Israel Numbered Again

Minister:
Date: PM
Text: Numbers 26:2-4
Psalters: 403, 214, 237, 403
  1. The facts.
    1. When compare the two census, then seven tribes grew and five declined.
      1. South (106,430): Reuben lost 2,770 to 43,730; Simeon lost 37,100 to 22,000; Gad lost 5,150 to 40,500.
      2. East (201,300): Judah up 1,900 to 76,500; Issachar up 9,900 to 64,300; Zebulon up 3,100 to 60,500.
      3. West (130,800): Manasseh up 20,500 to 52,700; Ephraim down 8,000 to 32,500; Benjamin up 7,200 to 45,600.
      4. North (163,200): Dan up 1,700 to 64,400; Asher up 11,900 to 53,400; Naphtali down 8,000 to 45,400.
    2. To total number of armed men (20 years old and upward) is almost the same: 601,730, down 1,820.
    3. All but two (Joshua and Caleb) of the 601,730 men were different.
  2. The purpose of this numbering.
    1. Negatively, it was not to determine the size and strength of Israel s fighting force.
    2. We do learn something about God s favor in these Old Dispensational numbers.
    3. Note that each Israelite was numbered following their ancestral line: tribe and family (cf. 1:20).
    4. The immediate purpose for the numbering was to determine the size of each tribe s portion in Canaan (52-56).
  3. The significance.
    1. See the horribleness of sin and the severity of divine justice and judgment that only two of the 603,550 survived.
      1. All of the 1.2 million were known to be the people of God.
      2. That none of them entered Canaan is a type of their failure to enter the heavenly Canaan (Heb. 3:16ff).
    2. Positively, this second numbering indicates God s great faithfulness.
      1. The unbelief of the many did not make God s Word of none effect (cf. Rom. 9:6).
      2. The evidence of God s grace is seen in the great number of births in those 38 years: 1.2 million.