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Order of the Tribes
The twelve tribes were formed into four divisions. Each division consisted of three tribes led by the standard of the leading tribe. The standard is thought to be a military banner with, according to Rabbinical tradition, each tribe's banner matching the color representing that tribe on the High Priest's breastplate (Ex 28:15-30).
Numbers 2:1-34: The Arrangement of the Tribes in their Encampment around the Sanctuary and in their Order of the March
The division on the east side of the camp commanded by Nahshon of the tribe of Judah:
Judah 74,600 (Judah goes up first, the name means praise)
Issachar 54,400
Zebulun 57,400
Total 186,400 (fighting men on the east side of the camp)
The division on the south side commanded by Elizur of the tribe of Reuben:
Reuben 46,500
Simeon 59,300
Gad 45,650
Total 151,450 (fighting men on the south side of the camp)
The Levites, in the middle, carrying the sacred furniture and the tent and enclosure cloths:
The division on the west side commanded by Elishama of the tribe of Ephraim:
Ephraim 40,500
Manasseh 32,200
Benjamin 35,400
Total 108,100 (fighting men on the west side of the camp)
The division on the north side commanded by Ahiezer of the tribe of Dan:
Dan 62,700
Asher 41,500
Naphtali 53,400
Total 157,600 (fighting men on the north side of the camp)
The list of tribes and tribal chieftains is not in the same order as their names were presented in the list of the census officials. None of the lists of tribes in Scripture are ever listed in the same order, including the three times the tribes are named in Numbers Chapters 1-2.
Question: Which side of the camp had the greatest number of fighting men and therefore the greatest number of people on that side of the camp?
Answer: The east side had the greatest number with 186,400 fighting men. The north and south sides of the camp were fairly even with 157,600 on the north and 151,450 on the south. The smallest number of people was on the west with 108,100 fighting men.
In the arrangement and marching order of the tribes there is a connection to the creation narrative and the theme of God's redemption coming from the "east" and moving to the "west". The prophets promised that the future redemption would be a time of restoration of the original blessings and gift of the land as it was in Eden. You will recall, God's first act of preparing "the good land" was in the Creation event He said, "Let there be light" (Gen 1:3). The imagery of the sunrise in the east moving to the west figures as a sign of the coming of the future redemption, whereas any movement in the opposite direction, moving farther away to the east, symbolically represents movement away from God.
In a repetition of this same theme, Jesus ascended to heaven from the Mount of Olives, and the angels told the faithful who were gathered there to witness the event that He will return in the same way to begin the final harvest of souls (Acts 1:9-11). The return of the Messiah to the Mount of Olives was a prophecy made by the prophet Zechariah: When that day comes, his feet will rest on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives will be split in half from east to west ... (Zec 14:4).
Question: What is the connection to the reoccurring theme of movement from east to west as a sign of salvation?
Answer: The Mount of Olives is to the east of the holy city of Jerusalem. When Jesus returns, He will come from the east and will move to the west to fulfill the final harvest in the resurrection of the dead and the gathering of those still alive to take part in the Last Judgment.
From this time forward in Scripture, Judah replaces Reuben as the leading tribe. Reuben was Jacob's first-born son while Judah was the fourth. In the plan of the tribes, Judah is in the leadership position in the encampment and in the march of the tribes, fulfilling Jacob-Israel's prophecy of his fourth son's ascendancy over his brothers (Gen 49:8-12). Next to Judah is the tribe of Issachar and then the closest to the camp of the Levites, the tribe of Zebulun.
In Numbers chapter 2 the tribes were given instructions on how to camp around the Tabernacle and how to move out of camp in the tribal order of the march. The Levites were to be arranged in a camp that surrounded the Sanctuary.
Notice the size of the tribes and the importance of starting in "the east". The Sanctuary was situated to face toward the east with the Holy of Holies situated on the west.
Judah is the first to encamp farthest to the east (Num 2:3). You may remember that the entrance to the Garden of Eden was in the east of Eden (Gen 2:8; 3:34); therefore to move deeper into the garden Sanctuary the movement toward God was toward the west where Adam and Eve enjoyed perfect communion with Yahweh as the Divine Father who poured out His blessings on His children. This same movement from east to west is seen upon entering the Tabernacle.
The entrance was on the east and as one moved deeper into the Sanctuary toward the west, one moved closer to God in the far western part of the Tabernacle in the Holy of Holies where God's presence resided above the Mercy-Seat of the Ark of the Covenant.
