(Rev 2:14 NKJV)  "But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.

 

 

 

 

 

(Num 26:1-4 NKJV)  And it came to pass, after the plague, that the LORD spoke to Moses and Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, saying: {2} "Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel from twenty years old and above, by their fathers' houses, all who are able to go to war in Israel." {3} So Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho, saying: {4} "Take a census of the people from twenty years old and above, just as the LORD commanded Moses and the children of Israel who came out of the land of Egypt."

 

 

(Deu 4:1-4)  "Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers is giving you. {2} "You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you. {3} "Your eyes have seen what the LORD did at Baal Peor; for the LORD your God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal of Peor. {4} "But you who held fast to the LORD your God are alive today, every one of you.

 

The table at the right lets us compare the number they started out with at Sinai, and the number left after their affair with the women of Moab.  Those that lost population I have written in red, and those that increased I have written in blue.  It is very obvious that not all had the same experience.

At Sinai Plains of Moab Reuben 46,500 43,730 Simeon 9,300 22,200 Gad 45,650 40,500 Judah 74,600 76,500 Issachar 54,400 64,300 Zebulun 57,400 60,500 Ephraim 40,500 32,500 Manasseh 32,200 52,700 Benjamin 35,400 45,600 Dan 62,700 64,400 Asher 41,500 53,400 Naphtali 53,400 45,400 Totals 603, 550 601, 730

 

(Num 26:52-56 NKJV)  Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: {53} "To these the land shall be divided as an inheritance, according to the number of names. {54} "To a large tribe you shall give a larger inheritance, and to a small tribe you shall give a smaller inheritance. Each shall be given its inheritance according to those who were numbered of them. {55} "But the land shall be divided by lot; they shall inherit according to the names of the tribes of their fathers. {56} "According to the lot their inheritance shall be divided between the larger and the smaller."

 

(Num 26:63-65 NKJV)  These are those who were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho. {64} But among these there was not a man of those who were numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest when they numbered the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Sinai. {65} For the LORD had said of them, "They shall surely die in the wilderness." So there was not left a man of them, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.

 

(Heb 3:7-19)  Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:

"Today, if you will hear His voice,

{8} Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness,

{9} Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me,

 And saw My works forty years.

{10} Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, 'They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.'

{11} So I swore in My wrath,

'They shall not enter My rest.'"

(Heb 3:12) Beware, brethren,

lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief

in departing from the living God;

[Note the urgency!]

{13} but exhort one another daily,

while it is called "Today,"

lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

{14} For we have become partakers of Christ

if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end,

{15} while it is said:

"Today, if you will hear His voice,

 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." {16} For who, having heard, rebelled?

Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt,

led by Moses?

{17} Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned,

whose corpses fell in the wilderness?”

There was no cemetery mentioned!

No tombstone as a memorial

just  corpses [fallen] in the wilderness—Wasted lives!

{18} And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? {19} So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

(Heb 4:1 NKJV)  Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear

lest any of you seem to have come short of it.

 

 

(Gal 3:24 NKJV)  Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

 

 

(1 Cor 10:1-8 NKJV)  Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, {2} all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, {3} all ate the same spiritual food,

{4} and all drank the same spiritual drink.

(1 Cor 10:4b) For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. {5} But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.  {6}Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. {7} And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." {8} Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell;

 

 

(Num 25:9 NKJV)  And those who died in the plague were twenty-four thousand. 

 

The discrepancy between twenty-three thousand and twenty-four thousand may be a rounding error, or the twenty-four thousand may include those miraculously killed as well as those who were killed by those who were instructed by God to kill.

 

(Num 25:4-5 NKJV)  Then the LORD said to Moses, "Take all the leaders of the people and hang the offenders before the LORD, out in the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel." {5} So Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Every one of you kill his men who were joined to Baal of Peor."

 

 

(Num 31:14-16)  But Moses was angry with the officers of the army, with the captains over thousands and captains over hundreds, who had come from the battle. {15} And Moses said to them: "Have you kept all the women alive? {16} "Look, these women caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to trespass against the LORD in the incident of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.

 

(Num 31:3-9)  So Moses spoke to the people, saying, "Arm some of yourselves for war, and let them go against the Midianites to take vengeance for the LORD on Midian. {4} "A thousand from each tribe of all the tribes of Israel you shall send to the war." {5} So there were recruited from the divisions of Israel one thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war. {6} Then Moses sent them to the war, one thousand from each tribe; he sent them to the war with Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, with the holy articles and the signal trumpets in his hand. {7} And they warred against the Midianites, just as the LORD commanded Moses, and they killed all the males. {8} They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of those who were killed; Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. Balaam the son of Beor they also killed with the sword. {9} And the children of Israel took the women of Midian captive, with their little ones, and took as spoil all their cattle, all their flocks, and all their goods.

 

 

 

My Sunday Evening Lessons    Bible Study with Harley