NUMBERS 1-7 WILDERNESS BEGINNINGS2012 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Numbers 1-7 Wilderness Beginnings

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2012. Numbers chapter 1, we'll be looking at Numbers 1 through 7, which is the chapters that we read this week.

And I want to encourage you as we start this new book, it's not too late. If you didn't start with us through the Bible in three years, if you've fallen behind, there's plenty of opportunity. You don't have to try to get caught up. Just pick up a schedule off the back table and start reading today the portion that God has assigned to us today and allow God to speak to you and continue on this journey with us through the Bible in three years. Well,

Something that just kind of struck me right now as I was up here just preparing to pray and begin the service. So I don't have this written down. It's kind of off the top of my head, but I believe God wants me to share it just to maybe encourage a couple of you on stuff that God's doing in your heart right now. I was reflecting on the nation of Israel, and we often refer to the people

journey of Israel as a picture of the Christian life, how Israel was in bondage in Egypt and how we were in bondage to sin and death as a result of our sinful condition. But then because of Christ, you know, we've been set free and we've been brought out

from that bondage and set free from the bondage, just as Israel was released from the bondage. And with Moses, they were led out into the wilderness to meet with God at Mount Sinai. And we have this opportunity as well through Jesus Christ to be set free from sin and to meet with God. And then Israel is on their way to the promised land, the land that God said, I'm going to take you in and I'm going to give you this great inheritance in the land of Canaan.

And so we look at the Christian life and we understand that the promised land is not a picture of heaven, but it's a picture of the victorious Christian life where God says, you're going to go into the land, you're going to have victory, and you're going to have my blessings. And wherever the sole of your foot steps in the promised land, that's the land I'll give to you. In the same way, as we move forward in the power of the Holy Spirit, we have victory in Jesus and victory in his work in our lives.

And so we see the whole journey, we're kind of right in the middle of that in the book of Numbers, where they're in the wilderness, they're in between the bondage in Egypt and the promised land, and so they're on their way. And so we see this as a picture of the Christian life. Now, that's very familiar, I think that you've probably heard that before, and we'll refer back to it later on in the book of Numbers 2.

But what really struck me as I was preparing for this evening is that God is leading them in the wilderness. And you know, so many times we feel like we have to get things taken care of ourselves in order to

Come to God. In order for God to work in our midst. In order for him to lead us. That, you know, once I get my life together, then God's going to, you know, bless me and take over. He'll start to lead me. Then he'll start to work. But as I was considering this, it's amazing how God is working with them

from beginning to end. And even though they're going to go through a season, a long season of rebellion against God, God will be leading them and working in their lives each step of the way. And so I want to just encourage, just throw out kind of a blanket encouragement this evening before we even get started. And that is that wherever you're at, whatever condition you are in, whatever things that you're facing in life, God is able to work. And even if you're in the midst of bondage,

because of sin, because of bad choices, whatever's going on.

That it's not that you have to get yourself out of the bondage and then you can go meet with God, but you look to the Lord, you surrender to God, and then he is the one who will bring you out of bondage. Or if you're out in the wilderness, you're not sure where you should go, you're not quite to your destination yet, you know, you're out in the middle of nowhere, and sometimes it's because of unbelief, like the nation of Israel will be in the wilderness for some time because they weren't obedient to God.

And sometimes we feel like we gotta, you know, get our act together so that God can work and we can get into the promised land. But God was leading them even there in the midst of their unbelief and even in the midst of their rebellion and those 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.

And then, of course, in the promised land, God is working too. So whatever stage you're at, whatever state or condition you're in, God wants to work in your life. He's able to work in your life, that you don't have to fix your life and clean up everything, and then you can come to God, and then he's going to work and say, it's about time you got everything together. No, whatever condition you're in, you can turn to the Lord.

And if you're in bondage, he'll set you free. If you're in the wilderness, he'll lead you into the promised land. And if you're in the promised land, then he's going to help you have victory over the next battle that you face. And so wherever you're at, I just want you to know God's with you. He's able to lead you. And he invites you to turn to him to let him accomplish the work that he wants to do in your life. All right. Well, that's...

A nice little introduction to the book of Numbers, right? All right, Numbers chapters 1 through 7 is what we're looking at today. The book of Numbers, the name Numbers means numbers. I know that's a little bit difficult. You know, sometimes it's hard to figure out why did God call this book Numbers? But

If you read the book, you understand it's because there's a lot of numbers. And so we're going to be looking at some numbers this evening. Moses writes this book during the time that the children of Israel are in the wilderness. And really the theme of this book is in the wilderness. In the Hebrew Bible, this book is referred to or known as in the wilderness. Because it records Israel's journey, Israel's time in the wilderness in between Egypt,

where they're brought out, and then before they enter into the promised land, which we'll see in the book of Joshua. So it's that time where they're out in the wilderness, in between the place that God has brought them and the place that God is taking them to.

Well, as we look at the timeline, we've covered quite a bit of time already. In the book of Genesis, we covered about 2,000 years, a little bit more than that. And we covered, of course, you know, the creation, the flood, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the development of that family. And then in the book of Exodus, we covered about one year.

where they left Egypt and camped at Mount Sinai. And it was during that year period that the events of Exodus took place.

