Numbers 1

CHAPTER 1THEME: The first census

Numbers 1:1

THE FIRST CENSUSGod spoke to Moses in the wilderness, but He spoke from the tabernacle. The tabernacle was in the wilderness. Just so, the church today is in the world. The Lord Jesus prayed, “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil” (Joh_17:15). The church is in the world. God spoke from the tabernacle. The building of God today is made of flesh and blood, true believers who compose what we call the church. “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the LORD: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Eph_2:19-22). This church is made up of people who “…are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph_2:10). The children of Israel are to be numbered, and they are to be numbered for the purpose of building up an army. An army is for warfare. As slaves in the land of Egypt, God fought for them; they were not asked to fight. Now that they have been brought out of Egypt into the wilderness, they are to fight their enemies. And their enemies are out there waiting for them. May I say that you and I who are believers living in this world have enemies also. These enemies are quite real, by the way. Again let me refer back to the Epistle to the Ephesians where we are told about the warfare of believers in this world today. “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph_6:10-12). God has saved us by His infinite, marvelous, wonderful grace. But you and I are in a world that is wicked and rough. Like the children of Israel out in the wilderness, we are in the wilderness of this world, which is full of sin. Although God has saved us by His marvelous grace, we have an enemy to fight. Paul wrote this to a young preacher, “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2Ti_2:3). Again, he tells him, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called …” (1Ti_6:12). Now for the first time the Israelites hear of war. In this book we will find wars and trumpets, battles and giantsall of that. You and I live in that kind of world yet today. In our day some folk seem to think that all one must do is say, “Peace,” and there will be peace. They talk about making love and not war. Yet, they cause dissension and trouble while they talk about peace! They know nothing about true peace. They don’t seem to understand that we live in a big, bad world, that there are some bad folk around us, and that there will be fights and wars whether we like it or not. That is one of the terrible things about our world.

Numbers 1:4

The way this book starts off here with this census doesn’t sound exactly thrilling. It’s not like a mystery story on television. One would think we have here fifty-four verses of unnecessary details which are quite boring, but we need to remember that these details were important to God. If we will see the great truths that are here, we will find it thrilling for us. First of all, we see that God is interested in the individuals. Mass movements have their place and play their role, but God is interested in redeemed individuals. He is interested in every individual. Moses and Aaron were to take a census and they were to have one assistant from each tribe. The names of these assistants are given here, which are too monotonous to quote, yet they reveal that every name there was important to God and has meaning. If one understands the Hebrew meaning of the names, it will give a wonderful message.

Numbers 1:5

That doesn’t sound very interesting or thrilling, but let me explain it. Reuben was the eldest son of Jacob, and he was set aside. We are told, “Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power: Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch” (Gen_49:3-4). Reubenunstable as water. Now the man chosen out of this tribe was to be a different kind of man. Elizur, the son of Shedeur, was the man. Elizur means “My God is a rock” and Shedeur means “The Almighty is a fire.” I like that. This man Elizur, “My God is a rock,” may belong to a tribe that is unstable as water, but he knows a Rock that is stable. He reminds me of the little Scottish lady who said, “I may tremble on the Rock, but the Rock never trembles under me.” Remember that they had sung in the song of Moses that God was their Rock. This fellow had learned that. He knew that God is a Rock in a weary land. He is the foundation Rock for us to rest on also. It is wonderful to know, my friend, that you may be an unstable person and come from an unstable family, but there is a Rock for you. “My God is a Rock.”

Numbers 1:18

Why did they declare their pedigree? Why are pedigrees so important in the Word of God? They serve a threefold purpose.

