Numbers 1:1-46

GENEALOGICAL ENROLMENT AND MUSTER OF THE ADULT MALES, Numbers 1:1-46.

At the close of the third book of Moses the temple in the wilderness the tabernacle had been erected, the law of sacrifices instituted, the Aaronic priesthood inducted into their sacred office, and rules for holiness of life, and for the isolation of Israel from the Gentile world, had been ordained.

At the opening of the present book the tabernacle has been standing one month. The purpose of the Sinaitic sojourn has now been accomplished, and the vast host must begin their eastward and northward march toward the Land of Promise. From childhood they had been taught to turn their eyes from the banks of the Nile towards the hills of Canaan, where Abraham, their national father, was buried. Thither had their ancestors borne, in princely procession, the embalmed body of the patriarch Jacob to find a resting place, and to that land of the covenant were the Hebrews now bearing the mortal part of Joseph, the benefactor of his father’s family. But mighty foes are intrenched in that land, and other strong enemies will stand in their path to bar their entrance. Even the desert swarms with foes. War is imminent. Bloody battle fields must be trodden before they can sit down in houses which they have not builded, and pluck the fruit of olive yards which they have not planted. Out of the crowd of fugitives hastening from the yoke of Egypt there must emerge a compact military organization; for though Jehovah, the God of battles, the Man of war, is leading them to victory, he purposes to employ human allies, and he wishes to put them into the condition of the highest efficiency. For the military organization a census must be taken. The census in this chapter is not an enumeration de novo, but rather a muster on the basis of numerical and genealogical data already in the possession of the tribes. This is shown by the accordance of the number who have paid the atonement money with the total number enrolled in this chapter as fighting men.