 Good morning everyone. Welcome to today's session on the fourth book of the Old Testament that is Numbers Before we could start with our class. Can I request one of us to lead us in prayer? Loving father once again Lord we thank you Lord. We praise you master for this beautiful day Lord Lord as we gather together Lord to know more about you your world Lord I especially pray for the fastest Lord as he is leading us Lord Holy street Lord. I ask are you bless a lot anoint your powers of the Lord whatever loss you will speak we will able to Lord Not only listen, but Lord will store it in a heart master. I thank you for everything Lord once again I commit everyone in thy hand in Jesus name I pray amen amen amen Thank you so much rather for this wonderful prayer So just a recap of what we are learning from last class. What did we learn from our last class? From the book of Leviticus. What did we learn? The different types of offerings Yes, seven fees Yes, yes. Thank you. Thank you. So with this we are moving on to the book of numbers. I Will just present Share the presentation with y'all and thank you yesterday though the line got disconnected my side You'll be there and thank you John for ending the class with a word of prayer Okay, so the book of numbers the title number itself in the English Translation was the Latin word. It is called as numeric which is translated from the Greek word Arithmoi so this This is the fourth book in the law and which is named due to the fact that it records so many Numberings or the senses of the nation of Israel and Historically the book begins with the book of Exodus that leaves off and the title number we saw that it's from the Latin and The first at the Mount Sinai We see the senses been recorded and a later part of this book we see again They're taking their senses at the planes of Moab. So what was the need of? senses Why should they take the senses two times in this book can one of us? Let us know I'll share of your thought on this. Why did they take the senses again? Is it to allocate the different tribes to as they're going to the promised land to allocate the tribes? Yes Yes Anyone else? Why did they take the second time? Now what the way I said is for the first time Why did they take the second time? Okay, well the first time they took to allocate the tribe Okay, the second time they took the senses There was an incident that happened before the after the first senses where the with when when Moses sent out the twelve spies to To check on the land of Canada and when they came back They were ten people who carried a bad report and two men that is Joshua and Caleb we will see to it at the when we are going through the outline We will study in detail about them They carried a good report and you see the division among the people and they You know the people started murmuring and God was angry upon them because they murmured and God then want any of that generation to enter the promised land So they had to take the second senses to make sure those who were there during that time are not Alive when they entering the promised land, so they had to take the senses the second time Okay, so that's why and we see what we learn from each book just an overview Like in the book of Genesis We see this book as the book of creation Where the man had fallen and it was ruined and in the book of Exodus we see the book of redemption and in the book of Leviticus we see it's a book of worship and fellowship and the book of numbers is a book of service and walk the book of numbers was the fourth book in the Bible and it is also the fourth book in the Jewish law that is the Torah We see that what does this book talks about It carries the story of Israel after the exodus had come out from slavery and how God has been leading the Israelites through the wilderness in Like how God brought them and how they camped around Mount Sinai and how did they enter? the covenant the promise land later and in this book we also see Lot of events that took place when they were Camping at the wilderness and in the book of numbers we see how the story goes from from each event to event and what what what made God angry and how you know how they had to face the Consequence of their action at the wilderness and today we can also Relate to them in our own life. So as we study As we go through chapter by chapter We will we will see we will unveil the events that took place though We don't have much time to go through in detail, but as much as possible. We will go through these So if you all have your bibles, please turn to numbers chapter one So we will go through a few of the key events, but before we could go through the key events We will go through our notes We will go through our notes. We will look at the background and we will talk about the background and the and the Later Okay, so in our notes, we see the author is the Moses and the date and location we see that this book was written in one thousand One thousand four hundred and six. Yes BC probably the approximate date has been given and the very purpose of this book was to prepare the people in the wilderness Journey to show the necessity for the nation to go through this painful process of testing and The maturation and we also see how God corrects his people when