One of the things I like a lot about the book of Numbers is seeing the ways that God takes care of all the details. He gives specific instructions about a lot of things. Sometimes we have the wrong idea about God, that he doesn’t care about the details of our lives, but here we see that, on the contrary, every detail is important to Him.
Chapters 1 -2 --- Organizing the tribes of Israel
In Chapter 1, we see that all the men (ages 20-60) are counted in all the people of Israel. They were 603,550 all together. According to commentaries, its probable that there were between 2 and 3 million people all together (plus their cows, sheep, goats, etc).
Numbers 1:52-53
52 The people of Israel shall pitch their tents by their companies, each man in his own camp and each man by his own standard.
53 But the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, so that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the people of Israel. And the Levites shall keep guard over the tabernacle of the testimony.”
I think this verse is interesting, that the Levites have to camp around the tabernacle to protect their brothers. What a huge responsibility to walk in holiness for the tribe of Levi! Since we are in Christ, we are part of the royal priesthood, and I relieve we have this same responsibility to be holy and help others to be holy too.
I like to see how everything is very organized, which is made obvious in chapter 2. We have a God of order, not of chaos. God was not trying to control or manipulate the people by sending them to camp and march in a certain way, but he did want that everyone had their own space and that everything happened in an orderly fashion. Can you imagine the craziness if every family camped where they wanted and marched when they felt like it, where they wanted to go? I think that without having things way organized, a people of 2 to 3 million would have easily died in the middle of the desert. Sometimes people rebel against structure, but we can see here that it has a very important purpose.
I found a diagram that shows where all of the tribes were camped out and the order that they went marching. (Thanks ESV Study Bible online!)
Chapters 3-4 --- Organizing the Levites and their responsibilities
Its important to note how many times Moses and Aaron and the Israelites obey the Word of God. It says lots of times, “Thus did the people of Israel. According to all that the LORD commanded Moses…” (example - 2:34) or something similar. Can you say about your own life, that you have done ALL of the things the Lord has commanded you to do?
The tribe of Levi had 22,000 men one month and older (3:39); it was the smallest of the tribes of Israel (especially considering that the men counted in the other tribes were just the ones between 20 and 60 years of age). It is obvious that they had a very important purpose, because of these Levite men, just 8,580 of them could serve in the tabernacle (4:47-49).
Eleazar the priest was in charge of the holy objects inside of the tabernacle and to supervise the Kohathites while they picked up these articles. God protected these men who served so much that the priests had to cover and store all of the holy things before the sons of Kohath could even get them – they were not even given permission to see them!
Numbers 4:17-20
17 The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,
18 “Let not the tribe of the clans of the Kohathites be destroyed from among the Levites,
19 but deal thus with them, that they may live and not die when they come near to the most holy things: Aaron and his sons shall go in and appoint them each to his task and to his burden,
20 but they shall not go in to look on the holy things even for a moment, lest they die.”
I think this is important because we should understand the power of the holiness of God. Two of the sons of Aaron, the high priest, did not fear Jehovah and brought unauthorized fire and incense into the tabernacle, and they died (3:4). We can see that obeying God is doing what He tells us to do, and also not doing something that we have not received instructions to do.
Also, note that the Kohathities were not trying to steal the position or authority of the priests. We should submit to our authorities and give thanks to God for the opportunity to serve wherever He sends us (and be thankful He protects us too, as He protected them).
Also, I think its good to noticed that the Levites did not just carry things, they were also called to minister, serve, and bear burdens in their areas:
Numbers 4:24, 29, 30, 47
24 This is the service of the clans of the Gershonites, in serving and bearing burdens…
29 “As for the sons of Merari, you shall list them by their clans and their fathers’ houses.
30 From thirty years old up to fifty years old, you shall list them, everyone who can come on duty, to do the service of the tent of meeting.
47 from thirty years old up to fifty years old, everyone who could come to do the service of ministry and the service of bearing burdens in the tent of meeting,
We should be thankful that God has given us the opportunity to serve Him (young and old, men and women). In this story, only 8,580 men were chosen, and more than 600,000 men never even had the chance.
1 comentario:
quisiera anadir que Dios es bien especifico con lo que el quiere y habla, si no fuera asi el estubiera solamente contento con que fueramos salvos pero el es bien detallado en lo que son nuestras debilidades y nos perfecciona en esas areas de nuestra vida, algunas areas solamente puede el arreglarla en nosotros por su santo espiritu y su palabra y otras entrenandonos y disiplinandonos porque son malas costumbres que tenemos desde ninos y ahi que romperlas, yo nunca e sido detallado pero ahora Dios me dijo que esa forma mia de pensar como la mayoria gente del mundo tiene que cambiar, Daniel fue promovido porque tenia un espiritu de excelencia y Dios me a puesto un pastor para entrenarme que es detallado en todo y me dise a veces que como yo no me di cuenta de esto y aquello y porque dejastes esto desorganisado y porque dejastes mal esto y antes le desia que mas da, eso no tiene nada que ver, nadie se fija en eso, y Dios me reprendio y me dijo que yo no puedo ser asi que el es un Dios de detalles y de orden y eso es lo que nos diferencia de la mayoria gente del mundo. Uza murio porque toco el Arca del pacto cuando la llevaban y David se sorprendio pero Dios es detallado en sus intrucciones y tambien nosotros todo lo que hagamos que lo hagamos como para el Senor y no para los hombres.
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