is when you know the Word of God, you can't react wrong to those who oppose it. when you know it to be true, and that's what Moses did in that instance. You know, among maybe a few other thoughts about it, but he... They're murmuring and complaining about water. You know, they didn't have no water. And if I'm not mistaken, everybody hang on just a minute. We ain't been going but 35 minutes. Everybody hang on just a minute. If I'm not mistaken, is that not the chapter when Miriam died and Aaron died? Let me make sure right here that I'm not crazy. That would be chapter number, Chapter, Is it 11? No, no, no, no, no, no. Chapters. I guess I get my notes, um, notes out. Miriam got leprosy in, um, in chapter 12, right? All right. So y'all have me study the Bible. So, um, it's on over cause Aaron's rod budded in 17. It's a, all right. Chapter 20. You ready? Chapter number 20. In verse number 1 of chapter 20, Miriam died there and was buried there. And there was no water for the congregation. They gathered themselves against Moses and against Aaron, and the people chode with Moses and spake, Why would God, or would God that we had died with our brethren, die before the Lord? And why have you brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness that we and our cattle should die there? This is where the Lord, in verse eight, said, take the rod and speak unto the rock. And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, and Moses, in verse number 10, the Bible said, this is what Moses said, hear now, ye rebels, Must we fetch you water out of the rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smoked the rock twice. So what I mean by that is you just buried your sister. Everybody's complaining to you about the water and saying, telling him, you brought us out here to kill us. And he knows that God can provide. He's already providing them water at Mara and other places. So yeah, I think it's a great picture of not getting frustrated in the work of God, because he was sure frustrated. All right. That was a pretty tough chapter, wasn't it? I'm pretty sure Aaron died at the end of chapter 20 or somewhere after that. Lose your sister and your brother and your inheritance. You don't get to go in. So anyway, all right. Guess where we're gonna be next week? Deuteronomy. And interesting thing about Moses I'll point out to you next week. All right, everybody good?