Weekly Scriptures: Numbers 1:1-4:20; Hosea 2:1-23; Romans 9:22-33

This week we start to work our way through the Book of Numbers, which fittingly begins with a census of the Children of Israel, taken in the second year after their exodus from Egypt.

By this point the Israelites were still in the Desert of Sinai, having received the Law through Moses at Mount Sinai some months previously. Having given them the standards and frameworks by which He required them to live, God was now preparing His people to move on into the next phase of their journey – it was time to get them ready for what lay ahead.

Divine Arrangement

With the help of 12 tribal representatives, each hand-picked by the Lord for the job, Moses made an official count of all the men over 20 years of age, arranged according to their families, clans and tribes, as the Lord commanded, totalling 603,550 people. This census was of men of arms-bearing age; that was to be the next phase of Israel's journey – a phase of battle, as they moved in to take the Promised Land.

We are not told how many people there were in total – including women and children – but there will have been well over a million. Such a vast number moving together at once required efficient organisation, so after the census, God instructed Moses on how the entire camp was to be arranged and managed as they moved through the desert.

The tribes of Judah, Issachar and Zebulun were to camp on the east side of the Tabernacle and break camp first, the tribes of Reuben, Simeon and Gad were to camp on the south side and break camp second, the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh and Benjamin took the west side and were to break camp third, and the north side was allocated to Dan, Asher and Naphtali, who were to break camp last.

In the middle of this vast outer ring were to be the Levites, also arranged by the points of the compass depending on their clan, with Moses, Aaron and his sons taking the east side – "towards the sunrise" (Num 3:38).

Finally, at the very centre of the camp, at the core of the entire community, was to be the Tabernacle itself. As has always been God's desire, He dwelt in the midst of His people.

The Priests' Calling

These were important times in the desert, with God ordering the Israelite community around His Lordship and Presence, moving them to acknowledge Him and put Him at the very centre of their lives. In an inner circle, mediating between the community and the glorious Presence of the Lord, were the Levites, who as a tribe were set apart to serve Him and minister in the Tabernacle, their lives devoted entirely to the priestly ministry.

Many see in this positioning and calling of the Levites a foreshadowing of Jesus, who stands between us and God so "that wrath will not fall" on us (Num 1:53), taking on the eternal duties of our Great High Priest and ministering perfectly on our behalf, day and night, before the Father in Heaven (Heb 8).

Redemption of the Firstborn

This image is given further significance by the principle of redemption outlined in Numbers 3. Having initially claimed every firstborn (men and animals) for Himself when He led Israel out of Egypt, God then chose to take the life-service of the Levites instead of that of the firstborns from the other tribes – he redeemed the latter with the former.

This was on a strictly one-for-one basis – in fact, when the numbers were compared in the Sinai Desert, there was an excess of 273 Israelite firstborn males who did not have a Levite counterpart to redeem them before the Lord. To make up the difference, an offering was taken of 5 shekels per extra life, with the money going to Aaron and his sons.

This whole process seems a strange one – why would God set apart the firstborns for himself, only to change his mind and take the Levites instead? Only, God did not change His mind – He did not go back on His first decision - He simply fulfilled it in another way. One for one, life for life, He took what was rightfully His.

In so doing, He foreshadowed exactly what He would later do for each one of us through Jesus. Standing in our place, giving His life as a ransom for us, Jesus redeemed us from God's wrath and into His mercy. Only this time, the sacrifice wasn't one for one – it was one for all, for all time.

Note also that the Levites who substituted for the firstborn Israelites did so as living sacrifices – it was their living, breathing devotion that God wanted. That is what the risen Jesus now gives on our behalf - but it is also what is required of us, in response. We are to become living sacrifices to the Lord.

Endnote: Preparation Wasted

The devastatingly sad thing about these first chapters of Numbers is that not long after the census was taken, the Israelites rebelled against God when the spies sent into the Promised Land spread fear-mongering stories amongst the people of giants and strong, impregnable cities (Num 14). Suddenly God's promise of sovereign protection and Divine leadership was not enough of a security for the Children of Israel.

As a result, every single one of those recorded in the census just a few weeks previously (except for Caleb and Joshua) were cursed to wander the desert for the next 40 years until each had died. The strong fighting men painstakingly counted and organised by the Lord, through Moses, would never be able to put their God-given skills into action – and they would not inherit the Land promised to them. That right passed to their children.

We can learn many things from this story, but perhaps one of the main lessons is that no matter how much we prepare ourselves and organise our lives around God outwardly, if we do not combine this with faith in His leadership and protection, and humble submission to His directives – then our life's journey will become little more than a fruitless desert wandering. The journey to which we have been saved, the righteousness given to us, the destination prepared for us – are from first to last only obtainable by faith in the Lord Jesus and His work on our behalf (Rom 9:30).

Author: Frances Rabbitts