they disobey We also see the failure of the older generation to inherit the promised land because of their murmuring and we also see how God prepares them the new generation prepares them And how they land up inheriting the promised land We also see the foreshadow of the sacrifice of Christ through the symbols such as the red Eifer and the bronze serpent and Later we also see the revealing of the attributes of God that has been Seen the perseverance in the covenant keeping and there's a balance between his grace and this Wrath With this we will move on to the Outline and outline as we move on to the outline. We also cover the key events in this book So the first chapter of numbers That's what saying that now the Lord spoke to Moses and you see The organization of Israel forming there and God instructs Moses how to take the senses of all the congregation of the children of Israel By the families and by their father's house According to the number of names every male individually we see that in numbers chapter one verse two and we see how You know a God is a God of structure and God of you know, he's very organized So he gives instruction and like in the previous books Okay in the previous books we see how God gave a design to design the tabernacle To design even the arc of the covenant every inch Every with you know God gives the measurement. We also see even the priestly garment how God gave the design Yes purposefully we have not covered these two The few of the events or few of the details in our previous class because these will be given as an Assignment for each of the students. So those that we have not covered We will be doing a detailed assignment on that. Okay? So come back to it listen. So how did God organize? the tribes God made 12 tribes and how God organized in Setting the camp around the tabernacle for this. I'll just display the picture. So this is how God organized each and every tribe to be placed around the tabernacle You see in middle. We see the tabernacle Can you'll see this image? Okay, you're able to see that great Okay, so in middle is the tabernacle around the tabernacle We see the Levites are surrounded the tabernacle and Then we see the four sorry the twelve tribes Been camped around them So that we will start with the east the entrance of the the entrance of the tabernacle is where Judah is the leader We see Judah as per In chapter one we see these are the names Okay, where it says Judah nascent the son of Abinab and from the Ishar Nathan the son of Zorah We are in verse seven and eight as you go Lord is asking each and every who will be the leader which will be the tribe and which side Of the facing of the tabernacle each one will be camped accordingly Can you see the image of a cross in this? Can we see the image of a cross? so in the beginning itself God is designing a cross in the beginning itself. We see the plan of Jesus in Every moment you see the north south east west you see the plan of Jesus. So the leader of of East is Judah so Judah will be phased at the first and then followed Next to Judah is Isarcher and then zeblim. This is as per the scripture. It has been arranged and then This is east. So then we have Rubin in the south That is Rubin, Simeon and Gad towards the south and and then this side where Ibrahim is there the tribe of Ibrahim There we have Ibrahim will be on the west. Yes. So this is east that is west so west We have a prime Manasseh in Benjamin and then we have Dan Dan is in the north side So Dan Asher and Natalie. So if you can see east Opposite to ease opposite to Judah is a prime is the west then South is Rubin and opposite to south is Dan which is the north side and see each of these tribes will have a flag to To to wave the banner they have a banner that they carried. So the flag of Judah There's a flag of Judah. So, you know, there's a There's a scholar called Kail delitzer Okay, he's a rabbinical scholar so he says that the standard of Judah both the figure of the lion and Rubin the lightness of a man and that of a if Ibrahim the figure of an ox and The Dan the figure of an eagle so each one each tribe had a figure and they were carrying the banner and At the start of their camp something like this See, this is the east entrance where they camped Sorry, the image is not very clear. It is little blood. This is how I could get an image with a flag on it So we see the tabernacle the tent of the tabernacle and We see the flag before the camp. There's a flag This is the flag of a Judah which has a lion symbol on it So each of them as they camped East west south and north north and south as they camped they had this symbol upon them For example, we see here We see it. This is Judah Facing east towards the tabernacle having the lion as their flag Then we see Ruben Towards the Towards the south has a flag of a man and then we see here West west if I him has a flag of an ox and then here towards the south Not south towards the north Dan tribe has a flag of an eagle. So this is the north. This is the south East and west You saw that Can we see that? So how God relates we have to see in in the book of numbers chapter 2 verse 2 Verse 2 to 10 we see who should be on the east side who should be on the west side who should be on the north Who should be on the south clearly