Yahweh 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, “Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, every male, one by one,
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Yahweh 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, “Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, every male, one by one, from twenty years old and upward, all who are able to go out to war in Israel. You and Aaron shall count them by their divisions. With you there shall be a man of every tribe, each one head of his fathers’ house. These are the names of the men who shall stand with you: Of Reuben: Elizur the son of Shedeur.
Parallel Translations
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Yahweh 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,
“Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, every male, one by one,
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And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,
Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls;
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AND THE LORD spoke unto 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 were come out of the land of Egypt, saying:
'Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, every male, by their polls;
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Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (21)
- Exodus 30:12 (v2) “When you take a census of the children of Israel, according to those who are counted among them, then each man shall give a ransom for his…
- Exodus 38:26 (v2) a beka a head, that is, half a shekel, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, for everyone who passed over to those who were counted,…
- Numbers 1:18 (v2) They assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month; and they declared their ancestry by their families, by…
- Exodus 25:22 (v1) There I will meet with you, and I will tell you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the…
- Numbers 1:22 (v2) Of the children of Simeon, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, those who were counted of it, according to the…
Show all 21 cross-references
- Numbers 26:2-4 (v2) “Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel, from twenty years old and upward, by their fathers’ houses, all who are…
- Genesis 49:1-3 (v2) Jacob called to his sons, and said: “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which will happen to you in the days to come.…
- Exodus 1:1-5 (v2) Now these are the names of the sons of Israel, who came into Egypt (every man and his household came with Jacob): Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and…
- Exodus 6:14-19 (v2) These are the heads of their fathers’ houses. The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel: Hanoch, and Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi; these are…
- Exodus 19:1 (v1) In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that same day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.
- Numbers 1:26-54 (v2) Of the children of Judah, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty…
- Numbers 10:11-12 (v1) In the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle of the…
- Numbers 26:63-64 (v2) These are those who were counted by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who counted the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at…
- 2 Samuel 24:1-3 (v2) Again Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, “Go, count Israel and Judah.” The king said to Joab…
- 1 Chronicles 21:1-2 (v2) Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to take a census of Israel. David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, “Go, count…
- 1 Chronicles 27:23-24 (v2) But David didn’t take the number of them from twenty years old and under, because Yahweh had said he would increase Israel like the stars…
- Exodus 40:2 (v1) “On the first day of the first month you shall raise up the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting.
- Exodus 40:17 (v1) In the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was raised up.
- Leviticus 1:1 (v1) Yahweh called to Moses, and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying,
- Leviticus 27:34 (v1) These are the commandments which Yahweh commanded Moses for the children of Israel on Mount Sinai.
- Numbers 9:1 (v1) Yahweh spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt,…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (26 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1–2 In that place of the wilderness that was near…
In that place of the wilderness that was near to mount Sinai.
So called because of the diversity and multitude of numberings which are here chiefly contained, both of men’s names and places.
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Which contained part of April, and part of May.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Num 1:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses in…
Num 1:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first [day] of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,
Ver. 1. In the wilderness of Sinai.] Here God held his people well nigh a year. Here they received the law, both moral and ceremonial: the moral drove them to the ceremonial, which was then Christ in figure; as it doth now drive us to Christ in truth. The ceremonial law, saith one, was their gospel. We must also pass by Sinai to Sion, unless we like rather to be carnally secured than soundly comforted. {See Trapp on "Exo 19:1"}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–2 They now had been in the wilderness a full…
They now had been in the wilderness a full year, or near it, as may be gathered by comparing this place with Exo 19:1; 40:17, and other places.
In the tabernacle; from the mercy seat.
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B.C. 1490
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 I. We have here a commission issued out for…
I. We have here a commission issued out for the numbering of the people of Israel; and David, long after, paid dearly for doing it without a commission. Here is,
1. The date of this commission, Num 1:1. (1.) The place: it is given at God's court in the wilderness of Sinai, from his royal palace, the tabernacle of the congregation. (2.) The time: In the second year after they came up out of Egypt; we may call it the second year of that reign. The laws in Leviticus were given in the first month of that year; these orders were given in the beginning of the second month.
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2. The directions given for the execution of it, Num 1:2, Num 1:3. (1.) None were to be numbered but the males, and those only such as were fit for war. None under twenty years old; for, though some such might have bulk and strength enough for military service, yet, in compassion to their tender years, God would not have them put upon it to bear arms. (2.) Nor were any to be numbered who through age, or bodily infirmity, blindness, lameness, or chronical diseases, were unfit for war. The church being militant, those only are reputed the true members of it that have enlisted themselves soldiers of Jesus Christ; for our life, our Christian life, is a warfare. (3.) The account was to be taken according to their families, that it might not only be known how many they were, and what were their names, but of what tribe and family, or clan, nay, of what particular house every person was; or, reckoning it the muster of an army, to what regiment every man belonged, that he might know his place himself and the government might know where to find him. They were numbered a little before this, when their poll-money was paid for the service of the tabernacle, Exo 38:25, Exo 38:26. But it should seem they were not then registered by the house of their fathers, as now they were. Their number was the same then that it was now: 603,550 men; for as many as had died since then, and were lost in the account, so many had arrived to be twenty years old, and were added to the account. Note, As one generation passeth away another generation cometh. As vacancies are daily made, so recruits are daily raised to fill up the vacancies, and Providence takes care that, one time or other, in one place or other, the births shall balance the burials, that the race of mankind and the holy seed may not be cut off and become extinct.
3. Commissioners are named for the doing of this work. Moses and Aaron were to preside (Num 1:3), and one man of every tribe, that was renowned in his tribe, and was presumed to know it well, was to assist in it - the princes of the tribes, Num 1:16. Note, Those that are honourable should study to be serviceable; he that is great, let him be your minister, and show, by his knowing the public, that he deserves to be publicly known. The charge of this muster was committed to him who was the lord-lieutenant of that tribe. Now,
II. Why was this account ordered to be taken and kept? For several reasons. 1. To prove the accomplishment of the promise made to Abraham, that God would multiply his seed exceedingly, which promise was renewed to Jacob (Gen 28:14), that his seed should be as the dust of the earth. Now it appears that there did not fail one tittle of that good promise, which was an encouragement to them to hope that the other promise of the land of Canaan for an inheritance should also be fulfilled in its season. When the number of a body of men is only guessed at, upon the view, it is easy for one that is disposed to cavil to surmise that the conjecture is mistaken, and that, if they were to be counted, they would not be found half so many; therefore God would have Israel numbered, that it might be upon record how vastly they were increased in a little time, that the power of God's providence and the truth of his promise may be seen and acknowledged by all. It could not have been expected, in any ordinary course of nature, that seventy-five souls (which was the number of Jacob's family when he went down into Egypt) should in 215 years (and it was no longer) multiply into so many hundred thousands. It is therefore to be attributed to an extraordinary virtue in the divine promise and blessing. 2. It was to intimate the particular care which God himself would take of his Israel, and which Moses and the inferior rulers were expected to take of them. God is called the Shepherd of Israel, Psa 80:1. Now the shepherds always kept count of their flocks, and delivered them by number to their under-shepherds, that they might know if any were missing; in like manner God numbers his flock, that of all which he took into his fold he might lose none but upon a valuable consideration, even those that were sacrificed to his justice. 3. It was to put a difference between the true born Israelites and the mixed multitude that were among them; none were numbered but Israelites: all the world is but lumber in comparison with those jewels. Little account is made of others, but the saints God has a particular property in and concern for. The Lord knows those that are his (Ti2 2:19), knows them by name, Phi 4:3. The hairs of their head are numbered ; but he will say to others, "I never knew you, never made any account of you." 4. It was in order to their being marshalled into several districts, for the more easy administration of justice, and their more regular march through the wilderness. It is a rout and a rabble, not an army, that is not mustered and put in order.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–2 And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness…
And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai,.... Which is different from the wilderness of Sin, Exo 16:1; and had its name from the mountain so called, on which God gave the law of the decalogue, and where the Israelites had been encamped eleven months, Exo 19:1,
in the tabernacle of the congregation; which had now been set up a whole month, and out of which the Lord had delivered to Moses the several laws recorded in the preceding book in that space of time, Exo 40:17,
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on the first day of the second month; the month Ijar, as the Targum of Jonathan, which answers to part of our April, and part of May, and was the second month of the ecclesiastical year, which began with Abib or Nisan:
in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt; that is, the children of Israel, who had now been a year and half a month out of it:
saying, as follows.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Orders given to Moses to number the people, ver.…
Orders given to Moses to number the people, ver. 1-4. Persons named to assist him therein, ver. 5-16. The particular number of each tribe, ver. 17-43. The sum of all together, ver. 44-46. The Levites excepted, ver. 47-54.
In the wilderness - Where now they had been a full year or near it, as may be gathered by comparing this place with Exod. xix, 1; xl, 17.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–2 -Year before the common Year of Christ, 1490.
THE FOURTH BOOK OF MOSES CALLED NUMBERS
-Year before the common Year of Christ, 1490.
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-Julian Period, 3224.
-Cycle of the Sun, 27.
-Dominical Letter, D.
-Cycle of the Moon, 9.
-Indiction, 6.
-Creation from Tisri or September, 2514.
CHAPTER I
On the first day of the second month of the second year
after Israel came out of Egypt, God commands Moses to number all
the males of the people from twenty years and upward, who were
effective men and able to go to war, 1-3.
A chief of each tribe is associated with Moses and Aaron in this
business, 4;
the names of whom are given, 5-16.
Moses assembles the people, who declare their pedigrees
according to their families, 17-19.
The descendants of REUBEN are numbered, and amount to 46,500,
ver. 20, 21.
Those of SIMEON, 59,300, ver. 22, 23.
Those of GAD, 45,650, ver. 24, 25.
Those of JUDAH, 74,600, ver. 26, 27.
Those of ISSACHAR, 54,400, ver. 28, 29.
Those of ZEBULUN, 57,400, ver. 30, 31.
Those of EPHRAIM, 40,500, ver. 32, 33.
Those of MANASSEH, 32,200, ver. 34, 35.
Those of BENJAMIN, 35,400, ver. 36, 37.
Those of DAN, 62,700, ver. 38, 39.
Those of ASHER, 41,500, ver. 40, 41.
Those of NAPHTALI, 53,400, ver. 42, 43.
The amount of all the effective men in Israel, from twenty years
old and upward, was 603,550, ver. 44-46.
The LEVITES are not numbered with the tribes, because they were
dedicated to the service of God. Their particular work is
specified, 47-54.
NOTES ON CHAP. I
Verse 1. The Lord spake unto Moses-on the first day of the second month] As the tabernacle was erected upon the first day of the first month, in the second year after their coming out of Egypt, Ex 40:17; and this muster of the people was made on the first day of the second month, in the same year; it is evident that the transactions related in the preceding book must all have taken place in the space of one month, and during the time the Israelites were encamped at Mount Sinai, before they had begun their Journey to the promised land.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Num 1:1. In the wilderness of Sinai — Where…
Num 1:1. In the wilderness of Sinai — Where now they had been a full year or near it, having left Egypt about thirteen months. Compare this place with Exo 19:1; Exo 40:17.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On v1 A month had passed away since the setting up…
A month had passed away since the setting up of the tabernacle Exo 40:2, Exo 40:17 : and the Sinaitic legislation was now complete (compare Lev 27:34).
A census (“sum”) was commanded, to be based not upon any fresh registration of individuals, but upon that which had accompanied the previous collection of the offerings. Compare Exo 30:11, etc.; Exo 38:25-28. The offerings had been probably tendered by the people in groups, and if certificates of registration were furnished to such groups, the new census might be easily carried out by means of these documents, and got through Num 1:18 in a single day. The present registration enrolled persons “after their families, by the house of their fathers;” and was superintended not by the Levites (see Exo 38:21 and note), but by Num 1:4 an assessor for each tribe to act in the business with Moses and Aaron. The purpose now in view was not religious only. The census now taken would serve as a basis for various civil and military arrangements.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1–2 First day of the second month, called after the…
First day of the second month, called after the captivity, Jiar, which party corresponds with our April. These injunctions were given from the tabernacle, (Calmet) in the desert, the 12th station, (Haydock) at the foot of Mount Sinai.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Numbers 1-10
FIRST PART
THE KINGLY HOST OF JEHOVAH
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Numbers 1-10
____________________
FIRST SECTION
THE ARMY OF THE LORD. THE ENUMERATION OR MUSTER OF THE WARRIORS. THE ARMY’S ORDER OF ENCAMPMENT AND MARCH
Numbers 1, 2
Moses and Aaron with twelve princes muster the men of war. Levites exempted and retained to serve the tabernacle
Num_1:1-54
Moses, Aaron, and the Twelve Princes
1And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in 1the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 2Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel after their families, by 2the house of their fathers, with the 3number of their names, every male by their polls; 3From twenty years old and upward, 4all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall xnumber them by their 5armies. 4And with you there shall be a man of every 5tribe; every one head of the house of his fathers. And these are the names of the men that shall stand with you: of the tribe of Reuben; Elizur the son of Shedeur. 6Of Simeon; Shemuliel the son of Zurishaddai. 7Of Judah; Nahshon the son of 8Amminadab. Of Isaachar; Nethaneel the son of Zuar. 9Of Zebulun; Eliab the son of Helon. 10Of the children of Joseph: of Ephraim; Elishama the son of Ammihud: of Manasseh; Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur. 11Of Benjamin; Abidan 12, 13the son of Gideoni. Of Dan; Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai. Of Asher; 14, 15Pagiel the son of Ocran. Of Gad; Eliasaph the son of Deuel. Of Naphtali; 16Ahira the son of Enan. These 6 were the renowned of the congregation, princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of thousands in Israel.
The Muster
17And Moses and Aaron took these men which are expressed by their names: 18And they assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month, and 7they declared their pedigrees after their families, by bthe house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, 19by their polls.8 As the Lord commanded Moses, 9so he xnumbered them in the wilderness of Sinai.
20And the children of Reuben, Israel’s 10eldest son, by their generations, after their families, by bthe house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, by their polls, every male from twenty years old and upward, call that were able to go forth to war; 21Those that were xnumbered of them, even of the tribe of Reuben, were forty and six thousand and five hundred.
22Of the children of Simeon, by their generations, after their families, by bthe house of their fathers, those that were xnumbered of them, according to the number of the names, by their polls, every male from twenty years old and upward, call that were able to go forth to war; 23Those that were xnumbered of them, even of the tribe of Simeon, were fifty and nine thousand and three hundred.
24Of the children of Gad, by their generations, after their families, by bthe house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, call that were able to go forth to war; 25Those that were xnumbered of them, even of the tribe of Gad, were forty and five thousand six hundred and fifty.
26Of the children of Judah, by their generations, after their families, by bthe house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, call that were able to go forth to war; 27Those that were xnumbered of them, even of the tribe of Judah, were threescore and fourteen thousand and six hundred.
28Of the children of Issachar, by their generations, after their families, by bthe house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, call that were able to go forth to war; 29Those that were xnumbered of them, even of the tribe of Issachar, were fifty and four thousand and four hundred.
30Of the children of Zebulun, by their generations, after their families, by bthe house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, call that were able to go forth to war; 31Those that were xnumbered of them, even of the tribe of Zebulun, were fifty and seven thousand and four hundred.
32Of the children of Joseph, namely, of the children of Ephraim, by their generations, after their families, by bthe house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, call that were able to go forth to war; 33Those that were xnumbered of them, even of the tribe of Ephraim, were forty thousand and five hundred.
34Of the children of Manasseh, by their generations, after their families, by bthe house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, call that were able to go forth to war; 35Those that were xnumbered of them, even of the tribe of Manasseh, were thirty and two thousand and two hundred.
36Of the children of Benjamin, by their generations, after their families, by bthe house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, call that were able to go forth to war; 37Those that were xnumbered of them, even of the tribe of Benjamin, were thirty and five thousand and four hundred.
38Of the children of Dan, by their generations, after their families, byb the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, call that were able to go forth to war; 39Those that were xnumbered of them, even of the tribe of Dan, were threescore and two thousand and seven hundred.
40Of the children of Asher, by their generations, after their families, by bthe house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, call that were able to go forth to war; 41Those that were xnumbered of them, even of the tribe of Asher, were forty and one thousand and five hundred.
42Of the children of Naphtali, throughout their generations, after their families, by bthe house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, call that were able to go forth to war; 43Those that were xnumbered of them, even of the tribe of Naphtali, were fifty and three thousand and four hundred. 44These are those that were xnumbered, which Moses and Aaron numbered, and the princes of Israel, being twelve men; each one was for bthe house of his fathers.
45So were all those that were xnumbered of the children of Israel, by bthe house of their fathers, from twenty years old and upward, call that were able to go forth to war in Israel; 46Even all they that were xnumbered were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty. 47But the Levites after the tribe of their fathers were not xnumbered among them.
The Levites exempted
4811For the Lord had spoken unto Moses, saying, 49Only thou shalt not xnumber 50the tribe of Levi, neither take the sum of them among the children of Israel: But 12thou shalt xappoint the Levites over the tabernacle of testimony, and over all the vessels thereof, and over all things that belong to it: they shall bear the tabernacle, and all the vessels thereof; and they shall minister unto it, and shall encamp round about the tabernacle. 51And when the tabernacle setteth forward, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death. 52And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents every man by his own camp, and every man by his own standard, 13throughout their hosts. 53But the Levites shall pitch round about the tabernacle of testimony, that there be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of Israel: and the Levites shall keep the charge of the tabernacle of testimony. 54And the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so did they.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[Num_1:1. ודבר. The וַ of itself gives no proof of our book having a special or organic connection with Leviticus. Were that the case, then a similar inference must be made of a relation between Joshua and Deuteronomy, and between Judges and Joshua. In cases like the present, the Vav. conversive simply introduces what is related as a sequel to events preceding. It is left to the reader to recall what precedes. לצאתם. The לְ with the inf. const. has here the force of the genitive, as appears from its conjunction with לחדשׁ. See Fuerst sub. voc. A, 9. It is common in giving dates; comp. Gen_7:11; Exo_19:1. The inf. is used here as a noun == “their exodus.”
[Num_1:2. The לְ before three different nouns in this verse is distributive; comp. Jos_7:14; Jos_7:16 “according to your tribes,” “by their tribes.”—By would be a good rendering here.—לבית אבתם. This phrase, that occurs so frequently in what follows, has a grammatical peculiarity, or even oddity. בֵּית אָב expresses a single notion “father’s-house,” the plural of which is “fathers’-houses.” The Hebrew forms the plural by giving a plural ending to the second noun, much as in English it is common to say “the Miss Smiths.” On this and other examples, see Ewald, § 270, c.
Num_1:10. פדהצור. On the ח quiescent in the middle of the word see Green’s Gram., § 13 b. But some MSS. and editions read פְּדָה צוּר.
Num_1:16. קְרִיאֵי העדה “The K’ri needlessly suggests קִרוּאֵי conf. Num_16:2,” Maurer. They are designated “as called men of the congregation, because they were called to the diets of the congregation, as representatives of the tribes.” Keil.
Num_1:18. “וַיִּתְיַלְדוּ an expressive ἅπ. λεγ.,” Lange, “to announce themselves as born, i. e., to have themselves entered in genealogical registers” (Keil).
Num_1:22. “The לְ before בְנֵי, in this and the following verses, seems to mean the same as the German auf, to, used in counting.” Lange.
Num_1:47. התפקדו. On the הָ see Green Gr., § 96, a.—Tr.].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
I. 1–4. And the LORD spake.—The date of the divine command. See the Text. The purpose of the command to muster the people.—The whole congregation is to be a host of the King Jehovah, “a people in arms;” nevertheless human nature requires that the whole people be represented by the selection of its men able to bear arms. To which end every one who is twenty years old must enter upon military duty; no term is fixed at which military service should cease. The infirm, the women, the children, the unclean must be added to those few who were of course invalidated by age. But the Levites are not here made free from military duty; on the contrary, they form the ideal power of the army, in that it is their office to carry the tabernacle as the banner of Jehovah, as the Theocratic banner of victory. On account of its importance the time of their service is therefore fixed definitely, from twenty-five, relatively thirty, to fifty years. The natural organization of the people served as a basis for the muster; tribes, tribal-branches or clans, fathers’-houses, and finally their sum-total by individuals, all registered by name. Moses and Aaron were to attend to this business of the muster by having in every tribe a captain chosen from the same to act for them.
[In the wilderness of Sinai.—Exo_19:1-2, (comp. itinerary Num_33:15) shows the order of stations reached in the march to Sinai, to have been: Rephidim, the entrance into the wilderness of Sinai, and then the approach to the mountain. Lev_7:38 shows the proximity of the wilderness of Sinai to the mountain; Num_10:12 and Num_33:16, show that the wilderness of Sinai stretches as far as the wilderness of Paran. The Ordnance Survey Expedition to the Peninsula of Sinai in 1868–’69, has confirmed in great part the conclusions of Robinson and Stanley, and therefore of tradition. All the members of the expedition, save Mr. Holland, concluded that Rephidim is in the Wady Feiran at Hesy el Khattatin. Mr. Holland alone places it “at the narrow pass of El Watiyeh in Wady es Sheikh.” They were unanimous in deciding that the primary camping ground of the wilderness of Sinai was the great plain Er Raheh, and that Mount Sinai is Jebel Musa while the mountain from which the law was delivered, the one “which can be touched,” is a peak of Jebel Musa, Res Sufsafeh. In Er Raheh there would be ample room for the entire mass of the people when they gave audience to the law. “A calculation made by Capt. Palmer, from the actual measurements taken on the spot, proves that the space extending from the base of the mountain to the water-shed or crest of the plain, is large enough to have accommodated the entire host of the Israelites, estimated at two million souls, with an allowance of about a square yard for each individual.” (The Desert of the Exodus, Palmer, ch. vi.). “The plain itself is upward of two miles long, and half a mile broad, and slopes gradually down from the water-shed on the north to the foot of Ras Sufsafeh. About three hundred yards from the actual base of the mountain there runs across the plain a low, semicircular mound, which forms a kind of natural theatre, while farther distant on either side of the plain the slopes of the enclosing mountains would afford seats to an almost unlimited number of spectators.” (Recovery of Jerusalem, pp. 411, 412). There are good camping places in the neighboring glens, valleys and mountain sides, especially at the mouth of Wady Leja where there is “an extensive recess, about a mile and a half long by three-quarters of a mile broad” (ibid. p. 412). It is exceedingly well watered by four running streams, and there are innumerable fountains and wells. Comp. Robinson, Vol. 1, p. 95 sqq., 100–107, 119–122. Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, pp. 40–44, 73–76.
The Tabernacle of the congregation.—The A. V. renders it, the Tabernacle of congregation, as if the notion “to meet” underlying the word מועד must refer to the people, and thus the word itself mean the gathering of the people together. The proper signification is Tent of Meeting, as appears from Exo_29:42-43, which reads: “This shall be a continual burnt-offering throughout your generations at the door of the tent of meeting before the Lord; where I will meet you (אועד) to speak there unto thee. And there I will meet (נעדתי) with the children of Israel.” The same is suggested by Exo_30:36, and Num_17:19, (A. V., 4). Hither then the Lord summoned those whom He would meet, and to whom He would make special communications, and ordered, Num_10:3, that trumpets should be sounded to gather the people as well (נועדו) to the Tent of Meeting. Hence God not only comes down to meet His people, but they come up to meet Him. See Smith’s Bib. Dict., article Tabernacle.
On the first day of the second month, i.e., the month Ziph, which in the Talmud is called אייר, lyar. It corresponds with our April. Ziph = the month of “blossoms;” but see Smith’s Bib. Dict.
The following data given in the Book of Numbers, are here arranged in their chronological order, according to Keil and others. But see Lange on vii. 1.
(1) The gifts of the oxen and wagons by the princes; their gifts for the altar on the day of its anointing, continuing for twelve days, chap. 7, and the cloud covering the Tabernacle (Num_9:15) on the day of its erection; this date is given in Exo_40:17 : comp. Lev_8:10-11 :2 yr.,1 m.,1 day.(2) The celebration of the passover, Num_9:1-5 :2114(3) The order for the muster, Num_1:1 :221(4) Celebration of the Little Passover, Num_9:6-14 :2214(5) Departure from Sinai, Num_10:11 :2220The following points are noteworthy: In the period between the erection of the tabernacle and the order for the muster the following matters took place; The proclamation of the laws of sacrifice, for they were first enunciated in the tent of meeting, Lev_1:1; the consecration of Aaron’s sons in the day of the anointing of the Tabernacle, which took seven days; the first rites by the priesthood on the eighth day; the trespass by Nadab and Abihu; the remaining body of Levitical law; the princely gifts for moving the Tabernacle and for the dedication of the altar; the descent of the cloud upon the tabernacle; the order for the observance of the passover; its commemoration. This was in the time from one new moon (חדש) to the other.
In the period between the order for the muster and the departure from Sinai, the following events took place: The muster itself; the disposition of the camp, the body of law for its regulation; the celebration of the Little Passover; the census of the first-born and consecration of the Levites; all of which occurred in twenty days. A brisk and crowded season.
We observe further in this chronology that events which occurred at an earlier date are placed after the muster; the gifts by the princes and the passover really having preceded the muster. Why? Keil finds a reason in the desire not to interrupt the essential connection of Sinaitic law; and this opinion is of weight. In the legal books of the Trilogy, chronology is made secondary. As the idea of Leviticus was to give the body of Sacerdotal legislation, and such incidents as related to it, so the object of the Book of Numbers is to give the national organization, in all its theocratic features, and thus what is uppermost for the proper constitution of the immovable state, of course comes first.
Num_1:2. The sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel. On the three accounts of taking the census see above Introduction, § 7, a, c, and Smith’s Bib. Dict. art. Census. On the congregation see ibid. under the word. The data are wanting for a clear analysis of the subdivisions of the congregation represented by the following terms, families (משׁפחת), fathers’-houses (בית אבת). The latter is a subdivision of the former, while in Num_1:4 it appears as a subdivision of the tribe (מטה). The former is thus the grand subdivision of the tribe. This agrees with Num_10:4 (comp. Jos_22:14) where “the thousands” (אלפים) appear as equivalent to “the families” (משׁפחת), the latter designating them according to their social constitution, the former with respect to their proportion of men fit for war and liable to tax. See Introd., § 6.
Num_1:3. פָקַד means “to muster, marshal,” and has reference more to disposition or arrangement than numbering. See a discussion of the word in Bush in loc.—Tr.].
