well we are entering the Torah the Old Testament of course is unfortunately a very foreign territory to many Christians we focus in the New Testament many persons are missed taught the idea that the New Testament obsoletes the old not at all it fulfills it of course but much of what's going on the New Testament will not be intelligible to you unless you really know your Old Testament in the Old Testament the most venerated portion of that are the first five books first five books of Moses and we're not going to waste any of our time on the so-called documentary hypothesis so you go to college or seminaries you encounter the Graaf Wellhausen hypothesis that it really wasn't Moses it was these different authors they give them labels you can shred that argument from the text itself but you don't need a bother and you don't have to waste hours of boring library research because Jesus Christ authenticated the five books of Moses quoted from them frequently and so you can if you believe in Jesus Christ you have no patience or with the so-called documentary hypothesis if you don't believe in Jesus Christ you might have much bigger problems than the authorship of the book of Moses but so book of Genesis of course is the creation that's great stuff and the founding of the patriarchs the founding of a nation the nation actually gets born in Exodus they go down as a family come out as a nation the Book of Leviticus is the book on holiness and codifies God's expectations as how he expects to be worshipped a very important book for Christians the only book in the Bible on holiness it's very important but then we get to the Book of Numbers look I'm doing Ryan the last book over three three summary sermons by Moses before his life ends but the Book of Numbers is a strange name for this book it comes from the well let's just jump in here I get it it comes from the Greek Aerith mo which means numbers and because there happens to be a couple of censuses taken of the nation it opens with a census and there's one later and because of that it picked up this Gentile label but the Hebrew title for the book is momentum it Benoir which means in the wilderness and the the Book of Numbers is going to deal with they've obviously come out of but my time you the numbers they've come out of Exodus and they're heading for Kadesh Barnea but they blow it there by not entering in the land when God had them set to do that and because of their lack of faith God condemns all but two of them to wander for virtually forty years in the wilderness and during that those wilderness wanderings there are many experiences that are quite colorful but that also have relevance for you and me and that's often overlooked by many people so it's kind of the Book of Numbers is going to be a full is gonna be full of surprises it only took 40 hours to get Israel out of Egypt but took 40 years to get Egypt out of Israel and that's exactly where most of us are wandering in the wilderness failing to enter in to God's rest and that will have more meaning to us as we get into the book but it covers 38 years we say 40 years but technically it's actually 38 years and that will turn out to be prophetically profound as we study the scripture it covers that from the 38 years from the giving of the law at Mount Sinai up to the eve of the conquest under Joshua at the end Moses passes the baton so to speak to Joshua and that of course leads to the book of of Joshua so that's the these thirty eight years in these thirty-eight years we're going to see successes and failures and each one of those are relevant to you and me so don't let the quaintness of the text or the fact that we're dealing with a bygone era delude us there's there's things to be learned here and that's exactly what Paul tells us in his first letter to the Corinthians he says now all these things happened unto them for examples and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come so we will I think many people would be many of you are here probably just to learn more about your Bible and to fill in some background that you feel you need and that's wonderful I applaud that but many of you also will be surprised to discover the things that are tucked away in this book and also the relevance to our lives yours and mine the examples there by the way is two posts which is the from which we get the term type things are a type or a foreshadowing of something in the future a to Plus is a figure an image a pattern a prefiguring if you will we use the term in modern engineering a prototype as a as an example but it comes from the same root idea for you and I as Westerners prophecy tends to be prediction and fulfillment prediction and fulfillment that's our mentality towards it that's a Greek model the Hebrew model is prophecy is pattern and as you get sensitized to God's way of doing things you'll begin to see that he has a style of doing things that is instructive and will be trying to alert ourselves to that as we go well let's just jump right on in because we've got a lot of ground to cover tonight numbers chapter 1 verse 1 and the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the tabernacle of the congregation on the first day of the second month in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt saying and he goes on he apparently actually spoke to Moses audibly from the Holy from from the tabernacle as if he was perched over this holy of the mercy seat and he actually spoke to Moses and so obviously this is now the second year after they're in they've come out of land of Egypt he says takee the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel after their families by the house of their fathers with a number of their names every male by their poles in other words God instructs Moses to take to have what we would call a census part of this is to be instructive from purposes and the senses we're going to behold is one that is constrained to those that are able to go to war and so you get a military connotation here we're gonna learn a lot about the the camp of Israel as we go through but that's the instruction and it takes them from twenty years old and upward all that are able to go forth to war in Israel and that's the focus of this numbering it's a military preparation vow and Aaron shall number them by their armies and with you there shall be a man of every tribe every one head of the house of his father's so the head of each household is there assist in this situation okay so now let's back up before we jump into all of this and refresh our memory on what we call the twelve tribes obviously the game starts in Genesis 12 with Abraham and he marries Sarah he has a child through Hagar her handmaid Ishmael you know although the story finally though as as per the prediction given by God to Abraham Sarah herself there's Isaac he marries Rebecca and he also has a well he has Esau and Jacob it's interesting how in both cases here the firstborns rights are sidestepped and we go through Jacob of course who then has two wives Leah and Rachel leah is fruitful has Reuben the firstborn Simeon Levi and Judah and Rachel very you can imagine how frustrated she is at this point so she indulges in a procedure that was common in those days and that is to have her handmaid be a surrogate life in effect and so Bilhah her handmaid is offered Abram and he through whom she bears Dan and Naphtali Leia figures if she can get away with it so can I so she has her handmaid Zopa perform and he gives birth to gad and ashur by this time rachel finally has her firstborn Joseph Joseph is obviously very favored Jacob loved Rachel more than life itself and so Joseph her firstborn is in a very favorite position meanwhile Leia has two more it's a car and Zebulun so you have six of the 12 tribes are from Leia and finally rachel has her last child in fact she dies in childbirth with Benjamin being the youngest at first of course Jacob is better because he lost her through her but he becomes