Numbers 26: God Doesn’t Give Up On His Promises

In Hebrew, the Book of Numbers is called "In the Wilderness." That is what this book is all about. It picks up where Exodus left off. We are on our way to the Promised Land. Along the way, there are many lessons to learn about trusting God and believing for miracles in every area of life.

Get an overview of Numbers: https://www.brandoncannon.com/numbers/

Get this text to you daily by texting "rlcBible" to 94000.

The More You Dig. The More You Find.
#pastor #brandoncannon #bookofnumbers #trustgod

Contact us-

Ask a Question
Send Encouragement

Take a Next Step-

SOAP Bible Study Method.
Bible Reading Plan.
Free Weekly Newsletter.

Socials-

Facebook.
Instagram.
X.
YouTube.

The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:01 Welcome and Daily Bible Focus
• 0:23 Big Idea: God’s Relentless Promise
• 1:24 Context: Wilderness Years and Reset
• 3:17 Census Begins: Purpose and Place
• 4:20 Reuben to Simeon: Names That Matter
• 6:22 Gad to Judah: Warnings and Memory
• 7:38 Issachar to Joseph’s Lines
• 9:19 Ephraim to Benjamin: Totals Rise
• 10:00 Dan to Naphtali: Army Summed
• 10:53 Land by Lot: Justice in Division
• 11:58 Levites Counted Differently
• 13:11 Only Joshua and Caleb Remain
• 13:31 Legacy, Trust, and Generations
• 14:52 Prayer and Blessing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Hey everyone, and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us. Let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

