Then the tribe of Benjamin: and the captain of the sons of Benjamin shall be Abidan the son of Gideoni.
Numbers 2:22 names Abidan the son of Gideoni as captain of the sons of Benjamin and places that tribe within God's ordered arrangement of the camp. That arrangement was given very soon after leaving Egypt, when Israel was most thoroughly organized and disciplined under Moses. God in special providence had qualified Moses by his experience as a mighty warrior and general of the Egyptians to stand at the head of the armies of Israel for their benefit.
Every tribe carried its own standard bearing the sign that distinguished that tribe or father's house and was required to pitch by its own standard at a distance around the tabernacle in exactly the position God commanded. The people lived in tents, with each tribe and its leader having an appointed place and responsibility. The Levites were in the midst of the host bearing the ark, with a special family of Levi designated to bear it. Moses and Aaron marched just in front of it and the sons of Aaron followed near them with trumpets to receive directions from Moses and signify them to the people, and the tabernacle was taken to pieces and carried on journeyings with the ark borne before the people.
Israel's movements were governed by definite order rather than left to individual choice, with the tribes marching in appointed order under their own standards when the ark moved. God signified when to pitch for rest and when to journey again by the pillar of cloud resting low and directly over the tabernacle until they should go forward and lifted high above it to travel, for the good of the people and the glory of God. Special trumpet sounds that the people understood directed their movements in perfect order in all their journeying. The arrangement around the tabernacle was intended to impress Israel with God's majesty and holiness and with the purity required of those who serve him.
Its order and harmony, carried out with each person faithfully attending to a specified task, was to show surrounding nations something of God's character, what he desires his people to be, and that the Lord governed them. The camp's perfect organization shows that God is a God of order and peace, not the author of confusion, who does not approve of confusion in his work and is as particular in the present dispensation as in the former. The placing of each tribe under its own standard is held up as a faithful example and warning to those upon whom the ends of the world are come to learn lessons of order and organization and submit to God's wise arrangements. Otherwise they follow Israel in lusting after evil things, idolatry, fornication, tempting Christ, and murmuring against God, and fall like those who were overthrown in the wilderness and whose carcasses were strewn there.
Numbers 2:22 names Abidan the son of Gideoni as captain of the sons of Benjamin and places that tribe within God's ordered arrangement of the camp. That arrangement was given very soon after leaving Egypt, when Israel was most thoroughly organized and disciplined under Moses. God in special providence had qualified Moses by his experience as a mighty warrior and general of the Egyptians to stand at the head of the armies of Israel for their benefit.
Every tribe carried its own standard bearing the sign that distinguished that tribe or father's house and was required to pitch by its own standard at a distance around the tabernacle in exactly the position God commanded. The people lived in tents, with each tribe and its leader having an appointed place and responsibility. The Levites were in the midst of the host bearing the ark, with a special family of Levi designated to bear it. Moses and Aaron marched just in front of it and the sons of Aaron followed near them with trumpets to receive directions from Moses and signify them to the people, and the tabernacle was taken to pieces and carried on journeyings with the ark borne before the people.
Israel's movements were governed by definite order rather than left to individual choice, with the tribes marching in appointed order under their own standards when the ark moved. God signified when to pitch for rest and when to journey again by the pillar of cloud resting low and directly over the tabernacle until they should go forward and lifted high above it to travel, for the good of the people and the glory of God. Special trumpet sounds that the people understood directed their movements in perfect order in all their journeying. The arrangement around the tabernacle was intended to impress Israel with God's majesty and holiness and with the purity required of those who serve him.
Its order and harmony, carried out with each person faithfully attending to a specified task, was to show surrounding nations something of God's character, what he desires his people to be, and that the Lord governed them. The camp's perfect organization shows that God is a God of order and peace, not the author of confusion, who does not approve of confusion in his work and is as particular in the present dispensation as in the former. The placing of each tribe under its own standard is held up as a faithful example and warning to those upon whom the ends of the world are come to learn lessons of order and organization and submit to God's wise arrangements. Otherwise they follow Israel in lusting after evil things, idolatry, fornication, tempting Christ, and murmuring against God, and fall like those who were overthrown in the wilderness and whose carcasses were strewn there.