NUMBERING IN VIEW OF THE INHERITANCE

Numbers 26: 1-11, 19, 33, 34, 51-56, 60, 61, 63-65

The numbering of the people in view of their entrance into the land is of great interest, at the same time, it is of particular importance, because of the teaching it involves for us. As we know, this numbering count took place about thirty-nine years after the beginning of the Numbers. There is something very attractive in this thought that God numbers his people; this indeed suggests that it is a question of persons on whom He can rely to take their due part in the current conflicts because, in both cases, in the numbering at the beginning of the book and this one, military service is in view. In the first count, it was indeed for military service in defence of the testimony in the wilderness with the conflicts that this might have required. The camp was arranged around the tabernacle, and it was a matter of defending that position, characterised by God’s presence; in the midst of His people and by the service that was to be rendered to Him in accordance with His instructions. This first numbering had therefore in view to count those whom God could expect to participate in the defence of all that was due to Him in the wilderness position.

This numbering envisages the conflict that will be involved in taking the land and, similarly, God makes a count of those who are available to Him for this purpose. We have learned what part we have in conflicts where the truth was really at stake. The truth, which the Spirit of God has now brought to light, has been resisted, and yet the end in view was for the saints to enter into their inheritance and be abundantly enriched, enlarged in the knowledge of God, and strengthened to move in His service, with benefit of the light and the power that this knowledge gives. So it was the inheritance that was really at stake, and God is pleased to number the people in the confidence that are going to take their share in the conflicts for the conquest of inheritance, that is to say, of all that His love has proposed to give us by way of spiritual blessings.

Israel is therefore called to be numbered, and you will notice in reading the chapter, verse 5 to the end, how much the idea of the families is emphasised - the family of the Enochites, the family of the Palluites, the family of the Hezronites, and so on. The families had already been mentioned in the earlier numbering, but they are particularly highlighted in this one, as if God wished to impress us with the thought that the thought of the family, love among us, must dominate the position, while we take possession of our inheritance; it is together that we must enter into the things God has prepared for those who love Him. It is said, in fact, that He “raised us up together, and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus”, Eph 2: 6. And we know we will be caught up together to meet Lord in the air. The beginning of the book of Acts presents us the saints brought into their inheritance. They were together: “all that believed were together” (Acts 2: 44), which is very important to notice. It is also important, indeed, that we should be together in the wilderness position, according to what is said in Corinthians: “Let all things ye do be done in love”, 1 Cor 16: 14. But the inheritance requires it in a particular way, I believe, that we should be together in love, because God is love, and He is pleased to see His own holy and blameless before Him in love, not only in their love for Him, but also in love towards each other.