also the dearest in many respects to Jacob now Joseph as you all know gets down in Egypt gets married down there has two children Manasseh and Ephraim and asses the firstborn from the second but jacob adopts those two grandchildren as we would call them and he adopts ephraim ahead of Manasseh that's a prophecy and ephraim becomes almost synonymous with the northern part of Israel after the Civil War and so forth but anyway these are the twelve tribes we're going to encounter these names I thought it would be worthwhile refreshing our perspective as to their who their mothers were because obviously they're all brothers but some of them would regard each other's half-brothers in a sense okay and you can go through their names as to what they mean your Bible your Study Bible we'll have annotations each time one of these is born born their name is suggestive of the circumstances so they have a meaning the best known one is Judah which means praise and so forth and it's interesting how you look through these things how they also profile the history of Israel in Egypt first in the wilderness then in the land and finally in the kingdom that's a study in its own right I toss it out just for you to chase down on your own the twelve tribes as I say have each one has a name and they are listed twenty times more than twenty times actually in the scripture each time in a different order and each time in a with different ones oh mythis which is a study in its own right and you can go through these names and each time they're listed its it suggests possibly a sentence and you can play around with that on your own the they're listed as I say many times three times in Genesis obviously entering Egypt in Exodus a number of times in numbers not just the census but there's other times that they're listed and we'll explore a few of those and Deuteronomy of course and in Joshua judges chronicles Ezekiel and of course Revelation where we just where we see in Chapter seven that these twelve twelve thousand reaches the twelve tribes re-emerges which is another indication that chapter seven is post Church in the book of Revelation if you take revelation 7 as an example and take the list there you can say praise the Lord he has looked upon my affliction and granted good fortune happy am i my wrestling has made me forget my sorrow god hears me has joined me he's purchased me he exalted me and by adding me to the son of his right hand so that can be contrived some people would argue I think it's interesting you could play around with those on your own come to your own conclusions let's keep moving we've a cup to verse 5 numbers 1 and these are the names of the amendment shall stand by you see in other words there's going to be 12 guys 12:1 ahead of each tribe that's going to join Moses in the in the executing the census of the tribe of Reuben Eliezer the son of the shedder of Simeon shall loomio as some of Sirach had I and don't laugh at me you try pronouncing some of these sometimes of Judah nation the son of a minute AB now this is interesting guy he appears in later genealogies you'll find him in the Book of Ruth in chapter 4 verse 20 and you'll also find them in Matthew 1 and so on and so the this group by the way represents the fourth fifth and sixth sons of of Leia's or they're inside group in many respects it's a car Nathaniel the son of Tsar of Zebulun Eliab the son of Helen and of the children joseph of ephraim north Ephraim's a head of Manasseh here naturally Allah Shama the son of Amata hood and Manasseh Gamaliel the son of Ben Azur and so of Benjamin Abaddon the son of Gideon II of Dan he's er the son of Misha died he's an interesting guy because he's not happy with the idea that Dan ends up getting a serpent as a symbol so he puts the serpent in eagle's mouth and over the years the eagle becomes a symbol of the tribe of Dan I've always wondered how it all happened was there's a whole derivative study from that sometime if you're interested I've a sure Peggy oh the son of Akron of GAD Elias after the son of duel and naftali a higher of the son of a nun these were the renowned of a congregation princes of the tribes of their fathers heads of thousands in Israel Moses and Aaron took these men which are expressed by their names there's a challenge to you to study get into the Hebrew roots and understand what their names mean and they assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month and they declared their pedigrees after their families by the house of their fathers according to the number of the names from twenty years old and upward by their poles why twenty years old and upwards they were the ones that were deemed as war worthy they were the Warriors and as the LORD commanded Moses so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai and the children of Reuben we're gonna go through the 12 tribes quickly here now the children of Reuben Israel's eldest son by the generations after their families by the house of their fathers according to the number of the names by their poles every male from twenty years old and upward all that were able to go forth to war those that were numbered of them even the tribe of Reuben were forty and six thousand and five hundred that's exciting they say what am I supposed to do with that number well I don't know now first of all that's not the population of Reuben that's the population of those that were twenty the male's that were twenty years old and above that so for each of these numbers you can make a an educated guess as to what to multiply it by two and a half might be a reasonable guess in other words a wife and children or elder there so there's gonna be some younger so there's a multiplier so the number we end up with this will be 600,000 but that's just the men able to go to war that's quite a bunch by the way even by today's standards and if you multiply that by say two or three times you talk about several million people that are involved here of the children of Simeon by their generations after their families by the house of their fathers those that were numbered of them according to the number of the names by their poles every male from twenty years old and upward all that were able to go forth to war those that were numbered of them even the tribe of Simeon fifty and nine thousand and three hundred of the children of GAD by their generations after their families by the house of their fathers according to the number of the names from twenty years old and upward all that were able to go to war those were numbered of them even the tribe of GAD were forty and five thousand six hundred and fifty of the children of Judah by their generations after their families by the house of their fathers according to the number of the names from twenty years old and upward all that were able to go to forest tore those that were numbered of them even of the tribe of Judah where threescore 14,600 don't bother jotting these down I'll summarize for these when we get through the twelve okay because there are some some insights here of the children Issachar by their generations of their families by the house of their fathers according the number of their names from twenty years old and upward all that were able to go forth to war those that were numbered of them even of the tribe of Issachar were fifty and four thousand four hundred of the children Zebulon by their generations after their families by the house of their fathers according to the number of their names from twenty years old and upward all that were able to go forth to war those who were numbered of them even the tribe of Zebulun were fifty and seven thousand four hundred of the tribe of Joseph namely of the children of Ephraim by their generations after their families even by the and by the house of their fathers according to the number of the names from the twenty years old and upward all that were able to force to go able to go forth to war those that were a numbered of them even of the