Issuu

OUT of STEP with GOD Orthodox Christian Reflections on

The Book of Numbers

patrick henry reardon

a nc i e n t fa i t h pu bl i s h i ng c h e s t e r t on, i n di a n a

Out of Step with God: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Numbers © Copyright 2019 by Patrick Henry Reardon All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by Ancient Faith Publishing P.O. Box 748 Chesterton, IN 46304 Printed in the United States of America ISBN 978-1-944967-66-6

CONTENTS Introduction 1 5 Numbers 1 1 13 Excursus: “Thousands” 17

Numbers 2 1 20 Numbers 3 1 23 Excursus: The Structure of the March 27

Numbers 4 Numbers 5 Numbers 6 Numbers 7 Numbers 8 Numbers 9 Numbers 10 Numbers 11 Numbers 12

1 30 1 33 1 37 1 40 1 43 1 47 1 50 1 55 1 62

Excursus: Moses and Job 64

Numbers 13 Numbers 14 Numbers 15 Numbers 16

1 69 1 74 1 80 1 86

Excursus: The Growth of Aaron 92

Numbers 17 1 95 Excursus: Aaron’s Staff and the Preacher 96

Numbers 18 1 99 Numbers 19 1 102 Numbers 20 1 105 Excursus: Understanding Anger 109

Sample pages only. Purchase the full book at http://store.ancientfaith.com/out-of-step-with-god/

Numbers 21 1 112 Excursus: The Bible’s Classical Impulse 117

Numbers 22 1 121 Numbers 23 1 127 Numbers 24 1 129 Excursus: The Postmodernist 130

Numbers 25 1 134 Numbers 26 1 136 Numbers 27 1 138 Numbers 28 1 140 Numbers 29 1 142 Numbers 30 1 145 Numbers 31 1 147 Numbers 32 1 150 Numbers 33 1 153 Numbers 34 1 155 Numbers 35 1 157 Numbers 36 1 160 A Further Reflection 1 162

INTRODUCTION 2 Numbers is the fourth book of the Torah, those “five scrolls” (Pentateuch in Greek), those “five fifths of the Law” (hamishshah humshe ha-Torah) traditionally ascribed to Moses. The material in the Torah is quite varied, but the Book of Numbers, compared with the others, has been called “in some respects, the most miscellaneous” (Robert Alter). For all that, getting started on Numbers can be a bit tough. For the taste of the modern reader, the book begins . . . well, slow. Our modern reader, however, if he manages to fight his way through the lengthy census in the first ten or so chapters, is likely to find Numbers more engaging than the books immediately before and after it, namely, Leviticus and Deuteronomy; Numbers certainly contains the most stories of the three. Indeed, the colorful accounts in Numbers, once they get started, are as fascinating and memorable as any in the Bible. Numbers is the saga of a journey; all the events are set within the context of travel. It is not a travelogue, nonetheless; the Israelites are not tourists. The account in Numbers fits more comfortably, rather, in the category of “migration literature,” of which the closest modern example may be The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck. (His sustained biblical allusions, on nearly every page, prove that Steinbeck was very aware of this.) Most of this travel in Numbers takes place in the desert. Indeed, in the book’s Hebrew text, the first word (and title) is Bemidbar,

5 Sample pages only. Purchase the full book at http://store.ancientfaith.com/out-of-step-with-god/

out of step with god literally “in the desert.” What we have here is an account of Israel’s odyssey, throughout forty years, from Sinai to the eastern border of Canaan, the land of promise. That was the formative period of which the Lord declared, Forty years long I was grieved with that generation, And said, “They do always stray in their hearts, And they do not know My ways.” So I swore in My wrath, “They shall not enter My rest” (Ps 95/94:10–11) In the first extant Christian commentary on this psalm, the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews explained the permanent moral significance of Israel’s journey in the desert: Now with whom was [God] angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses dropped in the desert? And to whom did He swear that they should not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter because of unbelief. Therefore, since there is still a promise of entering His rest, let us become fearful (phobethomen) lest any of you seem to have come short of it. . . . Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. (Heb 3:17— 4:1, 11, emphasis added) In classical literature our closest parallel to the Book of Numbers is, arguably, Virgil’s Aeneid, which recounts the long journey of the defeated Trojans to their eventual settlement in Italy as the ancestors of the Romans. Both narratives are foundational sagas of their respective nations. Both the Israelites and the Romans came

