But among these there was not a man of them whom Moses and Aaron the priest numbered, when they numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai.
The Israelites were counted in the beginning of Numbers; by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, those that were numbered of them, according to the number of the names, by their polls, every male from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war. But unbelief kept them from entering into that blessed promised land. And God promised that all of them that were counted would die in the wilderness.
Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, (Numbers 14:29)
And every carcass fell. But after the last one fell the Israelites again are numbered. When I see this verse, I can’t help but say, “Praise the Lord!” I remember the when Paul cried, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24) I wonder if Paul was thinking about this verse in Numbers when he wrote those blessed words:
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Yes, in the wilderness, the old things passed away. It wasn’t the murmuring and the complaining and unbelief. It was the murmurer and complainer and unbeliever that fell in the wilderness. Israel was delivered from the body of this death. It was a rough road and there were hard times. There was discouragement. There was weeping. There was death and sorrow. But alas, it’s as if Jesus leaned over heaven and said, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” And the Israelites cried back, “Lord I believe, help thou mine unbelief!”
When they were first numbered, there were 603,550 men counted. (Numbers 1:46) They were afraid to die. They were afraid to trust God with their lives; and yet they lost them all. This time, there were 601,730 men counted. (Number 26:51) That’s not a whole lot different; 1820 to be exact. In fact, if you do the math, the number changed by only a fraction of a percent (0.3%). What I’m getting at here is that God will provide. This is an Old Testament picture of a New Testament truth:
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. (Mark 8:35)
Which whosoever do you choose to be? Joshua chose which whoever in the beginning. He said, “The land is an exceeding good land. The LORD is with us!” God led him over and on the other side, he said, “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!”
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. (Romans 7:6)
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