February 27 - Numbers 2:1-3:51

Good morning everyone,

Well, today in our reading you are going to find a lot of repetition of the leaders and census of the tribes. Honestly, I myself had a little bit of a hard time staying with it. The impatient side of me wanted to fast forward. The “get to the good stuff” and “how does that relate to today” kept popping up before me. My mind kept trying to go into scan mode, you know what I am talking about?, wanting to say “Okay, got it” and skip to the end; but I absolutely know that all scripture is God breathed and is useful, so I slowed my reading way down to be sure I got all that I should from the text today, and it was still repetitious … haha, but I was reminded, by it all, of what a God of order our God is. 

Personally I love organization and order. I like things to be put away where they are suppose to go and ready to use the next time you need them; so much more efficient than not. Organizing the nation of Israel would have been useful in governing the large group and keeping track of everyone. In their culture they were not known by their last names but by the clan they came from.  Each of these clans were going to get a different part of the “promised Land” so having them divided into their own mini-cities then would make the division process later easier.

In looking at the diagram of how the tribes were arranged there is a big rectangle in the center going side to side, where the tabernacle was located. Then like the face of a clock the clans were positioned on each hour all the way around. What I found interesting is with each of the four groups mentioned, the first tribe would be in the center with the remaining two in the group positioned first lower than higher. For example Judah at 3 o’clock , Issachar 2, then Zebulun 4. Reuben 6 o’clock, Simeon 5 then Gad 7, and so on. It is worth noting that the order in which they were called out to camp is the same order in which they would be traveling. 

The Levites were not on the clock dial, they were a special tribe set apart for service to God and the people. While all the priests came from the Levite tribe not all Levites were priests, they did however, have specific jobs to perform.

The book of Numbers is going to be one to give us character. It is going to help us learn how to get through the drier times in our life, the not so interesting, the harder times. It will teach us to hang in there, to persevere. God loves us very much, He has a plan, and His plan is perfect. So I would encourage you to look for the gold nuggets in the book of Numbers. They are there, they just take a bit more digging than in other books. 

I pray you all have a super good day. To God be the glory.

God bless you all …