Introduction

from elsewhere—the one from slavery and the other from military defeat—to conquer and occupy a new territory. The Aeneid and the Book of Numbers are the accounts of their journeys—the one across the sea and the other through the desert. A comparison of the two works may be profitable by offering a contrast. Whereas the Trojans, as they made their difficult way to Italy, normally exercised courage and wisdom (the exception being that brief dalliance in Carthage), the Israelites consistently made a mess of the journey; over and over, they found themselves out of step with God. They kept pursuing moral culs-de-sac until almost all of them perished; they conferred a new dimension on the term “dead end.” Even after forty years, at the very doorway into the Promised Land, the priest Phinehas was obliged to make one final purge of the population (Num. 25:4–6; Sirach 45:23). Numbers is, in short, an account of frailties and infidelities. Consequently, it is also a narrative of warning. In the biblical references to Israel’s ancient desert trial, Christians mainly found admonitions about what not to do. Beginning with Stephen’s sermon, the apostolic preaching remembered the desert wandering as a time of moral and spiritual failure (Acts 7:36–43; 13:17–18). In addition to the exegesis of Psalm 95 in the Epistle to the Hebrews, we remember Paul’s exhortation to the Corinthians: “Now these things,” he wrote, “were made our examples, so that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted” (1 Cor. 10:6).

Structure The opening four chapters of Numbers are the record of a census, the first of two contained in this book. Indeed, these two censuses are necessary because of the failures and infidelities recorded in this book. The first census is a count of the Israelites who departed from Egypt at the exodus, whereas the second, found in chapter 26, is

7 Sample pages only. Purchase the full book at http://store.ancientfaith.com/out-of-step-with-god/

out of step with god a list of those who are actually ready, forty years later, to enter the land of Canaan. Although the totals of each census are roughly equal (about six hundred thousand—see Ex. 12:37–38; Num. 11:21), these two lists contain only three names in common: Moses, Joshua, and Caleb. When the second census was made, all the other adult Israelites had perished in the wilderness. The two censuses—at the beginning and end of the book—provide its most basic literary framework: chapters 1—25 tell the story of that earlier generation that left Egypt, while chapters 26—36 tell of the later generation who would enter the Promised Land with Joshua. This unequal division of chapters indicates the book’s fundamental narrative outline. In addition, one detects other structural elements that are not based on the division by generation but on the various stages of the journey. Thus, chapters 1—10 form a unit concerned with the people’s encampment at the foot of Mount Sinai. A second unit consists of the story of the people’s travels from Mount Sinai to Kadesh-barnea in chapters 10—12. Chapters 13—19 make up a third section, which chronicles the events associated with Kadesh- barnea. The fourth unit, chapters 20—21, tells of the journey from Kadesh-barnea to the Plains of Moab. The sixth part, by far the book’s longest, narrates Israel’s final trial on the Plains of Moab. This final section sets the stage for the Book of Deuteronomy. Besides its own internal structure, the Book of Numbers also fits into a larger framework that includes the Books of Exodus and Leviticus. The time frame of the Book of Numbers, beginning at Mount Sinai and ending in the land of Moab, is the period of the forty years that the Israelites spent wandering in the desert, covering all the time between Egypt and the Promised Land.

Introduction

Theology The history recorded in this book is more than a plain chronicle, however. It is history told with a view to illustrating the theological significance of the events, a significance derived from God’s providential governance of Israel during the period under consideration. The Greek name for this book, Arithmoi (obviously the root of arithmetic), means “Numbers,” which has remained the common name also in English. This name indicates much of the book’s contents, for it begins with a census of the Israelites, a census filling the first four chapters. Numbers is also an appropriate name in a more general sense, inasmuch as the book has extensive recourse to mathematics in the determination of calendars, the parceling of the Promised Land, the quantities associated with the rituals of sacrifice, and even the division of the war spoils. In short, this is a work inspired by a sense of measure and dimension. Hence, the reader will feel that he has entered a fairly and proportionately ordered world. (He also may bear in mind that proportion was a major concern of Leviticus 27, the biblical chapter immediately preceding the Book of Numbers.) This preoccupation with measure also links the Book of Numbers with the Bible’s Wisdom books, where we find the same concern for proportion and moral symmetry. Like classical philosophy in general, the Wisdom Literature of the Bible regards measure (metron) as the most readily discernible sign of wisdom. This was first perceived in wise men themselves, those whose judgment could be trusted, because they were seen to weigh all considerations, to balance conflicting ideas and interests, and thus to reach decisions proportioned to both justice and fact. The path of wisdom was always associated with due measure and proper proportion. Excess, on the other hand, was perceived as the mark of chaos and disorder. Just as a sound, solid house was recognized in its proportion,

9 Sample pages only. Purchase the full book at http://store.ancientfaith.com/out-of-step-with-god/

out of step with god order, and distribution, so a sound, disciplined, well-regulated life was discerned in the traits of moderation and due measure. Measure, on the other hand, was assessed in accepted units, or “numbers” (arithmoi). The acceptance of limits was fundamental to good order, and limitation itself implied mathematics; things are limited by number. This insight led philosophers like Pythagoras to regard numbers as the basis of reality. Since the world itself manifests such measurement, Hebrew wise men likewise reasoned that the Creator must provide the source and root of the wisdom He has placed in the structure of the world. He alone discerns the “arithmetic” of things. Throughout the Book of Numbers, as we shall see, the Israelites manifest a sustained disposition toward chaos and self-destruction. To counter this trend, God imposes “numbers” on them—restrictions, restraints, and attention to limits. We will see this imposition of numbers right from the first verses of the first chapter. It was the Lord’s presence with Israel that made this nation a holy people, so the book is first concerned with the people, even down to listing them. This first chapter gives a rough census of all the Israelite tribes except Levi, the priestly tribe.

Author I began by ascribing this book—indeed, the whole Torah—to the authorship of Moses. This ascription is found everywhere in Jewish and Christian literature. Moses’ authorship of the Torah, including Numbers, however, is not so easy, matter-of-fact, and simple as, say, Hemingway’s authorship of For Whom the Bell Tolls. Moses had help. Everywhere in the Pentateuch we find evidence of contributing and editing hands at work during the long post-Mosaic history of Israel. For instance, even the strictest defender of the Torah’s Mosaic authorship must account for the last eight verses of Deuteronomy,

Introduction

which describe the author’s death. Likewise, certain verses in Genesis also indicate a later hand in the text, such as the comments that “the Canaanite was then in the land” (12:6) and “there was yet no king in Israel” (36:31). We are also told that Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldees, although the Chaldees arrived at Ur a long time after the time of Moses. In addition to this internal evidence, there is also the biblical account of a discovery of “the Law of the Lord” in the temple at Jerusalem during the time of King Josiah in the late seventh century. From very early times that document was identified (by St. Jerome, for example), as a whole or in part, with the Book of Deuteronomy. If this identification is valid and the original form of Deuteronomy had a separate history unfamiliar to those who discovered it in the late seventh century, this is evidence that the arrangement of “five books” is considerably later than Moses. I am not alone in regarding Moses as the author of the Pentateuch in a more general sense. Perhaps we may call it a “seminal sense,” meaning that its theological and radical unity grew from the revelation originally made to Moses. I believe it to be a mistake, however, to discount the evidence for the later editorial work of Ezra and others in the formation of the canonical text as it has come down to us. Because I believe the development and transmission of the Pentateuch involved a long and complicated process, I will refer to the author of Numbers, in this commentary, simply as “the author.” And I will offer a further reflection on this subject in a final section of the present work.

A Note on the Translations In this book, all translations from original languages are my own, including the text of Holy Scripture. In those places where it appears

11 Sample pages only. Purchase the full book at http://store.ancientfaith.com/out-of-step-with-god/

out of step with god appropriate and instructive to do so, I cite the text in its underlying language. Although this commentary is mainly based on the Hebrew Bible transmitted in the Masoretic tradition, ample respect is shown to the canonical Greek text, the Septuagint (LXX), represented in the earliest Christian manuscripts. I rely on the standard published editions: Kittel and the Stuttgartensia for the Masoretic text (MT), Rahlfs for the Septuagint. I use the Hebrew text of Rashiâ€™s commentary in the Jerusalem edition published by Rabbi Silbermann in 1934 and the popular Bialik text of the Mishnah in six volumes. Citations of the Greek text of Josephus are from the Loeb Classical Library edition.

