2025 09/14 Numbers 1:47-2:34; Holiness and Hazard, Order and Organization; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20250914_numbers-1_47-2_34.mp3

We are journeying with Jesus in the Wilderness, the Old Testament book of Numbers. In Genesis we see God’s Word speak everything into existence, mankind’s rebellion and its ugly consequences, and God’s choice of one man, Abraham, and his descendants. In Exodus we see God redeem his people from slavery, we see the Passover Lamb and God setting his people free to worship him. Leviticus shows us God’s holiness, and what it takes for sinners to approach a holy God. Numbers has us in the wilderness, preparing for war, preparing to take possession of the promises.

Last time we saw in Numbers 1 the list of would-be heroes of Israel, names reflecting the character of the God of Israel. These become rather the record of those who through unbelief fell in the wilderness. We saw every man counted, those 20 and up, who were meant to be the warriors taking possession of the promised land, but who instead became that generation who rebelled against God, who did not enter in because of their unbelief. They become a warning to us.

The end of chapter 1 and chapter 2 give us the symmetry and structure of the camp of Israel, all centered around God and his tent in the middle of the camp.

Levite Warriors Guarding God’s Holiness

In chapter 1, every tribe was counted, except the tribe of Levi.

Numbers 1:47 But the Levites were not listed along with them by their ancestral tribe. 48 For the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 49 “Only the tribe of Levi you shall not list, and you shall not take a census of them among the people of Israel. 50 But appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, and over all its furnishings, and over all that belongs to it. They are to carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings, and they shall take care of it and shall camp around the tabernacle. 51 When the tabernacle is to set out, the Levites shall take it down, and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up. And if any outsider comes near, he shall be put to death.

All the tribes are to be numbered, prepared to battle the enemy outside. But the tribe of Levi has a different assignment, and a different battle to fight. The Levites are also to be prepared for war, but their purpose is to defend the holiness of God. God’s tent is holy, and every part of it must be approached and handled as God commands. The Levites have the holy responsibility of settng up, taking down, carefully handling and defending the tent of YHWH. If any outsider, anyone unauthorized, unclean or unprepared comes near, they are commissioned to put that one to death. Even queen Esther understood that approaching the king uninvited was risking immediate death. How much more approaching the King of the universe in an unauthorized manner warranted death. God took the initiative. God rescued his people. God entered into a covenant relationship with his people. He wants to be with his people.

Exodus 25:8 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.

Exodus 29:45 I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. 46 And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.

God desires to be with his people. But God is holy; it is dangerous for a sinner to be in the presence of the holy God. Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu demonstrated how serious it is to approach God in an unauthorized way;

Leviticus 10:1 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’” And Aaron held his peace.

God’s covenant outlines how God is to be approached, and the Levites are commissioned to defend the holiness of God.

Numbers 1:52 The people of Israel shall pitch their tents by their companies, each man in his own camp and each man by his own standard. 53 But the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, so that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the people of Israel. And the Levites shall keep guard over the tabernacle of the testimony.”

All the people of Israel organized around the central tent of YHWH, the Levites camping as a buffer between God’s tent and the tents of the people, to insulate the people from God’s wrath, and to guard God’s tent from unauthorized approach.

The chapter closes with the full obedience of the people:

Numbers 1:54 Thus did the people of Israel; they did according to all that the LORD commanded Moses.

Tribes Arranged Around the Tabernacle

Numbers 2 gives the organization of the rest of the tribes, counted in chapter 1, around YHWH’s tent.

Numbers 2:1 The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 2 “The people of Israel shall camp each by his own standard, with the banners of their fathers’ houses. They shall camp facing the tent of meeting on every side.

YHWH’s tent is to be the center of the camp, and everyone’s tent is to face the tent of meeting. In this verse it is called the Tent of Meeting, because YHWH God would meet with Moses in his holy tent (Num.1:1; Lev.1:1). It is also called the Tabernacle of the Testimony or Tent of the Testimony (Ex.38:21; Num.1:50, 53) because the Ark of the Testimony (Ex.25:21-22), the ornate box which contained the duplicate stone tablets of the testimony or covenant treaty was housed inside the tabernacle, behind the veil of the testimony (Lev.24:3).

The rest of the chapter gives the layout of the camp and the marching order when they set out, in groups of three tribes, camped on each side of the Tabernacle, starting at the entrance to the Tabernacle in the East.

Numbers 2:3 Those to camp on the east side toward the sunrise shall be of the standard of the camp of Judah by their companies, …

Judah at the entrance to the Tabernacle, along with Issachar and Zebulun. Included is the information from chapter one of the chiefs of each tribe, the count of military men from each tribe, and it gives the sum total of fighting men from those three tribes.

Numbers 2:9 All those listed of the camp of Judah, by their companies, were 186,400. They shall set out first on the march. 10 “On the south side shall be the standard of the camp of Reuben by their companies, …

Moving clockwise from the entrance to the Tabernacle, under the banner of Reuben are included Simeon and Gad.

Numbers 2:16 All those listed of the camp of Reuben, by their companies, were 151,450. They shall set out second. 17 “Then the tent of meeting shall set out, with the camp of the Levites in the midst of the camps; as they camp, so shall they set out, each in position, standard by standard.

