In the past when I have read numbers I wondered if they census taker was rounding numbers off. How could it be that every tribe just happens to have numbers that round off to the hundreds?
The census here servers two purposes according to my study bible to show that the promise to Abraham was fulfilled in the number of his decedents and to show the fighting force of Israel, both should give confidence to the people as they enter the promise land.
Any way back to the numbers, they must have been exact counts because when the count is given for the Levites the number is 22,273; it would make little sense to round of all the other numbers. Anyway this is the first time I really noticed this although I have asked this question every time I have read this before.
It donned on me that I have done very little in the way of trying to see Christ in all the scriptures like I said I wanted to and this section of scripture didn’t do much more for me…
Num 6
24The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
This is one of my favorite passages in scripture, it was the closing of almost all of my Lutheran services, our regular benediction. One thing I loved about those services is that most of them were the same. I can still repeat the liturgy almost all of the way through. ( I may write more about this another time)
At any rate, I have taken to repeating this blessing as a prayer every night over both of my daughters when I lay them down to sleep. I now some people don’t care much for prayers that aren’t improvised but my daughters are memorizing scripture every night and it will help to tie them to the word and tradition that Christians have enjoyed for generations.