Well, then as we went through the book of Leviticus, we were looking at a time frame of one month. So all of the things that were recorded and the events that took place all happened within about a one month time period in Leviticus. Now, as we head into numbers, we're widening our scope a little bit, and we're going to be looking at the next 40 years of Israel's history.

And so the time where they are going to be leaving Mount Sinai and then heading into the promised land, or they get right to the border of the promised land twice. And that happens over a 40-year time span. And so that is going to be what we're looking at here in the book of Numbers. A little bit closer look at that. So the time in the wilderness, we've gone up to Exodus chapter 40, verse 17, where the tabernacle was set up.

They're about to celebrate the second Passover feast. This is one year after they left Egypt because remember they left Egypt during the Passover. That was the whole point. The firstborn of Egypt was killed and they left that evening, that night of the Passover. And so they're about to celebrate the Passover feast, celebrating one year of their exit from Egypt. And then

The things that we're looking at this week, we're going to see the census of Israel. And then coming up this coming week in our reading, we'll see them finally depart from Mount Sinai and then head into the wilderness. And then the book of Numbers covers the rest of the time that they're in the wilderness for that 40 years. And so we'll be seeing that over the next couple of weeks.

Well, the geography of Numbers, we have Egypt and the area of Goshen, which is where Israel was in bondage to in Egypt. They were brought out of Egypt and headed down to Mount Sinai, where they camped there for a year, built the tabernacle, got the Ten Commandments, all the things that we've been studying in Exodus and Leviticus.

And now the land of Canaan is there north of Sinai. That's the land God's promised to them. And they're going to be headed that way. And so this is the preparation for that journey. As we see verses or chapters 1 through 7 this evening, we see the beginnings of that, the preparation for that heading into the land of Canaan. So they're going to be departing from Mount Sinai and heading that way.

Those other nations that we see there, Midian, Edom, Moab, Ammon, and Bashan, those will all become important later on in the book of Numbers, and so we'll review those when it's appropriate. Well, that brings us to Numbers chapter 1 this evening as we begin our journey through these chapters. In Numbers chapter 1, we begin with the key verses. Verse 2, it says...

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. So here in Numbers chapter 1, we have one of the primary reasons why this book is called Numbers, and that is the census of the nation of Israel.

And so that's recorded here in verses 1 through 46. And then we see the exclusion of the tribe of Levi at the end of the chapter, verses 47 through 54. And we're given the reasons why that takes place. So they're at Mount Sinai. They're camped. They're getting ready to now make their way towards the land of Canaan where there's going to be war. There's going to be battles. And so in preparation for that, God says...

All right, we need to get our army together. We need to take a census and know how many soldiers do we have. And so this census was not about counting every person, but it was about counting the soldiers. And so the criteria for the census was, had to be a man, they had to be 20 years old or older, and they had to be able to go to war.

So if you're older than 20, but you weren't able to go to war, then you were not counted in the census. So this was a really an accounting of the soldiers who were was able to go to war throughout all the nation of Israel.

And so this passage breaks it down. We'll look at the numbers in just a second. Between tribes, all the different numbers, the soldiers within each tribe, and who was able to go to war. This was taking place, we see from verse 18, one year and one month after they left Egypt. So they're still at Mount Sinai. They're about to leave. But before they go, they need to get a good sense for how many they are.

Are they prepared for the battles that they're about to face? Now, the tribe of Levi is excluded for a couple of reasons. First of all, God says that they're devoted to the things of the tabernacle. They've been given charge of the tabernacle.

And so they were not part of the nation. They did not have an inheritance in the promised land like the other tribes. They were distinct. They were unique among the nation of Israel. And so they were not counted in this census. And as a result of that, the Levites also did not typically go to war. They weren't part of the battles. They weren't part of those things because they were devoted to the things of the tabernacle.

And so as this census takes place, as they figure out how many they have who are able to go to war, the Levites are not included in that. They're not part of the soldiers. Well, the census does take place for the rest of the tribes of Israel. So here you have the sons of Jacob.

Jacob is also known as Israel. He's renamed Israel by the Lord later in his life. And so it's the sons of Jacob or the sons of Israel. And this is where we get the tribes of Israel from. So Jacob had these 12 sons, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. And so Jacob had these 12 sons, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin.

Those were the 12 sons of Jacob. He also had the daughter Dinah. But the sons of Jacob become the heads of the tribes or the heads of the families of Israel. And so

The name Israel applies to the man Jacob, but it also applies to the nation because Israel is made up of the family of Jacob or Israel. So the tribes of Israel are divided this way. Now, the one unique thing about this is Joseph had two sons and Israel or Jacob claimed those sons as his own. And so Israel

In replacing Joseph with Manasseh and Ephraim, there's actually 13 tribes of Israel, even though we always refer to the 12 tribes of Israel. And there's good reason for that because, as we saw here in the census, the tribe of Levi is excluded in the census.

So we only took a census of the 12 tribes of Israel. When we look at the land and the division of the inheritance, we'll be looking at the 12 tribes of Israel because Levi does not have an inheritance in that land. So there's actually 13 tribes, but we're always leaving out one in order to talk about the 12 tribes of Israel.

So Israel here is organized according to its tribes. This is the divisions of the nation, and it's by these families, the descendants of Reuben, the descendants of Simeon, the descendants of Levi, and so on and so forth. And so this is what makes the divisions within the nation different.

