Lessons are learned 'in the desert'
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Translators of the Greek version of the scriptures wanted the title of the fourth book in the Old Testament to be descriptive of the book's content, explains Robert L. Millett in Studies in Scripture: The Old Testament. Therefore, they labeled it "Arithmoi," or "Numbers," because of the repeated use of census figures and the counting of the Israelites.
"In reality," Millett notes, "chapters 1-4 and 26 contain many numbers; the majority of the story in this phase of Israel's dramatic exodus involves the people's encounter with their God and His prophet, and with lessons painfully learned `in the desert.'"The book of Numbers takes the children of Israel from Sinai to Canaan. The period of wilderness wanderings described in the book of Numbers lasted for about 38 years and nine months. . . .
"One of the more obvious lessons to be learned through Moses' experience with wayward Israel is that signs and wonders do not insure conversion or obedience. God saw fit to perform miracle after miracle to deliver Israel from Egyptian bondage, and to preserve His chosen people from death in the deserts. But the people were hardened in their hearts and were neither moved nor motivated for any length of time by the supernatural. . . .
"In a sense, the story of Numbers is a dramatic but tragic drama, a story of unrequited love. On the one hand we witness . . . God'sT infinite kindness and covenant love for His covenant people; He literally would not let Israel go. On the other hand, we witness Israel's difficulty with receiving and appreciating God's offer to make of her His peculiar treasure, His holy nation of kings and priests, queens and priestesses. In addition, Jehovah straitened His people for their rebellion and chastened them for their failure to heed His word and the directives of His anointed servants."
