Numbers 2:1-34

I used to teach a high school girls small group.  The girls who were faithful in coming would loudly agree that I am a "Bible nerd."  There were times when I would get excited about Old Testament history or facts or figures or what have you, and inevitably one or more of them would begin to pretend to push a pair of glasses up their nose, just to say, "Nerd!"  (In a very loving, and friendly way, of course.  I hope.)  One of the things I loved to bust out from time to time was my Bible atlas.  To anyone who reads through the Old Testament, a Bible atlas is invaluable.  Why?  Because it names all sorts of places and people groups that we have no concept of, and aren't on modern maps.  Where did the Ammonites live, anyhow?  Where was Mt. Sinai?  (Still lots of debate on that one).  Where are these places called Ai and Hazeroth and Kibroth-hattaavah?  (How many of us can actually pronounce them?)

This passage is one where I wished, just a little bit, that I had a map.  It tells us how the Israelite camp was set up.  That these instructions were given was important.  Can you imagine trying to muster 57,400 men intermingled amongst more than one million people?  How long would that take?  By the time the clans were put into orderly fashion, it may have been too late for them to respond to whatever threat there was.  Or can you imagine trying to get the entire people moving when it was time to break camp and journey to the next place?  (After all, Mt. Sinai was not the final destination.  It was a resting place, a place to get together, get organized, and get the Law down and begin to be a nation.  They still had someplace to go.)  Mass chaos!  Unless, of course, you have an orderly camp, a system for breaking it, for setting it up, and leaders to oversee it.  That's what this chapter is about.  And thanks to it being recorded in Scripture, today we can have an understanding of how it laid out.  Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun to the east; Reuben, Simeon, and Gad to the south; Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin to the west; and Dan, Asher, and Naphtali to the north; all surrounding the tent of meeting and the Levites (who would be in the center of the procession when they marched out).  It makes sense, it's in order, and it certainly made things easier to organize and to move when the time came.  And the time is coming: Israel camps at Sinai for a couple of years, but then the Lord moves them on.  And eventually, on and on and on.  But that, friends, is another day.

Tomorrow's Reading: Numbers 3:1-51