Restoring the Old Testament

For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed reading the New Testament. I feel like it can be applied so easily to my life, and I can gather so much wisdom and knowledge for my daily life from its pages. The Old Testament, however, is like another book altogether. Every time I attempt to read it, I am lost and confused, and unsure of how it can be applicable to my life. The other day, though, I started to read Numbers, because for the past few months I have been convicted to start reading the Old Testament once again. I read through Genesis, and I was amazed at how much I learned! I had heard the stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph countless times, but reading about all the details was much more insightful and helpful. Then, I decided to begin reading Numbers with a friend of mine, and as we were reading it, I was amazed at the details inside of its chapters. We read chapters 1 and 2, which were about the 12 tribes of Israel. I had never really thought about or studied the tribes before, but as I was reading about them, and taking in the details written, I was overcome with awe and amazement. A picture so clear came into my head that I was overwhelmed by the details of it. In Numbers, it says that the 12 tribes of Israel were camped next to Mt. Sinai after they were delivered from Egypt. They totaled 603,550 men over the age of 20. That is only men, not including children or women, or men who did not fight in the wars. For some reason, whenever I had thought about this story, I had pictured 23 tribes of about 50 to 100 people each, all camped out near each other. I never grasped the concept of that large of a group gathered together, being led through the desert by God and having the Ten Commandments delivered to them by Moses. No wonder God divided them into 12 different tribes! A group of that size would have been impossible to manage in one group. After reading these chapters, I began to think about all the other amazing stories in the Bible, and they became even more unbelievable before my eyes. I pictured millions of people being led out of Egypt, which would have later become these 12 tribes. I pictured the magnificent Ark after Noah had built it to fit 2 of each animal on the entire earth. Just because these events happened in Biblical times does not mean that the groups of people involved were small and insignificant. God was performing miracles, and He wanted as many people as possible to see them and come to believe in Him. I am so thankful that God gave me this amazing picture, and helped make the Old Testament real to me once again.