March 22, 2025

—Cleopas and his unnamed traveling companion on the road to Emmaus listened with burning hearts as Jesus “expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27). In Genesis Jesus is seen as the Creator (Genesis 1:1; John 1:2-3). In Exodus he is our Passover Lamb (Exodus 12:5-7; John 1:29, 36; 1 Corinthians 5:7), and in Leviticus Jesus is pictured as our great High Priest (Leviticus 21:10; Hebrews 4:15). Jesus shows up in “all the Scriptures,” including, of course, the book of Numbers where he is pictured in at least five unique ways.

—First, after leaving Egypt to wander in the Sinai Wilderness for forty years, manna fell from the sky six days a week upon the camp of the Israelites to provide what they needed to eat, for they were unable to provide for themselves (Numbers 11:4-9). In the New Testament when the people requested a sign from Jesus to convince them that God had truly sent him (John 6:30-31), they pointed to the manna that Moses gave them in the desert and that authenticated him as a true prophet from God (John 6:25-51). Could Jesus do something like that? Jesus responded, “I am the bread which came down from heaven” (v. 41). The Israelites ate the manna in the wilderness, but “if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever” (v. 51).

—Second, in a very special ceremony conducted outside the main camp of the Israelites, Old Testament priests used the sacrificial ashes from an unblemished red heifer, mixed with water, to sprinkle on any individual who came into contact with a bone, a grave or a corpse in order that he or she might receive cleansing from contact with the dead (Numbers 19). The writer of Hebrews likens the sacrifice of Jesus to that of the red heifer (Hebrews 9:13-14). Jesus too died “outside the camp” (13:11-12) on a hill called Golgotha. “Without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19) Jesus too purges us from “dead works to serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:14).

—Third, without water the Israelites faced certain death in the wilderness, and so they naturally turned against Moses for leading them to “this evil place” (Numbers 20:5) when it would have been so much more prudent to trust the LORD who only a few chapters earlier had “promised good things to Israel” (10:29). “Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, … ‘Gather the assembly together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals’” (20:7-8). Recounting these events from Numbers, the apostle Paul writes that “all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual Rock … and that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4).

—Fourth, the Lord faithfully provided the Israelites with manna from heaven and even water from a rock, but listen to their response. “There is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread” (Numbers 21:5). For their faithlessness the Lord “sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people; and many of the people died” (v. 6). But then the Lord mercilessly directed Moses to make a bronze replica of a serpent and hoist it up a pole so that anyone bitten by one of the serpents could look upon the bronze serpent and live (vs. 8-9). Likewise, Jesus tells Nicodemus that “the Son of Man” will one day be lifted up in order that all who look upon him will be healed (John 3:14-15). All who look to the cross will find spiritual healing.

—Fifth, at King Balak’s request Balaam prophesies that “a Star shall come out of Jacob” to defeat Israel’s enemies (Numbers 24:17), and in the closing words of the New Testament Jesus says, “I am … the Bright and Morning Star” (Revelation 22:16) who excludes from heaven (the New Jerusalem) all those who oppose him.

–Daniel McCabe