Today we continue our study of the Western Tribes of the army of Israel that camped around the wilderness tabernacle.

We have already mentioned the men of the army of Israel were camped on the outskirts of the campsites of the men of the tribe of Levi who made up the Levite priesthood. The priests were between the army and the tabernacle, and the priests were not a part of the census that was taken.

When you take in the fact that the women and children and priest were not counted in the census that we read about in the Book of Numbers you can begin to get a sense of how huge the numbers of the people really were. The numbers we are given are all underestimates when you are thinking in terms of complete numbers for the whole nation of people.

Each man in the army of Israel camped together with his family inside their own family tent. All the doors of each of their family tents faced God as He dwelled among them and camped out with them beyond the Holy of Holies, deep within The Most Holy Place found on His earthly throne which was between the cheribum of gold on top of The Ark of the Covenant.

The Ark of the Covenant served as the throne and chariot of God as they moved through the wilderness.

When it was time to move the camp the pillar of fire would move forward at night and the cloud of glory would move forward by day.

Everything had its place, all was in order; and every aspect of the camp of the army of Israel moved in sync.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to our every-Thursday, online bible study called COME AS A CHILD.

We are slowly walking through the bible together; observing things as if for the first time, trying to use the eyes of a child seeking wisdom from their Father.

It has been a great adventure so far!

We are glad you decided to join in with us today.

Our scripture reference is taken from Numbers, Chapter 2. If you wish to review the previous lessons; start here:https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/god-has-heard-come-as-a-child-lesson-247/.

THE LEADER OF THE TRIBE OF MANASSEH

God has been giving Moses the names of all the leaders of the tribes who will be Israel’s army captains (these men were often called “princes”.)

The first huge duty for each leader in this mighty army to command was to conduct a census of all the men who were of military age and made ready and able for battle.

Three tribes camped together in each division and there was a division of Israel’s army placed on the outskirts of all four sides of the tabernacle which resided deep in the center of the camp.

MANASSEH’S LEADER IS NAMED

Moses learned directly from God that the leader of the tribe of Manasseh, which would be one of the tribes in the division of Ephraim, would be Gamaliel, who was the son of Pedahzur.

The part of the army led by Gamaliel consisted of 32,200 men.

A DESCENDANT OF JOSEPH

When we think about Gamaliel, obviously the story of the tribe of Manasseh comes to mind and the fact that Manasseh was one of the sons of Joseph that Israel adopted as his own so that Manasseh and his descendants would be a part of the heritage and inheritance of all that belonged to Israel.

This also entitled Manasseh and his brother Ephraim to a direct blessing along with their father Joseph.

Joseph was a greatly favored son of Israel.

We spoke of their story and their blessings way back in our Genesis study (which was actually published in an old blog site other than this; but we felt it was so important to the history of Israel that we rewrote the same article here. That old blog is still up for now; but will come down whenever I am finished copying all of the older articles over. So please don’t get confused and think I plagiarized my own blog. That is one reason I took the time to move it over; so that it would be an easy reference from this post.

You may reference that post here: https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/come-as-a-child-lesson-104-israel-blesses-joseph-ephraim-and-manasseh/

This lesson is a core part of understanding all that has happened to the tribes of Israel over the years. I hope that you will take the time to read and understand it. Last week we studied Ephraim. He is a very important story in this lesson too. The two sons of Joseph were VERY blessed; as was their father.

The blessing received by Manasseh from Israel was amazing.

Our next leader; Gamaliel will now become a part of that group of receivers who inherited those blessings.