Num_1:5-19. Roll of the captains who were called to aid in numbering the tribes. We furnish their names and the names of their fathers also, with their conjectural significations, since the names of the Israelites attest the religious mind of the people. See above Introd., § 6. Upon the three qualifications of the chief men, (1) קְרִיאֵי הָעֵדָה, (2) נְשִׂיאֵי מַטּוֹת אֲבוֹתָם, (3) רָאשִׁים see above, Introd. § 6. “אֲלָפִים synonymous with מִשְׁפָּחוֹת ‘families’ (comp. Num_10:4; Jos_22:14, et al.), because the number of heads of families in the branches of a tribe amounted to at least a thousand” (Keil). Even if the thousands were in a greater or less degree independent of the number 1,000, yet it does not then follow that they should always coincide with the tribe-branches.
They were not passively pressed into service, but took it upon them voluntarily, like the volunteers of Deborah (Judges 21) and of the Messianic King (Psalms 110); and that was, so to speak, their new birth in the higher sense. [These princes were likely a selection from those of highest rank among the appointments made according to Exo_18:21-26, which occurred only a few months before this.—Tr.]
Num_1:20-47. Number of the fighting men in the tribes see above, Introd. § 6. They were mustered in representation of the supreme Commander himself; hence פִּקֻדִים.
Num_1:48-54. The prohibition against mustering the Levites and adding their number to the sum of the other tribes indicates no exemption from the military service, but an inherited calling to the discharge of the highest service of defence, the care of the headquarters (Num_1:53) and of the ensign of the army, the Tabernacle. Therefore, notwithstanding their being so numerous, they were to encamp around the sanctuary and prevent all who were not Levites from approaching on pain of death. All the other divisions of the army were to encamp by their special standards.
[The reason for the peculiar service of the Levites that the text gives is that in Num_1:51; Num_1:53. It ought thus to have precedence. The Levites were to guard the Tabernacle against the intrusion of the other Israelites. By the stranger (זָר), for whom it would be death to come nigh, is meant a non-Levite (Lev_22:10). The Levites were to guard against trespasses within that would be more ruinous than foes without.—Tr.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
On the whole book
The name Numbers gives no presentiment of the rich significance of this third book [of the Trilogy], unless one were to ascribe to the idea of number a Pythagorean notion, or, better still, one that belongs to Biblical philosophy of religion.
For, of course, the champions of Jehovah are numbered, as were the intimates or heroes of Odin, and as the latter were selected out to march forth with Odin to conflict at the end of time, so the former are chosen out, numbered and mustered so as to form an army of God, which is destined in a sacred campaign to make the conquest of the holy inheritance of God, Canaan, the promised land, for God’s people.
As significant individual types are to be noted especially the persons fit for war; for here, too, the proper estimate of personal life is the signature of true religion and of the kingdom of truth founded on it. But with the persons must be noted the most exact regard for their number, the typical numbering, as it is continued down to the Apocalypse (Revelation 7), not excepting the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles. Moreover, the characteristic diversities of nations, or even of churches and states in the kingdom of God, find their type in the organization of the army of God, the order of Israel’s encampment under its princes, the Sanctuary in the midst of the army as the mysterious headquarters of the heavenly sentinel, the Commander in Chief, and the distribution of labor among His servants. Furthermore an important element appears in keeping the camp of the army pure, in which connection is to be considered the restitution for trespass which is too much overlooked [Num_5:1-10]; also in contrast with this keeping pure, the higher consecration of the Lord’s volunteer heroes, the Nazarites [Num_6:1-21].
A particularly significant jewel is the Aaronic blessing [Num_6:22-27]. The invisible substance of Israel must, however, be visibly represented to the nation by a rich temple-treasure, assured by the cheerful offerings of its princes, demonstrated by a grand festive procession of the donors with their gifts [Num_7:1-89]. But in the midst of the Sanctuary the golden candlestick must illumine the night; the Levites, as watchmen and servants, must surround the centre of the camp [8]. That no defect or scruple may arise in regard to the holy communion and the right of all to it, the Little Passover is instituted [Num_9:1-14] as the same is also perpetuated in its counterparts in the divine service of the church. The pillar of cloud and fire over the Tabernacle is the sign of the promise that the Lord will never depart from His people [Num_9:15-23]. The army is completed by the instruments of sacred signals, the silver trumpets [Num_10:1-10]; their echoes are the sounds of bells, the peals of organs, Christian hymns, but also every righteous summons to the defence of our country.
[On Num_1:53. The meaning of Levite is “joined to, adhesion.” See Num_18:4. The location of the Levites in the camp was symbolical of this accepted relation by their being attached to Moses and Aaron and the sanctuary. In Isa_56:3; Isa_56:6-7 a participation in the priesthood of God’s people is promised to Gentiles, kindred to the relation of the Levites to the priests. See Naegelsbach in loc. and Bush on our ver.—Tr.]
HOMILETICAL HINTS
See General Homiletic Remarks in the vol. on Exodus, p. 167.
On chap. 1. The army of the Lord in particular. Its significance. Its destination. The mustering of the army.
On the whole book.
“The aim of the Holy Spirit in general is to show how God brought ever nearer to fulfilment His promises of inheriting the land of Canaan, spite of all the difficulties that stood in the way of it, and brought His people from Mt. Sinai to the borders of Canaan; also how they had God for their guide on the whole journey, which serves to prove that the religion of this people is the true religion.” Starke.
“The use to be derived from it is this: Whoever carefully and exactly considers all the historical circumstances will be led on every account to maintain a Christian walk in this journey through the world. The countless benefits that God showed His people in the wilderness assure us of the divine goodness, and comfort us in times of distress, and when we suffer want and often know not where to turn. The many rebellious conspiracies, murmurings, insurrections, etc., convince us of human depravity, and of man’s ingratitude toward his greatest Benefactor, and of the corruption of our hearts, which are presumptuous in fortune, and despondent in misfortune, and admonish us to take note of indwelling sin, that we may not become like Israel in sinning. God’s punishment of His perverse people represents to us His anger and justice, from which we ought to learn to be suitably afraid. The steadfastness, prudence, patience and meekness of Moses are a mirror into which we should diligently gaze, and pattern after his example in every thing that befalls us. In general we must not contemplate our life as different from the journey of the Israelites out of Egypt through the desert to the land of Canaan (1 Ch_30:15). The round-about ways that God leads us are wonderful; we must go through thick and thin, over mountains and through valleys, now a straight path, then a crooked (Psa_4:4). Our progress is marked by mournful monuments that we leave behind in our conscience, which reproaches us with a Meriba, where we strove with God and were not content with His guidance; the graves of lust, where we gave way to evil desires, etc. Still God provides us with manna, quails and water (Psalms 33; Isa_30:20). He gives us victory when enemies assail us, He bears us on the way we go (Deu_1:31). Jesus is the pillar of cloud and fire that abides with us, even when it is evening (Luk_24:29), unto the end of the world (Mat_28:20). The sacrament of holy Baptism is the cloud (1Co_10:2). The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is the manna, the food and drink of life. Whoever, then, would be a true Israelite, let him learn from this book to depart out of the Egypt of this world and of his sinful flesh, to disregard the Red Sea of dismay that Satan makes, furthermore to press through the wilderness of this world, where there is danger enough, and all looks dreadful, where Amalekites and Ammonites, where serpents and wild beasts make the passage hard, until at last he comes to the stern-flowing Jordan, and draws near the heavenly Canaan. Thus we may every way edify our life from this book, and sooth our sorrows and cares. And this, too, is God’s aim and object in the histories that are found here.” Starke.
[God’s particular providence over His people illustrated by the numbering. (1) It proved His faithfulness to His promise to Abraham and to Jacob (Gen_28:14). It was not left to be guessed at. (2) It was an intimation of how God meant to care for His people in the future, and meant that Moses and the inferior rulers should care for them. As the “Shepherd of Israel” (Psa_80:1), he would, like other shepherds, keep count of his flocks and deliver them by number to their under-shepherds, that they might know if any were missing. (3) It was in order to their being marshalled into several districts for the more easy administration of justice, and their more regular march through the desert. It is a rout and a rabble, not an army, that is not mustered and put in order. After M. Henry.
Leviticus precedes Numbers. The laws of offering to God precede the military organization and the march against enemies and to the conquest of Canaan. This is the ideal realization of the motto: “Be sure you’re right, then go ahead.” To be right, in the highest sense, is to be right with God. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” Rom_8:31. Let every one find time first for religion and reconciliation to God through the offering of Jesus Christ, before even preparing for the march and warfare of life. Let him do the same for every day.
On Num_1:47-54. The Levites exempted from military service. So with ministers. “If exempted from secular concerns, it is in order that they may be the more given up to the study and preaching of the word of God, and to prayer, which are the chief weapons of their warfare; for by these means they may endeavor to avert the wrath of God from the people. As Christians are separated from the world, so ministers should be still more detached from its pursuits and employments, and examples to the flock; ‘not,’ says M. Henry, ‘affecting to seem greater, but aiming to be really better, every way better, than others.’ ” Scott. The position and service of the Levites was according to the maxim: “Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.” Mat_20:27.—Tr.]
Footnotes:
[1]the Tent of Meeting.
[2]their fathers houses.
[3]mustered, muster.
[4]all who went forth to the army.
[5]hosts.
[6]are they that were called of.
[7]they had themselves inscribed in the birth-registers.
[8]comma.
[9]and.
[10]first-born.
[11]And the LORD spake.
[12]omit thou shalt.
[13]according to.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–2 1. The Lord — JEHOVAH. The ineffable name was…
1. The Lord — JEHOVAH. The ineffable name was translated into the Greek by the Seventy by the word Κυριος, Lord. Our English translators unwisely followed the Septuagint, and adopted the appellative Lord for the significant, chosen, proper name Jehovah, the one eternal and immutable Being. We notify the reader that this is the ground of our preference of Jehovah to Lord throughout this Commentary. (See notes on Exodus 3, 14, and Num_6:2.)
Spake — Either to the ear in audible words, as is strongly suggested in Exo_33:11, and Num_12:8; or by the urim and thummim, as in Exo_28:30; Num_27:21; or to the spiritual perception of Moses in such a manner as to give certainty to the communication. A consideration of the three places in which Jehovah spake to him and gave him audience inclines us to the theory of uttered words as the usual mode of communication. These three places were, 1.) The mercy-seat in the most holy place, the principal abode of the oracle. Num_7:89. We believe that it was from the mercy-seat between the cherubim that Moses was addressed in this chapter. 2.) At the door of the tabernacle, near the altar of burnt offering. Exo_29:42. 3.) Out of the cloudy pillar. Exo_33:9; Num_12:5-6; Psa_99:7.
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Moses — The reader of the three preceding books has already become too well acquainted with this great man to need an introduction. His character is above eulogy, his great deeds are too numerous for recital. He is the embodiment of the Old Testament as Jesus is of the New. “The law came by Moses, but grace and truth by Jesus Christ.” His agency in the religious instruction and spiritual elevation of mankind will have grateful mention in the anthems of the blood-washed throng in heaven, for they shall sing “the song of Moses and the Lamb.” See Exodus 2, Introductory, (3.)
Wilderness of Sinai — A wild and mountainous region in Arabia Petraea, between the two branching gulfs of the Red Sea. It is a heap of lofty granite rocks, with steep gorges and deep valleys, abounding in water and luxuriant vegetation in the rainy season. These valleys are then beautiful. The Israelites sojourned in that part of the desert which lies north of Mount Sinai.
“Long as the Desert of Sinai has been known to Christian pilgrims, yet it may almost be said never to have been explored before the beginning of this century. We are still at the threshold of our knowledge concerning it. The older travellers never troubled themselves to compare the general features of the desert with the indications of the sacred narrative, and therefore they missed the cardinal points of dispute. We are still, therefore, in the condition of discoverers; and if we are thus compelled to abstain from positive conclusions, it is a suspense which we need not be afraid to avow, and which in this instance is the less inconvenient, because the very uniformity of nature by which it is occasioned, also enables us to form an image of the general scenes, even where the particular scene is unknown; and many will feel at a distance what many, I doubt not, have felt on the spot, that in speaking of such sacred events, uncertainty is the best safeguard for reverence, and suspense, as to the exact details of form and locality, is the most fitting approach for the consideration of the presence of Him who made darkness his secret place, his pavilion round about him, with dark water and thick ‘clouds to cover them.’” STANLEY’S Sinai and Palestine.
Tabernacle of the congregation — Literally, the tent of appointment, or stated meeting, (with Jehovah.) The Septuagint calls it “the tent of witness,” and the Vulgate “the tent of the covenant.” The book of the Law, the witness of the covenant, was kept here. The tabernacle had been standing one month. Exo_40:17. To distinguish it from the more temporary tent, the dwelling of Moses during the first year of the Exodus — the ante-Sinaitic tabernacle — this second structure is called the Sinaitic tabernacle. It was constructed by Bezaleel and Aholiab after the model shown to Moses on the mount. Exo_26:30. It was a portable mansion-house and temple, the miniature of the great temple of Solomon. Its position was significant and commanding. On the east, between it and the camp under the lead of Judah, were the tents of the priests; southward, between it and the camp of Reuben, were the Kohathites placed; on the west, between it and the camp of Ephraim, the Gershonites had their abodes; and on the north, between it and the camp of Dan, was the station of the Merarites. In proportion to the wealth of the people, it was more costly and magnificent than the world-renowned edifice at Jerusalem. For a minute description see Exodus 36-38.
Second month — This gives a clew to the period of time occupied by the events narrated in Leviticus, namely, one month, during the encampment at Mount Sinai.
GENEALOGICAL ENROLMENT AND MUSTER OF THE ADULT MALES, Num_1:1-46.
At the close of the third book of Moses the temple in the wilderness — the tabernacle — had been erected, the law of sacrifices instituted, the Aaronic priesthood inducted into their sacred office, and rules for holiness of life, and for the isolation of Israel from the Gentile world, had been ordained.
At the opening of the present book the tabernacle has been standing one month. The purpose of the Sinaitic sojourn has now been accomplished, and the vast host must begin their eastward and northward march toward the Land of Promise. From childhood they had been taught to turn their eyes from the banks of the Nile towards the hills of Canaan, where Abraham, their national father, was buried. Thither had their ancestors borne, in princely procession, the embalmed body of the patriarch Jacob to find a resting place, and to that land of the covenant were the Hebrews now bearing the mortal part of Joseph, the benefactor of his father’s family. But mighty foes are intrenched in that land, and other strong enemies will stand in their path to bar their entrance. Even the desert swarms with foes. War is imminent. Bloody battle fields must be trodden before they can sit down in houses which they have not builded, and pluck the fruit of olive yards which they have not planted. Out of the crowd of fugitives hastening from the yoke of Egypt there must emerge a compact military organization; for though Jehovah, the God of battles, the Man of war, is leading them to victory, he purposes to employ human allies, and he wishes to put them into the condition of the highest efficiency. For the military organization a census must be taken. The census in this chapter is not an enumeration de novo, but rather a muster on the basis of numerical and genealogical data already in the possession of the tribes. This is shown by the accordance of the number who have paid the atonement money with the total number enrolled in this chapter as fighting men.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–2 1. the tent of meeting] Heb. ’ôhel mô‘çd. A.V.…
1. the tent of meeting] Heb. ’ôhel mô‘çd. A.V. ‘tabernacle of the congregation’ confuses mô‘çd with ‘çdah. LXX. σκηνὴ τοῦ μαρτυρίου (‘tent of witness’) confuses mô‘çd with ‘çdûth. The name ‘tent of meeting’ is a term very frequently employed in P for the Tabernacle (cf. Num_3:7 f., Num_4:2 f., Exo_27:21, Lev_1:1; Lev_1:3). Exo_29:42 (P ) shews the meaning which attached to it—‘where I will meet with you to speak there unto thee’; it was understood to mean ‘the tent where Jehovah met His people by appointment,’ the ‘tent of tryst.’ But the name was also used in earlier times for the sacred tent, which in Exo_33:7-11 (E ) is pictured as an ordinary nomad tent which Moses could himself carry and pitch outside the camp. And it seems probable that in the primitive days of which E preserves a record a somewhat different meaning attached to the name. See note on Num_12:4.
1–16. Moses is directed to number the fighting men of Israel with the help of twelve princes.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–2 (1) In the tabernacle of the congregation.—The tabernacle of…
(1) In the tabernacle of the congregation.—The tabernacle of the congregation, or tent of meeting, so called because it was there that God met with Moses (Num_17:4; Exo_25:22), had been set up one month previously (Exo_40:17), nearly a year after the exodus.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain On v1 Numbers 1 - 2
Numbers 1 - 2
We now enter upon the study of the fourth grand division of the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses; and we shall find the leading characteristic of this book quite as strongly marked as that of any of the three books which have already engaged our attention. In the Book of Genesis, after the record of creation, the deluge, and the Babel dispersion, we have God’s election of the seed of Abraham. In the book of Exodus, we have redemption. Leviticus gives us priestly worship and communion. In Numbers we have the walk and warfare of the wilderness. Such are the prominent subjects of these most precious sections of inspiration, while, as might be expected, many other points of deepest interest are collaterally introduced. the Lord, in His great mercy, has led us through the study of Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus; and we can reckon on Him, with confidence, to conduct as through the Book of Numbers. May His Spirit lead the thoughts, and guide the pen, so that not a sentence may be committed to writing that is not in strict accordance with His holy mind! May every page and every paragraph bear the stamp of His approval, and be, at once, conducive to His glory, and the permanent profit of the reader!
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"And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls; From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel; thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies." Num. 1: 1-3.
Here we find ourselves, at once, "in the wilderness, where those only are to be taken account of who are "able to go forth to war." This is strongly marked. In the book of Genesis the seed of Israel were in the loins of their father Abraham. In the Book of Exodus they were in the brick-kilns of Egypt. In Leviticus they were gathered round the tabernacle of the congregation. In Numbers they are seen in the wilderness. Then, again, in full keeping with the above, and in confirmation thereof, in Genesis we hearken to the call of God in election; in Exodus we gaze upon the blood of the Lamb in redemption; in Leviticus we are almost entirely occupied with the worship, and service of the sanctuary. But no sooner have we opened the book of Numbers than we read of men of war, of armies, of standards, of camps, and trumpets sounding alarm.
All this is highly characteristic, and marks off the book on which we are now entering as one of special interest, value, and importance to the Christian. Each book of the Bible, each section of the inspired canon, has its own distinct place and object. Each has its own niche assigned to it by its divine Author. We must not entertain, for a moment, the thought of instituting any comparison in point of intrinsic value, interest, and importance. all is divine, and therefore perfect. The Christian reader fully and heartily believes this. He reverently sets his seal to the truth of the plenary inspiration of holy scripture - of all scripture, and of the Pentateuch amongst the rest; nor is he to be moved, one hairs breadth, from this by the bold and impious attacks of infidels, ancient, medieval, or modern. Infidels and rationalists may traffic in their unhallowed reasonings. They may exhibit their enmity against the book and its author; but the pious "Christian rests, not withstanding all, in the simple and happy belief that "All scripture is given by inspiration God."
But while we must utterly reject the idea of any comparison as to authority and value, we may, with, much profit, compare the contents, design, and scope of the various books of the Bible. And the more profoundly we meditate upon these, the more forcibly shall we be struck with the exquisite beauty, infinite wisdom, and wonderful precision of the volume a whole, and of each distinct division the thereof. The inspired writer never swerves from the direct object of the book, whatever that object may be. You will never find anything in any one book of the Bible which is not in the most perfect harmony with the main design of that book;. To prove and illustrate this statement would lead us through the entire canon of holy scripture, and hence we shall not attempt it. The intelligent Christian does not need the proof, however much he might be interested in the illustration. He takes his stand upon the great fact that the book, as a whole, and in all its parts, is from God; and His heart reposes in the conclusion, that in that whole, and in each of those parts, there is not a jot or a tittle which is not in every way worthy of the divine Author.
Hear the following words from the pen of one who expresses himself as "deeply convinced of the divine inspiration of the scriptures, given to us of God, and confirmed in this conviction by daily and growing discoveries of their fullness, depth, and perfectness, ever more sensible, through grace, of the admirable perfection of the parts, and the wonderful connection of the whole." "The scriptures," says this writer, "have a living source, and living power has pervaded their composition: hence their infiniteness of bearing, and the impossibility of separating any one part from the whole, because one God is the living centre from which all flows; one Christ the living centre round which all its truth circles, and to which it refers, though in various glory; and one Spirit the divine sap which carries its power from its source in God to the minutest branches of the all-uniting truth, testifying of the glory, the grace, and the truth of Him whom God sets forth as the object, and centre, and head of all that is in connection with Himself, of Him who is, withal, God over all, blessed for evermore. .....The more - beginning from the utmost leaves and branches of this revelation of the mind of God, by which we have been reached when far from Him - we have traced it up towards its centre, and thence looked down again towards its extent and diversity, the more we learn its infiniteness, and our own feebleness of apprehension. We learn, blessed be God, this, that the love which is its source is found in unmingled perfectness and fullest display of those manifestations of it which have reached us even in our ruined state. The same perfect God of love is in it all. But the unfoldings of divine wisdom in the counsels in which God has displayed Himself remain ever to us a subject of research, in which every new discovery, by increasing our spiritual intelligence, makes the infiniteness of the whole, and the way in which it surpasses all our thoughts, only more and more clear to us."
It is truly refreshing to transcribe such lines from the pen of one who has been a profound student of scripture for forty years. They are of unspeakable value, of a moment when so many are ready to cast a slight upon the sacred volume. Not that we are, in any wise, dependent upon human testimony in forming our conclusions as to the divine origin of the Bible, inasmuch as these conclusions rest upon a foundation furnished by the Bible itself. God’s word, as well as His work, speaks for itself; it carries its own credentials with it; it speaks to the heart; it reaches down to the great moral roots of our being; it penetrates the very innermost chambers of the soul; it shows us what we are; it speaks to us as no other book can speak; and, as the woman of Sychar argued that Jesus must be the Christ because He told her all things that ever she did, so may we say in reference to the Bible, It tells us all that ever we did, is not this the word of God? No doubt it is only by the Spirit’s teaching that we can discern and appreciate the evidence and credentials with which holy scripture presents itself before us; but still it does speak for itself, and needs not human testimony to make it of value to the soul. We should no more think of having our faith in the Bible established upon man’s testimony in its favour than we should think of having it shaken by his testimony against it.
It is of the very last possible importance, at all times, but more especially at a moment like the present, to have the heart and mind established in the sound truth of the divine authority of holy scripture - its plenary inspiration - its all-sufficiency for all purposes, for all people, at all times. There are two hostile influences abroad, namely, infidelity, on the one hand, and superstition, on the other. The former denies that God has spoken to us in His word. The latter admits that He has spoken, but it denies that we can understand what He says, save by the interpretation of the Church.
Now, while there are very many who recoil with horror from the impiety and audacity of infidelity, they do not see that superstition, just as completely, deprives them of the scriptures. For wherein, let us ask, lies the difference between denying that God has spoken, and denying that we can understand what He says? In either case: are we not deprived of the word of God? Unquestionably. If God cannot make me understand what He says - if He cannot give me the assurance that it is He Himself who speaks, I am, in no wise, better off than if He had not spoken at all. If God’s word is not sufficient, without human interpretation, then it cannot be God’s word at all. That which is insufficient is not God’s word. We must admit either of two things, namely, that God has not spoken at all, or if He has spoken, His word is perfect. There is no neutral ground in reference to this question. Has God given us a revelation? Infidelity says, "No." superstition says, "Yes, but you cannot understand it without human authority." Thus are we, in the one case as well as in the other, deprived of the priceless treasure of God’s own precious word; and thus, too, infidelity and superstition, though apparently so unlike, meet in the one point of depriving us of a divine revelation. But, blessed be God, He has given us a revelation. He has spoken, and His word is able to teach the heart and the understanding also. God is able to give the certainty that it is He who speaks, and we do not want any human authority to intervene. We do not want a poor rush-light to enable us to see that the sun is shining. The beams of that glorious Luminary are quite enough without any such miserable addition. All we want is to stand in the sunshine and we shall be convinced that the sun shines. If we retire into a vault or into a tunnel, we shall not feel his influence; and just so is it with regard to scripture, if we place ourselves beneath the chilling and darkening influences of superstition or infidelity, we shall not experience the genial and enlightening power of that divine revelation.
Having said thus much as to the divine volume as a whole, we shall now proceed to consider the contents of the section which lies open before us. In Numbers 1 we have the declaration of the pedigree;" and in Numbers 2, the recognition of the "standard." "And Moses and Aaron took these men which are expressed by their names: and they assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month, and they declared their pedigrees after their families, by the house of their fathers; according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, by their polls. as the Lord commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai." Num. 1: 17-19.
Has this any voice for us? Does it convey any great spiritual lesson to our understanding? assuredly it does. In the first place, it suggests this important question to the reader, "Can I declare my pedigree?" It is greatly to be feared there are hundreds, if not thousands, of professing Christians who are wholly incompetent to do so. They cannot say with clearness and decision, "Now are we the sons of God." (1 John 3: 2) "We are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." " And if ye are Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Gal. 3: 26, 29) " For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.....The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the sons of God." Rom. 8: 14, 16.
This is the Christian’s "pedigree," and it is his privilege to be able to "declare" it. He is born from above - born again - born of water and the spirit, i.e., by the word and by the Holy Ghost. (Compare, diligently, John 3: 5; James 1: 18; 1 Peter 1: 23; Eph. 5: 26) The believer traces his pedigree directly up to a risen Christ in glory. This is Christian genealogy. So far as our natural pedigree is concerned, if we trace it up to its source, and then declare it honestly, we must see and admit that we are sprung from a ruined stock. Ours is a fallen family. Our fortunes are gone; our very blood attainted; we are irrecoverably ruined; we can never regain our original position; our former status and the inheritance which belonged to it are irretrievably lost. A man may be able to trace his genealogical line throughout a race Of nobles, of princes, or of kings; but is he is finally to "declare his pedigree," he cannot stop short of a fallen, ruined, outcast head. We must get to the source of a thing to know what it really is. It is thus God looks at and judges of things, and we must think with Him if we would think aright. His judgement of men and things must be dominant for ever. Man’s judgement is only ephemeral, it lasts but for a day; and hence, according to faith’s estimate, the estimate of sound sense, "It is a small thing to be judged of man’s day." (1 Cor. 4: 3) Oh! how small! Would that we felt more deeply how small a thing it is to be judged of man’s judgement, or, as the margin reads it, of man’s day! Would that we walked, habitually, in the real sense of the smallness thereof! It would impart a calm elevation and a holy dignity which would lift us above the influence of the scene through which we are passing. what is rank in this life? What importance can attach to a pedigree which, if honestly traced, and faithfully declared, is derived from a ruined stock? A man can only be proud of his birth when he stops short of his real Origin: as born in sin and shapen in iniquity." Such is man’s origin - such his birth. Who can think of being proud of such a birth, of such an origin? Who but one whose mind the god of this world hath blinded?