And that is the way that the census is taken. So the tribe of Reuben had 46,500 soldiers. And so those were the amount of men within the descendants of Reuben that were able to go to war at this point. And then Simeon, Gad, Judah, all the way down. Notice Levi is not listed there because he's not part of the census. And so the total is 603,550 men.

This is the total number of soldiers that they had within the nation. Now, the tricky part here is then to try to figure out, well, how big was the nation then if there were 603,550 soldiers? And so that's why we don't have an exact number, even though there was a census, because the census was just for the soldiers.

So we estimate, we guess that it was probably within two or three million people there based on this number of soldiers. It makes sense that it's maybe two and a half to three million people there at Mount Sinai with Moses.

that were brought out of the land of Egypt. And so that's where we get that from. Now this represents quite a bit of growth. In Genesis chapter 46 verse 27, when Israel moves his family to Egypt, it's 70 men. And there you see the accounting in Genesis 46. And so there's

When they leave Egypt, Exodus chapter 12 refers to 600,000 men, or here we have the 603,550. You know, that's about a 6% growth rate over 430 years, which is not impossible, but it is unusual.

And we talked a little bit about the reason for that back in Exodus chapter 1, that there was a supernatural work of God going on as Egypt was afflicting Israel, that Israel continued to be fruitful and increase and grow exceedingly and multiply. And, you know, that math there of multiply was, you know, was literal. It actually took place that they multiplied very quickly and become a

became a great nation there in the land of Egypt. Also, it's important to remember that they lived longer. We see several times throughout the genealogies that there were men of Israel during that time who were living over a hundred years of age. And so they extended longer, so that would keep them longer in the runnings, you know, in the census and in the accounting of what was going on.

So that's Numbers chapter 1, the census of the nation of Israel, which is really an accounting of the soldiers that were within the nation. Now we head into Numbers chapter 2, and verse 2 is the key verse. It says, Now again, as I've been saying for the past few weeks, what we have learned

here in the scriptures that we're studying is the establishing of this nation. They didn't exist in this way before. When they moved to Egypt 400 years prior, they were a family. And so they lived like a family. They were a big family, but they were a family. There wasn't, you know, real structure or organization. As they went into Egypt...

and then are put into bondage in Egypt and grow into this mighty people, they're not on their own. They're not autonomous. They are ruled by Egypt. And so the structure is provided for them. They don't have to govern themselves. It's given to them by the nation of Egypt. And so now that they've left Egypt, God's been...

laying the foundation with, you know, the political system, the judicial system, the religious system. He's been establishing all of these things. This is how you're to worship. This is how you're to decide judgments and make decisions. This is how, you know, you're to follow me. This is how you're to worship me. He gives all of these things that they need because they've never had to live this way before. They've never been on their own as a nation. And

And the same goes now for the nation. As they camp at Mount Sinai and are about to head out, God says, okay, let's organize what's going on here. And we're going to put a specific layout for the camp. That certain tribes are to camp certain places. It's not going to be, you know, you just put up a tent wherever you want. There needs to be structure. There needs to be organization.

I like what David Guzik says about this. He says, nothing is accomplished in God's kingdom without order and organization. While it may seem so to us, it's only an illusion. Behind the scenes, God is moving with utmost order and organization, though we cannot see it. Sometimes we look around and we think, man, the Lord works in mysterious ways.

But if we were able to see through his eyes, and later on, oftentimes, as we look back and we see his work, we can see the order and organization that God had in place. There was structure there, even if we don't recognize it at the time or at the moment. And so we see this as a good picture of how God works. He's organizing the camp. He's setting things in order and putting it so that it makes sense and it's established that they have these particular places to stay.

Now, the identifying mark of these orders were the standard. The standards we could also refer to as banners. These were flags that were used...

in times of war, as soldiers were moving about, you know, they didn't have the communication methods that we have today. They didn't have the walkie-talkies or, you know, those types of things. And so how would you communicate, you know, for that, you know, segment or that regiment, you know, to go into this way? Or how would you know where you're, you're

regiment was, you know? So you're part of this, you know, group. You're part of this. I'm very bad with the military terms, as you can tell. You're part of this group, right? And how do you know when you're supposed to be, you know, running up the hill? How do you know when you're supposed to be going around the back? How do you know? Well, the leaders of the regiment would have the flags. And so you would follow your flag and you knew, okay, this is where my company is. This is where I'm supposed to be posted. So

And so, you know, as they were moving about the battlefield, you'd be able to follow and know where you were supposed to be and where your group was. Well, that's what these standards were. They were flags that were used for the soldiers in order to keep the army organized. And so they were banners or standards that would be used for the soldiers to keep them organized. And so each tribe had its own standard or own banner that

For the people to rally around and for the people to gather too. Now, here's a sample of what they kind of might have looked like. But just to kind of give you an idea, it would be like an emblem on the banner that was representative of the tribe. There would be particular colors that would be associated with the banner that also had ties back to the tribe. And there were reasons for that.

And so this is not, you know, a picture of the actual banners, but just a, you know, maybe a rough idea to kind of give you a picture of what they might have looked like, these banners that would be hoisted up. And so whatever tribe you're a part of, you were to camp with your banner. You were to camp with your group. And so this was a way to organize the nation of Israel.

And so here in chapter 2, God gives specific instruction about the location of each camp, not just everybody camp within your tribe, but also this tribe goes here, this tribe goes there, and as you lay it out, it would look something like this.

