Numbers 26:63-65

Now let us read verses 63-65 which gives us the significant difference.

We see a clear distinction between the first census and the second census. The first census is of a generation that came out of Egypt, former slaves, those who sinned, those who rebelled, those who rejected God, and those who were cursed to die in the wilderness. But the second census is of another generation (call it maybe the second generation out of Egypt) who were different. There was something distinctly different about these two generations.

But the major difference that we are going to dwell on in this sermon is the fact that those in the first census died because of sin. All of their bones were strewn across the wilderness, just as God had promised. And by the time they camped in the plains of Moab and there was that plague as a result of the machinations of Balaam and Balak and the Moabites and the Midianites, all getting together to draw Israel into sin, just after that, all of them were dead.

All of that first generation were dead because of sin. Their idolatry and fornication with those Moabite women, in chapter 25, may arguably be the worst of their offenses against God. But one thing we do know is that it finished them off. By that time they were all dead. And this means that, after this, chapters 26 through 36 deal with the generation that entered the Promised Land. So there is a clear separation between these two sections.

Thousands dropped like flies between chapters 1 and 25, which was their just recompense for sin. But you know what? In chapters 26-36, there is not one recorded death. Of course, it is a short time, but even so, we did find out that there were hundreds dying every day, normally. But, here, in this section, from chapters 26 to 36, there is not one recorded death.

Death is dealt with, in one way or another, because, in this section, God tells Moses, “You know you’re going to die because you didn’t hallow Me there when you struck the rock, and Joshua will succeed you.” It is dealt with. It is a fact of life. But there is no one that actually dies in this section, which is a significant thing. This is a mark of the difference between the generations. This second generation was sinful, certainly, but not nearly to the extent of that first generation that came out of Egypt. They were somewhat different.

So the first two-thirds has the theme of sin leads to death. The last third has the theme of preparing for life in the Promised Land. So we will get to that then.

Numbers 26:63-65

Remember, the Israelites had their problems all through the desert and they had died, as the last sermon showed, all through those 40 years (38 years from Kadesh where they had rebelled). So by the time they got to the plains of Moab, they were just about all dead. Then, suddenly, the Moabites and the Midianites entice the Israelites to their idolatry and their fornication with their God, Baal of Peor, and the last of the bad guys—the original generation—died. Let us see this in Numbers 26. After he has numbered them, they have come up to 601,730. Says verse 63:

As they stood poised to cross into the Promised Land, God ordered Moses to take a second census and all the original Israelites, the original slave generation, had died as a result of their sins and rebellion against God. Every single one of them was dead. They made sure of that.

When they had made this census, I am sure there was more to it than just numbers. They did like we do where they take names and they figure out how many are in each household and they get various other information. We do not have that here. But they must have known because the names of those other ones that they had gotten thirty-eight or forty years before were no longer on the list—they had died. But their descendants had grown into an equally large group and they were there, camped on the plains of Moab just across the Jordan River from Jericho. They could see it. It was right there just beyond their grasp.