But how different with the Christian! His pedigree is heavenly. His "genealogical tree strikes its roots into the soil of the new creation. Death can never break the line, inasmuch as it is formed in resurrection. We cannot be too simple as to this. It is of the utmost importance that the reader should be thoroughly clear on this foundation point. We can easily see from this first chapter of Numbers, how, essential it was that every member of the congregation of Israel should be able to declare his pedigree Uncertainty, on this point, would have proved disastrous; it would have produced hopeless confusion. We can hardly imagine an Israelite, when called to declare his pedigree, expressing himself in the doubtful manner adopted by many Christians now-a-days. We cannot conceive his saying, well, I am not quite sure. Sometimes I cherish the hope that I am of the stock of Israel, but at other times, I am full of fear that I do not belong to the congregation Of the Lord at all. I am all in uncertainty and darkness. Can we conceive of such language. Assuredly not. Much less could we imagine anyone maintaining the monstrous notion that no one could possibly be sure as to whether he was a true Israelite or not until the day of judgement.
All such ideas and reasonings - all such doubts, fears, and questions, we may rest assured, were foreign to the mind of the Israelite. Every member of the congregation was called to declare his pedigree, ere taking his place in the ranks as a man of war. Each one was able to say, like Saul of Tarsus, "Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel," &c. All was settled and clear, and necessarily so if there was to be any real entrance upon the walk and warfare of the wilderness.
Now, may we not legitimately ask, "If a Jew could be certain as to his pedigree, why may not a Christian be certain as to his? Reader, weigh this question, and if you are one of that large class of persons who are never able to arrive at the blessed certainty of their heavenly lineage, their spiritual birth, pause, we beseech you, and let us reason with you on this momentous point. It may be you are disposed to ask, "How can I be sure that I am, really and truly, a child of God, a member of Christ, born of the word and Spirit of God? I would give worlds, were they mine, to be certain as to this most weighty question."
Well, then, we would earnestly desire to help you in this matter. Indeed one special object before us in penning these "Notes" is to assist anxious souls, by answering, as the Lord may enable us, their questions, solving their difficulties, and removing the stumbling-blocks out of their way.
And, first of all, let as point out one special feature which belongs to all the children of God, without exception. It is a very simple, but a very blessed feature. If we do not possess it, in some degree, it is most certain we are not of the heavenly race; but if we do possess it, it is just as certain that we are, and we may, therefore, without any difficulty or reserve, "declare our pedigree." now what is this feature? What is this great family characteristic? Our Lord Jesus Christ supplies the answer. He tells as that "Wisdom is justified of all her children." (Luke 7: 35; Matt. 11: 19) all the children of Wisdom, from the days of Abel down to the present moment, have been marked by this great family trait. There is not so much as a single exception. All God’s children - all the sons of Wisdom have always exhibited, in some degree, this moral feature - they have justified God. Let the reader consider this. It may be he finds it hard to understand what is meant by justifying God; but a passage or two of holy scripture will, we trust, make it quite plain. We read in Luke 7 that "all the people that heard Jesus, and the publicans, justified God, being baptised with the baptism of John. But, the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptised of him." (ver. 29, 30) Here we have the two generations brought, as it were, face to face. The publicans justified God and condemned themselves. The Pharisees justified themselves and judged God. The former submitted to the baptism of John - the baptism of repentance. The latter refused that baptism - refused to repent - refused to humble and to judge themselves.
Here we have the two great classes into which the whole human family has been divided, from the days of Abel and Cain down to the present day; and here, too, we have the simplest possible test by which to try our "pedigree." Have we taken the place of self-condemnation? Have we bowed in true repentance before God? This is to justify God. The two things go together - yea, they are one and the same. The man who condemns himself justifies God; and the man who justifies God condemns himself. On the other hand, the man who justifies himself judges God; and the man who judges God justifies himself.
Thus it stands in every case. And be it observed that the very moment we take the ground of repentance and self judgement, God takes the ground of a Justifier. God always justifies those who condemn themselves. All His children justify Him, and He justifies all His children. The moment David said, "I have sinned against the Lord," the answer was, "the Lord hath put away thy sin." Divine forgiveness follows, with the most intense rapidity, human confession.
Hence it follows that nothing can be more foolish than for any one to justify himself, inasmuch as God must be justified in His sayings, and overcome when He is judged. (Comp. Psalm 51: 4; Rom. 3: 4) God must have the upper hand in the end, and then all self justification shall be seen in its true light. The wisest thing therefore is to condemn ourselves. This is what all the children of wisdom do. Nothing is more characteristic of the true members of wisdom’s family then the habit and spirit of self-judgement. Whereas, on the other hand, nothing so marks all those who are not of this family as a spirit of self-vindication.
These things are worthy of our most earnest attention. Nature will blame anything and everything, any one and every one but itself. But where grace is at work, there is ever a readiness to judge self, and take the lowly place. This is the true secret of blessing and peace. All God’s children have stood on this blessed ground, exhibited this lovely moral trait, and reached this grand result. we cannot find so much as a single exception in the entire history of Wisdom’s happy family; and we may safely say, that if the reader has been led, in truth and reality, to own himself lost - to condemn himself - to take the place of true repentance-then is he, in very deed, one of the children of Wisdom, and he may therefore, with boldness and decision, "declare his pedigree."
We would urge this point at the outset. It is impossible for any one to recognise and rally round the proper "standard" unless he can declare his "pedigree." In short, it is impossible to take up a true position in the wilderness so long as there is any uncertainty as to this great question. How could an Israelite of old have taken his place in the assembly - how could he have stood in the ranks - how could he expect to make any progress through the wilderness, if he could not distinctly declare his pedigree? Impossible. Just so is it with Christians now. Progress in wilderness life - success in spiritual warfare, is out of the question if there be any uncertainty as to the spiritual pedigree. We must be able to say, "we know that we have passed from death unto life" - "We know that we are of God" - "We believe and are sure, ere there can be any real advance in the life and walk of a Christian.
Reader, say, can you declare your pedigree? Is this a thoroughly settled point with you? Are you clear as to this in the very depths of your soul? When you are all alone with God, is it a perfectly settled question between you and Him? Search and see. Make sure work of it. Do not slur the matter over. Build not upon mere profession. Say not "I am a member of such a church; I receive the Lord’s supper; I hold such and such doctrines; I have been religiously brought up I live a moral life; I have done nobody any harm; I read the Bible and say my prayers; I have family worship in my house; I give largely in the cause of philanthropy and religion." All this may be perfectly true of you, and yet you may not have a single pulse of divine life, a single ray of divine light. Not one of these things, not all of them put together, could be accepted as a declaration of spiritual pedigree. There must be the witness of the spirit that you are a child of God, and this witness always accompanies simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. "He that believeth in the Son of God hath the witness in himself." (1 John 5: 10) It is not, by any means, a question of looking into your own heart for evidences. It is not a building upon frames, feelings, and experiences. Nothing of the sort. It is a childlike faith in Christ. It is having eternal life in the Son of God. It is the imperishable record of the Holy Ghost. It is taking God at His word. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgement (krisin), but is passed from death unto life." John 5: 24.
This is the true way to declare your pedigree; and be assured of it, you must be able to declare it ere you can "go forth to war." We do not mean to say you cannot be saved without this. God forbid we should say any such thing. We believe there are hundreds of the true Spiritual Israel who are not able to declare their pedigree. But we ask, Are such able to go forth to war? Are they vigorous military men? Far from it. They cannot even know what true conflict is; on the contrary, persons of this class mistake their doubts and fears, their dark and cloudy seasons , for true Christian conflict This is a most serious mistake; but alas! a very common one. We continually find a, low, dark, legal condition of soul defended on the ground of Christian conflict, whereas, according to the New Testament, true Christian conflict or warfare is carried on in a region were doubts and fears are unknown. It is when we stand in the clear daylight of God’s full salvation-salvation in a risen Christ - that we really enter upon the warfare proper to us as Christians. Are we to suppose, for a moment, that our legal struggles, our culpable unbelief, our refusal to submit to the righteousness of God, our questionings and reasonings, can be viewed as Christian conflict? By no means. All these things must be regarded as conflict with God; whereas Christian conflict is carried on with Satan. "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in high places." Eph. 6: 12.
This is Christian conflict. But can such conflict be waged by those who are continually doubting whether they are Christians or not? We do not believe it. Could we imagine an Israelite in conflict with Amalek in the wilderness, or with the Canaanites in the land of promise, while yet unable to "declare his pedigree" or recognise his "standard?" The thing is inconceivable. No, no; every member of the congregation, who was able to go forth to war was perfectly clear and settled as to those two points. Indeed he could not go forth if he were not so.
And, while on the important subject of Christian conflict, it may be well to call the reader’s attention to the three portions of New Testament scripture in which we have three distinct characters of conflict presented, namely, Romans 7: 7-24; Galatians v. 17; Ephesians 6: 10-17. If the reader will just turn, for a moment, to the above scriptures, we shall seek to point out the true character of each.
In Romans 7: 7-24 we have the struggle of a soul quickened but not emancipated - a regenerated soul under the law. The proof that we have before us, here, a quickened soul is found in such utterances as these, "That which I do, I allow not" - "to will is present with me" - "I delight in the law of God after the inward man." None but a regenerated soul could speak thus. The disallowance of the wrong, the will to do right, the inward delight in the law of God - all these are the distinct marks of the new life - the precious fruits of regeneration. No unconverted person could truthfully use such language
But, on the other hand, the proofs that we have before us, in this scripture, a soul not fully emancipated, not in the joy of known deliverance, not in the full consciousness of victory, not in the assured possession of spiritual power - the plain proofs of all this we have in such utterances as the following, "I am carnal, sold under sin" - "what I would that do I not; but what I hate that do I" - "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me?" Now, we know that a Christian is not "carnal," but spiritual; he is not "sold under sin," but redeemed from its power; he is not a "wretched man" sighing for deliverance, but a happy man who knows himself delivered. He is not an impotent slave, unable to do the right thing, and ever compelled to do the wrong; he is a free man! endowed with power in the Holy Ghost, and able to say, "I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me." Philippians 4.
We cannot here attempt to enter upon a full exposition of this most important scripture; we merely offer a suggestion or two which may help the reader to seize its scope and import. We are fully aware that many Christians differ widely as to the interpretation of this chapter. Some deny that it presents the exercises of a quickened soul; others maintain that it sets forth the experiences proper to a Christian. We cannot accept either conclusion. We believe it exhibits to our view the exercises of a truly regenerated soul, but of a soul not set free by the knowledge of its union with a risen Christ, and the power of the Holy Ghost. Hundreds of Christians are actually in the seventh of Romans but their proper place is in the eighth. They are, as to their experience, under the law. They do not know themselves as sealed by the Holy Ghost. They are not in possession of full victory in a risen and glorified Christ. They have doubts and fears, and are ever disposed to cry out "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver we? But is not a Christian delivered? Is he not saved? Is he not accepted in the Beloved? Is he not sealed by that Holy Spirit of promise? Is he not united to Christ? Ought he not to know and enjoy, and to confess all this? Unquestionably. Well then he is no longer, as to his standing, in the seventh of Romans. It is his privilege to sing the song of victory at heaven’s side of the empty tomb of Jesus, and to walk in the holy liberty wherewith Christ makes His people free. The seventh of Romans is not liberty at all, but bondage, except indeed at the very close, where the soul is able to say, "I thank God." No doubt, it may be a very wholesome exercise to pass through all that is here detailed for us with such marvellous vividness and power; and, furthermore, we must declare that we should vastly prefer being honestly in the seventh of Romans to being falsely in the eighth. But all this leaves wholly untouched the question as to the proper application of this profoundly interesting passage of scripture.
We shall now glance, for a moment, at the conflict in Galatians 5: 17 we shall quote the passage. "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.* This passage is often quoted to account for continual defeat, whereas it really contains the secret of perpetual victory. In verse 16 we read, "This I say, then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." This makes it all so clear. The presence of the Holy Ghost secures power. We are assured that God is stronger than the flesh, and therefore, where He is in conflict the triumph is secured. And be it carefully noted that Galatians 5: 17 does not speak of the conflict between the Two natures, the old and the new, but between the Holy Ghost and the flesh. This is the reason why it is added, "In order that ye may not do the things that ye would." If the Holy Ghost were not dwelling in us, we should be sure to fulfil the lust of the flesh; but, inasmuch as He is in us to carry on the warfare, we are no longer obliged to do wrong, but blessedly enabled to do right.
{*We ought, perhaps, to inform the reader that many able scholars render the last clause of Galatians 5: 17 thus, "In order that we may not do the things that we would." We assuredly believe this rendering.. to be in full keeping with the spirit of the context; though we are, each day, more convinced of the unrivalled excellence of our precious English Bible.}
Now this precisely marks the point of difference between Romans 7: 14, 15 and Galatians 5.17. In the former we have the new nature, but not the power of the indwelling Spirit. In the latter, we have not only the new nature, but also the power of the Holy Ghost. we must ever bear in mind that the new nature in a believer is dependent. It is dependent upon the Spirit for power, and upon the word for guidance. But, clearly, where God The Holy Ghost is, there must be power. He may be grieved and hindered; but Galatians 5: 16 distinctly teaches that if we walk in the Spirit, we shall have sure and constant victory over the flesh. Hence, therefore, it would be a very serious mistake indeed to quote Galatians 5: 17 as a reason for a low and carnal walk. Its teaching is designed to produce the direct opposite.
And now one word on Ephesians 6: 10-17. where we have the conflict between the Christian and wicked spirits in heavenly places. The Church belongs to heaven, and should ever maintain a heavenly walk and conversation. It should be our constant aim to make good our heavenly standing - to plant the foot firmly upon our heavenly inheritance, and keep it there. This the devil seeks to hinder, in every possible way, and hence the conflict; hence too "the whole armour of God," by which alone we can stand against our powerful spiritual foe.
It is not our purpose to dwell upon the armour, as we here merely called the reader’s attention to the above three scriptures in order that he may have the subject of conflict, in all its phases, fully before his mind, in connection with the opening lines of the Book of Numbers. Nothing can be more interesting; nor can we possibly over estimate the importance of being clear as to the real nature and ground of Christian conflict. If we go forth to war without knowing what the war is about, and in a state of uncertainty as to whether our "pedigree" is all right, we Shall not make much headway against the enemy,
But, as has been already remarked, there was another thing quite as necessary for the man of war as the clear declaration of his pedigree, and that was the distinct recognition of his standard. The two things were essential for the walk and warfare of the wilderness. Moreover, they were inseparable. If a man did not know his pedigree, he could not recognise his standard, and thus all would have been plunged in hopeless confusion. In place of keeping rank, and making steady progress, they would have been in each other’s way, and treading one upon another. Each had to know his post and keep it - to know his standard and abide by it. Thus they moved on together; thus progress was made, work done. and warfare carried on. The Benjaminite had his post, and the Ephraimite had his, and neither was to interfere with, or cross the path of, the other. Thus with all the tribes, throughout the camp of the Israel of God. Each had his pedigree, and each had his post; and neither the one nor the other was according to their own thoughts; all was of God. He gave the pedigree, and He assigned the standard. Nor was there any need of comparing one with another, or any ground of jealousy one of another; each had his place to fill, and his work to do, and there was work enough and room enough for all. There was the greatest possible variety, and yet the most perfect unity. "Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard, with the ensign of their father’s house." "and the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses: so they pitched by their standards, and so they set forward, every one after their families, according to the house of their fathers." (Num. 2: 2, 34)
Thus, in the camp of old, as well as in the Church now, we learn that "God is not the author of confusion." Nothing could be more exquisitely arranged than the four camps, of three tribes each, forming a perfect square, each side of the square exhibiting its own specific standard. "Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard, with the ensign of their father’s house: over against the tabernacle of the congregation shall they pitch." The God of the armies of Israel knew how to marshal His hosts. It would be a great mistake to suppose that God’s warriors were not ordered according to the most perfect system of military tactics. We may plume ourselves upon our progress in arts and sciences, and we may fancy that the host of Israel presented a spectacle of rude disorder and wild confusion, compared with what may be seen in modern times. But this would be an empty conceit. We may rest assured that the camp of Israel was ordered and furnished in the most perfect manner, for the simplest and most conclusive of all reasons, namely, that it was ordered and furnished by the hand of God. Grant us but this, that God has done anything, and we argue, with the most perfect confidence, that it has been perfectly done.
This in a very simple, but a very blessed principle. Of course it would not satisfy an infidel or a sceptic; what would? It is the province and prerogative of a sceptic to doubt everything, to believe nothing. He measures everything by his own standard, and rejects whatever he cannot reconcile with his own notions. He lays down, with marvellous coolness, his own premises, and then proceeds to draw his own conclusions. But if the premises are false, the conclusions must be false likewise. And there is this invariable feature attaching to the premises of all sceptics, rationalists, and infidels, they always leave out God; and hence all their conclusion’s must be fatally false. On the other hand, the humble believer starts with this great first principle, that God Is; and not only that He is, but that He has to do with His creatures; that He interests Himself in, and occupies Himself about, the affairs of men.
What consolation for the Christian! But infidelity will not allow this at all. To bring God in is to upset all the reasonings of the sceptic, for they are based upon the thorough exclusion of God.
However, we are not now writing in order to meet infidels, but the edification of believers, and it is sometimes well to call attention to the thorough rottenness of the whole system of infidelity; and surely in no way can this be more clearly or forcibly shown than by the fact that it rests entirely upon the exclusion of God. Let this fact be seized, and the whole system crumbles into dust at our feet. If we believe that God is, then, assuredly, everything must be wicked in relation to Him. We must look at all from His point of view. Nor is this all. If we believe that God is, then we must see that man cannot judge Him. God must be the judge of right or wrong, of what is and what is not worthy of Himself. So also in reference to God’s word. If it be true that God is, and that He has spoken to us, He has given us a revelation, then, assuredly, that revelation is not to be judged by man’s reason. It is above and beyond any such tribunal. Only think of measuring God’s word by the rules of human arithmetic! and yet this is precisely what has been done in our own day, with this blessed Book of Numbers with which we are now engaged, and with which we shall proceed, leaving infidelity and its arithmetic aside.
We feel it very needful, in our notes and reflections on this book, as well as on every other book, to remember two things, namely, first, the book; and secondly, the soul: the book and its contents the soul and its necessities. There is a danger of becoming so occupied with the former as to forget the latter. And, on the other hand, there is the danger of becoming so wholly engrossed with the latter as to forget the former. Both must be attended to. And we may say that what constitutes an efficient ministry, whether written or oral, is the proper adjustment of these two things. There are some ministers who study the word very diligently, and, it may be, very profoundly. They are well versed in biblical knowledge; they have drunk; deeply at the fountain of inspiration. All this is of the utmost importance, and of the very highest value. A ministry without this will be barren indeed. If a man does not study his Bible diligently and prayerfully, he will have little to give to his readers or his hearers; at least little worth their having. Those who minister in the word must dig for themselves, and "dig deep."
But then the soul must be considered - its condition anticipated, and its necessities met. If this be lost sight of, the ministry will lack point, pungency, and power. It will be inefficient and unfruitful. In short, the two things must be combined and properly adjusted. A man who merely studies the book will be unpractical, a man who merely studies the soul will be unfurnished. A man who duly studies both will be a good minister of Jesus Christ.
Now, we desire, in our measure, to be this to the reader; and hence as we travel, in his company, through the marvellous book which lies open before us, we would not only seek to point out its moral beauties, and unfold its holy lessons, but we would also feel it to be our bounden duty to put an occasional question to him or her, as to how far those lessons are being learnt, and those beauties appreciated. We trust the reader will not object to this, and hence, ere we close this our first section, we would ask him a question or two thereon.
And first, then, dear friend, art thou clear and settled as to thy "pedigree?" Is it a settled thing that thou art on the Lord’s side? Do not, we beseech thee, leave this grand question unsettled. We have asked it before, and we ask it again. Dost thou know - canst thou declare thy spiritual pedigree? It is the first thing for God’s warrior. It is of no use to think of entering the militant host so long as you are unsettled as to this point. We say not that a man cannot be saved without this. Far be the thought. But he cannot take rank as a man of war. He cannot do battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil, so long as he is filled with doubts and fears as to whether he belongs to the true spiritual stock. If there is to be any progress, if there is to be that decision, so essential to a spiritual warrior, we must be able to say, "We know that we have passed from death unto life" - "We know that we are of God."
This is the proper language of a man of war. Not one of that mighty host that mustered "over against the tabernacle of the congregation" would have understood such a thing as a single doubt, or shadow of a doubt as to his own very pedigree. Doubtless, he would have smiled, had any one raised a question on the subject. Each one of the six hundred thousand knew well whence he had sprung, and, therefore, where he was to take his stand. And just so with God’s militant host now. Each member thereof will need to possess the most unclouded confidence as to his relationship, else he will not be able to stand in the battle.
And then as to the "standard." What is it? Is it a doctrine? Nay. Is it a theological system? Nay. Is it an ecclesiastical polity? Nay. Is it a system of ordinances, rites, or ceremonies. Nothing of the sort, God’s warriors do not fight under any such banner. What is the standard of God’s militant host? Let us hear and remember. It is Christ. This is the only standard of God and the only standard of that warrior band which musters in this wilderness world, to wage war with the hosts of evil, and fight the battles of the Lord. Christ is the standard for everything. To have any other would only unfit us for that spiritual conflict to which we are called. What have we, as Christians, to do with contending for any system of theology church organisation? Of what account, is our estimation, are ordinances, ceremonies, or ritualistic observances? are we going to fight under such banners as these? God forbid! Our theology is the Bible. Our church organisation is the one God, formed by the presence of the Holy Ghost, and united to the living and exalted Head in the heavens. To contend for anything less than these is entirely below the mark of a true spiritual warrior.
Alas! alas! that so many who profess to belong to the Church of God should so forget their proper standard, and be found fighting under another banner. we may rest assured it super-induces weakness, falsifies the testimony, and hinders progress. If we would stand in the day of battle, we must acknowledge no standard whatsoever but Christ and His word - the living Word, and the written word. Here lies our security in the face of all our spiritual foes. The more closely we adhere to Christ and to Him alone the stronger and safer we shall be. To have Him as a perfect covering for our eyes - to keep close to Him - fast by His side, this is our grand moral safeguard. "The Children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man by his own camp, and every man by his own standard throughout their hosts."
Oh! that thus it may be throughout all the host of the Church of God! May all be laid aside for Christ! may He be enough for our hearts. As we trace our "pedigree" up to Him, may His name be inscribed on the "standard" round which we encamp in this wilderness, through which we are passing home to our eternal rest above! Reader, see to it, we beseech thee, that there be not one jot or tittle inscribed on thy banner save Jesus Christ - that name which is above every name, and which shall yet be exalted for ever throughout the wide universe of God.
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–2 THE CENSUS DIVINELY COMMANDED (verses Exo_33:11) and where all…
THE CENSUS OF SINAI (CHAPTER 1).
THE CENSUS DIVINELY COMMANDED (verses Exo_33:11) and where all the laws of Leviticus had been given. (Lev_1:1) On the first day of the second month, in the second year. On the first day of Zif (or Ijar); a year and a fortnight since the exodus, ten months and a half since their arrival at Sinai, and a month since the tabernacle had been set up.
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Vers. 1-16. The numbering of God"s people.
We have here, spiritually, the Church of God militant here on earth, "drawn up unto eternal life, (Act_13:48) numbered and counted and ordered by the Great Captain of the Lord"s host; man by man, soul by soul, to be his valiant soldiers and servants in the march and the conflict, and the manifold trials and temptations of this probation. Consider, therefore
I That this numbering of all his soldiers by name was MADE AT THE EXPRESS AND PARTICULAR COMMAND OF GOD, as it were for the Divine information; herein contrasting with that other numbering so sorely avenged under David, because made to feed his own pride. Even so the Lord is exceeding careful of the number of his own; one of the two sacred mottoes stamped upon his Church is, "The Lord knoweth them that are his"; (2Ti_2:19) "The Good Shepherd calleth his own sheep by name"; (Joh_10:3) and every one of them is expressed by name in his book. (Rev_3:5) We are "numbered" in the census of a great nation; every one of us is something stronger, holds his head somewhat higher, for the thought that he is numbered amongst the thirty millions of a great country, the ninety millions of a greater people. Are we also "numbered" among the innumerable and ever-victorious hosts of the Lord? Are we included in his census? If so, are we mindful of the condition? (2Ti_2:3, 2Ti_2:4) Are we tremblingly hopeful of the promise? (Rev_3:5)
II That it was IN THE SECOND YEAR that they were thus numbered "by their armies:" first came the great deliverance unto Sinai, the mount of God; then came the teaching of the moral law; then came the instructions of outward religion; then and not till then the command to number into the ranks. Even so the soldiers of the cross are not called at once to arms; the deliverance came first of course, the decease, "the exodus" (Luk_9:31) which he accomplished at Jerusalem; after that came to each the inculcation of the immutable laws of moral conduct; after that the ordinances of public and private worship; and then only, after such training, with such aids, is each believer numbered unto active service, and called, as it were, by name to approve himself as a trusty soldier of Jesus Christ.
III That only those were "numbered," and entered, as it were, on the roll call of the Lord, who WERE "ABLE TO GO FORTH TO WAR in Israel;" all the others, the women and the children, etc., remained unspecified and unnoted. Even so all the Lord"s people whose names are written in the Book of Life must be combatants. They need not indeed be men, but they must "quit" themselves "like men". (1Co_16:13) They may be weak women, or even tender children, for such have shown themselves (and do show) to the full as valiant for Christ as any men. But they must be combatants, for that is the one condition on which we are received into that "multitude which no man can number" (but the Lord can), and the promise is "to him that overcometh," and to none other.
IV That of these names in verse 16, renowned amongst men and chosen of God to honour and dignity, ALL BUT TWO ARE TOTALLY UNKNOWN TO US, and those two only through their descendants. So in the Church, those that are the greatest with God are often the obscurest in the annals of men. As "Antipas" was expressly called (by a singular honour), "my faithful martyr" by Christ; yet is there no knowledge of him, not even a legend concerning him, in the Church.