Encampment in the desert, with Mount Seir in the distance (lithograph by Louis Haghe)
Chapter 2: The Historical Prologue Continues
The End of the Forty Year's of Wandering and the March into the Transjordan
Deuteronomy 2:1-7 Passing through the Land of the Edomites
In this passage Moses retold the events that took place in Numbers 20:14-21. In that passage, Moses sent messengers to the king of Edom requesting passage through his country with the assurance that the Israelites would keep to the road of the King's Highway (the trade route that ran from Egypt to Mesopotamia) and would not take any crops or use any Edomite wells (Num 20:14-17).
The king of Edom denied Moses' request and threatened to attack the Israelites if they crossed over into Edomite territory (Num 20:18-21). When Moses received the king's reply, he ordered the Israelites to turn south toward the Gulf of Aqaba to avoid crossing into Edom (Num 20:21; 21:4).
This passage provides the reason they turned aside and did not immediately engage the Edomites in battle, as they would later engage the Amorites who also refused the same request. This passage also provides the new information that instead of continuing south that they did cross the southern tip of Edomite territory but without fear of attack.
Question: Why didn't God allow the Israelites to invade Edom? See Gen 25:19-25, 29-34; 27:1-35; Dt 2:5-6.
Answer: The Edomites were the descendants of Jacob's brother Esau; they were kinsmen of the Israelites. The protection of the Edomites in the land of Seir may also have been compensation for Jacob/Israel's deceit in cheating his elder brother out of his material birthright and spiritual blessing as the rightful first-born son of Isaac.
Question: If God didn't want the Israelites to battle the Edomites, why did God allow them to cross the southern tip of Edomite territory, a move that could have triggered military conflict? See Num 21:1-3 and Dt 2:4.
Answer: Initially the Edomite king only saw the Israelites as nomadic rabble and was not afraid to engage them in battle; however, after he sent his refusal for them to cross his lands, the Israelites were attacked by a well trained Canaanite army, and, with God's help, they were victorious. This was the news that frightened the Edomites and prevented them from attacking the Israelites crossing the southern part of their territory.
Deuteronomy 2:8-15 Recounting the Israelites' Progress through Moab and the Death of the Exodus Generation
The Israelites turned from their southerly trek and proceeded northeast toward Moab. Ar (verse 9) was a city in Moab (see Num 21:15, 28) on the nation's boundary just south of the Arnon river (Num 21:14-15), but this verse and verses 18 and 29 probably refers to the district in which the city was located. Additional historical information is provided about the former inhabitants of Moab and Edom.
Question: Why were the Israelites told not to attack Moab? What is the connection between the Israelites and the Moabites? See Gen 11:31; 19:36-38.
Answer: Abram/Abraham was the Israelite's ancestor and the man to whom God entered into a covenant, promising Abraham the land of Canaan. The Moabites were the descendants of Lot, Abraham's nephew, through Lot's incestuous union with his elder daughter. The Moabites were, therefore, kinsmen of the Israelites like the Edomites.
Verses 14-16 mark the transition between the Exodus generation that rebelled against God at Kadesh-Barnea and the new wilderness generation that would conquer the Promised Land. In crossing the boundary in to Moab at Wadi-Zered, God's oath sworn at Kadesh that all the adults over twenty years of age had to die is fulfilled with the exception of Caleb and Joshua (Moses will die before the conquest begins). The death of the Exodus generation is mentioned three times with the same Hebrew verb for "to perish" (JPS Torah Commentary: Deuteronomy, page 27). With the crossing of the Wadi-Zered, the conquest of the Transjordan, which was the necessary springboard for the conquest of Canaan, could begin.
Question: From the time of God's judgment against the Exodus generation at Kadesh-Barnea, how many years passed before the adults of the Exodus over twenty years of age had died?
Answer: Thirty-eight years.
Deuteronomy 2:16-25 God's Command not to Attack the Ammonites
This part of the historical narrative has new information not found in the book of Numbers. The territory of the Ammonites was to the north of Sihon, on the upper waters of the Jabbok River (Num 21:24; Dt 3:16).
Question: Who were the Ammonites and why were the Israelites forbidden to attack them? See Gen 19:36-38.
Answer: The Ammonites were the descendants of Abraham's nephew Lot through his incestuous union with his younger daughter. They were kinsmen.
God gave the kinsmen of the Israelites the opportunity to come to knowledge of Him as the one true God; however, it was an opportunity they rejected. The Moabites attempted to hinder God's plan for Israel's conquest of Canaan (Num 22-25), the Ammonites went to war against Israel in the era of the Judges (Judg 10:7ff), and King David conquered Edom and Moab.
Question: Deuteronomy 2:12 and 21 speaks of God taking the land from people who were settled there and giving the land to others, just as He was to dispossess the inhabitants of Canaan and give the land to the Israelites. Was this fair and just on God's part? See Gen 1:9; Lev 18:26-30; 25:23; 2 Kng 17:7-23.
