Please stand in preparation for our reading together of Numbers, Chapter 1, verses 1-3. 
Num 1:1-3, Then the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, "Take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, by their families, by their fathers' households, according to the number of names, every male, head by head from twenty years old and upward, whoever is able to go out to war in Israel, you and Aaron shall number them by their armies. 
You may be seated, thank you!
This week, we want to conclude our introductory study of the Book of Numbers. We are using extensive quotes from Dr. Ronald B. Allen in his writing on the Book of Numbers contained in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, with the General Editor, Frank E. Gaebelein. I continue to thank the Lord for the manner in which He used Dr. Allen’s expertise to make this Book all the more accessible and wonderful, as I hope we will discover together. 
Last time, we ended with the fact that the Book of Numbers gives a tremendous picture of the reality that God is righteous in all His dealings with mankind. We saw this in His judgment on that first generation of Hebrews which was obstinate, rebellious, idolatrous, complaining, unfaithful, and unbelieving. The first generation received the righteous wrath of God by their death in the desert. Even Moses, the great prophet and leader of the people suffered the full consequence of his disobedience to God. Accordingly, it would be the second generation who would be questioning whether God would go before them or leave them to die, as well, in the wilderness regions.
Dr Allen brings us to the encouragement of God to this generation as he describes the place that the account of Balaam has in this book. The description of Balaam’s encounter with the Lord causes much discord among many scholarly authorities as to why it is in the Bible at all. In dealing with its importance we have the following quote, In one of the most remarkable sections of the Bible, the Lord worked providentially and directly to proclaim His continued faithfulness to His people, despite their continuing unfaithfulness. This section is the comic account of Balaam the pagan diviner (Num 22-24). Here the God of laughter brings a smile to His people to encourage them in the prospects of their new hope, even as the older persons among them were still dying: God’s promises will be realized… in us!
In Balaam we have the pagan counterpart to Moses, the man of God. The recovery of prophetic texts of Balaam in Aramaic from the sixth century at Deir ‘Allah in Jordan shows how very famous this man was in the ancient Near East, even centuries after his death. Balaam was an internationally known prophet, a diviner who was expert in examining the entrails of animals and in watching the movement of birds to divine the will of the gods. He thought that the Lord God of Israel was like any other deity whom he imagined he might manipulate by mantic acts. But from the early part of the narrative, when he first encounters the true God in visions, and in the hilarious narrative of the journey on the donkey (ch.22), Balaam begins to learn what for him was a strange, bizarre, even incomprehensible lesson: An encounter with the God of reality was fundamentally different from anything he had ever known. But then he had never known Yahweh!
When Balaam finally begins to utter his words of cursing on the nation Israel at the instigation of Balak, king of Moab, the pagan mantic finds his mouth unable to express the least of the contempt he desired to declare. Instead, from his mouth, and at the loss of his honorarium(!), come the most lovely of blessings on Israel and the most ferocious of cursings on the enemies round-about (chs. 23-24). Balak is furious! And Israel, who later hears this account, rollicks joyfully with the laughter of God.
In his seven prophetic oracles, Balaam displays God’s great grace for His people, His grace revealed in his blessing: “I have received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot change it” (23:20).
It is the blessing of God on Israel that is the heart of the Book of Numbers and the heart of the Torah. This reminder of the blessing of God in the most unusual circumstances of the oracles of Balaam leads us to the celebrative and joyful aspects of the book. End quote.
Building on this commentary, listen to the words of truth that God brought forth from this pagan prophet in Num 23:16-20. Then the Lord met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, "Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak." And he came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the leaders of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, "What has the Lord spoken?" Then he took up his discourse and said, "Arise, O Balak, and hear; Give ear to me, O son of Zippor! "God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? "Behold, I have received a command to bless; When He has blessed, then I cannot revoke it. 
And, in a passage that is even more amazing, Balaam foretells of the Promised One, the Savior, the King of all, the Messiah, Our Lord Jesus Christ in Num 24:17-19. "I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; A star shall come forth from Jacob, And a scepter shall rise from Israel, And shall crush through the forehead of Moab, And tear down all the sons of Sheth. "And Edom shall be a possession, Seir, its enemies, also shall be a possession, While Israel performs valiantly. "One from Jacob shall have dominion, And shall destroy the remnant from the city." 
	There is, however, another heartrending and utterly distressing part of the story of Balaam. He and the enemies of Israel seduced some of the leaders of that first generation of Israelites to engage in obscene cultic practices which threatened to pervert God’s people to embrace the detestable worship of Baal. 
Quote, At one unbelievable moment the frenzy broke into the camp of Israel and extended to the very entrance of the tabernacle of God… One prince of Israel brazenly copulated with a woman we believe to be a Midianite priestess of the Baal cult, in boldest daring, in the very proximity of the place of the worship of the Lord. As they gyrated one against the other in their primeval dance in celebration of Baal, a profanation of the holy that is nearly unspeakable, a great hero of faith thrust his knife through both of them. The knife went through the back of the man and into the belly of the woman. And Phinehas, grandson of Aaron, showed himself of all the men present to be a hero. His zeal for Yahweh was like the very zeal of God Himself. Phinehas’s zeal reminds us of the zeal of the promised One… Phinehas typifies the strong sword of Jesus (Rev 19:11-16). Moreover, his action stemmed the plague that had broken out in the camp. This was the last plague; it was the end of the dying of the older generation. Now they were all gone.
