At the end of Genesis the Jews are seen going into Egypt as friends of Pharaoh. After many years another

Pharaoh became king, and being afraid of the great number of Jews in Egypt, put them into slavery to keep them in

check. The next book in the Bible, Exodus, carries on the story from here.

This book tells of the way God brought the Jews out of Egypt, and gave them His laws. He used Moses, who

became their leader.

You will know the story of Moses in the bulrushes, and how Pharaoh's daughter took him into her house. When

Moses grew up God spoke to him, telling him to go to Pharaoh and demand that the Jews be set free. When Pharaoh

would not let them go, he was punished many times by God. Finally, Pharaoh had to give in, and you can read the

story in Exodus chapter 12, verses 21 to 36.

The time of the year when God brought the Jews out of Egypt was remembered each year by them. Today we

call it the Passover. It was a time when many lambs were killed, to show the Jews that they could not be freed

unless a lamb died in the place of their firstborn. A lamb had to die to free us; it was the Lord Jesus Christ, the

Lamb of God. Read John chapter 1, verse 29.

Exodus also tells of the giving of God's laws to the Jews after they were freed from Egypt. You will have heard

of the ten commandments, and you can read them in Exodus chapter 20, verses 1 to 17.

Leviticus is a book about worship. It taught the Jews how they should worship the true God. Part of this

worship meant that animals had to die. This may seem cruel to us today, but God was teaching the Jews an

important lesson. It is a lesson that we must learn also. Read Hebrews chapter 9, verse 22.

Did you understand the last part of the verse?

`without shedding of blood is no remission'.

Remission is forgiveness, and shedding of blood would refer to dying. So the lesson for the Jews, and for us, is

that unless someone dies for us, then we cannot be forgiven for sin must be paid for by death. Read Romans chapter

6, verse 23.

We are thankful that the Lord Jesus has paid for sin by dying for us, and we can have eternal or everlasting life

through Him.

This book is called Numbers because if you look at chapter 1, verses 1 to 3, you will see that the Lord told Moses to

number or count the Jews (children of Israel).

After God had brought the Jews out of Egypt, He was going to lead them into the promised country. When they

reached the edge of this country they sent spies in to see what it was like. The spies brought back from the country

some wonderful grapes and figs and pomegranates, showing the Jews what wonderful fruit grew in the land, just as

God had said. The spies also told the Jews of the giants living in the land, and the Jews became frightened and

would not go in.

God had promised that He would give them this good country and destroy the people living there, who were

being used by Satan to spoil God's plans. However, like Adam and Eve, the Jews disobeyed God and so did not go

into the land. So God turned them round away from the promised country, and sent them back to wander in the

wilderness from which they had come.

The book of Numbers is about their 40 years in this wilderness.