HOMILIES BY W. BINNIE Vers. 1, 2. A HOMILY FOR THE CENSUS DAY. The numbering of the people.
I A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE CENSUS which is being taken to-day in every town, every hamlet, every remote habitation of the United Kingdom, from the English Channel to the seas that surge round the Shetland Islands. There are still some people not many, let us hope who have a scruple about filling up the census papers. They are haunted with an apprehension that there is something wrong, something dangerous, about the business. "Did not King David transgress in numbering the people? Did he not by so doing bring God"s wrath upon his kingdom? Would that which brought guilt and sorrow on David be right or safe for us?" What are we to say to these scrupulous persons? I have not time to go into the questions that have been raised about the real nature of David"s sin. One thing is plain: the evil lay not in the taking of a census, but in the intention of that particular census. David was a man of war. In his hands the kingdom was in danger of becoming a despotic and military monarchy, such as the nations of the world have had occasion to know too well. And there can be little doubt that the census he projected was meant to subserve the ends of such a monarchy. It was meant to be just such an instrument of oppression in Israel as William the Conqueror"s Domesday Book was in England. The design of the compilation seems to have been, in both cases, very much the same. Anyhow, it is certain that the simple numbering of the people was not forbidden by the law of God. On the contrary, the Bible is dead against such a barbarous and hazardous style of national administration as is inevitable when the national governors are in the dark regarding the statistics of the people. The Israelites dealt largely in statistics; to a surprising degree they anticipated the practice of the nineteenth century in this matter. At all the great turning-points in their history a census was taken. This Book of NUMBERS owes its name to the fact that it records two census-takings, one at the beginning, the other at the close, of the forty years" sojourn in the wilderness. So long as the Bible has a Book of Numbers in it, intelligent Bible readers will see in it an admonition to fill up their census papers with exactness and for conscience sake.
II MEDITATIONS PROPER TO THE CENSUS DAY. The filling up of a census paper is, in itself, a piece of secular business. Yet I do not envy the man who can perform it without being visited with a touch of holy feeling. The setting down of the names of one"s household brings up many tragic memories. The setting down one"s own age, after a lapse of ten years surely it summons us to count our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. It is not often observed that the law of Moses prescribed a religious service for the occasion of a census-taking. (Exo_30:11-16) This the children of Israel are to perform, "that there be no plague among them when thou numberest them." A measure may be right in itself, and yet may be apt to become to us an occasion of sin. When a nation is reckoning up the number of its sons, it will be apt to harbour proud confidence in their valour; and proud confidence in man God will not bear. When Nebuchadnezzar begins to say, "Is not this great Babylon which I have built for the house of my kingdom?" God"s humbling stroke is near. On the census day the Israelites were to bring "every man a ransom for his soul. The act was as much as to say, "I am not worthy to be registered among the living in Israel, the holy nation, the kingdom of priests. I am a sinful man, O Lord; but I believe that there is forgiveness with thee. Forgive me, therefore, O Lord reject me not. Remember me with the favour thou bearest unto thy people, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, and glory with thine inheritance." The ransom money required from every Israelite on the census day was a poll-tax of half a shekel. The rich paid no more, the poor paid no less. The law of Moses did not often impose this sort of tax; for With a show of equality, it is the most unequal of taxes. Ordinarily the law invited princes to bring princely gifts, while it suffered the poor man"s pair of turtle-doves to come up with acceptance on the altar. The poll-tax of the census day was altogether exceptional. Nor is it difficult to understand why the exception should have been made on this one occasion. It was very significant. Religion does not abrogate all social inequalities; but the non-recognition of these in the atonement-money admonishes us that the inequalities which find place among men in regard to wealth, station, intellectual gifts, are as nothing in comparison with their essential equality as creatures made in the image of God. It admonishes us also that all who have obtained an inheritance among God"s people are on one level with regard to their right to be there. "There is no difference; for all have sinned, and all are justified freely." Yet another reflection. The Lord keeps an exact register of his people. There is a Book of Life in which are inscribed the names of all whom he has chosen, and caused to approach unto him, that they may dwell in his house. How true this is, the whole Scripture bears witness (see Exo_32:32; Isaiah12:23; Eze_13:9 Luk_10:20 Php_4:3 Heb_4:3 Rev_13:8). We commonly think of this as a book which is shut and sealed. No man on earth can take it into his hand and read out the names inscribed in it. The Lord only knoweth them that are his; we may not sit in judgment on one another"s state before God. All this is true. Yet the truth has another side: if the seventy are to rejoice because their names are written in heaven, it must be possible for them to ascertain the fact. A man may ascertain his own acceptance with God. Not only so. If the Apostle was confident regarding certain of the early Christians that their names were in the Book of Life, we also may, without prying into God"s secrets, attain to a similar persuasion respecting such of our brethren as bear Christ"s image, and abound in his work. Who bear Christ"s image, and abound in his work I use these words advisedly; they express the evidence which avails to prove that a given name is in the Book of Life. The census-table compiled by Moses contained only the names of such as were, by birth or adoption, the sons of Jacob. The Book of Life contains only the names of those whom God has "predestinated to the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ." To make sure that I am a son that God has brought me home to himself by his Word and Spirit this is the only way of making sure that my name has a place in the Lamb"s Book of Life. B.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG Vers. 1-3. God commands a census.
I THE PLACE AND TIME OF THE COMMAND. God spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai. Many wildernesses, though uncultivated, were fertile and well watered, but the wilderness of Sinai was a desolate place. Moses calls it "the great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions and drought, where there was no water;" and, again, "a desert land, a waste howling wilderness" (see Stanley"s "Sinai and Palestine"). Very different from the riches of Egypt left behind, and the riches of Canaan lying before. But though a wilderness, the tabernacle of the congregation was there, made by God"s appointment and direction, even down to its minutest arrangements and furniture. As long as the tabernacle in their midst was honoured, the people could dwell safely even in the wilderness.
II THE PURPOSE OF THE NUMBERING. To ascertain the strength of the people for war. Canaan, towards which they were advancing, was in the possession of enemies, who appreciated all its riches, and would not relinquish them without a severe struggle. At the time of the census the Israelites had not brought on themselves the penalty of the forty years" wandering. The census was meant to be one preparation for immediate conquest, as the mission of the spies was another. There was everything to give them courage and strength of mind when they remembered that there were more than 600, 000 fighting men amongst them. And as they counted up their resources for war, so we may be sure Christ would ever have his militant Church on earth to do the same. The tone of the New Testament is not less warlike than of the Old, our Canaanites being principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places.
III THE METHOD OF THE NUMBERING. The method was determined by the purpose. Note, first, the exclusions. The women and the children were left out. In counting the Levites the children were not left out. Every male from a month old was numbered, for theirs was a constant service, and even the youngest was looked on as in training for it. But when war is imminent we can only count on such as can be ready at once, those from twenty years old and upward. The Church of Christ still divisible in the same way those who can fight, and those who cannot; the men who are strong, because of the solid food they take, and the babes who are still hanging on milk and spoon meat. The Levites also were left out. A numerical loss may yet be a real gain. The Israelites were strong in their 600, 000 only as long as they served God, according to his statutes and commandments. For the Levites to go to battle meant that all would go to neglect and disorder in the tabernacle. God obeyed and honoured is God on our side, and who then can be against us? The man who keeps his fifty-two sabbaths every year for God has not lost them, and the weekly contribution set aside for God"s cause is not wasted. Secondly, the order observed in the numbering. By each tribe and family the result would be more speedily and correctly arrived at. Nature, even under the curse of sin, has its order, and will help us, if we are observant of it, to do the work of grace in an orderly way. Though there is a limit at the one end of life, there is none mentioned at the other. A man is never too old to fight for God, directing and inspiring the stronger arm of younger men. There is room for a Nestor as well as an Achilles, and Venice loved to keep the fame of "Blind old Dandolo, Th" octogenarian chief, Byzantium"s conquering foe.
Thirdly, with all the information gained, there was much unknown. Those fit for fight by age could be counted up; but what of disposition? who could sift out the Korahs, Dathans, and Abirams, and the people whose hearts lingered after the fleshpots of Egypt? Y.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1–2 In the wilderness of Sinai.
Num_1:1
In the wilderness of Sinai.
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In the desert: an illustration of the life of the good in this world
I. The natural trials of the desert.
1. Barrenness. Temporal and material things cannot satisfy spiritual beings.
2. Homelessness. The soul cannot find rest in this wilderness world.
3. Pathlessness. Man, if left to himself, is bound to stray and lose himself.
4. Perilousness. The wiles of the devil, the seductions of the world, and the lusts of the flesh.
5. Aimlessness. The years pass, opportunities come and go, and so little seems accomplished, so little progress made in our character, so little true work done.
II. The divine presence in the desert.
1. Divine communication in the desert. Gods voice is never silent. He is ever speaking in the sounds and silences of nature; through Scripture; and by His Holy Spirit.
2. Divine provision in the desert. The Lord will give grace and glory; no good will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
3. Divine shelter and rest in the desert (Psa_90:1).
4. Divine direction in the desert.
(1) By the leadings of His providence.
(2) By the teachings of the sacred Scriptures.
(3) By the influences of the Holy Spirit.
5. Divine protection in the desert. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. If God be for us, who can be against us? Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?
III. THE DIVINE USES OF THE DESERT.
1. That the generation of slaves might pass away. There is much in us that must die and be buried before we can enter upon the inheritance of spiritual perfection. Our craven-hearted fears, our carnal lusts, our miserable unbelief, must be buried in the desert.
2. That a generation of free men might be educated. In the desert we are being trained by God into spiritual perfection and power for service and blessedness.
Conclusion:
1. Ponder well the Divine design of our life in this world.
2. By the help of God seek its realisation in ourselves. (W. Jones.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1
THE CENSUS AND THE CAMP
1. THE MUSTERING
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Num_1:1-46
FROM the place of high spiritual knowledge, where through the revelation of God in covenant and law Israel has been constituted His nation and His Church, the tribes must now march with due order and dignity. The sense of a Divine calling and of responsibility to the Highest will react on the whole arrangements made for the ordinary tasks and activities of men. Social aims may unite those who have them in common, and the emergencies of a nation will lay constraint on patriotic souls. But nothing so binds men together as a common vocation to do Gods will and maintain His faith. These ideas are to be traced in the whole account of the mustering of the warriors and the organisation of the camp. We review it feeling that the dominating thought. of a Divine call to spiritual duty and progress is far from having control of modern Christendom. Under the New Covenant there is a distribution of grace to every one, an endowment of each. according to his faith with priestly and even kingly powers. No chief men swear fealty to Christ on behalf of the tribes that gather to His standard; but each believer devotes himself to the service and receives his own commission. Yet, while the first thought is that of personal honour and liberty, there should follow at once the desire, the determination, to find ones fit place in the camp, in the march, in the war. The unity is imperative, for there is one body and one spirit, even as we are called in one hope of our calling. The commission each receives is not to be a freelance in the Divine warfare, but to take his right place in the ranks; and that place he must find.
The enumeration, as recorded in chapter 1, was not to be of all Israelites, but of men from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war. From Sinai to Canaan was no long journey, and fighting might soon be required. The muster was by way of preparation for conflicts in the wilderness and for the final struggle. It is significant that Aaron is shown associated with Moses in gathering the results. We see not only a preparation for war, but also for the poll tax or tithe to be levied in support of the priests and Levites. A sequel to the enumeration is to be found in Num_18:21 : "And unto the children of Levi, behold, I have given all the tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service which they serve, even the service of the tent of meeting." The Levites again were to give, out of what they received, a tenth part for the maintenance of the priests. The enactment when carried into effect would make the support of those who ministered in holy things a term of the national constitution.
Now taking the census as intended to impress the personal duties of service in war and contribution for religious ends, we find in it a valuable lesson for all who acknowledge the Divine authority. Not remotely may the command be interpreted thus. Take the sum of them, that they may realise that God takes the sum of them and expects of every man service commensurate with his powers. The claim of Jehovah went side by side with the claim on behalf of the nation, for He was Head of the nation. But God is equally the Head of all who have their life from Him; and this numbering of the Hebrews points to a census which is accurately registered and never falls short of the sum of a people by a single unit. Whoever can fight the battle of righteousness, serve the truth by witness-bearing, aid in relieving the weak, or help religion by personal example and willing gift-every possible servant of God, who is also by the very possession of life and privilege a debtor of God, is numbered in the daily census of His providence. The measure of the ability of each is known. "To whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required." The Divine regard of our lives and estimate of our powers, and the accompanying claim made upon us, are indeed far from being understood; even members of the Church are strangely ignorant of their duty. But is it thought that because no Sinai shrouded in awful smoke towers above us, and now we are encamped at the foot of Calvary, where one great offering was made for our redemption, therefore we are free in any sense from the service Israel was expected to render? Do any hold themselves relieved from the tithe because they are Christs freemen, and shirk the warfare because they already enjoy the privileges of the victors? These are the ignorant, whose complacent excuses show that they do not understand the law of Divine religion.
True, the position of the Church among us is not of the kind which the Mosaic law gave to the priesthood in Israel. Tithes are gathered, not from those only who are numbered within the Church and acknowledge obligations, but also from those outside, and always by another authority than that of Divine commandment. In this way the whole matter of the support of religion is confused in these lands both for members of the national Churches and for those beyond their borders. Successfully as the old Hebrew scheme may once have wrought, it is now hopelessly out of line with the development of society. The census does not in any way determine what a national Church can claim. Aaron does not stand beside Moses to watch the enrollment of the tribes, families, and households as they come to be numbered. Yet, by the highest law of all, which neither Church nor State can alter, the demand for service is enforced. There is a warlike duty from which none are exempt, from which there is no discharge. Although the ideal of an organised humanity appears as yet far off in our schemes of government and social melioration, providentially it is being carried into effect. Laws are at work that need no human administration. By the Divine ordinance generous effort for the common good and the ends of religion is made imperative. Obedience brings its reward: "The liberal deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things shall he stand." Neglect is also punished: the sure result of selfishness is an impoverished life.
The census is described as having been thoroughly organised. Keil and Delitzsch think that the registering may have taken place "according to the classification adopted at Jethros suggestion for the administration of justice-viz., in thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens." They also defend the total of six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty, which is precisely the same as that reached apparently nine months before. It is an obvious explanation of what appears a perplexing agreement, that the enumeration may have occupied nine months. But the number is certainly large, much larger than the muster-rolls of the Book of Judges would lead us to expect, if we reckon back from them. Nor can any explanation be given that is satisfactory in all respects. We may shrink from interfering with these numerical statements carefully set down thousands of years ago. Yet we feel that the haze of remoteness hangs over this roll of the tribes and all after-reckonings based upon it.
Of the twelve princes named in Num_1:5-15, as overseers of the census, Nahshon, son of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah, has peculiar. distinction. His name is found in the genealogy of David given in the Book of Ruth {Rut_4:20}. It also appears in the "book of the generation of Jesus Christ" {Matthew 1} and the roll of Josephs ancestry recorded by St. Luke. One after another in that honourable line which gave the Hebrews their Psalmist and the world its Saviour is but a name to us. Yet the life represented by the name Nahshon, spent mainly in the wilderness, had its part in far-off results; and so had many a life, not even named-the hard lives of brave fathers and burdened mothers in Israel, who, on the weary march through the desert, had their sorrow and pain, their scanty joy and hope. Far away is the endurance of those Hebrew men and women, yet it is related to our own religion, our salvation. The discipline of the wilderness made men of courage, women great in faith. Beneath their feet the Arabian sand burned, above them the sun flamed; they heard alarms of war, and followed the pillar of smoke for their appointed time, looking, even when they knew they looked in vain, for the land beyond of which Jehovah had spoken. Unaware of their nations destiny, they toiled and suffered to serve a great Divine plan which in the course of the ages came to ripeness. And the thought brings help to ourselves. We too have our desert journey, our duty and hardship, with an outlook not merely personal. It is our privilege, if we will take it so, to aid the Divine plan for the humanity that is to be, the great brotherhood in which Christ shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. Like a prince of Judah, or a humble nameless mother in Israel, each may find abiding dignity of life in doing well some allotted part in the great enterprise.
The age of service fixed for the men of the tribes may yield suggestions for our time. It is not of warlike service we have to think, but of that which depends on spiritual influence and intellectual power. And we may ask whether the limits on one side and the other have any parallel for us. Young men and women, having reached the age of bodily and mental vigour, are to hold themselves enrolled in the ranks of the army of God. There is a time of learning and preparation, when knowledge is to be acquired, when the principles of life are to be grasped, and the soul is to find its inspiration through personal faith. Then there should come that self-consecration by which response is made to the claim of God. Neither should that be premature, nor should it be deferred. When an aimless, irresolute adolescence is followed by years of drifting and experimenting without clear religious purpose, the best opportunity of life is thrown away. And this far too frequently occurs among those on whom parental influence and the finest Christian teaching have been expended. The time arrives when such young men and women should begin to serve the Church and the world: but they are still unprepared because they have not considered the great questions of duty, and seen that they have a part to play on the field of endeavor. It is true, no time can be fixed. The public service of Christ has been begun by some in very early youth: and the results have justified their adventure. From the humble tasks they first undertook they have gone on steadily to places of high responsibility, never once looking back, learning while they taught, gaining faith while they imparted it to others. Each for himself or herself, in this matter of supreme importance, must seek the guidance and realise the vocation of God. But delay is often indulged, and the twentieth, even the thirtieth year, passes without a single effort in the holy service. One could wish for a Divine conscription, a command laid on every one in youth to be ready at a certain day and hour to take the sword of the Spirit.
On the other side also many need to reconsider. No time was fixed for the end of the service to which the Israelites were summoned. As long as a man could carry arms he was to hold himself ready for the field. Not the increasing cares of his family, not the disinclination which comes with years, was to weigh against the ordinance of Jehovah. But service now, however cheerfully it may be rendered in early manhood and womanhood, is often renounced altogether when knowledge and power are coming to ripeness with the experience of life. Doubtless there are many excuses to be made for heads of households who are leaving their young folk to represent them in religion, and pretty much in everything outside the mere maintaining of existence or the enjoyment of it. The demands of public service all round are sometimes quite out of proportion to the available time and strength. Yet the Christian duty never lapses; and it is a great evil when the balance is wanting between old and young, tried and untried.
2. THE TRIBE OF LEVI
Num_1:47-54
The tribe of Levi is not numbered with the rest. No warlike service, no half-shekel for the sanctuary, is to be exacted from the Levite. His contribution to the general good is to be of another kind. Pitching their tents about the tabernacle, the men of this tribe are to guard the sanctuary from careless or rude intrusion, and minister unto it, taking charge of its parts and furniture, dismantling it when it is to be removed, setting it up again when another stage of the march is over.
In this order it is implied that, although according to the ideal of the Mosaic law Israel was to be a holy nation, yet the reality fell very far short of it. "The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy". {Lev_19:1-2} Again and again this command of consecration is given. But neither in the wilderness, nor throughout the pre-exilic history, nor after the Babylonian affliction had purged the nation of idolatry, was Israel so holy that access to the sanctuary could be allowed to the men of the tribes. Rather, as time went by, did the need for special consecration of those about the temple become more evident. Although by statute the tribe of Levi was well provided for, it cannot be said that the life of the Levite was at any time enviable from a worldly point of view; at the best it was a kind of honourable poverty. Something else than mere priest-craft upheld the system which separated the whole tribe; something else made the Levites content with their position. There was a real and imperative sense of need to guard the sanctities of religion, a jealousy for the honour of God, which, originating with Moses and the priesthood, was felt throughout the whole nation.
As we have seen, the scheme of Israels religion required this array of servants of the sanctuary. Under Christianity the ideal of the life of faith and the manner of worship are entirely different. A way into the holy place of the Divine presence is now open to every believer, and each may have boldness to enter it. But even under Christianity there is a general failure from holiness, from the spiritual worship of God. And as among the Hebrews, so among Christians, the need for a body of guardians of sacred truth and pure religion has been widely acknowledged. Throughout the Church generally down to the Reformation, and still in countries like Russia and Spain. we may even say in England, the condition of things is like that in Israel. A people conscious of ignorance and secularity, feeling nevertheless the need of religion, willingly supports the "priests," sometimes a great army, who conduct the worship of God. There is nothing to wonder at here, in a sense; much, indeed, for which to be thankful. Yet the system is not the New Testament one; and those who endeavour to realise the ideal are not to be branded and scorned as schismatics. They should be honoured for their noble effort to reach and use the holy consecration of the Christian.
3. THE CAMP
Numbers 2
The second chapter is devoted to the arrangement of the camp and the position of the various tribes on the march. The front is eastward, and Judah has the post of honour in the van; at its head Nahshon son of Amminadab. Issachar and Zebulun, closely associated with Judah in the genealogy as descended from Leah, are the others in front of the tabernacle. The right wing, to the south of the tabernacle, is composed of Reuben, Simeon, and Gad, again connected by the hereditary tie, Gad by descent from the "handmaid of Leah." The seniority of Reuben is apparently acknowledged by the position of the tribe at the head of the right wing, which would sustain the first attack of the desert clans; for dignity and onerous duty go together. The rear is formed by Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin, connected with one another by descent from Rachel. Northward, on the left of the advance, Dan, Asher, and Naphtali have their position. Standards of divisions and ensigns of families are not forgotten in the description of the camp; and Jewish tradition has ventured to state what some of these were. Judah is said to have been a lion (compare "the lion that is of the tribe of Judah," Rev_5:5); Reuben, the image of a human head: Ephraim, an ox; and Dan an eagle. If this tradition is accepted, it will connect the four main ensigns of Israel with the vision of Ezekiel in which the same four figures were united in each of the four living creatures that issued from the fiery cloud.
The picture of the great organised camp and orderly march of Israel is interesting: but it presents a contrast to the disorganised, disorderly condition of human society in every land and every age. While it may be said that there are nations leagued in creed, allied by descent, which form the van; that others, similarly connected more or less, constitute the right and left wings of the advancing host; and the rest, straggling far behind, bring up the rear-this is but a very imaginative representation of the fact. No people advances as with one mind and one heart; no group of nations can be said to have a single standard. Time and destiny urge on the host, and all is to be won by steady resolute endeavour. Yet some are encamped, while others are moving about restlessly or engaged in petty conflicts that have nothing to do with moral gain. There should be unity; but one division is embroiled with another, tribe crosses swords with tribe. The truth is that as Israel came far short of real spiritual organisation and due disposition of its forces to serve a common end, so it is still with the human race. Nor do the schemes that are occasionally tried to some extent promise a remedy for our disorder. For the symbol of our most holy faith is not set in the midst by most of those who aim at social organisation, nor do they dream of seeking a better country, that is, a heavenly. The description of the camp of Israel has something to teach us still. Without the Divine law there is no progress, without a Divine rallying-point there is no unity. Faith must control, the standard of Christianity must show the way: otherwise the nations will only wander aimlessly, and fight and die in the desert.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 “The object of the encampment at Sinai,” says Perowne,…
THE NUMBERING OF THE PEOPLE
(Num_1:1-3)
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“The object of the encampment at Sinai,” says Perowne, “has been accomplished. The Covenant has been made, the Law given, the Sanctuary set up, the Priests consecrated, the service of God appointed, and Jehovah dwells in the midst of His chosen people. It is now time to depart in order that the object may be achieved for which Israel has been sanctified. That object is the occupation of the Promised Land. But this is not to be accomplished by peaceable means, but by the forcible expulsion of its present inhabitants; for ‘the iniquity of the Amorites is full,’ they are ripe for judgment, and this judgment Israel is to execute. Therefore Israel must be organised as Jehovah’s army; and to this end a mustering of all who are capable of bearing arms is necessary. Hence the book opens with the numbering of the people.”
Thrice were the people numbered in the wilderness. Nine months previous they were numbered for the purpose of collecting atonement-money from every male of twenty years old and upward (Comp. Exo_30:11-16 with Exo_38:25-26). On this occasion they were numbered with a view to war. And thirty-eight years afterwards, in the plains of Moab, they were again numbered, for the division of the Promised Land among the tribes, according to the number of their families (Comp. 26 and Num_33:54).
Our text sets forth:—
I. The Authority for this Numbering.
It was commanded by God. “The Lord spake unto Moses … Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel.” Contrast this with the numbering of the people by David (1 Samuel 24, and 1 Chronicles 21). This was expressly commanded by the Lord: that was utterly devoid of Divine authority. This was done for wise and worthy reasons (as we shall see); that, from pride and vain reliance. Moses numbered the people to see the number of God’s subjects able to fight in the Lord’s battles. David seems to have desired to know the number of the people as his own subjects, and to display the extent of his own dominion and power. As the result of David’s sin, the Lord, by pestilence, slew seventy thousand men. It is of the utmost importance that the leaders of men should be well assured of two things in the movements which they inaugurate:—
1. That they have the Divine approval of their undertakings. The movement which is approved by God, and well prosecuted, shall advance to splendid triumph. But that which He approves not must end in failure and disaster. Apply this test to our undertakings.
2. That they are actuated by worthy motives in their undertakings. A sinful, selfish, or mean motive will vitiate our enterprises and mar our works. “The Lord looketh at the heart.” Let us scrutinize our motives.
II. The Place of this Numbering.
“In the wilderness of Sinai.”
1. In a desert. The wilderness suggests
(1) the ideas of a life of Privation. Little or no food grows in the desert. There are no homes in the desert. Pleasant streams and refreshing shades are seldom found there.
(2) Peril. This would arise from the scorching heat of the sun; from the furious violence of the storm, and from the fierce attacks of savage beasts.
(3) Perplexity. The desert has no well-defined roads made through it. The traveller is very liable to lose his track, grow bewildered, and sink into utter perplexity. We have in this an illustration of the life of the good in this world. The world cannot supply the soul’s needs. We have needs and yearnings that the best things of this world are utterly inadequate to satisfy. We cannot find a home for the soul in anything here. This is not our rest. There are perils many and great in this present life and world. We, too, are “in the desert.”
2. In a desert where the tabernacle of God was. “In the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation.” They were in the desert; but the Lord also was there. His presence was a guarantee of
(1) Provision. He fed them with bread from heaven. His presence and power transformed the desert into a banquet hall. In obedience to His will the solid rock became a fountain, and the desert rejoiced in pleasant streams. In Him the homeless wanderers found a home and rest.
(2) Protection. He guarded them from the scorching heat of the sun by day by the pillar of cloud, and from the attacks of savage beasts by night by the pillar of fire. In the day of battle He was their shield and fortress.
