Journey Of The Seed - Catch The Bible's Big Picture In 60 DaysSample

TIME OUT

[Scheduled Reading: Numbers 15-18, 20, 21, 26, 27]

The Israelites are in a classic kindergarten time-out. They’re not going anywhere for 40 years, except to wander around the wilderness, setting up and taking down the tent tabernacle whenever and wherever God moves the cloud.

They mope around with their heads hanging low, dragging their feet like rebellious teenagers. 

After another rebellion episode (Chapter 16), God wants to kill everyone! (Stunning, isn’t it!)

Moses pleads for God’s mercy on behalf of the people – so God only kills roughly 15,000 people! (v16:49).

Moses also finds himself in hot water with God . After an unfortunate rock-striking incident (Chapter 20), Moses faces the same fate as the rest of the Israelite nation: he too will not be permitted to enter the Promised Land.

Near the end of the 40-year time out, God orders another census of the Israelite nation and instructs Moses to anoint Joshua as his successor.

So where exactly is The Seed during this 40-year season? Let’s step back and take a look.

Hezron (#25), son of Perez was among the seventy people of the “house of Jacob” (Gen. 46:12, 26, 27) who traveled to Egypt to live with Joseph. 

During this 215 year period in Egypt, Ram (#26), Amminadab (#27) and Nahshon (#28) were born (Ruth 4:18-20).

Nahshon was the assigned military commander of the tribe of Judah, assembled under the leadership of Moses (Num. 1:7, 2:3, 10:14). 

Nahshon had command of a force of 74,600 men. That’s impressive authority! (Num. 1:26, 2:4).

Nahshon was among the generation kept out of the Promised Land.

But Nahshon’s son, Salmon, was likely among the “little ones” (Num. 14:31) who grew up and crossed into the Promised Land with Joshua and Caleb. 

And what’s so famous about Salmon (besides his fishy name)? 

We’ll save that for later.