SPEAKER_01: 0:23

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon, today, Numbers chapter 26. And it's one of those chapters that I can't wait to get past, to be honest with you. But it is beautiful in this way. And you're going to understand what I'm talking about in a moment. But if I could sum up this entire chapter into one statement, it would be God is relentless concerning his promises. God is more interested in fulfilling his promises than sometimes we are. And so what we're going to see is God continuing to prepare the nation of Israel to fulfill the promise that he gave to them now, 40 years earlier. And as we get ready to jump into this, as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you subscribe to our podcast. You leave us a five-star rating on iTunes. If you're watching on the YouTubes, you are liking the video. And be sure you are going to the Facebook group where we are working on just developing a discussion around God's word. And the more we dig, the more we find. And so remember the context. They have been in the wilderness for 39 years. And they're just about to finally go into the promised land. And at the very beginning of the book of Numbers, they're going through this process of numbering the nation of Israel because they're trying to see how many troops they have so that when they're going in to take over the nation, they kind of know what they're working with, right? Well, they did that in Numbers 1, 2, and 3 and all of that. Then they turned their back on God. 39 years they were wandering in the wilderness. And most of all, that generation died, died in the wilderness. But now it's time to take the promised land again. And so again, God is recycling the process and he is about to take them into the promised land. So again, he is counting their number so that they know how many people are getting ready to go and take the promised land. And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna read a whole bunch of names that I can't pronounce, but it's important because God is counting the troops again, and every one of these troops are gonna take over the promised land. So every one of these names are important because every one of these names matter to God. I just can't pronounce them, okay? I am from the United States. These names are for people that are from the Middle East about 4,000 years ago. So just struggling, okay? But we're gonna do this together. But every one of these names are important because these are the ones who watch their families die in the wilderness because of their unfaithfulness. And now they're the generation that's going to take the promises of God and take the land that God has promised them. So let's read this together. And you imagine these young folks who are excited about what God is doing and excited about getting ready to go. So here we go. If you got your NLT Bibles open with me, Numbers chapter 26, verse 1, the Bible says this after the plague that had ended, the Lord said to Moses and to Elieazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, from the whole community of Israel, record the names of all the warriors by their families. List all the men twenty years old or older who were able to go to war. So there on the plains of Moab, beside the Jordan River, across from Jericho, Moses and Elieazar, the priest, issued these instructions to the leaders of Israel. List all the men of Israel, twenty years old and older, just as the Lord commanded Moses. And this is the record of all the descendants of Israel who came out of Egypt. So notice where they are. They are right at the border where they're going to cross over the Jordan River. The first nation that they're going to have to take over, the first kingdom, is Jericho. So they're right there at the edge, and they're numbering, they're getting ready to go into battle. And here are the warriors getting ready. So here we go. The first one, the tribe of Reuben. These are the clans of the descendants of the sons of Reuben, Jacob's oldest son. The Henochite clan, named after their ancestor Henoch, the Puolite clan, named after their ancestor Pula, the Hezronite clan, named after their ancestor Hezron, and the Carmite clan, named after their ancestor Carmi. These are the clans of Reuben. Their registered troops numbered 43,730. The Palu was the ancestor of Eliab, Eliab the father of Namuel, Dathan and Abiram. This is the Dathan and Abiram that were the same community of leaders who conspired with Korah against Moses and Aaron, rebelling against the Lord. But the Lord opened up the earth, opened up its mouth and swallowed them with Korah, and the fire devoured 250 of their followers. This served as a warning to the entire nation of Israel. However, the sons of Korah did not die that day. The tribe of Simeon. These were the clans of the descendants of the son of Simeon. The Jemulite clan named after the ancestor Jemuel. The Gemini clan, named after their ancestor Jamin, the Jekonite clan, named after their ancestor Jacan, and the Zorite clan, named after their ancestor Zorha. Let's just call them Zoro, okay? And the Shulite clan named after their ancestor, Shula. These were the clans of Simeon. Their registered troops numbered 22,200. These were the clans of the sons of Gad. Zephonite clan named after their ancestor Zephon. The Haggite clan named after their ancestor Haggai. The Shunite clan named after their ancestor, Shunai, Ozite clan, named after their ancestor Ozeni, and the Erite clan named after their ancestor Eri. Erodite clan named after their ancestor Erodai, and the Arelite clan named after their ancestor Ereli. These were the clans of Gad, their troops numbered 40,500. Judah had two sons, Er and Unan, who died in the land of Canaan. These were the clans, the descendants of Judah's surviving sons. The Shelenite clan named after their ancestor, Shela, the Perizite clan, named after their ancestor, Perez, and the Zehite clan, named after their ancestor, Zerah. These were the subclans descended from the Perizites, the Herzenites, named after their ancestor, Hezron, and the Humelite, named after their ancestor, Hemu. These are the clans of Judah. Their registered troops numbered 76,500. These are the clans descended from their sons of Issachar. The Turite clan, named after their ancestor, Tola, the Purite clan, named after their ancestor, Puah, the Deshbuite clan, named after their ancestor, Jeshub, and the Shimerite clan, named after their ancestor, Shimron. These are the clans of Isakar, their troops numbered sixty-four thousand three hundred. These are the clans the descendants of the son of Zebulun, the Zeredite clan, named after their ancestor, Sared, the Elonite clan, named after their ancestor Elon, and the Jehelite clan, named after their ancestor, Jehel. These were the clans of Zebulon, and their registered troops numbered 60,500. Two clans descended of Joseph and through through Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim. These were the clans descended from Manasseh. The Meccarite clan named their ancestor Mekir. The Geladite clan named after their ancestor Gilead, Mekri's son. These were the subclans, descendants