Answer: Since we know that God's attributes include mercy, compassion, justice, righteousness, and faithful covenant love (Ex 34:6-9), we cannot dispute God's wisdom in the allocation of the land. God is the creator of the land. The land belongs to Him and He can give it to whomever He wants in order to advance His plan for mankind. However, His gift of the land is never arbitrary. In God's promise to give Canaan to Abraham's descendants, God told Abraham the promise could not be fulfilled until the sin of the peoples currently inhabiting the land had reached a point where there was no hope of repentance (Gen 15:16). God also warned the Israelites, if they fell into the same evil practices of the peoples who had been dispossessed of the land, that God would also dispossess the Israelites. All nations of the earth occupy the land according to His will.
Deuteronomy 2:26-37 The History of the Conquest of the Kingdom of Sihon
This part of the historical prologue is a repeat of the narrative in Numbers 21:21-25. Sihon, the Amorite king of Heshbon, stood in opposition to God's plan for Israel to begin the conquest of Canaan in the same way that the Egyptian Pharaoh stood in opposite to God's plan for the Israelites to leave Egypt. Like the Egyptian Pharaoh, God hardened the heart of the stubborn king.
Question: Did God's "hardening" of King Sihon's heart interfere with the man's free will choices? Did the man no longer have the option of being compassionate to the Israelites? Did he have evidence of the Israelite's good intentions? What does the exercise of God's gift of "free-will" mean? Is freedom of will also license to do what ever one desires? See CCC 311, 1730-42; 1 Tim 2:3-4; 2 Pt 3:9.
Answer: Free will is not license to fulfill one's every desire; it is instead the freedom to choose good over evil. Like the Egyptian Pharaoh, the Amorite king still had the choice to be compassionate. It is God's desire that all men and women should come to salvation, and He never hinders men/women from making the right choice. The king had evidence of the Israelites good intentions in their passage through southern Edom and Moab (verse 29). God used the man's stubbornness to advance His plan for Israel's future.
34 We captured all his towns and laid all these towns under the curse of destruction: men, women and children, we left no survivors 35 except the livestock which we took as our booty, and the spoils of the captured towns. The people of the kingdom of Sihon were placed under herem, "the curse of destruction", in which everyone associated with sin died in a ritual cleansing in dedication to God. The harsh action of herem identifies this region of the Transjordan as part of the holy war to secure the Promised Land (see Dt 20:10-20).
While this seems cruel and barbaric to us, we must remember that death prior to the Advent of the Messiah was not an eternal judgment. The dead, righteous and sinners alike, were all consigned to Sheol, the abode of the dead, but they had the hope of a future salvation in the coming of the Redeemer-Messiah.
The righteous waited in the banquet of the just while sinners suffered in atonement for their sins. After Jesus' death, He descended to the abode of the dead, which was called "Abraham's Bosom" in the first century AD. He preached the Gospel of salvation to the souls there, and He took those repentant and redeemed souls into the gates of heaven: And this was why the gospel was brought to the dead as well, so that, though in their bodies they had undergone the judgment that faces all humanity, in their spirit they might enjoy the life of God (1 Pt 4:6; also see Wis 3:1-7; Lk 16:19-30; 1 Pt 3:18-20 and CCC 633)
CHALLENGE: “It isn’t necessary to turn away from sin to be saved. The Greek word for repentance simply means ‘change your mind.’ As long as you change your mind and recognize that you are a sinner, God will forgive you even if you don’t turn away from sin.”
DEFENSE: The Greek word for “repentance”—metanoia—does come from roots that can mean “change” (meta-) and “mind” (nous), but the roots of a word do not determine its meaning. The way a word is used does. Scripture makes it clear that if we wish to be saved from our sins, we need to turn from them not just recognize them as sins.
John the Baptist said: “Bear fruit that befits repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matt. 3:8–10).
This fruit involves turning away from sin and doing right, as John emphasized to the tax collectors and soldiers who wanted to know what implications repentance had for their lives. “Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, ‘Teacher, what shall we do?’ And he said to them, ‘Collect no more than is appointed you.’ Soldiers also asked him, ‘And we, what shall we do?’ And he said to them, ‘Rob no one by violence or by false accusation, and be content with your wages’ ” (Luke 3:12–14).
Repentance does not mean a commitment to live in sinless perfection, for, as the New Testament tells us, “we all make many mistakes” (Jas. 3:2), and “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). However, it does mean that we must will to turn from sin and, by the grace of God, to break with it fundamentally, even if we still wrestle with it during the course of this life.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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