“Center of the Camp” – FBC Morning Light (2/20/2024)

Well, a good Tuesday morning to you. Today we begin another one of the most popular books of the Old Testament, the book of Numbers. There are passages in the book of Numbers that are favorite sections to go to, you know, reading about the 12 spies going into the land and so on and so forth, but a lot of what we read in Numbers, again, can seem to be a little tedious.

Let me give you a little hint about one of the things I like to do, especially in chapter 1, just for the fun of it. I'll write down when it talks about, you know, it's taking a census. It talks about how many men who are able to fight go to war.

It gives a number for each of the tribes. I like to just write just for the fun of it. I like to write down. I do this every year. I don't know why. It's just a fun thing to do, I guess. Fun, relatively speaking.

I like to write down the name of the tribe, and then the number of warriors. So Reuben, 46 ,500. Simeon, 59 ,300, and so on and so forth. What's interesting to do when you do that is to look over the list when all is said and done.

You get the 12 tribes written down there, and by the way, notice that the tribe of Levi is not included, and the descendants of Joseph are divided between Ephraim and Manasseh, the two sons of Joseph.

Anyway, so you get them all written down there. What's kind of interesting is to look over that list and see which is the smallest of all the tribes, and the smallest is Manasseh, 32 ,200. But that stands to reason, because after all, Manasseh and Ephraim are the two sons, the split of the tribe from Joseph.

But when you take Ephraim and Manasseh together, you have 72 ,700 fighting men between those two tribes, and yet those two tribes together are still smaller than the largest tribe of fighting men. And guess which tribe that is?

It's Judah. It's Judah. Well, it's interesting, because out of which tribe is to come the royal leader, the royal king? Out of Judah. Judah becomes the largest tribe. Anyway, so there's a total of 603 ,550.

Judah as the Leading Tribe in Israel

Speaking of Judah, this also is an interesting little tidbit from chapter 2. In chapter 2, the Lord gives directions on where the different tribes are supposed to camp when the tabernacle stops, and then camp is supposed to be set up.

And first in order of the tribes and where they are to camp is Judah, on the east side of the tabernacle. Judah is spoken of as first, and where they are to be planted, where they are to set up their camp.

And the reason for that is that when it's time to move and go on to another location, the tribe of Judah would be the tribe out in front, leading the way to the next destination, and so forth. So again, you see an indication, a hint of the primacy of the tribe of Judah.

Ordered Responsibilities for the Levites

And then another little tidbit that I found to be somewhat interesting, and to see a principle that can be helpful to us in our various functions of life, is in chapters 3 and 4, there is a delineation of responsibilities for the Levitical clans, the Levite clans, the sons of Levi, Gershom and Kohath and Merari, and they each have these three different sons of Levi, and their descendants, their sons, they are each given specific responsibilities that are unique to those sub-tribes, those tribal units.

And it's very clear what each one of them is supposed to do. And I find here some helpful principle in that. There is great value and wisdom in giving clear delineation of duties and areas of responsibility when breaking down a larger task to be done.

Now, that seems like a no-brainer in some things, like building a building, a general contractor knows exactly what that's all about, and a good general contractor is going to be very clear in delineating who does what, and when they do it, and so on and so forth.

But we can apply this in other areas too. We can apply it to our homes, we can apply it to our churches, and so on and so forth. So again, just some helpful practical stuff in these early chapters in the Book of Numbers that maybe you thought, maybe it wasn't all that significant.

Yeah, there's some benefit to it after all. Our Father and our God, we thank you for your Word. It's profitable to us in so many ways, and thank you for that which we can learn even from these early chapters of the Book of Numbers.

Bless these thoughts to our hearts today, we pray. I ask it in Jesus' name, amen. All right, have a great Tuesday. May the Lord bless you in it.