The God of Order and Organization.

Numbers 2:1-34 How God Wanted the Various Tribes to Camp Around the Tabernacle

Day 34 of our self-isolation. The world is slowing opening up. My daughter’s southern U.S. is opening its beaches today and some non-essential businesses as long as some precautions are taken to avoid the spread of the virus. The big issue these days seems to be those local government (municipal and state/provincial) that are encouraging “snitches” to report violations. I’m all for reporting crime. The so-called ‘crime’ these folks want reported is activity that has been banned in opposition to the Constitution in the U.S. and the Charter of Rights in Canada. At the very least they oppose our right to not be enslaved in our own homes. As I wrote on one of my social media walls, “Most Canadians know it is the foot in the door to further totalitarianism. My response and hopefully that of others will be NYET and NEIN.”

Still we press on. Today we look at Chapter 2 of Numbers which outlines for us that God cares about where we ‘stand’ and where we ‘camp’ to best perform the work and responsibilities He has for us.

The Passage

The 34 verses describe where each tribe was supposed to camp around the tent of meeting or tabernacle. They were to display their own specific banners and were to keep their distance from the tabernacle. The Levites would be in the midst of all the other camps.

Thoughts on the Passage

What was interesting to me here was that God wanted each family member to join their father’s household and then their broader family, and camp with them. There were no “sleepovers” elsewhere.  Everyone had to be in their place because everyone had to be accounted for when the time came to move camp.

Chuck Smith also points out how important it is for God to be in the center of our community. We in the western world, for the most part, have thrown God out of our communities – at least out of schools, governments, official public meetings, sports events, and to a certain extent out of our justice systems. Having “In God We Trust” or the equivalent on our coins as the U.S. still does, has almost become a hypocrisy on its own.

David Guzik tells us that the taking of Canaan, if God had His way (and He always does), would not be accomplished by a mob, but by an organized and orderly group. He tells us that God is a God of order and that there is a limit to what we can unorganized and none of nothing is done without order if it is of the Lord. (Oh, how we need to remember that at some of our church annual meetings.) Secondly, we are to accept the fact that God orders and organizes things in accordance to His wisdom, not ours.  We are to seek the wisdom of God and get on board. Guzik ends his comments on this chapter with this:

“The tribes of Israel camped around four banners, which were said to be a lion, a man, a calf, and an eagle. We find the same four creatures surrounding the throne of God in Revelation.”

Don’t know if we’ll ever get that far in our study but it is amazing to at least note that an early Old Testament book is linked to the promise of what is to come and what we are to enjoy as we’re told in the Bible’s very last book. What amazing “master writer” God is!

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

Never thought an O.T. census would mean so much.

Numbers 1:1-54 The First Census

Day 33 of self-isolation. Protests to end the shutdowns are increasing as people realize they’ve been duped, and we have over-reacted to this particular virus, as serious as it is. Most of us see light at the end of the tunnel. Most important for the Christian right now is to discern what God is saying to the world and to each of individually. We press on. Thanks for joining me in the study of Numbers.

The Passage

Verse 1 provides the time in history that this census occurred.

Verses 2-5a provide a description of how the counting is to take place and who is to be counted.

Verses 5b-16 provide the names of those who would have stood with Moses, who are called from their congregations, as the heads of divisions of Israel.

Verses 17-19 describe how Moses worked with these men to register everyone that was to be counted.

Verses 20-43 give a listing of all those counted under each tribe.

Verses 44-46 remind us that those counted were only males who were 20 years old and up, and able to go to war.  Their number in total was 603,550.

Verses 47-49 describe how the Levites were not to be counted.

