Seder 103: Numbers 2---Arrangement of the Israelite Camp

 Numbers 2 describes the arrangement of the Israelite camp in the wilderness.  The tabernacle was in the center, guarded by the tribe of Levi.  On the east were the tribes of Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, three sons of Leah.  On the south were the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, and Gad, two sons of Leah and one son of Leah's handmaid Zilpah (Gad is sort of a replacement for Levi, the other one of Leah's six sons).  On the west are the tribes of Rachel's sons----Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin.  On the north are the tribes of three children of Bilhah and Zilpah---Dan, Naphtali, and Asher.  When Israel was on the march, the eastern group would go first, followed by the southern group, the tabernacle, the western group, and then the northern group.  

James Hoffmeier (in Ancient Israel in Sinai) has noticed parallels between the arrangement of Israel's camp and those of Egyptian pharaohs like Rameses II.  In the Egyptian camp the pharaoh was at the center, and in the Israelite camp God and the tabernacle were at the center.  

In Numbers 2 we see God as a God or order.  That orderliness will be praised later in the book of Numbers by Balaam.  "How lovely are your tents, O Jacob, your encampments, O Israel!" Balaam proclaims in Num 24:5.  

There are traditions about what was displayed on the flags of the different tribal groups.  One of these traditions has Judah with a lion on its flag, Reuben with a man, Ephraim with an ox, an Dan with an eagle.  The colors of the flags were said to coincide with the colors of the stones on the breastpiece of the high priest.  

Protecting holiness and holy space is a major message of the camp arrangement.  This is a lesson also stressed in the New Testament.  For example, Paul writes in 1 Cor 3:16-17, "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?"  In 1 Cor 6:19-20 he adds, "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.  So glorify God in your body."