tribe of Ephraim were forty thousand and five hundred and of the children of Manasseh that's the other half of Joseph in other words by their generations after their families by the house of their fathers according to the number of their names from twenty years old and upward all that were able to go to go forth to war those were numbered of them even of the tribe of Manasseh were thirty and two thousand and two hundred I want to I'll use this point to remind you that they're not twelve tribes they're thirteen there are twelve classic twelve tribes but Joseph is awarded a double portion for some other reasons and Jacob his father adopts his two sons as his own so you really have a list of thirteen tribal names that's why in these various lists you can leave one out and still have twelve the leave the Levites do not go to war so they're not in the mark they're not then I'll go to war but they're still twelve tribes to go to war you follow me so if you're trying to include them all you could take the tribe of Joseph take even more masa and call it one if you want if you're trying to leave one of the others out you split Joseph into the two you still end up with twelve you take what out and still have twelve it's called a baker's dozen I think right okay of the tribe of the children of Benjamin by their generations after their families by the house of their fathers according the number of the names from twenty years old and upward all that were able to go forth to war those that were numbered of them even if the tribe of Benjamin were thirty and five thousand four hundred and if the child of Dan by their generations after their families by the house of their fathers according to the number of names from twenty years old and upward all that were able to go forth to war those that were numbered of them even the tribe of Dan were threescore and two thousand seven hundred after the children Vasher by their generations after their families by the house of their fathers according to the number of the names from twenty years old and upward all that were able to go forth to war those that were numbered of them even of the tribe of Asher were forty and 1500 of the children Naftali throughout their generations after their families by the house of their fathers according the number of their names from twenty years old and upward all that we're able to go forth to or those that were numbered of them even of the tribe of Naphtali were fifty and three thousand four hundred you're probably wondering why I'm going verse by verse why don't just summarize it that's a dangerous thing to do if you're serious about the Bible because too often you will miss an insight and so rather than air that way I'll just we'll go through verse by verse and and then then give us a appropriate summaries or down to verse 40 for those these are those that were numbered which Moses and Aaron numbered and the Prince of Israel being twelve men each one was for the house of his father's so were all those that were numbered of the children Israel by the house of their fathers from twenty years old and upward all that were able to go forth to war in Israel even all that were numbered were six hundred thousand three thousand and twelve hundred by the Levites after the tribe of their fathers were not numbered among them that Levites were not numbered because they don't go to war they're exempt for more they have a whole different mandate for the Lord has spoken of the mostest saying only thou shalt not number the tribe of Levi neither take the sum of them among the children of Israel but thou shalt appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of testimony and over all the vessels thereof and over all the things that belong to it they shall bear the tabernacle and all the vessels thereof and they shall minister unto it and shall in camp round about the tabernacle and we'll look at that shortly and when the tabernacle set it forward in other words when it's on the move believe I shall take it down and when the tabernacle is to be pitched the Levites shall set it up and the stranger now this is among them they had some non Jews living with them the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death in fact that would probably be the the folly of any non Levite that approaches any of these details and the children Israel shall pitch their tents every man by his own camp and every man by his own standard throughout their hosts but the Levites shall pitch round about the pitar burn ankle of testimony that there be no wrath upon the congregation of the children israel the Levites shall keep the charge of the tabernacle testimony and the children israel did according to all that the LORD commanded Moses so did they so that's chapter 1 chapter 2 is going to take that information and render it into an order of march for war and also lay out the camp Lord speaking to Moses unto Aaron saying every man of the children of Israel shall pitches but by his own standard with the ensign of their father's house far off about the tabernacle of the conga line known is that every one of the twelve tribes had an ensign a banner a symbol and that symbol was suggestive of one of the signs of what the Hebrews called the met Sarat the Gentile label for the matter off is the zodiac and don't confuse the fact that that is used by astrology it also is used by astronomers as a convene method of laying out what you might call the geography of the heavens so when you speak of these constellations obviously because we're in a pagan world we tend to use the labels from the temple of dendera which is an ancient Egyptian place where these things are recorded the song what we call the signs of the zodiac they're not 12 is actually 48 for each one has three deacons and so but the point is those those those arrangements of stars are you are universal in all cultures they have different legends and labels for them the Hebrews however and we believe this was the original labels of them were a account God's plan of redemption from the virgin birth that we can recall very go all the way to Leo the Lion and it's astonishing to get into this there I'm not gonna take the time here to get into this but it's an interesting study and we have briefings on if you like but the point is each of the 12 tribes has a a celestial late instant and the four of those are gonna be very prominent for us here shortly Lord speaking to Moses said unto Him every man of the children Israel shall pitch by his own standard in other words every house Judah Levi whatever had a standard with the ensign of their father's house far off about the tabernacle congregation shall they pitch on the east side toward the rising of the Sun shall the standard of the camp of Judah pitch don't confuse that with the tribe of Judah the camp of Judah is a grouping of three tribes as you'll see in a minute they have the standard of the camp of Judah pitched throughout their armies and nahshon the son of a minute AB shall be the captain of the children of Judah and his hosts and those that were numbered of them were three score and 14,600 those that do pitch next to him shall be the tribe of Issachar and the fennel the son of zeus shall be the captain of the children vissa car and his hosts and those that were numbered with thereof were fifty and four thousand and four hundred and then the tribe of Zebulun and he lived the son of the hill on shall be the captain of the children of Zebulun and his hosts those that were numbered thereof were 50 and seven thousand four hundred so all but were number in the camp of Judah that's those three tribes we just mentioned were one hundred a hundred thousand fourscore thousand six thousand and four hundred throughout their armies these shall first set forth so this group which is the largest of the bunch by the way is the first one in the order of march if they're marching these are the ones that go first and these are the three Judah Issachar and Zebulun