God is please placing each and every tribe there and In the book of Ezekiel chapter 1 verse 10 can one of us please read Ezekiel chapter 1 verse 10 their faces looked like this each of the four had the face of a man and on the right side each had the face of a lion and On the left the face of an ox each also had the face of an eagle See even the vision of Ezekiel Shows the same picture very clearly. So Ezekiel is facing towards the south from the south is seeing where he can see the face of a man and Then towards his right towards his right that is the east side You see the face the lightness of a lion and then towards his west Where he sees a lightness or of a bull and Towards the opposite side that is the west side. You see the lightness of an eagle You see everywhere God has been projecting this and also in the book of revelations We see the same image carry their revelations chapter 4 verse 6 to 7 can one of us please read and before the throne There was something like a sea of glass Like crystal and in the center and around the throne Four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind The first creature was like a lion and the second creature like a calf and The third creature had a face like that of a man and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle and For and the four living creatures each one of them having six wings are a full eyes around and within You see again the four features been Also recorded in the book of Revelation in the vision of John and What is these four creatures denotes they all relate to Christ they all relate to Christ we see We see lion as a lion of Judah the king of Jews and We see in a man. He is the son of man Jesus was the son of man and an ox. We see him Untiringly labor we see You know, we we see him untiring labor when he was in on this earth Jesus went about You know preaching the good news to everyone and healing the sick and the depressed or comforting the the poor He went about doing good Untiringly and then we see The face of an eagle in Jesus as the son of God who came from heaven To be among us as son of man So he was hundred percent God and he was hundred percent man the prophetic figure. He was also a prophet Among us. So we also see You know how this has been Related even in the gospel even in the gospel we see a Matthew records Jesus as the king of the Jews Shows the kingship shows You know the the figure of a lion lion of Judah the king of Jews the king It also talks about the genealogy the the lineage from the David The Matthew portrays the gospel like that and we see Mark shows itself like an ox Jesus who untiringly Labored going everywhere healing the sake and preaching the gospel Untiringly and then we see Luke portraying Jesus as the man who labored Untiringly as a man and also Luke records the genealogy way back from Adam and Luke also shows Jesus as a man of intelligence He was a man of Intelligence and then we see John records as the son of God like the eagle son of God Who came to this earth to be the son of man? So he was hundred percent God and a hundred percent man and even John as he starts the gospel He says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God and Later go as we come down to verse 14. We see how the word became flesh and dwelt among us The portrays Christ there as the son of God so this is what we learn from this Where the very pictures they threw out the Bible God connects this And he connects it with Jesus that he had Jesus in his mind the redemption Plan was very much present there itself With this we will move on to the next one the Nazarite wow What is the Nazarite wow? Anyone in the class can share Ma'am, I guess they won't shave their head Yes yes so we see in in Chapter five to ten talks about the Santification of Israel Santification of Israel and we see different vows and here we talk about the Nazarite wow, it is a voluntary wow It is taken by people and Nazareth wow usually has a beginning and an end Beginning and an end and we have three people in the Bible who had taken up this wow first one was Samuel And second one was samson and the third person is john the Baptist in the new testament And there were a few guidelines in this wow That is uh, yes as you said they would not cut the length of the hair as per the uh the during that wow period and then Sorry about that Actually keep my mobile inside Okay, they will not cut the hair and the second is they do not take up any fermented drink Or even the grape juice they will not drink Even a grape seed or even the skin of a grape they will not consume And the third the guideline the third guideline in this wow was even if any of the family member dies immediate family member or anyone dies They cannot attend the funeral of that person They should not go near the dead body of any person. Okay. So this was the three guidelines of this wow and Although the Nazareth wow when the old test it is an old testament concept, but then in the new testament we see that Paul says in Romans chapter 12 verse 1 to 2 can one of us please turn to romans chapter 12 verse 1 to 2 and to read Romans chapter 12 Therefore, I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy To offer your bodies as living sacrifices Holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Do not