Seder 102: Numbers 1---Everybody Counts

 The book of Numbers begins early in the second year of the Exodus.  The Israelites have been camped at Sinai for around 11 months, and in a few weeks they will break camp and travel toward the Promised Land.  

On their journey they will be organized as a military camp.  God authorizes a military census of males 20 years old and up----the soldiers---and selects a man from each tribe to supervise the count.  What an honor it would have been to have been named by God for this role!  There are a few familiar names among the list in Num 1:5-15.  For example, Judah's representative, Nahshon, is an ancestor of Jesus (Ruth 4:20).   Elishama, Ephraim's representative, is Joshua's grandfather (I Ch 7:26-27).  Many of the names are theophoric---i.e., they contain a name of God, like El, Shaddai, or Zur.  

The Israelites carried out the census "as the Lord commanded Moses" (v 19).  This refrain, which we have seen through the final chapters of Exodus, continues through the first ten chapters of Numbers.  (Commentator Dale Brueggemann counts 19 times that the phrase occurs in Num 1-10.)  

The numbers reported from the census in our English translattions raise questions for us.  We will first begin to question our translations in Num 3, when the number of firstborn males reported is an order of magnitude too low to be in sync with the large numbers in Num 1.  I have written about these issues in a previous post.

From a theological standpoint, these details are not so important.  The big message is that God has blessed Israel greatly, carrying out his promises to the patriarchs by greatly multiplying their descendants.  Moreover, God knows the name of each Israelite, and each Israelite matters.

The tribe of Levi is not involved in the military census but will have its own count.  Levites have their own important responsibility to care for and guard the tabernacle (v 53).  

In a sermon at Church of the Messiah on May 14, 2022, Kyle Kettering looked at all the important biblical events that occur in wilderness settings.  The wilderness is a place where people can tune out extraneous noise and hear the voice of God.