So right in the middle, you have the tabernacle. And you can see there the tabernacle with the altar, the laver for the priest to wash, and then the tabernacle in the middle where the priest would serve. And then around that would be the courtyard. And so we looked at that. We spent a lot of time in Exodus looking at that. So beyond the

of the courtyard would be where the Levites would camp. And they would camp all around the tabernacle, as we'll see in just a couple chapters that'll be explained. And so the Levites would camp around the tabernacle and then all of the tribes would camp in the particular direction that God had given to them.

So the tribe of Dan, Asher, and Naphtali, they would all camp to the north of the tabernacle. Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun would camp to the east of the tabernacle. Reuben, Simeon, and Gad would camp to the west. No,

South. Yes, that's south. Okay, thank you. So they would camp to the south of the tabernacle, and then Benjamin, Manasseh, and Ephraim would camp to the west of the tabernacle. So that was the layout. God said, this is where you're to camp. Now, it could have been arranged slightly differently. It could have been three columns, you know, so it'd be Judah on top, and then Issachar in the middle, and Zebulun. You know, there's different ways that you could try to arrange this.

God doesn't give that detail for us, but just the general location of these tribes around the tabernacle. And so each one had their place and their position that they were to camp in.

Well, what's interesting about this, as you do the census, we know, okay, there's 603,000 and that's great. And then we know about how many are in each tribe. But what's also interesting about this is mathematically, as you add up all the numbers of Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, and Danasher, and Naphtali, as you add up all the numbers, mathematically, it forms the shape of a cross. And so it could have looked something like this.

Because the tribe of Judah to the east had the most. Now Judah includes the other two tribes, Issachar and Zebulun. We'll talk about that in a second. But so...

Judah to the east had 186,000, the most. And so that would be, you know, where the most people were, the biggest camps were. And then Dan and Reuben had about the same. There are about 6,000 difference between them, 6,000 soldiers between them, but they're roughly the same. And then Ephraim had the least. And so mathematically, you have the longer part, you have the shorter part, you have the equal parts. And it

mathematically shapes the cross. Now again, we don't know, we don't have a map of the camp of Israel, you know, recorded for us in the scriptures, but it makes sense that, you know, this would actually form the shape of a cross. Now this was according to the way that God had declared. In verse 9,

Here of chapter 2, it says, And so God is setting the order here.

for them to camp, but he's also setting the order for them to break camp and to make camp. And so Judah, including these other two tribes, God says those other two tribes are to follow the standard of Judah. They're to camp and follow them. And so they'll be included with them. And so we have these overarching tribes that kind of refer to the other two tribes in their midst. And so Judah refers to also the other two tribes. Dan refers to the other two tribes, Reuben and Ephraim.

And so they were all to camp following the order that God had given. They were to break camp following the order that God had given. Now, God throughout the time is saying, you know, next to the standard, next to the banner, following the, you know, the banner that is set for the tribe. Now, that's really interesting because, well, we gave you a handout this evening, this green handout. If you didn't get one, they're on the back table.

As we go forward into this next couple moments, we're kind of moving into territory that I would call, I would classify it as interesting things to consider. These are not, you know, that I can point to a verse and say, you know, this is exactly what the scripture says, but there's some things worth considering in Jewish history as well as general observations of the scriptures. So, according to Jewish history,

The tribe of Judah on their banner had the image of a lion. There was particular colors that were associated with that as well. But the emblem, the image, what made it unique was that it was of a lion. The tribe of Reuben had a man on their banner. So it was a picture of a man. The tribe of Ephraim had an ox and the tribe of Dan had an eagle.

Now, all the other tribes had emblems too, but these four are specific because, well, these are the four that God said these kind of mark out the directions from the tabernacle. So you have Judah with the lion, Dan with the eagle, Reuben with the man, and then Ephraim with the ox. And so these were the banners. According to Jewish history,

that were associated with these tribes. And so you would have these banners that would be associated with these different camps or these different directions from the tabernacle. Now, the reason why that's interesting is because we find several visions of heaven in the scriptures that also include these same images

identifications or these same symbols. So in the book of Ezekiel chapter 1, you can check it out later on, Ezekiel has a vision of the Lord. And in verse 10, as he sees the throne of God, he sees, you know, the presence of the Lord, he sees what's referred to as four living creatures, four some type of angelic beings. And he says that each one had the face of a man and

A lion, an ox, and an eagle. So in Ezekiel chapter 1, he sees a vision of the Lord, and around the Lord are these living creatures that have faces of, well, these same symbols. A lion, an eagle, a man, and an ox. And so,

That part's biblical, obviously, you know, that those were the living creatures that were around the throne of God. But these images that are associated with the tribes, we get that from Jewish history. That's not from a Bible verse.

But it's interesting that it corresponds, that it matches up. And so what we see here is the presence of God at the tabernacle with these four symbols or images surrounding it, just like Ezekiel saw the presence of God with these four symbols or images surrounding it. And then we also see that happen with the Apostle John in Revelation chapter 4.