NUMBERS 1 2 Here begins the first census in the Book of Numbers (chapters 1—4). These opening verses (1–16) provide the list of leaders, from each tribe, who will supervise the first census. Like the Bible’s various prophetic books, Numbers begins with a precise chronological reference that contains no fewer than three ordinal references: “Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai in the tabernacle of testimony, on the first day of the second month in the second year after their departure from the land of Egypt” (v. 1). The book begins, then, with a date, indicating that thirteen months have elapsed since the first Passover. The second verse, in turn, requires a census, a counting “according to the number of their names” (bemispar shemoth). Verse 3 then specifies the ages by the computation of the years, “from twenty years old and above.” Thus, there are three different uses of numbers in the first three verses of this book, and a sustained interest in calculation sets its tone. After these introductory verses, the rest of the chapter has three parts: first, a list of the tribal leaders who will conduct the survey of the tribes (vv. 5–19); second, the results of the survey itself (vv. 20–46); and third, an explanation of why the Levites are not included in this census (vv. 47–54). The large and central part of this chapter is the first census,

13 Sample pages only. Purchase the full book at http://store.ancientfaith.com/out-of-step-with-god/

out of step with god which is clearly made for military purposes, since it concentrates on the males eligible for warfare. Josephus recognized the military purpose of this survey: “Now when the things pertaining to legislation seemed to [Moses] to be in good order, he undertook a survey of the army, with a view to preparing for battles” (The Antiquities of the Jews [hereafter Antiquities] 3.12.4, 287). In addition to the practical function served by this census, it is legitimate to inquire about the theological significance of the book’s beginning, with four whole chapters dedicated to this theme. Why does the Word of God go to the trouble of providing a list of the totals of each of Israel’s tribes? If, as the Apostle Paul says, all these things were written for our instruction (Rom. 15:4), what lesson did the Holy Spirit intend when He caused these lists to be recorded three millennia ago? I believe we may consider three points in this respect: First, this opening census confirms a truth about the biblical God—namely, that He accounts for all things. If not a sparrow falls to the ground without His notice (Matt. 10:29), certainly He knows each Israelite who faltered in the wilderness. This census, accordingly, is a record of His judgments, and as such it symbolizes and prefigures the inspection to be made at the end of time, when the thrones are set and the books are opened. Second, these numbers of the various tribes serve to memorialize those who perished in the wilderness. The God who numbers the very hairs of our heads did not permit to be obliterated from memory those who had witnessed His wonders in Egypt and Sinai. Those Israelites were, after all, the eyewitnesses of the great deeds of redemption, the magnalia Dei: the plagues visited on Egypt, the deliverance at the Red Sea, the giving of the Law, the falling of the manna, and all the rest. This was the people that saw the Nile turned to blood and whose nostrils were offended by the rotting

Numbers 1

carcasses of a million frogs. These were the people—recorded by their fathers’ houses—who observed the first Passover in the land of their captivity. Although these six hundred thousand were counted unworthy to enter the Promised Land, the Lord in His mercy deigned to enter their memory into the Sacred Scriptures. The Medieval rabbi, Rashi, commented: “He counts them from time to time, because they are dear to Him” (on Num. 1:1). Third, these lists serve to replace the tombstones of those who died in the desert. Though they all lay in myriad unmarked tombs, their memory is enshrined here in letters more lasting than stone. During the more than three thousand years that have elapsed since the last of them succumbed to the heat and fatigue of the wilderness, their memory has survived through the patient labor of Jewish and Christian copyists. Thus, the reader of the Book of Numbers enters this story, as it were, through the arched gateway of a cemetery, to stroll among the tombs and observe this vast company at rest in their serried ranks. If he reads the text closely, he may hear the voice of the recording angel who reports to the Almighty, “All present and accounted for, Sir.” In the final part of the chapter (vv. 47–54) Moses is instructed not to calculate the house of Levi with the rest of the tribes, because they are not to fight within the army. The Levites will have a census of their own in chapter 3. It is traditional to see in these verses the origin of the custom of clerical exemption from military service, an exemption naturally giving rise to moral reflections on the incompatibility of the military and clerical professions. To assess the value and pertinence of such reflections, it will be useful to look at certain features of this exemption:

