Numbers 2:18, commentary and pictures

The verse is one part of the complete and perfect organization instituted in the days of Moses very soon after leaving Egypt for the benefit of Israel, assigning Ephraim with its armies to the west side under its own standard and under Elishama as captain, with each tribe assigned its own standard and its place in camp and in the order of travel for camping and marching. Every tribe carried a standard bearing the sign that distinguished that tribe, the sign of its father's house, and was required to pitch by its own standard. When at rest the tabernacle was erected and the tribes pitched their tents in order around it at a distance in exactly the commanded positions, including Ephraim and its armies on the west.

In all their journeying perfect order was required, with the different tribes marching in order every tribe under its own standard. The Lord directed them in all their travels by the pillar of cloud, resting directly and low over the tabernacle when it was for the good of the people and the glory of God to pitch in a certain place and abide until they should journey again, and lifted high above the tabernacle to show when they should journey again. When the ark moved the armies journeyed, with the ark of the covenant borne before them and in the midst, the Levites bearing the sacred ark in the midst, Moses and Aaron marching just in front of the ark, and the sons of Aaron following near them with trumpets to signal the directions received from Moses for the movements of the people.

This arrangement was God's careful direction for orderly movement and cooperation, with each person given an appointed task to perform faithfully. The order of the camp and of the arrangements around the tabernacle displayed God's majesty and holiness and the purity He requires of those serving Him. Its order and harmony were meant to show surrounding nations that the Lord governed Israel, to reveal God's character and what He desires His people to be, and to give the work an elevated character.

That orderly placement shows that God values order and disapproves confusion in His work, proving He is a God of order and not the author of confusion but of peace. He is the same in the present dispensation as in the former and as particular now as then. The faithful record of Israel's organization, travels, deliverance, murmuring, transgressions, rebellions, punishments, failures, and carcasses strewn in the wilderness stands hung up as a warning to those upon whom the ends of the world have come not to follow their example of disobedience and fall, calling them to learn lessons of order and organization from it and to take heed lest they fall. The same principle requires orderly and united arrangements in God's work that reflect well on God.