Bible Readings
Reading 68: Yahweh prepared 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.
One month after the Tabernacle was erected at Mount Sinai, God 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 were to help Moses with this job.
Here was what Moses found:
The Levites were not counted because they were exempted from military service. This is because God had chosen them to serve Him by taking care of the Tabernacle and all its furniture. They were solely responsible for erecting and dismantling it. No one else in Israel were allowed by God to do this. The important work of the Levites in assisting the priests was their contribution to the nation.
God also gave instructions for where the people were to pitch their tents wherever they camped. 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.
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 in 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 are too small that He would not be interested in.
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.