Numbers 26 … Consider His Reckoning Revealed

Originally posted: 06/18/2019

Then it came about after the plague, that the Lord spoke to Moses and to Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, saying, ² “Take a census of all the congregation…” (26:1-2).

Reckoning: the action or process of calculating; count; computation; calculation; an accounting, as for things received or done; the time when your actions are judged as good or bad and you are rewarded or punished; the act of judging something.

The forty-year mark of wandering is winding down with just over a year to go, and the LORD calls for another census to number the men who are suited for the battles to claim the land.

Now His Reckoning Revealed would number the new generation to enter the Promised Land. There are only two remaining from the original census to claim His reward, only two have been judged faithful.

Then it came about after the plague, that the Lord spoke to Moses and to Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, saying, ² “Take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel from twenty years old and upward, by their fathers’ households, whoever is able to go out to war in Israel,” (26:1-2).

Consider His Reckoning Revealed

• His Reckoning Revealed: through His Pronounced Judgment.
  • “Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. ³¹ Your children, however, whom you said would become a prey—I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected. ³² But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness. ³³ Your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your corpses lie in the wilderness. ³⁴ According to the number of days which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your guilt a year, even forty years, and you will know My opposition. ³⁵ I, the Lord, have spoken, surely this I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be destroyed, and there they will die,’” (Numbers 14:30-35).

• His Reckoning Revealed: through His Fulfilled Judgment.
  • But among these there was not a man of those who were numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest, who numbered the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. ⁶⁵ For the Lord had said of them, “They shall surely die in the wilderness.” And not a man was left of them, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, (26:64-65).

• His Reckoning Revealed: through His Promised Reward.
  • … And not a man was left of them, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, (26:65).
    • “But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it,” … ³⁸ But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive out of those men who went to spy out the land, (Numbers 14:24, 38)
    • So the Lord’s anger burned in that day, and He swore, saying, ¹¹ “None of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob; for they did not follow Me fully, ¹² except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have followed the Lord fully,” (Numbers 32:10-12).

How do we respond to His Reckoning Revealed?

• There is coming a time when our wandering through this wilderness of earth will come to an end, when all accounts will be settled and His Reckoning will be Revealed.
  • So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God, (Romans 14:12).
  • Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account, (Hebrews 4:13 NIV).

• There is coming a day of judgment. Only those whose names are recorded in the Heavenly census, the Lamb’s Book of Life, will enter His eternal Promised Land.
  • …and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life, (Revelation 21:27).

• Those who follow the LORD fully by faith, believing His word of promise as Caleb and Joshua, will be recorded in His Heavenly census.
  • Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God,” (John 3:3).
  • “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him,” (John 3:36).

• Do we have the unshaken assurance our name is recorded in His Book of Life? Only by faith in the Son of God will we inherit eternal life.
  • These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life, (1 John 5:13).

When we have placed our faith in the Son of God, we can face His Reckoning Revealed with confidence, rejoicing not in anything that we have done, but in knowing that His Promise for us is true. And on that day, when we face His Reckoning Revealed, we will also come face to face with our Savior, and joyfully take our place with all those whose names are recorded in heaven, and enter His Promised Land for all eternity!

“Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven,” (Luke 10:20).

Let’s Grow Together!