There John, as he is caught up to heaven, he sees four living creatures around the throne of God. And it says in Revelation 4, 7, the first living creature was like a lion. The second living creature was like a calf or an ox. The third living creature had the face like a man. And the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. And so we see these same four living creatures from Ezekiel found in Revelation chapter 4, which happened to correspond with

What Jewish tradition says are the symbols of the camps that surrounded the tabernacle. And so you can see some interesting things here that, again, as God is putting this plan together, he's organizing it, he's setting the order, it's continuing on with this picture of what exists in heaven. We saw that throughout the tabernacle, and he's continuing to do that with his people everywhere.

here as he orders the camp and organizes it the way that he declares.

Now, you can take this a little bit further. Now, the further we go, the more shaky the ground is, okay? So again, these are interesting things to consider. This isn't something to try to convert somebody to Christianity and say, you know, look, this is what it's like. And so you should probably, you know, try to become a Christian. This is, hey, if you believe and you want to just consider, you know, the amazing work of God, the wisdom of God, the organization of God, these are some incredible things to consider.

because we also have four gospels. And so these things are also here on the handout. That's why I gave it to you so you can kind of take it and consider it and try to figure out these things a little bit more later on. But the four gospels possibly represent these same four symbols, right?

because of the different emphasis within each gospel. So these are things that you can observe as you read through the gospels. And when we get there in about a year and a half, then, you know, we'll get to take some time to do that. But the book of Matthew really focuses on Jesus as the Messiah. Matthew is writing to the Jewish people and he's presenting Jesus as the Savior, as the Messiah. And so...

The Messiah was to come from the tribe of Judah. And in Revelation chapter 5 verse 5, Jesus is referred to as the lion of the tribe of Judah. And so it makes sense to possibly consider that Matthew relates to the lion of the tribe of Judah that's pictured here in the camp of Israel. Mark, on the other hand, he didn't write to Jews. He wrote to

Well, it's considered that he wrote to the Romans or to Gentiles. And so he did not focus on Jesus as the Messiah because they weren't looking for the Messiah. Instead, in the book of Mark, you really see the servanthood of Jesus and how he's doing things. He's action and immediately he goes there and immediately he goes there and all these actions that Jesus is taking.

And so we consider it that it's about the servanthood of Christ that's emphasized in the Gospel of Mark, which corresponds with the ox, which is a beast of burden, which is, you know, doing the bidding of the master, accomplishing the work that is set before it, plowing the field that is set before it. And so it perhaps relates to this ox that's here in Ephraim on the west side of the tabernacle. Then you have Luke.

which emphasizes the humanity of Christ, emphasizes the fact that he is a man. And you can see that through different elements of the Gospel of Luke.

By the way, you can also parallel this with the genealogies. So Matthew, focusing on Jesus as the Messiah, starts with a genealogy with Abraham. And God gave to Abraham that promise that all the world would be blessed through Abraham, which was a promise of the Messiah who was to come. And so he starts with Abraham. He says, Jesus came from Abraham. He's the fulfillment of that promise. Well, Mark doesn't have a genealogy as he focuses on Jesus as a servant, but

Servants aren't required to have some impressive genealogy. There's no point to that in order to be a servant that's not a high qualification.

Luke, on the other hand, is focusing on Jesus as a man. You see the humanity of Christ throughout the gospel. And you also notice that his genealogy begins with Adam, the first man. And so he's illustrating, even through the genealogy, that Jesus Christ is a man. And so it makes sense to relate that to the man that is, you know, the symbol or the banner of the tribe of Reuben. And then finally, John...

the deity of Christ. And those who've been around Living Water for a while, you were probably with us when we went through the Gospel of John and we got to see over and over again how many times that Jesus is demonstrated to be God. It's really quite amazing. And so, uh,

it makes sense that, you know, this is the gospel that emphasizes the deity of Christ. And think about the genealogy of John. Where does John go for his genealogy of Jesus at the beginning? Well, he says, in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. He starts with eternity that Jesus existed in the beginning, emphasizing the reality that Jesus is God.

And so this perhaps relates to the flying eagle, which is the symbol and the banner of the tribe of Dan. So again, these are not, you know, here's the verse, you know, this proves it. But it's very interesting to consider how organized and how this order was set by God. And it makes sense in a lot of ways to relate these things together and understand that this is something that God was putting together with the camp of Israel.

So that's Numbers chapter 2. We will not spend the same amount of time on the rest of the chapters, just so you know, so you don't start freaking out. But let's move on to chapter 3. Chapter 3 verse 6 is the key verse. It says, So here in chapter 3, we have the order's been set, the census has been taken. Now we're focusing on the Levites.

They were excluded from the census. We haven't really talked about where they're to camp yet. We'll be talking about it here in these chapters.

And so first we have the genealogy of Aaron in verses 1 through 4. Now Aaron was of the tribe of Levi. Aaron was chosen to be the first high priest, which is an office that God assigned to the priesthood. And then his sons were to be the priests of the nation. And when Aaron died, then his firstborn would take the role of high priest and that would continue to pass on.

So to be a priest, you had to be a descendant of Aaron. To be a high priest, you had to be in the line of the firstborn from Aaron. And that was the way that it was passed on from generation to generation. So Aaron's family were the priests. They were

They were the ones who, you know, the boys, they were going to grow up to be priests. You never, if you were of the tribe or of Aaron's family, you never had to wonder, I wonder what I want to be when I grow up. I mean, it was assigned by God. If you were of Aaron's family, you were going to be a priest.