The thought of the family is therefore underlined in this numbering. What comes out in this chapter, and this leads us to sober reflection, is that by the time the people come into possession of the land, we find special mention in the divine account of different people who fell on the way and as a result have no part in the inheritance; who will not enter upon it. This is a very solemn consideration. It is a warning voice addressed to us, let us remember that God takes note of the way in which His own conduct themselves in the light of the inheritance, so that the light about the land had been communicated to them when they were still in Egypt. God took account of their conduct in relation to that; and He mentions Nadab and Abihu, these principals in the band of Korah, when they rose up against Jehovah; and the ground opened its mouth and swallowed them up; and as to Korah when the band died when the fire devoured the two hundred and fifty men; and these are signs. They never entered into the inheritance. They had a right by birth, and yet they did not enter in, because they opposed the sovereignty of Jehovah who had chosen Moses and Aaron as leaders. They wanted to contend against Jehovah, and the judgment came upon them together: this is recalled as a warning to us. Their story has already been given in chapter 16 and now, just as the people are going to enter the land, these people are recalled to our memory, as having incurred judgment for having refused to recognise those whom God had sovereignly chosen to lead the people. And it is said: “The earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them together with Korah, when the band died, when the fire devoured the two hundred and fifty men; and they became a sign”. But, he added, “the children of Korah died not”. What a consolation! It is as if God desired to remind us that the children were preserved. “The children of Korah died not”. We know what a place they have in the Psalms, the experience which they had of divine mercy made them able to write the Psalms which have been of great value to the saints up to our day. The father died, but the sons died not. God would remind the young generation that if even they had the pain of seeing some of their elders, regarded and influential, leave the ranks, mercy nevertheless remains available. There is no reason for the young ones not to go on and take their part in the inheritance. Then when we come to verse 19, we find something more striking still. “The sons of Judah: Er and Onan … died in the land of Canaan”. This had happened before Israel even went down into Egypt; later the people were brought from Egypt to enter into the land; but Er and Onan had already perished in the midst of them. Why had they died? Because of their real wickedness. It is not exactly a question of rebellion against Jehovah in a collective sense, but personal wickedness; and the Spirit of God goes back that far, even before their fathers went down into Egypt, they had died in the land of Canaan. It is as if God would say that he had in view for them that they should inherit the land with their fathers and with the generations that would follow; but they did not inherit it, they died. It is a warning to each of us about our personal conduct. Everything is noticed by God in relation to His great thoughts that He has in view for His people. It is not a question here indeed of our eternal salvation, but of our present entrance into all the riches of the inheritance, the riches that God has prepared for those who love Him. Some never went in, and yet God intended them to be part of this blessing. We should be deeply impressed by the thought of what God has in mind for all of us now, to know that from now on, in the power of the Spirit, we will enter into all that His heart has proposed for us; but we could disqualify ourselves and never have part in it if we are marked by one of the features to which the Spirit of God draws our attention.

Another point to notice is that, although the total of the numbers on this occasion is approximately the same as the total reached in the preceding numbering, it is very instructive to notice for the various tribes the significant variations between the first and second numbering. We read for example in verse 14: “these are the families of the Simeonites, twenty-thousand two hundred”, although we have in chapter 1 verse 23: “those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Simeon, were fifty-nine thousand three hundred”. Why has this tribe fallen in the space of thirty-nine years from fifty-nine thousand three hundred to twenty thousand two hundred? The tribes represent the various localities in which the saints are set as being identified with the testimony of God. There has to be some reason why one tribe falls from fifty-nine thousand to twenty thousand. Some moral reason. “Them that honour me will I honour”, God says, 1 Sam 2: 30. If such a serious reduction befalls one tribe, enquiry is required to find the cause. Perhaps we have part of the explanation in chapter 25, in the fact that the tribe who so brazenly defied the judgment of God at the very time when he had brought a plague in the midst of the people was a prince of Simeon; such a spirit with an influential member, with a leader, had indeed been able to affect the tribe. But even this is not enough to explain this reduction. If in our localities there is a felt reduction in numbers, we have to examine seriously if there is not at the root some moral reason. “Them that honour me I will honour”. Here Simeon was reduced from fifty-nine thousand to twenty thousand. Doubtless many of them had died in the plagues in chapters 11, 16 and 25; but those who are going on with God do not die in a plague. Questions of diminution therefore require deep examination on our part.

