Numbers 1

SECTION 1. THE PREPARATIONS TO GO FORWARD FROM SINAI WITH YAHWEH’S PROVISIONS RELATED THERETO (1:1-10:10).

The Mobilisation of the Army of Israel, and the Preparation of the Levites For Their Work of Bearing the Ark and Dwellingplace of Yahweh (1:1-4:49).

The first stage towards entry into the land had to be the mobilisation of the army of Israel, both of its fighting men, and of its ‘servants of the dwellingplace of Yahweh’. That is what is in mind in the first four chapters.

The description of this follows a general chiastic pattern indicated by the letters a to d and can be divided up as follows:

a The taking of the sum of the tribes and their responsibility (to war) (Numbers 1:1-46).

b The Levites’ responsibility for the Dwellingplace (Numbers 1:47-54).

c Positioning and arrangements for travel of the people (Numbers 2:1-32).

d The consecration of the priests to Yahweh (Numbers 3:1-4).

d The dedication of the Levites to the priests and to Yahweh (Numbers 3:5-13)

c Positioning and arrangements for travel of the Levites (Numbers 3:14-51).

b The priests’ responsibility for the Dwellingplace (Numbers 4:5-15).

a The taking of the sum of the Levites and their responsibilities (Numbers 4:1-4; Numbers 4:21-49).

Chapter 1 Preparation For The Journey: The Army Is Numbered For War

The numbering of an army was always preparatory to action. Thus the numbering here of the men of war was preparation for what lay ahead. They were now to go forward to make war in order to conquer the land and possess it. The resultant total will then be used later in the book in order to demonstrate that, in spite of failure on the part of Israel, the people leave the wilderness after all their troubles as numerous as when they entered it, the old having been replaced with the new (Numbers 26:0). Man’s purposes may fail but God’s never do.

But it was also a way of describing the organisation of the fighting men of Israel into military units, without too much regard for the actual literal quantity. These units were then to be set around the people on the move in fighting array. They had learned their lesson from the Amalekite attack at Rephidim (Exodus 17:8-16; Deuteronomy 25:17-18), and were determined to prevent it happening again. And they were especially to surround the Dwellingplace of Yahweh on all four sides, forming a square around it, as did the Egyptian armies of Rameses II around the Pharaoh’s tent. This was a typical second millennium BC formation.

In this we have a picture of the ‘church militant’, the true people of God on earth, preparing themselves for battling with the great Enemy (e.g. Ephesians 6:10-18). They are a number which no man can number, and yet each is numbered before God (Revelation 7:0). Indeed the very hairs of their head are all numbered (Matthew 10:30; Luke 12:7). Not one of them is forgotten before Him.