And his host, and those that were numbered of them, were fifty and three thousand and four hundred.
The count of 53,400 is the numbered strength of Naphtali's camp. Those who held otherwise understood it as Asher's numbered host. In either reckoning it belongs to the divinely appointed arrangement of Israel by tribes around the tabernacle, with each tribe encamping and marching under its own distinguishing standard.
That thorough organization and discipline was given very soon after leaving Egypt in the days of Moses for the benefit of Israel. Moses was providentially qualified to stand at the head of the armies because he had been a mighty warrior leading the armies of the Egyptians, unsurpassed in generalship. The same order governed the sanctuary, for the holy tabernacle was not to be borne indiscriminately but the order for bearing the sacred ark was specified and a special family of the Levites was designated to carry it. The Levites were placed in the center as the tribe in the midst of whom the ark was borne, with Moses and Aaron marching just in front of the ark and the sons of Aaron following near them, each bearing a trumpet to receive directions from Moses and signify them to the people.
Movement was divinely guided and strictly ordered, for God showed where they should pitch by causing the pillar of cloud to rest directly over the tabernacle until He would have them journey again, and in all their journeying perfect order was required. Every tribe carried a standard bearing its distinguishing sign and pitched under its own standard, and when the ark moved the armies journeyed with the different tribes marching in order under their own standards. The trumpets gave special sounds directing each movement, which the people understood and obeyed. In that ordered camp each person had a particular responsibility.
Its order and harmony were meant to reveal God's character and the purity He requires of those who serve Him. Its harmony was also to show the surrounding nations that the Lord governed Israel and that His work was worthy of respect. The count reflects that God is a God of order who does not approve confusion in His work. He is not the author of confusion but of peace, unchanged and as particular in the present dispensation as in the former.
Together with Israel's deliverance, travels, murmurings against Moses and against God, transgressions, rebellions, punishments, and carcasses strewn in the wilderness through unwillingness to submit to God's wise arrangements, the verse stands as a faithful picture hung up as a warning. It warns those upon whom the ends of the world have come not to follow that example of disobedience and lusting after evil and fall like them. He who thinks he stands is to take heed lest he fall, and the designed lessons of order and organization are to be learned.
The count of 53,400 is the numbered strength of Naphtali's camp. Those who held otherwise understood it as Asher's numbered host. In either reckoning it belongs to the divinely appointed arrangement of Israel by tribes around the tabernacle, with each tribe encamping and marching under its own distinguishing standard.
That thorough organization and discipline was given very soon after leaving Egypt in the days of Moses for the benefit of Israel. Moses was providentially qualified to stand at the head of the armies because he had been a mighty warrior leading the armies of the Egyptians, unsurpassed in generalship. The same order governed the sanctuary, for the holy tabernacle was not to be borne indiscriminately but the order for bearing the sacred ark was specified and a special family of the Levites was designated to carry it. The Levites were placed in the center as the tribe in the midst of whom the ark was borne, with Moses and Aaron marching just in front of the ark and the sons of Aaron following near them, each bearing a trumpet to receive directions from Moses and signify them to the people.
Movement was divinely guided and strictly ordered, for God showed where they should pitch by causing the pillar of cloud to rest directly over the tabernacle until He would have them journey again, and in all their journeying perfect order was required. Every tribe carried a standard bearing its distinguishing sign and pitched under its own standard, and when the ark moved the armies journeyed with the different tribes marching in order under their own standards. The trumpets gave special sounds directing each movement, which the people understood and obeyed. In that ordered camp each person had a particular responsibility.
Its order and harmony were meant to reveal God's character and the purity He requires of those who serve Him. Its harmony was also to show the surrounding nations that the Lord governed Israel and that His work was worthy of respect. The count reflects that God is a God of order who does not approve confusion in His work. He is not the author of confusion but of peace, unchanged and as particular in the present dispensation as in the former.
Together with Israel's deliverance, travels, murmurings against Moses and against God, transgressions, rebellions, punishments, and carcasses strewn in the wilderness through unwillingness to submit to God's wise arrangements, the verse stands as a faithful picture hung up as a warning. It warns those upon whom the ends of the world have come not to follow that example of disobedience and lusting after evil and fall like them. He who thinks he stands is to take heed lest he fall, and the designed lessons of order and organization are to be learned.