By contrast, the tribe of Manasseh gives us extraordinary encouragement. Manasseh in this chapter very remarkably is set before Ephraim. In general, it is Ephraim who comes before Manasseh according to the word of Jacob in chapter 49 of Genesis; and the camp which included Ephraim and Manasseh is called the camp of Ephraim. But in this chapter, Manasseh comes into the first place. It may be remarked that the tribe of Ephraim had diminished, we do not know why; but the tribe of Manasseh was extraordinarily increased. His numbers amounted here to fifty-two thousand seven hundred, although in the first chapter their number reached only thirty-two thousand two hundred. There had been an increase from thirty-two thousand to fifty-two thousand. There is a reason for this. God had blessed this tribe. What is the application of it? It may be that it relates to the exercises of the five daughters of Zelophehad. Why should they be introduced in the families and mentioned by name, if it is not because God had a particular interest in them? Their history is given to us in the following chapter, where we see how they claimed their inheritance, their father having died without leaving a son. They have a judgment both of their father’s case and of Korah’s. “Our father”, they say, “died in the wilderness, and he was not in the band of them that banded themselves together against Jehovah in the band of Korah; but he died in his own sin, and he had no sons”. They were therefore making a judgment on the case of Korah and on that of their father. We do not know what the sin of their father was; it was in any case unbelief, for all those who perished in the wilderness had been marked by unbelief. It could equally have been some other thing, but whatever the sin had been, they had judged it; and personally, as the sons of Korah, they were decided to possess the inheritance. Psalms 84, 85 and 87 show how the sons of Korah appreciated the inheritance, and the daughters of Zelophehad are resolved to appropriate it whatever had happened. I only suggest that it could be that in the exercises and energy of these five daughters, that are mentioned in this chapter, is seen the secret of such significant prosperity that God had given to this tribe, making it increase effectively from thirty-two thousand to fifty-two thousand. It is the kind of exercise that God loves to see in us, the desire to possess at all costs the things that He has prepared for us. We will find the secret in the appreciation of the cross of Christ and the positive knowledge of the Spirit. These questions have been looked at in chapter 21 and we can, in this power, enter into the enjoyment of all that God has in view for the saints. It is a matter of maintaining self-judgment by the Spirit so that there is no hindrance to the Spirit’s positive operations. And these five daughters speak to us typically of those are characterised by a persevering walk in the Spirit.

We find then that for those who were numerous, the inheritance would be augmented, and for those who numbered few, it would be diminished. That is to say that spiritual energy which results in increase is recognised, but on the other hand equally sovereignty is recognised in the way the land is divided by lot, which preserves us from having self-confidence. There is in one way the operation of God’s government of those who go on, and in another, the operation of God’s sovereignty, for all is sovereignly given by Him.

Aaron is mentioned in verse 60: “And to Aaron were born Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazer and Ithamar. And Nadab and Abihu died, when they presented strange fire before Jehovah”. It is extremely solemn that the Spirit of God recalls all these incidents. Thus as I have already said, it is as if God says: My intention was that Nadab and Abihu should enter the land, but alas, they could not because they presented strange fire before Jehovah; in figure, they allowed themselves to escape the control of the Spirit in the service of God and brought in what was odious to Him. Whatever is characterised by this feature will never go into the inheritance. These actions grieve and set aside the Spirit of God. It is only by the Spirit of God that we can enter into divine things.

Finally, God says, there was not a man remaining except Caleb, the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, as if to remind us of the seriousness of unbelief, but we recall at the same time with Caleb and Joshua what those are who reach the end: both were men who appreciated the Spirit. Of Joshua, God says, “a man in whom is the Spirit”, and of Caleb: “he hath another spirit, and hath followed me fully”. Those who are preserved and who enter into the land are those who in a characteristic way give place to the Spirit of God, and are led by Him. The conclusion of all this is that the sons of Israel entered a little into the land, nearly the same number as those who had left Egypt, and yet all these details are given to us as a warning lest we fall on the way. God has in view that we should all enter into the land and that we should serve Him there, for His own are His inheritance, and in the full knowledge of the Spirit of truth, who will guide us into all the truth.

Asher is also a tribe of which the number is greatly increased. “Asher shall be blessed with sons”, Deut 33: 24. We can be assured that those who are blessed of God are those who are marked by a real desire to enter into the inheritance. The fathers died in the wilderness, but some among them had left to their children an impression of the blessed character of the inheritance. And when God sees sincere desires and a whole heart for seeking what He has given us, He always responds with an increase in prosperity. May we therefore all be encouraged to persevere.

LONDON

3^rd January 1956

From Paroles d’Édification Mutuelle

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