Numbers Paper

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men…” This phrase makes me think not just of the Exodus and how God brought Israel out of Egypt but also of the way God leads His people through the wilderness with the pillars of fire and cloud. Such a thing is hard to miss. God’s power was made clearly visible to all men as He saved Israel from slavery to Egypt. Even forty years after God brought Israel out, the surrounding nations are still talking about the event. I think it is likely that the miraculous way God lead Israel through the wilderness served as a constant reminder of the startling manner in which they had left Egypt. In the same vein, it has been over two thousand years since the greatest example of God’s grace appeared to man—Jesus Christ—and people are still talking about it. On the cross at Calvary where the Son of God paid the price for my sin, the grace of God appeared to all men.

The next phrase in the Titus passage we have been memorizing, “teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,” reminds me of all the laws in Leviticus and Numbers. God’s grace appeared, but He did not leave us with just a terrifying look at His glory. No, He gave more grace and showed His people just how they can live in fellowship with this God who is more powerful than all the gods of Egypt. The laws are not given as a burden, but as a blessing. Other nations had to guess at what their gods wanted of them and hope that they would not get it wrong and be killed for it. Israel had no such problems. God was very clear in detailing the manner whereby they could know Him and remain in favor with Him. Similarly, God did not stop with salvation for us. It was too small a thing to simply save us from sin and make it so one day we can live with Him forever. His grace, the same grace that saves, shows us how we can live with Him now. We have the advantage on the Israelites in that we have the Holy Spirit working in our hearts so that God is teaching us one-on-one how to honor Him in our daily walk. God does not set us adrift with no purpose in how we live our lives. Instead, He takes great pains with us so that, as we are truly His children, we will deny “ungodliness and worldly lusts” and become more like Him with each passing day.

All Israel looked to the day when they would enter the Promised Land. Many lost heart and gave up, trusting to their own small strength and not to the Mighty God who saved them. These never realized their hope. They never saw the rich land “flowing with milk and honey” where they would live in cities they did not build and harvest crops they did not plant because the nations would be driven out before them even as Egypt was destroyed. The children of that first generation, imperfect though they still were, had a better grasp of what they were looking toward. They lived more eagerly in the hope of the fulfillment of promises made to their fathers. Likewise, we live in a time before the ultimate fulfillment of our salvation. We are “looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” Or we should be. It is the looking to the return of Jesus Christ that gives us hope. The world we live in is not a pretty place. If this world were all there is, there is no point in living. It cannot get better than it is. But with Christ, we can look on this life as a transition, a space of time in which we live ardently for God, knowing that He has prepared more for us. No matter how long the shadows grow, no matter how dark the midnight is, the glorious dawn of His coming is sure. What He has promised will surely come to pass.

One set of laws that God gave to the Israelites was that dealing with the sacrifices. In order to be purified, one must constantly offer sacrifices of blood for the breaking of God’s perfect statutes. It was a costly sacrifice. Only the absolute best animals were accepted. No imperfection could be tolerated. In addition, Israel had to redeem every firstborn with an offering because they rightly belonged to God as He saved them back in Egypt. These sacrifices purified and redeemed Israel, setting them apart as God’s people. Even so, we also have been redeemed and set apart. But it is no mere animal that was offered for us. Rather it was God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ “who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.” The price that was paid for our redemption was the Firstborn over all Creation, the Perfect Lamb of God. The animal sacrifices only served to cover the sin. The sacrifice that was Christ was great enough to take away our sin and endow us with God’s righteousness at the same time. Israel’s daily sanctification cost the life of an animal. Our ultimate sanctification cost the life of God.

What makes everything that God has done, is doing, and will yet do for us even more amazing is revealed in Titus 3:5 “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us…” All through Numbers, we see Israel not following the laws that God set forth for them. We can go further back and see that even when God brought them out of Egypt, it was not because of anything good they had done—they were complainers even then. We too have done nothing to warrant the salvation that God gives. In fact, we have done much that would disqualify us from even dreaming of salvation were our God anyone other than what He is. “But God” is one of the most thrilling phrases anyone can hear. We were lost in darkness when He in His great mercy stepped in. He wrought salvation for all to see, teaches us how we should live daily, gives us hope for the future, and paid for it all Himself without regard for our lack of merit. Israel’s journey from Egypt through the wilderness to the Promised Land mirrors our journey from salvation through sanctification to glorification in many ways but the greatest I think is this: It was nothing we have done, are doing, or will do that brought this glory to pass—it was totally and completely by the grace and mercy of God. Halelujah!