together make up the camp of Judah many people miss this as they if you come to the temptation just skim through these chapters and numbers you can see it's tempting just to zip through it and good on you know you'll miss some it some things that I'm gonna try to highlight as we go here let's on the south side now we've gone we've gone on the east side we're moving out of the south side on the south side shall be the standard of the camp of Reuben according to their armies and the captain of the children of Reuben shall be la Eliezer the son of shittier and his host and those that were numbered with thereof were forty and six thousand five hundred and those which pitch by him shall be the tribe of Simeon the captain of the children of Simeon shall be shelling me oh the son of Zurich should i and his host and those that were numbered of them are fifty-fifty and nine thousand and three hundred then the tribe of GAD the captain of extensive gadgil be Elias F the son of rule and his host and those that were numbered of them forty and five thousand six hundred fifty all that were numbered in the camp of Reuben were a hundred thousand and fifty one thousand and four hundred and fifty threw out their armies and they shall set forth in the second rank so this is the second camp the camp of Reuben there on the south side when they camp there on the south side of the tabernacle they are second in the light of March Reuben Simeon and GAD then the tabernacle of the congregation shall set forward now this is not at war this is just on the large obvious the tabernacle is going to be somewhere the Levites wouldn't be going to war but if they're on the march going from A to B obviously the tabernacle is moving with him this is where they would sit and then the tabernacle rekon Gatien shall set forward with the camp of the Levites in the midst of the camp and as they encamped so shall they set forward every man in his place by their standards now the we have the the Tabernacle in in the center we have around the tabernacle the Levites in three families the gershonites caught fights and Mara writes Moses and the priests are the South obviously to be a priest you had to be a descendant of Aaron Moses elder brother so if you are a priest you're certainly a Levite but just because you're Levite you're not a piece because you could be a a Levite that's not a descendant of Aaron directly and that would put you in one of the three families Korah fights verse not here's tonight's armor I see with us and that's that's always at the center of the campuses of Israel now we move on the west side shall be the standard of the camp of Ephraim according to their armies and the captain of the sons of Ephraim shall be Allah Shama the son of Alma hood and his host and those that were numbered of them forty thousand five hundred and by him shall be the tribe of manasseh the captain of the shoulder Manasseh shall be Gamaliel the son of pedda sir and his host and those that were numbered of them thirty and two thousand two hundred and then the tribe of Benjamin and the captain of the sons of Benjamin shall be Abaddon the son of Gideon II and his host and those that were numbered of them thirty and five thousand four hundred and all that were numbered of the camp of Ephraim or hundred thousand and eight thousand and one hundred throughout their armies and they shall go forward to the third rake so that's the camp of Ephraim we only have one more hanging in there the standard of the camp of Dan the camp of Dan not the tribe the camp of Dan shall be on the north side by there's armies and the captain of the children of Dan shall be a he's ER the son of a Machado and his hosts and those that were a number of them threescore in two thousand seven hundred and those that encamped by him shall be the tribe of Asher the captain of the children of a she shall be Peggy Lissette of Akron and his hosts and those that were numbered of them were forty and 1500 and the tribe of Naphtali and the captain of the children of Tolly shall be a Huayra the side of a nun and his host and those that were numbered of them fifty and three thousand four hundred and all that were numbered in the camp of Dan were a hundred thousand fifty seven thousand six hundred and they shall go hindmost in their standards so they're the last so you got four camps three tribes each and the Levites the tabernacle right in the middle and there are the numbers now you're probably wondering gee Chuck that was tedious I'm going to show you something that well that's it would be right well I'm not sure right now you know I have a theory that nothing in the scripture is there by accident everything in the scripture is there by deliberate design part one part two that design always points to Jesus Christ and one of the fun games you can play when you're a small group of people that are serious about their Bible is try to find something that violates that presumption and you say check here's a great one I got all these numbers what's that got to do with anything I mean you know by now you're drowning in numbers what do I do with those I'll point out to you that God always rewards the diligent so we'll look at something here shortly these are those which are numbered of the children Israel by the house of their father and all those that were numbered of the camps throughout their hosts were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty but the Levites were not numbered among the children Israel as the LORD commanded Moses and the children Israel did according to all that the LORD commanded Moses so they pitched by their standards so that they set forward every one after their families according to the house of their fathers I might mention something else by the way you'll notice it says that Levites are not numbered they're gonna be numbered in the next chapter well if it I thought God said not to do that it's the context here is war they're not numbered because they don't go to war we are going to number them two different ways those that are one month older and those that are thirty at between thirty and fifty and we'll see that in the next chapter so you neither often there is a generality in the scripture and then it's followed by an exception so don't don't let that throw you but okay so the order of march is pretty straightforward we have the camp of Judah which is Judah Issachar and Zebulun then the camp of Reuben which is Reuben get me I get and GAD Levites right in the middle with the tabernacle and their numbers you don't know yet that's coming in the next chapter then Ephraim Manasseh and Benjamin is that is the camp of Ephraim so he'd be like you got battalions and companies sort of if you want to get it ready mentally but you also have these numbers are those numbers meaningful I think they are if you put them in the right groupings you know we we have all through the book of numbers we have types I warned you about that this is one that's coming here you're gonna have mana before it's all over you've got brazen the brazen serpent that's one of the strangest one in the Bible you have waters from the rock and so forth there's others let's take this one the camp of Israel I suggest that every detail the scriptures there by design and the question we're going to address is what could be hidden behind these numerical details of the camp of Israel Jesus himself said the volume of the book is written of me and he said that in Psalm 240 verse 7 it's quoted in hebrews 10:7 so here are these four camps Judah Issachar Zebulun Reuben Simeon again Ephraim Manasseh and Benjamin Dan Asher Naphtali and we have their numbers if you add those numbers you will get the population of each of the four camps and we're not through yet and what do you say G check what do I do with that well it's back up here the tabernacle is in the middle of the camp around the town the tabernacle you have the Levites the KOA Fights gershonites mara rights as the three families but