Numbers 1: Parting Lake Michigan, like the red sea!

Chapter one of numbers: Most perceive Numbers to be one of the most boring books in the bible. I’m not going to lie, it’s not one of the more exciting ones - that’s for sure. But everything in the Bible has a reason why it is included and this particular chapter is one that shows us the amazing goodness of God. How can we see that god is good through 54 verses of counting people… well track with me here for a minute.

Many of us struggle to believe there actually is a God because we cant text him, call him, email him, punch him, and we cant always see him. But often I think we are looking for something different then God showing himself to us.

To understand Numbers we have to go back to Genesis 28. In this chapter there is this guy named Jacob who is told by God that he will have LOTS of grandchildren who have LOTS more grandchildren and eventually he will have a huge family. His family will bless “all the peoples of the earth”. God closes his blessing over Jacob by saying He not leave Jacob untill what is promised is done. So what does this have to do with Numbers?? We move on from Jacob and have the story of Joseph… (go go go Joseph you know what they say…) and then we have the Exodus. We find Gods chosen people in captivity as slaves under the Egyptian king, and they are angry.

Numbers starts with the Israelites who were freed from captivity as a result of the miracles of God. The Israelites are the descendants of Jacob this is his family years and years later. A reason for this count in Numbers is for the people to see how faithful God has been to his promise, despite the slavery and captivity; God still blessed these people and kept his word. And all the while He was with them as he promised.

Jacobs family was originally 75 people, but now as we read in Numbers the number totals 603,550. God surly did bless them and this chapter is a way to put in writing how much God blessed Jacob’s family. And God blessed them even through the hardest time in their life.

We often expect God to do crazy miraculous things in our life so that we know he is there.. Part lake Michigan before our eyes! But God is always with us, and sometimes we have to look at the small things of life to see the ways that he has blessed us. We need to look in the small happy moments of the day to see him keep his promises to us.

Have you been looking for him??