NUMBERS 26
The numbering of the whole assembly in this chapter has in view their entrance upon the inheritance. And Jehovah Spoke to Moses, saying, “Unto these shall the land be divided for an inheritance according to the number of the names; to the many thou shalt increase [p. 321] their inheritance, and to the few thou shalt diminish their inheritance; to every one shall his inheritance be given according to those that were numbered of him” (verses 52 - 54). So that, from this point onwards, the inheritance is directly in view as being much before the mind and heart of God for His people. It is very important that we should apprehend this great divine thought and purpose. The inheritance was a very definite thing before Israel, but as presented to us in the scriptures we are reading, it was typical of a much greater inheritance of a spiritual nature which can be known and enjoyed today. There is a vast range of spiritual blessing in Christ which God has in mind for His people to possess and enjoy today. It was proposed to us in the glad tidings which God sent to us by His chosen servant Paul, for he was sent to the nations “that they may receive remission of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:18). We have all been very interested in the first part of this great commission; but what about the second part? I have no doubt that God is more interested in the inheritance which His love would have us to enjoy than He is in the forgiveness, essential as the latter is, if we are to have any happy relations with Him at all. How repeatedly we are spoken of as “heirs of God”, and “heirs through God”, and Paul could say, “In whom (that is, in Christ) we have also obtained an inheritance” (Ephesians 1:11). The teaching of the latter part of the book of Numbers is helpful in its bearing on this.
The prominence given to families in this chapter is very noticeable. Families were mentioned in connection with the first numbering of the people (chapter 1), but they were not particularly specified. In this chapter they are specified by name, suggesting that in view of entering upon the inheritance the family idea [p. 322] acquires prominence. The first numbering was a military numbering, for in connection with each tribe, going forth to military service is mentioned, but in this chapter, while going forth to military service is once mentioned, it is not repeated as in chapter 1. It is much more a family numbering here, which is confirmed by the fact that certain “daughters” are mentioned. The daughters of Zelophehad had no military status, but they had family status. Zelophehad did not contribute one soldier to the armies of Israel, but that did not hinder his daughters from inheriting family-wise. This suggests that, while military service may be requisite to gain or to hold the inheritance, the enjoyment of it is in family conditions. It is an exercise for us as to how far such conditions have developed in our souls under divine education in the wilderness? The discovery of what the flesh is, the learning of God’s faithful and forbearing love, the grace of priesthood, seeing how sin in the flesh has been condemned, giving place to the Spirit as the springing Well, are all designed of God to lead to the development of a family character of things amongst His people. So that they may move more together, and get closer to each other in affection. Such conditions are very favourable to the enjoyment of the inheritance.
John’s first epistle views the saints in family character — children of God, walking together in love as brethren. As such conditions are present with us we shall get an increasing consciousness that we are bound up together in affection for the common enjoyment of the inheritance. We shall find delight in sharing with the brethren their spiritual prosperity, and in seeking that they shall share ours. If the spirit of the miser and the hermit is with us we shall not prosper. The miser hoards up, but what he gets in the meetings, or from reading, is unproductive because he does not [p. 323] share with others. Then the hermit isolates himself; he thinks he can do without meetings or ministry; the brethren are not a necessity to him; he is self-sufficing. But that is a long way from the family spirit. Such cannot really enjoy the inheritance.
It is exercising to see that in the period covered by this book five of the tribes had diminished in number, but we may also observe that seven of them had increased. The greatest decrease was in Simeon, who had apparently suffered severely from the Midianitish snare of chapter 25. It was a prince of Simeon that Phinehas had to kill for his unfaithfulness, and if a prince were susceptible to such a snare it is likely that his tribe was influenced in the same way. The greatest increase was in Manasseh, in which tribe there had developed much desire to have and to hold the inheritance. The daughters of Zelophehad come before us as having great interest in the inheritance, and the chief fathers of Manasseh had a great interest in it, too, from a different point of view (see chapters 27 and 36). This seems to intimate that enlargement in family character and appreciation of the inheritance go together. It is well for us all to face the questions which are thus raised. Are we increasing or diminishing? The great general principle which governs the distribution of the inheritance is, “to the many thou shalt increase their inheritance, and to the few thou shalt diminish their inheritance” (verse 54). The more developed we are in family character the more we shall be enlarged for the possession and enjoyment of the inheritance. This is a very important truth, and it has a very practical bearing.
