Numbers 2:16
All that were numbered in the camp of Reuben were an hundred thousand and fifty and one thousand and four hundred and fifty, throughout their armies. And they shall set forth in the second rank. All that were numbered in the camp of Reuben were an hundred thousand and fifty and one thousand and four hundred and fifty, throughout their armies. And they shall set forth in the second rank.
All that were numbered in the camp of Reuben were 151,450 throughout their armies. They were to set forth on the march in the second rank. This detail belongs to the perfect organization and special order instituted by God in the days of Moses for the benefit of Israel in its travels and tent life, in which each tribe camped around the tabernacle and marched under its own standard with exact order, defined responsibilities, and coordinated movement according to God's specified order rather than individual choice.
That orderly arrangement was meant to impress Israel and the surrounding nations with God's majesty, holiness, character, and authority, showing the purity and orderly service He desires, so that His work would not appear inferior or be belittled. God values order and does not approve confusion in His work; He 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.
The history of that order, with disobedience, rebellion, punishment, and carcasses strewn in the wilderness through unwillingness to submit, is written for admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come, as a warning not to follow the same example of disobedience and fall. Lessons of order and organization are to be learned from it: God's instructions for ancient Israel should shape believers' plans and arrangements, faithful order and conduct can bear witness to others, and the example can guide the orderly layout of campground tents.