(3) Direction. He “led His people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.” He “guided them in the wilderness like a flock.” “He led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.” It matters not that this world is like a desert to the godly soul, if God be with us here. His presence will afford the most adequate and delightful supplies, the divinest satisfaction, the most impregnable defence, and the most infallible guidance.
“Though in a bare and rugged way,
Through devious, lonely wilds I stray,
Thy presence shall my pains beguile;
The barren wilderness shall smile,
With sudden green and herbage crowned,
And streams shall murmur all around.”
Addison.
III. The Time of this Numbering.
“On the first of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt.” That is, exactly one month after the setting up of the tabernacle (Exo_40:2; Exo_40:17) and about eleven months from the time of their arrival in the desert of Sinai. The people abode in this desert nearly a whole year (Comp. Exo_19:1, with Num_1:1; Num_10:11). What was the reason of this protracted halt? With so great and inspiriting a destiny before them as the taking possession of the Promised Land, why did they not advance at once with eager resolution to their task? The design of this long stay was, that they might be instructed in their relations to God and to each other; that they might learn lessons of duty and worship; that they might be taught to reverence and obey God. The pause was for the purpose of promoting progress. There are times and circumstances in which standing still is the truest and speediest advance. It is well that the declaration of war should not be made until plans of operation are formed, equipments prepared, soldiers drilled and disciplined, etc. What a terrible reminder of this truth France received in her recent war with Prussia! It was well that the Apostles, with the commission to the most glorious task, and the world sorely needing their message, should, notwithstanding, tarry at Jerusalem in silence, until they were baptized with the Holy Ghost.
Let us learn the wisdom of waiting until circumstances, events, and agents are ripe for action; and while we wait, make diligent preparation, etc. (a)
IV. The Manner of this Numbering.
“Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls, from twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel.” They were to take account of—
1. Only the males. All females were excluded from the reckoning.
2. Only the males above twenty years old. Those who were under that age were not taken into the account, being regarded as too young to endure the strain of military service.
3. Only the males above twenty ears old who were in vigorous health,—“able to go forth to war.” The sick, the aged, the infirm, the maimed were exempted from this census, as unfit for war.
4. They were to be numbered “after their families,” that it might be known of what tribe, and of what particular house every able man was.
5. The numbering was to be individual, and by name. “With the number of their names, every male by their polls.” The census was particular and minute. From these directions as to the numbering we learn:—
First: That the Lord chooses fit instruments for the accomplishment of His purposes. He here selects for war not women, or boys, or old men, or the infirm; but able men. He can use any instrumentality, even the feeblest, for the most arduous tasks. But such is not His method. He employs means adapted to the ends to be attained. Illustrations of this abound. Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Paul.
Second: That the Lord is perfectly acquainted with every one who is fitted for His work. He knows the tribe, the family, the name of every one who is “able to go forth to war” against ignorance, sin and misery. Ponder this ye able men who are at ease in Zion.
V. The Design of this Numbering.
1. The primary design was, the organization of the army. God had promised to give them the land of Canaan. He will certainly bestow it upon them; but not without their effort. Innumerable foes must be vanquished before they enter upon the land. They must do battle with the heathen nations that are now in possession, and conquer them. And to do this, they must organise an army, employing the fittest men for soldiers, making the wisest arrangements for marching, encamping, etc. Where ordinary means are adequate to accomplish the desired end, God never uses extraordinary. What man can do for himself, God never does for him. God has promised to us the victory over our spiritual foes, the possession of the inheritance of spiritual perfection and privileges, and heaven as the goal of our earthly pilgrimage. He will not fail to fulfil His promise. But we, too, must use the means. If we would enter into the restful activities of heaven, we must live the life of faith and of Divine service on earth. If we would gain the victory we must be valiant and persistent in the fight. If we would win the prize we must “run with patience the race,” etc. (b). But this numbering would serve other important purposes. It would tend—
2. To manifest the Divine faithfulness. God had promised Abraham that his seed should be as the stars for multitude. This census shows how God was fulfilling that promise. Seventy-five souls went down into Egypt. And how wonderfully are they increased in 215 years! Now there are six hundred thousand men able to bear arms. And the whole population could not have been less than two millions, and this despite the oppression and persecutions of the Egyptians. “He is faithful that promised.”
3. To show forth the Divine power. We see this in His feeding and sustaining so immense a number in the desert, “without harvest or husbandry, without planting or tilling, without sowing of corn, or without feeding and breeding of cattle.”
4. To the promotion of order. “It is a rout and a rabble, not an army, that is not mustered and put in order.”
5. To exhibit, on the coming of the Messiah, the correspondence of the event with the predictions concerning it. He was predicted as to come of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Judah, of the house of David. Hence the importance of an accurate register of tribes and families.
6. To illustrate the care of God for His people generally and particularly. They were numbered individually and by name. The Lord’s care over His people is most minute and constant and tender. “He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. The good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.” “The Lord knoweth them that are His.” “The very hairs of your head are all numbered.”
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) I warn those who have only lately found their Saviour from rushing before their fellow-men, and attempting to fill those posts in the service of Christ which demand a deeper experience and a more tried and tested Christianhood. The Lord’s retirement to the wilderness after He had been baptised and announced as the Messiah, after He was in a peculiar manner “full of the Holy Ghost,” gives to all of us not less humbling than profitable guidance as to the deliberation with which solemn work ought to be undertaken.… Not up to Jerusalem, but away to the wilderness; not out to the multitude, but back to the solitude; not forth to the world to conquer, but away from it, “impelled” by the Spirit, “to be tempted.” Nor does this stand solitary in the history of the Church. You remember that strange, half-involuntary forty years of Moses in the wilderness of Midian, when he had fled from Egypt. You remember, too, the almost equally strange years of retirement in Arabia by Paul when, if ever, humanly speaking, instant action was needed. And pre-eminently you remember the amazing charge of the ascending Lord to the disciples: “Tarry at Jerusalem.” Speaking after the manner of men, one could not have wondered if out-spoken Peter, or fervid James, had said: “Tarry, Lord! How long? Tarry, Lord! Is there not a perishing world groaning for the ‘good news’? Tarry! did we hear Thee aright, Lord? Was not the word, haste?” Nay: “Being assembled together with them, He commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father.”—Grosart.
(b) We are here in every sense on a stage of probation; so that, having been once recovered from apostasy, we are candidates for a prize and wrestlers for a crown. It is not the mere admission into the kingdom for which we contend. When justified, there is open before us the widest field for a righteous ambition—and portions heightening in majesty, and deepening in brilliancy, rise on our vision to incite to unwearied endeavour. For I count it one of the glories of Christianity that, in place of repressing, it gives full scope to all the ardours of the spirit of man.… Christianity tells her subjects that the rewards in eternity, though all purchased by Christ, and none merited by men, shall be rigidly apportioned to their works. She tells them that there are places of dignity, and stations of eminence, and crowns with more jewellery, and sceptres with more sway, in that glorious empire which Christ shall set up at His second appearing. And she bids them strive for a loftier recompense; she would not have them content with a lesser portion, though it infinitely outgrew human imagination as well as human desert. She sends them to wrestle for the loftiest, though unworthy of the lowest. She does not allow the believer to imagine that everything is done when a title to the kingdom is obtained. She shows him that the trials of the last great assize shall proceed most accurately by measure of works. There is no swerving in the Bible from this representation. And if one man become a ruler over ten cities, and another over five, and another over two, each receiving in exact proportion to his improvement of talents, then it is clear as demonstration can make it that our strivings will have a vast influence on our recompense—that there shall be no particle in the portion of the righteous which is not altogether an undeserved gift; still, in the arrangements of judgment there will be an accurate balancing of what is bestowed and what is performed. Oh! it shall not be said that because he is secure of admission to heaven, the Christian has nothing further to excite him to toil. He is to wrestle for a place amongst spirits of chief renown; he is to propose to himself a station close to the throne.—H. Melvill, B.D.
IN THE DESERT: AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE LIFE OF THE GOOD IN THIS WORLD
(Num_1:1)
“And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation.”
In the Hebrew Bible this book is called בְּמִדְבַּר = in the desert. By this name also the Jews generally speak of it. The tide is most appropriate for the book which records the history of Israel during the long wandering in the wilderness.
Consider:
I. The natural trials of the desert.
Deserts are generally characterised by—
1. Barrenness. “The general character of the wâdvs, as well as of the mountains of Sinai,” says Dean Stanley, “is entire desolation. If the mountains are naked Alps, the valleys are dry rivers.… The Israelites were brought into contact with a desolation to them the more remarkable by its contrast with the green valley of the Nile.” And in another place he speaks of “the whole wilderness” as having “a doubly dry and thirsty aspect.” The world, with its wealth and pleasures, its honours and power, cannot afford satisfaction to the longing souls of men. It is clear from their very nature that temporal and material things cannot satisfy spiritual beings. (a)
2. Homelessness. Men do not as a rule establish homes in the desert. They may pitch their tent there for a little while, but they speedily move on to other scenes. The home of the soul is not here. Its rest is not here. If any man attempt to find the home of his soul in anything here he will find, sooner or later, that great has been his mistake, and sore will be his disappointment. Only in the spiritual, the personal, the perfect, and the permanent is the true home of the soul.
3. Painlessness. There were no well-defined roads in the desert. And the Israelites were strangers in it. Left to themselves they were liable and likely to go astray. And man if left to himself now, or to the world’s guidance, will not find the true path of life. And even when by Divine direction he has found it, the world presents many enticements to lure him from it.
4. Perilousness. They were exposed to danger from the scorching sun, from violent storms, from savage beasts, and from desperate bands of robbers. The perils to which the good are exposed in this world are many and great. They spring from “the wiles of the devil,” “the depths of Satan,” the seductions of the world, and the lusts of the flesh.
And in the case of Israel in the desert there seemed to be,—
5. Aimlessness. How aimless and fruitless must the thirty-eight years of wandering, to which they were con-condemned for their unbelief and rebellion, have seemed to them! Inexpressibly weary and dreary must those years have been to the young generation. There are times in the spiritual life of good men when they pass through somewhat analogous experiences. The years pass, opportunities come and go, life hastens on towards its close; and so little seems accomplished, so little progress made in our character, so little true work done. We have toiled and struggled long, and at times painfully, and yet we have not attained, the goal of our ambition seems still so far off that the heart is prone to grow weary and despondent. Such are some of the trials of the desert.
II. The Divine Presence in the desert.
“The Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation.” They were in the desert; but God was with them there. We have here,—
1. Divine communication in the desert. “The Lord spake unto Moses,” etc. And God is in constant communication with His people now. His voice is never silent; for in silence some of His most precious communications are made. The thoughtful and reverent spirit hears His voice in the sounds and silences of nature, and can say,
“Cleon hears no anthem ringing in the sea
and sky:
Nature sings to me for ever—earnest
listener, I.” (b)
God is also ever speaking through the Sacred Scriptures, and by His Holy Spirit.
2. Divine provision in the desert. The Lord fed the vast host of Israel with manna from heaven, and with water from the rock He supplied them. They were in the desert, but the resources of God never failed them. So now, “The Lord will give grace and glory; no good will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” “Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
3. Divine shelter and rest in the desert. The people of Israel for forty years were homeless wanderers; but they found their rest and home in God. “Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.” God is the only true home and rest of souls.
3. Divine direction in the desert. The Lord went before them in the pillar of cloud by day and in the pillar of fire by night. Thus the desert was not really pathless, their tedious wanderings were not really aimless. And still the Lord directs His people He does so,—
(1) By the leadings of His providence.
(2) By the teachings of the sacred Scriptures.
(3) By the influences of the Holy Spirit.
5. Divine protection in the desert. The Lord protected the Israelites from the heat of the sun by day by means of the pillar of cloud; and from the attacks of savage beasts by night by means of the pillar of fire. He also guarded them from the assaults of neighbouring nations, except in those instances in which they disregarded His counsel, and rebelled against Him. God is still the sure defence of all who put their trust in Him. “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.” “If God be for us, who can be against us?” “Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?” God is with us in our march through the desert; and His presence assures us of all good.
III. The Divine uses of the desert.
Why this wandering to and fro for thirty-eight years? What is the meaning of this tedious and painful delay? Of what use was it? To prepare a people for the inheritance of Canaan. God has not only to give them the inheritance, but to fit them for it—for its privileges, duties, etc. Time was needed for two things:—
1. That the generation of slaves might pass away. Were the people that left Egypt fit to enter upon the privileges and duties connected with the independent possession of the Promised Land? Slavery had robbed them of their manhood. They were most persistent and provoking unbelievers, contemptible cowards, shrinking from any difficulty, quailing in the presence of any danger. They were the creatures of carnal appetites, preferring the fish, the cucumbers, the onions, and the melons of Egypt with slavery, rather than the manna of heaven and freedom. Emancipated in body, they are yet slaves in soul. And by reason of this, and of their murmurings and rebellions against God, they must live and die in the desert (see Num_14:26-35). In this we have an illustration of God’s dealings with His people now. There is much in us that must die and be buried before we can enter upon the inheritance of spiritual perfection. Our craven-hearted fears, our carnal lusts, our miserable unbelief, must be buried in the desert. The slave nature must be put to death, etc. There are godly persons in this world who are past service, whose strength and health have long departed, whose life is one of constant weariness and pain, who long for the summons hence, and wonder why it is so long delayed. May it not be because the discipline of the desert is not yet ended? There is something of the old nature that is not yet dead and buried.
2. That a generation of free men might be educated. In the desert God was training the children into true manhood,—into fitness for the place, the duties, and the privileges designed for them. And the education was remarkably successful. The generation that was trained in the wilderness and entered the Promised Land, was honourably distinguished for faithfulness, etc. (comp. Jos_24:31; Jer_2:2-3). So in this world God is educating us into calm, far-seeing faith, into high-souled courage, into reverent and hearty obedience, etc. This life, when truly lived, is not fruitless, aimless, or vain. Even its trials are designed to bless us. Its storms and strifes are intended to invigorate and nerve us. In the desert we are being trained by God into spiritual perfection and power, and educated for service and blessedness.
Conclusion:
Let us ponder well the Divine design of our life in this world. By the help of God let us seek its realization in ourselves.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) We might ask the statesman, and as we wished him a happy new year, Lord Dundas would answer, “It had need to be happier than the last, for I never knew one happy day in it.” We might ask the successful lawyer, and the wariest, luckiest, most self-complacent of them all would answer, as Lord Eldon was privately recording when the whole bar envied the Chancellor, “A few weeks will send me to dear Encomb, as a short resting-place between vexation and the grave.” You might say to the golden millionaire, “You must be a happy man, Mr. Rothschild.” “Happy! me happy! What! happy! when just as you are going to dine you have a letter placed in your hand, saying, ‘If you do not send me £500, I will blow your brains out!’ Happy! when you have to sleep with pistols at your pillow!” We might ask the clever artist (David Scott), and our gifted countryman would answer, of whose latter days a brother writes, “In the studio all the pictures seemed to stand up like enemies to receive me.” This joy in labour, this desire for fame, what have they done for him? The walls of this gaunt sounding place, the frames, even some of the canvases, are furred with damp. In the little library where he painted last was the word “Nepenthe,” written interrogatively with white chalk on the wall. We might ask the world-famed warrior, and get for an answer the “Miserere” of the Emperor Monk, or the sigh of a broken heart from St. Helena. We might ask the brilliant courtier, and Lord Chesterfield would tell us, “I have enjoyed all the pleasures of the world, and I do not regret their loss. I have been behind the scenes; I have seen all the coarse pulleys and dirty ropes which move the gaudy machines; and I have seen and smelt the tallow candles which illuminate the whole decorations to the astonishment of an ignorant audience.” We might ask the dazzling wit, and faint with a glut of glory, yet disgusted with the creatures who adored him, Voltaire would condense the essence of his existence into one word “Ennui.” And we might ask the world’s poet, and we should be answered with an imprecation by that splendid genius, who—
“Drank every cup of joy, heard every trump
Of fame; drank early, deeply drank; drank draughts
That common millions might have quenched, then died
Of thirst, because there was no more to drink.”—Pollok.
—DR. JAMES HAMILTON.
(b) God hath a voice that ever is heard,
In the peal of the thunder, the chirp of the bird;
It comes in the torrent, all rapid and strong,
In the streamlet’s soft gush as it ripples along;
It breathes in the zephyr, just kissing the bloom;
It lives in the rush of the sweeping simoom;
Let the hurricane whistle or warblers rejoice,
What do they tell thee, but God hath a voice?
God hath a presence, and that ye may see
In the fold of the flower, the leaf of the tree;
In the sun of the noon-day, the star of the night;
In the storm-cloud of darkness, the rainbow of light;
In the waves of the ocean, the furrows of land;
In the mountains of granite, the atoms of sand;
Turn where ye may, from the sky to the sod,
Where can ye gaze that ye see not a God?
Eliza Cook.
THE NUMBERED PEOPLE
(Num_1:2-3)
These annals are an historic mirror. They image out a heavenly Father’s special dealings with each child of faith. The parallel is quickly drawn. They once groaned bitterly in cruel bondage. But Mercy set them free. Believer, you too were once a slave at Satan’s will. But now the chain is broken, etc. Israel’s tribes are journeying, as strangers, through a desert waste. And is not yours a wilderness career? But they are conveyed by a heavenly guide. So, too, a beckoning hand marks out your wanderings by day—by night, etc. They had heard “the voice of words”—the fiery law. This law has also pierced the deep recesses of your inner man. You have thus learned the glorious righteousness of God, etc. Was Israel God’s special portion? You, too, are not your own. You are a purchased property, etc. There is no novel thought in this. But common truths—like common blessings—soon lose their point. Colours soon fade without a renewing touch.
And now, before the people move, God speaks again. He gives command to register the number of each tribe.… New instruction meets us here.
In common matters, men count possessions, which are choice, and dear, and prized. They whose mean joys are fixed on this world’s pelf—thus calculate their gold. See, too, the watchful shepherd’s care. Do we, then, stray beyond sound limits when in God’s numbering we read God’s love? Do not clear characters here write, that His people are thus numbered, because loved—counted, because prized? My God loves me; my name is in his heart. The knowledge of this fact is reached by happy steps. They are all Scripturally firm. Review them. Wherefore was Jesus sent to bear your sins, and deck you in his robe of righteousness? Why was Christ slain? Why are you spared?.… Wherefore did the Spirit speed to arouse your sleeping conscience—to show self’s ruin and the remedy of the Cross?.… How is it that your tottering feet are still upheld along the slippery hill, which leads to Zion’s heights? The strength is not your own. There can be only one reply, God loves you. Would that the eye of Faith for ever rested on this glorious truth. God loves you! What an amazing impulse to bear the willing servant over all mountains of doubt, and fear, and hindrance! What a strong shield to ward off Satan’s darts! It is victory, before one blow is struck! It is light in the dark day of trial! It is the holy wing to lift above the world!
Who are numbered? None are enrolled, but they whose age and strength enable them for war. Christ’s service is a mighty work—a determined fight. Satan disputes each onward step. The world presents its countless troops, etc. The flesh is an internal foe, etc. Believer, yours is this warrior’s life. Fight, as one fighting for eternity. Strive, as one striving for a kingdom. Jesus commands, etc. Follow him boldly. No one will triumph who has never fought. No one who truly fights, will fail.
Each numbered soldier paid a ransom price (Exo_30:12). The rich—the poor—were equally assessed. All in Christ’s camp are ransomed by his blood. All plead one sacrifice.
Next comes the register. It presents a vast array of numbered warriors. Beyond six hundred thousand men (Num_1:46). Whence is this marvellous increase? One family had entered Egypt. Hardship, and cruelty, and toil had done their worst to keep them low. But God’s early promise was their portion (Gen_12:2). The numbered people prove that our God is Truth as well as Love.
Behold, again, this multitude. It is an emblem of a far larger host (Rev_7:9). The fight is a prelude to the crown.
About a year has passed since the last numbering. The Levites then formed part of the collected mass. They are not now included. But the number then and now amounts exactly to the same. Israel has surrendered Levi’s tribe, but Israel’s forces are not thereby less. Here is a profitable lesson. We never lose by giving to the Lord. Selfishness is penury. Christian benevolence is wealth.
Once more survey the Numbered People. You are inclined to say, this band will safely reach the promised land. Alas! two only steadfastly adhere. The multitude distrusts the Lord. Their corpses strew the desert. An awful proof that outward privileges alone save not (Heb_3:19). Unbelief is the bar which shuts out Christ. Unbelief rejects the Gospel, and so perishes.—Henry Law, D.D.
RANK AND SERVICE
(Num_1:4-16)
In these verses we have an illustration of—
I. Co-operation in Divine Service.
One man of every tribe, being head of the house of his fathers, was to be associated with Moses and Aaron in numbering the people. By this arrangement—
1. The toil of Moses and Aaron would be lessened. There is urgent need for the lessening of the labours of many overwrought Christian ministers to-day. And there are many things in which others may render them valuable assistance.
2. The accomplishment of the task would be facilitated. The cause of God in this world will advance with rapid strides when co-operation in Christian work shall become constant and universal amongst His people.
3. The envy of the princes would be prevented. We know that on a subsequent occasion certain “princes of the assembly” arose against Moses and Aaron, saying, “Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them; wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?” “Sore eyes,” say Babington, “cannot abide the clearness of the sun, and an evil stomach turneth the best nutriment to hurt. The greener the leaf is, the sooner the worms bite it.” Probably, moved by envy, they would have murmured against Moses and Aaron at this time; but, being united with them in the business, all occasion thereof is removed. Co-operation in service is the best antidote to envy and complaint and carping criticism. Grumblers are seldom found among the workers of the Church.
We have in the text an illustration of—
II. Society’s need of leaders.
1. Because they are at present indispensable to social order and progress. These men were representatives of the people. Instead of “the renowned,” we should translate, “the called of the congregation.”—Keil and Del.: “In Num_1:16 they are designated as ‘called men of the congregation,’ because they were called to diets of the congregation, as representatives of the tribes, to regulate the affairs of the nation.” And society in this age must have its leaders and representatives in politics, in military affairs and enterprises, in science, in religion, etc. Moreover, it is essential that some persons should be entrusted with the reins of government. Rulers are indispensable to order. Leaders are necessary also to secure unity in the pursuit of any great and comprehensive aim. Certain objects of utmost importance to society cannot possibly be attained without cohesion of purpose and effort on the part of a large number of men, and such cohesion is impossible without leaders. “Amongst the masses,” says Guizot, “even in revolutions, aristocracy must ever exist; destroy it in nobility, and it becomes centred in the rich and powerful Houses of the Commons. Pull them down, and it still survives in the master and foreman of the workshop.”
2. Because of the differences in the faculties of men. These men were “princes” from the nobility of their birth: and they were probably men distinguished also for their abilities. Speaker’s Comm.: “The selection of the Princes of the Tribes appears from Num_1:4 to have been made under Divine direction; but probably, as Num_1:16 seems to suggest, they were for the most part the same persons as those chosen a few months previously at the counsel of Jethro (Exo_18:21-26) Of those here named Naashon, prince of Judah, was brother-in-law of Aaron (Exo_6:23), and ancestor of King David. Elishama, prince of Ephraim, was grandfather of Joshua (1Ch_7:26-27). The peers of men like these, though nothing has been in fact preserved to us respecting them, were no doubt entitled, amongst their fellows, to the epithet ‘renowned,’ Num_1:16.” Some men are born rulers. The governing faculty is innate in them. They have the extensive mental vision, the calmness of judgment, the promptitude in action, the love of order, the power of arrangement, the acquaintance with human nature, the skill in managing affairs, etc., which mark them off for leaders of men. But in others the qualifications of leadership are conspicuous by reason of their absence. And amongst those in whom the ruling faculty is innate it exists in different degrees of power. So they are fitted for different degrees of dominion. “We must have kings,” says Emerson, “we must have nobles; nature is always providing such in every society; only let us have the real instead of the titular. In every society, some are born to rule, and some to advise. The chief is the chief all the world over, only not his cap and plume. It is only this dislike of the pretender which makes men sometimes unjust to the true and finished man.” (a)
We have in the text an illustration of—
III. The grand characteristic of true leaders.
They are pre-eminent in service. These “princes of the tribes” were to serve the tribes in this numbering of the people. “Those that are honourable should study to be serviceable.” “Whosoever will be great among you,” said our Lord, “let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.” “I am among you as He that serveth.” The great God who is supreme over all is servant of all. And from the ministering of the archangel to the labour of the insect, the true rank and glory of a creature consist in the service which it renders in God’s universe, (b)
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) Greatness is not a teachable nor gainable thing, but the expression of the mind of a God-made great man; teach or preach, or labour as you will, everlasting difference is set between one man’s capacity and another’s, and this God-given supremacy is the priceless thing, always just as rare in the world at one time as another. What you can manufacture or communicate, you can lower the price of, but this mental supremacy is incommunicable: you will never multiply its quantity, nor lower its price; and nearly the best thing that men can generally do, is to set themselves not to the attainment, but the discovery of this: learning to know gold when we see it from iron-glance, and diamonds from flint-sand, being for most of us a more profitable employment than trying to make diamonds out of our own charcoal.—John Ruskin.
(b) There is no dignity but of service. How different the whole notion of training is now from what it was in the middle ages. Service was honourable then. The first thing taught then was how to serve. No man could rise to the honour of knighthood without service. A nobleman’s son even had to wait on his father, or to go into the family of another nobleman, and wait upon him as a page, standing behind his chair at dinner. This was an honour. No notion of degradation was in it; it was a necessary step to higher honour. And what was the next higher honour? To be free from service? No. To serve in the harder service of the field; to be a squire to some noble knight, to tend his horse, to clean his armour, to see that every rivet was sound, every buckle true, every strap strong, to ride behind him and carry his spear, and if more than one attacked him to rush to his aid. This service was the more honourable because it was harder, and was the next step to higher honour yet. And what was this higher honour? That of knighthood. Wherein did this knighthood consist? The very word means simply service. And for what was the knight thus waited on by his squire? That he might be free to do as he pleased? No, but that he might be free to be the servant of all. By being a squire first, the servant of one, he learned to rise to the higher rank, that of servant of all. His horse was tended, his armour observed, his sword and spear and shield held to his hand, that he might have no trouble looking after himself, but might be free, strong, unwearied, to shoot like an arrow to the rescue of any and every one who needed his ready aid. There was a grand heart of Christianity in that old chivalry.—George Macdonald.
GOD’S KNOWLEDGE OF HIS PEOPLE
(Num_1:5)
“These are the names of the men that shall stand with you.”
