Numbers 1:2 Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls
What does a healthy society look like? I’m sure it is a cheap shot for me to say that whatever it looks like it does not look like the society we have today. The society we have today is chaos and confusion because everyone is straining as hard as they can against every guidance and constraint that God has placed upon humankind.
When you get to Numbers, you have a book that gives you the idea of the organizational ethic behind the nation God created, the nation of Israel. I am not Jewish and the church is not Israel, but I do think you get God’s thinking about the way a civilized society should work. Healthy societies are formed when people take care of the things that matter. How do we do that?
First, notice in Numbers that you count what matters, thus the name of the book. In Numbers 1:2 God is speaking to Moses about a month after the tabernacle. He says, “Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel.” There are a number of things that are counted in this book, but the point is that you count or measure what matters. Have you ever said to yourself, “That doesn’t count.” What you are saying is that it doesn’t matter.
Things that we don’t esteem generally we do not count. This can become obsessive, but if something matters, you generally measure it. For instance, your blood pressure, the miles of your travel, or the number in your bank account. At your church you would count the number of people who are saved, baptized, or come to church. Someone may say, “I don’t think we should be all about numbers.” I don’t think we should be obsessed with numbers, but do you count the offering? Of course. Do we think money is more important than the souls of men? Of course not. So, you count what matters, and in Numbers God did just that.
Second, distinguish what matters. How can you even count something if it is not a thing. In other words, if there are not things that have something in common and therefore you count them as an organized whole, then you have nothing to count. Distinguish what matters. Numbers 1:2-3 says to take “the sum of the congregation,” those who were called together “after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls; from twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war.”
The first number taken here is young men who were able to go to war. Someone says, “I don’t fall within the age range. How dare I be excluded!” or “I am not a man. How dare I am excluded from the army!” or “I’m not from a certain family. How dare I be excluded from the poll!” That is a very modern, American way of looking at things, as if we are being dishonored by some metric God has created. My point is not who should or should not be in the military. I think that is a valid question. Obviously a ninety-year-old man would have a hard time being in the infantry. My point is that age, gender, and tribe matter in this book.
Numbers 1:52 says, “And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man by his own camp, and every man by his own standard, throughout their hosts.” The point is that we distinguish what matters. We read about families and fathers and names. In other words, a society is built on certain entities. There is much pushback today against the nuclear family because if you can destroy the family, you can destroy everything which stands upon it in society. The nuclear family is the basic building block of any healthy society. So, you distinguish what matters, families, fathers, and names.
Third, protect what matters. In verse 3 a count was to be taken for those who could actually be in the army. There are a couple of kinds of protection. You read about armies, war, and the tabernacle. Verse 45 says, “So were all those that were numbered of the children of Israel, by the house of their fathers, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war in Israel.” Then it gives the number of such people. So, there is war. Why? It is because woman, children, and the aged were to be protected. There are things worth protecting and being a nation is worth protecting. Having a law is worth protecting.
There is a big difference between a civil society and a civil war, and what we see is more a civil war than a civil society based on things we all agree are true. There are a lot of disagreements within that realm, but now we are wondering if there are even basic principles upon which we can agree in this country. Verse 47 says, “But the Levites after the tribe of their fathers were not numbered among them.” They were not allowed or required to be in the army because they were protecting the nation in a different way. The Levites were over the tabernacle to take care of the worship of God and protect the law and truth God had given them.
The point is that there were things that could be numbered, distinctions that were to be made, and protection that was to be given. We don’t live in a theocracy, but Israel did. The God who created us is the God who created structure that has meaning and reason. You can argue that because we are not Israel the structure God gave them is not relevant today. I would disagree. I believe there is structure here that matters, but you have to begin with the premise of that there is a reason God gave this structure. Indeed, there is.
So, the society at large that was produced in Israel was based on people who married and had families, who then multiplied into tribes, who then banded together to camp of certain sides of the tabernacle. Today, a healthy society is formed when people take care of the things that matter. May God help us to have a submissive heart, an open mind, and a curiosity to know the kind of life that God would have us to organize today.