Disciplined Readers--Chronological One Year Bible: Are Numbers Important?

Monday, February 27, 2012

Are Numbers Important?

³⁹ When Moses and Aaron counted the Levite clans at the LORD’s command, the total number was 22,000 males one month old or older.

Redeeming the Firstborn Sons

⁴⁰ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Now count all the firstborn sons in Israel who are one month old or older, and make a list of their names. ⁴¹ The Levites must be reserved for me as substitutes for the firstborn sons of Israel; I am the LORD. And the Levites’ livestock must be reserved for me as substitutes for the firstborn livestock of the whole nation of Israel.”

⁴² So Moses counted the firstborn sons of the people of Israel, just as the LORD had commanded. ⁴³ The number of firstborn sons who were one month old or older was 22,273.
⁴⁴ Then the LORD said to Moses, ⁴⁵ “Take the Levites as substitutes for the firstborn sons of the people of Israel. And take the livestock of the Levites as substitutes for the firstborn livestock of the people of Israel. The Levites belong to me; I am the LORD. ⁴⁶ There are 273 more firstborn sons of Israel than there are Levites. To redeem these extra firstborn sons, ⁴⁷ collect five pieces of silver^[g] for each of them (each piece weighing the same as the sanctuary shekel, which equals twenty gerahs). ⁴⁸ Give the silver to Aaron and his sons as the redemption price for the extra firstborn sons.”
⁴⁹ So Moses collected the silver for redeeming the firstborn sons of Israel who exceeded the number of Levites. ⁵⁰ He collected 1,365 pieces of silver^[h] on behalf of these firstborn sons of Israel (each piece weighing the same as the sanctuary shekel). ⁵¹ And Moses gave the silver for the redemption to Aaron and his sons, just as the LORD had commanded. Numbers 3:39-51

Did you read through this quickly or did you look at the numbers? After all this is Numbers!

22,000 Levite males one month old or older

22,273 males one month old or older were the firstborn sons of Israel

273 were the difference for which had to be redeemed by silver

Given all the circumstances at the time what are the odds of the gap being that small?

This led me to think of God’s design. Think of snowflakes.

Microphotograph of a snowflake

Are you familiar with the Mandelbrot set?

The Mandelbrot set is a particular mathematical set of points whose boundary is a distinctive and easily recognizable two-dimensional fractal shape. The set is closely related to Julia sets (which include similarly complex shapes), and is named after the mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot, who studied and popularized it.
More precisely, the Mandelbrot set is the set of values of c in the complex plane for which the orbit of 0 under iteration of the complex quadratic polynomial z_n₊₁ = z_n² + c remains bounded. That is, a complex number c is part of the Mandelbrot set if, when starting with z₀ = 0 and applying the iteration repeatedly, the absolute value of z_n remains bounded however large n gets.
For example, letting c = 1 gives the sequence 0, 1, 2, 5, 26,…, which tends to infinity. As this sequence is unbounded, 1 is not an element of the Mandelbrot set. On the other hand, c = i (where i is defined as i² = −1) gives the sequence 0, i, (−1 + i), −i, (−1 + i), −i, ..., which is bounded, and so i belongs to the Mandelbrot set.