Now the rest of the chapter:

⁵⁰ But you shall appoint the Levites over the ^[a]tabernacle of the testimony, and over all its furnishings and over all that belongs to it. They shall carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings, and they shall take care of it; they shall also camp around the ^[b]tabernacle. ⁵¹ So when the tabernacle is to set out, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle encamps, the Levites shall set it up. But the ^[c]layman who comes near shall be put to death. ⁵² The sons of Israel shall camp, each man by his own camp, and each man by his own standard, according to their armies. ⁵³ But the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, so that there will be no wrath on the congregation of the sons of Israel. So, the Levites shall keep charge of the tabernacle of the testimony.” ⁵⁴ Thus the sons of Israel did; according to all which the Lord had commanded Moses, so they did.

Footnotes:

1. Numbers 1:50 Lit dwelling place, and so throughout the ch
2. Numbers 1:50 Lit dwelling place, and so throughout the ch
3. Numbers 1:51 Lit stranger

Thoughts on the Passage

I find it interesting that these instructions from God came to Moses as he was in the “tent of meeting”. You can read more about that here: the tent of meeting.

Now it appears that the census was only of males twenty years of age and up and able to fight in an army. That no females were included may be a concern to many today, but that was not the case at the time. God wanted them to know (for He didn’t need a census to tell them) how many able-bodied men they had that could fight for Israel, preparing them perhaps for what was ahead. Matthew Henry points out that by virtue of counting all those “who were able to go out to war” (verse 3), the aged, those with bodily infirmities or chronic diseases, blind, or lame, were also excluded. God was interested in primary Israel for what was ahead.

And Moses was, of course, to have help in taking this census. Now when God says you need help, you need help. Don’t try to do it all by yourself. God will provide the help you need if you sincerely ask for it and are patient. In this case, God even names the individuals of each tribe that are supposed to help Moses. Chuck Smith says the names of those men chosen that day were very important and thus he writes:

So, let's take a look at the names of these men. In verse five Elizur is the first one and Elizur means, "my God is a rock." In verse six, Shelumiel; his name means "at peace with God." In verse seven, Nahshon means "a diviner." In verse eight, Nathaneel means "the gift of God." In verse nine, Eliab means, "my God is Father." In verse ten, Elishama means, "my God has heard" and then also in verse ten, Gamaliel means, "my God is a rewarder." And in verse eleven, Abidan means, "my Father is judge." In verse twelve, Ahiezer means "brother of health." In verse thirteen, Pagiel means "event of God." Verse fourteen, Eliasaph means "God addeth" and then the last guy, Ahira doesn't have too good a name. It is "brother, his brother is evil." So, he probably had an older brother that wasn't of too good a reputation, so he picked up the name "his brother is evil."

Imagine that, “God knew their names” and what they were like, just as He knows your name and my name, and He knows what we are like.

The text actually gives us the number of the men counted that day by tribe. Chuck Smith tells us that one needs to note how each tribe either grew or decreased in number throughout the forty years in the wilderness. We will be able to arrive at those numbers for comparison purposes when we get to the second census in the book. But for those that are impatient may I refer you to this link: men by tribe just before entering Canaan.

David Guzik speaks to this:

At the end of the Book of Numbers - 38 years later - this census is repeated. The total number of available soldiers will be almost the same - only a loss of some two thousand. But the numbers of each tribe change significantly, and there is meaning in what happened to each tribe over these critical 38 years.

David Guzik also makes some most interesting points about this census. He says it is the first step in “taking the promised land”. And when you are in the wilderness (your personal wilderness), you can come up with hundreds of schemes to get out of it – but only God’s way works. Guzik says God wanted them numbered by families because the strength of Israel was determined by looking at the strength of individual families. And that is true about the Church today – it is only as strong as we keep our individual families, in the faith. Some of us are not doing that well, are we?

Verse 46 tells us the number of able-bodied young men over 20 able to fight in an army for the Israelites was 603,550. And the Levites were excluded from that number. They had a different role to perform for God and the Israelites.

One may also ask why all the numbers of the tribes ended in 100’s or in the case of Gad’s tribe in the 50’s. There were no tribe numbers that went to units or tens. Matthew Henry suggests that earlier Moses had divided the people into 100’s and 50’s and appointed rulers over them as stated in Exodus 18:25. And thus when census time came, it was easier to count them by the number of rulers.  Makes sense to me.

