God's Warriors Counted (The Book of Numbers Chapters 1-4)

The Book of Numbers and the Census of Israel

Amen. So tonight we're gonna begin our study of the fourth book of the law, the fourth book of Moses, the book of Numbers. Last week we did one study, just an overview of Leviticus. Numbers is gonna take several weeks, not sure how many, but several.

So it's called the book of Numbers. We're gonna be looking at chapters 1 through 4 this evening. It's called the book of Numbers. Why? Right. It starts out with a census. So the children of Israel are being numbered.

Right. As I already indicated, Moses is the author. It's written about 1450 BC. There's 36 chapters, and the theme, or really the topic, is the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness. The story picks up one year and one month after the children of Israel left Egypt.

So this is one month after the tabernacle was built. So Numbers is a unique book. It includes poetry, prophecy, historical narrative, law, genealogies, and then, of course, the census. Let's pick up in Numbers chapter 1, starting in verse 1.

It says, Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel by their families, by their fathers' houses.

According to the number of names, every male individually from 20 years old and above, all who are able to do what? Go to war in Israel. You and Aaron shall number them by their armies. Okay. So if you remember back in chapter 12 of the book of Genesis, God made Abraham a promise, or then Abram, a promise that he would make of him a great nation.

Well, that's what we have now. We have a great nation. Most scholars agree that the nation of Israel was constituted. It came into being at Mount Sinai once the law was given. So now they have the people, they have their religion, they have their government.

The only thing they lack is what? Right. The land. And of course, this is going to be the problem that we run into. The Lord wanted them to take the land by faith, but they lacked faith. They failed to do it.

We'll get into that in a later study. But now you have the great nation, or at least the beginning of it, that was promised to Abraham. And as any nation would do, you need to number the people, right?

We have a census. I think we just had it, what, last year? So every nation numbers the people. In particular, what they wanted to know was how many men were there of military age. Because every nation, another thing every nation needs is an army.

So this is going to be a theme throughout the Old Testament, especially when we look at Joshua and Judges in the time period of the kings. It always seems that Israel was at war, right? They're always battling their enemies.

There are a few periods of peace, but they didn't seem to last very long. So this is what you would expect with a physical nation. Now they're a nation. Now you need an army, and there's going to be those battles, physical battles, right?

But you fast forward and make application to the New Testament church. What do we have? Well, we have battles, don't we? But we're not a physical nation. Israel was. We are a spiritual nation. Therefore, our battles are spiritual.

Right. Spiritual battles. The Apostle Paul, just a few verses along these lines, the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy and told him to wage the good warfare through faith and a good conscience. In 1 Timothy 6, he said, but you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.

He says, fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life to which you were also called. So that's the battle that we fight. Fight the good fight of faith. So today we are really, we are soldiers in the Lord's army.

Just like the man back in the book of Numbers, they were soldiers in the Lord's army. Now it's just a different type of warfare. And if there's anything that we have learned, hopefully it's this, that there are always principles from these Old Testament scriptures that we can take and apply to us today.

So the men were appointed to help carry out the census. Look at verses 45 and 46. Yes. Okay, question. Sure. It says in verse 3, from 20 years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel, in Israel.

I almost take that as to say, not outside of Israel. And I think if I'm correct, most of their wars were in Israel anyway. People were attacking them. Right. Well, I think in Israel is in the people. In Israel, the nation is in the people.

I'm not sure if they, because it does say, it does say that. Yeah, I wouldn't view that as a statement about the borders of the actual promised land. Because they haven't really gotten that point yet.

Right. All Israelites who are able to go to war. Right. Yeah. Okay. Anything else before we, yes, Robert. Why 20? Why couldn't it be like a 17 year old? Well, yeah, we have 18, right? You have to be 18 to join the armed services.

Why 20? Well, I don't know. I don't, you have to pick an age to start with. So 20 was the age. Does anyone have considered that as a mature male at that stage? All young people, male and female in Israel now have to serve.

There's no exemptions. What's their age? 18. You see, they're not following the law of Moses. So call the embassy and let them know. All right. Look at verses 45 and 46 says,. And so all who are numbered of the children of Israel by their father's houses from 20 years old and above, all who are able to go to war in Israel, all who are numbered were how many?

603 ,550. So that's just the fighting age men. So it's estimated that the Israelite population was two to 3 million. We're not exactly sure, but that's pretty amazing when you consider how many of them came down to Egypt originally.

How many came down and made that trek? Okay. Okay. So even if you say cut it in half, 2 .5 million, you're going from 70 people to 2 .5 million. Okay. God has prospered them. God has blessed them. So from one family to a great nation, this is really the power of God and the promise of God at work.

