Tuesday, Nov. 5
Numbers Chapter 1 Click here to read
The first five books of the Bible are known by several names: the Books of Moses, the Torah, the Pentateuch or simply the Law.
Their names are descriptive: “Genesis” means origin, “Exodus” means departure. Leviticus describes the rules and laws related to the Levites. You can guess what Numbers will be about.
While it does have a few parts that tell the story of the people, it has a lot of counting, beginning with chapter 1.
As we read it, we see a practical and ominous concern creeping in. The census is intended to count all of the men 20 years old or older who are able to serve in the army. It will be a while yet before the conquest of the Promised Land takes place, but this is a first step in the preparation; building an army requires knowing who is available to fight.
The structure of a future army is already visible, as the counting is done by tribe, clan and family divisions.
In all of this, there is one notable exception: the tribe of Levi is not to be counted in this census. The Levites are set apart for the care of the Tabernacle and are not part of the fighting force.
That’s not to say they aren’t important; they will be counted later. But even in the census there is a sharp dividing line between them and the rest of the community.
At one level, we would say that few things are as uninteresting than taking a census. Yet, every 10 years when one is taken in the United States there is a lot of information gleaned from it. And, for good or ill, we like to have a scorecard of how we are faring. At its simplest, a census measures growth or decline and provides a snapshot of how strong the nation is.
The taking of a census is also a reminder that the story of God’s people takes place within real-world history. This isn’t a “once-upon-a-time” tale, but an account of real people. What takes place in the Tabernacle or on the mountaintop doesn’t happen in isolation…it is all part of God’s active concern and care for these real people who are being counted. They are important.
It’s interesting that many centuries later when scripture emphasizes that Jesus is born into real-world history, Luke ties the time of his birth to another census, the one decreed by Caesar Augustus, when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
Sometimes we need reminding that God doesn’t just work through the miraculous and spectacular events. Sometimes we find evidence of God within the mundane.