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

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

    A year after leaving Egypt, Moses took a census of all of the fighting men among the people of Israel. He did not include the Levites in the count because they were responsible for transporting and defending the Tabernacle. Once the census was completed, the tribes were divided into four groups of three tribes with each group assigned one of the cardinal directions to camp around the Tabernacle (one group camped North of the Tabernacle, one group East, one South, and one West). When the Israelites broke camp they would set out in order based on where they camped. Reading through this gives me a greater appreciation for what an undertaking it was for the people of Israel to move from place to place. The count of just the fighting men, not counting the tribe of Levi, was 603,550. That means that the total number of people counting women, children, and the elderly was between 1.5 and 2 million with flocks and herds. It is hard for me to picture a group of nomads that large.