God being made known as the Father — and it is by this Name that the Son has made Him known — gives character to this present time of infinite grace, but there is also bound up in it a clear indication that the [p. 324] family thought has a great place with Him. The assembly of the Thessalonians was “in God the Father”; they were an assembly of young believers, but as being in God the Father the family spirit was there. Paul had no need to write to them concerning brotherly love; he says, “ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. For also ye do this towards all the brethren in the whole of Macedonia”. So that while the family spirit is developed in localities it is not limited to the localities where it is developed; it goes out in a general and even universal way. Paul had heard of the brethren in Colosse and at Ephesus that they had love towards all the saints. It is in such conditions that the inheritance can be enjoyed.
Another great principle is introduced in verse 55. “Notwithstanding the land shall be divided by lot; according to the names of the tribes of their fathers shall they inherit; according to lot shall his inheritance be divided to each, be they many or few in number”. This brings in the thought of divine sovereignty assigning certain boundaries which are not to be over passed. Each tribe has its allotted place, and has to keep its bounds. The “tribes” represent the saints as in assembly order, which brings in divine regulation. For the enjoyment of the inheritance it is essential that this should have its place as well as the family thought. We are all on common ground as the children of God, and as brethren, whatever differences there may be in growth. But in the assembly we have to recognise, and to be subject to, a sovereign distribution which is always to be regarded. In the first place, we are set in localities, and we have to take up our assembly privileges and responsibilities in those localities. Then another thing which has been sovereignly determined in divine wisdom is that there is a difference between the man and the woman. The woman is to be subject,
[p. 325] and to be silent in the assembly; she is to cover her head when she prays or prophesies, while the man uncovers his. In the family character of things, and in purely spiritual relations, she is on equality with the man, but in the assembly she must observe the order which God has instituted there.
Then in 1 Corinthians 12 we see that there is a sovereign distribution of gifts and spiritual endowments. “But all these things operates the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each in particular as he pleases” (1 Corinthians 12:11). This corresponds with the principle of dividing by lot. We read, further, “And God has set certain in the assembly; first, apostles; secondly, prophets, thirdly, teachers; then miraculous powers; then gifts of healings; helps; governments; kinds of tongues” (1 Corinthians 12:28). All these are sovereignly set in the assembly; they belong to its divine order and equipment. The gifts of the ascended Christ in Ephesians 4:11 — apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers — are also distributed in sovereignty. What is brotherly, and connected with the family setting of things, must not be allowed to set aside or weaken what is distinctive in God’s assembly ordering, If the inheritance is to be enjoyed there must be the full recognition of what is sovereign in the bestowal of special gifts. The family character of things is never to set aside, or bring confusion into, the divine order of the assembly.
The inheritance is so vast that nothing less than “all saints” could fully occupy it. The blessing in Christ is taken up in detail by each one according to the measure of grace and faith bestowed, and it is taken up tribally in local assemblies where divine order is observed, and those assemblies are all unified in the recognition of what pertains to the assembly universally. The gifts sovereignly set in the assembly universally,
[p. 326] and ministering for the good of all, practically preserve unity in truth and practice with a view to “all Israel” enjoying the God-given inheritance. Though taken up in detail, as we have said, by each one who has part in it, it becomes available for the good of all. What each one has is brought into the common wealth so as to be for the joy of all. For what each one has of the blessing in Christ is to be held as the portion of all, and made available, so far as grace is given, for the profit and joy of all.