Israel Numbered Again
Minister: |
Rev. Ronald Van Overloop |
Date: |
7/10/2011 PM
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Text:
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Numbers 26:2-4
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Psalters: |
403, 214, 237, 403 |
- The facts.
- When compare the two census, then seven tribes grew and five declined.
- South (106,430): Reuben lost 2,770 to 43,730; Simeon lost 37,100 to 22,000; Gad lost 5,150 to 40,500.
- East (201,300): Judah up 1,900 to 76,500; Issachar up 9,900 to 64,300; Zebulon up 3,100 to 60,500.
- West (130,800): Manasseh up 20,500 to 52,700; Ephraim down 8,000 to 32,500; Benjamin up 7,200 to 45,600.
- North (163,200): Dan up 1,700 to 64,400; Asher up 11,900 to 53,400; Naphtali down 8,000 to 45,400.
- To total number of armed men (20 years old and upward) is almost the same: 601,730, down 1,820.
- All but two (Joshua and Caleb) of the 601,730 men were different.
- The purpose of this numbering.
- Negatively, it was not to determine the size and strength of Israel s fighting force.
- We do learn something about God s favor in these Old Dispensational numbers.
- Note that each Israelite was numbered following their ancestral line: tribe and family (cf. 1:20).
- The immediate purpose for the numbering was to determine the size of each tribe s portion in Canaan (52-56).
- The significance.
- See the horribleness of sin and the severity of divine justice and judgment that only two of the 603,550 survived.
- All of the 1.2 million were known to be the people of God.
- That none of them entered Canaan is a type of their failure to enter the heavenly Canaan (Heb. 3:16ff).
- Positively, this second numbering indicates God s great faithfulness.
- The unbelief of the many did not make God s Word of none effect (cf. Rom. 9:6).
- The evidence of God s grace is seen in the great number of births in those 38 years: 1.2 million.