Problem: God commanded Moses not to make “any carved image” (Ex. 20:4), lest it be used as an idol. Yet here Moses was commanded to “make a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole.” Later, the people worshiped this very image (2 Kings 18:4). Does not God command Moses to violate the very command He gave him against idolatry?
Problem: God would not allow Israel to do battle with the Edomites because He had given the land of Edom to Esau as an everlasting possession. Numbers 20:21 states that “Israel turned away from him.” However, when Moses reviews these events in Deuteronomy 2:4, he states that the Lord said, “You are about to pass through the territory of your brethren, the descendants of Esau.” Likewise, Deuteronomy 2:8 says Israel “passed beyond our brethren the descendants of Esau.” Did they pass through Edom or did they go around it?
Problem: In this text Kadesh is said to be in the “Wilderness of Zin.” But in Numbers 13:26 it is said to be in the “Wilderness of Paran.” Which was it?
Problem: This verse states that “the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men with Korah.” However, Numbers 26:11 speaks about Korah’s descendants who did not perish in the judgment.
Are you for the death penalty? If so, who should be sentenced to death?
Since the institution of the death penalty, there have been 1,099 (as of April 1, 2008) US executions since 1976.
Methods of capital punishment: States allow electrocution, gas chambers, lethal injection, hanging and the firing squad.
Problem: Leviticus states that for unintentional sins of the whole congregation, when the sin is made known, “the assembly shall offer a young bull for the sin” (Lev. 4:14). However, here Numbers 15 speaks of offering two different sacrifices for the same sin—“one young bull as a burnt offering … and one kid of the goats as a sin offering” (v. 24).
Problem: According to Numbers 14:29, the corpses of all the men older than 20 years would fall in the wilderness. The total was over 600,000. But, if so many died in the wilderness, why do their grave sites not litter the landscape?
Problem: This verse says the Amalekites and Canaanites “dwell in the valley.” But verse 45 says the opposite, namely, they “dwelt in that mountain.”
Problem: In Numbers 13:32, ten of the spies who had been sent by Moses reported that the land was “a land that devours its inhabitants.” However, in addition to the fact that Joshua and Caleb had reported that the land flowed with milk and honey (Num. 13:27), the spies had come back with evidence of the abundance of the land (Num. 13:26). How could the ten spies claim that the land was “a land that devours its inhabitants”?