Saturday, October 31, 2020

Numbers chapter 1:1-16 comments: the order for numbering the Israelites able to go to war

 

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. 

No comments: