Prayer: Father, I need to know Your Word to know You. Lead me into new territory. Your servant is listening and ready for instruction. Amen.
The Bible Project: https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/numbers/?utm_source=web_social_share&medium=shared_video
Reading: Numbers 1 key: vs. 1-4
In the wilderness of Sinai, on the first day of the second month in the second year from the Exodus from the land of Egypt, Adonai spoke to Moses in the Tent of Meeting saying, 2 “Do a head count of all the community of Bnei-Yisrael by their families and their ancestral house, with a total of every male one by one. 3 You and Aaron are to muster by their divisions every son from 20 years and upward available to serve in the army of Israel. 4 One man from each tribe, each head of his father’s household, is to assist you.
Attention: Have you ever been a part of a head count? We all have whether we new it at the time or not. My last employment was as a school bus driver for a district. I remember being on a field trip which required several buses of several classes from a middle school. The students were all marching band members. The trip required a ferry ride and the students were allowed to get off the bus during the navigation part of the trip, about half an hour. They were instructed to return to the same bus for deboarding the ferry. The time came for us to depart off the ferry and after the teacher did a head count, we are missing one student. We do not have the privilege of waiting for the student and holding up the other ferry passengers. About a quarter mile off the ferry, we were radioed by another driver that our student was on their bus and we pulled over to make the transfer. The moment of panic was over for the student and the teacher who was responsible for the student. Maybe there was a lack of wisdom in letting the students off the bus.
In chapter one, Adonai orders Moses to take a head count and how to accomplish His order. Leaders from each tribe was to perform a headcount of every male 20 years and older to serve in the “army of Israel (vs. 46).’ In this verse we also are given a total of 603,550 able bodied men twenty years of age or older. Now we see the scope of numbering over six hundred thousand men. To put this in perspective, let’s say that most NFL stadiums have a seating capacity of 60k plus. This would mean the army would number 10x the average stadium seating. We can see the scope of this task was large.
Notice that there was an equal requirement for each tribe. They were to number all the able-bodied men 20 years old or older. They were not given a lottery or draft number like I was years ago. All were required to serve. The only exception was the tribe of Levi, who were to attend Adonai and everything surrounding the removal, moving and set up of the Tabernacle.
We are not given a reason for why Adonai wanted a head count, only that everyone complied according to His directions (vs. 54). The question I would ask, “Am I as compliant at Adonai’s orders as this account of the counting of all able bodied men 20+ years of age?”
Action: I choose to be compliant to the directions of Adonai.
Yield: To obey is Adonai’s desire, is my desire.
Engage: I choose to engage with Adonai in a lifestyle which is pleasing to Him.
Relationship: I choose to walk hand in hand with Adonai.
Prayer: Father, compliance and obedience is my desire. To please You is my desire. Amen.
Memory Verse: Colossians 1:9-10
9 For this reason also, ever since we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We keep asking God that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding— 10 to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God.
Music Video: Hillsong—I Give You My Heart https://youtu.be/mZGzu6oI9b4
Remember, “Abide in Yeshua, today!”