The Birth of A Nation #2

The Lord said to me,.."I will test my people with a plumbline. Amos 7:8 (TLB)

The Plumbline is a blog to encourage the Body of Christ.

The Birth of A Nation #2

Chart: Organization of the Warriors by Tribes and Families::

Tribal Leaders

“From the whole community of Israel, record the names of all the warriors by their clans and families. List all the men  twenty years old or older who are able to go to war. You and Aaron must register the troops, and you will be assisted by one family leader from each tribe. “These are the tribes and the names of the leaders who will assist you:

 Moses and Aaron called A Meeting: Moses and Aaron called together these chosen leaders, and they assembled the whole community of Israel on that very day.* All the people were registered according to their ancestry by their clans and families. The men of Israel who were twenty years old or older were listed one by one, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. So Moses recorded their names in the wilderness of Sinai.

These are those that were numbered—In this registration the tribe of Judah appears the most numerous; and accordingly, as the pre-eminence had been assigned to it by Jacob [Ge 49:8–12], it got the precedence in all the encampments of Israel. Of the two half-tribes of Joseph, who is seen to be “a fruitful bough” [Ge 49:22], that of Ephraim was the larger, as had been predicted. The relative increase of all, as in the two just mentioned, was owing to the special blessing of God, conformably to the prophetic declaration of the dying patriarch. But the divine blessing is usually conveyed through the influence of secondary causes; and there is reason to believe that the relative populousness of the tribes would, under God, depend upon the productiveness of the respective localities assigned to them. [For tabular chart, see on Nu 26:64.]1

Tribes and their Number of Warriors 

These were the men registered by Moses and Aaron and the twelve leaders of Israel, all listed according to their ancestral descent. They were registered by families—all the men of Israel who were twenty years old or older and able to go to war. The total number was 603,550. But this total did not include the Levites. For the Lord had said to Moses, “Do not include the tribe of Levi in the registration; do not count them with the rest of the Israelites. Put the Levites in charge of the Tabernacle of the Covenant,*