We are looking at the book of Numbers (“In the Wilderness” in Hebrew). Dr. Dale Brueggmann states that “Numbers tells a story that never should have happened.” But it did. Just as the Hebrews were fresh out of Egypt and headed to the land God promised, they ran into a snag. Themselves. God had them ready to enter and take possession of the land but their stubborn insistence on knowing better than God and their addiction to whining did nothing but make their lives more miserable, not less so.
What can we learn from such an old book about people long dead? A lot. Sadly, we are at times far more like them than we would like to admit. Possibly by learning lessons they failed to learn we can build our lives following God much better than they did, and maybe avoid some unnecessary problems along the way. But we have to take seriously the lessons God seeks to teach from a people that too often didn’t listen and had better ideas.