Tanak Foundations-Concepts in Numbers-Chapters 1

We are going to study some concepts found in the Book of Numbers, the fourth book of the Torah written by Moses. In a Hebrew Bible, this book is called “B’Midbar” which means “In the Wilderness.” This book is also called “Chumash Ha Pekudim” or the “Book of Counting.” It will pick up where Exodus left off. This book is full of lessons learned so that we do not repeat the same mistakes (1 Cor 10.4). We have the Torah given to the people of Israel and now God is establishing the government.  We will bring out some basic concepts we feel are important to understand this book and all of the Scriptures for that matter. We will break this book down by Torah portions.

Right off, we can see in verse 3 that the Lord wants to count his people like a good shepherd would after some traumatic experience. This will be the third census, and second one in a year. The first one was before they left for Egypt in Exo 1.5. The second one was before they left Egypt for the wilderness in Exo 12.37.  A “counting” tells us that each individual is unique but they are also a part of something bigger. There will be a contribution that they will need to make. Each of us are individuals, but we belong to a family unit, and a “tribe” also. Numbers are not meaningless to a shepherd.

Now, look at the title? What has happened over the last year or so? They have been delivered from Egypt and are now in the wilderness, they have actually heard the voice of God and lived, they have received the Torah, there has been the Golden Calf incident, the priesthood has been established and the Mishkan built, the services and the korbanot have begun. That is a big change compared to what they were used to. Now they are preparing to move into Canaan, and a workforce and an army is established. As a result, there are lessons we need to learn through this book.

First of all, who were these people? They had witnessed the out-right miracles of God in ways never before seen. They have seen the power of God, like no other generation. However, they were stiff-necked, complainers and obstinate and they opposed Moses and rebelled. In other words, they were like us. They were not unique or different than we are, and their struggles are our struggles. They needed to recognize and accept their total dependence on the Lord, and this is our obligation, too. They needed to listen to God and his rules and regulations, so do we. What did they do sometimes? They invented creative ways to get around what he has said that allowed them to do what they wanted to do, rather than just obey him. Sound familiar? We do the same thing.

There will also be a prophetic application to this “in the wilderness” experience because it will happen again when Israel flees into the wilderness during the Birth-pains (Rev 12.1-17). Also, the Lord is numbering the people for an inheritance, war and work. Why does the Lord say he spoke to Moses “in the wilderness” in verse 1? We already know where they were.  There is something that prevents people from learning the Torah and it is called “kap’dan.” It is being fussy, rigid, unaccommodating and people like that cannot learn and study. They have to have everything right, like the temperature, mood, music, lights, seats and so on. A “kap’dan” is one who is easily offended. In order to learn and absorb Torah we must be the opposite of a kap’dan. We need to be adaptable, not rigid and accommodating, like a wilderness. We should not be thinking too highly of ourselves, able to drink in the waters of life.

We also begin to see a military structure being built in Chapter 1. We have leaders of the tribes (“Nasi Matot”) and we have divisions called “alphay” (thousands). Each tribe is a “mishmar” (division). Three tribes make up a “corps” and Israel had four corps, made up of twelve divisions. Each division was made up of “mishpocha” (families) and each family was made up of households (squads). They had to come together and carve out an existence in the wilderness.

One of the things the Torah teaches us is organization. We have the story of Noah and the Ark, Abraham ran a large household. When Joseph was in Egypt he was very organized. Just look at the story of Creation. The universe is very organized and we set our time according to it. The Mishkan and it construction was organized. The Avodah (services), the priesthood, the agricultural system with the Yovel and the Shemitah was organized, and the list goes on. So, this Torah portion is no exception. The nation had to be organized. They were not going to be in the wilderness forever, they were going into the land. Here is another concept associated with the word “wilderness.” In Hebrew, it is “midbar” and we know they received the Torah (the Word of God) in the wilderness. The word “midbar” has the same root in Hebrew as “m’dabehr” meaning “to speak.”

The leaders will be 20 to 50 years old and Levi was numbered from one month old and they will not be listed among the rest of the tribes (1.47). The people needed to be trained for battle. Just because God was leading them into the promised land doesn’t mean they didn’t have to fight for it. David believed he could defeat Goliath but he wasn’t being presumptuous. He had to go down to the Valley of Elah and meet him. He also picked up five stones to throw with his sling. Why five? That has been discussed over and over again and there are many interpretations like the five books of Torah, or the five giants killed (2 Sam 21.22). But it can be as simple as this, in case he missed.

