Praying All of Scripture: Numbers
Author: Daniel Owens, PhD
December 17, 2025
Fourth in a series.
Numbers 1:1–3
1The LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 2“Take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel, by clans, by fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, every male, head by head. 3From twenty years old and upward, all in Israel who are able to go to war, you and Aaron shall list them, company by company.”
Numbers 2:32–33
32These are the people of Israel as listed by their fathers’ houses. All those listed in the camps by their companies were 603,550. 33But the Levites were not listed among the people of Israel, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Numbers 6:22–27
22The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 23“Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,
24The Lord bless you and keep you;
25the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
27“So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”
Numbers 13:1–2
1The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2“Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.”
Numbers 13:25–31
25At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land. 26And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.” 30But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” 31Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.”
Numbers 14:20–25
20Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, according to your word. 21But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, 22none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, 23shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it. 24But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. 25Now, since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys, turn tomorrow and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.”
Numbers 23:20–21
20“Behold, I received a command to bless: he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it. 21He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel. The Lord their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them.”
Numbers 26:63–65
63These were those listed by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who listed the people of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho. 64But among these there was not one of those listed by Moses and Aaron the priest, who had listed the people of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. 65For the Lord had said of them, “They shall die in the wilderness.” Not one of them was left, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.
Numbers 35:34
34“You shall not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell, for I the Lord dwell in the midst of the people of Israel.”
Numbers 36:13
13These are the commandments and the rules that the Lord commanded through Moses to the people of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
***
When do you encounter numbers? Maybe you listen to news about stocks, bonds, or interest rates. Maybe you pay attention to sports statistics for your fantasy football team. Or maybe you are an actuary or math teacher or Sudoku player. In truth, we encounter numbers all the time, but can they prompt us to pray? Do they matter for our spiritual lives?
Most of us are not as familiar with the Book of Numbers. The administrative details about the population of Israel and their arrangement on their journey from Sinai don’t usually catch our interest.
But those administrative details in the Bible tie into the broader story of God fulfilling his promises to create a nation from the descendants of Abraham, to give them the land, and to make them into a holy nation. In fact, the well-known Aaronic blessing from Numbers 6:24–26 reflects this concern of God to keep his promises to Israel and to use Aaron’s descendants as priests among them. It anticipates the blessing of life in the land under the sovereign and gracious care of God. Furthermore, the instructions in the Book of Numbers regarding the tabernacle and God’s presence in Israel helped them to know that God was leading them in their wanderings.
However, when God asked them to spy out the land, the people rebelled for lack of faith in God’s power to give them victory over the stronger, taller people in the land (Num. 13:25–31). In response to Israel’s rebellion, a whole generation (apart from Caleb and Joshua) was prevented from entering the land (Num. 14:20–25; 30). The rest of that exodus generation would die off within 40 years, one year for each day the spies surveyed the land (Num. 14:34). This failure and God’s judgment on the rebellious generation is the key turning point in the book, leading to a more hopeful direction for the second generation.
Still, the book narrates various instances of rebellion against God. Even Moses falls prey to lack of faith at Meribah when he disobeys God’s command and strikes a rock to bring out water, disqualifying him from entering the land (Num. 20:10–13).
Yet God was still with Israel and gave them victory over Arad (Num. 21:1–3) and the kings of the Amorites (Num. 21:21–35). Even Balaam, the hired prophet, could not curse Israel and recognized the royal potential in the nation (Num. 23:20–21), thus hinting at a future king, whose reign would be fulfilled in Jesus. These victories anticipated a new attempt to enter the land, leading to a new census of the second generation (Num. 26:63–65). It is with this generation that God prepared to fulfill his promise to Abraham. Israel’s source of confidence was the presence of God in their midst, and thus God’s instructions to the people through Moses were necessary (Num. 36:13) to ensure the people did not defile the land but instead embraced God’s holiness as they entered the land he was giving them (Num. 35:34).
So the numbers matter. The numbers reflect God’s blessing and promise-keeping to multiply the descendants of Abraham into a great nation. The numbers reflect God’s judgment on the faithless generation, who die out within 40 years. But finally, the numbers reflect God’s commitment to bring that second generation into the land, so that they could dwell in the land in the presence of their holy God. Though we do not stand side by side with ancient Israel on the plains of Moab at Jericho, waiting to enter the land, in Christ we have received the Holy Spirit as the guarantee of our inheritance in Christ (Eph. 1:13–14). In Christ we too anticipate an inheritance in the new creation, in which we will enjoy the holy presence of God (Rev. 22:3–5). So we should be warned, lest we too rebel and find ourselves excluded from the sabbath rest that awaits the people of God (Heb. 3:7–4:13).
And so we can pray,
Our Father, as you were with Israel to discipline them and to keep your promises to Abraham to give them the land, we trust you to be with us and give us the blessings you promise us in Christ. As you warned them not to harden their hearts, we ask you to help us to maintain hearts soft to your word, that we too may enjoy the sabbath rest you promise us in Jesus. We ask you to bless and keep up us, to make your face to shine upon us and be gracious to us, to lift up your countenance upon us and give us peace through Jesus Christ, amen.
Daniel Owens is NCC’s Pastor of Discipleship. Earlier chapters in this series will be found in the NCC Blog.
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