Big Idea: Reviewing God’s dealings in the past helps people to keep following God in the present.

Understanding the Text

All the major events in the book of Numbers are now complete. So this seems an appropriate occasion for the book to review what has gone before by listing campsites from Egypt to Canaan, starting with Rameses in Egypt, where Israel had lived, and ending at the plains of Moab with some forty campsites in between. Verses 1–15 take us to Mount Sinai. Verses 16–36 list camps in the desert. Verses 37–49 take us through the Transjordan to the plains of Moab. This recap allows the new generation to reflect on both its recent past and those events experienced by the first generation that left Egypt. The text goes on to anticipate the future: the conquest (Num. 33:50–55) and the co…