The text teaches that the Lord knew these “princes of the tribes of their fathers”—their names, their parentage, their fitness for the work in which they were to take part, etc. We infer that God is perfectly acquainted with His people.
Consider:
I. The great truth here implied.
God knows His people individually and altogether.
1. This is philosophical. If God is infinite, He must know all things. Nothing can be so great as to surpass His comprehension; nothing so small as to escape His notice. Great and small, generally and particularly, He knows all things and everything. “The relation God holds to objects of knowledge,” says Bushnell, “is different in all respects, from that which is held by us. Our general terms, man tree, insect, flower, are the names of particular or single specimens, extended, on the ground of a perceived similarity, to kinds or species. They come, in this manner, to stand for millions of particular men, trees, insects, flowers, that we do not and never can know. But God does not generalise in this manner, getting up general terms under which to handle particulars, which, as particulars, He does not know. His knowledge of wholes is a real and complete knowledge. It is a knowledge of wholes as being a distinct knowledge of particulars. He knows the wholes in the particulars, the particulars in the wholes.” “History acquaints us, that Cyrus had so vast a memory, that he knew the name of every particular soldier in his army, which consisted of divers nations; shall it be too hard for an infinite understanding to know every one of that host that march under His banners?” (a)
2. This is Scriptural. See 1Ki_19:14-18; Psa_1:6; Psa_56:8; Psa_147:3-4; Isa_40:26-31; Mal_3:16-17; Mat_6:25-34; Mat_10:29-30; Joh_10:3; Joh_10:14; Joh_10:27; Php_4:3; 2Ti_2:19; Rev_3:5; Rev_21:27. “No doubt but He that calls the stars of heaven by their names, knows the number of those living stars that sparkle in the firmament of His Church. He cannot be ignorant of their persons, when He numbers the hairs of their heads, and hath registered their names in the book of life.… He knows them as a general to employ them, as a shepherd to preserve them.” God’s knowledge of His people involves His favour towards them. It is a knowledge not of apprehension merely, but of approbation also. It implies affection for them, the exercise of care over them, etc., as in Amo_3:2.
II. The practical bearings of this great truth.
The realization of this truth will tend,—
1. To restrain from sin. The consideration of God’s perfect acquaintance with us is fitted to check any rising inclination to evil. “The ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He pondereth all His goings.”
2. To promote sincerity of life. He cannot he imposed upon by any empty forms or hollow pretences. Our thoughts and feelings are known to Him. And simulation and dissimulation are an abomination in His sight.
3. To promote humility. The consideration of God’s knowledge makes manifest the greatness of our ignorance, “We are but of yesterday, and know nothing.” God knows all our secret sins,—all unholy desire, etc. Surely this should humble us.
4. To quicken reverence towards God. Great intelligence is a thing to command respect and admiration. But He in whom infinite intelligence is joined with infinite holiness should be admired and adored.
5. To comfort the godly under reproaches. So it proved to Job when misunderstood and falsely accused by his friends (Job_16:19; Job_23:10).
6. To sustain the godly in affliction and trial. He who thoroughly knows each and every one of His people will certainly support them in their afflictions, give them patience in their trials, and in His own time deliver them from all troubles.
7. To incite to hearty obedience. If He knows us always and altogether, shall we not endeavour to do those things which He approves? If He regards us with favour, shall we not seek to love and honour Him?
8. To strengthen trust in God. No plans that are formed against His people are unknown to Him. His own designs are formed in infinite wisdom. He knows all our temptation and weakness, all our danger and need. And His power to help is as great as His intelligence. “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any one pluck them out of my hands.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) A little child sits on the verandah and watches the worm. He is a voyager for his food on the leaf of the mulberry tree, and he goes eating, eating, eating. Let us suppose that some Divine Power enables that worm to be so far intelligent as to say, “It is said that there are beings who can understand this whole tree; but it does not seem to me possible. I can comprehend how there might be beings that should understand this leaf, and the next three or four; but to take in all the million leaves on this tree is a thing that transcends my conception. I do not believe it possible for any magnified worm to understand so much.” It is not possible for any worm. But there is a little Sunday-school child sitting on the verandah, who looks on the tree and sees the whole of it; and not only sees the whole of it, but can individualize the leaves at its pleasure. How easy it is for that little child to take in that whole tree! and how hard it is for that worm to take in more than three leaves! And let that child grow up, and be educated, and trained in landscape-gardening, and it will take in, not merely a tree, but a whole forest. If one leaf is coloured, if one twig is broken, if there is a dry branch, it does not escape his notice. Differences of hue, light, and shadow, the infinite diversities that come in forest life—he takes them all in, and has a kind of omnipresence in his consciousness of the facts of this whole matter. What could a worm understand or imagine of a being that is competent to take in the realm of philosophy, and that makes himself the measure of creation? He says, “It does not seem reasonable to me that anybody can understand more than twenty leaves. I cannot; and I do not see how anybody else can.” And yet, do not you understand how a person can take in sections, and gradations, and ranks, and degrees infinitely above what a worm could understand? And have you anything more to do than to carry on that idea to imagine a Being before whom all eternity passes, and to whom all the infinite treasures of this eternity shall be just as simple as to you the leaves on the individual tree are? It only requires magnitude of being, infinity.—H. W. Beecher.
The sun is a natural image of God; if the sun had an eye, it would see; if it had an understanding, it would know all visible things; it would see what it shines upon, and understand what it influenceth, in the most obscure bowels of the earth. Doth God excel His creature, the sun, in excellency and beauty, and not in light and understanding? certainly more than the sun excels an atom or grain of dust. We may yet make some representation of this knowledge of God by a lower thing, a picture, which seems to look upon every one, though there be never so great a multitude in the room where it hangs; no man can cast his eye upon it, but it seems to behold him in particular; and so exactly, as if there were none but him upon whom the eye of it were fixed; and every man finds the same cast of it: shall art frame a thing of that nature, and shall not the God of art and all knowledge, be much more in reality than that is in imagination? Shall not God have a far greater capacity to behold everything in the world, which is infinitely less to Him than a wide room to a picture?—Charnocke.
THE CENSUS AND ITS TEACHINGS
(Num_1:17-19.)
This census was taken as they were formed into a nation. In Egypt they were not a nation, but hordes of slaves. Now begins their national existence. God reduces them to order, consolidates them, that they might undertake the responsibilities and enjoy the privileges of nationhood.
Why did God give us this record? Paul writes that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable,” etc. The Bible is a practical book; it is inspired for our profit—all of it. True, some portions are more esteemed by us than others are. Look at the well-used Bible of an aged Christian. Some parts are more soiled than others. Is this right? Yes. It is compatible with reverence for the whole Bible, just as Christ, while loving all the disciples, had his three best-loved among them. But we ought not to neglect any part of the Bible. There is a blessing in all of it. In places we least expect it, we find it to be inspired for our profit. This chapter seems dry and profitless, but it is not so. Like some of the glens in South Wales,—sterile, barren, unattractive, and, to the outward look, valueless; but underneath are coal mines and untold wealth. So with this chapter. Let us inquire, what this numbering was calculated to teach the people at the time, and in like manner to teach us at the present day?
I. It was calculated to teach them the grand fact that God was personally interested in and well acquainted with each one of them individually.
The object of the census was to individualize them, to separate each from the mass, to register each name that the record might be kept before God. He wanted them all to feel, that He knew them and was interested in them. There is a tendency in man to think that he is lost in the mass, and that the great God is not interested in him. This tendency is very pernicious; it leads to sin, and then to despair. The Bible all through combats it; and there is no doubt that it was one great design of this census. This chapter is to us like the microscope in nature—revealing to us God’s greatness by the interest He takes in the individual. It is a grand truth to feel, God sees me, knows all about me, cares for me. He is not some cold abstraction, indifferent, inaccessible, and unmindful of us. Far from it. The Bible and Christ bring Him near to us, showing Him to be full of interest in us. He feeds the fowls, clothes the lilies, knows the varying market-price of sparrows, numbers the hairs of our heads, knew the street, house, and person where Peter lodged. Struggling, anxious, suffering one, single yourself from the crowd. God knows, loves, cares for thee.
II. It was a vivid illustration of the faithfulness of God to His word.
He had said to Abraham that his seed should be numerous, that they should go to Egypt, etc. The figures of this chapter show how well He kept His word. To faith a fact is better than a hundred arguments. And anything that strengthens our faith in God’s Word is a great blessing to us. The worth of the Bible and its promises in a suffering, sinful world no one can tell. To shake one’s faith in the promises is like going through a hospital and rudely tearing the pillows from under the heads of the sufferers. It is faithfulness that makes the promises precious. What a comfort to Israel to have confidence in the Word of God, to feel that they could trust Him! Nothing would impress His faithfulness more than this census, showing how well He Had kept His promise to Abraham. It also speaks to us, etc.
III. It afforded them striking proof of God’s power to keep His word.
God is not only true, but His arm is almighty. It was by this census that the people knew how many they were. God led them out of Egypt, rescued them at the Red Sea, protected and fed them thus far in the wilderness. Was there anything too hard for the Lord? Would not all this encourage them to lean on His arm? He had proved His power to keep His word. God is equal to all our wants. His word is true; His arm is strong. With such a God for our Friend we have nothing to fear, etc. “Among the gods there is none like unto Thee, O Lord.” “Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help.”
“This God is the God we adore.
Our faithful unchangeable Friend;
Whose love is as great as His power,
And knows neither measure nor end.
’Tis Jesus, the First and the Last,
Whose Spirit shall guide us safe home:
We’ll praise Him for all that is past,
And trust Him for all that’s to come.”
Hart.
These figures then are eloquent. Let them lead us to trust more fully in God. The ungodly! what say they to you? They certify your doom, if ye repent not. The threatenings as well as the promises of the Bible rest on the word of the faithful and almighty God.—David Lloyd.
THE FIRST ARMY OF ISRAEL, AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE CHURCH MILITANT
(Num_1:20-46.)
In these verses we have the record of the number of men “from twenty years old and upwards that were able to go forth to war” in the respective tribes, and in the whole of the tribes united, with the exception of that of Levi. A consideration of the numbers of the respective tribes will be found in other commentaries. We propose to consider this first army of Israel as an illustration of the Church Militant.
Consider:
I. The necessity of this army.
Before the Children of Israel can take possession of the Promised Land the idolatrous Canaanitish nations must be dispossessed. To expel them from the country Israel must encounter them in battle and vanquish them. And to do this a large and brave army was necessary. It is necessary that the Christian Church should be militant. The individual Christian cannot attain the inheritance or spiritual perfection without conflict. And the Church cannot take its true place or fulfil its Divinely appointed mission without doing vigorous battle.
1. Internal foes have to be conquered. In ourselves there are carnal appetites which must be subdued, evil passions which must be quelled by the power and principles of Divine grace, etc. The Christian has to achieve self-conquest. “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” “The battle in which thoughts are the only swords, and purposes are the only spears, and tears are the only shots—the inward struggles of men’s souls—these are, after all, the mightiest battles; and in the sight of God they are the most sublime.”
2. External foes have to be conquered. God summons us to do battle with ignorance and superstition, with dirt and disease, with immorality and irreligion, with vice and crime. We need to guard against Satanic subtlety, and to resist Satanic influence. It is madness to make light of the adversaries with which the Church of Jesus Christ has to contend. It is to invite defeat, etc.
II. The authority for organising this army.
“The Lord spake unto Moses,” expressly commanding him to take the number of men able to do military duty. The first army of Israel was organised under Divine direction. May we not infer from this that there are possible circumstances in which war is justifiable? In itself war is unquestionably a terrible evil. (a). But it certainly appears to us that circumstances may arise in which a nation would be justified in having recourse to war. “The arms are fair,” says Shakspeare, “when the intent of bearing them is just.”
“War is honourable
In those who do their native rights maintain;
In those whose swords an iron barrier are
Between the lawless spoiler and the weak,
But is, in those who draw the offensive blade
For added power or gain, sorded and despicable
As meanest office of the worldly churl.”
Joanna Baillie. (b.)
III. The Composition of this Army.
1. It was composed of Israelites only. None of the “mixed multitude” were included. The warriors were men who could “declare their pedigrees after their families, by the house of their fathers.” In fighting the battles of the Lord in this age thorough decision is required. “Who is on the Lord’s side?” The victorious Church must be composed of true Christians. Victories for truth and right demand the prowess of true and righteous men.
2. It was composed of able men only. “Every male from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war.” In accomplishing His purposes God uses fit instruments. He employs means adapted to the attainment of His ends. In the conflicts of the spiritual life and work every Christian may through Jesus Christ be an able warrior. Weak and timid in ourselves, we may be courageous and “strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”
3. It comprised all the able men. “Every male from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war.” No excuses were allowed. None were exempted. Altogether the army was very large: it consisted of six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty men. Every Christian is called to be a soldier. The continuance and growth of the Christian life are impossible apart from vigorous conflict. We must either vanquish our spiritual enemies, or they will vanquish us. Neutrality is out of the question here. And no thought of truce can be entertained without loss and injury. Neither can we do our fighting by proxy. Every Christian must be a personal combatant in the great conflict.
IV. The conquering spirit of this Army.
Their leaders constantly endeavoured to inspire the soldiers with the spirit of intelligent trust in God. When this spirit animated them they achieved splendid triumphs: when it failed them they turned their backs to their enemies and fled in dismay. Victory in our spiritual conflicts is attainable only through faith. When our faith in God is strong, we are invincible. When it fails, we are overthrown by the first assault of the enemy. “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” True faith gives glorious visions to the spirit, inspires us with heroic courage, girds us with all-sufficient strength, makes us more than conquerors through the Captain of our salvation. (c.)
Conclusion:—
1. A call to decision. “Who is on the Lord’s side?”
2. A call to courage. Our arms are tried and true; our great Leader is invincible; let us then “be strong and of a good courage.”
3. A call to confidence. Our courage, to be true, must spring from faith. By trust we triumph.
“Strong in the Lord of Hosts,
And in His mighty power;
Who in the strength of Jesus trusts
Is more than conqueror.”
C. Wesley.
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) Wherever there is war, there must be injustice on one side or the other, or on both. There have been wars which were little more than trials of strength between friendly nation’s, and in which the injustice was not to each other, but to the God who gave them life. But in a malignant war of these present ages there is injustice of ignobler kind, at once to God and man, which must be stemmed for both their sakes. It may, indeed, be so involved with national prejudices, or ignorances, that neither of the contending nations can conceive it as attaching to their cause; nay, the constitution of their governments, and the clumsy crookedness of their political dealings with each other, may be such as to prevent either of them from knowing the actual cause for which they have gone to war.
John Ruskin.
(b) You may, perhaps, be surprised at my implying that war itself can be right, or necessary, or noble at all. Nor do I speak of all war as necessary, nor of all war as noble. Both peace and war are noble or ignoble according to their kind and occasion. No man has a pro-founder sense of the horror and guilt of ignoble war than I have. I have personally seen its effects upon nations, of unmitigated evil on soul and body, with perhaps as much pity and as much bitterness of indignation as any of those whom you will hear continually declaiming in the cause of peace. But peace may be sought in two ways. One way is as Gideon sought it, when he built his altar in Ophrah, naming it, ‘God send peace,’ yet sought this peace that he loved as he was ordered to seek it and the peace was sent in God’s way:—“The country was in quietness forty years in the days of Gideon.” And the other way of seeking peace is as Menahem sought it, when he gave the King of Assyria a thousand talents of silver, “that his hand might be with him.” That is, you may either win your peace or buy it:—win it, by resistance to evil; buy it, by compromise with evil. You may buy your peace with silenced consciences; you may buy it with broken vows, buy it with lying words, buy it with base connivances, buy it with the blood of the slain, and the cry of the captive, and the silence of lost souls—over hemispheres of the earth, while you sit smiling at your serene hearths, lisping comfortable prayers evening and morning, and counting your pretty Protestant beads (which are flat, and of gold, instead of round, and of ebony, as the monks’ ones were), and so mutter continually to yourselves, “Peace! peace!” when there is no peace, but only captivity and death for you, as well as for those you leave unsaved—and yours darker than theirs.—Ibid.
I believe in war. I believe there are times when it must be taken. I believe in it as a medicine. Medicine is not good to eat, but when you are sick it is good to take. War is not a part of the Gospel; but while men and the world are travelling on a plain where they are not capable of comprehending the Gospel, a rude form of justice is indispensable, though it is very low down. If you go to a plain still higher, war seems to be a very poor instrumentality. And if you go yet higher and higher till you reach that sphere where the crowned Sufferer stands, how hateful and hideous war seems! In the earlier periods of society it is recognised as having a certain value; but its value is the very lowest, and at every step upward, till you come to this central Divine exhibition, it loses in value. Always it is a rude and uncertain police of nations. It is never good. It is simply better than something worse. Physical force is the alternative of moral influence; if you have not one, you must have the other.—H. W. Beecher.
Few religious men could justify most of the wars of history. On one side or other war must be the greatest of all crimes, and the instances in which either side is right are but few. But this does not affect the principle. If but one can be instanced in which a people simply resisted aggression, conquest, violation of liberties, or wrong, it would suffice. If England were invaded by an unprovoked aggressor; if London were assailed, its homes in imminent peril of violation, the property of its merchants, the honour of its women, the lives of its children and citizens imperilled, what should I do? Go out and reason with the invader? appeal to to his sense of righteousness? Yes, it would be right to do that if it were practicable. Crowd into churches to pray? Yes, it would be eminently right to do that. But suppose the invader to be as ambitious, as false, and as conscienceless as Napoleon, to be sunk below any possible appeal to moral feeling, am I passively to let him work his devilry—to burn my house, murder my children, and do worse to my wife and daughters? Am I to pray, and passively expect God to work a moral miracle? I think not. I am to employ righteous means to resist wrong, and to ask God to bless them. If only the magistrate’s sword will deter the robber and the murderer, I am to use that sword; and an army in its only lawful capacity is simply a power of magistracy. Some of the greatest deliverances that God wrought for His people were through armies. The most precious liberties of the world and the Church have been won by armed revolution and defence. From Marathon to the Armada, from the destruction of Sennacherib to that of Napoleon, from the revolt from under Pharaoh to that from under the Stuarts, or the King of Naples, the moral and religious sense of the world has approved the resistance of wrong by force. So long as force and the magistrate and the police are necessary to preserve righteousness and justice and liberty, they must be employed. The ideal of Christianity is peace and universal brotherhood, but it is not to be attained by permitting the ruffian and the robber and the tyrant to work their will unresisted—that would be to leave society to lawlessness and brutality.—H. Allon, D.D.
(c) How often, through the world’s literature and history, have we heard some ambitious commander or emperor babbling, in his vain waking dreams, of a world’s conquest! We turn from these poor visions of cruelty and blood to the meek army of the living God; from the false victories of force to the true victories of faith. Here, on a lowly bed, in an English village by the sea,—as I was lately reading,—fades out the earthly life of one of God’s humblest, but noblest servants. Worn with the patient care of deserted prisoners and malefactors in the town jail for twenty-four years of unthanked service, earning her bread with her hands, and putting songs of worship on the lips of these penitent criminals—she is dying; and as the night falls some friend asks, “What shall I read?” The answer of the short breath is one firm syllable, “Praise!” To the question, “Are there no clouds?” “None; He never hides His face. It is our sins which form the clouds between us and Him. He is all love, all light.” And when the hour of her departure was fully come, “Thank God, thank God!” And there,—as I read again—in his princely residence, surrounded with the insignia of power, but in equal weakness before God, expired a guileless statesman, nobleman by rank and character, calmly resigning back all his power into the Giver’s hands, spending his last days of pain, like many hours of all his days before it, with the Bible and Prayer-book in his feeble hand, saying, at the end, “I have been the happiest of men, yet I feel that death will be gain to me, through Christ who died for me.” Blessed be God for the manifold features of triumphant faith!—that He suffers His children to walk towards Him through ways so various in their outward look;—Sarah Martin from her cottage bed, Earl Spencer from his gorgeous couch, little children in their innocence, unpretending women in the quiet ministrations of faithful love, strong and useful and honoured men, whom suffering households and institutions and churches mourn. All bending their faces towards the Everlasting Light, in one faith, one cheering hope, called by one Lord, who has overcome the world, and dieth no more!
“One army of the living God,
To His command we bow:
Part of His host have crossed the flood,
And part are crossing now.”
The sun sets; the autumn fades; life hastens with us all. But we stand yet in our Master’s vineyard. All the day of our appointed time, let us labour righteously, and pray and wait, till our change come, that we may change only from virtue to virtue, from faith to faith, and thus from glory to glory.—F. D. Huntington, D.D.
THE LEVITES AND THEIR SERVICE AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
(Num_1:47-54)
The tribe of Levi was not numbered with the other tribes. The Levites were exempted from military service, and set apart for the service of the tabernacle. In any wise and proper arrangement of the affairs of human society, provision will be made for the requirements of the spiritual nature of man. The chief features of the service of the Levites as here indicated may properly be regarded as illustrative of the work of the Christian ministry.
I. The true Christian minister should manifest some fitness for the work before he is designated thereto.
The Levites had manifested their zeal for the worship of God by slaying the worshippers of the golden calf at the command of Moses (Exo_32:26-29). And, as a reward, the honour of this sacred calling is conferred upon them. They had already acted as assistants to the priests (Exo_38:21), being of the same tribe as Moses and Aaron. And now they are expressly appointed to the charge of the tabernacle. “But the Levites after the tribe of their fathers were not numbered among them. For the Lord spake” (not “had spoken”) “unto Moses, saying,” etc. “Singular services shall be recompensed with singular honours.” That a person should manifest some fitness for the work of the Christian ministry before he is set apart to it seems so obvious and indisputable that it would be superfluous to call attention to it, were it not that in practice it is so often disregarded. There seems to be in some quarters an impression that almost anyone is competent for the sacred office of the ministry. In determining the trade which their sons shall learn, wise parents will consider their respective inclinations and aptitudes. An artist would, perhaps, make a poor minister; a successful merchant might utterly fail as a barrister. Is there less aptitude required in the work of the Gospel ministry than in the other pursuits of life? Unfitness should be tolerated in any sphere of life and activity rather than in this. There should be adaptation of voice, of mind, of character, etc.
II. That the true Christian minister is called of God to his work.
“The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, … Thou shalt appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of testimony,” etc. In addition to fitness for the office, the true minister will feel a conviction of moral obligation to enter upon the holy work: the impulsions of the Divine Spirit will urge him in the same direction, until the words of St. Paul truly express his condition, “Necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the Gospel.” “True ministers,” says Hugh Miller, “cannot be manufactured out of ordinary men—men ordinary in talent and character—in a given number of years, and then passed by the imposition of hands into the sacred office; ministers, when real, are all special creations of the grace of God.” The Christian ministry is not a profession into which a man may or may not enter as he pleases; but a Divine vocation, which is solemnly binding upon those to whom it is addressed, and without which no man can enter upon it without sin.—(a)
III. That the work of the Christian minister demands his entire devotion thereto.
The Levites were to be free from all other service, that they might give themselves unreservedly to the ministry of the tabernacle. There are men who are rendering (in preaching and otherwise) most useful and self-denying service to the Church of Christ, whose time and energy are not entirely devoted to it. They are worthy of high honour. But the work of the stated minister and pastor demands all his time and energy, if it is to be done well. His duties are so many, so great, and so unspeakably important, as to challenge all his powers. M. Henry:—“Those that minister about holy things should neither entangle themselves, nor be entangled, in secular affairs. The ministry is itself work enough for a whole man, and all little enough to be employed in it.” The Apostle Paul, in writing to the Christians at Rome, specifies their respective duties, and urges each one to diligence in the discharge of his own (Rom_12:6; Rom_12:8). And to Timothy he writes: “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life,” etc. (2Ti_2:3-4). And considering the solemn issues of his work, in conscious weakness he cries, “Who is sufficient for these things?”
“’Tis not a cause of small import
The pastor’s care demands;
But what might fill an angel’s heart,
And filled a Saviour’s hands.”
Doddridge.
IV. That a faithful discharge of the duties of the Christian minister is essential to the well-being of society.
The duties of the Levites are briefly stated in Num_1:50-51; Num_1:53. No one who was not of their tribe was in any way to intermeddle with their duties or encroach upon their position. If a stranger drew near to the tabernacle he was to be put to death. If the functions of the Levites were not properly discharged, wrath would be upon Israel. What was the intention of these strict regulations?
We suggest—
1. That the sacred things might be decently kept and ordered. The Levites had charge “over all the vessels of the tabernacle, and over all things that pertained to it.” It is most important that everything which is used in connection with the worship and service of God should be appropriate to its sacred uses, and be well preserved. God’s service hallows even the meanest things which are employed in it; but we should devote our best things to it.
2. That the people might be inspired with reverence for sacred things. This to us, to a large extent, accounts for the stern penalty annexed to any intrusion upon the function of the Levites. Reverence is one of the highest attributes of mind. The Lord seeks to enkindle or increase it in Israel.
3. That the people might be impressed with the unworthiness of sinful man to approach unto the Most High. We sinners are utterly unfit to draw near unto Him who is “glorious in holiness.” The Levites were called to the charge of the sacred things. They alone could draw near to the tabernacle. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ all men may now draw near to God. (See Heb_10:19-22.)
Now, these things are needful at the present time. Becoming worship, reverence for sacred things, and humility towards God are ever obligatory and beneficial to us. The true Christian minister in the faithful discharge of his duties confers the greatest benefit upon society.—(b)
V. That personal holiness of heart and life are essential to the faithful discharge of the duties of the Christian Ministry.
The Levites were separated from the other tribes for their sacred work. Their outward separation was intended to show forth the separation from worldliness and sin which the Lord required of them. They who have to do with holy things should themselves be holy. “Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord.” (See Rom_2:21-24; 1Ti_4:16; Tit_2:7.) Thus Goldsmith describes the Christian minister—
“In his duty prompt at every call,
He watched and wept, he prayed and felt for all;
And, as a bird each fond endearment tries
To tempt its new-fledged offspring to the skies,
He tried each art, reproved each dull delay,
Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way.” (c)
ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) The minister without a vocation is not only unhappy, he is guilty,—he occupies a place, he exercises a right which does not belong to him. He is, as Jesus Christ said, “a thief and a robber,” who has not entered in through the gate, but climbed up some other way. The word vocation has, in other applications (that is to say, as applied to professions of a secular order), only a figurative significance,—at least only a figurative significance is attributed to it. It is equivalent to aptitude, talent, taste. It is natural to represent these qualifications as voices, as appeals. But when applied to the ministry, the word returns to its proper sense. When conscience authorises and compels us to the discharge of a certain duty, we have that which, although out of the sphere of miracle, deserves most fully the name of vocation. In order to exercise the ministry legitimately, a man must be called to it.—A Vinet.
