Categories
israel

A Bird’s Eye View and Numbers 20-25

One of the funniest, and oddest, perspectives is the bird’s eye view. I personally don’t like getting to that perspective—shooting down the runaway until it almost ends, catapulting into the air, and praying that nothing happens. But the perspective is extremely helpful—in criminal cases, for example.

You know, there goes the criminal, driving down the road and slamming into a telephone pole. Out he comes, running; between garbage cans, through a yard with a barking dog, over another fence. He really thinks he can get away!

Except we’re seeing all of this from the vantage point of a police chopper that has the entire view of the man’s progress and end where the cops have set up their net. If the criminal had this view he’d probably not run as hard to escape. And the cops, oh the cops with the benefit of that point of view do their work confidently.

Let’s take off then, shooting down the runaway of the text and getting some details as we take off and see this perspective.

Categories
history israel salvation

Learning Lessons At The Doors Of Canaan

When looking at the book of Numbers we might notice how the first half of the book is primarily concerned with (the very good) preparation of the Israelites for their journey. The second half of the book, we all know, strikes a darker chord as we witness rebellion, after rebellion, after rebellion.  But what are these rebellion stories doing? Why record so many of them? Why record the ones we have?