Old Testament: Num 26.5–7

To read the Bible in a year, read Numbers 26–27 on March 1, In the year of our Lord Christ 2024

By Don Ruhl 

The first numbering of the tribe of Reuben yielded a population of 46,500 (Numbers 1.21). 

Toward the end of the forty years of wandering the number was 43,730: “These are the families of the Reubenites: those who were numbered of them were forty-three thousand seven hundred and thirty” (Numbers 26.5–7). 

It appears that Reuben had lost 2,770, but in truth Reuben had lost 46,500, because the Lord promised that the men who disbelieved the good report of Joshua and Caleb would all die in the wilderness, and the biblical story shows that it happened. 

Therefore, Reuben had truly gained 43,730 during those years in the wilderness. Would that new number learn from their fathers, and believe the promises of God, and march forth even in the face of insurmountable odds? 

Questions: 

• Do you believe the promises of God? 
• If so, are you showing it by the way you live? 

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Don preaches with the Savage Street Church of Christ in Grants Pass, Oregon. 

Listen to his sermons here: GrantsPassChurchOfChrist.com