Explanantions not owed, but granted

“No, do not be afraid of those nations [who currently occupy the land God is giving you], for the Lord your God is among you, and he is a great and awesome God. The Lord your God will drive those nations out ahead of you little by little. You will not clear them away all at once, otherwise the wild animals would multiply too quickly for you.

Deuteronomy 7:21-22 New Living Translation

I love how the Bible goes straight from describing God as "great" and "awesome" to explaining His thinking behind His actions: "otherwise the wild animals would multiply." What a priviledge that the mighty God honors us with explanations that we are not owed! It just goes to show how much He values His relationship with us, how much He cares for us and His equals in that we bear His image. Amazing.

Hee-Haw She Said Something

Then the LORD opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?" And Balaam said to the donkey, "Because you have made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you."

Numbers 22:28-29 English Standard Version

What striks me most about this story isn't so much that the donkey talked back to Balaam (after all I am a Narnia and Brian Jaques child) but that Balaam talked back to her!

I mean seriously wouldn't you at least do a double-take before threatening death on your transportation?

And then they were counted

These are those who were listed, whom Moses and Aaron listed with the help of the chiefs of Israel, twelve men, each representing his fathers’ house. So all those listed of the people of Israel, by their fathers’ houses, from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war in Israel— all those listed were 603,550.

Numbers 1:44-46 English Standard Version

So if you figured that nearly all of them were married, as was typical in that culture, you're looking at 1.2 million Israelites. Then if each family typically had 5-20 children, you're looking at possibly 11 million Israelites just a year or two after they escaped Egypt. Whoa.