(b) That a man stand and speak of spiritual things to men. It is beautiful,—even in its great obscuration and decadence, it is among the beautifullest, most touching objects one sees on the earth. This Speaking Man has indeed, in these times, wandered terribly from the point; has, alas! as it were, totally lost sight of the point; yet, at bottom, whom have we to compare with him? Of all public functionaries boarded and lodged on the Industry of Modern Europe, is there one worthier of the board he has? A man even professing, and never so languidly making still some endeavour, to save the souls of men: contrast him with a man professing to do little but shoot the partridges of men! I wish he could find the point again, this Speaking One, and stick to it with tenacity, with deadly energy; for there is need of him yet! The Speaking Function—this of Truth coming to us with a living voice, nay, in a living shape, and as a concrete practical exemplar: this, with all our Writings and Printing Functions, has a perennial place. Could he but find the point again,—take the old spectacles off his nose, and looking up discover, almost in contact with him, what the real Satanas, and soul-devouring, world-devouring Devil, Now is.—Thomas Carlyle.
(c) Beloved in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, it is a very monstrous thing that any man should have more tongues than hands; for God hath given us two hands and but one tongue, that we might do much and say but little. Yet many say so much and do so little, as though they had two tongues and but one hand: nay, three tongues and never a hand. Insomuch as that may be aptly applied to them which Pandulphus said to some in his time: “You say much, but you do little; you say well, but you do ill. Again, you do little, but you say much; you do ill, but you say well.” Such as these (which do either worse than they teach, or else less than they teach; teaching others to do well and to do much, but doing no whit themselves) may be resembled to diverse things. To a whetstone, which being blunt itself, makes a knife sharp; to a painter, which being deformed himself, makes a picture fair; to a sign, which being weather-beaten, and hanging without itself, directs passengers into the inn; to a bell, which being deaf and hearing not itself, calls the people into the church to hear; to a nightingale, which being restless and sitting upon a thorn herself, brings others by her singing into a sweet sleep; to a goldsmith, which being beggarly and having not one piece of plate to use himself, bath store for others which he shows and sells in his shop. Lastly, to a ridiculous actor in the city of Smyrna, which pronouncing “O cœlum!—O heaven!”—pointed with his finger toward the ground; which when Polemo, the chiefest man in the place, saw, he could abide to stay no longer, but went from the company in chafe, saying, “This fool hath made a solecism with his hand; he hath spoken false Latin with his hand.” Such are all they which teach one thing and do another; which teach well and do ill.—Thomas Playfere.
The faithful minister is strict in ordering his conversation. As for those who cleanse blurs with blotted fingers they make it the worse. It was said of one who preached very well, and lived very ill, that when he was out of the pulpit it was a pity he should ever go into it; and when he was in the pulpit, it was a pity he should ever come out of it. But our minister lives sermons. And yet I deny not but dissolute men, like unskilful horsemen who open a gate on the wrong side, may, by the virtue of their office, open heaven for others, and shut themselves out,—Thomas Fuller.
EVERY MAN BY HIS OWN STANDARD
(Num_1:52)
The various tribes of Israel had to be placed in order, and the whole to be put under a strict regulation. This was needful for encampment, for march, for worship, for battle: without this, confusion, etc. Israel in many things typical of the Christian Church. We see it in this also,—
I. The One Israel.
Observe:
1. Their real oneness of descent. The children of Abraham.
2. Their original condition. All bondsmen.
3. Their Divine, deliverance. Brought out of Egypt, etc.
4. In one Divine covenant. Promises, etc.
5 Journeying to the one inheritance.
6. Under one command. See how this all applies to the Church of the Saviour. All the children of God by faith, all heirs, all pilgrims, all of one covenant, one Saviour, etc.—essentially one; one in Christ Jesus.
II. The various Tribes.
Observe:
1. Their different names. Necessary for distinction—recognition.
2. Their different positions in the camp. See next chapter. East side, Num_5:3; south side, Num_5:10; west, Num_5:18; north, Num_5:25.
3. The various tribes were in one general accord and union. All one religious confederacy, absolutely one, worship one, etc.; in perils one, in warfare one, in prospects one.
III. The Special Directions to the different Tribes.
1. Each tribe had their own standard or banner to distinguish it from the rest. No order without.
2. Each man was to be by his own standard. Not a wanderer; not a visitor to all; but his own fixed, legitimate position.
3. Thus the duties of every tribe would be regarded and fulfilled.
4. Thus the interests of all would be sustained. Now, if this was important and necessary in the camp of Israel, how much more in the Church of the Lord Jesus! The thousands there: millions here. But let us see,—
IV. The Spiritual Lessons the subject presents to us.
1. We see now the denominational tribes in the Kingdom of Christ. Christians of different conditions, education, training, leaders, etc.
2. Christians have a special interest in their own camp.
3. To devote themselves to these is the first duty and privilege. Just as families are constituted, so churches.
4. All the various denominational camps constitute the one Church of the Saviour. Only one Israel, one body, one army, etc. For particular purposes, every man by his own camp; for general purposes, all acting in conjunction and harmony. How absurd jealousies and envyings! How ridiculous isolation! How oppressive assumptions and priestly dictations! How suicidal strifes and contentions! How monstrous exclusions and anathemas! The great tabernacle of God is built four-square, and includes all the tribes. Christian denominations have special standards, and serve the whole best by every man being by his own standard. The glory of God is identified with the unity of the whole. Christ’s prayer to Him, etc.—Jabez Burns, D.D.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 Subdivision 1. (Num 1:1-54; Num 2:1-34.)
Subdivision 1. (Num 1:1-54; Num 2:1-34.)
The organization and muster.
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The first two chapters are the first subdivision, the mustering of the people as a whole, even the place of the Levites being indicated in the second chapter, though these are separated from the body of the nation for a prescribed service in connection with the sanctuary. Apart from them, the number of the tribes is maintained by the incorporation of Joseph’s two sons as tribal heads according to Gen 48:1-22. In this muster the organization carried out is the natural one, by families or "fathers’ houses:" two terms which appear to be co-extensive, contrary as this is to the usual thought.* The difference between them is, that the word for "family" implies subjection to authority,** while the father’s house shows that this authority has its grounds in the natural relation. Such is God’s relationship to His people, of which the father is the image. Here rule should be as easy as obedience delightful. In family groups they were thus linked together in God’s host, brother fighting alongside of brother, an army so compacted as to be, one might suppose, invincible. And what a means of encouragement, and of the impartation of energy, has God provided for us as Christians, who are members of one family, owning a common. Father, and embarked together in a common cause! Alas! how much feebleness has come in through God’s order having been departed from: so many among us who cannot show their names upon the register, and so few together of those undoubtedly akin! And yet, with all this, we are still able to realize in measure the blessedness of the divine thought for us, and the comfort and power that result from this family organization, such as we find it in Israel.
{*The "fathers’ houses" are generally considered to be subdivisions of the "families;" but they are used in a way which would seem to forbid this. Thus, although the usual order here is "by families, by fathers’ houses," yet we find this order reversed also (Num 3:15; Num 4:22); and while on the one hand the numbering is sometimes by fathers’ houses only, (as Num 1:45; Num 32:1-42; Num 26:2,) in the second registration there are specified families alone. Both terms are used also in the most general way, even for a whole tribe (Num 1:4; Num 2:2; Num 17:2; Jos 7:17; Jdg 17:7). Num 3:20, "These are the families of the Levites, according to their fathers’ houses," seems to identify them as certainly the account to which it is appended only mentions "families;" and their identity is plainly stated, according to my translation of Num 4:38; Num 4:46.
** Mishpach, (from shaphach, to humble, to subject,) is so denominated from being. subject to or under the authority of the master of the family. So in Latin, familia, a family, is from famulus, a servant. -(Parkhurst.)}
1. The first chapter gives this enrolling, "the sum of all the assembly of the children of Israel," but only their effective force, those fit for warfare, not women or babes, but grown men. In Christ of course there is neither male nor female, and women do not escape from spiritual warfare: but the thought conveyed to us here is none the less plain and significant. It is not the simple fact of being Christians that makes us practically fit to be warriors. Any that are Christ’s may of course have to fight, but to be properly a warrior is a different thing. For this we must have two things which indeed come near together, and are both covered by the number which marks the section. First of all, maturity, which in the Greek stands as "perfectness," "wholeness," (teleiotes,) the full harmony of all the faculties. For this as saints we need to be nourished up by the Word of God. And secondly, what the apostle gives as necessary for a good soldier of Christ," devotedness, not to be entangled with the affairs of this life, which from another side brings us again to the thought of entireness, oneness. Thus to the Corinthians he complains that their carnality kept them still "babes in Christ." Here then is our title to enrollment among those "fit for war" in the spiritual Israel.
(1) The persons able to do the work of numbering are, first of all, Moses and Aaron, the double type of Christ as King and Priest. He is indeed the One who knoweth them that are His, and under whose eye His servants are: the Lord who rules, and He who intercedes for and sustains them. Good it is to be under an eye like this!
Under Moses and Aaron there are certain princes of the people, each identified with his own tribe, and in due time coming to be head over it. Of these we have nothing noted but their own and their fathers’ names, but just for that reason, if there could otherwise be doubt, we may be sure that their names are intended to speak to us. All these Bible names should speak and their connection with the several tribes which they represent must be of importance: there must be a reason why Elizur, rather than Shelumiel or Nahshon, should be prince of Reuben; and it is in exploring Reuben’s history that we should find it.
That history of Reuben, as of the other tribes, we shall find in a prophetic summary in Jacob’s dying words, where divine wisdom has given the moral of it, the character of Reuben as therein shown, and the lessons we are to derive from it. We may turn then with confidence to the words of this grand prophecy, with which we are already familiar, to gather aid in the understanding of what is now before us.
Reuben stands first then here as in Genesis, and Reuben’s prince is Elizur the son of Shedeur. The first of these names is unquestionable in its meaning, as it is beautiful, -"God is a Rock." And this seems at once plain when connected with the character which Jacob gives to his first-born, "unstable, -boiling over -as water, thou shalt not excel." How grandly in opposition to the instability of Reuben is the rock-like stability of God! And it is the learning of this, and how to build upon it, that imparts stability to the unstable. In ourselves there is never strength, and the way of strength for us is to know this: "when I am weak, then am I strong." An Abraham with whom the body is now dead, needs -and finds because he needs -the Almighty God.
Thus it is plain why Elizur is Reuben’s prince and leader. He is one of God’s royal family of overcomers, and he overcomes the evil, native in the tribe he represents. Faith with him has found refuge from himself, and found it in God. He is then the suited captain for the men fit for war in the tribe of the first-born.
But this is not the whole: for Reuben’s instability is more than weakness. Too many excuse as that what is in fact willfulness, the lust of the flesh; and though there is weakness necessarily in such a case, nevertheless that word does not describe the case. So we have seen it to be in what is before us: lust and will characterize the first-born of Jacob, as they do the first outcome of man in general; and so, before one can find one’s strength in God, the holiness of God must be known, and our wills must be brought into conformity with His holiness. And this is accomplished more or less for us all in the fire of purification, the fire at which He sits as a Refiner of silver, purifying to Himself His people from their dross. No marvel then is it that the Reubenite Elizur is "the son of Shedeur:" that is, "the Almighty is fire." Yes, "our God is a consuming fire;" and He truly is the Almighty who is this, so that there is no escape out of His hands, when in love He takes up with us this His gracious work. Thus is the lesson learned, and how good when one has learned it! yea, "the knowledge of the Holy is" indeed "understanding."
The next tribe, in birth order, perhaps in character, is Simeon; and the prince of Simeon is Shelumiel, "at peace with God." Again, how significant if we turn back to Jacob’s prophecy, and hear him denounce on God’s part Simeon’s cruel wrath! His paths had not been peace, nor with Him who is "the God of peace:" hence peace with God, the deep, sweet rest of a mind conformed to His mind, Simeon could not know. Now with the Simeonite prince all this is changed; as to Simeon’s special evil he too is an overcomer, and his also is the victory of faith: there is no evil which faith cannot overcome, because He with whom it links itself is the Almighty. And so in the process indicated here, Shelumiel is the son of Zurishaddai, -that is, "My rock is the Almighty."
We have had much this thought already in Elizur, for the very simplest truths that faith embraces are of the widest reach and deepest import. Here, though the thought is much the same, the connection is different, just as Simeon is different from Reuben in his character. While Reuben is, as Jacob says, "the topmost of my strength," Simeon’s very alliance with his brother is the confession of weakness, but a weakness which he would remedy by a recourse to that to which at present so many are betaking themselves -confederacy. And here he does find it indeed, but only to make cruel use of it, and to walk in separation from God. On his part therefore it brings in the end division and scattering. This is a necessity for him, if he is to be saved from himself; that, having found what the strength of nature betrays one to, he may turn to Him in whom there is all-sufficiency and with whom is holiness. This is now the Simeonite prince’s alliance, and such an one needs never to be broken up again. Out of such have all great movements come; and here in such an alliance, as nowhere else, that individuality which is essential to the integrity and perfection of all true manhood is maintained; heart, conscience, the moral nature, are exercised and developed. Thus Shelumiel, that true peace with God which is the result of communion, springs from Zurishaddai, the known and enjoyed strength of the Almighty.
In the third place we have Judah, and here a condition very different from that of the two preceding tribes. In Judah we find the worshiper, and the strength implied in the spirit of praise. For the lesson of the two former histories is learnt in this: the heart that rejoices in God Himself has ceased from its own will and found communion in the path of obedience. Thus there is strength: but here we may seem to have no room for the overcomer. Is it so in fact? and does the prince of Judah no more exemplify what we have found to be in the former ones? We may as well ask, what room is there for the overcomer in the church of Philadelphia, where (as in the other churches) there is a distinct promise to one? But the answer is, there is in Philadelphia, as elsewhere, still a tendency to slip away, -not to hold fast that which they have; and here then at least there is a need for overcoming. Just so with that which characterizes Judah. The spirit of praise may all too easily be lost, and Nahshon may teach us how to retain it. He may be in this sense an overcomer.
Nahshon then means "a diviner," not necessarily in a bad sense. It is a word used for diligent observation (1Ki 20:33); and divining, apart from the heathenism so much associated with it, is but the discernment in the present of the future: and so may the child of God divine. In that which makes him a worshiper he may find what will give him prophetic insight into the future. Nahshon is therefore the son of Amminadab, or, as the last word means, of "the people of the Liberal Giver." Here faith gets then its foresight, in the knowledge of His free grace to whom we belong. How beautiful is this genealogy of a prophet! and how this spirit breathes throughout the psalms, so largely Judah’s! Still more should we be able to take as the ground of a happy confidence, "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Thus the spirit of praise is nursed within us.
Issachar’s prince comes fourth in the list, Nathaniel, the "gift of God:" again exactly suited to him whose name speaks of hire, and whose tendency is to stoop his shoulder to foreign yokes, and to pay his tribute from the love of ease. The spirit of legality takes up readily with such strange service, as it is self which it really serves, and a bribe will turn it from its true Master. Yet, though God may hire a Nebuchadnezzar (Eze 29:18), the bread in our Father’s house is not for hirelings, though in the far-off country one might think so. As we have seen, at His redemption-feast no hireling sits (Exo 12:45). Yet the hireling spirit in the people of God themselves would turn His grace into legal compensation, and a true overcomer is this Nathaniel who has learnt that the "gift of God" cannot be purchased. Here, too, the genealogy speaks very simply of how grace is apprehended: he is the son of Zuar, -that is "Little." For he who thinks of hire values himself necessarily at too high a rate, and he who estimates himself as really "little" is ready to appreciate the gift of God.
Yet there is a right thought of recompense -a reward, of "mercy" (2Ti 1:18) which love will not be denied in giving, -which is really but the gift of God. This can never become to the soul as hire, the motive to service, and for this reason, that it is the reward of true devotedness alone, and not self-seeking: to work for the reward is to lose it. Issachar’s captain must in this way also be Nathaniel.
In the fifth place here we find Zebulon; and in Zebulon we have seen Israel forgetting her separation to God, and stretching out toward the Gentiles. How sadly has this tendency to departure shown itself in the Church with regard to her more vital and wider separation from the world! and who can sufficiently estimate the evil resulting? When Balaam afterward sees the people in the "vision of the Almighty," the first thing that he sees is a people that dwell "alone, and are not reckoned among the nations." When with satanic craft he is laboring to injure whom he cannot destroy, he seeks to seduce them from this position by Midianitish women. In the Church the "unequal yoke" was very early brought in, and the apostle’s words show the magnitude of the evil resulting. "For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an unbeliever? . . . . Where: fore come out from among them, and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." (2Co 6:14-18.)
God is the Father of His believing people; but if they mix themselves with the world in forgetfulness of whose they are, they force Him, as it were, to forget their special relation to Himself. He cannot be to them. a Father as He would. How terrible is this loss, then, little as many regard it! And how powerfully does Zebulon’s captain witness to us in this way -Eliab, "God is a Father!" May it speak with all its solemnity, and with all its precious encouragement, to His people’s hearts! Thus Zebulon, "dwelling," gets its right significance.*
{*Of Helon, -the second name -the interpretation is so little assured, that I think it safer here to pass it by.}
Leah’s children end with this, save Levi, whose place is elsewhere. We have now Rachel’s, Joseph first claiming his double portion in his two sons. Of these, Ephraim comes first according to Jacob’s prophetic destination to this place of the younger born. Ephraim’s prince is Elishama, "God hath heard;" for the very "fruitfulness" of which Ephraim speaks may be a snare to us if we have not learnt reverently to ascribe it to One who heareth His people’s prayer. The second name, Ammihud, "the people of Majesty," may intimate that conscious relationship to the infinite Greatness which is the warrant and stimulus of successful prayer. All these names breath a spirit of dependence and of nearness, -of lowliness, yet of intimacy, -things that go necessarily together. There is abundant access for the humble-hearted; "the proud He beholdeth afar off." The nearest intimacy with God cannot minister to pride or go with it: the assumption of nearness, where the will is not subdued, and the spirit is unchastened, is but a false assumption. Who that has fairly measured himself in the presence of God but must carry with him the crippling of his human strength, as Jacob carried from Peniel his halting thigh?
And now we come to Manasseh: "Manasseh" means, as we know, "forgetting." "God has made me to forget," says Joseph, "all my kindred, and my father’s house." It is translated into Christian experience, the spirit of the racer, who sees no more what is once behind him, as he presses on toward the prize before. And this last thought Manasseh’s prince supplies. His name is Gamaliel, -"God is a rewarder." As it is said of Moses, He had respect to the recompense of the reward." (Heb 11:26. )
Here the interlacing of divine truth brings us back to Issachar; yet, as approaching it from another side, the truth itself is different. The danger is not now of legality: rather, as the future is faced thus, there is need of what shall give competency to meet with assurance of heart the thought of recompense. That competency is here in the second name, Pedahzur, "the Rock hath redeemed." Only from the conviction of the strength of our salvation can we start for the goal of divine recompense, -forgetting the things behind in the consciousness of what Eye rests upon us, and of a heart that forgets never: may we so press on!
Then follows Benjamin, who wherever we find him is the warrior, type of Christ Himself in the power that will put down evil in the earth in a day to come. For ourselves also in the meantime, -for us who are to be among the white-robed hosts that follow Him, when He comes forth as the white-horsed warrior to the judgment of that day, -a conflict with evil is appointed, not with carnal weapons, but so real and well-contested that we need all the panoply of God. From this no one that is Christ’s can escape, save only by desertion of his post. How can he fittingly be with Christ in that day, who has never contended in the strife of this?
It will be said, perhaps, that all the tribes here are warriors, and just because the warfare is appointed to all, it would seem as if there could be no special warrior type among them; but Benjamin’s presence here is sufficient proof that this is a mistake. Not only, as has been already said, may those be in the conflict who are not warriors, but there are also different kinds of warfare, -defensive as well as offensive, in the fort and in the field. Benjamin is the type of the aggressive soldier, not the shield-bearer, but the swordsman or the slinger, such as there were in Benjamin at another day, -"seven hundred chosen men, . . . . every one could sling stones at a hair’s breadth, and not miss" (Jdg 20:16). This God would have in His people also, not the mere holding of the fort, but the going out to war, as when the land is to be won, or brethren are to be delivered.
This, then, is the Benjamite, and the prince of Benjamin is Abidan, "My father is judge." Not according to men’s judgment merely, least of all our own, but according to God’s judgment, must every thing be conducted here; but not merely that even: the Father’s judgment is what we who are His children are ourselves under, as the apostle admonishes us: "If ye call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here with fear." (1Pe 1:17.)
What more needful admonition in the controversy with evil than this, to re member that we ourselves are under our Father’s holy eye! How can we contend elsewhere with that whose power we are ignoring over our own hearts and ways? In the dark days which so quickly followed Israel’s possession of the land, the judge was the deliverer: "and when the Lord raised them up judges, then the Lord was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; . . . and it came to pass when the judge was dead, that they returned and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, . . . and the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel." This then was the twofold office of the judge: as it was said of Othniel, "He judged Israel, and went out to war." Benjamin’s prince then is Abidan.
But Abidan also is the son of Gideoni, -"the cutter down." For that from which proceeds all true after-judgment is the acceptance of that first judgment at the cross in which the tree of humanity had to be felled in order to construct the ark of salvation. Christ crucified is our deliverance, but Christ crucified is also the judgment of the flesh: "our old man was crucified with Him." Thus it is because Christ died to sin we are to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin; and to be so reckoning is power over it. If there be shoots from the stump, the knife and the axe have still their place; but for intelligent faith Gideoni has well done his woodman’s work. We have not to die to sin; we are dead: not in experience, but "with Christ," therefore for faith. All self-judgment afterward proceeds upon this judgment of God upon us, -a judgment which when accepted by us is ability for all the rest. Gideoni is the father of Abidan.
The children of the two wives are now told out, and we come to the children of the bondmaids. The first of these is Dan, "judgment," the spirit of rule, which, as Dan’s origin points out, is really service. Yet in man’s hand how readily it is turned from this! "Man being in honor abideth not." Instead of using his place for the blessing of those entrusted to his care, he uses it for himself, feeds with it his ambition or his greed in some form, and becomes a rebel to the One from whom he derives authority. Thus in Dan, as we have seen in Jacob’s prophecy, is found the apostate. But for this, as for all else, there is a remedy with God, and Dan is here in his place with his captain Ahiezer, -"brother of help," the son of Ammishaddai, -"the people of the Almighty." Let them be realized in this relation, and the ruler becomes according to God’s design, the "helping brother" of those over whom he is appointed. Thus do the hills after their nature minister to the valleys, and God in His love serves all: for this is true greatness ever: "without contradiction the less is blessed of the better," and "it is more blessed to give than to receive." (Heb 7:7; Act 20:35.)
Asher follows Dan: his prince is Pagiel, -"event of God," the son of Ocran, -"afflicted." Strange names these in connection with Asher, -the "happy," and whose portion in Jacob’s prophecy answers to his name. Yet "He maketh all things work together for good to them that love Him," and sorrow in His hands is turned into joy. To true happiness here, as well as. for a guard against the dangers of it, some strain of sorrow seems of necessity to mingle with it, something wherein the soul has to submit itself to God, -to say it is the Lord, "the event is of God." The apostle’s thorn in the flesh after his ecstasy in the third heaven may tell us this as to the most spiritual joys. Asher’s prince is often a Pagiel, as Pagiel is truly Ocran’s child: "tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope."
And now we have Gad, whose prince is Eliasaph, -"God hath added;" he is the son of Deuel, -"known of God." How good a thing it is to be known of God! For this does not of course mean merely such knowledge as God has of every thing, but the knowledge we have of one with whom we are intimate, and which implies approval. And this is truly the secret of spiritual increase such as Eliasaph speaks of, the last part of whose name is the same word as "Joseph." Leah’s exclamation when Gad is born shows that this is the thought also in his name. Need we be told that increase is to be looked for in a child of God? Or how sad a proof it is of the lack of divine intimacy when there is not this? And yet there are those whose stagnant condition would imply that they have no thought of this: if they are safe, it is enough; they do not "grow in grace," they remain babes, a condition which the apostle traces in the Corinthians to their carnality.
We have but one tribe more, that of Naphtali. His prince is Ahira, "brother of evil," the son of Enan, which means apparently "eyed," or "having eyes." This is the most difficult name perhaps to interpret of all that we have had; the words also being susceptible of other meanings, though these are the simplest ones. May it be that in Ahira we find one whose eyes have affected his heart, like another Jeremiah (Lam 3:51), and made him a man of sorrows in sympathy with the sorrow around? Such a spirit one would suppose to need expression among these leaders of Israel, and thus the "brother of evil" would come to be the "brother born for adversity," of which Proverbs speaks (Pro 17:17). And this would not suit ill with the character of that Naphtali, whose own name is a memorial of "struggling," and whose "pleasant words" are noted in that prophecy of Jacob to which there seems constant reference all through.
These, then, are Israel’s princes, able to muster and lead to victory the hosts of the redeemed, as being personally overcomers in regard to their surroundings or the tendencies to failure amid which they are. In the constant battle-field which this world is for us, we must indeed be overcomers or overcome. All the men fit for war must be ranged under these leaders, as in the addresses to the seven churches of Revelation, the promises are all for overcomers. Here is the test for us, and we cannot excuse ourselves from it: blessed be God, if we have the spirit of the overcomer, the evil round can never master us, any more than the darkness of night can keep the stars from shining. The darkness is their opportunity to shine!
(2) As to the number of the tribes which is now given to us, we must learn better the symbolism of numbers and the meaning of these tribal divisions themselves, before we can expect to find what is hid in it. Yet we may be well assured that there is here, as elsewhere, such deeper meaning, which should en courage attempt to seek it. God has forbidden idle words: can there be such in His own book? Assuredly not; it is impossible; and the first condition of successful search is the faith that accredits Him with a wisdom and love which has every where hidden in it the treasures which are to reward this.
(3) The separation of the Levites to God for the work of the tabernacle is now declared. They are to be the body-guard of the divine King, and as the priests go in to God to perform their intercessory service in behalf of the people, so the Levites keep them from the wrath that would follow the intrusion of the stranger into the tabernacle of God, the holy things of which they bear through the desert in all their journeyings. They are thus the distinct types of ministry which addresses itself from God to man, as priesthood does from man to God. These things will, however, come fully before us in a little while, and we shall till then defer the discussion of them.
