Fairy Tale Spotlight: Numbers [Book Review]

"Numbers" is the fourth book of the "Holy Bible," and it was written entirely by Moses who is really not that great of an author. What he does excel at is accounting. A good portion of this book is a glorified accounting document. It gives the numbers of each of the tribes of Israel and their fighting forces.

Like in Leviticus, it continues a list of laws. So there was a rule that if anyone runs into a situation that they are not sure what should be done about it, they would ask Moses about it, and in turn, Moses would ask God. God would then explain what the law should be in the matter and then they would have to comply to that law for any similar situations in the future.

An example of this had to do with some daughters who wanted the inheritance of their father who had no sons. Back then, all inheritances were passed down to the first born son, or to the other sons based on who was still alive. In this case, God allowed the daughters to have the inheritance since there were no males left. He then added a list of other similar scenarios just so they would not need to ask about them too.

Although "Numbers" has its fair share of accounting and laws, the real fun begins when the Israelites do what they do best and start whining and complaining that God is ruining their lives. Apparently the number 10 is where God looses it and he just begins killing people en mass whenever they bitch.

And the more I think about it, I can't really blame God for doing it. Up until this point, the Israelites bore witness to countless miracles. Daily and nightly, they saw a pillar of smoke and fire follow them through the wilderness. Before that, there was the parting of the Red Sea and all of the insane things that happened in Egypt. They absolutely knew God existed and was powerful. I guess they just didn't wanna have anything to do with a very real God and so turned against him. So God killed them. He killed thousands of them. He just got tired of putting up with their shit.

The stress got to Moses. The old man had been quite faithful up to that point. In "Exodus" and "Leviticus," Moses had been able to quell God's wrath to an extent, but now he had to contend with massive piles of dead bodies as his pleading words to God did not hold much weight anymore. And finally there came a moment where he was told to speak to a rock so that it would pour out water.

Moses did not speak to the rock... he just struck it twice. It worked, but God saw doubt in Moses for the first time which lead to two very sad things:

1: His brother Aaron would be ceremoniously killed.

2: He would never get to enter into the land promised to the Israelites.

As to the second, I have already begun reading the next book. I know for a fact that Moses was very upset about not getting to see the land. He accepted the punishment, but it broke his heart. Even so, I still think God really liked Moses. He had been remarkably long suffering and patient with him up to that one point.

"Numbers" has a bad reputation because of its boring parts, but it actually has more narrative in it than I thought. It's worth the read. Much of the middle has to do with the fury of God against his own people. And they did deserve what they got. The whole group was full of dumbasses. The book is hereby recommended by me. I actually liked it a bit more than "Leviticus."

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