Verses 50 and 51 tell us that the Levites had full charge and full responsibility for the tabernacle wherever it was moved to and wherever it was set down.  And they did the moving. They were to dismantle it and to put it together again.

Matthew Henry provides some reasons as to why God wanted the census taken. He suggests the following:
1. To prove the accomplishment of the promise He made to Abraham, that God would multiply his seed.
2. To put a difference between the true Israelites and the mixed born among them. (Only true Israelites were counted.)
3. To prepare the entire congregation for easier marching as well as to facilitate the administration of justice among them.

In verse 52, God instructs how the different tribes are to arrange themselves in the camp. They were to stick together by tribe. The Levites, however, were to be protected by these armies and in turn protect the tabernacle as they camped all around it.

Guzik reminds us that God counts things. He counts the stars and has a name for each one (Psalm 147:4; Isaiah 40:26). God even counts and knows the number of hairs on your head! (Matthew 10:30). “He who counts the stars and calls thenm all by their names, leaves nothing unarranged in his own service.” (Spurgeon)

And Moses got the sons of Israel to do all of this as God had commanded.  So, we have a good start. There was obedience to God and to the leader He had appointed, Moses.  Whatever could go wrong? Stay tuned.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

What Do Obeying God, Building a Model Airplane, and Assembling IKEA Furniture Have In Common?

Obedience to God? It Has To Be His Way, In His Specified Order, and On His Exact Timing

Exodus 40:17-33:

¹⁷ Now in the first month ^[a]of the second year, on the first day of the month, the ^[b]tabernacle was erected. 

¹⁸ Moses erected the tabernacle and ^[c]laid its ^[d]sockets, and set up its boards, and ^[e]inserted its bars and erected its pillars. 

¹⁹ He spread the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering of the tent ^[f]on top of it, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. 

²⁰ Then he took the testimony and put it into the ark, and ^[g]attached the poles to the ark, and put the ^[h]mercy seat ^[i]on top of the ark. 

²¹ He brought the ark into the tabernacle, and set up a veil for the screen, and screened off the ark of the testimony, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

²² Then he put the table in the tent of meeting on the north side of the tabernacle, outside the veil. 

²³ He set the arrangement of bread in order on it before the Lord, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. 

²⁴ Then he placed the lampstand in the tent of meeting, opposite the table, on the south side of the tabernacle. 

²⁵ He lighted the lamps before the Lord, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

²⁶ Then he placed the gold altar in the tent of meeting in front of the veil; 

²⁷ and he burned fragrant incense on it, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. 

²⁸ Then he set up the ^[j]veil for the doorway of the tabernacle. 

²⁹ He set the altar of burnt offering before the doorway of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, and offered on it the burnt offering and the meal offering, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. 

³⁰ He placed the laver between the tent of meeting and the altar and put water in it for washing. 

³¹ From it Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet. 

³² When they entered the tent of meeting, and when they approached the altar, they washed, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. 

³³ He erected the court all around the ^[k]tabernacle and the altar, and ^[l]hung up the veil for the gateway of the court. Thus Moses finished the work.

Thoughts on the Passage

In verses 17 to 29 of this passage, we see Moses overseeing the actual assembly of the Tabernacle and all its furnishings.  Then we come to the last piece, the wash basin or lave in verse 30.  He placed it in its rightful spot and poured water into it “for washing”.

Whenever Moses, Aaron, or Aaron’s sons entered the Tent of Meeting or when they approached the altar, they had to wash their hands and feet just as God had commanded Moses. Guzik says this phrase (as God had commanded) is repeated over and over again in Exodus. Obedience is central to doing the will of God and to serving Him effectively. Every command from God requires obedience, not just those we feel like complying with.  He quotes Morgan, who writes,

“It reminds us that Divine Work must always be done according to the Divine pattern, and most strictly in the Divine way. The truth is so self-evident, that it would seem needless to stress it. Yet a perpetual temptation to the mind of man is to endeavor to improve upon a Divine plan.” 

