"But among them there was not one of those who had been registered by Moses and Aaron the priest when they registered the Israelites in the Wilderness at Sinai. For the Lord had said to them that they would all die in the wilderness. None of them was left except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun."
Numbers 26:64-65
The only men left from the original census are the two who God said were worthy to enter the Promised Land: the two who had stood firm in their belief that the Lord would deliver it to them, no matter how large or strong the Canaanites appeared.
The others who remained at this point were too young to have been counted at the previous census. Their fathers had been killed by plague after plague, brought upon themselves by their own foolish desires and their Godless ways. Or in some cases, their insistence on bowing to gods other than their own.
These are the men of the new census, the men who will take the land promised by their Lord. These are what's left of the dwindling nation of Israel. When they left Israel, there were 603,550 men of age (Exodus 38:26), but a generation later there are only 601,730. This may seem like a minimal decrease (less than half a percent), but it's significant when you remember that these people did not have birth control and tended to have many children in each family... One would have expected significant growth - enough so that any decrease seems pretty dramatic.
Question of the Day:
Do you deserve the inheritance promised by the Lord, or have you been caught by disbelief and/or idols?
Prayer of the Day:
Lord, I do believe! Help my unbelief! (Mark 9:24) I pray the prayer of this father because of how faithful You were in answering him. Answer my prayer the same way. Drive away the evil which resides within us all, and make us live once again! Do this so that we may join You in Your inheritance of the Father's Kingdom, and share everlasting life in Your presence. Amen.
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