Learning from how Israel was commanded to camp
Text Numbers 2 Time 22/01/12 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church
We
began to look last week at the Book of Numbers. As we said then the
book takes up where the book of Exodus ends. Its other name in Hebrew
is "And he said" reminding us that it carries on with the
narrative.
Exodus
takes us from the birth of Moses in Egypt where the people of God
were in slavery to their miraculous exodus from that place into the
desert where they meet with God and receive his Law. Numbers
covers the period immediately after the receiving of these commands
at Sinai and the setting
up of the tabernacle, where God was to be worshipped in their midst.
The book begins with the numbering of the people and preparations for
resuming their journey. The journey then is begun but is marked by a
series of complaints and punishments. They arrive at the borders of
Canaan and send
in spies but their pessimistic report results in a refusal to take
possession of Canaan and so they
are condemned to death in the wilderness until a new generation grows
up to carry out the task. The book ends with that new generation in
the plain of Moab ready to cross the Jordan.
In
many ways this collection of people was in constant danger of turning
into a rabble but they were not
to march through the desert willy nilly just as they pleased. Rather
there was a place for everyone
and everyone was to be in their place just as God dictated. This
group of people was to be an
army and a congregation of God's people and such a calling demands
order and organisation. Like
Chapter 1, which records the census of the time, Chapter 2 may look a
little unpromising as a help
for living in the 21st Century as it contains chiefly another
sort of list, this time the order in which
they were to camp and to travel through the desert. Nevertheless, a
careful consideration will reveal some possibly obvious but
nevertheless important lessons. So
1.
God's people are on the move
The
Chapter opens with these words The
LORD said to Moses and Aaron: The Israelites are to camp
round the Tent of Meeting some distance from it, each man under his
standard with the banners
of his family.
The
plan that follows is not like a plan for a housing estate but for a
mobile unit that camps and then moves on. Now
this fact is important. These people were camping but on their way to
somewhere else — to the Promised land. We too
as believers are encouraged to live as aliens and strangers, as those
who have no enduring city here but who are looking forward to the
city to come. So we say
- We must keep pressing on towards the goal. We are passing through. We are on a journey. Lots of people like to speak in those terms today. But the thing with us is that we are pressing on to a specific goal — heaven itself Israel's goal was the Promised Land and ours is the heaven it in some ways stands for. So (1) we're going somewhere and everything must be bent to that end and (2) we don't belong here any more than Israel belonged in the desert. No, we're passing through.
- We must be focused on the Lord. It is clearly not without significance that part of the plan was that Israel should camp round the Tent of Meeting some distance from it and even when they marched it was to be in the midst. Thus they learned to keep their focus on God. Imagine how every day they would wake and go outside their tents and there it was just a little distance away — the Lord's holy tabernacle. No we need to organise our week so that the same sort of thing happens. Each week should begin with worship with God's people if we can. Each day should begin if at all possible with the Word and prayer. Put your Bible where you can see it when you wake up if that helps. One reason we have a big Bible at the front is to stress that point. Keep a Bible on the dining room table where the family read the Word perhaps. Here's a good reason why churches should be at the centre of communities not tucked away in a corner somewhere.
- We must work as a team. This is another legitimate lesson. They were to camp each man under his standard with the banners of his family. The standard was the flag or something similar, each quite distinctive no doubt, under which each tribe was to gather. Each division within the tribe was also to gather under certain banners. What a sight it must have been. Just as our bodies have been designed so that they co-ordinate and are most useful to us so here there was an order that involved different people having different task, different responsibilities, a different order. It was important that each one played his part and so it is in the life of the church, as the New Testament spells out in more than one place.
2.
God's people are to be mobile and must keep disciplined order
In
verse 3-32 Moses tells us just exactly how the tribes were arranged
when they set out. We begin in the east, where the sun rises at the
start of each day. There the divisions of the camp of Judah
were to encamp under their standard
with their leader Nahshon son of Amminadab.
As we already know there were 74,600.
With them (either side?) was to be Issachar
under Nethanel son of Zuar … 54,400.
Then Zebulun under
Eliab son of Helon 57,400.
Verse 9 says that All the men assigned to the camp of
Judah, according to their divisions, number 186,400. They will set
out first.
Next
on the south comes Reuben ... 46,500; Simeon ... 59,300 and
Gad ... 45,650. 16 All the men assigned to the camp of Reuben,
according to their divisions, number 151,450. They will set out
second.
Then
we read in verse 17 that the Tent of Meeting and the camp
of the Levites will set out in the middle of the camps. They will set
out in the same order as they encamp, each in his own place under his
standard.
They
in turn will be followed by the sons of Rachel On the west
... Ephraim (40,500) ... Manasseh (32,200) and Benjamin (35,400)
108,100 altogether.
Last
On the north comes Dan (62,700) ... Asher (41,500) ... and
Naphtali (53,400). 157,600
altogether.
Verse
32 concludes These are the Israelites, counted according to
their families. All those in the camps, by their divisions, number
603,550.
It
would seem that the order is intended to optimise co-operation and
minimise potential conflicts. By now Judah is being recognised as the
leading tribe so they are first. That cannot be without significance.
It is the Lion of the tribe of Judah who saves — the Lord Jesus
Christ who was descended from Judah. Rather than trying to put with
them Reuben and Simeon, who had lost their place as Jacob had
prophesied, the lesser tribes of Zebulun and Issachar are with Judah
and Gad is drawn up to accompany Reuben and Simeon who are meanwhile
appropriately near Levi. The sons of Rachel then lead the second half
and the sons of the handmaidens bring up the rear end, Dan the first
born leading the two others.
The
general lesson here is that God is a God of order and orderliness is
important in every sphere of life — from order in an order of
service at church to keeping order and tidiness in the way we order
our private worlds. In the church we are to learn, in Irving Jensen's
terms, to keep our places ... to recognise our dependency on others
... to keep our eyes on the standards ...and to listen to the
leaders. What blessing we might know if we could just do that. Don't
forget to look above all to Jesus Christ as our Leader.
3.
The importance of ministry among God's people
The
penultimate verse speaks about the Levites (33) The
Levites, however, were not counted along with the other Israelites,
as the LORD commanded Moses.
This
reminds us of
1.
God's special purpose for his people. These Levites were mediators
between God and man. By their sacrifices they found a way to God for
the people as instructed. They symbolised the presence of God among
his people. We have no priesthood as such today but God's presence
and the mediating work of Christ are things we must never forget but
always keep at the forefront of our thinking.
2.
Judgement and grace. Further, the people with the Levites in their
midst were going to bring God's judgement on the Canaanites while
they themselves knew God's mercy and grace.
That's
how it is now too. In the New Testament (2 Corinthians 2:15-17) Paul
says For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who
are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the
smell of death; to the other the fragrance of life. And who is equal
to such a task? Unlike so many we do not peddle the word of God for
profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with
sincerity, like men sent from God.
Don't
miss that reminder of the importance of obedience in the final verse
So the Israelites did everything the LORD commanded Moses;
that is the way they encamped under their standards, and that is the
way they set out, each with his clan and family.