Moses and the priests which is the core group on the east side the east side is of course the key side no I have no idea how much space they took the camp we'll learn later that there's about 22,000 of them that are more than a month old now if you take that number plus their wives and families and whatever that that you have two or three times that whatever that that number of people is they're not a small place right but that is the camp of the Levites and they're the reference point for the rest of the camp now you need to follow me here you got to pretend you're Jewish you you do understand how hard the rabbi's try to keep what they believe the law is saying they often accuse them of splitting hairs but they try very hard to do what it literally says we could learn some lessons from them perhaps the camp of Judah was instructed to camp east of the Levites that sounds simple but it's not the camp of Ruben was instructed to camp south of the of the Levites no problem this if you're going to be strictly obedient to the instructions of the Torah that denies you the opportunity to camp southeast of the of the tabernacle of Levites because if you're southeast you're not east or south you're in-between and only the cardinal directions are ordained for the tech camping so you have to figure out how wide the Levites are camping and stay within that range if you're going to stay east of the Levites you follow me now and you're length then you take proportional to whatever you need for a population so here's the kit here the Levites the camp of Judah ston the east side their symbol is the lion incidentally the Lion of the tribe of Judah and so they can camp as wide as the Levites have staked out for themselves as long whatever that is they can as long as they're east of that they're obedient the same thing likewise Reuben his symbol was the man incidentally so there again they can camp as wide as the Levites of staked out no lighter and they take whatever depth they need for their people if somebody tries to camp between these two he's neither East nor south that's for Bolton hmm so likewise okay we have these four zones south east south west north and west north east that would be in effect prohibited Ephraim is on the west side his symbol was the Ox the symbol of service and then we have on the north side the tribe of Dan which ultimately became the eagle was the symbol of the tribe of Dan and we have the four camps of Israel now we add to this the fact that we know what the populations are we don't know their absolute populations but we have relative figures in other words whatever the number going to war I think would be reasonably statistically indicative order the total population is we have about one hundred eighty six thousand and Judah 151,000 in Reuben the camp of Reuben and we have about a hundred eight thousand in the in the camp of Ephraim and about her and fifty-seven in the cap of damn so what we're gonna do right now is we're going to embark on a magical helicopter outside I've got parked a special jet ranger and this one's a very unusual one because it's also a time machine so we're all going to admit in our minds I get him this helicopter and as we fly over to Israel we're going to crank it back about what four thousand years and three thousand some and and we're going to approach the camp of Israel from the east side and as we approach the camp of Israel we'll see of course right in the center of it the tabernacle on the Levites but as we begin to appreciate this is basically a sketch of the camp of Israel made to scale I'm using the tribe of the area of the Levites as my unit and whatever that is the length the proportions of the arms will be proportional to the populations the largest one is to the east 186 thousand units say the shortest one to them to the west and the other two nominally about the same and what do you see there you can't escape at Kenya this is probably what Balaam saw from the mountains of Moab when he was going to curse Israel we will get to that in numbers 20 in front about done I think this is kind of interesting you see if you pay attention to the text I don't think there's probably one Christian in 100 that realizes that there is a sketch of the front from an aerial view of the camp of Israel tucked away in the second chapter of the Book of Numbers and that may mean a lot to you may mean nothing but I think it's now something else by the way I haven't highlighted here the four labels on those four camps are the Ox the man the eagle and the lion which are the same faces that you see on the cherubim around the throne of God whether you're in Isaiah 6 or Ezekiel 1 or Ezekiel 10 or in Revelation 4 5 or whatever the cherubim the Seraphim call much alike those same four letters and it's interesting that those say for symbols typify the four Gospels Matthew presented Jesus Christ as the Lion of the tribe of Judah he was Jewish Luke was a Gentile doctor he presented him as the Son of Man as he emphasizes humanity marks the only one of the three that does not put a genealogy and because he's presenting him as the source of service and you don't care about the pedigree of authority and of course John presents him as to who he really is the son of God but so those are common labels for those four Gospels I think there's something far more fundamental going on here but when God looks down and down on the camp he sees the tabernacle right in the center and he sees a presentation of his plan of redemption before our eyes well let's think up we got made all the way to chapter three not bad for a warm-up here we've talked about the Levites now we're going to focus a little bit on their duties and who they are these are also the generations of Aaron Moses and the day of the Lord spake with Moses on Mount Sinai these are the names of the sons of Aaron Nadab the firstborn and the by who Eleazar and Ithamar these first two guys don't come off very well these are the names of the sons of Aaron the priest which were anointed whom he consecrated to minister in the priests office and they dab and by who died before the Lord when they offered strange fire before the Lord in the wilderness of Sinai and they had no children and Eleazar and Ithamar ministered in the priests office in the sight of Aaron their father just a passing reference made Abin by who by the way this is one of the lessons here I think is that good intentions are not enough the there's no indication here that they were mischievous but they didn't follow instructions the the fire that they presented in their duties was not following God's specifications and they died there's a lesson here Paul says in Romans whatsoever things aforetime were written for our learning that we through the patience and the comfort of the Scriptures might have hope whatsoever things are at the fore in the book of numbers was written for you and to learn from one of the things we pick up right here is that good intentions are not sufficient native and by who may not have been bad guys they weren't necessarily trying to dishonor God but they didn't honor him enough to follow his instructions there's another guy by the name of David King Davi and he tried to relocate the ark on a cart and the cart hit a bump in the road and who is it he had no bet that he wanted to keep it from falling and God struck him and David got the message he was shook by that because he God had prevent the ark was to be moved on the shoulders of the Levites not on some ox cart and so they stopped had sacrifices and so forth and corrected it but the point is good intentions are not enough God has told us what he wants of us and we need to understand that and I think that's part of it the David's relocation the second Samuel 6 if you want to refresh your memory on that story let's move on the Lord spake unto Moses saying bring the tribe of Levi near and present them before Aaron the priest that they may minister unto him and they shall keep