Numbers 26

It looks like the time of wandering - or more precisely of living outside the Promised Land - is finally over. Today's reading covers a second census, much like the one back in Numbers 1, but this time after those who refused to go into the Promised Land have died off (with a couple of special exceptions). It is interesting to note that the population of men above the age of 20 has decreased, which would normally be the opposite of what would be expected - but several thousand have died in various plagues and other tribulation brought on by their disobedience.

When one looks at the breakdown of the tribal populations, most either gained or lost a few thousand - but there are exceptions. A couple gained in excess of 10,000, and one tribe lost a massive number to offset those gains. The tribe of Simeon went from 59,300 to only 22,200; a loss of nearly two thirds the group's original size! It makes me wonder if they were some of the worst offenders at various points, and were therefore the hardest hit by God's wrath. No details are really given on that point that I can find, though.

I am hoping that soon we will get an account of the taking of the Holy Land, as I could use a bit of action :)

Numbers 3

Today's reading included a census of the Levites, who were left out of the previous chapters' counts. Nothing much stood out to me as being of particular import, but it was interesting to see how much detail God went into about responsibilities - giving each family their own part of the tabernacle to take care of, and a different side of it to camp around.

Numbers 1

Ah, a new book of the Bible! This first chapter was rather repetetive, but I like the topic: a census of the men capable of fighting; effectively a count of the army that Israel could muster. At over 600,000 men, it rivals the size of our standing army today - that must have been quite large for that time period!

It is interesting that here God commanded Moses to make the count, but later in David's reign I think God forbids the same thing. I suppose a lot of that has to do with motivations; here I suspect God was showing the Israelites that they had the manpower to take the land He was leading them to, but in David's time God wanted him to remember that it was God who fought for him and assured vistory, not the numbers of his troops.