The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 68

Yahweh prepares national Israel’s military

Read Numbers 1:1–54.

In this Bible reading, we move on to the book of Numbers. This book contains many statistics and numbers, hence its name. The first section of Numbers records a census of the people by tribe. When we read these lists of names, they seem like just a list to us. But for that generation of Israel, it showed that Yahweh knew them all by name and each person was important to Him. They were His people and He was organising them before their entry into the Promised Land.

The rest of Numbers contains key events that happened over the course of the next 40 years of Israel’s national life. Though they were supposed to follow God’s leading and enter the Promised Land, the people responded in fear after hearing a report that it might be hard to take over the land. As a result, Yahweh disciplined them for their disbelief and distrust. God’s people had to learn how to follow Him and trust His power rather than giving in to their own fears and limitations.

In today’s reading, it was now one month after the Tabernacle had been erected in the wilderness of Sinai. Yahweh told Moses to count up all the men in Israel who were of military age, meaning 20 years and older. Moses was to count them up by tribe, clans and families. One man from each tribe was to help Moses with this job.

Here was what Moses found:

The Levites were not counted because they were exempted from military service. This was because Yahweh had chosen them to serve Him by taking care of the Tabernacle and all its furniture. They were the only ones responsible for erecting and dismantling it. God allowed no one else in Israel to do this. The important work of the Levites in assisting the priests was their contribution to the nation.

Yahweh also gave instructions for how the people would arrange their tents whenever Israel stopped to camp. The Tabernacle would be in the middle of the camp. The Levites would pitch their tents adjacent to the Tabernacle while all the other tribes would pitch their tents on the outer perimeter of the camp. In Numbers 2, God gave the details on where each tribe was to place their tents.

Notice how God was very intimately involved in the life of Israel. If God did not give clear and detailed instructions to Moses to give to the Israelites, they would not have known what to do, how to organise themselves, how to live. We see that God did not leave Israel alone to try to figure things out. He was very close to them. He helped them.

If we have ever wondered what Yahweh is like, we can see here that He is not a God who is far away, indifferent to His people and His creation. He is very interested and wants to be involved even in the daily lives of His people.

We can be sure that God loves us greatly and wants to be intimately involved in each of our lives as well. We need to feel free to talk to Him about even the details of our lives. He wants to be very close to us and wants us to be very close to Him. Let us therefore approach Him with confidence, knowing He wants to hear from us about even the smallest details of our lives.

Some people wonder why God wanted Israel to prepare for battle. We will see in later readings that the people living in the land that God gave to Israel were tremendously wicked. God is also a God of righteousness and justice. He will not let evil go on un-dealt with or unpunished.

This is important for us to remember. Sometimes, when we look around the world or around us and we see all kinds of wickedness and evil, we might be tempted to think that God can’t see or He doesn’t care. This is not true at all.

This is what one of the writers of the Psalms said:

Psalm 75:1–2
[1] We thank you, O God!
We give thanks because you are near.
People everywhere tell of your wonderful deeds.
[2] God says, “At the time I have planned,
I will bring justice against the wicked.

Let us trust that God will indeed judge the world with fairness and righteousness.

Today, as we pray, let us share intimate details of our life with God. Nothing in our lives is too small for Him.

Let us also thank Him that He is a God of justice and righteousness and that He will indeed judge the world to take away all wickedness in the future.