That is often our problem in the church. We try to improve on God’s way of doing things. We think we know better as to what today’s society needs. [We believe we have an in on what teenagers need to stay in the church. And we’ve often been wrong. For example, teenagers today are not telling us we have to have a certain type of music or speak the way they speak. No, instead they tell us they want each of us to be genuine and stop being hypocrites.]

The passage also indicates that priests could not properly perform their duties without this ritual cleansing which indicates that God wants service from pure hands and feet. And though Moses was not properly a priest, Psalm 99:6 tells us that God numbered him among His priests, and Matthew Henry says “the Jewish writers call him ‘the priest of the priests’ [for] what he did he did by special warrant and direction from God, rather as a prophet, or law-giver than as a priest. He set the wheels a-going, and then left the work in the hands of the appointed ministry.” Maybe some elders on church boards need to take a lesson from Moses – he gave the instructions God gave him to well-selected individuals like Bezalel and then let them do their job, and afterward, he inspected it. He had confidence in those that were selected, and he did not get in the way of the actual work.

And then we come to the last verse of this passage or section of Chapter 40 – verse 33. Here we are told that after Moses raised up the court all around the Tabernacle and the altar, and after he hung up the screen of the court gate, we read, “So Moses finished the work.”

What a great feeling that must have been knowing that he had finished the work that God gave him to do. And little did he know at the time, that this Tabernacle he had built to God’s specifications would have such incredible symbolic meaning in the future when describing the work of our High Priest, Jesus Christ. Guzik writes,

“Hebrews 9:23-24 tells us that at some point in time (after the cross), Jesus entered the heavenly reality represented on earth by the Tabernacle, and appeared in the presence of God to offer a perfect atonement for our sins. Therefore, every time before this event, when the High Priest made atonement in the earthly tabernacle, it was “play acting” – and looking forward to – the perfect atonement the Son of God would offer.”

Matthew Henry says we should note that while the Israelites were hoping they were awfully close to the Promised Land, they did not say, (my words) “hey, let’s wait to set this thing up when we get there, since we’re so close and we don’t want to take a chance of anything breaking now”. No, they wanted to obey God in every instruction. So, set it up now they did. The lesson for us being, obey God today, worship Him today – don’t wait for what we think is a perfect time, a perfect setting.

Henry also notes that not only did Moses follow all the instructions, he followed them in the precise order that God wanted him to. We often try to get ahead of God’s pattern for us by doing some of the easier or more exciting things first, leaving the hard things for later. If so, we fail to grasp the fact that the Master Designer had a reason for the order that He gave us. I am reminded of building model airplanes as a child. Many times, I did things out of the order prescribed, only to find out why that wasn’t a good idea later on. But the glue was dry.  It also happens when putting together “assembly required” furniture (like that one buys from IKEA). Don’t follow the instructions and be prepared to undo all you have done to start again. That’s the way it is with God’s pattern for your life – obey each step, obey them in order, and them at the right time.

In verse 29 we read that the altar of the burnt-offering was set up and then there’s a reference to actual offerings (the burnt offering and the meal offering) taking place right there and then at the time the altar was set up. The commentators are not in agreement as to when that actually took place with some thinking it was done some time afterward. Henry thinks “he immediately began the ceremony of [the offering’s] consecration, though it was not completed for seven days.”

The argument that it did occur right away is supported by what we read in the next two verses regarding the laver. In verse 31, we are told that Moses and Aaron and the priests washed their hands and feet and that immediately follows the placed of the laver or wash basin in verse 30. So there appears to be a precedent there for do things immediately once the furnishings required were in place. However, linguistically as I read it, it can go either way.

If Henry is right, then this is an indication that when God gives us talents, we are to use them right away, but as prescribed by God.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.