Numbers -- Journey to the Promised Land

If Exodus is the face of the Pentateuch turning away from Egypt, Numbers is the turning to the Promised Land. How painful it is sometimes for us to leave what we love behind to follow Love into the wilderness.This series is not a  verse-by-verse study of the Book of Numbers; it is a study of the human heart as he learns to leave behind the good of the world for the greatest good:

Numbers is a journey, long and difficult, often tragic (when seen from man's perspective) of a people who did the impossible: leave behind a land they had settled in for four hundred years and walk into the wilderness towards a war of conquest, a conquest of the Promised Land. If you were an Israelite, would you have liked to leave behind the familiar chores of Egypt -- especially after the ten plagues that had decimated the Egyptians and incapacitated their military power? Goshen, it must be remembered, was unharmed from the plagues and the Israelites could have lived a comfortable life in Goshen.
The Lord, the mighty one, brings them out of Egypt into the wilderness and promises He would be by their side during the conquest of Canaan. They don't believe him. How many of us would?

Prerequisite

The Catholic Foundation Library is a definite prerequisite to a sound understanding of Numbers. It serves as a basis for grasping the way Scripture functions end-to-end. Further, since the events in the Book of Genesis are the reason why Exodus and Numbers were written, it makes sense to go through the study of the Book of Genesis, Exodus, and Deuteronomy before undertaking a study of the Book of Numbers.