2. The people, being numbered, are next ranged round the sanctuary, the Levites, as we have seen, being in the innermost circle, and the rest of the tribes arranged in four large camps, three tribes in each camp, under the standard of one of them as chief. Here, as so commonly then, the twelve divide into 4 x 3, not with less significance here than elsewhere: the number of manifest sovereignty -for the Lord is in the midst of His people -may show how God transforms the place of trial into the means of the display of Himself in power over it.
The four camps lie to the four quarters, east, south, west, and north, from which come the outside influences, which, in a world like this may be any of them adverse, and which the people of God must meet in the power of Him who is among them. They must be independent of circumstances, carrying their resources, in this sense, within themselves. The whole order has reference to these outside influences, as we may see more shortly, the entire wilderness journey being a warfare, and the people’s dwelling-place a camp.
The divisions and associations of the tribes can only be understood aright as we study them in detail.
(1) The first division is that of Judah, with whom, under his standard, are Issachar and Zebulon. The position of his camp is doubly indicated as "eastward, toward the sunrising," two expressions which we may be sure are not mere tautology, for there is nothing of this kind in the Word of God; and inquiry here, as elsewhere, will not be without result.
In fact the two expressions are in a sense in contrast. They both speak of the east, where of course the sun rises; but while the sunrise always conveys the idea of joy and blessing as connected with the returning day, the other word implies rather the opposite of this. This word is qedem, what faces," or "confronts you," and thus as nearly as may be resembles our word adversity from the Latin, "what is toward" you, only in a hostile manner. The qadim, the "east wind," is the dry and parching wind from the desert, as the west wind is literally the sea-wind, bringing moisture and rain. Judah’s position, then, contemplates two opposite things, the world as the place of malign influence, and the uprising of the Sun of Righteousness, which for us is the end of this. These two contrary thoughts to us as Christians so suggest one another that there is no difficulty in their connection. He who faces in earnest the evil of the world will have proportionately before him that appearing of Christ which will bring its long disorder to an end forever. The night is fir spent, and the day is at hand; blessed be God, we who believe in Him are children of the day; therefore," says the apostle, "let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light." (Rom 13:12.) Here we are in Judah’s camp toward the sunrise.
But why Judah foremost, the leader of all. Israel in this way? His name and what we have seen of his history account for this. We have seen the light of the prophet in his eyes, and are all familiar with the fulfillment of the prophecy in his name in the psalms of his descendant David. We have read too his motto in the words of Jacob, "The spirit of praise is the spirit of power." Judah is foremost here for the same reason that Jehoshaphat in a later day put his singers and trumpeters in the forefront of the battle against the enemy; and when they began to sing and praise, the Lord went out against the foe and smote them. (2Ch 20:1-37.) So then it is here.
For the spirit of praise is the spirit also of obedience, and thus Judah is qualified to be the law-giver (Psa 60:7). Wherever the heart is filled with God His throne will be in the heart, and what an irresistible power is in this spirit of obedience to the all-wise "Captain of salvation"! Who or what can defeat the King’s army, so long as it obeys orders? And what a triumphant enthusiasm, the presage of victory, swells in these loyal songs in the face of the battle!
This is what characterizes Judah, the spirit of obedience rising into the joyous spirit of praise, as with him who says, Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage." (Psa 119:54.) This is the "shout of a King" which Balaam heard at a somewhat later day than this, and before which Moab quailed. How beautiful is this position of Judah, meeting the edge of the east wind with the song of loyal devotedness, his camp thrown forward into the darkness to meet the first rays of the coming day; his captain he with the prophet’s eyes, and of the race of those who know the Liberal Giver as their God!
The last thought connects with Issachar, who, with Zebulon, fights under Judah’s banner, with his captain Nathaniel, "the gift of God." They are both under the best of leadership evidently. The one will not seek his own, nor the other stray off to the world, while Judah leads.
Taken as a whole, then, the camp of Judah is the expression of the spirit of righteousness, the standard under which he gathers is that of righteousness, a spirit to which statutes are songs, free therefore from legality, and which maintains the enjoyment of relationship to God as Father, where Issachar and Zebulon give the complementary thoughts. How full and sweet an expression is it; and how clearly the New Testament shines out here in the Old!
(2) The next camp is that of Reuben, in which the rejected first-born takes humbly the second place. The subjugated will of man shows itself now, as we have seen in him, in the dependent cleaving to God, which is indeed "strength" and stability. "God is a rock" -(Elizur) is the principle which now victoriously leads him on. His place is on the south, which literally is "the right hand," the place of power and dignity, though in dependence: how completely does this mark the position of Reuben, again the child’s place (Reuben, "see, a son!")
But he needs this place, for the influences of the south are relaxing ones. How good that he has to lean only upon Another! that the place of his strength is inaccessible to any possible attack! It is indeed in resisting the relaxing influences of what men count prosperity that the power of faith is most distinctly shown. How beautiful an example is that of Moses, who, "when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt"! This was the resolute will of faith, the spirit of the prince of Reuben, in the face of the world. And in truth, though the influences of the south are pleasant for a season, they end in fierce and furnace heat before which the fruits of the earth are dried up and perish. How many have found the hot breath of worldly prosperity to be the destruction of spiritual fruit! The camp of Reuben if it be well maintained, is indeed here a place of honor, and the subjugated will of a Reubenite the first necessity to face the south.
Here, then, Reuben is foremost, and under him are Simeon and Gad. Simeon too has learned dependence upon the prayer-hearing God, and has the peace of conformity of his mind to God’s. If Reuben’s prince is Elizur ("God is a rock"), the father of the prince of Simeon is Zurishaddai, -"my rock is the Almighty." Thus they are suited companions. But the communion which Simeon represents must be under the lead of Reuben’s will of adherence and subjection to God, that it may abide the desert warfare, and thus he fills exactly his place here. Gad also is in the same line of dependence with his captain Eliasaph, -God hath added," -growth through faith, that is, by virtue of what faith embraces. Thus Reuben’s camp is finished and furnished. Upon his standard we may read "faith."
(3) In the centre of the camp we have next the tent of meeting, with its Levite guard. As with Jerusalem at an after-day, "God is in the midst of her: she shall not be moved." (Psa 46:5.) The Levites, devoted to the sanctuary and surrounding it, present the thought of consecration: and this is at the heart of all successful warfare. There is little said about Levi here: it is his glory to be overshadowed by the glory of God. And this is morally the character of all true consecration: that which vaunts itself is none.
Westward was the camp of Ephraim: "westward" being, in Hebrew, "toward the sea." And the sea is pre-eminently in Scripture, as in nature, the type of trouble and unrest, which the word itself implies in the original. We have seen it in the six day’s work the type of the evil within us, and which remains in us though regenerate, limited, however, by divine grace. It is the evil, moreover, in its negative rather than its positive aspect, and the west wind, as the sea-wind, differs from the east wind, the wind of the desert in this way. It comes not to wither, but rather loaded with the moisture which revives and refreshes the earth. This is the answer of heaven to the appeal of man’s misery, even though that misery be in a sense identified with his sin. As the heaven draws from the bosom of the sea itself the vapors which it pours out again upon the land, so grace is that with which God in sovereign goodness has answered our sin, and the occasion of which has been the very sin itself; for only in a world of sinners could He show grace. How full and exact are these natural types, when we come to analyze them!
Ephraim’s camp, then, lies toward the sea,* and his name reads easily in this connection; for "fruitfulness" is dependent on the showers of heaven, spiritually as much as naturally. Nor only this, but plainly also the result of that which the heaving and stormy sea suggests -still under divine control -is what the apostle has affirmed for us, that "tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope." (Rom 5:3-4.) Here is the key-word, I doubt not, to Ephraim’s position among Israel’s hosts. His camp is the fourth camp, and the standard under which it marches is that of experience.
{*In the desert it must have been north-west to do this; but these distinctions are not made in Scripture, and the figure is more exact as Scripture gives it. We have not to consider the changes of locality to get the spiritual instruction, which is ever what is aimed at.}
In a warfare such as this, experience must needs have an important place: in deed such an one as that which we have just heard from inspired lips itself implies the wilderness warfare and the victory of grace. The "fruitfulness" of which Ephraim’s name tells is also an experience of which another apostle makes use in his conflict with those who were seeking to seduce those to whom he writes (1Jn 2:26). The consciousness of what the gospel works, arms us against those who would deprive us of it. The consciousness of our love to the brethren reassures us as to our having passed from death unto life (1Jn 3:14). "Hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments" (1Jn 2:3). And "hereby do we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit" (1Jn 4:13). These of course are not the things that give us peace at first, nor the foundation on which we build at any time. Christ alone is the foundation. And yet in the day of conflict we may find "Ephraim the strength of the head" (Psa 60:7): the experience of the fruitfulness of grace is like a helmet to resist the blows of skeptical argument, and preserve the mind quiet and undizzy amid the assaults of error.
Quite suited to this is the name of Ephraim’s prince. "God hath heard" may be the conviction of faith, but it is also the realization of experience; just as Manasseh’s prince, "God is a rewarder," may speak the confidence of hope, but may speak as well what is present realization. Indeed, it will be almost necessarily both, since God thus is continually meeting us with pledges and anticipations of the final recompense. Benjamin’s Abidan, "my father is judge," implies also a practical experience.
Manasseh comes naturally under Ephraim’s headship, according to Jacob’s prophecy. Manasseh -"forgetfulness," is but negative when alone: as a means to an end it must be connected with and governed by the end, in order to have its proper character. The spouse of the psalms is bidden, like another Joseph, to forget all her people and her father’s house, but it is in the absorption of her heart with her divine King and Bridegroom (Psa 45:10). So that to me to live is Christ," of him who proclaimed himself a Manassite, "forgetting that which is behind" (Php 1:21; Php 3:13). It was not asceticism; it was absorption: a "counting all things but dung, that" he "might win Christ" (Php 3:8).
Benjamin also would lack the true spirit if not found under Ephraim. The spirit of controversy, apart from the eager desire of fruit for God, would be but that of Ishmael -warfare for its own sake, -a spirit to be abhorred. How different when it is a burning zeal for Christ and for His glory that animates one, and, as we have seen, Abidan is the captain of the host!
But Ephraim leads Benjamin also, because the experience of the fruit of grace as realized in the soul is necessary for the conflict in its behalf. This we have seen in the apostle’s appeal to its testimony as against seducers. And all truth that is to be maintained in the face of an evil world must have like witness in the hearts and lives of its professors. The Benjamite warriors must be found in the camp of Ephraim under the standard of experience.
(5) And now we come to the last camp, fifth in order here -that of Dan. It lies to the north, and as we have found the other quarters of the heaven with significant names, so it is also here. The north (tsaphon) means "what is hidden," and the reason why the north is called so is because to those living in the northern hemisphere the sun travels through the southern heavens, and the north side of any thing is the dark side. Naturally the north itself would be contemplated as the seat of darkness, the abode of gloom and mystery. Striking it is, then, that the camp of Dan falls into the fifth place, the number five speaking, as we have so often seen, of exercise in connection with God’s governmental ways. In this respect Scripture itself recognizes, and the heart of every man bears witness to, the mystery with which they are encompassed. Here still, as with Moses upon the mount, it is impossible to see God’s face. Only after He has passed by can we see the glory of His back parts.
And this mystery, how it assaults us! From the north came the most frequent attacks upon the land, and from it will come the final attack. (Eze 38:1-23; Eze 39:1-29.) In the sides of the north the Babylonian apostate makes his seat and utters his defiance of the Almighty. (Isa 14:1-32.) We must not imagine this to be without significance. Nothing in Scripture is; and it is by putting things together that we perceive a meaning which taken by themselves such things might seem to lack. Certainly in the place of mystery it is that apostasy and infidelity entrench themselves most securely; while upon the forehead of Babylon the great there is also written, "Mystery."
Dan, who fills the fifth position here, was also the fifth son of Jacob. Child of the handmaid as he is, he represents the spirit of rule or judgment. Strangely enough, in Jacob’s prophecy he shows, as we may say, the northern character; and unites in his serpent symbol the two ideas of assailant and apostate. Is this when the influences of his position, which is by and by in the extreme north of Israel, have overcome and carried him away? Here, however, all is different: he is in his place every way, and his prince is Ahiezer, "brother of help." Dan is here, therefore, nearly connected with Abidan, prince of the tribe before him, Benjamin, and speaks similarly of that judgment of one’s self according to God which is indeed the only spirit in which to meet without damage the mysteries which confront us. Where intellect merely is only perplexed and baffled, and speculation betrays us into error, or into that pride which is the most fatal error, there the spirit of self-judgment escapes without an effort, finding safe footing where the other falls. This is easily understood. An exercised conscience is the true remedy for over-exercise of mind, just as the apostle tells us of those on the other hand who, not "holding faith and a good conscience," "concerning faith have made shipwreck." (1Ti 1:19.) Here, too, Ahiezer finds his place: those in practical lowly service to others are not easily mastered by the subtleties which carry away the theorist.
Dan, who fills the fifth position here, was also the fifth son of Jacob. Child of the handmaid as he is, he represents the spirit of rule or judgment. Strangely enough, in Jacob’s prophecy he shows, as we may say, the northern character; and unites in his serpent symbol the two ideas of assailant and apostate. Is this when the influences of his position, which is by and by in the extreme north of Israel, have overcome and carried him away? Here, however, all is different: he is in his place every way, and his prince is Ahiezer, "brother of help." Dan is here, therefore, nearly connected with Abidan, prince of the tribe before him, Benjamin, and speaks similarly of that judgment of one’s self according to God which is indeed the only spirit in which to meet without damage the mysteries which confront us. Where intellect merely is only perplexed and baffled, and speculation betrays us into error, or into that pride which is the most fatal error, there the spirit of self-judgment escapes without an effort, finding safe footing where the other falls. This is easily understood. An exercised conscience is the true remedy for over-exercise of mind, just as the apostle tells us of those on the other hand who, not "holding faith and a good conscience," "concerning faith have made shipwreck." (1Ti 1:19.) Here, too, Ahiezer finds his place: those in practical lowly service to others are not easily mastered by the subtleties which carry away the theorist.
Dan’s standard, then, is truly that of exercise, and under and next to him comes Asher, the "happy:" for happiness clearly depends upon this awakened conscience, and is found in the way of such brotherly helpfulness as Ahiezer speaks of: "if ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." (Joh 13:17.) We have seen that Asher’s captain indicates how God maintains us in happiness by the ministry of a chastening sorrow, which sufficiently accounts for Asher being under the standard of "exercise." All is simple here for those that have proved it even in a small measure, and what child of God has not? Only may we heed the admonition of it!
Finally, Naphtali comes under the same banner, his captain also, Ahira, manifestly near akin to Ahiezer. And here every thing tells of exercise, so that there is scarcely need to enlarge upon it. Thus the order of the camps is complete.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The First Numbering of the People
The First Numbering of the People
At Sinai Moses receives the command to take the number of the males over twenty years of age in the eleven secular tribes, the tribe of Levi being enumerated separately (Num_1:47-49; Num_3:14-39). The result shows a total of 603,550 (cp. Exo_12:37; Exo_38:26; Num_11:21). The result of the second numbering, made in the plains of Moab thirty-eight years afterwards (Numbers 26), is 601,730. The credibility of these figures has been disputed on two grounds. First, on this reckoning, the entire population, including men, women, and children, must have been at least three millions, and it is difficult to conceive how this large company could have been supported in the wilderness for forty years, not to mention the difficulty of marshalling and conducting them on their marches. The difficulty is a real one, but it is exaggerated by the traditional view, not supported by Scripture, that the Israelites were continually marching, and that they always moved as one company. To speak of them 'marching through the wilderness' is misleading: cp. Num_9:22. They may have occupied a great part of the peninsula of Sinai, encamping in detachments and moving about in search of pasture, though not simultaneously. The marches mentioned in Numbers may have been those of the main body under Moses: see intro. to Num_10:11 to Num_22:1. As to the resources of the wilderness, these must not be judged by its present condition. The word 'wilderness' does not mean a barren tract, but an uninhabited country which may be very fertile. And traces exist to show that this 'wilderness' not only could but did support at one time an extensive population. Moreover, unless miracles are prejudged to be impossible, account must be taken of the miraculous provision made for the sustenance of the Israelites till the time that they entered Canaan. The second objection is that the number of first-born males is stated in Num_3:43 to have been 22,273, again exclusive of the tribe of Levi. But this is a very small number in proportion to the total number of males. In answer to this it may be said that what is meant is the first-born males under twenty years of age at the time of the census, or those that had been born since the departure from Egypt. On the whole, while there are undoubtedly difficulties connected with these figures in Numbers 1, 26, our knowledge of the circumstances is too limited to enable us summarily to reject them as incredible: see on Exo_14:21.
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16. The renowned] rather, 'the called'; chosen representatives.
18. Polls] i.e. heads.
47-54. The Levites are not included in the general census. The tribe of Levi is separated for the service of the tabernacle, and being exempt from military service is enumerated separately: see Numbers 3.
50. Tabernacle of testimony] the tent containing the ark: see on Exo_16:34.
51. Stranger] here one who is not a Levite: cp. Num_3:10 and Exo_29:33.
53. Wrath] cp. Num_16:46; 1Ch_27:24.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v2 second month
second month
i.e. May; also Num 1:18.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Analysis and Annotations
Analysis and Annotations
I. THE PREPARATION FOR THE JOURNEY
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1. The People Numbered
CHAPTER 1
1. The command to number (Num 1:1-4)
2. The appointed helpers for the work (Num 1:5-16)
3. The congregation assembled (Num 1:17-19)
4. The twelve tribes numbered (Num 1:20-46)
5. The Levites separated unto the tabernacle service (Num 1:47-54)
It was exactly one month after the erection of the tabernacle that the Lord gave the commandment to Moses to number the people. This is seen by comparing the first verse of Numbers with Exo 40:17. It must not be overlooked that there was a previous numbering of the people in connection with the atonement money. Then all who were twenty years and above, the same as in this census, were numbered. This took place nine months before, and the number of men twenty years and over was 603,550. The same number is given in this first chapter. See Exo 38:25-26 and Num 1:46.
The numbering was “after their families by the house of their fathers.” And those to be numbered were “all from twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel.” They had to declare their pedigrees after their families, and only those who could do that had a place in this mustering and could be warriors. This showing of their pedigree was necessary on account of the mixed multitude which had joined themselves to the people of God. “And a mixed multitude went up also with them” (Exo 12:38). This mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting (Num 11:4). Therefore only those who could show by their pedigree their rightful place among the people of God were mustered and could go to war. Our pedigree, which gives us a place among the people of God, is the new birth, by which we become children of God. And our calling is to a spiritual warfare, not with flesh and blood, but against the devil and his wiles and the wicked spirits (Eph 6:11-12).
The significance of the statement “all that are able to go forth to war in Israel” must not be overlooked. God wanted His people to go forward and reach in a few days the land of promise, enter in and conquer that land. How this plan was frustrated by their unbelief, and the men of twenty years and over died in the wilderness, without seeing the land is the sad history of this book.
Moses and Aaron were called to be the leaders in numbering the people by their armies. As we saw in Exodus, both Moses and Aaron are typical of Christ. He knoweth His people and His watchful eye rests upon each. With Moses and Aaron were associated the princes of the tribes mentioned in verses 5-16. The names of these princes are of deep interest when we translate them into English. The prince of Reuben is Elizur, “My God is a rock.” The Prince of Simeon, Shelumiel, “At peace with God.” The Prince of Judah, Nahshon, “A diviner.” Then comes Nathaniel, “The gift of God.” The Prince of issachar, Zebulun, is represented by Eliab, “My God is father.” Joseph has his double portion and Ephraim has Elishama, “My God hath heart.” Manasseh’s Prince is Gamaliel, “My God is a rewarder.” Benjamin has Abidan, “My father is judge.” The Prince of Dan is Ahiezer, “Brother of help.” Asher has Pagiel, “Event of God.” Gad’s Prince is Eliasaph, “God addeth,” and Naphtali is represented by Ahira, “Brother is evil.” Nearly all these names are an encouragement to faith. These helpers in forming the mighty army speak by their names of the victory and blessing in store for His people if they go forward in faith. (The deeper lessons connected with it are pointed out in an excellent manner in the Numerical Bible.)
The different tribes, except Levi, were then numbered. We give a table which gives the result of this numbering and also the second numbering thirty-eight years later. The comparison is interesting:
The tribe of Levi is not included. The end of this chapter gives the reason. They were not to be among the warriors, but appointed over the tabernacle of testimony, over all the vessels, and what belonged to it. They were to bear it and their place was round about the tabernacle. Their service, divinely appointed and the beautiful lessons connected with it, we shall follow more fully in our annotations of the third and fourth chapters.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 The Muster of the People
The Muster of the People
v. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai, while the people were still encamped below the mountain,in the Tabernacle of the Congregation, from the place above the mercy-seat, between the cherubs, where He had promised to reveal His glory and to communicate with Moses, Exo 25:22, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying",
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v. 2. Take ye, Moses and his assistants, the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel after their families, the large divisions of the tribes known by the name of some prominent leader, Exo 6:14, by the house of their fathers, which was a subdivision of the former, with the number of their names, numbered and recorded individually, every male by their polls, for these only were entered into the lists, Exo 30:14;
v. 3. from twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel. Thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies, muster them in such divisions, because they were to be organized as the armies of Jehovah, carry arms in waging war in His interest.
v. 4. And with you, as assistants for this special purpose, there shall be a man of every tribe; every one head of the house of his fathers, holding at least this rank among the people.
v. 5. And these are the names of the men that shall stand with you: of the tribe of Reuben: Elizur, the son of Shedur.
v. 6. of Simeon: Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai.
v. 7. of Judah: Nahshon, the son of Amminadab.
v. 8. of Issachar: Nethaneel, the son of Zuar.
v. 9. of Zebulunr Eliab, the son of Helon.
v. 10. of the children of Joseph, who were divided into two sections, or tribes, the one division taking the place of the Levites, who were not numbered with the tribes: of Ephraim: Elishama, the son of Ammihud; of Manasseh: Gamaliel, the son of Pedahzur.
v. 11. of Benjamin: Abidan, the son of Gideoni.
v. 12. of Dan; Ahiezer, the son of Ammishaddai.
v. 13. of Asher: Pagiel, the son of Ocran.
v. 14. of Gad: Eliasaph, the son of Deuel.
v. 15. of Naphtali: Ahira, the son of Enan.
v. 16. These were the renowned of the congregation, princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of thousands in Israel, for that division of the people known technically as "family" numbered at least a thousand households.
v. 17. And Moses and Aaron took these men which are expressed by their names, distinguished by being selected by the Lord Himself;
v. 18. and they assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month; and they, the people, declared their pedigrees, stated exactly from whom they were descended, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, by their polls.
v. 19. As the Lord commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the Wilderness of Sinai.
v. 20. And the children of Reuben, Israel’s eldest son, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, by their polls, every male from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war:
v. 21. those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Reuben, were forty and six thousand and five hundred.
v. 22. of the children of Simeon, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, those that were numbered of them, according to the number of the names, by their polls, every male from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war:
v. 23. those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Simeon, were fifty and nine thousand and three hundred.
v. 24. of the children of Gad, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war:
v. 25. those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Gad, were forty and five thousand six hundred and fifty.
v. 26. of the children of Judah, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war:
v. 27. those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Judah, were threescore and fourteen thousand and six hundred.
v. 28. of the children of Issachar, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war:
v. 29. those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Issachar, were fifty and four thousand and four hundred.
v. 30. of the children of Zebulun, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war:
v. 31. those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Zebulun, were fifty and seven thousand and four hundred.
v. 32. of the children of Joseph, namely, of the children of Ephraim, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war:
v. 33. those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Ephraim, were forty thousand and five hundred.
v. 34. of the children of Manasseh, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war:
v. 35. those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Manasseh, were thirty and two thousand and two hundred.
v. 36. of the children of Benjamin, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war:
v. 37. those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Benjamin, were thirty and five thousand and four hundred.
v. 38. of the children of Dan, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war:
v. 39. those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Dan, were threescore and two thousand and seven hundred.
v. 40. of the children of Asher, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war:
v. 41. those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Asher, were forty and one thousand and five hundred.
v. 42. of the children of Naphtali, throughout their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war:
v. 43. those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Naphtali, were fifty and three thousand and four hundred.
v. 44. These are those that were numbered, which Moses and Aaron numbered, and the princes of Israel, being twelve men; each one was for the house of his fathers.
v. 45. So were all those that were numbered of the children of Israel, by the house of their fathers, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war in Israel:
v. 46. even all they that were numbered were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty, or, in figures, 603,550, a number which tallies exactly with that given about nine months before, when the Sanctuary money was required, Exo 38:25-26.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v1 This is the name of God that he revealed…
Yahweh
This is the name of God that he revealed to his people in the Old Testament. See the translationWord page about Yahweh concerning how to translate this.
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the first day of the second month
This is the second month of the Hebrew calendar. The first day is near the middle of April on Western calendars. (See: Hebrew Months and Ordinal Numbers)
the second year
"year 2" (See: Ordinal Numbers)
Count them by name
This means to count the men by recording their names. AT: "Count them, recording each man's name" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
twenty years old
"20 years old" (See: Numbers)
record the number of men in their armed groups
This refers to assigning the men to their military divisions.
translationWords
Yahweh
Moses
tent of meeting
Sinai
desert
day
year
people group
Israel
Egypt
census
clan
ancestor
family
name
Aaron
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1–2 1:1–10:10 The Israelites prepared to leave for the Promised…
1:1–10:10 The Israelites prepared to leave for the Promised Land by registering all the troops eligible to participate in the conquest. The nation was transitioning from slavery to nationhood.
1:1-16 One family leader from each tribe (except Levi) was appointed to count Israel’s men of fighting age.
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1:1 In the year after Israel’s departure from Egypt, the Lord frequently communicated his will to the people through Moses and gave them every opportunity to conform to his divine plan. • God’s self-disclosure often took place at the Tabernacle (literally the Tent of Meeting; see study note on Exod 27:21). • The wilderness of Sinai was a great, terrifying, and inhospitable desert (Deut 1:19). This relatively unpopulated region was the anvil on which God forged Israel as the environmental challenges of Sinai tested Israel’s dependence upon the Lord throughout the book of Numbers. Sinai reminded later biblical authors of the law and of Israel’s rebellious spirit (Ps 106:19; Heb 12:25-26).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.