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Tuesday, February 9, 2010

More on Feb 7 (how the Israelites break camp Numbers 10)

How the Israelites break camp (BUG OUT! As M*A*S*H would say!)
This is adapted from Matthew Henry's Commentary who is long since dead and I hope I'm not violating any copywrite. I don't think so, since you see it all over online. The blue comments are mine. It's written in kind of old english and a little hard to understand but I love the part about going Judah going first, the tabernacle being set up and then at the end how God cares for the scragglers.
  •  Judah’s squadron marched first, Num 10:14–16. (the line from which the Messiah would come and looked further to the captain of our salvation) Then the tribes of Issachar and Zebulon (perhaps the commentator conciders then part of Judah's 'squadron)
  • Then came those two families of the Levites which were entrusted to carry the tabernacle. As soon as ever the cloud was taken up, the tabernacle was taken down, and packed up for removing, Num 10:17. And here the six wagons came laden with the more bulky part of the tabernacle. This frequent removing of the tabernacle in all their journeys signified the movableness of that ceremonial dispensation. That which was so often shifted would at length vanish away, Heb. 8:13  
  •  Reuben’s squadron (with Simeon and Gad) marched forward next, taking place after Judah, according to the commandment of the Lord, Num 10:18–20.
  •  Then the Kohathites followed with their charge, the sacred furniture of the tabernacle, in the midst of the camp, the safest and most honourable place, Num 10:21. And they (that is, says the margin, the Gershonites and Merarites) (Tabernacle is to set up before they arrived Num 10:21)
  • Ephraim’s squadron followed next after the ark (Num 10:22–24), to which some think the psalmist alludes when he prays (Ps. 80:2), Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, the three tribes that composed this squadron, stir up thy strength (and the ark is called his strength, Ps. 78:61), and come and save us.
  •  Dan’s squadron (and Asher and Naphtali) followed last, Num 10:25–27. It is called the rearward, or gathering host, of all the camps, because it gathered up all that were left behind; not the women and children (these we may suppose were taken care of by the heads of their families in their respective tribes), but all the unclean, the mixed multitude, and all that were weak and feeble, and cast behind in their march. Note, He that leadeth Joseph like a flock has a tender regard to the hindmost (Eze. 34:16), that cannot keep pace with the rest, and of all that are given him he will lose none, Jn. 17:11.

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