Biblical Theology IV: Numbers

The Book of Numbers begins with the numbering of the tribes of Israel (Chapters 1-2), singling out the Levitical priests as their mediators (Chapters 3-4), and then throughout its literary development, argues that Moses and the Levitical priests are the rightful  and necessary mediators of, and authority over, God’s people, who exist to keep them from destruction. It thus presents numerous examples of Moses and Aaron, along with the priests, as leaders who mediate between God and His people, and what happens when they fail to do so, or are opposed by the people.

Theology: God takes the Levites from Israel, instead of their firstborn sons, as His own. He sets them apart as the only ones who are allowed to care for His tabernacle. Hence, their inheritance is the tabernacle of God, rather than land. The tabernacle itself is the place of mediation between God and man. Their upkeep of the tabernacle, and later temple, saves the lives of the rest of Israel. If they neglect it, Israel will come under the wrath of God, or if someone else who is not a Levite attempts to maintain it, he will be killed for it. Only the qualified designated leadership is acceptable to God.

The camp is, therefore, ordered around the tabernacle, and as in Leviticus, the closest to the tabernacle one is, the closer to God, whose presence is the sphere of life, and the further away one is from the tabernacle, the further away from life and the closer to death he is. The ones who, therefore, have the authority to mediate between matters of life and death, what is acceptable and unacceptable to God, what can be in His presence and what cannot be, are the priests. No one else is permitted. Throughout the book, then, the priests are viewed as leading the congregation into righteousness and combating chaos/evil. They are essentially religious judges and warriors who are to keep the people of God clean and righteous so that God’s wrath will not fall upon them.

Moses is the highest authority over the priests. He speaks directly with God, many times with Aaron as well. In fact, Moses and Aaron are seen as a pair in Numbers because they both fill a single role together as prophet and high priest. When Moses’ authority is attacked, God views it as an attack upon His own authority and the people are severely disciplined for it, including other leaders like Miriam or Korah. This authority is transferred to Joshua toward the end of the book, “so that the people will not be like sheep without a shepherd” (27:17). It is the priests who are doing the will of Moses, therefore, who have his authority, and the book very clearly teaches that to rebel against Moses is to rebel against God.

Ethics: What the book ends up teaching, therefore, is that God cannot be approached without the specific leaders/mediators He has established. No one can just enter into His presence, and no one can take the authority to speak for Him or mediate for Him except the ones to whom it has been given. When the people are going to be consumed due to their sin, the mediators intercede in the book so that they are not destroyed.

To speak against these leaders, or to complain about their leadership, is to speak against God and against His leadership, and hence, it is met with God’s wrath. Order and harmony with God will only come to God’s community when the leaders are mediating for God’s people by maintaining the ministry of cleansing them from impurities, disciplining members of the community when they are in sin, praying on their behalf, and expelling what is unclean from the covenant community. If the priests do not do this, the people will perish.

Likewise, if the people reject God’s leaders, and wish to lead themselves, they will perish. They will be taken by their enemies either by sin or conquest. It is imperative, therefore, for God’s people to place their trust in God’s leaders as their mediators (both Moses and the priests who carry out God’s instructions through him). 

Allegorically speaking, Moses and Aaron represent Christ as the primary Mediator of God’s people, and the priests represent the elders in the New Testament who are commanded to perform the same functions as the priests in the OT. We may also say that the tribes/tribal leaders represent households that are to conduct themselves under the authority of Christ and the elders of His Church.