Numbers 1--A Census of Israel's Warriors

Numbers 1
English Standard Version
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A Census of Israel's Warriors
1 The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “Take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel, by clans, by fathers' houses, according to the number of names, every male, head by head. 3 From twenty years old and upward, all in Israel who are able to go to war, you and Aaron shall list them, company by company. 4 And there shall be with you a man from each tribe, each man being the head of the house of his fathers. 5 And these are the names of the men who shall assist you. From Reuben, Elizur the son of Shedeur; 6 from Simeon, Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai; 7 from Judah, Nahshon the son of Amminadab; 8 from Issachar, Nethanel the son of Zuar; 9 from Zebulun, Eliab the son of Helon; 10 from the sons of Joseph, from Ephraim, Elishama the son of Ammihud, and from Manasseh, Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur; 11 from Benjamin, Abidan the son of Gideoni; 12 from Dan, Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai; 13 from Asher, Pagiel the son of Ochran; 14 from Gad, Eliasaph the son of Deuel; 15 from Naphtali, Ahira the son of Enan.” 16 These were the ones chosen from the congregation, the chiefs of their ancestral tribes, the heads of the clans of Israel.

17 Moses and Aaron took these men who had been named, 18 and on the first day of the second month, they assembled the whole congregation together, who registered themselves by clans, by fathers' houses, according to the number of names from twenty years old and upward, head by head, 19 as the Lord commanded Moses. So he listed them in the wilderness of Sinai.

20 The people of Reuben, Israel's firstborn, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war: 21 those listed of the tribe of Reuben were 46,500.

22 Of the people of Simeon, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, those of them who were listed, according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war: 23 those listed of the tribe of Simeon were 59,300.

24 Of the people of Gad, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war: 25 those listed of the tribe of Gad were 45,650.

26 Of the people of Judah, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war: 27 those listed of the tribe of Judah were 74,600.

28 Of the people of Issachar, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war: 29 those listed of the tribe of Issachar were 54,400.
30 Of the people of Zebulun, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war: 31 those listed of the tribe of Zebulun were 57,400.

32 Of the people of Joseph, namely, of the people of Ephraim, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war: 33 those listed of the tribe of Ephraim were 40,500.

34 Of the people of Manasseh, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war: 35 those listed of the tribe of Manasseh were 32,200.

36 Of the people of Benjamin, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war: 37 those listed of the tribe of Benjamin were 35,400.

38 Of the people of Dan, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war: 39 those listed of the tribe of Dan were 62,700.

40 Of the people of Asher, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war: 41 those listed of the tribe of Asher were 41,500.

42 Of the people of Naphtali, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war: 43 those listed of the tribe of Naphtali were 53,400.

44 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. 45 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-- 46 all those listed were 603,550.

Levites Exempted
47 But the Levites were not listed along with them by their ancestral tribe. 48 For the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 49 “Only the tribe of Levi you shall not list, and you shall not take a census of them among the people of Israel. 50 But appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, and over all its furnishings, and over all that belongs to it. They are to carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings, and they shall take care of it and shall camp around the tabernacle. 51 When the tabernacle is to set out, the Levites shall take it down, and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up. And if any outsider comes near, he shall be put to death. 52 The people of Israel shall pitch their tents by their companies, each man in his own camp and each man by his own standard. 53 But the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, so that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the people of Israel. And the Levites shall keep guard over the tabernacle of the testimony.” 54 Thus did the people of Israel; they did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses.

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It's been a while since we've been in the Old Testament.  As promised, we are back to tackle more historical narrative.  We're looked at the first three Books of the Law or Books of Moses so far, and now we're back to try to tackle the last two.  The first two books of the Law, Genesis and Exodus were mostly historical narrative though there were parts of Exodus at the end that were a record of the giving of the Law, including instructions for how to build the Tabernacle and then God preparing the right people to make everything He had commanded and oversee the work of building everything to specifications.  We see Exodus end with the completion of the Tabernacle, and the glory of the LORD filling the Tabernacle so that not even Moses was able to enter the Tabernacle because it was so full of God's presence.

We then studied Leviticus which read like an instruction manual to all the Levites, but especially to the sons of Aaron who served as priests and the one son of Aaron who would be chosen to serve as High Priest to take great care that the people and the priesthood remained holy in the sight of the LORD and to make atonement for the sins of the people through the giving of sin offerings, guilt offerings, fellowship offerings (peace offerings) and more.  Holiness and cleanliness are also important themes of this book and we saw many things about the priesthood, the Tabernacle and the sacrifices that pointed forward to Jesus.

