Numbers 2:10, commentary and pictures

On the south side was to be the standard of the camp of Reuben according to its armies, and the captain of the children of Reuben was to be Elizur the son of Shedeur. Each tribe was given its own standard with its assigned place and its leader, and was required to pitch by its own standard and to camp and to march in its appointed order under its designated standard rather than choosing its own position. Every tribe's standard was marked with the sign of its father's house.

Within that ordered arrangement each person had an assigned work. When the people rested, the tabernacle, which was made to be taken to pieces and carried, was erected, and the tribes pitched their tents in order in exactly the commanded positions around it at a distance from it. All their travels were directed by the Lord through the pillar of cloud and fire, resting low directly over the tabernacle to show they should encamp and lifting high above it to show they should journey, with the ark of the covenant borne before them when they went forward.

The arrangement was part of God's special directions instituted in the days of Moses to establish perfect order and organization for Israel's benefit. The ordered camp and everything connected with the tabernacle was designed to impress the people with the majesty and holiness of God and the purity He requires of all who engage in His service. Its order and harmony and exalted character showed surrounding nations that the Lord governed Israel, revealing to them something of the character of the true God and what He desires His people to be.

Israel's unwillingness to submit to God's wise arrangements, seen in their murmuring, rebellion, and punishments with their carcasses strewn in the wilderness, stands as a faithful warning lest those upon whom the ends of the world are come follow their example of disobedience and fall like them. God has not changed from a God of order but is the same in the present dispensation as in the former, not the author of confusion but of peace, and is as particular now as then, designing that lessons of order and organization be learned from the perfect order then instituted. The same principles apply to God's work at this time, so all arrangements must rightly represent Him, since with the world everything is judged by appearances, and His work is to be carried out orderly, not in confusion. The directions for arranging the camp while the people lived in tents can guide the careful layout of a campground.