Confirm any longer to the pattern of this world But be transformed by the renewing of your mind Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is His good pleasing and perfect Amen So what we see is good pleasing and perfect will For the Christians the ancient nazarite wow symbolizes the need to be separated from from this world But the holy people are being concentrated. We have been concentrated in God This is what we are And then we'll go to the next point What is the next point? The priestly blessing which has been given it's been recorded in Numbers chapter 6 verse 22 to 27 can one of us read The Lord said to Moses Tell Aaron and his sons. This is how you are to bless the Israelites Say to them the Lord bless you and keep you the Lord make his face shine upon you And be gracious to you the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace So they will put my name on the Israelites and I will bless them So this was the priestly blessing given by the Lord to us To Moses to tell Aaron and his sons Well with this we will move on to chapter 10 With the cloud of God's presence Lives from the tabernacle and guides Israel away from Mount Sinai into the wilderness And immediately things turn out not in a good way And here we see in chapter 13 We'll move on to chapter 13 the report of the 12 spies What happened in chapter 13 can we turn to chapter 13? Yes God tells Moses to send out the 12 spies one from each tribe So they can go and scout the promised land So when the spies all returned 10 of them came back saying the negative of like how the canonites were how big they were like they were Giants were huge people we cannot face them. They will destroy us But there were two people Two spies who came back who are the two people? Caleb and Joshua Who said god can save god can save us And the 10 people You know they spread rumors among the people they spread the fear what they saw They didn't see any fear, but they just saw the How canonites were And they had this fear within them and they spread that fear among the Israelites They didn't even had to go fight against them But even before they could face the canonites, they were defeated in their mind The just by the very look of those canonites people Sometimes even we even before we could Head into any challenges or anything the minute we have our own imagination and the very fear of it Makes us be defeated in that area But then god is asking us To be positive to look at how big our god is not at the situation not at the people Not at the circumstances, but look at how big god is what was the difference between the 10 spies and the two They looked at the canonites the 10 people the 10 spies looked at the canonites and their strength To Caleb and Joshua they didn't look at their weakness, but they looked at the mighty strength of god the mighty power of god They remember how god saved them how god supernaturally brought them from the egypt A god who can separate the red sea god who can provide them supernaturally Through mana and through quail God can do this So they trusted on the god of israel they trusted on the god who was dwelling in them So that made them to be positive But then as these 10 people spread rumors Brought fear into them and these people started creating a riot Against moses. So they started um, you know murmuring And they started asking we want a new leader to go back to egypt and this caused god to be very much angry on these people And we see how moses intercedes on behalf of this people to god as a leader you and I We need to be always mindful of people We need to intercede for others For our city for our church for our nation for our country for the world And when we intercede moses intercedes and god listens to moses because moses reminds god of the promise that he has he had With the servant abraham Then god, you know He he hears moses prayer and he answers him by not killing those people But he says not one of them will enter the promised land And that's the reason we see the second time the census was taken to make sure that none of them will enter the promised land and with this as people were You know, they were thirsty and they were asking for water. So god tells god instructs moses to speak to the rock to get water Because people were again and again the israelites were again and again murmuring so moses is moses gets so very upset and he hits the rock twice because moses hit the rock and didn't speak to the rock you know moses also dis honored god by putting himself in place of god As a one who brings out the water so moses Brings down on himself the same fate as the people in the wilderness did So even he too will not enter the promised land, but then even he will die in the desert So with this we will move on to chapter 21 But before we move on to chapter 21 in the verses we see Chapter 20 we see the death of Miriam in verse one and the same chapter on 29 we see the death of Aaron And in and in 21 we'll see what happened Numbers 21 let's turn to numbers 21 Talks about the bronze serpent From verse 4 to 8 we can read can one of us please read Or due to time I will just explain this. That's okay Because we have very few minutes left. Okay, so the israelites start Rebelling again and god brings a very strange judgment on them We see