We’ve been looking closely at all the men who became the captains of Israel’s army in the wilderness.

As we come to the last man whom God designated to be a prince/captain in the Army of Israel in the wilderness census; you might be be wondering; why we have gone into so much detail about all of these men?

Could they even be relevant?

We don’t really hear very much about these guys later on; so why dwell on the subjects and search out every little morsel of truth you can find on each one of them?

Good question.

I’ve noticed a familiar pattern.

The Bible is basically all about how God took the descendants of Abraham and made a mighty nation out of them; and that nation eventually brought each of us the joy and security of knowing Messiah and bringing us salvation.

The descendants from Abraham, Isaac and finally Jacob, whom God renamed and called Israel all played a very intricate part in our own salvation story.

Whether the parts they played were good or bad; they all played a part and we must recognize them in order to understand the whole story.

It is so important at this point to realize that Israel had twelve sons and each one of them formed what we now call the twelve tribes of Israel.

During this time in history; it is critical to realize that each son who founded their own family and tribe was given a special blessing by Israel.

Things didn’t just randomly happen.

We have seen in history how God gave Israel true and deliberate discernment in the blessings of each of his children. Every blessing was specifically given and each one has played out in the later lives of the later descendants.

It is because of these facts that we always need to pay close attention and keep noticing how the blessings of the tribes progressed from the original receivers, all the way through the scriptures; but especially in those tribes traveling through the wilderness with Moses.

After all; it was these very people who became known as The Great Family of God.

They are the people that God originally instructed who gave us the foundations and formations of our worship today.

By noticing what each tribe’s captain did in leading the army; we can better understand why things went like they did for Israel as they continued to travel through the wilderness.

As we study how the people begin to progress and move forward, we are going to see some sad things and we are going to see some happy things.

All things that we see now as time keeps marching on with the descendants of each tribe and division have officially been given the face of a specific nation and a specific people who worship a specific God.   They were not a people and now they ARE a people.

This is a critical and crucial transition time.

These people are now marked specifically by God as different from all of the other nations.  They have separated unto themselves.  They have become more personal in their unity before God.   Each new leader has a chance to make the new nation to shine and conform to God’s best ways of living; and/or to make the nation fall down in brokenness.

By studying every generation so far we can get a small glimpse into the many ways that God was looking at the tribes and and we can know the details that He was seeing and showing His people, even way back then in the very beginning times of the nation.

Yes; sadly and eventually we will come to see that almost all of these men died in the wilderness and were never allowed to see the promised land that they were supposed to be leading the people to discover.

The deepest flaws of humankind come to play.  We will see men who are trusting their own intelligence rather than trusting a God who can do impossible things.

There are good reasons for understanding and studying out the wrong patterns that we humans can sometimes allow in ourselves.  We will cover all of these things as we go further and further into the Book of Numbers.

For today however; let’s just pay attention to two more of these men who had become leaders at this point of the journey.

Understanding how each of these tribal leaders reacted to God while living and moving in the wilderness will help us to understand how we are to react to God as we live in the world of today.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the COME AS A CHILD BIBLE STUDY that is held on this blog every Thrusday.

We feel blessed to have you join in with us.

If you want to go back and explore the lessons of the past; it would be good to start with last weeks lesson which you can find at this link: HOW THE TRIBES OF EPHRAIM AND MANESSEH WERE DIFFERENT – COME AS A CHILD – LESSON 249.   Just work your way backwards through each link for the lessons until you feel you have caught up with us.  In the future we hope to have a compilation offered for each book we have studied so far, so that you can review all of our lessons from Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus.  Progress is slow; but these summaries are coming soon!

Today we are winding up the end of Numbers; Chapter Two.

It is our hope that you are following along in your bible and reading the scriptures straight from the scriptures before reviewing our commentary of each lesson.

ABIDAN OF THE TRIBE OF BENJAMIN

The last tribal captain we will mention who was camped around the wilderness tabernacle on the west side of the tabernacle was from the tribe of Benjamin.

God told Moses to appoint Abidan to be the Prince/Captain of this tribe of Israel’s army and to recruit his help in the counting out of the census of the army.

When Abidan counted his men they numbered 35,400.

THE SON OF GIDEONI

We simply know that Abidan was the son of Gideoni of the tribe of Benjamin.

You can search the scriptures for information on both of these two men (father and son) and not come up with very much information.

This probably means that they both were men of good reputation who were leading quiet and godly lives just tending to their own business and getting along well with everyone else in their tribe.

How can I say this without knowing?

THE BLESSINGS OF MAINTAINING A GOOD REPUTATION

I can say such a thing because I live in a world full of humans.

Typically it is human nature to always point out the flaws of other people; especially if the person or people in question has been given a post of honor or a high office or standing in the community.

When anything is wrong it is usually loudly reported in no uncertain terms by many.

If you can find any man of whom nothing negative can be said or recorded from the members of his home community and the official recorders of history; you have stumbled upon an instance of very rare character indeed.

The reputation of this family unit of father and son and these two men; as far as we can tell; was stellar.

Sometimes there is a lot to be said for men who live quietly, obey the rules and mind their own business.

Their reputation proceeds them and speaks highly of them if only for these three little found character traits.

THE BLESSINGS OF A GOOD NAME

The name Abidan in Hebrew means “My God has judged.”

You could also translate it out to be “The Father has judged.”

One of the few facts we could gather on Abidan’s family was that Abidan’s father WAS a judge in good standing among the people.

Abidan had followed in his father’s foot-steps and had also become a well-loved judge of Israel.

THE BLESSING OF BENJAMIN PASSED ON

Of course we must remember, as we think of this tribe of Benjamin in the army of Israel that Benjamin was the youngest son of which Rachel labored in pain and brought forth into the world while she died in childbirth.

Benjamin was very beloved of Jacob and probably a bit spoiled as the youngest and last of all the sons of Israel. His only and older brother (from Rachel) was Joseph.

Joseph was very protective of his little brother and they were close; unlike Joseph and all of his older brothers (who were not born of Rachel.)

When Israel blessed Benjamin he proclaimed: “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf in the morning he devours the prey, and in the evening he divides the spoil.”

This blessing described how vicious and brutal Benjamin would become in order to survive and it also gives a hint as to the violence that Benjamin will experience in the future days when Israel’s leaders are weak and uncommitted to God.

The contrasts of morning to evening in the blessing speak of how the history of Benjamin’s people would start off good but then they would go on to a time of suffering (captivity in Assyria and Babylon.)

The bible often speaks of Rachael’s weeping; which proclaims prophetically how she cries for her children who go into captivity.  The scriptures also speak of how these same people return to God and how God rewards their repentance in the end.

Abidan would have been one of the descendants responsible for passing on the knowledge of the blessing that held the key to the future of Benjamin’s people.  They were one of the few tribes that actually grew in number instead of decreasing during the times of the wilderness journey.