1. They were interesting and beneficial to those who were concerned. It’s well to know something of your ancestry, what kind of stock you came from.
2. The reason some names and genealogies are omitted in the Bible and others are recorded is because it was important to preserve the genealogy of Jesus Christ. We saw in our study of Genesis how the rejected line was given first and then dropped and forgotten. Then the genealogical line which would lead to the Lord Jesus is given, and this line is followed all the way through the Scriptures. The New Testament opens with a genealogy, and the whole New Testament stands or falls on the accuracy of that genealogy. This genealogy was kept on record, and probably was open on display, in the temple of that day. Probably the enemy checked it many times, hoping to find that Jesus did not have the legal right to the throne of David. It is interesting that the accuracy of the genealogy of Jesus Christ was never questioned by His enemies.
3. God forbade intermarriage, and a true Israelite had to be able to declare his pedigree. They were the beneficiaries of the covenant made to Abraham. Also the genealogy was necessary to determine who was eligible for the priesthood. We find an example of this in the Book of Nehemiah. “And of the priests: the children of Habaiah, the children of Koz, the children of Barzillai, which took one of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite to wife, and was called after their name. These sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but it was not found: therefore were they, as polluted, put from the priesthood” (Neh_7:63-64). Levites who could not declare their genealogy were put out of the priesthood. There is a message in all of this for us today. Can you imagine a young man of that day being called up and asked, “Are you an Israelite?” If he answered, “Well, I hope I’m an Israelite, but I can’t be sure until I die,” what do you think would have happened? They would have pushed him aside! Suppose another young man stepped up and they asked, “Are you an Israelite?” What do you think they would have done to him if he answered, “Well, I try to be an Israelite, I’m working real hard at it, and I hope to become one”? Would that have been acceptable? Do you see how important it was for them to declare that they were Israelites? Each one must know that he was the son of Abraham. Now I have a question for youa quite personal question. Can you declare your pedigree as a Christian? If you don’t know whether you can or not, may I say to you that you had better be able to declare it. Listen to this: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1Jn_3:2). Can you say that, my friend? How can you become a son of God? “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal_3:26). There is no other way. You become a son of God by faith in Christ Jesus. “But as many as received him, [the Lord Jesus], to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (Joh_1:12). The authority to become the sons of God is given to those who do no more nor less than simply believe in His name. And our genealogy is important! If we are a true child of God through faith in Christ, then we are heirs of God and joint heirs of Christ! “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal_3:29). “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (Rom_8:14-17). You can know it. You can be born again through the blood of Christ and so be a member of the family of God. That is the only way! In this wilderness journey today, you must know who you are! You must know that you are a child of God. If you are not sure of that, you ought to make sure of it and you can make sure of it. How can you be sure? By taking God at His Word. It is not what you think or what you feel; He says that if you put your trust in Christ, you are His child. You can rest on the Word of God. Here we are given the twelve tribes of Israel and the numbers in each tribe. If you were to take an adding machine and go through this chapter, you would find that it is accurate.

Numbers 1:21

So it goes down the list until verse Num_1:46.

Numbers 1:23

So it goes down the list until verse Num_1:46.

Numbers 1:46

Now we will notice that the Levites were not numbered.

Numbers 1:47

HOW ISRAEL ENCAMPED ON WILDERNESS MARCHCHART OF CAMP-102NORTH 12 Tribes of Israel-102DAN (Eagle) ASHUR NAPHTALI TRIBE OF LEVI-102MERARI (3200)-102WESTEPHRAIM (Ox) MANASSEH BENJAMINGERSHON (2630)TABERNACLEAARON MOSESJUDAH (Lion) ISSACHAR ZEBULUNEAST-102KOHATH (2750) Total(8580)-102REUBEN (Man) SIMEON GAD-102SOUTHThe reason they were not numbered for warfare was that they had full charge of the tabernacle. They would put it up in the evening when they came into camp, and they would take it down whenever they were ready to march.

Numbers 1:51

The children of Israel had to know who they were, hence the genealogy. It was also important that each of them should know where he belonged. He had a definite place assigned to him in the camp. The same is true for us. We need to know our pedigree, the fact that we belong to the family of God as His children. And, we need to know where we belong. We’ll see more of this in the next chapter.