Welcome to Numbers!

Number 1-3

            If you’ve already done today’s reading, you will understand the name of the Bible’s fourth book: it is named after the census in chapter 1 (repeated 40 years later in chapter 26). Let’s start by talking about those numbers: 603,550 men of fighting age, which under the most conservative estimates would make the whole people of Israel—men, women, and children—well over 2 million strong. To some, that seems extraordinarily large. Secular studies of ancient populations, which, incidentally, are very difficult because of the spotty sources, suggest the number is much too high for the era and the circumstances. Therefore, all sorts of theories abound to make it a more “reasonable” number. For example, in some contexts the Hebrew word for “thousand” can be a generic term for a fighting unit, a “company” which might be well under 1,000 men, and some scholars suggest that Judah, for example, had 74 units comprising 600 men or that 74 families provided 600 men. That solution certainly makes the numbers more “reasonable” but it means that the total in 1:46 is a complete misunderstanding of the actual numbers. There’s another solution based on what’s call gematria, or numerology, that makes all the numbers bear some kind of symbolic weight; unfortunately there are almost no literary clues that we should read the text that way. For the Christian who takes the Bible seriously, the best solution remains that the Lord had indeed made Israel a great nation while they were in Egypt and that they were a very large people, which would explain both the Egyptians fear of them and the fear of the countries they will encounter going forward.

            Another interesting thing to note is the setting aside of the Levites apart from the other tribes. It had been the Levites who stood with Moses during the incident of the golden calf (Exodus 32:26), and Aaron and the priests were from the tribe of Levi. There was a pre-existing connection there. Then, there was the consecration of the firstborn to the Lord (Exodus 13), who in Numbers 3:11-13 are replaced by the Levites. This unique, hereditary place for the Levites explains the chapter 3-4 with their extensive census of the Levite clans and the listing of each clan’s responsibility. Because only Levites were authorized to move the tabernacle and assist in its services, their credentials were important, and because the tabernacle was the centerpiece of Israel’s holiness, the careful delineation of their duties matches the special care for the tabernacle we saw throughout Exodus and Leviticus.