Numbers 1:1-16 - The Numbering Of God's People

I. That this numbering of all his soldiers by name was MADE AT THE EXPRESS AND PARTICULAR COMMAND OF GOD , as it were for the Divine information; herein contrasting with that other numbering so sorely avenged under David, because made to feed his own pride. Even so the Lord is exceeding careful of the number of his own; one of the two sacred mottoes stamped upon his Church is, "The Lord knoweth them that are his" ( 2 Timothy 2:19 ); "The Good Shepherd calleth his own sheep by name" ( John 10:3 ); and every one of them is expressed by name in his book ( Revelation 3:5 ). We are "numbered" in the census of a great nation; every one of us is something stronger, holds his head somewhat higher, for the thought that he is numbered amongst the thirty millions of a great country, the ninety millions of a greater people. Are we also "numbered" among the innumerable and ever-victorious hosts of the Lord? Are we included in his census? If so, are we mindful of the condition? ( 2 Timothy 2:3 , 2 Timothy 2:4 ). Are we tremblingly hopeful of the promise? ( Revelation 3:5 ).

II. That it was IN THE SECOND YEAR that they were thus numbered "by their armies:" first came the great deliverance unto Sinai, the mount of God; then came the teaching of the moral law; then came the instructions of outward religion; then—and not till then—the command to number into the ranks. Even so the soldiers of the cross are not called at once to arms; the deliverance came first of course, the decease, "the exodus" ( Luke 9:31 ) which he accomplished at Jerusalem; after that came to each the inculcation of the immutable laws of moral conduct; after that the ordinances of public and private worship; and then only, after such training, with such aids, is each believer numbered unto active service, and called, as it were, by name to approve himself as a trusty soldier of Jesus Christ.

III. That only those were "numbered," and entered, as it were, on the roll-call of the Lord, who WERE " ABLE TO GO FORTH TO WAR in Israel;" all the others, the women and the children, etc; remained unspecified and unnoted. Even so all the Lord's people whose names are written in the Book of Life must be combatants. They need not indeed be men, but they must "quit" themselves "like men" ( 1 Corinthians 16:13 ). They may be weak women, or even tender children, for such have shown themselves (and do show) to the full as valiant for Christ as any men. But they must be combatants, for that is the one condition on which we are received into that "multitude which no man can number" (but the Lord can), and the promise is "to him that overcometh," and to none other.

IV. That of these names in Numbers 1:16 , renowned amongst men and chosen of God to honour and dignity, ALL BUT TWO ARE TOTALLY UNKNOWN TO US , and those two only through their descendants. So in the Church, those that are the greatest with God are often the obscurest in the annals of men. As "Antipas" was expressly called (by a singular honour), "my faithful martyr" by Christ; yet is there no knowledge of him, not even a legend concerning him, in the Church.