Until now the Israelites have camped in the desert in whatever arrangement suited them. But now that the census of the fighting men has been taken, the Lord tells them that every time they set up camp they must do it in an organized way according to His instructions. From now on their camp is going to be laid out as illustrated below.
"The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: 'The Israelites are to camp around the tent of meeting some distance from it, each of them under their standard and holding the banners of their family.'" (Numbers 2:1-2) The tabernacle is at the center of the camp because God is to be at the center of their lives. This arrangement also helps to protect the tabernacle from raids by an enemy. You'll note that closest to the tabernacle are the tents of Moses and of Aaron the high priest and the other priests and the tents of the descendants of the sons of Levi. The Lord commanded in Chapter One that the tribe of Levi not be part of the army but that their work is to revolve around the tabernacle.
"On the east, toward the sunrise, the divisions of the camp of Judah are to encamp under their standard. The leader of the people of Judah is Nahshon son of Amminadab. His division numbers 74,600." (Numbers 2:3-4) Nahshon, as we stated earlier in the week, is found in the genealogical record of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew's account of the gospel.
We find the tribes of Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun camping on the eastern side of the tabernacle. These three are called the "camp of Judah". Judah's fighting men number 74,600 but the total number of fighting men in the entire camp of Judah is 186,400. Whenever the people of Israel break camp and move out, or whenever they go into battle, the camp of Judah will go first and they will go under the standard (flag) of the tribe of Judah.
Ancient rabbinical tradition has it that this flag portrayed a lion, and if this is true then the lion likely symbolizes what Jacob said about his son Judah and about Judah's descendants, "You are a lion's cub, Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness---who dares to rouse him?" This quote is from Genesis 49:9 where we find Jacob blessing his sons and making prophecies about them and their tribes. In this same passage Jacob prophesies that the tribe of Judah will be victorious over enemies, that the brothers of Judah (the other tribes) will bow down to his tribe, that the tribe of Judah will be the royal tribe of Israel, and that a descendant of Judah will be the great and promised King to whom the throne and the crown rightfully belong forever. This is a prophecy primarily regarding the Messiah, and this is why we find the Lord Jesus Christ referred to as "the lion of the tribe of Judah" in Revelation 5:5.
"The tribe of Issachar will camp next to them. The leader of the people of Issachar is Nethanel son of Zuar. His division numbers 54,400. The tribe of Zebulun will be next. The leader of the people of Zebulun is Eliab son of Helon. His division numbers 57,400. All the men assigned to the camp of Judah, according to their divisions, number 186,400. They will set out first." (Numbers 2:5-9)
Next we'll look at the camp of Reuben. "On the south will be the divisions of the camp of Reuben under their standard. The leader of the people of Reuben is Elizur son of Shedeur. His division numbers 46,500. The tribe of Simeon will camp next to them. The leader of the people of Simeon is Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai. His division numbers 59,300. The tribe of Gad will be next. The leader of the people of Gad is Eliasaph son of Deuel. His division numbers 45,650. All the men assigned to the camp of Reuben, according to their divisions, number 151,450. They will set out second." (Numbers 2:10-16)
The Bible doesn't tell us what the standard of Reuben's camp looked like but according to rabbinical tradition it bore the image a man's head. If the appearance of Judah's standard relates to what Jacob said regarding Judah and Judah's tribe, then the connection is less clear between what Jacob said about Reuben and Reuben's tribe in Genesis 49. Jacob makes mention of Reuben being his firstborn son but he also states that Reuben has been disinherited as head of the family. Reuben will not be allowed to take his father's place as leader of the family because Reuben slept with one of his father's secondary wives as an act of defiance toward his father's authority over the family. So we see that Reuben disqualified himself as being the head of the family, and in that sense it's unclear why his standard would bear the image of a man's head. But on the other hand, it's believed that the imagery on the standards corresponds not so much with Jacob's prophecies regarding his son but instead that the imagery corresponds with a vision of the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:10) and a vision of the Apostle John (Revelation 4:7) who both saw four living creatures surrounding the throne of God. These four living creatures are always around the throne of God and are always praising Him, saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." (Revelation 4:8b) The creatures seen by Ezekiel and John bore the faces of a lion, a man, an ox, and an eagle.
We can see a correlation between the visions of Ezekiel and John and the arrangement of the camps around the tabernacle. If the tabernacle symbolizes God, then perhaps the four camps surrounding the tabernacle represent the four living creatures who surround the throne of God in heaven. Join us tomorrow as we study the camps of Ephraim and Dan and as we discuss the possibility that the standard of Ephraim bore the image of an ox and that the standard of Dan bore the image of an eagle.
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