And so in verses 5 through 13, we're looking more at the rest of the Levites. So Aaron's family, they were the priests. The rest of the Levites were to be devoted to the tabernacle. And so the Levites were given to Aaron and his sons to help them fulfill their role as priests of the nation. And they were to be devoted to serve the tabernacle and the priests in doing so.

Well, then in verses 14 through 39, you have the census of the Levites. So here you have the recording of, well, how many Levites are there? They weren't counted in the accounting of the soldiers, but there did need to be a census of them and accounting of them. And so that's given here in chapter 3. Now, the criteria for the census was they had to be a male, but they also had to be at least one month old.

So not like 20 years old, not able to go to war. This is a whole different census. This is, you know, all the males one month old and up. And so the details are recorded for us. Gershon had 7,500 in his tribe. They would camp to the west. Let me switch to that screen. So they would camp to the west of the tabernacle.

Kohath had 8,600 males. They would camp to the south. And then Merari would camp to the north and they had 6,200 males. So this was the accounting of the males or the men of the tribe of Levi. Moses and the priests in verse 38, God says they would camp to the east. And so they would surround the tabernacle and then on the outside of them would be all the rest of the tribes of Israel.

So the total, as you look at this, would be 22,300 of the tribe of Levi, one month old and above. Except for verse 39 says that there was 22,000. So it causes a little bit of concern sometimes. Verse 39 says 22,000, but when you add these up, it comes to 22,300. So there's an extra 300 somewhere. And where did that come from? Well,

This next screen will kind of maybe demonstrate a little bit. The tribe of Kohath is where the error is believed to have taken place. 8,300 is probably the more accurate number. Previously, it's 8,600.

And that's what the verses record. But 8,300 is probably the actual number. And the reason for the change or the reason for the discrepancy is there's a slight difference between the way that they would write the number three and the number six in Hebrew. And so at some point,

A copyist, a scribe who is copying the scroll possibly made an error and that is the reason for the discrepancy. That's something that takes place especially around numbers as you look through the scriptures. Every once in a while you'll see one of these little things. It's not a big deal. We talk about the inerrancy of scriptures and as we do, we're actually referring to the original manuscripts.

And there's copies, you know. We're working with not the original manuscripts, but the copies. And so there are some typos from time to time, some occasional minor things like this. Usually it's related to numbers, and always it has no significant impact on the passage. It's never on major topics and things like that. So no reason to have your confidence shaken in the scriptures, but just a reality of

At some point, a copyist made an error and so wrote down 8,600 instead of 8,300 because that's an easy mistake to accomplish in Hebrew. So 22,000 is the actual number of the Levites. And now God will go on to replace or substitute the Levites in place of the firstborns.

And this is found in verses 40 through 51 of Numbers chapter 3. So what's happening here is he declares the principle in verse 12 and 13. Look at verse 13 with me real quick. It says, because all the firstborn are mine. God makes the declaration to the nation of Israel, all of the firstborn of the nation belong to me. They're all mine.

Why? Well, he says, on the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified to myself all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast. They shall be mine. I am the Lord. So when the firstborn were struck in the land of Egypt, but Israel was preserved from that by following God's instruction, God says, now all of your firstborn should have died. Now they belong to me. They're mine. I own them. Because

They should have died in Egypt along with all the other firstborns. I think it's an interesting principle that God is declaring here because we can also apply the same thing to ourselves, right? That we, well, we should have died. We deserve judgment. We deserve the wrath of God. But God provided a way by applying the blood of Jesus Christ that our lives can be preserved, that we can be forgiven, that we can have life in him.

But then that also demands that we belong to him. He created us, first of all. He's the one who gave us life. But then he purchased us at the cross with his own blood. And then in believing in Jesus, we gave our lives to him. So three times over, we're his. Because he created us, he purchased us, and we gave our lives to him. I think it's a good reminder.

That we are not our own. We were bought with a price. Therefore, we are to honor God with our body, with our lives. You do not belong to yourself. Your life does not belong to you. You don't have the right to make whatever decision you want to make.

You belong to the Lord. He created you. He purchased you. You gave your life to him. So seek him, obey him, put him first. That's the principle that God is establishing here. And so he says, all the firstborn belong to me. And so what he could have done is call all the firstborn from all the tribes and say, okay, everybody, you come over here. We're starting a new tribe and you're going to be the ones who serve at the tabernacle.

God said, no, let's not do that. Let's do a substitution. Let's take the tribe of Levi. It's very close in number. They do a census of all the firstborns and it's 22,273. So there's only 273 difference between the firstborns and the tribe of Levi. And so God says, let's just swap them out.

And the other 273 extra, they just need to pay a redemption price to be redeemed so that they have, you know, so that they can continue to live. They don't have to be put to death because they deserve death from the land of Egypt. So God set the price because he had the right. He said, okay, I'm choosing the tribe of Levi instead of all the firstborns. And from now on, all the Levites belong to me. They're going to be devoted to the tabernacle. They're going to be devoted to the things of the Lord.

And that's Numbers chapter 3. Chapter 4, verse 46 is the key verse. It says, So we're continuing here in chapter 4 to look at the tribe of Levi and to do some more numberings of them and understand the different roles for the Levites.