	Two things transpired. First, Yahweh established His covenant of peace with Phinehas. In addition to the great covenant God established with Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai, we are accustomed to think of the covenant of God with Abraham and the covenant of God with David. We also look forward in the Hebrew Scriptures to discover another of God’s gracious covenants, His covenant with Phinehas. This covenant with God’s priest is as important for true worship as the covenant God established with David is important for the true royal house. Second, through Phinehas’s action “atonement was made for Israel” (25:13). The holy relationship of God and people was reestablished. End quote. 
This then brings us to consider the Book of Numbers as it has so much to contribute to the worship of the Most Holy Lord God Almighty. Again reading from Dr. Allen quote, We find that the Book of Numbers has a great deal to contribute to the theology of worship. The NT concept that in worship all should be done in an orderly and fitting manner (1 Cor 14:40) finds its basis in the Book of Numbers. Not only do we learn of order and procedure, we also learn of pageantry and procession, festival and fasting, demanded sacrifices and freewill offerings, restrictions and blessing. Other special features of the book include the provisions of the Nazarite vow (6:1-21), the beauty of the Aaronic Benediction (6:22-27), and the repetitive words of the lengthy record of the dedication offerings of the elders of each tribe (ch. 7) – these lengthy repetitions emphasizing the solemnity of the event and the magnanimity of the people in their gratitude to God the Deliverer. Most of all we learn of blessing. The words God gave to Aaron and to his sons, hence, words that are vouchsafed to Phinehas, are words whereby God shows His desire to bring His blessing on His people; His desire is to have them sense the smile of His face…
Thus it is in the Book of Numbers that the ongoing purposes of God for His covenant people are reaffirmed. Despite His judgment on the first generations of those He redeemed from Egypt, His murmuring people, God was still determined to bring the new generation into the Land of Promise and realization.
From this follows that the entire Book of Numbers is a pointing back to failure and an addressing forward of the possibility of success. Yes, the first generation failed; no, the new generation does not have to fail. Yes, there are repeated instances reported of the rebellions of the first generations (chs. 1-25); but as yet there are none, not one reported of the second generation (chs. 26-33). The first generation was one of the dead and the dying; there is not one death mentioned in the latter section of the book (chs. 26-33).
The fortunes of the people are not the result of time and tide, of chance and happenstance, of the fickle wills of capricious deities. The people can make their own fortune, for the eternal God has given them carte blanche. If they will respond in faithfulness and in wholehearted obedience, there is no promise He had given that will not be fulfilled. If they behave as their parents had done, then there might have to be another forty years of waiting in the desert.
God has time! He is not in a hurry. Finally He will have a generation of people like Joshua and Caleb who will focus on Him entirely and not be intimidated by walls of cities, by stature of men, or by sniveling words of the weak and cowardly. The Book of Numbers is the call to a robust faith in the Lord. And for the people of such faith, there is no end of blessing. End quote. 
This, then, brings us to the numbers in the Book of Numbers. Much contrary discussion has been voiced concerning the numbers and their inclusion in the Scripture. Quote, What seems to be the most embarrassing element of the book – the numbers that seem impossibly inflated for a small nation at the beginning of its existence – are its crown and glory. These numbers are a mark of God’s blessing. They are a fulfillment of His covenant. They anticipate numbers of people who will be like the stars of the heavens, the sand of the seashore…the numbers may also lead us to think in superlatives. They remind us of God’s grace, they point to His mercy, and they anticipate His glory. These numbers have a theological meaning. They are used for effect, not simple bombast…The number of the people had grown from a small figure to an immense number in an amazingly brief period of time. But their number at present was only a cipher compared to their number in God’s future for them. The numbers in the Book of numbers are also part of its theology. The numbers extol the glory of God in His people. 
In the Book of Numbers there are more than numerical listings of the tribes. This book records events of lasting significance for Israel and for the inheritors of blessing in God’s church. God does display His wrath even against His errant people, but His grace is renewed as surely as is the dawn. End quote.  
	In the conclusion of Dr. Allen’s introductory remarks concerning the Book of Numbers, and in dealing with the seeming impossibly large numbers, Dr. Allen refers to them, possibly being magnified by the power of ten. This is done because they can be specifically dealt with as power words that are expressed in numeric form. 
The numbers take on a much greater significance in the following manner. Quote, The deliberate exaggeration was not for misrepresentation nor for simple bombast. This rhetorical use of numbers…was a mark of faith in the Lord who had provided great increase to a family of seventy persons and who one day would make His people as the stars in number. One day they would truly be innumerable – except to Him, who counts them all and knows their names! These “embarrassing numbers” are not embarrassing at all. These numbers celebrate Yahweh. They are numbers of worship! ...The studied units, with their formulaic structure and power numbers, would evoke pride of patriotism, sense of belonging, and – most importantly – the celebration of the Lord.
	…In summary, the Book of Numbers is just that! It is a book that uses numbers to celebrate the work of the Lord! And in these numbers is His praise. End quote. 
	I do thank you for allowing me the freedom to share these introductory reflections together. I was really concerned with the reading of this book of the Bible, with all its repetitious lists and numbers until the Lord made it clear that every book of His Word serves His purpose. There is always great value in just seeking Him to open His Word in accordance with His guiding and His revealing work by His Holy Spirit. 
I take these observations of Dr. Allen as an answer to that prayer and look forward, with excitement to what the Lord will open in this Book of Numbers. Again, thank you and let us look ahead with anticipation to how we will be taught to more perfectly worship God as we spend time together in His Word and specifically in this Book of Numbers, Lord willing, when we next continue this study. So be it!
Then the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, "Take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, by their families, by their fathers' households, according to the number of names, every male, head by head from twenty years old and upward, whoever is able to go out to war in Israel, you and Aaron shall number them by their armies. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Deut 4:31. For the Lord your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them. Amen.