And his host, and those that were numbered of them, were thirty and two thousand and two hundred.
Very soon after leaving Egypt following their deliverance, Israel was organized and most thoroughly disciplined under Moses, whom God in special providence had qualified to stand at their head by training as a mighty warrior and leader whose generalship could not be surpassed, and this numbering belongs to God's requirement of perfect organization and special order in all pitching and journeying. That order, with its punishments for unwillingness to submit to God's wise arrangements, stands with carcasses strewn in the wilderness as a warning lest those upon whom the ends of the world are come follow their example of disobedience in murmuring, lusting, idolatry, fornication, and tempting God, and fall like them.
The numbered host of 32,200 men in this verse is Ephraim's host, belonging to the account of Israel's ordered camp in which each tribe camped and marched under its own standard. Those who held it otherwise taught that the 32,200 is the number of Manasseh's camp.
Every tribe carried a standard bearing its distinguishing sign of its father's house and was commanded to pitch under its own standard at a distance around the tabernacle in exactly the position commanded, with the tabernacle in the midst, and when traveling to march in order every tribe under its own standard. Within that arrangement the Lord ordered with care, each person had a specified duty. God did not leave His holy tabernacle to be borne indiscriminately but specified the order to be observed in bearing the sacred ark and designated a special family of the tribe of Levi to bear it, with the Levites placed in the midst and Moses and Aaron marching just in front of the ark and the sons of Aaron following near them each bearing a trumpet, the tabernacle taken to pieces and borne with them and the ark of the covenant borne before them.
God directed all travels and camping by the pillar of cloud, causing it to rest low directly over the tabernacle when it was for the good of the people and His glory to pitch in a certain place, and lifting the cloud of glory high above it when they were to journey again. Moses gave directions to the trumpet-bearers and they signified them to the people through the trumpets, whose special sounds the people understood and obeyed to direct their movements. The ordered arrangement, including the numbered divisions around the tabernacle, was meant to impress Israel with God's majesty and holiness and with the purity required of those serving Him. Faithful, orderly work was to display God's rule, character, dignity, and what He desired His people to be to surrounding nations, and the same principles of order and faithful representation apply to God's work.
God has not changed from a God of order and is the same in the present dispensation as in the former, not the author of confusion but of peace and as particular now as then, and He designs that lessons of order and organization be learned from the perfect order instituted in the days of Moses for the benefit of the children of Israel. The orderly way the tents were arranged in the directions for Israel's camp can guide the careful planning of campgrounds.
Very soon after leaving Egypt following their deliverance, Israel was organized and most thoroughly disciplined under Moses, whom God in special providence had qualified to stand at their head by training as a mighty warrior and leader whose generalship could not be surpassed, and this numbering belongs to God's requirement of perfect organization and special order in all pitching and journeying. That order, with its punishments for unwillingness to submit to God's wise arrangements, stands with carcasses strewn in the wilderness as a warning lest those upon whom the ends of the world are come follow their example of disobedience in murmuring, lusting, idolatry, fornication, and tempting God, and fall like them.
The numbered host of 32,200 men in this verse is Ephraim's host, belonging to the account of Israel's ordered camp in which each tribe camped and marched under its own standard. Those who held it otherwise taught that the 32,200 is the number of Manasseh's camp.
Every tribe carried a standard bearing its distinguishing sign of its father's house and was commanded to pitch under its own standard at a distance around the tabernacle in exactly the position commanded, with the tabernacle in the midst, and when traveling to march in order every tribe under its own standard. Within that arrangement the Lord ordered with care, each person had a specified duty. God did not leave His holy tabernacle to be borne indiscriminately but specified the order to be observed in bearing the sacred ark and designated a special family of the tribe of Levi to bear it, with the Levites placed in the midst and Moses and Aaron marching just in front of the ark and the sons of Aaron following near them each bearing a trumpet, the tabernacle taken to pieces and borne with them and the ark of the covenant borne before them.
God directed all travels and camping by the pillar of cloud, causing it to rest low directly over the tabernacle when it was for the good of the people and His glory to pitch in a certain place, and lifting the cloud of glory high above it when they were to journey again. Moses gave directions to the trumpet-bearers and they signified them to the people through the trumpets, whose special sounds the people understood and obeyed to direct their movements. The ordered arrangement, including the numbered divisions around the tabernacle, was meant to impress Israel with God's majesty and holiness and with the purity required of those serving Him. Faithful, orderly work was to display God's rule, character, dignity, and what He desired His people to be to surrounding nations, and the same principles of order and faithful representation apply to God's work.
God has not changed from a God of order and is the same in the present dispensation as in the former, not the author of confusion but of peace and as particular now as then, and He designs that lessons of order and organization be learned from the perfect order instituted in the days of Moses for the benefit of the children of Israel. The orderly way the tents were arranged in the directions for Israel's camp can guide the careful planning of campgrounds.