Numbers 2-4: Due Order

In Numbers 2:17 it is written, "Every one shall march according to their places, and ranks." This seems to sum up all of these early chapters of Numbers. God is basically assigning every person a place in the events that are about to unfold. There are those who will be fighting, and among these there are those who will march out in front, and those who will bring up the rear; there are those who will be in charge of the tabernacle, and among these it is broken up into various orders, pertaining to the various elements of the tabernacle. But cannot Numbers 2:17 be applied to us all, at any time in history? God calls each and every person to a different thing, to have a different role in life. Some people may think they got the short end of the stick, but if it is what God called you to do, it ought to be accepted with a sort of proud humility.

In keeping with this theme, Numbers 3 and 4 stress the sacred roles of the Levites. This is a tribe truly set apart. God literally says, "the Levites shall be mine" (Numbers 3:12). In this sense, the spirit of the law is upheld today in the Christian priesthood. Priests (and all who enter the religious life) give their lives to God in as literal a sense as is possible here on earth. They separate themselves from society (the degree of which depending on their order), they devote their life's work to ministering to God and none other. The rest of us are forced to split our time between worldly concerns and spiritual ones; whereas a monk in a monastery has the good fortune of giving 100% of his time to God. The Levites were the forebears of these religious men and women.

Lastly, in Numbers 4 we are reminded of the total sacredness of the Tabernacle of the Covenant. We begin to see the breakdown of the orders within the Levitical priesthood (foreshadowing the various orders within the Christian priesthood). The Kohathites, the Gershonites, and the Merarites each are given a specific list of duties concerning the transportation of the Tabernacle. I can't help but feel the true and utter holiness attributed to the Tabernacle while reading Numbers 4! A skeptical materialist would probably scoff at such a notion, but I get the sense that the Tabernacle was radiating with a spiritual aura, and that just to be near it would fill a person with extreme reverence and awe. Reading about how crucial was the transportation of the Tabernacle across the desert made me think of the event in the First Book of Paralipomenon when the Israelites attempted to transport the Ark on a measly ox-cart. As a result, Uzzah was struck dead. I wonder why no one thought of what is written in the Torah, that no one but the Levites might transport the Ark. The Israelites must have lost sight, temporarily, of just how sacred were these items. In a modern context, many Christians today have lost sight of the sacredness of the Holy Eucharist. Just as only the Levites could touch the Tabernacle and what was sacred within it, only a priest may open the tabernacle and touch the sacred host within. With the modern allowance of communion in the hand, we risk the fate of Uzzah.