THE CENSUS AND THE CAMP
1. THE MUSTERING
Num 1:1-46
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 freelance in the Divine warfare, but to take his right
place in the ranks; and that place he must find.
The enumeration, as recorded in chapter 1, 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 Num 18:21 : "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.
Now taking the census as intended to impress the personal duties of
service in war and contribution for religious ends, we find in it a
valuable lesson for all who acknowledge the Divine authority. Not
remotely may the command be interpreted thus. Take the sum of them,
that they may realise that God takes the sum of them and expects of
every man service commensurate with his powers. The claim of Jehovah
went side by side with the claim on behalf of the nation, for He was
Head of the nation. But God is equally the Head of all who have
their life from Him; and this numbering of the Hebrews points to a
census which is accurately registered and never falls short of the
sum of a people by a single unit. Whoever can fight the battle of
righteousness, serve the truth by witness-bearing, aid in relieving
the weak, or help religion by personal example and willing
gift-every possible servant of God, who is also by the very
possession of life and privilege a debtor of God, is numbered in the
daily census of His providence. The measure of the ability of each
is known. "To whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be
required." The Divine regard of our lives and estimate of our
powers, and the accompanying claim made upon us, are indeed far from
being understood; even members of the Church are strangely ignorant
of their duty. But is it thought that because no Sinai shrouded in
awful smoke towers above us, and now we are encamped at the foot of
Calvary, where one great offering was made for our redemption,
therefore we are free in any sense from the service Israel was
expected to render? Do any hold themselves relieved from the tithe
because they are Christ’s freemen, and shirk the warfare because
they already enjoy the privileges of the victors? These are the
ignorant, whose complacent excuses show that they do not understand
the law of Divine religion.
True, the position of the Church among us is not of the kind which
the Mosaic law gave to the priesthood in Israel. Tithes are
gathered, not from those only who are numbered within the Church and
acknowledge obligations, but also from those outside, and always by
another authority than that of Divine commandment. In this way the
whole matter of the support of religion is confused in these lands
both for members of the national Churches and for those beyond their
borders. Successfully as the old Hebrew scheme may once have
wrought, it is now hopelessly out of line with the development of
society. The census does not in any way determine what a national
Church can claim. Aaron does not stand beside Moses to watch the
enrollment of the tribes, families, and households as they come to
be numbered. Yet, by the highest law of all, which neither Church
nor State can alter, the demand for service is enforced. There is a
warlike duty from which none are exempt, from which there is no
discharge. Although the ideal of an organised humanity appears as
yet far off in our schemes of government and social melioration,
providentially it is being carried into effect. Laws are at work
that need no human administration. By the Divine ordinance generous
effort for the common good and the ends of religion is made
imperative. Obedience brings its reward: "The liberal deviseth
liberal things, and by liberal things shall he stand." Neglect is
also punished: the sure result of selfishness is an impoverished
life.
The census is described as having been thoroughly organised. Keil
and Delitzsch think that the registering may have taken place
"according to the classification adopted at Jethro’s suggestion for
the administration of justice-viz., in thousands, hundreds, fifties,
and tens." They also defend the total of six hundred and three
thousand five hundred and fifty, which is precisely the same as that
reached apparently nine months before. It is an obvious explanation
of what appears a perplexing agreement, that the enumeration may
have occupied nine months. But the number is certainly large, much
larger than the muster-rolls of the Book of Judges would lead us to
expect, if we reckon back from them. Nor can any explanation be
given that is satisfactory in all respects. We may shrink from
interfering with these numerical statements carefully set down
thousands of years ago. Yet we feel that the haze of remoteness
hangs over this roll of the tribes and all after-reckonings based
upon it.
Of the twelve princes named in Num 1:5-15, as overseers of the
census, Nahshon, son of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah, has
peculiar. distinction. His name is found in the genealogy of David
given in the Book of Ruth {Rut 4:20}. It also appears in the "book
of the generation of Jesus Christ" {Matthew 1} and the roll of
Joseph’s ancestry recorded by St. Luke. One after another in that
honourable line which gave the Hebrews their Psalmist and the world
its Saviour is but a name to us. Yet the life represented by the
name Nahshon, spent mainly in the wilderness, had its part in
far-off results; and so had many a life, not even named-the hard
lives of brave fathers and burdened mothers in Israel, who, on the
weary march through the desert, had their sorrow and pain, their
scanty joy and hope. Far away is the endurance of those Hebrew men
and women, yet it is related to our own religion, our salvation. The
discipline of the wilderness made men of courage, women great in
faith. Beneath their feet the Arabian sand burned, above them the
sun flamed; they heard alarms of war, and followed the pillar of
smoke for their appointed time, looking, even when they knew they
looked in vain, for the land beyond of which Jehovah had spoken.
Unaware of their nation’s destiny, they toiled and suffered to serve
a great Divine plan which in the course of the ages came to
ripeness. And the thought brings help to ourselves. We too have our
desert journey, our duty and hardship, with an outlook not merely
personal. It is our privilege, if we will take it so, to aid the
Divine plan for the humanity that is to be, the great brotherhood in
which Christ shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied.
