Imagine that a book titled Numbers start off with a count. In this case the count has to do with those of military age. This is what I would call the first Selective Service registration. In verse 3 we see God tell Moses, while in the Sinai Desert that he is to list every male by name who is at least 20 years old and eligible for military duty. This count is similar to those males in the states who are of 18 years of age.
The count was to be done in a specific way. Aaron and Moses were to take a specific male that God had chosen to help in the count for each tribe. Verses 5 – 15 lists these males. Every male of eligible for military duty and their ancestry was to be listed. You can read the count for each tribe in the following verses. The total eligible for military duty was 603,550. What is interesting in this chapter is that they were divided into divisions that had their own flag.
If you look at our modern military we are divided into divisions. There are not many units that are not part of a division. Those divisions are divided down to companies. Each unit has its own flag that distinguishes it from others. Those Soldiers that belong to that division wears a division patch to identify themselves with that division.
We see that the Israelites in verse 52 have each division had their own flag.
The only ones that were not counted for military service were the tribe of Levi. These men were set aside to be priests and care for the tabernacle.
Application
What I see here is a responsibility to ones nation. In this case to military service. This does not mean that all should serve but those who can should. We can see here that God is not against a standing military force. Many think there is a conflict between the fact that the Ten Commandments say don’t kill and serving in the military. If you recall our study in Exodus we discussed the fact that in dealing with that word kill we are dealing with murder.
So in honor of our veterans on this day we celebrate military service.
Chapter 2 simply consists of laying out the placement of the tents in the camp. What we see here is an illustration of what we often hear, that of God being a God of order. Notice that as you read this passage the tents were to be set up in a certain way, facing a certain direction, under the family flag. Each family was placed on a specific side of the tent of meetings.
Imagine that a book titled Numbers start off with a count. In this case the count has to do with those of military age. This is what I would call the first Selective Service registration. In verse 3 we see God tell Moses, while in the Sinai Desert that he is to list every male by name who is at least 20 years old and eligible for military duty. This count is similar to those males in the states who are of 18 years of age.