The Lord is initiating his form of government called a “Theocracy.” This form of government has the Lord at the head and servants are delegated to perform certain functions, carrying out his will. The father is the head of the family. Other fathers who can take on added responsibility for other families takes on that position. This goes on until they are organized under one head. These “heads” don’t stand alone. They are the “sons” of another. Their honor always points up, and what they did reflected back on their fathers. We have “names” but we are the “sons of our father.” That is what a theocracy is. When we believed, we became the sons of Yehovah, and in the Father’s house (1.18). What we do reflects on him.

So, Israel has a law and now they have a government being organized here. We have a similar organization in Rev 7.4-8 with the 144,000. The Lord has a routine and duties that need to be assigned. There is a setting up and a setting down while in the wilderness. Why was Levi singled out? Because they defended Dinah (Gen 34.25) and stood with Moses at the Golden Calf incident. The Mishkan was very important. The kedusha that was on Mount Sinai could now travel with them into the land. The tribe of Levi was dedicated to defending it. We know it was an expensive building and expertly crafted, but that is not why nit was important. The Mishkan had the kedusha of God, the Shekinah, in their midst. They took care of the Mishkan because this connection between God and man should not be broken, it was that important.

Everyone has their place, their own “row to hoe.” Each tribe had their own flag. It was not like in America, a “melting pot” under one flag. This is because each individual is unique and each group is part of the whole. Everyone had something unique to offer. The Lord doesn’t want everyone to be the same. There were tribal connections, as we see here. These tribal connections were very important and we will see this later with King David as he organizes the kingdom. No special status was given for personal merits, abilities and scholarship.

There are millions of people in this wilderness that needed to get organized and they had to know “what flag” they were under (know their place). A change that is anticipated and planned for isn’t too bad, but imagine if everyone did what was right in their own eyes? God called the moves and how to do it. Every tribe had their own load to carry and their own role. No jealousy or striving for their own glory and status is seen here.  We will also see in Chapter 2 that the people in the camp were arranged in four “corps” that will be a military army that was in order, had power, numbers and leadership.  this is how they would camp around the Mishkan.  Tradition says the tribes were arranged according to how the twelve sons carried Jacob back to the land of Canaan from Egypt in Gen 50.6-11.

Num 1.1-54 will tell us about the mustering of the people into a military structure of four corps, with three divisions to a corps; with details of the numbering.

v 1…Then the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness (“b’midbar” where the name of the book comes from) of Sinai in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month (Iyar 1, a new moon) in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying,

v 2…”Take a census (number, sum) of all the congregation (adat) of the sons of Israel by their families, by their fathers, according to the number of names (each person), every male, head by head (except the Levites);

v 3…from twenty years old and upward, whoever is able to go out to war in Israel, you and aaron shall number them by their armies (as military men; they would go into Canaan as a nation; no aged, infirm or maimed were counted).

v 4…With you, moreover, there shall be a man of each tribe (except Levi), each one head of his father’s household (twelve assessors were to assist in the numbering).

v 5…These are the names of the men who shall stand with you; of Reuben, Elizur (God is my rock) the son of Shedeur (God is light);

v 6…of Simeon, Shelumiel (peace of God) the son of Zurshaddai (my rock is Shaddai);

v 7…of Judah, Nachshon (serpent) the son of Amminadab (the kinsman is generous);

v 8…of Issachar, Nethanel (God has given) the son of Zuar (likeness)

v 9…of Zebulon, Eliab (God is father) the son of Helon;

v 10…of the sons of Joseph; of Ephraim, Elishama (God has heard_ the son of Ammihud (the kinsman is glorious); of Manasseh, Gamaliel (God is my reward) the son of Pedahzur (Roch has redeemed);

v 11…of Benjamin, Abidan (the father has judged) the son of Gideoni (my hewer);

v 12…of dan, Ahiezer (divine brother is a helper) the son of Ammishaddai (people of Shaddai);

v 13…of Asher, Pagiel (fate of God) the son of Ochran (troubled);

v 14…of Gad, Elisaph (God has added) the son of Deuel (God is a friend),

v 15…of Naphtali, Ahira (brother is a friend, shortened form of Ahirea) the son of Enan (having eyes).

v 16…These are they who were  called (elect) of the congregation (the most famous and eminent), the leaders (princes) of their father’s tribes; they were the heads of the divisions (thousands; Israel was divided into thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens by the advice of Jethro-Exo 18.21).”

v 17…So Moses and Aaron took these  men who had been designated by name (by God);

v 18…and they assembled all the congregation together on the first of the second month (1.1).  Then they registered by ancestry in their families by their father’s households, according to the number of names from twenty years old and upward, head by head,

v 19…just as the Lord had commanded Moses.  So he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai (where they were presently).

