Numbers

Numbers 1: God numbers and guards His people

Begin in prayer

Before we meet the people God numbers for their journey, let us ask Him to prepare our hearts to hear Him. Please pray that we will take His holy presence seriously and see the care He gives through Christ.

But he led out his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

Psalm 78:52

Father in heaven, please open our eyes as we read Your Word. Show us Your care in ordering Israel, and lead us to Jesus, who brings sinners near You. Make us more like Jesus. And please bless our family as we worship You together. In Jesus' name, Amen.

See where we're going

In the wilderness of Sinai, God speaks from the Tent of Meeting, where He meets with His people. He tells Moses and Aaron to count the men aged twenty and older who can go to war. Leaders from the tribes help them, and the count shows a great people ready to travel in divisions. God gives the Levites a different task, caring for His tent and camping around it. They must guard the holy place, because an outsider who comes near must be put to death. Israel does all that God commands through Moses.

As you read Numbers 1, look for the answers:

Reflect together

Key truth

God orders His people and guards them as they live near Him.

Israel has come out of slavery, and now God prepares them to travel toward the land He promised. A census is a careful count of the people. God counts the men who can go to war, so each man knows the company where he belongs. The great number shows how God has multiplied the family He brought down to Egypt. Yet an army cannot protect Israel from the danger of treating God as common. The Levites camp around His tent to guard it, so His wrath will not fall on the people. Please help your children see that living near God calls for the care God Himself commands.

How does Numbers 1 show us that God orders His people and guards them as they live near Him?

God counts His people to prepare them for the journey.

The men are counted one by one, within their tribes and families. This gives each man his place among those able to fight. God is preparing a people to go where He sends them, under the leaders He has named.

God gives the Levites work that guards His people.

The Levites take down the tent, carry it and put it up again. Their camp around it keeps others from entering where God has forbidden them. God warns that an outsider who approaches must die, so guarding the tent protects the whole congregation.

God’s commands deserve the obedience of everyone.

Moses counts the people as the LORD commanded him (verse 19). At the end, Israel does all that the LORD commanded Moses (verse 54). Order and safety in the camp come from listening to the LORD and doing what He says.

Memorise

Thus the children of Israel did. According to all that Yahweh commanded Moses, so they did.

Numbers 1:54

Looking to Jesus in my life

Ask yourself in your heart, where do I resist God’s commands and need Jesus to change my heart?

God places the Levites around His tent “that there may be no wrath on the congregation”. Israel needs protection even while God lives among them. The God who brings His people near is holy. We cannot come carelessly into His presence.

Our disobedience deserves His wrath. Jesus came to stand in the place of His guilty people, and at the cross He carried their punishment. He rose bodily from the dead, having paid their debt in full. His completed sacrifice is enough to bring them safely to God.

So turn from your sin and trust Jesus. Bring Him the heart that wants its own way. Christ receives repentant sinners and forgives their sins. Those who belong to Him are known and cared for by the Shepherd who gave His life for His sheep.

Parent's note

Tell your children that God’s holiness makes their need of Jesus serious, and His care invites them to come. Please do not tell them they are saved just because they grew up in a Christian home. Call each child to turn from sin and trust Jesus, and pray that God would give them a new heart.

Pray together

Now please close your time together in prayer. Thank God for ordering Israel and guarding them near His presence, and bring the heart question to Him. Every child can pray, so let each one say a short prayer if they want to.

The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.

John 10:3

Father, thank You for caring for the people You brought out of Egypt. Please show us the danger of our sin, and turn each of us to Jesus. Teach us to trust Him and to obey Your Word this week with thankful hearts. Amen.