the snakes come out and bite the people So again, we see moses interceding on their behalf But before that I wanted to know where was the snakes all these days They were there in the wilderness From where did the snakes come from? One thing we should know that Always there's snakes in the wilderness But then it was god's grace that protected them from every danger When the israelites murmured the grace departed So when we don't have god's edge around us enemy can easily come and attack us Same thing that happened. They were attacked by the enemies We all need the presence of god We cannot murmur go against god and expect god to protect us Murmuring dishonest god the very act And we see how moses intercedes on the behalf of the people and god tells moses To take up a bronze snake And lift it up on the pole so that whoever looks at the snake Would be healed of this poisonous snake bite The image of the bronze snake that is lifted up on the pole Is to provide the physical healing we see in chapter 21 And this also prefigures the lifting up of christ on the cross And now it is the ministry of the word that whoever looks to him by faith Shall have the spiritual healing We have the word of god with us and we need to lift the word of god high Because he is dwelling With us in the form of word And by faith we will have a spiritual healing and we will be restored back to god Now in numbers 22 we see the talking donkey of balam You know what happened the angel of the lord blocked the way Where when balam was trying to go on a donkey and he strikes the donkey three times and the angel of the lord opens the donkey's mouth and it makes The donkey to speak to balam The story goes if you reach after 22 23 24 and 25 we see Here the people The israelites were headed on the plane of moab So each time when the israelites were moving they were moving according to the tribe and they were carrying their flag as the banner Okay, so the first main part of We see here is The king of moab balak has been frightened at this huge group of people traveling Through his territory So he hires a pagan sorcerer balam To pronounce a curse over israel But before he could come on the way itself He encounters the angel of the lord and he's been warned And he has to do what the angel of the lord tells him to do And here we see balak hired balam to curse the israel three times And And balam finds that he is unable to curse them He cannot he can only utter blessing on israel. Remember god's promise to abraham in genesis 12 so not only uh, not Like you know, uh, the blessing of abraham says that I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you So balam is not able to curse Israel But god actually gives him a vision About uh, you know god, uh, open up balam and gives him a vision and he says the future israelite king Who will one day bring god's justice to all the nation and this vision recalls jakem's a promise of juda We see in genesis 49 where it says And also in number 24 chapter 24 verse 17 It says I will see him but not now I will behold him But not near a star shall come out of jakem a scepter shall rise out of israel And batter the bro of moab and destroy all the sons of tumult a scepter will rise out of israel Here we see the prophecy of christ was called as the morning star We also see that in the revelations chapter 22 verse 16, I guess yeah For his glory the brightness is splendor for the light that comes through him And here we also see that he's been called the scepter The scepter bearer because of his royalty He not only has the name of a king but as a kingdom and rules with scepter of grace mercy and righteousness With this we will move on to the next chapter in verse in chapter 27 We see joshua's appointment as a leader. We see how god appoint joshua as a leader can one of us turn to numbers 27 18 to 23 Yes, please So the lord said to moses A man in whom is the spirit and lay your hand on him Have him stand before eliezer the priest and the entire assembly and commission him in their presence Give him some of your authority. So the whole israelite community will obey him He is to stand before eliezer the priest who will obtain decisions for him by inquiring of the urim before the lord at his command He and the entire community of the israelites will go out and at his command they will come in Moses did as the lord commanded him he took joshua and had him stand before eliezer the priest and the whole assembly Then he laid his hands on him and commissioned him as the lord instructed through moses You see the rise of the leader the next leader god is everything well planned Well planned We see how the children of israel, uh, they uh through his leadership they start Beginning to prepare to inherit the promised land and they take the senses here to make sure that none of the Older generation will enter. So this will be the complete new generation under the new leadership of Joshua then they go on under the leadership of joshua they go on with Fighting few battles and god giving them the victory Even before they could enter the promised land and settle there So with this we also see the end of this new End of this book We see the new generation ready to enter the promised land and moses is about to deliver his final words and blessings Along