«　WEEK 1　DAY 1　»

　　Num. 1:1-3 Then Jehovah spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting,...saying, Take the sum of all the assembly of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers' households, according to the number of names, every male, head by head. From twenty years old and upward, all who are able to go forth for military service in Israel, you and Aaron shall number them by their companies.

　　Most expositions of Numbers give the impression that it is a book of wanderings and repeated failures. This is not quite accurate. Properly speaking, Numbers is not a book of failures but a book of victory and glory. Is it not glorious that on this earth God not only has a dwelling place but also a camp with an army? (CWWL, 1964, vol. 4, "The Vision of God's Building," p. 245)

　　In Numbers 2 we read, "Then Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, The children of Israel shall encamp each by his own standard with the ensigns of their fathers' households; they shall encamp facing the Tent of Meeting on every side" (vv. 1-2). Each tribe had a specific place in which to pitch its tents round about the Tent of Meeting. The tribes on the east were Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun; those on the south were Reuben, Simeon, and Gad; on the west were Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin; and on the north were Dan, Asher, and Naphtali (vv. 3-31). In the very center were the Levites, who cared for the tabernacle (1:50-53; 2:17). The priests could never be separated from the tabernacle; they were one with the tabernacle and always with it. This picture of the twelve tribes encamped on the four sides of the tabernacle with the Levites in the center is a preview of the coming New Jerusalem. That city portrayed in Revelation has twelve gates, three on each of its four sides, containing the names of the twelve tribes (21:12-13). That means that the New Jerusalem in Revelation is not a new concept. It was revealed many centuries before, in the book of Numbers. Thus, we see again that the whole of the Scriptures is of one line, related to one thing—God's building. Even as the tabernacle in the Old Testament was the center of the twelve tribes of Israel, so God and the Lamb are the temple in the center of the New Jerusalem.

　　From beginning to end the book of Numbers is a glorious book. In the beginning God formed the army, and at the end we have a record of the dividing of the land conquered by this army. In the beginning the camps were arrayed in preparation for battle.

　　The book of Numbers presents a glorious scene with the standards and ensigns, the formations and the order. All these things are full of application for us today. The army consisted of twelve tribes in four divisions, with three tribes in each division....We see the numbers, three and four—the Triune God mingled with man. The principle of mingling is represented by three times four, which equals twelve. God is not only added to us but also is mingled with us. The book of Revelation begins with a record of the seven churches, which are divided into one section of four plus another section of three. This signifies that the Triune God is added to the creature, as three is added to four, equaling seven. But Revelation ends with the New Jerusalem, where all the numbers are twelve; that is, three times four, signifying God's mingling with us. The real building of God is this mingling of God with man. (CWWL, 1964, vol. 4, "The Vision of God's Building," pp. 245-247)

　　In the picture portrayed in Numbers, God's move was in the Ark with the tabernacle, that is, in Christ, the God-man, the mingling of God and man (see footnote 1 on Exo. 25:11), as the embodiment of God (Col. 2:9), with the church, the enlargement, the increase, of Christ...as God's dwelling place on the earth (1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Tim. 3:15). The picture in Numbers shows the Triune God and His chosen people mingled together as one entity that God may move on the earth and conquer His enemy in order to regain the earth for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose (cf. Acts 1:8). (Num. 1:1, footnote 1)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1964, vol. 4, "The Vision of God's Building," ch. 9