15 Sample pages only. Purchase the full book at http://store.ancientfaith.com/out-of-step-with-god/

out of step with god First, the reason given for releasing the ministers of the altar from military service is the fact that they are already occupied with carrying the tabernacle and its appurtenances, chiefly the ark of the covenant. As the soldiers march with their weapons in hand, the priestly tribe is busy handling the instruments of worship and sacrifice. As we shall see in the next chapter, the tabernacle of testimony is to be borne in the very center of the marching troop, and the Levites are to surround it as a sort of cordon of protection. They are not armed, but they are charged with protecting this very center of Israel’s life and identity. This “clerical exemption” from military service is, therefore, a symbolic provision, indicating the correct structure and order of Israel’s existence. It is literally hieratic in nature, expressing less an ethical principle than a sacramental intuition. Second, because of its sacramental symbolism, the clerical exemption from combat is far from absolute in practice. Perhaps the most obvious evidence of this limitation comes during the period of the Maccabees, when a priestly family actually leads the forces of Israel against its oppressors. Third, although the Levites were not charged to fight against Israel’s enemies, they certainly do, on occasion, fight against the Israelites themselves! Indeed, the Book of Exodus already told how, in the incident of the golden calf, the Levites slaughtered a large number of their fellow citizens in order to preserve the moral integrity of the people (32:26–29), and in chapter 25 of the present book, Phineas, the grandson of Aaron, will lead a similar bloody assault for the same purpose. Indeed, the second census will not be conducted until after that purging. Thus, the biblical exemption of the Levites from military service does not necessarily suggest an affinity between the clerical ministry and pacifism. Indeed, the memory of Levi himself would render such an

Numbers 1

affinity improbable. We recall that he was a patriarch overly disposed to spill blood (Gen. 34:25–31). At the very end of his life, Jacob lamented the bellicose dispositions of Levi and Simeon (Gen. 49:5–7). In sum, there is scant biblical evidence for the suggestion that “priests don’t fight.”

2 Excursus “THOUSANDS” Commentators have often remarked on the extraordinary numbers indicated in this first chapter, mentioning that, if these numbers of warriors are taken at face value, then Israel certainly had the largest army in the ancient world and could easily—with or without weapons—have defeated the combined forces of both Egypt and Babylon. Indeed, Alexander the Great conquered much of the world, from the Danube to the Indus Rivers, with an army only a fraction of the size of the army indicated here in Numbers. Moreover, how do we explain that the Israelites in the desert felt themselves outnumbered by the Canaanites? The archaeology of Palestine during the second millennium before Christ indicates a population much smaller than Israel’s, if the figures in the Book of Numbers are correct. Indeed, if the size of Moses’ army was really as large as is indicated in this book—six hundred thousand—then the major miracle at the Exodus was God’s deliverance of the largest group of abject cowards ever assembled on the earth! It is important to understand that the difficulty with these figures is overwhelming. If Israel really did have a fighting force of six hundred thousand, its total population would have been between

17 Sample pages only. Purchase the full book at http://store.ancientfaith.com/out-of-step-with-god/

out of step with god two and two and a half million. So large a crowd, walking eight abreast, would have stretched down the entire length of the Sinai Peninsula and back up again, not counting their animals and baggage. Indeed, one questions how Moses managed to communicate with a procession of people 350 miles long. In addition, we also know (from 3:40–42) that the number of Israel’s firstborn sons was 22,273. If, however, the total number of its adult men was six hundred thousand, this means that each man had twenty-six brothers, not counting sisters. This figure suggests extraordinary birth rates, far beyond anything considered normal in Holy Scripture. In short, we have ample reason to suspect that something is seriously amiss in the population figures in the Book of Numbers. Solutions to this problem have not been lacking. Some have suggested, for instance, that somehow an extra zero has managed to slip into these figures, requiring us to correct them down to ten percent. In this way, the number of warriors in Israel would have been 60,355 (still a very large force for the time) within the population of 200,000–250,000. This solution may at first seem reasonable, unless we bear in mind that it is postulated on Arabic numerals, which include the zero. The zero as a decimal digit, however, did not make its appearance in mathematics until AD 876 (in India), roughly two thousand years after the Exodus! To gain a more realistic assessment of the situation, however, it is useful to bear in mind that the Hebrew word for “thousand,” ’eleph, is actually a subdivision of a tribe, the numerical count of which varied a great deal but seldom came to a full thousand. In the context of this chapter ’eleph indicates a military unit, comparable to our “battalion,” “regiment,” “squadron,” or “brigade.” The numerical force of any of these units may vary a great deal, and this is also true of ’eleph. If this military context is borne in mind,

Numbers 1

the very high numbers of troops in this chapter are rendered much more plausible than at first seems to be the case. All such suggestions remain hypothetical and, in varying degrees, problematic. Whatever their value, there is no escaping the serious historical difficulties involved in understanding the word ’eleph, as used in Numbers, to mean “thousand.”

