The book of Numbers begins with numbering: a census of all the men age twenty or older, fit to bear arms (Numbers 1:2-3). These were then given a specific order of march for each day’s journey, and a specific order of encampment surrounding the Tent of Meeting: three tribes to the east (Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun), three to the south (Reuben, Simeon, and Gad), three to the west (Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin), and three to the north (Dan, Asher, and Naphtali). The tribe of Levi, meanwhile, would be camped in the middle, directly around the Tent of Meeting (2:3-31).

If you’re counting, this might appear to add up to thirteen tribes: three on each side makes twelve, plus one in the middle makes thirteen. That’s because the “tribe” of the descendants of Joseph historically got divided into two “half tribes,” Ephraim and Manasseh (Joseph’s two sons). There were twelve sons of Jacob; there were twelve tribes (eleven full tribes plus two half tribes); and when they entered the promised land there would be twelve territories (one territory each for ten of the tribes, plus a territory for each of the two half tribes, but no territory for the Levites, who were settled into various towns in all of the territories). It seems the answer is always twelve, but the way you get to twelve depends on the specific question.

So tribe by tribe they counted the men of fighting age, and they recorded the number for each tribe to the closest 100, except for the tribe of Gad, rounded to the closest 50: and then the total census came to 603,550 (1:46, 2:32), not counting the Levites. And all these men followed directions, at least for this moment: “The Israelites did … just as the Lord commanded Moses” (1:54) – and again, “the Israelites did just as the Lord had commanded Moses” (2:34). Making camp in the evening, breaking camp in the morning, they obeyed “just as the Lord had commanded.”

We are used to thinking that no particular obedience is really necessary. If we manage some loose approximation of what God wants, we figure that will do just fine; or indeed, a complete failure will also be just fine, because God will surely forgive us. The notion that even a few of us would set ourselves to do something “just as the Lord had commanded” – that seems pretty unusual to us. The notion that 600,000 of us might do that, day after day: we don’t even consider that as a possibility. Clearly the children of Israel had failed badly in the past and would fail badly in the future: but at least in this moment, they had set themselves to do what God wanted. And that’s what they did. Just as the Lord had commanded.

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O Lord, the notion of careful obedience to what you have directed us to do is so foreign to us. We shrug aside your word and suppose we can really do things pretty much however we please. Help us, Lord. Change our hearts. Teach us diligent obedience, that we may truly serve you.

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