It was July 3, 2002. I reclined in a chair on the beach of St. George Island, Florida, reading Numbers: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, by Dennis Olson. I would be willing to bet I was the only person on that beach-okay, any beach-reading that wonderful book. Two college-aged students meandered between the Gulf waters and me. One glanced at the cover of my book and remarked to her friend, You’ve got to be pretty bored to read a math book at the beach. Hearing her comment, I replied, Actually, it’s not a math book. It’s a Bible commentary.
I rest my case, she retorted and walked away. We rarely read this fourth book of the Old Testament. We use it even less frequently as a source for missions theology. Why? Maybe it’s the name. Numbers is not a very exciting title. The name is derived from the Latin Numeri, which is a translation of the Greek title Arithmoi. This title was used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament because a census is taken twice in the book-the people are numbered. In the Hebrew Bible, however, the title of this book is bemidbar, which means in the wilderness. This is much more provocative and descriptive of the book’s contents. In the wilderness, the community of faith-the Israelites-encountered facets of God’s character that would define and direct them for generations to come. They would come face to face with the mobility of God, the reputation of God, the mercy of God, and the promises of God. These elements of God’s nature kept the mission of Israel alive. These same elements keep the mission alive in the community of faith today. Too often we are tempted to let numbers drive missions. How many churches have we built? How many dollars have we raised? How many bodies have we baptized? The book of Numbers reminds us that missions is motivated by something deeper. Missions reflects the heart and nature of God. If we can just get past the math, we can see God’s nature clearly in the book of Numbers… in the wilderness.