with that. He also gives them some uh, you know the blessings and warnings What needs to be done by his wisdom through which he led all these years So what did we learn through this book? What did we learn? What did the book of numbers teach us anyone just one one point each one point will do Um, we learned that goddess show organized. He's a great planner That he already planned about the cross Yes, yes, thank you Anyone else? We can't hear you Your voice is very low I'm saying Are you hearing me now? Yes. Yes, please I'm saying that god has everything in plan as he he can never leave his student dexterate when he's taking one leader He has another leader in line for for his group of people amen Yes, thank you Anyone else? Yeah We see god is organizing his people the new generation To enter and settle into the promised land He's trying to organize them give them a new leader Give them new Directions So for soon so as to be able to settle into the promised land. Thank you Yes, yes So yes, we see that god has been an holy god and we expect that holiness from each of us And yes as a human we always fall short but then through jesus christ We have been made perfect. We have been made holy. We have been made righteous. We see that here And we also see the sin and unbelief and the Rebellion attitude and people time and again But we see god's grace Faithfulness despite all that he's been the provider He's been the protector Even now when we go astray we see that We have been made perfect. We have been forgiven In and through jesus Times when we rebel to the sin and belief We have been We have we have read the judgment of god But then it's only through jesus when we repent And ask god for forgiveness We have been united back to christ united back to god. We have been restored in that relationship To develop a fellowship with him And we see uh, you know time and again this wilderness story has been repeated retold again and again in the bible just to Remind us to be a set a reminder like how people can sin and rebel against god And they will be set for the judgment of god, but then When they ask for forgiveness, they have been restored back So time and again, this has been reminded throughout the scriptures We see many prophets and even the poets like the psalmist been recorded and even in the new testament It's been recorded by our apostles And these stories always serve us as a warning that god will remain You know Warning that while god will remain faithful to his covenant promise And we need to live a life that is pleasing to god We need to keep that in our mind as we move further So with this we will end our session with a word of prayer can we pray You're god You are our god. You are our lord. You are our master. You are a line of juda You are the son of man You have given us the strength To serve you as like an untiring ox You have given us the anointing to foresee things The prophetical realm like of an eagle Thank you that you are dwelling in us lord Thank you that you have chosen us as the living tabernacle The new testament says that you are the body of christ the temple of the holy spirit Father, I lift each one of us who are in the class and we'll also be watching this video later Lord, we pray and we surrender ourselves. We consecrate ourselves unto you We pray that you will forgive us our sins completely and you paid the price on the cross And we have been restored back to you lord Thank you for the thank you for your son Jesus Christ who died on the cross Lord restored us back to you Thank you that you have made us you have chosen each one of us to set apart for your holy calling Lord, I pray that you will give us the heart The wisdom to serve you the way Jesus served With all humility with all intelligence Untiringly Spirit of the Lord, I pray that you will move in each one of us You will increase us in your word in your wisdom and in your spirit Help each one of us lord to be rooted and grounded in your word So that we may live a life that is holy and pleasing unto you Thank you Lord for doing it so Thank you that every promise of yours every covenant of yours will be fulfilled in and through us In Jesus name we pray Amen Amen Today I leave you all with these two reflection questions Please take a take a note If you were one of the 12 spies sent to the land of canner to determine the strength of the enemy What report would you have brought back? Would it be a response of faith or unbelief? And the second one here is however Powerful the enemy may be we need to remember that God is more powerful and his promises will come to pass So what type of giant or the problem we are facing today? The second question is will you trust God in that situation? Just answer this for yourself Let's reflect on what we studied today and on the word on the book of numbers Okay. Thank you so much for joining in today's session. I hope today's session brought a lot of new insights for each of us. Did it? Yes, ma'am. Yes ma'am. Yes ma'am. Thank you There's much more to be covered. I would encourage all to please go through this book Chapter by chapter so that we will learn together As we journey on this Old Testament. Okay. Thank you. God bless. See you all tomorrow on ministers foundation Thank you ma'am Thank you ma'am. Thank you