Chapter One
Order in the Camp
(Numbers 1â4; 9:1â14)
The code name for the enterprise was âOperation Overlord.â The more popular name was âD-DayââJune 6, 1943, when the combined Allied forces landed on Omaha Beach and signaled the beginning of the end of the war in Europe. It was the largest assembly of military personnel and materiĂ©l in the history of warfare. Historian Samuel Eliot Morison wrote, âThe Allied forces of soldiers, sailors, aviators and supporting services amounted to 2.8 million men in England.â1
Moses was about to launch his own âOperation Overlord,â and his greatest desire was that Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts, truly be Lord over the whole enterprise. More than two million Jews were anticipating entering Canaan, conquering the inhabitants, claiming the land, and enjoying their promised inheritance. But before all of this could happen, Moses had to organize this assembly of former slaves, who had been enjoying their freedom for only a year. It wasnât an easy task.
His preparation for conquest involved four stages: celebrating the Passover (9:1â14), numbering the soldiers (chap. 1), organizing the tribes (chap. 2), and assigning the priestly duties (chaps. 3â4).
1. CELEBRATING THE PASSOVER (9:1â14)
The events recorded in Numbers 1â6 were preceded by those described in 7:1â9:15. We are now in the second year of Israelâs national history (1:1; 9:1). The tabernacle was erected on the first day of the first month (Ex. 40:2, 17). The twelve tribal leaders began to bring their gifts on that day (Num. 7:1), a procedure that lasted twelve days (v. 78). On the thirteenth day, the Levites were consecrated (Num. 8), and on the fourteenth day, the Jews celebrated Passover (9:1â14).
The second Passover (vv. 1â5). It was only fitting that the Israelites began their second year of freedom by commemorating the awesome night when God delivered them from Egyptian bondage, âA night of solemn observance to the LORDâ (Ex. 12:42 NKJV). In looking back, the people would appreciate what God had done for them, and they could teach their children the significance of Israelâs âindependence dayâ (Ex. 12:26â28; 13:8â16). Unless parents remind their children of what the Lord has done, it wonât be long before the next generation will drift from the faith (Deut. 6:1â9; see 2 Tim. 2:2).
According to Exodus 12, each family had to slay a lamb, roast it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs (see Num. 9:11). The bread contained no yeast for two reasons, one practical and the other symbolic. The practical reason was that the Jews had to be ready to leave Egypt at any time, so they couldnât wait for the dough to rise. The symbolic reason involves the fact that, to a Jew, leaven represents evil, and the Jews were to be a pure people. All yeast had to be removed from their houses before Passover and be kept out during the week that followed. (See 1 Cor. 5:1â8; Matt. 16:6, 12; Gal. 5:9.) The bitter herbs reminded the Jews of their cruel bondage when they were slaves in Egypt.
For Christians today, Passover speaks of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who died for the sins of the world (John 1:29; 1 Cor. 5:7; Isa. 53:7; 1 Peter 1:19; Rev. 5:6). Those who trust Him are redeemed from sin (1 Peter 1:18; Rom. 8:34; Eph. 1:7; Heb. 9:12) and may claim their spiritual inheritance in Christ (Eph. 1:3). During the last Passover feast with His disciples, Jesus inaugurated what we call the Lordâs Supper (Eucharist, Communion) to encourage His people to remember Him. This supper reminds us that Christ gave His body and shed His blood for our redemption (Matt. 26:26â30; Mark 14:22â25; Luke 22:17â20) and that He will one day come again to receive us (1 Cor. 11:23â34; 1 Thess. 4:13â18).
An emergency situation (vv. 6â12). Anyone who was defiled had to be put out of the camp, because defilement has a way of spreading (Num. 5:1â2). This meant that these men were forbidden to participate in Passover. This new situation demanded new wisdom, so Moses turned to the Lord for help (James 1:5). Since it was the Lordâs Passover, only the Lord could change the rules.
Godâs reply was gracious: Anyone who was defiled or absent from home during Passover the first month could celebrate the feast on the fourteenth day of the second month, but they had to be careful to follow the same divine instructions given in Exodus 12. God wasnât establishing a different Passover; He was only permitting His original Passover to be celebrated at a different time. None of the meat should be treated as common food (leftovers), and the lambâs bones must not be broken (see John 19:31â37).
Two warnings (vv. 13â14). This special consideration on the part of the Lord might lead some of the Israelites to start tampering with the divinely ordained Passover instructions, so God told Moses to warn them that the original rules were still in force, both for the first month and the second. Any Jews who were qualified to celebrate Passover the first month but didnât do so, hoping to do it more conveniently the second month, would be disciplined by God. What is meant by âcut offâ isnât explained here; it might mean exclusion from the camp, or it could mean death. Just as Passover was a serious matter to the Jews, so the Lordâs Supper must be taken seriously by Christians (1 Cor. 11:28â30).
