The Book of Numbers has a lot to teach people of faith; for we learn spiritual truths not when life is easy but when it is difficult. In Numbers, Israel had a very difficult time—thirty-eight long years in the wilderness to be precise. That was the time it took for a fickle people full of rebellion to warm up to their covenant agreement with God and for him to get them ready to enter the Land of Promise. Initially, they refused to go in, full of fear and unbelief in spite of God’s commands and promises to make it theirs. But decades of desert wandering will do wonders for even the most ardent and faithless rebels, and God used those years to work through the many weaknesses of human nature that kept Israel from the life to which they were called out of Egypt. In the end they weren't perfect, but they were ready to move forward in faith and take on even more lessons that always await God's followers. Through all the long years God showed himself faithful, as evidenced in the unusual story of Balaam, his donkey, and King Balak. The lessons in Numbers are many; and like the wandering Jews of the scriptures, all of us who learn from those lessons find ourselves in a much better position to receive the many gifts and promises of a God who very much longs to bless his people.
