GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
NUMBERS 26:1-4a
The book of Numbers gets its English name from the various counts that are made in the book: the first census (Numbers 1:20-46), the arrangement of the tribes in their camps (2:3-33), the count of the priests fit for service (3:1-37), the count of the firstborn to be redeemed (3:40-48), the count of the Levites (4:34-49), and finally the second census, almost forty years after the first one (26:1-62). We will not examine every single total in this second census, but I plan to touch just four items of special interest:
1, The command for the second census
2, The count of the Reubenites
3, The division of Canaan according to the tribal counts
4, The fulfillment of God’s judgment after the first census
The Second Census
26 After the plague, the LORD spoke to Moses and Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest. He said, 2 “Take a census of the entire Israelite community, twenty years old and up, according to their fathers’ houses, all who are of age to serve in Israel’s army.”
This command is very similar to the one God made to Moses and Aaron in Numbers 1:2-3. The whole community was to be numbered according to fathers’ houses, twenty years old and up, who were able to serve in the army. At this time God had commanded a war against Midian and the people were about to enter into Canaan, so the reason for assessing the strength of their army is easy to see. But there were two other points to consider. First, it would be natural to compare Israel’s size now with where they had been forty years before (how each tribe had grown or shrunk in size). And second, God would use the totals from this census to help the Israelites to assign the larger and smaller parcels of the land to the various tribes according to their population.
3 Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them on the Plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho. They said, 4 “Take a census of the men twenty years old and up, just as the LORD commanded Moses.”
The count commenced without incident. The men were counted the same way as before, with each man “crossing over” past the counting chief when his turn came (Exodus 30:14; 39:26). Each of the tribes had changed since the earlier census, 38 years before:
Reuben: 46,500 (first), 43,730 (second) (-2,770)
Simeon: 59,300 (first), 22,200 (second) (-37,100)
Gad: 45,650 (first), 40,500 (second) (-5,150)
Judah: 74,600 (first), 76,500 (second) (+1,900)
Issachar: 54,400 (first), 64,300 (second) (+9,900)
Zebulun: 57,400 (first), 60,500 (second) (+3,100)
Ephraim: 40,500 (first), 32,500 (second) (-8,000)
Manasseh: 32,200 (first), 52,700 (second) (+20,500)
Benjamin: 35,400 (first), 45,600 (second) (+10,200)
Dan: 62,700 (first), 64,400 (second) (+1,700)
Asher: 41,500 (first), 53,400 (second) (+11,900)
Naphtali: 53,400 (first), 45,400 (second) (-8,000)
First census: 603,550
Second census: 601,730
The tribal totals are given in almost the same order in the two counts, but for some reason Ephraim and Manasseh are reversed in their order here in chapter 26 (Numbers 26:28-36). I have used the order of the first census for the lists above. Most of the tribes had increased in their numbers, especially Issachar, Manasseh, Benjamin and Asher. If the plague following the Baal of Peor incident had not happened, Israel’s fighting population would now have been 625,730. As it was, they now had less people than they had to begin with. Without coming out and saying it, Moses might be telling us that most of the people killed in the plague were from the tribe of Simeon. It is in Simeon that the largest reduction in numbers took place, and the last man killed in the plague was a Simeonite prince. It is also curious that the five tribes that decreased in size were not isolated from one another. The first three, Gad, Simeon, and Reuben, formed the southern flank of the nation while camped (Numbers 2:10-15). Together, between the decrease in numbers with the passing of the forty years and the plague, they lost almost 30% of their people. The other two tribes that lost numbers were touching one another on the northwest corner of the camp: Ephraim and Naphtali. Together, they lost about 17% of their total population. Did bands of Moabite women dance with their tambourines and timbrels into the southern part of the camp and then into the northwest side? Or were those simply the places where the tempting women found the most success?
In one of his Psalms, David sighs, “Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Psalm 53:3). He was meditating on the sinful state of mankind, even God’s own people. Yet here we see that the sinful nation, which suffers tremendous losses because of sin and more sin, nevertheless is maintained by God, who promises to preserve his church. In our own time, the Holy Spirit declares through Paul that it is “through the church that the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the angels in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 3:10). So God gathers his church (Isaiah 40:11), preserves it (Psalm 31:23), disciplines it (Proverbs 3:12; Hebrews 12:10), uses it to support individual Christians (Galatians 6:10) and to carry the gospel into the world: “How can they hear without someone preaching to them?” (Romans 10:14). When gains and losses in the church make us think of this chapter, let us also remember that God preserves his church at all times. He sends his messengers to give us the testimony for the churches (Revelation 22:16), that Christ is everything for us, and we should keep looking for his return. This is why he calls himself “the bright Morning Star” (Revelation 22:16), and this is why the Holy Spirit and the bride of the Lord, the Church, say, “Come!” (Revelation 22:17). He offers to us the free gift of the water of life, which is eternal life in Jesus our Lord. O Lord our God, Jesus Christ, save us!
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Numbers 26:1-4a The second census begins