Numbers 2:32
These are those which were numbered of the children of Israel by the house of their fathers: all those that were numbered of the camps throughout their hosts were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty. These are those which were numbered of the children of Israel by the house of their fathers: all those that were numbered of the camps throughout their hosts were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty.
These are those numbered of the children of Israel by the house of their fathers, all those numbered of the camps throughout their hosts being 603,550. The census belongs to the orderly arrangement of the camp in which the tribes were arranged under their own standards and marched in an appointed order. Every tribe bore a standard with the distinguishing sign of its father's house and was required to pitch under its own standard in the positions commanded around the tabernacle.
When at rest the tabernacle was erected and the tribes pitched their tents in order in the positions commanded around it at a distance from it. Each person had an appointed place and task in the ordered encampment. The tabernacle itself was built to be taken to pieces and carried in all their journeyings.
God directed all their travels and the timing of pitching and journeying by the pillar of cloud and glory. It rested low directly over the tabernacle when they were to abide and pitch, and lifted high above it when they were to journey again. The moving of the ark signaled the armies to journey.
When journeying, all journeying was in perfect and appointed order with the different tribes marching in order every tribe under its own standard. The sacred ark was borne in their midst and before them, not left to be borne indiscriminately but borne by a designated special family of the Levites. Moses and Aaron marched just in front of the ark, and the sons of Aaron followed near them each bearing a trumpet to receive directions from Moses and to signify them to the people by special understood sounds that directed their movements.
This thorough organization and most thorough discipline was established very soon after leaving Egypt under Moses. God in special providence had qualified Moses to stand at the head of their armies by his training as a mighty warrior and unsurpassed general over the armies of the Egyptians. Israel's organization and discipline were part of God's direction for the people, and the perfect organization and special order was instituted for their benefit.
The orderly arrangement was meant to show God's majesty and holiness and the purity He requires of those who serve Him. Its order and harmony were to show surrounding nations that the Lord governed Israel and to uphold the dignity of God's work. Its orderly layout of tents shows that God's work is to be carried out without confusion.
The perfect organization and special order instituted in the days of Moses is faithfully recorded as an example and warning, lest those who come afterward follow Israel's murmuring, transgression, and rebellion and fall as they fell and were overthrown in the wilderness. God has not changed from a God of order but is the same in the present dispensation as in the former and as particular now as then. He designs that lessons of order and organization be learned from the perfect order instituted under Moses.