I will start out by humbly admitting that I have never yet done a detailed study of the book of Numbers. I am positive there is a lot of symbolism to be found and appreciated for those who conduct such a detailed study. I anticipate I will do so at some point.
As the Lord arranged His people and their army, He did so with emphasis placed on keeping them in their family groups. He did not mix them all up into one batch and try to make them all homogeneous (without variation), though they all served Jehovah. There is a natural and God-intended structure within family. It helps to drive familiarity and to some degree a hierarchy of leadership. Of course this presupposes the whole family is serving the Lord. It has been observed and leveraged for military conflicts for many centuries that the parts of the army fight better and support one another better and maintain higher morale when the units have a lot in common. I can think of quite a few examples in the US Civil War, where military units were organized by city, region, or state.
The same is true as I think and apply it to leadership of nations. Many pursue one world government, or globalism, as if that is inherently good. It is not. When Jesus returns to rule the earth… that is going to be an awesome one world government. It will not, however, work well so long as man is trying to run it. More power to the individual nations to address the needs and desires of its people is better than more centralized power led by men.
I can drill down and apply the same principle again to the government within the United States. More power to the states and much less concentrated in a bloated, inefficient federal government would be good and consistent with the government which was first established upon the Christian faith of our founding fathers of the US. Let the government that rules over the people be of the people being governed and represent their common interests, even while serving a broader, often unified purpose with other states or nations.
Arrangement of the Camps
1Now the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 2“The sons of Israel shall camp, each by his own standard, with the banners of their fathers’ households; they shall camp around the tent of meeting at a distance. 3“Now those who camp on the east side toward the sunrise shall be of the standard of the camp of Judah, by their armies, and the leader of the sons of Judah: Nahshon the son of Amminadab, 4and his army, even their numbered men, 74,600. 5“Those who camp next to him shall be the tribe of Issachar, and the leader of the sons of Issachar: Nethanel the son of Zuar, 6and his army, even their numbered men, 54,400. 7“Then comes the tribe of Zebulun, and the leader of the sons of Zebulun: Eliab the son of Helon, 8and his army, even his numbered men, 57,400. 9“The total of the numbered men of the camp of Judah: 186,400, by their armies. They shall set out first.
10“On the south side shall be the standard of the camp of Reuben by their armies, and the leader of the sons of Reuben: Elizur the son of Shedeur, 11and his army, even their numbered men, 46,500. 12“Those who camp next to him shall be the tribe of Simeon, and the leader of the sons of Simeon: Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai, 13and his army, even their numbered men, 59,300. 14“Then comes the tribe of Gad, and the leader of the sons of Gad: Eliasaph the son of Deuel, 15and his army, even their numbered men, 45,650. 16“The total of the numbered men of the camp of Reuben: 151,450 by their armies. And they shall set out second.
17“Then the tent of meeting shall set out with the camp of the Levites in the midst of the camps; just as they camp, so they shall set out, every man in his place by their standards.
18“On the west side shall be the standard of the camp of Ephraim by their armies, and the leader of the sons of Ephraim shall be Elishama the son of Ammihud, 19and his army, even their numbered men, 40,500. 20“Next to him shall be the tribe of Manasseh, and the leader of the sons of Manasseh: Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur, 21and his army, even their numbered men, 32,200. 22“Then comes the tribe of Benjamin, and the leader of the sons of Benjamin: Abidan the son of Gideoni, 23and his army, even their numbered men, 35,400. 24“The total of the numbered men of the camp of Ephraim: 108,100, by their armies. And they shall set out third.
25“On the north side shall be the standard of the camp of Dan by their armies, and the leader of the sons of Dan: Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai, 26and his army, even their numbered men, 62,700. 27“Those who camp next to him shall be the tribe of Asher, and the leader of the sons of Asher: Pagiel the son of Ochran, 28and his army, even their numbered men, 41,500. 29“Then comes the tribe of Naphtali, and the leader of the sons of Naphtali: Ahira the son of Enan, 30and his army, even their numbered men, 53,400. 31“The total of the numbered men of the camp of Dan was 157,600. They shall set out last by their standards.”
32These are the numbered men of the sons of Israel by their fathers’ households; the total of the numbered men of the camps by their armies, 603,550. 33The Levites, however, were not numbered among the sons of Israel, just as the LORD had commanded Moses. 34Thus the sons of Israel did; according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so they camped by their standards, and so they set out, every one by his family according to his father’s household.
The concept of a ‘melting pot’ where people of all different beliefs are blended together is not a Christian concept and is sure to mix pagan beliefs with Christianity resulting in a flawed reflection of Christianity indeed. Blending different beliefs (ones that are distinctly non Christian) most certainly does not make us better or stronger in God’s eyes.
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