Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 1-2.

Last year when I read this passage I took note of the way in which God divided the Israelites up into twelve plus one tribes.  Moses counted all of the men 20 years old and older who were able to serve in the military from twelve of the tribes, but not from the tribe of Levi.  Then he set those twelve tribes to camp three tribes to a group, with each group camping in one of the cardinal directions from where the tabernacle was set up each time they camped.  The Levites camped immediately around the tabernacle.  All of this led me to see this set up as foreshadowing Jesus and His disciples.  I find it interesting how we got to this situation of the people of Israel being divided into twelve plus one.  The idea of the people of Israel being composed of twelve tribes originates with the fact that Jacob had twelve sons.  However, then Jacob adopted Joseph’s sons Ephraim and Manasseh as his own.  This led to there being thirteen tribes.  Yet, as we read the Bible it never talks about thirteen tribes. It only ever talks about the twelve tribes of Israel.  And when it talks about the twelve tribes it either counts the Levi and Joseph as members of the twelve, or it leaves Levi and Joseph out and counts Ephraim and Manasseh.  And in that latter case, the Levites are presented as the caretakers of the tabernacle or the temple, as intermediaries with God.  All of this makes me think that God set this up to foreshadow the relationship between Jesus and His Apostles.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.