We will get more details in the coming chapters on how the Lord’s tent is to be transported. It is in the center of the tribes when they are camped, and it is in the middle of the procession when Israel is on the march.

Numbers 2:18 “On the west side shall be the standard of the camp of Ephraim by their companies, …

Together under the banner of Ephraim are Manasseh and Benjamin. Ephraim and Manasseh are the two sons of Joseph, adopted by Israel as his own. This brings the total tribe count to thirteen if they are counted separately. But as in this chapter the Levites can be left out of the military count and there are still twelve tribes, or when Levi is included Ephraim and Manasseh can be counted together under Joseph.

Numbers 2:24 All those listed of the camp of Ephraim, by their companies, were 108,100. They shall set out third on the march. 25 “On the north side shall be the standard of the camp of Dan by their companies, …

Moving again clockwise to the North of the Tabernacle we find under the banner of Dan, the tribes of Asher and Naphtali.

Numbers 2:31 All those listed of the camp of Dan were 157,600. They shall set out last, standard by standard.” 32 These are the people of Israel as listed by their fathers’ houses. All those listed in the camps by their companies were 603,550. 33 But the Levites were not listed among the people of Israel, as the LORD commanded Moses.

Blessings, Curses, Places of Honor

A few comments about the order of the tribes listed. They are not in the birth order we find in Genesis 29-30. They are not organized according to their birth mothers as in Genesis 35 and 46, and Exodus 1. Even the two listings in Numbers 1 don’t match exactly (Gad is moved up from 11th (1:14) to third (1:25). Here in Numbers 2, Reuben and Simeon, the first and second born are moved down to 4th and 5th, and Judah is moved up to first place.

We see a possible explanation for this in Genesis 49, when Jacob is blessing his children. Reuben is ‘blessed’ first, as the firstborn, but because he slept with his father’s concubine (Gen.35:22), Jacob says ‘you shall not have preeminence’. Likewise Levi and Simeon, because of their violent rage deceiving and then slaughtering all the men of Shechem (Gen.34), Jacob says “Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel (Gen.49:7). But of Judah he says:

Genesis 49:8 “Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you. … 10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

Judah is the one who offered to take Benjamin’s place as a slave in Egypt so the boy could return safely to his father (Gen.44). So we see Judah rise to the first place in the camp, and Reuben and Simeon put in a lower place. We will see how Levi ended up where he did next time.

Notice, over 400 years after their father’s blessing, their behavior and character was still affecting their future generations, the loss of or promotion to places of honor for their great-great-great-great grandchildren.

But notice also, these tribes were still tribes. They were still recipients of redemption, of rescue from slavery in Egypt. They may have had positions of greater or lesser honor around the Tabernacle, but they all received grace. They were all included in Israel, encamped facing the tent of God who dwelt among them.

Paul writes to the church in Corinth:

1 Corinthians 3:11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. 16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

There will be reward or loss of reward for how we build on the foundation. But if we are truly built on the one foundation of Jesus, we will be saved on that Day.

Gospel and the Nearness of God

The whole structure of the camp, that the nearness God is our greatest good, but God is holy, and we must be shielded from his holiness points us to our need for the gospel.

Ephesians 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

We know that only in the good news, only by the blood of Jesus Christ can our sins be finally and forever gone; only in Jesus can we be safely brought near to God.

Order and Gifting

Here’s another thing we can glean from this passage; God was always central to the camp, and his people were well ordered around him. Each one was significant, each one named, each one counted. And each one was part of something bigger than himself. He was part of a family, part of a tribe, grouped under a standard. Each was part of the people of God. Each one had his place. Each one had his responsibility, a part to play, a duty to discharge. Later in Numbers, the pagan seer Balaam ’lifted up his eyes and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe,’ and said by the Spirit

Numbers 24:5 How lovely are your tents, O Jacob, your encampments, O Israel! 6 Like palm groves that stretch afar, like gardens beside a river, like aloes that the LORD has planted, like cedar trees beside the waters.

Paul tells the church in 1 Corinthians 14:

1 Corinthians 14:33 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. …40 But all things should be done decently and in order.

He says this in the context of the church body, made up of diverse members, each with different God given gifts.

1 Corinthians 12:4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. … 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. … 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. … 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.

Our God is a God of order, not confusion but peace. God arranges and equips each of us as members of his body as he wills, for the common good, to build up one another. Are we seeking to work for the common good, or to get ahead? Is our greatest treasure the good news that through the blood of Jesus we sinners are brought near to God?

Numbers 2:34 Thus did the people of Israel. According to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so they camped by their standards, and so they set out, each one in his clan, according to his fathers’ house.

Chapter 2 ends as chapter one, with Israel organized in obedience to all that YHWH God commanded Moses.

***

—————————-Dan—————————–

—————————-Asher—————————

—————————-Naphtali————————

—————————-[157,600]———————–

Ephraim——————————————Judah

Manasseh——————Tent——————Issachar

Benjamin——————–of——————–Zebulun

[108.100]—————–Meeting—————[186,400]

—————————————————————-

—————————-Reuben————————–

—————————-Simeon—————————

—————————-Gad——————————-

—————————-[151,450]————————

***

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org