We're now going to drop back into the narrative right after the last verse in Exodus (Leviticus has been kind of an aside to the historical narrative here) and see that God wants Moses to "Take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel, by clans, by fathers' houses, according to the number of names, every male, head by head."  Why?  The immediate reason is that God is going to raise up an army from the people to make war against the people that would keep Israel from getting to the promised land and to get them ready for the battle that awaited them once they go there.  However, that's not the only reason.

There is a reason that God has not yet revealed fully, but most of us have the advantage of knowing the beginning, the middle and the story.  We know that the people who miraculously came out of Egypt with the command to go to Mount Sinai to worship the LORD together instead worshiped an idol there and that the LORD's anger moved against them to where He promised to destroy all of them and instead make a great nation out of Moses.  Moses pleaded for the people to be forgiven and even asked for him to have his name blotted out of the Book of Life so that the people could be saved.  God refused this offer because Moses, a sinful man himself, could not die in the place of the people because he himself stood guilty and condemned, but this is exactly what we will see Jesus do later--and not just to die for the nation of Israel, but for all the people of God from all the nations.

We also know that God said He was not going to go up with them because if He went up with this unholy people, His holiness would require that He kill them all, but the people said they would refuse to move from that spot unless God would go with them and lead the way, and God said that He would send His angel (the angel of the LORD, who we know to be the preincarnate Christ) ahead of them to do battle for them and to lead the way, but the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire is going to stay between the people and this "angel" so that they do not see Him, but the New Testament tells us that it was Christ that was this "angel" that led the people out of Egypt and through the desert.

We know that the main theme of the book of Numbers is going to be the people's rebellion and that they will continue to sin, that God will judge them for their sin, but that God will still be merciful to keep His covenant to all the sons of Israel for the sake of their Father Abraham and the covenant that He made with him, and this census is proof that God intends to keep His everlasting covenant with Abraham and his descendants.  We will see that God will faithfully bring the nation of Israel through their forty years of wandering in the wilderness   While it may not be exciting to read all these names and numbers right now, it is a testament to the faithfulness of God to preserve His people through the 400+ years that they were away from their land in Egypt and that even in spite of their rebellion and they all deserved to be destroyed, that God would be faithful to give their inheritances and the blessings that He would promise to them to their children.  We'll later compare this census with the one taken of the new generation in Numbers 26.  I just wanted to give you heads-up this is likely the biggest reason for this census being here, though we won't have any idea about the severity of the punishment God will inflict on the people until chapter 13, but God knows and is already making a way to show the people, "I am faithful, even when you are unfaithful."

We end this section with seeing that Levites were all exempted from the census.  One of the reasons is that one of the purposes of the census was going to be for a taxation of sorts that we'll later call a "poll tax."  This is the tax that Jesus' disciples were challenged on to ask why He didn't pay the tax.  His argument was that being the Son of God that He would be exempt in much the same way that these Levites who had no inheritance and no land they would be given but that gave their lives in service to the LORD and being ministers of HIs covenant would not be taxed, nor would they fight in the battle in the same way that the others would--though they would lead the troops in battle to remind the people that even their war was an act of worship and that the LORD went out before them and they only needed to follow the LORD wherever He led and trust and obey Him completely and they would always be victorious because He would fight their battles for them--"The battle belongs to the LORD."

While each tribe of the congregation was ordered to protect the camp, the Levites instead were ordered to protect the Tabernacle from anyone that would try to enter the house of God the wrong way or to do damage the Tabernacle or steal the items that made it, for they were very valuable.  The priests lived close to the Tabernacle so that they were a last line of defense and the Tabernacle was always at the center of the camp so that the enemy would have to get through all the people and the priests before they should be able to breach the boundaries of the Tabernacle.

We already know at least one passage from the book of Numbers that we've looked at several times as one of the clearest promises of the cross of Christ in the Old Testament--an image so important that it came to be the sign of all medicine and healing--the bronze serpent on a pole lifted up in the wilderness.  Jesus would use this imagery to tell Nicodemus why He had come and He would again use this imagery to tell His disciples that He too would be "lifted up" and that if He is "lifted up" He will "draw all people unto Himself."  We'll see this story in Numbers 21, but there's lots more between here and there that will also point us to Christ and will speak much to us about our life "wandering in the wilderness" of this world at our time between conversion (crossing the Red Sea) to come out of slavery to sin until death (crossing the Jordan River), entering the Promised Land of the New Heaven and the New Earth that has been prepared for all of those who are "in Christ."  There is much suffering, but also much in the way of miraculous provision.  Let us not be like these people that constantly complain and grumble and are stubborn and stiff-necked, provoking God to anger.  Instead, let us live in a way that as we remember what God has done that we know more about who He is, and we want to change our lives to become holy because He is holy and to tell the world that they too can be saved out of their slavery to sin as we sing our songs of salvation and redemption like the people that crossed the Red Sea and were on their way to the Promised Land, even if that meant singing as we go into battle.