Numbers 1:1

"And Jehovah spake unto Moses in the wilderness ..." These first words of Numbers, or their equivalent, are found not less than eighty times in the book;[2] and we are absolutely unwilling to accept the postulations of evil critics that these words are "a pious fraud." They affirm dogmatically the divine source of the narrative, and there are no intellectual reasons why they should not be received as the truth. The sacred text of Numbers has suffered little or no damage from transition throughout the millenniums through which it has descended to us in its present form. It is not surprising that this first chapter begins with an enumeration of the able-bodied Israelites capable of going to war. Their emancipation from slavery inevitably led to their securing those liberties by means of military conflict. There is a deep spiritual truth discernible here also. Redeemed by the blood of the Passover (Exodus 12:12-36), released from the dominion of Pharoah by their baptism "unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea" (1 Corinthians 10:2), and restructured as an independent nation by means of (a) the giving of the law; (b) the erection of the tabernacle; and (c) the consecration of a separate priesthood, Israel in this chapter was commanded to prepare for war. It is ever thus that when people turn to God, warfare with an evil world is inevitable and certain to ensue at once.