I use a lot of numbers at my job. By themselves, they don't mean a whole lot. Put into context, they can help doctors and me to determine whether or not someone is healthy, and potentially what is wrong with them. We open our reading today with a bunch of numbers. After roughly thirty six or seven years wandering in the desert, God instructs Moses to take another census. Throughout those thirty some odd years, an entire generation has passed away with the exception of Moses, Joshua and Caleb. Many died from plagues resulting from their sin and many died from natural causes. God has lived up to His word. You would expect that, after so many passed away from their sins and the wrath of God expressed in various different plagues and fires and the earth swallowing them up, the numbers would have shown dramatic decreases across the board. Not so. Many of the tribes actually increased, often by a dramatic amount. The tribes of Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Manasseh, Benjamin, Dan, Asher and the Levites all recorded increases. In fact, the tribe of Manasseh almost doubled. The tribes of Reuben, Simeon, Gad, Ephriam, and Naphtali all decreased, with the tribe of Simeon decreasing by over half. In total, the population of men over the age of 20 in Israel only decreased by about 1800 people.
While I don't want to draw too many conclusions from the numbers, one thing is obvious. I would imagine the more spiritually healthy tribes increased while the spiritually weak tribes decreased. God did promise to keep them healthy and fertile if they followed his law, didn't he? It would follow then that those that obeyed grew, while the ones that didn't not only didn't grow, but lost many members directly to God's wrath. I think we can see here some of God's refining process. He was preparing a nation to follow Him. My study Bible makes this statement, "A whole nation moved from one land to another, lost it's entire adult population, yet managed to maintain it spiritual direction."
That is pretty impressive to me. How many things remain intact in our world from one generation to the next? Really, from one DECADE to the next. Our culture changes so fast. But, the things of God stand, remain, and remain RELEVANT and TRUE for eternity, because we serve an eternal God. That knowledge leaves me much more at peace with the day to day, week to week, month to month and year to year changes life throws at me.
Ravi Zaccharias quotes C.S. Lewis (a GREAT combination by the way) in his book "The Grand Weaver." "How time flies," we say. Then Lewis says that such a reaction would be as anomalous as a fish expressing surprise at the wetness of water- unless, of course, it were intended to live on dry land. Those words capture it well. We react to the speed of time because, deep in our souls, we are "created for eternity."
