The book of Numbers is a book of numbers, and today’s chapter displayed that. Putting all the numbers aside, we can see a few characteristic traits of our God.
First is that God is righteous and faithful to His word. Though the rising generation was mixed with the initial generation to not enter Canaan, the first generation was cut off by one way or another before the second census took place. A takeaway on this is that those whom God has condemned cannot escape by losing themselves in a crowd or by the delay of execution.
We also see the goodness and truth of our God. Even though God told the first generation Israelites that they would not enter the Promised Land, the number counted in the second census was almost the exact same as counted in the first. In addition to this, those that were counted, were above the age of 20 which was considered to be in their prime for service. This remarkable fact is to be regarded as a blessing from the Lord, in fulfillment of His promise to give numerical strength to the people descended from Abraham through Jacob.
Lock Your Wings 
The thing that stood out for me today was the names of the tribes. After spending the last week trying to learn the pronunciation of many Cambodian names and seeing them trying to pronounce our team’s names it reminds me that names are cultural. What might seem like odd names to us were likely common. Even seeing similar names like Areli and Arodi made me think that they likely weren’t that similar to the people of the time. Or they were and you just got used it it just like we get used to Alexis or Alexa. All the names of all the people God already knew but to require a census made it clear to them that God had been faithful. Sometimes we need God to actually point it out to us for us to realize that what He tells us is truth.
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