v 20…Now the sons of reuben, Israel’s first-born, their generations (“toldotam”-a vav is missing in Hebrew alluding to man’s generations are diminished because of Adam’s sin) by their families, by their father’s household’s, according to the number of names, head by head, every male twenty years old and upward, whoever was abe to go out to war,

v 21…their numbered men, of the tribe of Reuben, were 46,500.

v 22…Of the sons of Simeon, their generations (“toldotam”-see v 20) by their families, by their father’s households, their numbered men, according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war,

v 23…their numbered men, of the tribe of Simeon, were 59,300.

v 24…Of the sons of Gad, their generations by their families, by their father’s households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, who was able to go out to war,

v 25…their numbered men, of the tribe of Gad, were 45,650.

v 26…Of the sons of Judah, their generations by their families, by their father’s households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, who was able to go out to war,

v 27…their numbered men, of the tribe of Judah, were 74,600.

v 28…Of the sons of Issachar, their generations by their families, by their father’s households, according to the number of names from twenty years old and upward, who was able to go out to war,

v 29…their numbered men, of the tribe of Issachar, were 54,400.

v 30…Of the sons of Zebulon, their generations by their families, by their father’s households, according to the number of names from twenty years old and upward, who was able to go out to war,

v 31…their numbered men, of the tribe of Zebulon, were 57,400.

v 32…Of the sons of Joseph, of the sons of Ephraim, their generations by their families, by their father’s households, according to the number of names from twenty years old and upward, who was able to go out to war,

v 33…their numbered men, of the tribe of Ephraim, were 40,500 (8300 more than Manasseh which fulfills Gen 48.19).

v 34…Of the sons of Manasseh, their generations by their families, by their father’s households, according to the number of names from twenty years old and upward, who was able to go out to war,

v 35…their numbered men, of the tribe of Manasseh, were 32,200.

v 36…Of the sons of Benjamin, their generations by their families, by their father’s households, according to the number of names from twenty years old and upward, who was able to go out to war,’

v 37…their numbered men, of the tribe of Benjamin, were 35,400.

v 38…Of the sons of Dan, their generations by their families, by their father’s households, according to the number of names from twenty years old and upward, who was able to go out to war,

v 39…their numbered men, of the tribe of Dan, were 62,700.

v 40…Of the sons of Asher, their generations by their families, by their father’s households, according to the number of names from twenty years old and upward, who was able to go out to war,

v 41…their numbered men, of the tribe of Asher, were 41,500.

v 42…Of the sons of Naphtali, their generations by their families, by their father’s households, according to the number of names from twenty years old and upward, who was able to go out to war,

v 43…their numbered men, of the tribe of Naphtali, were 53,400.

v 44…These are the ones who were numbered, whom Moses and Aaron numbered, with the leaders of Israel, twelve men, each of whom was of his father’s household.

v 45…So all the numbered men of the sons of Israel by their father’s households, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war in Israel,

v 46…even all the numbered men were 603, 550 (the exact number of them taken a few months earlier when they were numbered for the expenses of the sanctuary in Exo 38.26).

v 47…The Levites, however, were not numbered among them by their father’s tribe (their “warfare” will be spiritual-Num 4.3).

v 48…For the Lord had spoken to Moses, saying,

v 49…”Only the tribe of Levi you shall not number, nor shall you take their census (sum) among the sons of Israel.

v 50…But you shall appoint the Levites over the tabernacle (Mishkan) of the testimony (the two stone tablets with the Ten Commandments), and over all its furnishings and over all that belongs to it.  They shall carry the tabernacle (Mishkan) and all its furnishings, and they shall take care of it; they shall also camp around the tabernacle (the belonged to the Lord and were his royal guard around his “palace”; they were placed between the camp and the “palace”; the tribes were placed around the Levites, and this will be prophetic as we will see).

v 51…So when the tabernacle is to set out, the Levites shall take it down, and when the tabernacle encamps, the Levites shall set it up.  But the laymen (non-Levite; common man) who comes near shall be put to death.

v 52…And the sons of Israel shall camp, each man by his own camp (every tribe was a camp) and each man by his own standard (there was one standard for three tribes, on the east, west, north and south), according to their armies (four corps, with three divisions in each corps).

v 53…But the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle (Mishkan) of the testimony, that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the sons of Israel.  So the Levites shall keep charge of the tabernacle of the testimony.

v 54…Thus the sons of Israel did, according to all which the Lord had commanded Moses, so they did.

Posted in All Teachings, Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, Prophecy/Eschatology, The Festivals of the Lord, The Tanak, Tying into the New Testament

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