Numbers 26:65 …They shall surely die in the wilderness. And there was not left a man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun
Whether you like numbers or not, numbers are important to God and there is an entire book in the Bible that is named Numbers. Recently, after our summer of camp here at the Bill Rice Ranch, a friend texted me to ask about how many people came to camp, how many were saved, and so on. Those numbers were important to my friend, and, of course, they are important to us. That is why he was asking. Numbers do matter. How many people came to camp? How many trusted the Lord Jesus as Savior? How many made some sort of life-changing decision? It is hard to quantify God’s working in lives, but it is important to count things like numbers of people saved and numbers of people at camp.
In the book of Numbers, you have a second numbering of the people. In Numbers 1 God told Moses to number the people and in Numbers 26:2 the Bible says, “Take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, from twenty years old and upward, throughout their fathers’ house, all that are able to go to war in Israel.” That is very similar to what we read in chapter one. What follows is the listing of the twelve tribes of Israel and then you have three pairs. A lot of times when you have a list in the Bible, like a list of tribes, names, or maybe a genealogy, it can feel repetitive or even boring, but in this particular chapter there are three verses where names jump out. So, we have twelve tribes listed, but we have three pairs of men who are distinct in this list.
Verse 9 says about Dathan and Abiram, “This is that Dathan and Abiram, which were famous in the congregation, who strove against Moses and against Aaron in the company of Korah, when they strove against the LORD.” So, long story short, Korah and these men were not content with their place, where God had put them, with their position, what God had them to do, or with their authorities, Moses and Aaron. They complained against Moses and Aaron, but the Bible says that they were really striving against the Lord. The Lord judged them severely for this.
Verse 61 talks about Nadab and Abihu who died “when they offered strange fire before the LORD.” They were doing something pious and spiritual, but they weren’t doing it in the way God very clearly had given them to do it. They were living in rebellion. God judged them severely.
Then, in the last verse, rather refreshingly, we find a very different pair. The only two men left after everyone else died in the wilderness were Caleb and Joshua. We find that in verse 65. These were two men who lived by faith, who went against the grain, who were courageous. The Bible says more than once of Caleb in particular that he was a man who didn’t just follow the Lord, he wholly followed the Lord. That means he completely, lock, stock, and barrel, followed the Lord.
What you have here is a listing of twelve tribes and three pairs. Two pairs rebelled against God and one pair, Caleb and Joshua, served God for many, many years because they were following God. Now, we learn from this that your tribe is up to God. You cannot choose your family, your parents, or the state in which you were born, geographically or financially. So, there are things you cannot change about yourself. When it comes to the tribes, those were choices of God. God chose to whom they would be born.
But the three pairs, two that were judged by God and one that was blessed by God, indicate that the way you live your life, how you stand out, is up to you. What are Dathan and Abiram remembered for? They are remembered for their rebellion and their tragic judgment and death. What are Caleb and Joshua remembered for? They are remembered not because of high birth, financial state, or their heritage; they are remembered for their actions, the ones they chose. They are remembered for the way they decided to follow God. So, your tribe is up to God, but the life you live is up to you in the sense that you are responsible for choices. You are blessed or burned by the choices that you make.
So, don’t be shortsighted. It is easy to be short-sighted and think, “I don’t like where I am. I don’t like to whom I have been born. I don’t like what my heritage is. I don’t like this or that…” Don’t be short-sighted. Thousands of years from now if anyone remembers you, which I doubt, they are not going to remember you for how you were born but for how you lived.
Then, don’t chafe. Think about Korah. He was a man who rebelled against God because he wished he had been born into a different position. He rebelled against God because he wished he could serve in a different way. What a waste of resources, potential, and life. Then, there is Caleb who just wholly followed the Lord. So, don’t chafe against how you were born or what you have. Take what you have as a stewardship and serve God with it every day.
Finally, don’t fear. Don’t live in fear of the majority. Don’t live in fear of the unknown. Don’t live in fear of the future. Joshua and Caleb, as spies in the land of Canaan, came back and told the rest of the nation the thing that lay ahead of them as best they saw, but did so in the context that God had told them to possess this land, that they should obey God, and that God can do what they could not. There were giants ahead, but God had commanded them and He is able. It is not presumptuous to go up against giants. It is presumptuous to do anything by yourself, alone. So, these men went up into Canaan and saw what was there waiting for them with the confidence that God was going before them and God would lead them.
I don’t know who your tribe or family is, but I do know that your life and the decisions you make are something for which you and you alone are responsible. Your tribe is up to God, but the way you live your life is a choice that you make.