Numbers 1:1-54
Q.1. Who qualified for this census? Why was it wise to nominate a representative from each tribe to help with the census? – (Num.1:1-19)
The census was of all Israel’s fighting men, with the exception of the Levites – 2 “Take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, every male, head by head 3 from twenty years old and upward, whoever is able to go out to war in Israel, you and Aaron shall number them by their armies (Num.1:2-3). Just as every believer has been given gifts to serve Christ through the church, so every able-bodied Israelite was to serve (1 Pet.4:10-11). Each tribe was required to organize its own army. Each appointed tribal leader needed to be aware of his own tribe’s circumstances. By dividing the nation into tribes, the task was shared out, and was much more achievable in the short term (Num.1:17-19).
Q.2. How did they go about counting the numbers? What was significant about the groupings? How many people came out of Egypt? – (Num.1:20-46)
By being a word-based society, Israel valued keeping historical records. They did not actually need to head-count all the suitable men, since they already kept such birth details. Even today this is not the case in some countries and cultures. This revealed how advanced Israel was. The count for each tribe was preceded by this introduction – Now the sons of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war (Num.1:20 c.f. Num.1:22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42). The tribes varied in strength from an army of seventy-four thousand six hundred from the tribe of Judah to an army of thirty two thousand two hundred from the tribe of Manasseh. The final number totalled a six hundred and three thousand, five hundred and fifty strong Israelite army (Num.1:46). It was recorded in Exodus 12:37-38 that about six hundred thousand men, aside from children, plus a mixed multitude of non-Israelites, left Egypt. Including the women and children, the Israelites would have exceeded two million in number.
Q.3. Why were the Levites excluded from the census? How did their role differ from the rest of the tribes? – (Num.1:47-54)
52 The sons of Israel shall camp, each man by his own camp, and each man by his own standard, according to their armies. 53 But the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle … (Num.1:52-53). The Levites were to be kept from the risks of war because they were appointed – 50 … over the tabernacle of the testimony and over all its furnishings and over all that belongs to it … 53 … would keep charge of the tabernacle of testimony (Num.1:50 & 53). They were the custodians of the Covenant between the nation and their God. Their numbers added nothing to the strength of the army. Their exclusion from fighting was not because they were pacifists. In fact, when Israel played the harlot with the daughters of Moab, the plague was stayed by the action of the priest, Phinehas. God was so moved that He told Moses – 11 Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned away My wrath from the sons of Israel in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I did not destroy the sons of Israel in My jealousy. 12 Therefore say, `Behold, I give him My covenant of peace; 13 and it shall be for him and his descendants after him, a covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the sons of Israel (Num.25:11-13).Â