The second warning had to do with resident aliens in the camp, people who were not born under the Abrahamic covenant and had not received the sign of circumcision. They might think that the second-month Passover was not as restricted as the first-month observance, but they would be wrong. Gentiles would have to become Jewish proselytes if they wanted to observe Passover with the Jews (Ex. 12:19, 43).
A great tragedy. This was the last Passover the Jews celebrated until Joshua led them into the Promised Land years nearly forty years later (Josh. 5:10). Because of their unbelief and rebellion at Kadesh-Barnea (Num. 13â14), the people twenty years and older were rejected by the Lord and died during Israelâs wilderness march. When Joshua led the new generation into Canaan, the males received the sign of the covenant and God restored His people into His good favor (Josh. 5:2â9). It was a new beginning for Israel in their new land.
2. NUMBERING THE SOLDIERS (1:1â54)
The second month of the second year, thirteen months after the Exodus, Israel had to start preparing for battle. If Genesis is the book of beginnings and Exodus the book of redemption, then Numbers is the book of warfare. The Jews were in enemy territory, marching toward the land God would help them conquer, and they had to organize for confrontation and conflict. The phrase able to go forth to war is used fourteen times in this chapter. If God were to number the believers in the church today according to their ability to wage spiritual warfare, we wonder how big the army would be.
The order given (vv. 1â3). Over 150 times in the book of Numbers, itâs recorded that God spoke to Moses and gave him instructions to share with the people. In fact, Numbers opens with God speaking to His servant, and it closes with a reminder that God had spoken to Israel through Moses (Num. 36:13). One of the Hebrew names for this book is âAnd He Spoke,â taken from Numbers 1:1.2 Apart from the revelation of Godâs will, Israel would not have known what to do or where to camp. âYou led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaronâ (Ps. 77:20 NKJV).
Godâs command was that Moses, Aaron, and the tribal leaders take a census of the men who were available to serve in the army. Israelâs army wasnât made up of volunteers, for each able-bodied man, twenty years of age or older, was expected to take his place and serve the Lord and the people.3
Some people are disturbed by the emphasis on warfare in certain parts of the Bible, and a few denominations have even removed from their hymnals militant songs like âOnward, Christian Soldiers.â But their fears and criticisms are unfounded. âThe LORD is a man of warâ (Ex. 15:3) when it comes to punishing sin and removing evil. The nations that Israel destroyed in Canaan were living in abominable moral filth and sinning against a flood of light, and the Lord had been longsuffering with them (Gen. 15:13â16; Rom. 1:18ff.). Would anybody today criticize a surgeon for removing a cancerous life-threatening tumor from a patientâs body? Yet thatâs what God did for society when He used Israel to judge the degenerate nations in Canaan.
Furthermore, the military image is used frequently in the New Testament, even by Jesus (Matt. 16:18) and especially by Paul (Rom. 8:31; Eph. 6:10â18; 2 Cor. 10:3â5; 1 Cor. 9:7; 2 Tim. 2:1â4). The Christian life is a battleground, not a playground, and thereâs an enemy to fight and territory to gain for the Lord. God declared war on Satan long ago (Gen. 3:15), and there can be no neutrality in this spiritual conflict, for Jesus said, âHe that is not with me is against meâ (Matt. 12:30).
The leaders appointed (vv. 4â16). Moses and Aaron were assisted in the census by the appointed leader of each tribe. These tribal leaders are also named in chapters 2, 7, and 10. It wasnât difficult to make the count because the nation was organized by households, families (clans), and tribes (Josh. 7:14), and there were rulers for each unit of ten, one hundred, and one thousand Israelites (Ex. 18:21). Note that Nahshon (Num. 1:7) was in the family tree of David (Ruth 4:20â22) and therefore an ancestor of Christ (Matt. 1:4). Note also that each person had to prove his lineage (Num. 1:18) so that no unqualified outsider entered the army of the Lord.
The numbers recorded (vv. 17â46). The numbers are rounded off to the nearest hundred, except the report from Gad, which is rounded off to fifty (vv. 24â25). The total number of warriors from age twenty and upward was 603,550 (v. 46). Except for Joshua and Caleb, all these men died during Israelâs years of wandering in the wilderness. The second census totaled 601,730 men (26:51), an army that entered the land and claimed the inheritance.
The Levites exempted (vv. 47â54). The three sons of Levi were Gershon, Kohath, and Merari (Gen. 46:11); Moses ...