Be Counted
This week we begin the book of Numbers—named after two different numberings of the children of Israel contained in its pages. While God is numbering and preparing His children to take possession of their promised land, He also positions them for access to His presence. Each tribe is positioned an equal distance from the tabernacle—except for one tribe. The Levites are numbered and consecrated for service in the tabernacle.
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Be Counted (Out of Zion Episode #181)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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We began the book of Numbers this week, and it's named after two different
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numberings of the children of Israel in its pages. The book is better described
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as the book of the wilderness, the wilderness wanderings, because while God
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was preparing his children to take possession of the Promised Land, it
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would take another 40 years before they actually got the go-ahead. So welcome to
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this week's Shabbat Shalom devotional, when I seek to share a little inspiration,
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bring a little piece to the close of your very busy week. So this week's Torah
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portion is called B'midbar, or In the Wilderness, and it's Numbers chapter 1
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through 4. Now this is the beginning of the fourth book of the Torah. The book is
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really about the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites, but it's named numbers
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because of the two numberings of the Israelites that it describes. But in
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Jewish writings, they tend to refer to it as B'midbar, or the book about the
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wilderness. Now the book opens up with the first numbering of the children of
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Israel, and the reason is given because they are about to go to war. It's time to
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enter and take possession of the Holy Land. Now the Levites were not to be
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numbered because they were not to be involved in military action. Their
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responsibility was the moving and the care of the Tabernacle. So now it
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describes that the tribes of the Lord, after they've been numbered by family and
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by tribe, they're now placed around the Tabernacle where each tribe is to be
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camped separately, each tribe alone, but they're all in equal distance from the
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Tabernacle in all four directions, all the way around it. So of course the
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lesson is that they were all to have equal access to the presence of God. No
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one tribe was going to be left behind or in the back and where it's harder for
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them to make it to the Tabernacle. They all had equal access. Now the Levites
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who were not numbered, they were actually placed in a protective way around the
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Tabernacle because the Lord wanted to make sure that no one accidentally
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touched it or went into it and therefore suffered because of it. So after we have
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this description of the tribes and their access to the Tabernacle, we have the
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numbering of the Levites now and their numbering is because they belong to the
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Lord for His service. So they were numbered for divine and divinely designated,
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you could say, for consecration. Have you been numbered as one of His? I want to be
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numbered with the Levites. I want to be numbered as designated for His service. If
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you have not yet made that step, you can join God's family today. We don't just
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come from the 12 tribes of Israel. We actually are part of a family that's
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made up of every tribe and every tongue. We are not born into this family. We are
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adopted into the family through Christ Jesus. So you be sure that you're
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numbered as one of His. And with that, I wish you Shabbat Shalom.
