The camp of the Hebrews, as it is described in the Book of Numbers, is clearly not merely a nomadic encampment. It is a true military camp, the camp of a tribal militia ready for battle...
The camp of the Hebrews, as it is described in the Book of Numbers, is clearly not merely a nomadic encampment. It is a true military camp, the camp of a tribal militia ready for battle. Of course, the people did not become that way at once: what came out of Egypt was simply a crowd fleeing into the wilderness and miraculously escaping complete destruction. That crowd could not have been either warlike or ready for war.
Here, however, in the Book of Numbers, what stands before us is precisely a military camp, where people live who are ready for war and expecting war. Such changes in the people could not have happened by chance, all by themselves. What happened to the people? On the one hand, one could say that life happened to them. Life in the wilderness, amid many dangers, where the cowardly cannot survive, where one must learn to be brave and warlike - or die. And the young people had grown up by this time as well - those who had already been born in the wilderness, after the Exodus. They no longer trembled at the thought of war, at the thought that they would have to take up weapons and, weapons in hand, break through into the land about which they had heard so much from their fathers.
All these are human factors - but there was also another factor, one so clearly visible in the description of the Hebrews' camp. Here God is at the center. The Tabernacle. The sanctuary. It is God who leads His people into the land He promised to give them. Everything else is only a consequence. God brought the descendants of Jacob out of Egypt. God made them a people - out of the crowd they were when they fled into the wilderness.
God led His forming people through the wilderness. Now God has made them into an army that will be able to conquer the land that He, God Himself, once promised to Abraham. God's primacy and God's guidance are clearly visible in the arrangement of the Hebrews' military camp. There is, however, also a human component here. It lies above all in the ordered formation, in the order that reigns in the camp. The Tabernacle is at the center, and around it are orderly ranks.
For the ranks to be orderly, the inner life of those who stand in those ranks must also be ordered; otherwise the order will be merely external, for show, disappearing at the first difficulties. This ordering, inner and outer, is the human component. Mere bravery and warlikeness are not enough here - what is needed is that inner, spiritual wholeness without which both warlikeness and bravery often fail those who possess them. The camp of the Hebrews gives the impression of precisely such order, connected with inner wholeness. That is what is required for the conquest of the land promised by God.
2 Orders concerning the camp,
- A general order, Num 2:1-2.
- Particular directions for posting each of the tribes, in four squadrons.
In the vanguard, on the east, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, Num 2:3-9.In the right wing, southward, Reuben, Simeon, and Gad, Num 2:10-16.The tabernacle in the midst, Num 2:17.In the rear, westward, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin, Num 2:18-24.In the left wing, northward, Dan, Asher, and Naphtali, Num 2:25-31.The conclusion of the appointment, Num 2:32-34.2:2 His own standard - It is manifest there were four great standards or ensigns, which here follow, distinguished by their colours or figures; also there were other particular ensigns belonging to each of their fathers houses or families. Far off - Partly out of reverence to God and his worship, and the portion, allotted to it, and partly for caution, lest their vicinity to it might tempt them to make too near approaches to it. It is supposed they Were at 2000 cubits distance from it, which was the space between the people and the ark; and it is not improbable, because the Levites encamped round about it, between them and the tabernacle. It is observable, those tribes were placed together, that were nearest of kin to each other. Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun were the three youngest sons of Leah, and Issachar and Zebulun would not grudge to be under Judah, their elder brother. Reuben and Simeon would not be content with their place. Therefore Reuben, Jacob's eldest son, is chief of the next squadron. Simeon doubtless is willing to be under him. And Gad, the son of Leah's handmaid, is fitly added to him, in Levi's room. Ephraim Manasseh, and Benjamin are all the posterity of Rachel. Dan the eldest son of Bilhah leads the rest; to them are added the two younger sons of the handmaids. So much of the wisdom of God appears even in these smaller circumstances!
2:3 Judah - This tribe was in the first post, and in their marches led the van, not only because it was the most numerous, but chiefly because Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, was to descend from it: Yea, from the loins of Nahshon, who is here appointed the chief captain of it.
2:17 In the midst - This is not to be understood strictly, but largely; for in their march they were divided, and part of that tribe marched next after Judah, Num 10:17, and the other part exactly in the midst of the camp.
2:18 Ephraim - Who is here preferred before his brother, according to the prophecy, Gen 48:19-20.
2:31 The Camp of Dan - The strongest camp next after Judah, and therefore he comes in the rear, as Judah marched in the front, that the tabernacle might be best guarded where there was most danger.