us charged in the charge of the whole congregation before the tabernacle of the Congo the service of the tabernacle Levites are tied at tabernacle whether or not their priests the priests of course the privileged Bunch but they're all involved in the tabernacle and they shall keep all the instruments of the tabernacle of the congregation the and the charge of the children Israel to do the service of the tabernacle and thou shalt give the Levites unto Aaron and to his sons and they are wholly given unto him out of the children of Israel and thou shall appoint Aaron and the sons and they shall wait on the priests office and the stranger that cometh from the I shall be put to death God is serious about what he expects here now the tabernacle we won't go through the whole thing here we did when we went through the exits but it's a refreshing memory sometimes called the house of blood and in addition to two tables of stone we always visualized Moses coming down from Sinai I always visualize under the other arm he had a couple of engineering drawings because God gave not just the Ten Commandments he gave them the specifications for this portable sign shuri that was to be the mechanism by which he would dwell among them and the scripture devotes more space to the tabernacle than it does on then on any other subject so tabernac is important for lots of reasons as much in Sahir now the materials are important to understand brass was the metal that could sustain fire so brass levitical II speaks of the judgment Gould speaks of deity and silver speaks of blood and Satan himself endorses that when he enters Judah and Judah says behold I betrayed innocent blood when he throws the thirty pieces of silver on the temple floor silver is idiomatically for in the Levitical sense speaks of the blood and it's interesting that everything in the tabernacle sits on silver sockets it rests on the blood that you say the Holy Spirit's dealing in puns absolutely absolutely the Silver Redemption shekel we're going to counter here shortly and the thirty pieces of betrayal' silver are examples and their many many others of course now if you go when you approach the tabernacle there's a linen fence above eye-level so all you can see is white all you can see is righteousness and it's symbolism only one door one entrance it's about 75 feet if we use for our windage purposes or to have for a cubit then it's about 75 feet wide at about a hundred and fifty feet deep or long the perimeter is the same distance as the length of Noah's Ark we first thing as you go through the the gate if that's if you were a Levite you first thing you'd encounter would be the brazen altar the altar of sacrifice that's the first step and following that would be the Laver the bronze Laver where the priest would ceremonial proper a strange portable building made of vertical planks covered with wood planks covered with gold sitting in silver sockets with bar stir than give it rigidity with one entrance to enter what's called the holy place and as we go in the holy place on the left side you see and then there's an inner sanctum that's half that's a cube in effect and the holy place is a double cube so to speak and we have the menorah the sometimes translated candlestick unfortunately in your King James a lamp stand would be a better translation the table of showbread twelve loaves changed every Shabbat and the golden altar don't confuse the golden altar with the brazen altar and the hold of soccer the golden altar was an incense altar roughly a foot and half square 30 inches high roughly maybe and the incense now it's always associated with the Ark of the Covenant but it's not in the Holy of Holies it's just in front because it has to be tended on day and night and you never no one ever entered the Holy of Holies except once a year and only the high priest so in order to attend the golden honor it had to be just outside the curtain when you say that you also hear about the veil is a main veil outside there's also the veil but - in the Holy of Holies we understand that that veil is 18 inches thick so the word veil is misleading to us we think of a veil of something gossamer you see through no this is a heavy heavy curtain and then we have the Ark of the Covenant and we have the mercy seat don't confuse those two they are two separate instance on top of the other but they're always described separately in the scripture and they have very different destinies we believe now Jesus made a claim to be only each one of these speaks of Jesus Christ John opens his gospel says the Word was made flesh and dwelt a bird a code among us he says I am the door anyone that comes in but by me as a thief and a robber he also said I am the light of the world he also said I am the bread of life the golden altar speaks of intercessor and he's the one that ever liveth to make intercession for us today that's his main job right now and of course he's our sin bearer and our propitiation for us and so each one of these things deliberately is intended to speak of Jesus Christ every dimension every material in this structure is there by design those designs all point to Jesus Christ now the coverings I want to touch a little on this because many people don't realize what's going on here the first thing they cover this whole thing with the building we have this gorgeous building visualize this wood covered with gold and they put these vertical planks to make a goal building portable building then they cover it with embroidered linen him emblazoned with cherubim super angels and it's a gold purple blue and scarlet each one of course having a significance the goal of the deity the purple royalty and so forth then after this the if a.g they go from gold to this covering let that's not bad then they cover that with goats hair say gee that's a shame to hide that beauty you can't see it from the outside then and then they covered the goats hair with Ram skins dyed red and then on top of that they have porpoise skins or badger skins depending any translation that scholars argue about that but it's very very interesting as you study this as you see it from the outside it has no beauty that you would desire it that exactly you only see the white lemon it's being of righteousness the only way to enter is to that one door which represents Jesus Christ and then his sacrifice and the washing of the water of the word you can enter in and once you enter in you that's when you behold its glory when you're inside not from the outside and how interesting that and it goes on are you can preach on this for many weeks there's so many issues so many issues here let's move on the Lord spake unto Moses saying and I behold I have taken the Levites from among the children Israel instead of all the firstborn which open the matrix among the children Israel therefore the Levites shall be mine God is exacting a price for the firstborn he was the firstborn that died get them out of Egypt the firstborn belonging to God and so he instead of taking literally the firstborn he'll take the Levites as his down payment so to speak and the first part open matrix among the children israel therefore the Levites shall be mine because all the firstborn our mind and for on the day that i smote all the firstborn in the land of egypt i hallowed unto me all the firstborn in israel both man and beast mine shall they be i am the lord now as a little bit of a problem there's not enough Levites to cut them to get the mustard here's you'll see i'll come to that in a minute and the Lord speaking to Moses in this wilderness of Sinai saying number the children Levi after the house of their fathers by their families every male from among old and upward shalt thou number them and Moses numbered them according to the word of the Lord as he was commanded and these were the sons of Levi by their names Gershon Kohath and Merari and these are the names of the sons of Gershon by their families lib knee and shimmy shimmy I the