from Zebulun, Eliab son of Helon; Sermons
I. THEY ARE MERE NAMES TO US. Were we asked who Eliab was, we should say the eldest, envious, angry brother of David, not the census-taker for Zebulun; or Gamaliel, he who stood up in the council, not the census-taker for Manasseh. High as they may have been once, their position in human history is little better than oblivion. "The long, proud tale of swelling fame
Dried to a brief and barren name." II. Yet though mere names now, they WERE ONCE WELL KNOWN. Every child of Zebulun would be taught to look up to Eliab. III. Though mere names to us, THEY DID A USEFUL WORK IN THEIR TIME. It would be no small satisfaction to them, if they looked at the thing rightly, to consider that they had been able to undertake for Moses such an important work as making sure of the fighting strength of each tribe. IV. There was doubtless some appreciation of their services AT THE TIME, both by Moses and the sober-minded of the people. V. But in any case GOD HAS MARKED WHAT THEY DID. He has the record of all the faithful and the holy who have only their names in human history, and the far greater part of them not even that. - Y. The Levites... were not numbered. The Levites were exempted from military service, and set apart for the service of the tabernacle. In any wise arrangement of the affairs of human society provision will be made for the requirements of the spiritual nature of man.I. THE TRUE CHRISTIAN MINISTER SHOULD MANIFEST SOME FITNESS FOR THE WORK BEFORE HE IS DESIGNATED THERETO. In determining the trade which their sons shall learn, wise parents will consider their respective inclinations and aptitudes. An artist would perhaps make a poor minister; a successful merchant might utterly fail as a barrister. Is there less aptitude required in the work of the gospel ministry than in the other pursuits of life? Adaptation of voice, of mind, of character, &c. II. THE TRUE CHRISTIAN MINISTER IS CALLED OF GOD TO HIS WORK. III. THE WORK OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER DEMANDS HIS ENTIRE DEVOTION THERETO. IV. A FAITHFUL DISCHARGE OF THE DUTIES OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER IS ESSENTIAL TO THE WELL-BEING OF SOCIETY. V. PERSONAL HOLINESS OF HEART AND LIFE ARE ESSENTIAL TO THE FAITHFUL DISCHARGE OF THE DUTIES OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. Levites separated from other tribes for sacred work. Their outward separation intended to show separation from worldliness and sin. They who have to do with holy things should themselves be holy. () We shall see them afterward numbered by themselves, but they were not put in the common reckoning, because God had chosen them to be His possession, and separated them from the rest of the people. And lest any man should think that Moses did ambitiously prefer the tribe of Levi, whereof himself descended, he showeth he did it not of his own head, but by the special commandment of God. Their office is declared — to take the charge of the Tabernacle and worship of God, that when they were to take their journey they should carry it, and when they were to stay and pitch their tents they should set it down and look to it with all diligence. And as God would not have them encumbered in affairs unproper to them and impertinent to their calling, so He would not have others that were not of their tribe and family to break into their function, as it were to invade another man's possession; nay, He denounceth death to such as were strangers from that tribe that should presume to meddle with those holy things, or set their hands unto them. An example hereof we have in Uzzah ( 2 Samuel 6.).. We learn from hence that it is the duty of the ministers of God's Word to exercise themselves only in things of their calling; they must wait upon the office to which they are appointed. They are not to be distracted from their calling by worldly matters that no way belong unto them ( Numbers 3:6, 7). And doubtless it is great reason that they should content themselves with their own callings, that so they may please Him that hath called them, and forego all that may disturb them in the course whereunto they ought to tend. We must be like soldiers that are called to bear arms. The reason and comparison is pressed by the apostle to this purpose ( 2 Timothy 2:3, 4). Secondly, the multitude is great, and the difficulty much of those things which are required of the minister, belonging rightly and duly to his calling, in regard whereof we may say ( 2 Corinthians 2:16). Were that a wise servant, who having both his hands fall, and more than he can well do, should, besides his master's work, undertake a new and another burden of some other man's business, which of right doth not belong unto him? (). People Aaron, Abidan, Ahiezer, Ahira, Ammihud, Amminadab, Ammishaddai, Asher, Benjamin, Dan, Deuel, Eliab, Eliasaph, Elishama, Elizur, Enan, Gad, Gamaliel, Gideoni, Helon, Israelites, Issachar, Joseph, Levi, Levites, Manasseh, Moses, Nahshon, Naphtali, Nethaneel, Ocran, Pagiel, Pedahzur, Reuben, Reuel, Shedeur, Shelumiel, Simeon, Zebulun, Zuar, ZurishaddaiPlaces Egypt, SinaiTopics Eliab, Eli'ab, Helon, Zebulun, Zeb'ulunOutline 1. God commands Moses to number the people
