Getting Biblical in Daily Life
Jewish Perspective
The Book of Numbers was written by Jews, for Jews, so you can bet that it has a lot to offer any follower of Judaism. In Hebrew, the book is called Bamidbar, which just means "in the wilderness." Hey, that's a pretty good description of the story.
Numbers is part of the Torah—that's the first five books of the Bible and the basis for tons of Jewish thought and tradition. The book also contains tons of important Jewish themes—particularly about God guiding his chosen people during times of trial and never turning his back on them, even though they majorly screw up a whole bunch of times.
This book also gives us a super special prayer that's known as the Priestly Blessing:
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. (6:24-26)
A Jewish priest or kohen recites this blessing on certain occasions for the whole community. Some Jewish people recite it on Friday nights before the beginning of the Shabbat meal as a way of blessing their children. It also makes it way into Bar and Bat Mitzvah ceremonies occasionally, too. Basically, it's just a really awesome prayer.
Numbers also gives Jews the tradition of attaching tzitzit (or knotted fringes) to clothes. This is because of that one time God let Moses know that he should "speak to the Israelites, and tell them to make fringes on the corners of their garments throughout their generations and to put a blue cord on the fringe at each corner" (15:38). We guess you could say the idea sort of stuck.
Generally, these fringes find their way onto a tallit (or prayer shawl), but some observant Jews wear them on four-cornered garments under their regular clothes, too. It ends up looking something like this picture. Basically, the fringes are supposed to serve as a reminder of God's laws and all the good things he's ever done for his people (like freeing them from slavery in Egypt. Yup, that's a biggie).
Oh, and if you've ever heard a shofar being blown on Rosh Hashanah—that's from Numbers, too: "On the first day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not work at your occupations. It is a day for you to blow the trumpets" (29:1). Sounds like a good time to us.
Some Jews also perform a ceremony after the birth of their firstborn son called Pidyon Haben, which is based on Numbers:
Accept the Levites as substitutes for all the firstborn among the Israelites[…] As the price of redemption of the two hundred seventy-three of the firstborn of the Israelites, over and above the number of the Levites, you shall accept five shekels apiece, reckoning by the shekel of the sanctuary, a shekel of twenty gerahs. (3:45-47)
The father of a baby boy who is also his firstborn son passes on five silver coins to a kohen as "redemption money" for his son. During the ceremony, the kohen asks the proud new papa, "Which would you rather have—your firstborn son, or the five coins which you are obligated to give me for the redemption of this your firstborn son?" This is a pretty easy choice, so the father replies, "Um, the baby. Duh." Well, it usually sounds prettier than that, but you get the idea.
Christian Perspective
Fun fact: Most of the early Christians were actually Jewish. That's right. Jesus and his first followers grew up in Jewish homes, celebrated Jewish holidays, and lead all-together Jewish lives. They were real mensches.
If you've spent any time reading the New Testament (and you really should), you'll notice that these Christian authors knew their way around the Torah. That means the Book of Numbers features pretty prominently in 1st-century Christian writings. Just check out these passages from the New Testament, which are inspired by the events in Numbers:
"Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up." (John 3:14)
"The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. For about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness." (Acts 13:17-18)
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud[…] For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness. Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not become idolaters as some of them did; as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play." We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us. (1 Corinthians 10:1, 4-11)
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors put me to the test, though they had seen my works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known my ways.' As in my anger I swore, 'They will not enter my rest.'" (Hebrews 3:7-11)
In [the tabernacle] stood the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which there were a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant; above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot speak now in detail. (Hebrews 9:4-5)
They have left the straight road and have gone astray, following the road of Balaam son of Bosor, who loved the wages of doing wrong, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet's madness. (2 Peter 2:15-16)
Woe to them! For they go the way of Cain, and abandon themselves to Balaam's error for the sake of gain, and perish in Korah's rebellion. (Jude 1:11)
You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the people of Israel. (Revelation 2:14)
Did you catch all that? Serpents in the wilderness. Forty years of wandering. Drinking from a rock. Aaron's super special rod. And everybody hates Balaam.