So verses 1 through 20 record for us the instruction for the sons of Kohath. So Levi had three sons, Kohath, Gershon, and Merari. And so these three sons of Levi make up the Levites. These are the descendants of Kohath, Gershon, and Merari. So the descendants of Kohath are

They were given the specific task in verse 15 of carrying the furnishings of the tabernacle. So the Ark of the Covenant, the table of showbread, the lampstand, the altar, the altar of incense, all of those articles were

they were required to carry. So whenever God told them, you know, break down the camp, move on to the next campsite, then they would be the ones who would carry the furniture of the tabernacle from place to place. And then God goes on in verses 21 through 28 to talk about the service of the sons of Gershon.

So the descendants of Gershon were responsible for carrying all of the fabric, the materials of the curtains, the screens, which were used as the entrance to the tabernacle and the entrance to the courtyard, all of the cords, all of those types of things, the sons of Gershon would carry. And so when they packed up camp, they would pack up those things. They would go to the next place. They would be responsible for setting those up.

And then Merari, their service is recorded in verses 29 through 33. And they were responsible to carry the boards, the bars, the pillars, and the sockets. These were the heavy duty guys. I mean, these ones had the most weight with all of the different parts of the structure of the tabernacle.

So there was the boards that surrounded the tabernacle, the bars that held up the walls. There were the pillars that were in the tabernacle. But remember on the courtyard, all around the courtyard, they had these pillars to hold the curtain up that established the courtyard. The sockets would be very heavy. They were the foundation which the pillars were set in. And so all of these things

the sons of Merari had to carry from place to place to pack up, to set up as the camp of Israel moved. And so the census is taken of the tribe of Levi, of those who are able to serve. Now the first census we saw of the tribe of Levi is just all the males one month old and above. Here we're narrowing the search to those who are

30 years old to 50 years old. And these were the ones who were able to serve in their role that were given to them as the Levites. And so here we have Kohath with 2,750, Gershon with 2,630, and Merari with 3,200. So there was more within the tribe. If I back up here, you can see

Gershon had 7,500 males. 2,600 of them were able to serve. Kohath had 8,300. 2,700 were able to serve. And Merari had 6,200. And 3,200 were able to serve. So the others were too young, too old, whatever the case. God said, these are the ones who can serve in this capacity, those who are from 30 years old to 50 years old. I like what Spurgeon had to say about this portion of Scripture. He says...

And so he's saying, look, they're all equally consecrated. They're devoted to God. They all have an equal part to play in the

but their roles are different. In the same way as on Saturday as we do the car wash, the people washing the car have an important role to play and it's the same importance as the person who's sharing the gospel at the tables while the person's waiting to have their car washed.

It's just different roles. We're all not going to be doing the same thing. We are not all called to the same thing. And in the same way that Paul will be explaining later in the, you know, the roles within the body of Christ. We're not all called to be pastors, to be missionaries. We're not all called to the same thing. There's a variety of the work, but we're all to be devoted to God. And we all have the same importance as far as, you know, the faithfulness to the thing that God has called us to.

And so we see that pictured here through the tribe of Levi and their responsibilities that God gave to them. Numbers chapter 5, verse 29 is the key verse. It says, this is the law of jealousy when a wife, while under her husband's authority, goes astray and defiles herself. We have a couple things that God is putting in order here in chapter 5. The first thing we find in verses 1 through 4 is to put the unclean out of the camp.

Now in Leviticus, we went through all the details of clean and unclean and what causes a person to be unclean. Leprosy is one. Coming in contact with a dead body is another. Those are some examples that are given here in chapter 5. And so those who become unclean are to be put out of the camp. Not permanently.

but for the duration of their uncleanness. So when a person came in contact with a dead body, they had a certain amount of time where they had to be outside of the camp. Leprosy, they had to be outside of the camp as long as they had the leprosy until they were healed. And then depending on whatever else made you unclean, there was a certain duration. But God is saying, okay, we've got the camp organized. Now put outside of the camp...

Those who are unclean. And so he's setting order and cleaning out the camp in that way. Then we also have his instruction for confession and restitution. There in verses 5 through 10.

So restitution, I think, is an interesting concept for us to consider, something maybe to consider in your own life personally. Because what God says is, look, when you do something wrong, when you damage someone's goods, when you take something that's not yours, whatever the case, then you are to repay that, but then also add 20%. That's the restitution part. So you replace what was broken or what was taken, right?

what was damaged, but then you also give a little bit extra and so you add the 20% for restitution. Well, then we also have the law of jealousy. This is a very curious law which causes a lot of people to scratch their heads because the idea is if a man gets suspicious of his wife and he says, I don't think she's been faithful to me,

then God provides this instruction. So they're to go to the tabernacle. They're to go through this process with the priest. He's to say certain things. He's to write down the curse. He's to scrape it in water and put dirt from the tabernacle in the water as well and have her drink it. And it's this very curious process. We kind of think it's unusual. But as you look at this, and you can consider it more later on, it's interesting to consider that this was...

that God established to provide a way to deal with this jealousy. Now, understanding the culture that they were living in, the nations around them, the regard for women was not high enough

For that. It was not the way that we understand, you know, the importance and the value of women today and how God, you know, says there's no difference between male and female, even as we just talked about with the Kohathites, you know, they were all important and things like that. We have that understanding. They did not have that understanding in those days. And so...