sons of Kohath by their families Amram he's abarth Hebron and Visio by the sons of Merari by their families Mollie and Moshe and these are the families of the Levites Accord to the house of their fathers Gershon was the family of the Libba Knights and the family of the shemites and these are the families of the gershonites those that were numbered of them according the number of all the males for a month old and upward even those that were numbered of them were 7,500 the families the girls I shall pitch behind the tabernacle westward the chief of the house of the father version I shall be Elias F the son of Leo and the charge of the sons of Gershon in the tabernacle congregation shall be the tabernacle the tent and the covering thereof and the hanging of the door of the tabernacle of the congregation and the hangings of the court and the curtain of the door of the court which is by the tabernacle and by the altar roundabout and the cords of it for all the service thereof so the gershonites are responsible for the clause the curtains and the linen fence you get the picture that's their area that they agree to some responsibility they take it down when they're going to move and they set it up when they've arrived that's their job and now Kohath was the family of em rights and the family of is a height is haa rights and the family of the Hebron rights and the family of the uzi alights and these are the families of the KOA lights in the number of all the males from a month old and upward where 8600 keeping in charge of sanctuary notice where a month old and they're not talked about 20 year olds now this is not Worr thing this is a virtually a total population thing the families of the sons of Kohath shall pitch on the side of the tabernacle southward and the chief of the house of the father of families of cool that shall be analyzed a fan at the side of Lucia and the charge shall be the ark and the table and the candlestick it says here a tree should say a lampstand and the the menorah in other words the altars and the vessels of the sanctuary where with the minister and the hanging and all the service there so the co effects have what we call the holy objects the appliances the the okay and so Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest shall be chief over the chief of the Levites and have oversight of them that keep charge of the sanctuary so eleazar's that's his job to supervise what these guys are doing Murari was the family of maha lights and the family of the bush i'ts these are the families of Murari those that were numbered of them according the number of all the males from a month old and upward were six thousand two hundred and the chief of the house of the father families of Murari was derale the son of a bhai oh and these shelves pitched on the side of the tabla northward and under the custody and charge of the sons of Merari were shall be boards of the tabernacle and the bars thereof and the pillars thereof and the sockets thereof and all the vessels thereof and all that's service thereto and the pillars of the court round about and their sockets and their pins and their courts so we have the ma rites which have the physical framework okay so if you think of the Hank the cloth the curtains in the on the West the coal is with all the the appliances and there are rights with the actual frame the boards the the the physical building part in itself in all the posts I assume but those that in camp before the tabernacle toward the east even before the tabernacle of the congregation each one shall be Moses and Aaron and his sons keeping the charge of the sanctuary for the charge of the children Israel and to the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death all that were numbered of the Levites which Moses and Aaron numbered at the commandment of the Lord throughout their families and all the males from a month old and upward were 22,000 that turns out to give us a 300 person shortage I'll come back to that and the Lord said unto Moses number all the firstborn of the male's of children Israel from a month old and upward and take the number of their names and thou shalt take the Levites for me I am Lord instead of all the firstborn among the children Israel and the cattle of the Levites instead of the firstlings among the cattle of the children Israel so the firstborn of everybody in Israel one Lord but instead of them he'll take the Levites that's the exchange okay except there's not quite enough Levites to cover all the firstborn Israel Moses numbered as LORD commanded him and all the firstborn among the children Israel and all the firstborn males by the number of the names from a month old upward those that were numbered of them were twenty two thousand two hundred threescore and thirteen there's two hundred seventy-three people for which there aren't Levites to substitute for so we got a problem here we've got Levites that are serving twenty two thousand the firstborn males of twenty-two to 273 so it gives us two hundred seventy three that have to be redeemed and the Lord provides a mechanism for that to happen five shekels each one thousand three hundred sixty-five shekels and if they're about to mount circles of silver that's about a hundred and seventy pounds of silver you can do your own math to figure out what the price of silver is going for that's many thousands of dollars it's involved here that goes to the tabernacle Lord said and speaking to Moses saying take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children israel and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle and the Levites shall be mine I am the Lord and for those that are to be redeemed of the two hundred threescore and thirteen of the firstborn of children Israel which are more than the Levites thou shall even take five shekels apiece by the pole after the shekel of the sanctuary shall take them the shekel is about 20 euros in case you're worried about that and and thou shall give the money we're with the odd number of them is to be redeemed unto Aaron and his sons and Moses took the redemption money of them that were over and above them that were redeemed by the Levites of the firstborn of children israel took you the money a thousand three hundred and threescore and five shekels after the shekel of the sanctuary and Moses gave the money of them that were redeemed unto Aaron and his sons according to the word of the Lord as the LORD commanded Moses so in chapter four now we're gonna we've got this thing organized now how do we move it what happens when you move it Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron saying take the sum of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi after their families by the house of their fathers from thirty years old and upward until fifty years old so now we're shifting here we're not paying all the veidt's we're taking those that are qualified to serve the others will have duties but these are these are the ones that are are to have a direct service here thirty thirty years old upward until fifty years all that entered into the hosts to do the work of the in the tabernacle of the congregation the she'll be the service of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle foundation about the most holy things when the camp set it forward Aaron shall come in his sons and they shall take down the covering veil and cover the Ark of the testimony with it and she'll put there on the covering of badger skins and shall spread over it a cloth wholly of blue and shall put in the staves thereof and upon the table of showbread they shall spread a cloth of blue and put there on the dishes the spoons and the bowls and the covers to cover it with all and the continual bread shall be thereon and they shall spread upon them a cloth of scarlet to cover the same with the covering of badger skins and shall put in the staves thereof and they shall take a cloth of blue and cover the lampstand or key candlestick in the