Chapter 10

Numbers chapter 10 goes back to the habit of listing things. To be fair, though, it’s a rather significant moment – it’s the day that the people of Israel set out from Mount Sinai on the first leg of their journey to the Promised Land.

It’s been said that the chapter divisions were put into the Bible in the following manner: A scholar sat on his camel reading the scroll; and whenever the camel bumped him, he drew a line – and that was where the chapter would end. I don’t know if this is true (it might be apocryphal!) but in any case, the chapter divisions often seem a little random.

Nowhere is this higgledy-piggledy arrangement of chapters more apparent than in Numbers 10. Just before we get to this momentous occasion of the people setting out under their new marching orders (In my opinion, a great moment to start a new chapter!), we have one more description of how something was to be made – in this case a pair of silver trumpets (vs 1-10).

It’s easy to miss the significance of trumpets to ancient people. This is not surprising – we live in a world where with minimal effort we can get a message around the world; it’s only the fact that nobody currently lives on the moon that prevents us from communicating instantly there too[1]. In short, it’s hard for us to imagine what it was like being unable to send audio messages beyond the range of a shout. But that’s how things were for most of human history. Curiously, we could survive without the internet and mobile phones. One of the things we did was to use trumpets as a way of carrying messages. People were adept at “reading” codes of trumpet blasts.

There was something distinctive about the sounds produced by these particular silver trumpets, because they were used to signal that the assembly was on the move. The Message uses the term “bugle”. Perhaps a term that would be familiar to people of 2011 might be *shudder* a “Vuvuzela”. In any case, the priests were the holders of these trumpets, and a number of other occasions for their use are listed.

Verses 11 to 28 list the order of the march, and we can see the application of the commands they have been given over the previous 9 chapters. Judah’s three divisions headed out, followed by the Gershonites and the Merarites, carrying the dirty great Tabernacle with them. Then Reuben’s three divisions, with the Kohathites carrying the holy Temple articles on their shoulders, having not received wagons (which they were probably still sore about). Then, in turn, came the three divisions of Ephraim, followed by the three divisions of Dan.

One gets the impression that they wanted to make sure this great moment was remembered. The beginning of the triumphant entry into the Promised Land! They didn’t know that things were going to go sour later on; that they would be forced to wander around in the desert for another forty years yet.

It’d all be over by Pesach.

I’ll come back to this shortly. From verses 29 – 32 we have Moses begging (and eventually, it seems, persuading) his brother in law to come along with the Assembly. Verses 33 – 36 tell us where and how far they went on this first journey, and finally we read these two neat little benedictions, one for the Ark of the Covenant being picked up, and another for when it was set down in its next resting place.

Today’s chapter captures the people of Israel in that happy moment when they are beginning a great new enterprise, and they’re really excited. But we know that things are eventually going to become difficult for them. Just how difficult and why, we’re going to read in the next chapter (I’ll admit, I cheated and read ahead!); but for now, let’s just focus for a moment on that difference between the ideal and the reality.

In “The Screwtape Letters” C.S.Lewis (through his character Screwtape) discusses the fact that reality is full of moments where an initial excitement gives way to the reality which is actually much more difficult than expected. The examples he gives are the young lovers after marriage, trying to learn to live with each other, and the schoolboy who used to love the legends of the Olympian heroes actually starting to learn Greek!

We could add the Israelites setting out for Canaan to this list. But wait a minute – most of us are currently in a position of understanding this deeply by ourselves!

Some of you are saying “What’s he talking about?”

Don’t play dumb with me, I’m talking about your New Years’ Resolutions!

And I’m no exception. Sitting down and writing this tonight (or, at the current moment, this morning!) was difficult.

Let’s face it, anything worth doing starts off excitingly and fresh, but sooner or later it gets tough.

And one thing we can all think about is this: What are we going to do when it’s hard to do what we know is right? It might be keeping your resolutions (spiritual or temporal; the principle is the same). Or it could be simply doing what is right when the tough choice comes along.

Yes, we know what we have to do. But it’s so tough. And we’re tired. We know we shouldn’t give in, but we’re exhausted (and no, I’m not being funny – 10 days into the new year is enough time to know that it is difficult to do as we promised). How can we keep going?

I can present three things that make a difference to me. There are lots more, but these ones are a winner.

1) Pray. If what you’re struggling with is something that is worth doing, God is interested. He can give you the strength to do what you need to do.

2) Talk to others (which, if you think about it, is something I’m doing – you are reading this because I asked you to help me stay accountable!). Ask them to help you to remember.

3) Record what you have done. A curious thing about humans is that we seem to do things more readily if we keep track of what is happening.

Incidentally, if you’ve already fallen off the Resolutions wagon, DON’T just say “Ah well, next year”! Let me encourage you that it’s not about not falling down, it’s about getting up one more time than you fell.

[1] Okay, for the pedants who are reading: communicating with a delay of no more than 1.5 seconds each direction totaling three seconds for two way radio messages. Happy?