Like a prince of Judah, or a humble nameless mother in Israel, each
may find abiding dignity of life in doing well some allotted part in
the great enterprise.
The age of service fixed for the men of the tribes may yield
suggestions for our time. It is not of warlike service we have to
think, but of that which depends on spiritual influence and
intellectual power. And we may ask whether the limits on one side
and the other have any parallel for us. Young men and women, having
reached the age of bodily and mental vigour, are to hold themselves
enrolled in the ranks of the army of God. There is a time of
learning and preparation, when knowledge is to be acquired, when the
principles of life are to be grasped, and the soul is to find its
inspiration through personal faith. Then there should come that
self-consecration by which response is made to the claim of God.
Neither should that be premature, nor should it be deferred. When an
aimless, irresolute adolescence is followed by years of drifting and
experimenting without clear religious purpose, the best opportunity
of life is thrown away. And this far too frequently occurs among
those on whom parental influence and the finest Christian teaching
have been expended. The time arrives when such young men and women
should begin to serve the Church and the world: but they are still
unprepared because they have not considered the great questions of
duty, and seen that they have a part to play on the field of
endeavor. It is true, no time can be fixed. The public service of
Christ has been begun by some in very early youth: and the results
have justified their adventure. From the humble tasks they first
undertook they have gone on steadily to places of high
responsibility, never once looking back, learning while they taught,
gaining faith while they imparted it to others. Each for himself or
herself, in this matter of supreme importance, must seek the
guidance and realise the vocation of God. But delay is often
indulged, and the twentieth, even the thirtieth year, passes without
a single effort in the holy service. One could wish for a Divine
conscription, a command laid on every one in youth to be ready at a
certain day and hour to take the sword of the Spirit.
On the other side also many need to reconsider. No time was fixed
for the end of the service to which the Israelites were summoned. As
long as a man could carry arms he was to hold himself ready for the
field. Not the increasing cares of his family, not the
disinclination which comes with years, was to weigh against the
ordinance of Jehovah. But service now, however cheerfully it may be
rendered in early manhood and womanhood, is often renounced
altogether when knowledge and power are coming to ripeness with the
experience of life. Doubtless there are many excuses to be made for
heads of households who are leaving their young folk to represent
them in religion, and pretty much in everything outside the mere
maintaining of existence or the enjoyment of it. The demands of
public service all round are sometimes quite out of proportion to
the available time and strength. Yet the Christian duty never
lapses; and it is a great evil when the balance is wanting between
old and young, tried and untried.
2. THE TRIBE OF LEVI
Num 1:47-54
The tribe of Levi is not numbered with the rest. No warlike
service, no half-shekel for the sanctuary, is to be exacted from the
Levite. His contribution to the general good is to be of another
kind. Pitching their tents about the tabernacle, the men of this
tribe are to guard the sanctuary from careless or rude intrusion,
and minister unto it, taking charge of its parts and furniture,
dismantling it when it is to be removed, setting it up again when
another stage of the march is over.
In this order it is implied that, although according to the ideal of
the Mosaic law Israel was to be a holy nation, yet the reality fell
very far short of it. "The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto
all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them,
Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy". {Lev 19:1-2}
Again and again this command of consecration is given. But neither
in the wilderness, nor throughout the pre-exilic history, nor after
the Babylonian affliction had purged the nation of idolatry, was
Israel so holy that access to the sanctuary could be allowed to the
men of the tribes. Rather, as time went by, did the need for special
consecration of those about the temple become more evident. Although
by statute the tribe of Levi was well provided for, it cannot be
said that the life of the Levite was at any time enviable from a
worldly point of view; at the best it was a kind of honourable
poverty. Something else than mere priest-craft upheld the system
which separated the whole tribe; something else made the Levites
content with their position. There was a real and imperative sense
of need to guard the sanctities of religion, a jealousy for the
honour of God, which, originating with Moses and the priesthood, was
felt throughout the whole nation.
As we have seen, the scheme of Israel’s religion required this array
of servants of the sanctuary. Under Christianity the ideal of the
life of faith and the manner of worship are entirely different. A
way into the holy place of the Divine presence is now open to every
believer, and each may have boldness to enter it. But even under
Christianity there is a general failure from holiness, from the
spiritual worship of God. And as among the Hebrews, so among
Christians, the need for a body of guardians of sacred truth and
pure religion has been widely acknowledged. Throughout the Church
generally down to the Reformation, and still in countries like
Russia and Spain. we may even say in England, the condition of
things is like that in Israel. A people conscious of ignorance and
secularity, feeling nevertheless the need of religion, willingly
supports the "priests," sometimes a great army, who conduct the
worship of God. There is nothing to wonder at here, in a sense;
much, indeed, for which to be thankful. Yet the system is not the
New Testament one; and those who endeavour to realise the ideal are
not to be branded and scorned as schismatics. They should be
honoured for their noble effort to reach and use the holy
consecration of the Christian.
3. THE CAMP
Numbers 2
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 5:5); 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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