Numbers 33
McGeeCHAPTER 33THEME: The log of the journeys; the law of the possession of the landHere we have a log of their journeys. We said before that we do not have a record of the happenings during their forty years of wandering, only a few isolated incidents, but here is the log of the journey, a record of the places they camped.
Numbers 33:1
THE LOG OF THE JOURNEYSHere are a couple of verses to show you that this is not very exciting reading.
Numbers 33:25
I’d call it pretty monotonous. We would like to know what happened there, but nothing is said about what took place. If you went to visit a friend who had just returned from Europe, you would ask him to tell you about his trip. Suppose he said that they went to Rome, then they went to Milan, then they went to Florence, then they went into Switzerland to Lucerne, then to Zurich and to Geneva, and then into Germany into Frankfurt, and so on and on. You would want to ask him what they saw and what they did. You’d find a recital of all the places they had been a pretty boring account of their trip. That is my opinion of this chapter; it’s not very interesting reading. And yet, just as each portion of Scripture has a great spiritual lesson, so this chapter has a great spiritual lesson for us. Although this chapter is like a road map, and not interesting to read, it reveals that God noted and recorded every step that these people took. In fact, He was with them every step of the way through the wilderness march. We sing a song today which is entitled “I’ll go with Him all the way.” Very candidly, I don’t like it, and I think it expresses exactly the opposite viewpoint from what it should say. When I was a pastor, I used to look out on the congregation singing, “I’ll go with Him all the way,” and then I wouldn’t see many of those people on Sunday night, or at any Bible study, or when there was any work to be done for God. I wonder how far would they really be willing to go with Him? I must confess that I have failed Him. I can’t promise that I will go with Him all the way. I think we should turn that song around. He will go with me all the way, for He has said, “…I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb_13:5). So here we have the log of their journey. Everywhere they went, every time they camped, He was with them. Frankly, they weren’t going with Him. That is, their hearts were in rebellion against Him a great deal of the time. But He never left them. He never did forsake them. This is one of the great truths of the Word of God. “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Jesus said the same thing in His upper room discourse, “I will not leave you comfortless” (which is, literally, I will not leave you orphans): “I will come to you” (Joh_14:18). How? By sending the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit indwells every believer. If you are a child of God, you couldn’t possibly get away from Him. He wouldn’t let you go. He will go with you all the way. We may stumble, falter, and fail. We don’t follow Him as we ought. But, thank God, He goes with us all the way!
Numbers 33:51
THE LAW OF THE POSSESSION OF THE LANDThe chapter closes with an order the Lord gives to Moses as Israel is preparing to enter the land. Here is something many folk, especially the skeptics, raise questions about. People say they think it is very cruel and unfair for the Lord to tell Israel to wipe out the inhabitants of the land, when Israel also had been disobedient. They contend that because the people in the land were such lovely folk that the Lord’s wanting to put them out is indefensible. That is the way the liberal and the skeptic have been talking for years. The chances are that every liberal today is living on a piece of ground that once belonged to the Indians, and I don’t see them giving back their property to the Indians! Look at this with me for just a moment. “The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein” (Psa_24:1). This is His earth. He commands what is to be done. He told Israel to go into the land and to destroy their pictures; that is, their idols. The archaeologists are digging them up today. And they were to destroy their melted images. They were to demolish their high places. These were places of pagan and heathen worship where the vilest practices took place. The Canaanites were in a very low spiritual state. Not only were they idolators, far from the living and the true God, but promiscuity and sexual sins were a way of life and a part of their worship. As a result, the Canaanites were eaten up with venereal disease. Our promiscuous society tries to minimize the terribleness of sexual sins. We have an epidemic of venereal disease today, a plague, and it is a grave danger. It does great injury to the human race. These disease-ridden Canaanites lived at the crossroads of the world. That land is one of the most sensitive spots that there is on earth. It is that yet today; it always has been; I think it always will be.
It is a strategic land and the armies of the world have marched through that land. Trade routes of the world go through that land. The Canaanites had contact with a great number of people, and they were disseminating their loathsome diseases everywhere. So God is going to put a new tenant in the land. The Canaanites were destroying His property, and they were hurting the rest of mankind; so God is going to put them out. Don’t come to me, my friend, and say that God did not have the right to do that. It was actually an act of mercy. God destroyed the Canaanites for the sake of the oncoming generations. That is the same reason that God sent the FloodGod was preserving the future generations. My friend, do not criticize God. Do not sit in judgment on God. We cannot realize all that is involved in any situation. One thing we do knowwe will not experience peace on this earth until the rule of the Prince of Peace. Until that time, God will use nations in judgment upon other nations.