Numbers
is the fourth book of Moses. It is not
just a history but also gives information about civil and ceremonial laws. I
will be commentating sometimes on large passages that say what they say and
understanding of them, I don’t think, is helped by my commenting on every
detail. The question is, how can these passages enrich our understanding of
God’s ministry in history of reconciling mankind to Himself that started with
one person, a Gentile, Abram of Ur?
Numbers,
chapter 1
Numbers
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, 2 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; 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. 4
And with you there shall be a man of every tribe; every one head of the
house of his fathers. 5 And these are
the names of the men that shall stand with you: of the tribe of Reuben;
Elizur the son of Shedeur. 6 Of Simeon;
Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai. 7 Of
Judah; Nahshon the son of Amminadab. 8
Of Issachar; Nethaneel the son of Zuar. 9 Of Zebulun; Eliab the son of Helon. 10 Of the children of Joseph: of Ephraim;
Elishama the son of Ammihud: of Manasseh; Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur. 11 Of Benjamin; Abidan the son of Gideoni.
12 Of Dan; Ahiezer the son of
Ammishaddai. 13 Of Asher; Pagiel the son
of Ocran. 14 Of Gad; Eliasaph the son of
Deuel. 15 Of Naphtali; Ahira the son of
Enan. 16 These were the renowned
of the congregation, princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of thousands
in Israel.
The timing of the first verse is, according to John Gill,
equivalent to part of our April and May. God tells Moses to number the children
of Israel in their tribes. From twenty years old and upward they are to be
numbered, as men capable of fighting. Gill notes that this numbering does not
include the Levites or the mixed multitude that came out of Egypt. An important
note is that only two, Joshua and Caleb, will be left to enter Canaan out of
this large number. There is a disagreement among Bible scholars as to whether
the Levites, who are not counted here, would have been included in the judgment
that made everyone but those two fall dead in the wilderness over the forty
years of wandering.
This numbering is commanded by God. It is a commission. Later,
King David will do so without God’s commission, without His command, and pay a terrible
price for his presumption. Please read 1Chronicles 21 and 2 Samuel 24.
We Christians can commit the error of not waiting on God, of
presuming to do something that we think God must bless because we say we do it
for Him. But God is under no requirement to bless anything we do and He may
not, no matter how pious sounding it is. There is a commission here to number
the children of Israel ready to fight for the Promised Land with the help of
the twelve princes.
Regarding Judah, in Exodus 6:23 Nahshon’s name is spelled Naashon
and we learn there that Aaron married Naashon’s sister, Elisheba. Nahshon is
spelled from Greek in Matthew 1:4 as Naasson. The King James translators stayed
true to the texts they used even sometimes to the point of syntax and grammar
but also in differences in the spelling of the same name. Nahshon is an
ancestor of David through whom the Messiah would come in Jesus’ stepfather,
Joseph, and his mother, Mary.
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