Numbers 1

Numbers 1:1-54

Numbers 1:1-54I. Preparation for the March, or Departure from Sinai (1-10)1. The Numbering and Organization of the Chosen Nation (Numbers 1-4) (a) There Is First the Numbering of the People (Numbers 1:1-54; Numbers 2:1-34) Threefold Purpose: War, Registration, Pedigree (Numbers 1:1-54) The threefold purpose of this numbering seems to be for war, registration, and pedigree. Canaan was not to be inherited without a conquest and conflict with the nations already possessing the land. For this approaching conquest and conflict Israel must be organized. The war of extermination upon which they were now entering is to be considered somewhat in the nature of a punitive expedition. The Canaanites who then possessed the land had, by their vile wickedness, forfeited all right to it. Jehovah, therefore, had a perfect right to destroy these people, for the cup of their iniquity was full. For this punitive expedition, God used Israel, just as later He used Assyria to punish Israel. The registration record in this chapter was doubtless for political and ecclesiastical purposes, so that it would be convenient and comparatively easy at anytime to secure statistics for the religious and political welfare of the nation. The numbering of the people also afforded them the opportunity of declaring their pedigree, thus laying the basis for the future genealogical tables so prominent in the Old Testament, culminating in the birth of Christ. These genealogical tables were kept only so that when Christ came it could be definitely shown that He was of the seed of Abraham and the royal line of David (cf. Matthew 1:1-17, noting especially the words of the seventeenth verse, “ So all the generations from Abraham … unto Christ” ). In the birth of Christ the genealogies had fulfilled their purpose.