Numbers Part 1

 

 *

For My Next Number...

Look at us, three books down and only...checks his notes...sixty-three to go. Holy Moses. Hmm, let's look at it another way. We've polished off 102 pages, which means we've only got...907 more in front of us.

    Sounds a bit daunting, doesn't it? Although I'm trying to look at it this way: it's bound to get better at some point and with over nine hundred pages to go it's got a lot of chances. I mean, God must mellow at some point, right? Finally decide that all of this "My way or you're toast (literally)" attitude isn't really endearing him to those swing voters out there.

    We'll see.

    My first question in approaching the fourth book in what is called the Pentateuch, or Books of Moses, was "Why is it called Numbers?". Luckily, the answer was provided right up front as I read it, and that answer is that there are a lot of numbers involved. I mean a lot.** As in taking a census sorts of numbers. God wants Moses and Aaron to count all of the Israelite men over the age of twenty, as this is a age group considered to be eligible for military service. Yep, strapping young man to advanced geezer, they're all considered to be battlefield fodder. 

    With an interesting exception. The Levite men, the descendents of Levi, son of Jacob, are exempt. God has other plans for them.

    But I'm getting ahead of myself. That can happen when your subject is as exciting as a military draft census. Chapter 1 opens with... 

    The Lord spoke to Moses

    Just in case we might have otherwise jumped to the conclusion that...

Moses had an idea

    Which Moses knows better than to do.

    What God tells Moses is that he wants a 

2)census of the whole congregation of Israelites, in their clans, by ancestral house, according to the number of names, every male individually; 3)from twenty years old and upward, everyone able to go to war.

    God then specifies who he wants assigned to the census committee: one man from each of the twelve tribes (the Levites make it a baker's dozen, but that's for the scholars to discuss) and so Moses calls a meeting, explains the goal, and they get busy making their count. Verses 20 through 43 give us the details for each of the tribes. We'll just mention here that the tribe with the mostest is the Judah clan, with 74,600 eligible males, and the tribe with the leastest is the Manasseh Family with just 32,200 to contribute. Add them all up and we get 603,550. It says so, right in verse 46.

    It doesn't say how long it took to do the census, but I'm thinking it must have taken the better part of an afternoon.

    God then tells Moses he has other plans for the Levite men and those plans are related to the tabernacle, specifically when it needs to be packed up for travel and then when it needs to be set up again. And just so Moses knows it's the one and only Actual God handing out these directions, death is promised to anyone else who might try to volunteer for tabernacle duty.

    Chapter 2 is all about where the Twelve Tribes are supposed to setup camp relative to the tabernacle. East side, west side, all around the tent.

    Chapter 3 opens up with a reminder of what happened to Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron who didn't get the timing right with the incense back in Leviticus, Chapter 10, so that's nice. And then we get a few of the particulars regarding the Duties of the Levites. Well, actually, we don't get much in the way of particulars here, but we do get another reminder from God that he's not going to tolerate any non-Levite elements messing around the Tent of Meeting.

    God then tells Moses that the Levites are going to serve as substitutes for the claim God has on all the Israelite first borns and I've got to admit I still don't understand what is going on with that. What I did get here is that God now wants Moses to conduct another census, but this time just of the Levite males a month old and older. Seems to me that could be a sort of never-ending task, because by the time you've counted them all there are bound to be more kiddos that were twenty-some days old who now qualify. I mean, you knew I was kidding with the whole "better part of an afternoon" gag, right?

    It seems there are three sorts of Levites and they all need their own censuses, if that's the word I want. And each of those groups are to be assigned certain duties related to the transport of the tabernacle, which of course, complex and exacting as its construction was, is designed to be portable. Providing you've got the manpower. Which apparently they have.

1. The Gershons:  
1. 7,500
1. In charge of the tent, hangings, screen, altar and cords.
2. The Kohaths:
1. 8,600
1. In charge of the ark, table, lampstand, altars (wait a sec, are these different altars?) the vessels of the sanctuary, and the screen (Okay now, two screens? If I had more time I'd look back at the building plans in Exodus. But that's not part of the deal here.)
3. The Mahlites:
1. 6,200
2. In charge*** of the hardware and framework.

    Back to the firstborn thing in a section titled "The Redemption of the Firstborn." God has Moses do yet another census, this time of all the firstborns among the Israelites. And then we get this bit of math.

     22,273 Firstborns

    -22,000 Levites

    =    273

    X        5 shekels

    = 1,365 shekels owed to Aaron and Sons

    As far as I can figure out, God is saying that he will leave the firstborns alone (thank goodness!) in exchange for having the Levites as his employees for life with such duties to be passed on generation to generation, amen and if you're a Levite boy don't you go dreaming about being a chorus boy on Broadway or a dentist. And since there aren't quite enough Levites to match the number of firstborns, he will accept cash in lieu of toddlers. And since he has no use for cash because everybody always pays for him wherever he goes, the money should go to his man Aaron (who is still hoping the Golden Calf episode doesn't come up again) and Sons.

    I hope that makes sense. If I can come up with a better way to explain it all I will amend this installment. Because that's what we do with the Bible. See A Word From the Committee.

    Let's wrap up today's installment with Chapter 4, in which God tells Moses to, you guessed it, take another damned census. By now Moses must be wondering where he's going to get any more slates and chalk and abacuses, if that's the word that is the plural of abacus, which probably wasn't in use by the ancient Israelites anyway so what does it matter, not to mention the fact (see note about facts) that fewer and fewer folks are turning up for Census Taker Volunteer Training classes. 

    But take another census he does and this time it restricts itself to Levite men between the ages of thirty and fifty, so it's not nearly as time and resource intensive. The rest of the chapter goes on and on and on and, quite literally, on with just how to prep all of the elements of the tabernacle when it's time to move on and who is going to carry said elements and it's up to Aaron and Sons to make sure everything is wrapped up in blue cloth and fine leather before the worker bees are allowed to come in and carry any of it off because if they don't and the worker bees touch anything they are not worthy to touch they are going to, you guessed it, die.

    Next time we'll learn exactly what to do when a wife has either been unfaithful, or her hubby just thinks his wife has been unfaithful. So far in my advanced reading I haven't come across what to do if a man has been screwing around. It must be here somewhere.    

*The Superstition Mountains

**When I say "lots" I mean that even the Kid's Adventure Bible makes mention of the fact* that there were at least a couple million Israelites wandering around the desert with Moses. So my guess in an earlier installment here has the highest scholarship to back it up.

        *I do hold to the "Facts are facts" as opposed to let's believe whatever we're told school of mental processing. And let's face it, some of the "facts" we've been presented with so far have been just a tad, shall we say, incredible.

***By "in charge", let me just make crystal clear that they are to serve pretty much as pack animals and they are never, ever, under any circumstance, actually touch any part of the tabernacle unless it is securely wrapped up in blue cloth and stretch wrap.