Organized for Battle

Numbers 1:1-4 -  One day in midspring, during the second year after Israel's departure from Egypt, the LORD spoke to Moses in the Tabernacle in the wilderness of Sinai. He said,  "Take a census of the whole community of Israel by their clans and families. List the names of all the men  twenty years old or older who are able to go to war. You and Aaron are to direct the project,  assisted by one family leader from each tribe."

 

Camped at the base of Mount Sinai…for just over a year…God is about to move them a bit closer to his promise….God is about to lead them to the land flowing with milk and honey that he promised would be their home.  He tells Moses that he needs to count the people…especially the men that were 20 and older.  The land he was taking them to…was already occupied…by some pretty mean and enormous people.

 

God chose one leader from each tribe to count his family…and the first family trees were written down on paper. The smallest tribe of 32,000….and the largest tribe of 74,600…were each recorded and counted…and the total was 603,550…and that was just the men! When you added the tribe of Levite…and the women and children….the total of all the people was around 2 million! Not hard to believe when you remember the way God blessed them in their captivity in Egypt for over 400 years. He was able to take a mere 70 people…remember Joseph was joined by the 69 Jacob brought in Exodus 1:5….and turn them into a nation…about the size of the city of Chicago Illinois….or Houston Texas…if the figures from the 2010 census were correct.

 

The count allowed God to organize his people into family tribes that would now live in camps according to their families.  They were to create a family banner…or flag…and hang it in the center of the section that marked their part of the camp. It must have also strengthened their spirit to know that they had become such an enormous nation…with 603,550 men to form a formidable military.   The count also was a signal to the people that God was about to move them to a land of great wealth…and they would need to battle a strong people to survive.  They had reservations in the greatest land available at the time…God was going to walk with them and throw out nation after nation…just to establish them as his people…in the best land he had to offer on Earth.

 

This count…this way God signaled to them that a battle was ensuing…it shows the importance of events gone by. It shows how our struggles and trials train us to be a part of a bigger picture. We may feel we have been camped out at the base of a mountain…just listening to rules…struggling every day to understand why we may have suffered so much in the short time he has granted us life here on Earth. But God has a plan…and he is counting us….organizing us into not just generational families…but church families and nations that can stand up for what he has given us to do. Someday…very soon I fear…he will come again to take us to that land spoken of in Revelation…a place of no more struggle…no tears and no pain…a reward of enormous proportion that none of us deserve.

 

Father…I thank you for the great family you have given me…the wonderful seed I came from…the  seed you blessed me with…and the family that adopted me into their midst as a church. Help me to be a strong member of all those families….and look for ways to share the truth of your love to others that may not belong to a Christian family…who may not have a place reserved for them in Heaven one day.  Show me how to look forward to your glory…instead of look back on my past struggles….help me organize for the future…and not think about how my past slowed me down from your great promises. Amen.