Numbers received its name because the people of Israel had a census taken at the beginning of the book one to two years after the exodus and at the end of the book thirty-nine to forty years after the exodus. You don’t realize it just reading the book, but it covers thirty-eight to thirty-nine years of Israel’s history. And it was thirty-eight to thirty-nine years just wandering in circles. A good outline for the book is
1A. Preparation to inherit their new land. Chapters 1-10
2A. Wasting time on non-essentials. Chapters 11-25
3A. Preparation to inherit their new land again. Chapters 26-36
The theme of this book could be “how to waste 40 years of your life”. Many Christians start out well but lose all the good things God intended for them by making bad choices. Israel was an example. In Chapters 1-10, we find Moses instructing the twelve tribes who would enter the land of Canaan how to organize and conduct themselves. While in camp, the tabernacle was the center of the encampment with the tribe of Levi (now the thirteenth tribe), living around the tabernacle. The other tribes were placed strategically on the outside of this center with three tribes on each side, north, south, east, and west. When they broke camp and were on the march, six tribes went in front of the tabernacle and six tribes were behind the tabernacle with the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant leading the way. This was done because they would be going through hostile country and would have to defend themselves.
Their first move was to Kadesh-Barnea where they stopped to plan their entering the land of Canaan. God told Moses to send scouts into the land to see what was there and what they would be up against. Twelve men, one from each tribe except Levi, spied out the land and came back with two reports. All twelve told how great the land was and brought back samples of the fruit, but ten of the twelve saw only walled cities and giants in the land and convinced the people the land was impossible to conquer. The other two men, Caleb and Joshua, saw the same cities and giants but told how God would help them defeat their enemies regardless of the conditions. Of course, the people believed the majority report and decided that Caleb and Joshua should be killed for their politically incorrect opinions. And because of their lack of faith and obedience to God, the people of Israel were forced to turn around and wander in the desert for thirty-eight more years with their punishment being that everyone who was 20 years of age or older when they left Egypt, except Caleb and Joshua, would die in the wilderness and never enter the promised land. The rest of the story with its intrigue will help you avoid their mistakes.
One of the foundational doctrines of Reformed Theology is eternal security. Notice, the Israelites were not put back into slavery because of their lack of faith and rebellion against God, but that would be the fate of Christians if we could lose our salvation, we would again become the slaves of sin. God punishes His children by removing many of their blessings both present and future in this life. There may be times when we feel forsaken just like Christ felt on the cross, but we are not because God hasn’t. Many times it is simply His way of teaching us things we were too stubborn to learn before.