And it proves that the Lord is faithful to his people. I mean, there were some pretty rough times along the way. Someone could have wondered, okay, the Lord promised this. Is it going to happen? How can it happen?

Doesn't look like it's going to happen. Well, it happened because God keeps his promises. So you think of, okay, application. What's the spiritual promise that we have? You know, the church might have some pretty rough days.

And if you look at church history, there were some pretty rough times. Right. But the promise that we have is church and the gates of hell won't prevail against it. Exactly. Christ promised he would build his church and the gates of hell shall not prevail.

So the covenant that God made with Abraham, just like the covenant that we have, it's all by grace. The Israelites did not deserve this. Just going through Genesis and Exodus, we've seen plenty of evidence to point to that.

They didn't really deserve it. There was really nothing special about them except that they were chosen by God. But that made them special. They were an elect people, and that's what set them apart. But we also see that within the elect people, there's, if I can put it this way, there's an elect people within the elect people.

The Levites Set Apart for Tabernacle Service

Look at verse 47. It says, but the Levites were not numbered among them by their father's tribe. For the Lord had spoken to Moses saying, only the tribe of Levi you shall not number, nor take a census of them among the children of Israel.

But you shall appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, over all its furnishings and over all things that belong to it. They shall carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings, and they shall attend to it in the camp around the tabernacle.

So the Levites are exempt, at least from this first census, because they're different. They're set apart. They have a different job, and that is to tend to the tabernacle of meeting. So they would be the tribe that was camped.

We're going to look at the different tribes and where they were camped around the tabernacle. But the Levites were right around the inner circle, right around the tabernacle. So, and then the other tribes spread out from there.

So the priests and the Levites were the ministers, okay? The priests and the Levites were the ministers. The priests were a select few from the line of who? Right, from Levi, but even get more narrow from there.

Right, from Aaron. From Aaron. The other Levites would assist the priests. So look at it this way. All the priests were Levites, but not all Levites were priests. The priests were descendants of Aaron, but the Levites assisted the priests.

So again, trying to make application to the New Testament church. I think we can do that because you have two groups, the priests and the Levites. Well, New Testament church, Philippians 1, 1 Timothy 3.

You have two offices in a local church. That of bishop, or we call them pastors, but bishop and deacon. So if the tabernacle of meeting is the house of God in the Old Testament, what's the house of God in the New Testament?

The church.

Right, the church. 1 Timothy 3, 15, Paul wrote, but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

So today the church is the house of God and you have like the priests and the Levites. Now you have to two groups, bishops and deacons. And just like the Levites were to assist the priests, that's the way it is with deacons.

Deacons are to assist the pastor or the pastors, plural, depending on the side of your church. So deacons assist the pastor. So I think it's important that we understand the structure to all of this. And, you know, hear me out.

When you think of the deacons assisting the pastor, some of you will appreciate this. The deacons are not the pastor's boss. The board of deacons is not supposed to be running the church. Likewise, the pastor is not Moses to where he is the leader and he hears directly from God and he can't be questioned.

Both of those models are very common in churches. I believe both are incorrect. So what's the proper way to look at it? Just as the priests and the Levites were both ministers, so pastors and deacons, that's what we are.

We are ministers. We are servants. So we're all involved in the work of ministry. Who's the authority? Right. Jesus is the authority. Jesus is the head of the church. So I say all of that to say this.

There is no Moses in the New Testament church. Like, well, who holds the position of Moses? Well, I don't think there is a position of Moses. Moses was unique. He was the mediator of the old covenant.

We're going to see as we go through. You don't question Moses, right? You question Moses, the ground's going to open up and you're going to be brought down to hell. There is no Moses in the New Testament church.

So Moses is the mediator of the old covenant. So the only Moses today, Moses type would be Christ because obviously Christ is much greater, but Christ is the mediator of the new covenant. Okay, any questions or comments on that?

And I know there's people out there who see church government a little differently, but that's what I believe should be the biblical model. Any comments or questions? Okay, no. Well, I'm going to assume that's agreement then.

So, but we have deacons and pastors. We have a responsibility to see to it that the Lord's word is in his instructions are carried out. So going back to numbers, they are counting the people they want to know what kind of army they have.

And again, the church is the Lord's army. We've heard of the Salvation Army, right? That's an organization, but really we're all part.

Of the Salvation Army, really.

Judah's Place of Honor and the Tribal Camp Around the Tabernacle

Okay, chapter one ends with verse 54. Thus the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses. So they did right now. Let's look at chapter two, chapter two through chapter four talks about the arrangement of the tribes around the tabernacle.

So hopefully this will work here and we can see what it looks like. All right, can everyone see this okay? Right in the middle camp around the tabernacle were the Levites and they were broken up.

Into different groups.

