Numbers Review

Why do the books of the Bible have the names they do?  Most of them are obvious – they are named after the authors, or the prophets or leaders about whom they revolve.  In the New Testament, many of the books after the gospels are named for the audiences to whom they were originally addressed.  Exodus is named for the main event which it covers, the literal exodus from Egypt.  As for Genesis, I am not etymologist enough to say if it is titled so because it is about the beginning, or if genesis means “beginning” because of the book.  Leviticus is named for the particular Israeli tribe, the tribe of Levi, for which it provides regulations and commandments.  Numbers is, perhaps, less obvious…until you read the first few verses, when it becomes quite apparent.  Numbers is titled as it is because its core is a numbering of the peoples of Israel.

For the first few verses, in fact, I was a little worried that the entire book was essentially going to be a protracted census of the Israelites, which, while surely interesting from a historical perspective, sounded rather dull, even to me.  Fortunately, after enumerating the numbers of the different tribes and their basic demographic features, Numbers turns to the employment of those numbers, and not just for the proper proportional sacrifices and offerings to God, or for determining how much food and water might be necessary.  Rather, the major use of the census seems to be for the creation of an army, an army some 600,000 strong, if the figures presented are accurate.  This is subject to considerable debate, mostly because an army 600,000 strong suggests an Israelite population on the order of 1.2 million or more, and historical sources suggest the Egyptian army of the time was a mere 100,000 men, and armies on the order of 500,000+ likely didn’t exist until the Achaemenid-Persian Empire under Cyrus, almost a thousand years after the time period in which Numbers is thought to be set.  Indeed, the entire population of Egypt at the time may have been as low as two million people.

Whatever the actual numbers were, it is clear that, for all their itinerant nature at the time, the Israelites were hardly a small player on the stage of city-states and proto-nations on which they played.  Quite aside from God’s favor, they were a force to be reckoned with, and it is perhaps not so surprising that they vanquished foes and conquered cities as they travelled.  It is strange to think of the Israelites as a kind of marauding force roaming about the countryside, and it’s true they were not simply a rampaging army, but it is interesting to think of how, for instance, the ruler of some local city-state might view the approach of the Israelites.  Indeed, it is God’s express will, since the Exodus, that the Israelites will drive out the present inhabitants of the promised land, Canaan.  A core conflict that arises in Numbers is that the scouts sent to Canaan are dispirited by the strength of the present inhabitants and try to turn against God’s will, which is a major driver of the forty-year exile in the desert.

Perhaps we do not think of the Israelites as conquerors because those parts of the story are not emphasized these days, or perhaps we do not think of them that way because that’s not where the emphasis is in Numbers, either.  For every conquest of a city, there are twice as many words devoted to the Israelites transgressing against God’s will and commandments, or simply complaining as they become accustomed to God’s largess, often with dire results.  At one point, God is so incensed that He wipes out some 15,000 of them by opening a rift in the earth.  There are numerous plagues, which God either visits on the Israelites or protects them from based on their performance and belief.  Despite such examples, doubts, questioning, and transgressions persists, with Moses repeatedly forced to intervene to salvage the relationship between God and the Israelites.  One can imagine, at times, that if Moses had not been there to intercede, God may have abandoned the Israelites and attempted to begin anew with a different chosen people, and imagine how different history would be if that had happened.

It is difficult to reconcile this God who is embodied amongst the Israelites, who directs His people in wars of conquest, and even, at times, appears to war directly with other gods, with the common teaching of the Christian God.  Volumes have been written on this matter, and I am not religious scholar enough to add much to that body of work, though doubtless we will discuss it at greater length when we review books in the New Testament.

Within Numbers itself, there are two vignettes which stood out as being of particular interest to me.  First, there is a prophet, not of the Israelites, who seems to communicate with the God of the Israelites.  We don’t get much context, but I find it fascinating to consider, both religiously and historically, the extent and potency of belief in the Abrahamic God at this time in history beyond His chosen people of Israel.

The other event is the famous water-from-the-rock moment, which is usually depicted without its surrounding context.  I am not a biblical scholar, but my reading of the event in its full context strongly suggests that Moses may have conjured water from the rock of his own will, against God’s inclination at the time.  They (God and Moses) even seem to have an argument about the matter after the fact, but the more interesting element of the story is the implication that Moses has been granted deific powers which he can wield of his own initiative and to his own will, even if God does not necessarily agree, despite the powers coming from Him.  Indeed, the Israelites’ water-plight which leads to the water-from-the-stone moment is a punishment from God for their transgressions.  The implications are fascinating to consider, and it’s another prime example of how different a story can be reading it as I am here, rather than as snippets and excerpts.

Numbers ends with more numbers, an additional census of the Israelites after their near-forty years in the desert, but the heart of the book is, at last, a resumption of the story begun in Exodus.  The demographics are a bit dry, though of historical interest, but the narrative elements put this back into the realm of epic storytelling of the ancient world.  Now, I wonder why the next book is titled Deuteronomy.