Still throughout the world, you see this happening where, you know, women are treated much less than men. And so in those days, hey, if you thought your wife was cheating, well,

You can just do whatever you want. Just get rid of her, kick her out, you know, put her to death. I mean, it was up to the husband, whatever he wanted to do, he could do, basically. And so God is saying, that's not going to happen here. Okay? If there is unfaithfulness, he already put the, you know, prescription there for that. This is the thing to follow, and we saw that in Leviticus. But if you're just suspicious, there's no witnesses, it's just something you're, you know, thinking about or freaking out about that perhaps she was unfaithful, then

then God says, okay, well, let's protect these women. And so let's go through this process. And so this process of the law of jealousy basically puts the whole situation in the Lord's hands. Because drinking a glass that has a little bit of dirt and, you know, the scrapings from the curse that was written down physically doesn't actually do the things that God said will happen if she was unfaithful.

This is something that could only be done by God. And so it was something that was given to provide protection for the ladies and provide an outlet for God to work in this area when there is this jealousy within the husband. So it protected the wife. It enabled them to get over this issue and not let it ruin the rest of their lives. And so it's not for those who were caught in adultery. It was for that suspicion of adultery, and God gave this outlet for it.

Numbers chapter 6, verse 21 is the key verse. It says, So the law of the Nazarite here is in verses 1 through 21.

This was a vow that a person would take when they wanted to be devoted to God for a certain season. And so they wanted to have this special time with the Lord. They would set that time. It was not something that was established, but they would establish it when they began the vow. They would go through the duration. They would have these particular requirements that they were not to partake of the vine and so on and so forth.

And so they would have this Nazarite vow for a time, and then God gave them the instruction for completing the vow, offering these sacrifices, and things like that. We have an exception with Samson and John the Baptist, who were lifelong Nazarites in the book of Judges, and then also we saw that in Luke as we looked at John the Baptist. But then you also have the priestly blessing, the way that the priests were to bless the nation and speak to the people.

God gives that instruction in verses 22 through 27. And I think it's really interesting to look at this because we see here God's will for the people. Sometimes we look at the Old Testament, we think, man, the God of the Old Testament is a God of wrath and judgment and, you know, all these things. But here we see the heart of God for his people. And that was not, you know,

curse you in judgment and, you know, may you all die and shed lots of blood. You know, he says, you know, the Lord bless you. The Lord keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you. And so God desires for his people to be blessed and for them to find favor in his sight. That brings us to Numbers chapter 7, where we finish off

Our time together, verse 2 says, Then the leaders of Israel, the heads of their fathers' houses, who were the leaders of the tribes, over and over those who were numbered, made an offering. Here in chapter 7, you have the longest chapter in the book of Numbers. So just kind of to give you a sigh of relief for the rest of the readings in the book of Numbers. I know today might have been a challenge for many. We have this very repetitious chapter of these offerings that are brought forth.

Now, verse 1 tells us this was right as the tabernacle was finished being set up. And so this is kind of the inauguration of the tabernacle and the services of the tabernacle. So we're kind of rewinding, in our minds anyways, back to Exodus chapter 40 when the tabernacle is first set up. This same event here is happening here in Numbers chapter 7. For 12 days...

One leader from the tribe or from each of the tribes brings in these particular offerings.

They give them carts, first of all, in verses 2 through 9, to carry. This is for the Levites to use to carry all of the different articles of the tabernacle and things as they moved it around. The estimate weight of the total of the tabernacle is about 19,000 pounds. So the carts would have been a welcomed instrument for them, you know, to carry these things from place to place as they were ordered to do so.

So they brought these cards to be used for the Levites, but then also the offerings. One each day, and it was to be these particular things. So here's a quick outline of these offerings. They each brought a silver platter, which weighed about 130 shekels, which is about two and a half pounds for us, which would be about $1,320 worth of silver today. A silver bowl, 70 shekels, about a pound and a half.

They each brought a gold pan, which was 10 shekels or about 0.2 pounds, but still worth a lot because that's a lot of gold. Then the burnt offering, they would bring one bull, one ram, and one lamb. And remember the burnt offerings, they would be consumed completely upon the altar. Then they would bring a sin offering, which was one goat. And then they would bring the peace offering. And this had lots of animals, two oxen, five rams, five goats, and five lambs.

So this gives you a little bit of an understanding about what was happening. Now, they're bringing these things, they're offering to the Lord. Some of them, like the platters and bowls and pans, now these are instruments that will be used for the things of God by the priests and the Levites. The burnt offering and the sin offering were offered. And then the peace offering, remember the peace offering, the peace offering,

It was only a small portion that was burned on the altar. The rest was barbecued for the people to eat and have fellowship with God. That's what the peace offering was all about. And so what we're really seeing here is these offerings that are being offered to God and this feast and celebration that's happening for 12 days straight as they're bringing these sacrifices to the Lord.

And so it was a great time of celebration as the tabernacle is now set up and the work begins to take place as far as the priestly ministry and such. And so the people are coming to worship God. They're celebrating as each day there's this new round of meat, you know, available to eat, to feast, and to enjoy the presence of the Lord. And that is Numbers chapter 7.

We continue on tomorrow in Numbers chapter 8 and I encourage you to continue to be faithful. I know some of the numbers can be tedious but there's great truth in here for us to consider. As we close this evening, I think of course it's incredibly appropriate to just remind you of the blessing in Numbers chapter 6. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you

And give you peace. Amen.