We'll talk about that after. And then you see each tribe. Did it look exactly like this? Well, I like how it's shaped as a cross. I like to think that's the way it was. But Benjamin, Manasseh, Ephraim.

Okay, so all the tribes. What tribe is the largest?

Judah.

Okay, Judah. Look at Numbers chapter two, verses one and two. And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, every one of the children of Israel shall camp by his own standard beside the emblems of his father's house.

And they shall camp some distance from the tabernacle of meeting. So the emblems were likely flags. I guess we don't know that for a fact. But each tribe probably had their own flag and they would have their own prince or their own leader.

In verse three, it's clear that the tribe of Judah appears to occupy, we could say a place of honor. They're camped on the east side towards the rising of the sun. And this may be partly because Judah had the largest army of 74 ,600 men.

And Judah was called, they were the tribe that Jacob called a lion's whelp back in Genesis chapter 49. Remember before Jacob or Israel died, he prophesied about the tribe of Judah. Basically that the kings would descend.

The scepter shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh comes. So they were the tribe that the kings would descend from. So King Saul was from what tribe? That's a trick question. Good, Benjamin. And Saul was kind of a disaster.

David though was from the tribe of Judah.

Judah.

And of course, most importantly, Jesus, King of Kings, is from the tribe of Judah. So I think we're already seeing that two tribes stand out, right? The priests come from Levi and the kings eventually will come from Judah.

And Judah is the most powerful tribe. So these two tribes are maybe you could say the elite tribes, at least at this point, Judah and Levi.

Nadab and Abihu, the Priesthood, and the Levites' Substitute Role

In chapter three,.

We once again see a reference to the story that we looked at last time in the book of Leviticus. This is the story of Nadab in a bayou.

What happened to Nadab in a bayou?

Nothing good.

Nothing good. That's right. They died before the Lord. Look at numbers three, starting in verse one.

It says,.

Now these are the records of Aaron and Moses when the Lord spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai. And these are the names of the sons of Aaron. Nadab, the firstborn in a bayou, Eleazar and Ithamar. These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the anointed priests whom he consecrated to minister as priests.

Nadab in a bayou.

Had died before the Lord in the wilderness of Sinai. And they had what? No children.

They had no children.

So Eleazar and Ithamar ministered as priests in the presence of Aaron, their father. You notice it makes that point that these two men who died had no children. So not only did they die, their line ended right there.

Because it was very important as it is for many people to have children and to see that family line continue. There's some people today that they don't really care as much about that. But back then,.

That was very, very important,.

Especially when you consider all that's happening.

Presumably,.

If these two sons had obeyed, they would have children. Their line would continue. Apostle Paul, it's a little different because Paul does speak about the benefits of celibacy and not having any children.

Why is that a benefit? So if somebody today doesn't have any kids, they get to save money. They have all sorts of freedom and that's appealing to people. But is that why celibacy is lifted up as a virtue by the Apostle Paul?

You have more money in your pocket. Right.

Well, yeah,.

And it's all about serving serving the Lord. Right.

Right.

So Paul, when he speaks, because I talked about 1 Timothy 3, when Paul speaks about church leaders, pastors and deacons,.

You could argue.

That you have to have children.

Or you're supposed to. So church leaders, pastors and deacons.

Should,.

I think,.

Have families. But when you think of missionaries, you think of,.

And this isn't.

Some hard set rule, but Paul is kind of the ideal picture of a missionary in the scripture. So missionaries do a lot of traveling.

Right.

Missionaries tend to encounter more adversity and problems. So for a missionary, especially, this would be a good option. Again, that's not a rule, but a missionary,.

That would be.

A pretty good option not to have children. They're fully committed.

To God.

So again, this is important to them to have children in the New Testament. It's not exactly the same, but these are some principles to be aware of. The point is with these two sons of Aaron,.

Nadab and Abihu,.

They had no children. The line ended.

Today, generally,.

We want children and the point I'm building up to is the most important thing for fathers.

And mothers,.

Christian fathers.

And mothers,.

Is to have a godly heritage.

Nadab and Abihu,.

Thankfully, Aaron had two other sons.

To have that.

Godly heritage. Because he wouldn't.

Have had it.

From those two. Just a verse or two that came to mind. 3 John 4, the apostle writes, I have no greater joy than to hear.

That my.

Children.

Walk.

In truth.

Technically,.

He wasn't talking about his physical.

Children there. I understand that,.

But one of the reasons.

Why,.

If you think.

About it,.

This is all.

Over the United.

States,.

If not all over the world. One of the reasons why church attendance is in decline throughout the United States is because that next generation, each new generation, people are having less children and the children are not walking.

In the truth.

So Nadab.

And Abihu.

Are dead.

Their line.