of the Geladite clan. I'm going to tell you some about these names. The Elizarite, named of the ancestor of Lezir, Helekites, named after their ancestor Helek, Ezraelite clans, named after their ancestor Ezrael, which I believe is from the Smurfs, the Shekemite clan, named after the ancestors of Shechem, and the Shemedeite clans, named after the Shemeda, and the Hephriot, named after their ancestor Hefer, and one of Hephers' descendants, Zophalad, who had no sons, thank goodness. Well, that's not nice. I shouldn't say that. And his daughters were named Mahalel, Noah, Hugla, Miklah, and Tizrah. Bless them. I mean, come on. There's no like Anne, Sue, and Diana around them. They all got creative names. All right, these are the names of the clans of Manasseh, the registered troops, numbered 52,700. These were the clans descended of the sons of Ephraim. The Shumeli clan named the ancestor of Shalutha, the Bekreot clan of the ancestor of Bekar, and the Tanite clan of the ancestor of Tahan. These are the subclans of the Shuthelite clans, Aaronites, named after their ancestor Eran. These were the clans of Ephraim. Their troops numbered 32,500. These clans are the Manasseh and Ephraim, all descendants of Joseph. These are the clans descended from the sons of Benjamin. The Behelite clan, named after their ancestor Bilah, Eshbelite clan, named after their ancestor Eshbel, Eshra and Amorite clan of their ancestor of Aram, and the Shufhamite clan, named after their ancestor, Shufim, and the Hufamite clan, named after their ancestor, Hufam. These were the subclans of the Belites, Everites, named after their ancestor Ard, and Namites of their ancestor of Naaman. Of the clans of Benjamin, they registered troops numbered 45,600. These were the clans descended from the sons of Dan. Shumelite clan, named of the ancestor of Shuham, and the Shumelite clans of Dan. Their troops numbered sixty-four thousand four hundred. These were the clans of the sons of Asher. Emnite clan, named after the ancestor of Imni, Ishvite clan, named after the ancestor of Ishvi, and the Barite clan, the ancestor of Bariah. These were the subclans of the Barites, Heborites, named after the ancestor of Heber, and the Malachites of the ancestor of Makal. Asher had a daughter named Sirah, and these were the clans of Asher, the troops numbered 53,400. These were the tribes of the clans of the sons of Naphtali, the Jezreelite clans of the ancestor of Jezreel, the Gunite clan, named after the ancestor Guni, the Jezreelite clan, named after their ancestor Jezer, and the Shemalite clan named after their anc their ancestor Shelem. These are the clans of Naphtali, their troops numbered about forty-five thousand four hundred. In summary, the registered troops of all Israel numbered six hundred and one thousand seven hundred and thirty. Then the Lord said to Moses, Divide the land among the tribes, and distribute the grants of land in proportion to the tribes' populations, as indicated by the number of the names on the list. Give the larger tribes more land and the smaller tribes less land, each group receiving a grant in proportion to the size of its population. But you must assign the land by lot and give land to each ancestral tribe according to the number of the names on the list. Each grant of land must be assigned by lot among the number of the smaller tribe groups. Now, that's a lot of names and a lot of stuff going on, but let me tell you real quick, what does that mean when it's lot? Lot is basically like dice. What they would do is they would cast lots. They would cast these basically dice that would then help people decide. So it's the idea of saying instead of you appropriating different ones, because then you can get into all kinds of different things where you gave these people that was more green land, these people more wilderness. No, no, no, just cast lots to keep it fair. All right, here we go. Verse 57, we're almost finished with this chapter. This is the record of the Levites who were counted among their clans, the Gershonite clan, named after their ancestor Gershon, the Kohethite clan, and after their ancestor, Kohath, and the Mererite clan, named after their ancestor Mereri, the Libanites, the Hebronites, the Malaites, the Hushites, and the Koathites all had subclans of the Levites. Now Kohath was the ancestor of Amram. Amram's wife's name was Jacobed. She also was the descendant of Levi, born among the Levites in the land of Egypt. Amram and Jacobed became the parents of Aaron, Moses, and their sister, Miriam. To Aaron were born Nadab, Abihu, Elieazar, and Ithamar. But Nadab and Abihu died when they were burned before the Lord, the wrong kind of fire, different than he had commanded. The men of the Levite clans, who were one month older, numbered twenty three thousand. But the Levites were not included in the registration of the rest of the people of Israel, because they were not given an allotment of land when it was divided among the Israelites. So these are the results of the registration of the people of Israel conducted by Moses and Eliezer, the priests in the plains of Moab beside the Jordan River, across from Jericho. Not one person on the list had been those listed in the previous registration taken by Moses and Aaron in the wilderness of Sinai. For the Lord had said to them, They will die in the wilderness. Not one of them survived except Caleb, son of Jephthua, and Joshua, the son of Nun. So what's happened is the stage is set. You have all these young ones who have now grown up and they're older than 20 and they're ready to take the promises of God at his word. And what I love about this is that God does not give up on his promises. What I also love about this idea is God is not just my God and your God, but he's the God of our grandparents and he's the God of our grandchildren. None of us know how much longer we're gonna be here. The Lord has been planning his return for his people for a long time. I hope in our lifetime we see the goodness of the Lord, we see the second coming of Christ and all things are fulfilled. But my grandparents hope for the same. Only God knows how long he is going to persist and let things continue. So I think it would be a disservice to our grandchildren to not live as though we were setting up a legacy to long outlive us. Because look at what happened in this. Not just to us, but to the generations that are not yet born. So remember the overall idea of the book of Numbers is learning to trust the Lord. And one of the ways we can trust the Lord is not just with our life, but with the life that we invest into the generations to come. Let me pray for us, and we'll be done for today. Father, thank you so much. The Lord that every one of the names on this list mattered to you. So it matters for us to take a moment and to say them out loud. This was the generation to see your promises fulfilled. And I pray that over us, even in this moment, that we can be the generation to see your promises fulfilled. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Remember, Numbers chapter six says this. May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Numbers chapter 27.