And his host, and those that were numbered thereof, were forty and six thousand and five hundred.
The verse belongs to the account of God's special directions given through Moses for Israel's organized encampment, march, and tribal numbers in the wilderness. It records the host of Reuben's camp as 46,500 men counted and numbered. Those who held the verse to refer to Judah placed Judah's counted fighting force within that same ordered camp arrangement. Reuben's camp was positioned south of the tabernacle. Each tribe pitched and camped and marched and traveled under its own standard, in its assigned place and position around the tabernacle in an orderly formation directed and commanded by God.
The camp was to be organized in perfect order, with each person assigned a particular duty to perform faithfully, showing that God counted, arranged, and ordered His people exactly. The ordered camp and everything connected with the tabernacle were designed to impress Israel with God's majesty and holiness, His governance, and the purity He requires of all who serve Him. The order and harmony and exalted character of the arrangement were also for the surrounding nations, to reveal to them the character of the true God and what He desires His people to be.
The orderly layout shows that God's work is not to be marked by confusion, for He has not changed from a God of order and is not the author of confusion but of peace, and He is as particular about order now as then. The same principles bind God's work now, so workers must study the instructions given to ancient Israel and order all their arrangements to rightly represent God, because the world judges by appearances, applying the tribal standards and assigned positions as a lesson in orderly, coordinated service and learning lessons of order and organization from the perfect order instituted in the days of Moses. The record of Israel's travels, deliverance, organization, murmuring, rebellion, and punishment stands as a faithful warning example lest later believers follow their disobedience and fall.
The verse belongs to the account of God's special directions given through Moses for Israel's organized encampment, march, and tribal numbers in the wilderness. It records the host of Reuben's camp as 46,500 men counted and numbered. Those who held the verse to refer to Judah placed Judah's counted fighting force within that same ordered camp arrangement. Reuben's camp was positioned south of the tabernacle. Each tribe pitched and camped and marched and traveled under its own standard, in its assigned place and position around the tabernacle in an orderly formation directed and commanded by God.
The camp was to be organized in perfect order, with each person assigned a particular duty to perform faithfully, showing that God counted, arranged, and ordered His people exactly. The ordered camp and everything connected with the tabernacle were designed to impress Israel with God's majesty and holiness, His governance, and the purity He requires of all who serve Him. The order and harmony and exalted character of the arrangement were also for the surrounding nations, to reveal to them the character of the true God and what He desires His people to be.
The orderly layout shows that God's work is not to be marked by confusion, for He has not changed from a God of order and is not the author of confusion but of peace, and He is as particular about order now as then. The same principles bind God's work now, so workers must study the instructions given to ancient Israel and order all their arrangements to rightly represent God, because the world judges by appearances, applying the tribal standards and assigned positions as a lesson in orderly, coordinated service and learning lessons of order and organization from the perfect order instituted in the days of Moses. The record of Israel's travels, deliverance, organization, murmuring, rebellion, and punishment stands as a faithful warning example lest later believers follow their disobedience and fall.