Is over.

Nothing can be done about that. While they were alive,.

They were in.

Control of the situation. Something could have been done. So as long as we're alive, whether we have children, grandchildren that are walking with the Lord,.

Not walking.

With the Lord,.

You have the ability to do something.

You have.

More influence.

Than,.

You know,.

And it is so important that our children walk.

With the Lord.

Look at verse.

Five.

This should be.

On the heart.

Of,.

Of every believer.

And the Lord.

Spoke to Moses saying, bring the tribe of Levi near and present them before Aaron, the priest that they may serve.

Him.

And they shall attend to his needs and the needs of the whole congregation.

Before the.

Tabernacle of meeting to do the work of.

The tabernacle.

Also, they shall attend to all the furnishings of.

The tabernacle.

Of meeting.

And to the needs of.

The children.

Of Israel to do.

The work.

Of the.

Tabernacle.

And you shall.

Give the.

Levites to.

Aaron.

And his sons.

And they are.

Given entirely to him from.

Among the.

Children of.

Israel. So you shall appoint Aaron and his sons and they shall attend to their priesthood.

But the.

Outsider who.

Shall,.

Who comes near.

Shall,.

What happens.

To them? Put to death.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, now behold, I myself have taken the Levites from among.

The children.

Of Israel instead of every firstborn who opens.

The womb.

Among the.

Children of.

Israel.

Therefore,.

The Levites.

Shall be.

Mine.

So something is changing.

Right here.

Because all the firstborn are mine.

On the day.

That I struck all the firstborn.

In the land.

Of Egypt, I sanctify to myself all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast. They shall be.

Mine.

I am the.

Lord. So,.

So what's.

Happening here? I just like to read what John MacArthur writes about this.

Section.

He says at the Exodus,.

The Lord.

Claimed for himself the firstborn of Israel's.

Males.

The firstborn was to act as the family.

Priest.

But when the full ministry of the Mosaic economy came.

In,.

God transferred the priestly duties to the Levites.

So there's.

That shift perhaps partly because why the Levites perhaps partly because of their holy zeal in the golden.

Calf.

Incident.

The Levites substituted for the.

Firstborn.

What did the.

Levites do.

During the.

Golden calf?

What?

They stood.

On the Lord's.

Side. Right.

So the idolaters were worshiping the golden calf and that kind.

Of gives you.

The impression.

That all the.

People from.

All the tribes.

Are just kind of like,.

Okay,.

That's what.

We're doing.

Now.

We're worshiping.

A golden calf.

And the Levites said,.

Oh,.

No,.

We're not.

And they, you know, they fought.

They were.

On the Lord's.

Side. Okay.

So.

That's,.

That's the way it was back then physical.

Battles.

And you can be glad that today.

We're not doing.

Any of that.

We're fighting.

Spiritual battles,.

Right?

Any comments or questions so far? All right. And versus 14 through.

39.

Now it's time for the Levites to be counted.

So they're.

Going to be.

Divided into three groups based on the sons.

Of Levi,.

Which are Gershon, Kohath.

And.

Moreri.

So each.

Group.

Had a job.

To do.

Those from Gershon were responsible for the coverings of the tabernacle,.

The tent,.

The covering,.

The screen. Those from Kohath were responsible for the furniture. So this would.

Be the lamp.

Stand, the table of showbread, the Ark of the Covenant,.

Et cetera.

Those from.

Moreri.

Were responsible for the framework.

So this is.

The boards, the bars,.

The pillars.

And the utensils. So everybody had a job.

To do,.

Right?

Each tribe had their responsibility.

And that's.

Very important for the New Testament church as well.

If you think about it, we all.

Want to have a part.

In the work,.

Right?

What would happen if one tribe of the Levites or one tribe in Israel, they had to do everything? This one tribe, you guys cover it all.

Well,.

They'd probably be burdened and.

Weighed down.

How come we have.

To do everything and everyone else doesn't even feel like they even play a role? There'd be all sorts of consequences to that. So I think what the Lord is showing the New Testament church is every person.

In the church.

Is supposed to have a job.

To do.

We're all responsible and of course the spiritual gifts, we all have those things that we're.

Good at.

We should all be involved and all do our part. So as we bring this study to an end, chapter four covers other.

Duties.

Assigned to the Levites and I think we'll stop here. Lord willing, we'll pick up in chapter five next time. There's some interesting things in chapter five. Chapter six covers the Nazarite vow. So we'll get into that and many other subjects,.

I'm sure.

But Numbers chapter four ends with verse 49.

It says,.

According to the commandment of the.

Lord,.

They were numbered by the hand of Moses, each according to his service and according to his task.

Thus,.

They were numbered by him as the Lord commanded.

Moses.