5. The princes of the tribes
17. The number of every tribe
47. The Levites are exempted for the service of the Lord
Dictionary of Bible Themes Numbers 1:1-16 5700 headship Numbers 1:1-49 5249 census Library The Consolation
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received at the LORD 's hand double for all her sins. T he particulars of the great "mystery of godliness," as enumerated by the Apostle Paul, constitute the grand and inexhaustible theme of the Gospel ministry, "God manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1The Census of Israel
Thirty-eight years had passed away since the first numbering at Sinai, and the people had come to the borders of the Promised Land; for they were in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho. The time had come for another census. The wisdom which commanded the counting of Israel at the beginning of the wilderness journey, also determined to count them at the end of it. This would show that he did not value them less than in former years; it would afford proof that his word of judgment had been fulfilled …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891 The Child-Life in Nazareth
THE stay of the Holy Family in Egypt must have been of brief duration. The cup of Herod's misdeeds, but also of his misery, was full. During the whole latter part of his life, the dread of a rival to the throne had haunted him, and he had sacrificed thousands, among them those nearest and dearest to him, to lay that ghost. [1084] And still the tyrant was not at rest. A more terrible scene is not presented in history than that of the closing days of Herod. Tormented by nameless fears; ever and again …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Genealogy According to Luke.
^C Luke III. 23-38. ^c 23 And Jesus himself [Luke has been speaking about John the Baptist, he now turns to speak of Jesus himself], when he began to teach, was about thirty years of age [the age when a Levite entered upon God's service--Num. iv. 46, 47], being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son [this may mean that Jesus was grandson of Heli, or that Joseph was counted as a son of Heli because he was his son-in-law] of Heli, 24 the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel The Hebrews and the Philistines --Damascus
THE ISRAELITES IN THE LAND OF CANAAN: THE JUDGES--THE PHILISTINES AND THE HEBREW KINGDOM--SAUL, DAVID, SOLOMON, THE DEFECTION OF THE TEN TRIBES--THE XXIst EGYPTIAN DYNASTY--SHESHONQ OR SHISHAK DAMASCUS. The Hebrews in the desert: their families, clans, and tribes--The Amorites and the Hebrews on the left bank of the Jordan--The conquest of Canaan and the native reaction against the Hebrews--The judges, Ehud, Deborah, Jerubbaal or Gideon and the Manassite supremacy; Abimelech, Jephihdh. The Philistines, …
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 6 And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, too little to be among the thousands of Judah
"And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, too little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall come forth unto Me (one) [Pg 480] to be Ruler in Israel; and His goings forth are the times of old, the days of eternity." The close connection of this verse with what immediately precedes (Caspari is wrong in considering iv. 9-14 as an episode) is evident, not only from the [Hebrew: v] copulative, and from the analogy of the near relation of the announcement of salvation to the prophecy of disaster …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament Numbers
Like the last part of Exodus, and the whole of Leviticus, the first part of Numbers, i.-x. 28--so called,[1] rather inappropriately, from the census in i., iii., (iv.), xxvi.--is unmistakably priestly in its interests and language. Beginning with a census of the men of war (i.) and the order of the camp (ii.), it devotes specific attention to the Levites, their numbers and duties (iii., iv.). Then follow laws for the exclusion of the unclean, v. 1-4, for determining the manner and amount of restitution …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Numbers 1:9 NIV
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