King James of the light as lamps and as tongs and assess Sophos dishes and all the oil vessels thereof wherewith they show minister unto it and they shall put it and all the vessels thereof within a cover of badger skins and shall put it upon a bar see everything is designed to be carried on shoulders so the Ark of the Covenant the the golden altar all these things are designed to be transported once they're wrapped in these in these coverings upon the golden altar they shall spread a cloth of blue and cover it with a covering a badger skins and shall put to the staves thereof and they shall take all the instruments of ministry wherewith they administer in the sanctuary and put them in a cloth of blue and cover them with the governing badger skins and put them on a bar whether it's badger skins or purple skins is a debate among some scholars it's translational issue and they shall take away the ashes from the altar and spread a purple cloth thereon and they shall put upon it all the vessels thereof wherewith they minister about it even the censors and the flesh hooks and the shovels and the basins and all the vessels of the altar they shall spread upon it a covering of badger skins and put to the staves of it and when Aaron and his sons have made an end of the covering of the sanctuary and all the vessels of the sanctuary as the camp is to set forward after that the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it they shall not touch any holy thing unless they die these things are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation to the office of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest pertain the oil for the light and the sweet incense and the daily meat offering and the anointing oil and the oversight of all the tabernacle of all that they're in is in the sanctuary and in the vessels thereof and Lord speaking to Moses and Aaron saying cutting not off the tribe of the families of koa fights from among the Levites but thus do unto them that they may live and not die when they approached unto the most holy things Aaron and his son shall go in and appoint them everyone to his service and to his burden but they shall not go into sea when the Holy things are covered lest they die and the Lord speaking to Moses saying take also the sum of the sons of Gershon throughout the houses of their fathers by their families from 30 years old and upward until 50 years old shalt thou number them all that entering to perform the service to do the work and the tabernacle congregation this is the service of the families the gershonites to serve and for burdens they shall bear the curtains of the tabernacle and the tabernacle of the congregation is covering by the way notice something else they always use the personal pronoun it's not it's covering it's his covering the tabernacle is a person it represents a person you and I worship as the Messiah of Israel and the covering of the badger skins that is above it and the hanging of the door of the tabernacle of the congregation the hangings of the court and the Bart hanging of the door of the gate of the court which is by the tabernacle and by the altar around about in their courts and all the instruments of their service and all that is made for them so shall they serve at the appointment of Aaron and the son shall be all the service of the sons of the gershonites and all their burdens and all their service and he shall appoint unto them in charge all their burdens this is the service of the families of the Gershon in the tabernacle of the congregation and their charge shall be under the hand of FMR the son of Aaron the priest and that's for the sons of Merari they number them after their families by the house of their fathers from 30 years old and upward even though the 50 years old shalt outnumber them everyone that entered in the service to do the work of the tabernacle congregation this is the service of the families of the sons of attrition in the tabernacle of the Congo and the priest if a bar supervises both these other families that we if you notice then that's where the sons of Merari thou shalt remember them after their families buy the house of their fathers thirty years old upward even unto the 50 years old shalt thou number them everyone that enters into the service to do the work of a tabernacle of the congregation this is the charge of the burden according all their service the tabernacle congregations the boards of the tabernacle and the bars thereof and the pillars thereof and the sockets thereof and the pillars of the court roundabout and their sockets and their pins and their cords with all their instruments with all their service and by name ye shall reckon the instruments of the charge of their burden this is the service of the families of the sons of Merari according to all their service in the tabernacle congregation under the hand of FMR the son of Aaron the priest and Moses of Aaron and the chief of the congregation numbered the sons of Korah that's after the families if the house of the father's from 30 years old upwards even to the fifty years old everyone enters in the service for the work of their congregation those that were numbered of them by their families were two thousand seven hundred and fifty these were these were they that were numbered of the families of the core fights all that might do service at the tabernacle congregation which Moses and Aaron did number according to the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses those were a number of the sons regression throughout their families and by the house their fathers were from 30 years old and upward even 250 years old everyone that entered the service the work of the tabernacle congregation those that were numbered of them throughout their families by the house their fathers were 2630 these are they that were numbered of the families of the sons of Gershon of all that might do service and the tabernacle of the congregation who Moses and Aaron did number according to the commandment of the Lord although numbered by the families of Merari and their families thirty years old and upward even fifty years old everyone that entered that service the work of the tabernacle congregation even those that were numbered of them and for their families were three thousand two hundred these be those that were numbered of the families of sons of Merari whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses all those that were numbered of Levites whom Moses and Aaron and the chief of Israel numbered after their families after the house of their fathers from 30 years old and upward even 250 years old everyone that came to do service and ministry of the services burden of the in the tabernacle Gatien even those that were numbered of them were eight thousand five hundred and four score a court of commandment the Lord numbered by the hand of Moses everyone according to a service according to his burden as thus were they numbered of him as Lord Commander Moses you might be confused by now the total population of these three families was 22,000 and the total serving was a little over 8 thousand because we're dealing just with those that are 30 to 50 follow me okay so that's it you-you-you have weathered the barrage of what many people regard regard is pretty tedious reading at the same time if there are some lessons here what you're going to do for next time let's preparation next time go ahead and read numbers 5 through 10 and go ahead and review any notes you might have from previous studies on two subjects on the tabernacle itself because we're going to talk more about that and the Passover we're going to get into some of those issues and many of the issues we're going to get into is our issues that go far beyond the scope of the Old Testament in its narrow sense it will as a New Testament Christian it may surprise you how relevant those notes will turn out to be so that's what we're doing let's stand for a closing word of Prayer
