Jul 16/17 - SIZE AND SCOPE - Numbers 1:1-3

The Lord spoke to Moses

in the wilderness of Sinai …

saying: Take a census of

the whole congregation

of Israelites, in their clans,

by ancestral houses …

every male individually; 

from twenty years old

and upward …

Numbers 1:1-3

 

Before the story of the Exodus continues, the book of Numbers starts with numbers. There was to be a census. It was commanded by God.

 

Now, I’ve led trips. I’ve had trips as little as my wife and I … and even when my boys were younger, you could count the numbers on one hand.

 

I’ve led trips as big as youth events that were numbered in dozens, even scores. (That was a lot of work. Somebody’s always hungry and somebody else always wants to stop and go to the bathroom.)

 

After leading youth events, I have much more respect for Moses! Listen to these numbers (Numbers 1) …

 

·         46,500 – The descendants of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses … every male from twenty years old and upward … were forty-six thousand five hundred.

·         59,300 – The descendants of Simeon … were fifty-nine thousand three hundred.

·         45.650 – The descendants of Gad … were forty-five thousand six hundred fifty.

·         74,600 – The descendants of Judah … were seventy-four thousand six hundred.

·         54,400 – The descendants of Issachar … were fifty-four thousand four hundred.

·         57,400 – The descendants of Zebulun … were fifty-seven thousand four hundred.

·         40,500 – The descendants of Joseph … were forty thousand five hundred.

·         32,200 – The descendants of Manasseh … were thirty-two thousand two hundred.

·         35,400 – The descendants of Benjamin … were thirty-five thousand four hundred.

·         62,700 – The descendants of Dan … were sixty-two thousand seven hundred.

·         41,500 – The descendants of Asher … were forty-one thousand five hundred.

·         53,400 – The descendants of Naphtali … were fifty-three thousand four hundred.

_______________

·         603,550 – These are those … whom Moses and Aaron enrolled …  So the whole number of the Israelites … from twenty years old and upward, everyone able to go to war in Israel … was six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty. The Levites, however, were not numbered by their ancestral tribe along with them.

 

That’s a lot of potty breaks.

 

The point: This was a large scale rescue operation. And if God can rescue 600,000 men, he can definitely rescue you!

 

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who needs to quit

saying, “Are we there yet?”

(and start saying,

“Father, I trust in you.”)