The forty days Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness (Mark 1:12-13) were probably based on the forty years the Israelites spent there, too. Both journeys achieve the same goal (drawing the wilderness-dwellers closer to God). Jesus just did it way quicker. He's such an overachiever.
There's also a verse, which is part of the prophecies that Balaam offers up, that is sometimes known as the Star Prophecy. Balaam says, "I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near—a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel" (24:17). Christians think that this verse, naturally, points to Jesus. But to be fair, Christians think this about loads of stuff in the Hebrew Bible.
See? It pays to know your Hebrew Bible. After all, Jesus and his followers certainly did. Bonus points to them for paying really close attention in Torah school.
Islamic Perspective
Along with Christianity and Judaism, Islam is one of the Abrahamic religions. That just means that all three faiths can trace their origins back to Abraham in the Book of Genesis. They also share similar principles—like believing in one, and only one, God. Also, they all happen to like waffles. But then again, who doesn't.
That means that not only do Muslims share a common faith ancestor with Judaism, they also really dig Jewish scriptures. Take Moses, for example, who's called Musa in the Quran. He's mentioned around 500 times. More than anyone else in the whole book. This is what the Allah has to say about Moses and his brother:
And We did certainly confer favor upon Moses and Aaron. And We saved them and their people from the great affliction, And We supported them so it was they who overcame. And We gave them the explicit Scripture, And We guided them on the straight path. And We left for them [favorable mention] among later generations: "Peace upon Moses and Aaron." Indeed, We thus reward the doers of good. Indeed, they were of Our believing servants. (37:114-122)
That's a pretty nice shout out. The Quran also mentions some of the big highlights of Moses's lifetime (like getting Pharaoh to let his people go) and a good synopsis of the scene in Numbers when the spies return from Canaan (see if you can spot Joshua and Caleb in the mix here, too):
When Moses said to his people, "O my people, remember the favor of Allah upon you when He appointed among you prophets and made you possessors and gave you that which He had not given anyone among the worlds. O my people, enter the Holy Land which Allah has assigned to you and do not turn back [from fighting in Allah 's cause] and [thus] become losers." They said, "O Moses, indeed within it is a people of tyrannical strength, and indeed, we will never enter it until they leave it; but if they leave it, then we will enter." Said two men from those who feared [to disobey] upon whom Allah had bestowed favor, "Enter upon them through the gate, for when you have entered it, you will be predominant. And upon Allah rely, if you should be believers." They said, "O Moses, indeed we will not enter it, ever, as long as they are within it; so go, you and your Lord, and fight. Indeed, we are remaining right here." [Moses] said, "My Lord, indeed I do not possess except myself and my brother, so part us from the defiantly disobedient people." [ Allah ] said, "Then indeed, it is forbidden to them for forty years [in which] they will wander throughout the land. So do not grieve over the defiantly disobedient people." (5:20-26)
There's also that time God made it rain quails—"We shaded you with clouds and sent down to you manna and quails" (2:57) —and Moses got that rock water going— "Moses prayed for water for his people, so We said, 'Strike with your staff the stone.'" (2:60) Yup, the Quran is the place for all your Torah retelling needs!
Actually, the Quran is really good at this because Muslims regard the whole Torah (the first five books of the Bible) as divinely inspired (5:44). Yes, divinely inspired, but sadly, flawed. See, Allah (which is just the Arabic word for "God") was trying to tell the world what he wanted to say, but humans wrote it down and gave it their own spin and ruined it. The Quran, on the other hand, doesn't have any of this human meddling. Or at least that's what they say.
And what happens to all the Jews from Numbers who never got the chance to know Allah on this up close and personal level? No worries:
Indeed, those who believed and those who were Jews or Christians or Sabeans [before Prophet Muhammad]—those [among them] who believed in Allah and the Last Day and did righteousness—will have their reward with their Lord, and no fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve. (2:62)
See? We're all just one big happy faith-filled family, aren't we?