The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Numbers

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Robert Alexander Watson. The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Numbers

I. INTRODUCTORY

II. THE CENSUS AND THE CAMP

1. The Mustering

Numbers i. 1-46

2. The Tribe of Levi

Numbers i. 47-54

3. The Camp

Numbers ii

III. PRIESTS AND LEVITES

1. The Priesthood

Numbers iii. 1-10

2. The First-born

Numbers iii. 11-13, 40-51

3. Levitical Service

Numbers iii. 14-39; iv

IV. DEFILEMENT AND PURGATION

1. Exclusion from the Camp

Numbers v. 1-4

2. Atonement for Trespass

Numbers v. 5-10

3. The Water of Jealousy

Numbers v. 11-31

V. NAZIRITISM: THE BLESSING OF AARON

Numbers vi

VI. SANCTUARY AND PASSOVER

1. The Offerings of the Princes

Numbers vii

2. The Candelabrum

Numbers viii. 1-4

3. The Passover

Numbers ix. 1-144

VII. THE CLOUD AND THE MARCH

1. The Guiding Cloud

Numbers ix. 15-23

2. The Silver Trumpets

Numbers x. 1-10

3. The Order of March

Numbers x. 11-28

VIII. HOBAB THE KENITE

Numbers x. 29-36

IX. THE STRAIN OF THE DESERT JOURNEY

Numbers xi

X. THE JEALOUSY OF MIRIAM AND AARON

Numbers xii

XI. THE SPIES AND THEIR REPORT

Numbers xiii.; xiv. 1-10

XII THE DOOM OF THE UNBELIEVING

Numbers xiv

XIII. OFFERINGS: SABBATH-KEEPING: DRESS

Numbers xv

XIV. KORAH, DATHAN, AND ABIRAM

Numbers xvi., xvii

XV. TITHES AND CLEANSINGS

Numbers xviii., xix

XVI. SORROW AND FAILURE AT KADESH

Numbers xx

XVII. THE LAST MARCH AND THE FIRST CAMPAIGN

Numbers xxi

XVIII. BALAAM INVOKED

Numbers xxii. 1-19

XIX. BALAAM ON THE WAY

Numbers xxii. 20-38

XX. BALAAM'S PARABLES

Numbers xxii. 39-xxiv. 9

XXI. THE MATTER OF BAAL-PEOR

Numbers xxiv. 10-xxv. 18

XXII. A NEW GENERATION

Numbers xxvi., xxvii

XXIII. OFFERINGS AND VOWS

1. The Sacred Year

Numbers xxviii.-xxix

2. The Law of Vows

Numbers xxx

XXIV. WAR AND SETTLEMENT

1. The War with Midian

Numbers xxxi

2. Settlement

Numbers xxxii

XXV. THE WAY AND THE LOT

Numbers xxxiii., xxxiv

XXVI. THE CITIES OF REFUGE

Numbers xxxv., xxxvi

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From the place of high spiritual knowledge, where through the revelation of God in covenant and law Israel has been constituted His nation and His Church, the tribes must now march with due order and dignity. The sense of a Divine calling and of responsibility to the Highest will react on the whole arrangements made for the ordinary tasks and activities of men. Social aims may unite those who have them in common, and the emergencies of a nation will lay constraint on patriotic souls. But nothing so binds men together as a common vocation to do God's will and maintain His faith. These ideas are to be traced in the whole account of the mustering of the warriors and the organisation of the camp. We review it feeling that the dominating thought of a Divine call to spiritual duty and progress is far from having control of modern Christendom. Under the New Covenant there is a distribution of grace to every one, an endowment of each according to his faith with priestly and even kingly powers. No chief men swear fealty to Christ on behalf of the tribes that gather to His standard; but each believer devotes himself to the service and receives his own commission. Yet, while the first thought is that of personal honour and liberty, there should follow at once the desire, the determination, to find one's fit place in the camp, in the march, in the war. The unity is imperative, for there is one body and one spirit, even as we are called in one hope of our calling. The commission each receives is not to be a free-lance in the Divine warfare, but to take his right place in the ranks; and that place he must find.

The enumeration, as recorded in chap. i., was not to be of all Israelites, but of men from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war. From Sinai to Canaan was no long journey, and fighting might soon be required. The muster was by way of preparation for conflicts in the wilderness and for the final struggle. It is significant that Aaron is shown associated with Moses in gathering the results. We see not only a preparation for war, but also for the poll tax or tithe to be levied in support of the priests and Levites. A sequel to the enumeration is to be found in chap. xviii. 21: "And unto the children of Levi, behold, I have given all the tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service which they serve, even the service of the tent of meeting." The Levites again were to give, out of what they received, a tenth part for the maintenance of the priests. The enactment when carried into effect would make the support of those who ministered in holy things a term of the national constitution.

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The second chapter is devoted to the arrangement of the camp and the position of the various tribes on the march. The front is eastward, and Judah has the post of honour in the van; at its head Nahshon son of Amminadab. Issachar and Zebulun, closely associated with Judah in the genealogy as descended from Leah, are the others in front of the tabernacle. The right wing, to the south of the tabernacle, is composed of Reuben, Simeon, and Gad, again connected by the hereditary tie, Gad by descent from the "handmaid of Leah." The seniority of Reuben is apparently acknowledged by the position of the tribe at the head of the right wing, which would sustain the first attack of the desert clans; for dignity and onerous duty go together. The rear is formed by Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin, connected with one another by descent from Rachel. Northward, on the left of the advance, Dan, Asher, and Naphtali have their position. Standards of divisions and ensigns of families are not forgotten in the description of the camp; and Jewish tradition has ventured to state what some of these were. Judah is said to have been a lion (compare "the lion that is of the tribe of Judah," Rev. v. 5); Reuben, the image of a human head; Ephraim, an ox; and Dan an eagle. If this tradition is accepted, it will connect the four main ensigns of Israel with the vision of Ezekiel in which the same four figures were united in each of the four living creatures that issued from the fiery cloud.

The picture of the great organised camp and orderly march of Israel is interesting; but it presents a contrast to the disorganised, disorderly condition of human society in every land and every age. While it may be said that there are nations leagued in creed, allied by descent, which form the van; that others, similarly connected more or less, constitute the right and left wings of the advancing host; and the rest, straggling far behind, bring up the rear—this is but a very imaginative representation of the fact. No people advances as with one mind and one heart; no group of nations can be said to have a single standard. Time and destiny urge on the host, and all is to be won by steady resolute endeavour. Yet some are encamped, while others are moving about restlessly or engaged in petty conflicts that have nothing to do with moral gain. There should be unity; but one division is embroiled with another, tribe crosses swords with tribe. The truth is that as Israel came far short of real spiritual organisation and due disposition of its forces to serve a common end, so it is still with the human race. Nor do the schemes that are occasionally tried to some extent promise a remedy for our disorder. For the symbol of our most holy faith is not set in the midst by most of those who aim at social organisation, nor do they dream of seeking a better country, that is, a heavenly. The description of the camp of Israel has something to teach us still. Without the Divine law there is no progress, without a Divine rallying-point there is no unity. Faith must control, the standard of Christianity must show the way; otherwise the nations will only wander aimlessly, and fight and die in the desert.

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