19 Sample pages only. Purchase the full book at http://store.ancientfaith.com/out-of-step-with-god/

NUMBERS 2 2 As the Israelite tribes journeyed through the wilderness, they really marched. Which is to say, they walked in martial ranks, both of these words derived from the name Mars, the Roman god of war. We speak of that era as a period of “wandering” in the desert, but this wandering was marked by an internal structure of great cohesion and purpose. The wandering Israelites were—as God’s people must ever be—a company of warriors. Consequently, the organization of Israel in the desert was arranged along martial lines, an arrangement that should not surprise us in light of the military interest of the census in the preceding chapter. As in any military expedition, it was imperative to know just where the various forces were stationed and where it was feasible, if need be, to deploy them. We find this imperative at play in the present chapter. Indeed, it seems to have been the major determining factor of Israel’s physical organization. Whereas the previous chapter had recorded the troop strength of each tribe, the present chapter strategically distributes that strength. In addition, each tribe was answerable to a single commander, identified in every instance (vv. 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, 14, 18, 20, 22, 25, 27, 29). No good military leader would be satisfied with less organization. The military formation was elaborate: The tabernacle of God’s presence, Israel’s theological hearth, was placed in the center (v. 2),

Numbers 2

and around it all the tribes were gathered in a sort of square for its protection (compare Ezek. 48:30–35). The priests and Levites, naturally, were positioned nearest to the tabernacle, the care of the latter being their chief charge. In fact, the strategic position of each large unit was made visible by its corresponding ensign, which served as a symbol of every soldier’s position and direction on the field (vv. 2, 3, 10, 17, 18, 25, 31, 34; compare 1:52). Later rabbinic sources suggested attractive features of these flags. Thus, Ibn Ezra pictured each flag as bearing an image symbolic of a particular tribe, much as we find in Jacob’s prophecies in Genesis 49: a lion for Judah, a serpent for Dan, a ship for Zebulon, and so forth. Equally attractive was Rashi’s suggestion that the colors of the flags corresponded to the twelve precious stones on the pectoral mounting worn by the high priest. He also cited older Jewish sources, according to whom the twelve tribes assumed the same formation around the tabernacle as their corresponding twelve patriarchs assumed when they carried the funeral bier of Jacob. As the people marched eastward, with the entrance of the tabernacle facing forward, the foremost troop was formed by the largest of the tribes, Judah, flanked by Zebulon and Issachar (vv. 3–9). Directly behind this large formation marched Aaron and the other priests, forming the immediate front guard of the tabernacle (3:38). To the south of the tabernacle, forming the right flank of Israel’s total force, were placed the tribes of Gad, Reuben, and Simeon (vv. 10–16). To their immediate left, forming the southern guard of the tabernacle, marched the Koathite Levites (3:29). We should particularly note that the Reubenites (including Dathan and Abiram) marched and camped adjacent to the Koathites (including Korah) on the south side of the army (vv. 10–11). This arrangement would, in due course, provide opportunity for the two

21 Sample pages only. Purchase the full book at http://store.ancientfaith.com/out-of-step-with-god/

out of step with god groups to share the grievances they had respecting the leadership of Moses and Aaron. In due course these groups of Reubenites and Levites would join forces in rebellion against Moses and Aaron in chapter 16. To the west, directly behind the tabernacle, were the Gershomite Levites (3:23), behind whom marched—as the rear guard of the whole force—the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin (vv. 18–24). On the north side, forming the left flank of Israel’s force, were the tribes of Dan, Naphtali, and Asher (vv. 25–31), directly south of whom—guarding the north side of the tabernacle—marched the Merarite Levites (3:35). If the overall arrangement of the Israelite march served a military purpose, it did not exclude other aspects, particularly of a theological nature. This is arguably clearest in the case of Judah, destined to be the royal tribe (Gen. 49:8–12) from which, in due course, the Messiah would come. Judah, accordingly, is placed to the east (v. 3), the direction of the rising sun, a position blessed with myriad attendant symbolisms.

Out of Step with God: An Orthodox Christian Reflection on the Book of Numbers