The book of Numbers is known for detailed sums and instructions. One such chapter is Numbers 2, where we read about how the twelve tribes are arranged in Israel’s camp.
During the first ten chapters of Numbers, the Israelites are still at Mount Sinai, and they are readying for the journey to the promised land. When they travel, they will take the tabernacle with them. The tabernacle is the portable dwelling place where God’s holy presence is manifest among them.
As the Israelites set up camp along the way to the promised, they will do so according to God’s instructions. God brings order to the camp, just as he created the sun and moon and stars to rule the day and night (Gen. 1:16). The Israelites were to follow the words of organization that specified their tribal placement.
The tribes were to camp around the tent of meeting in a rectangular formation. Numbers 2 lists these directions in clockwise rotation beginning with east (2:3–9) and then moving to the south (2:10–16), the west (2:18–24), and finally the north (2:25–31).
Since the tabernacle is in the center of the tribal formation, we can say that God is in the center of Israel’s camp. This geographical placement makes a theological point. The Israelites were to live in communion with God, with God as the center of their lives. The God-centered camp was to be inhabited by Israelites who had God-centered lives.
The formation of the tribes also had a military significance. In the 13th century BC, the army of Rameses II made a square formation where they camped, with a royal tent in the center. This formation signified the importance—and royalty—of what was in the middle.
In the Israelite camp, a holy King was among them. Yahweh was worthy of their worship and obedience. They were a kingdom of priests under Yahweh their King.
When Christians talk about living a God-centered or Christ-centered life, they’re talking about worship and allegiance. While we don’t arrange ourselves geographically with a portable dwelling place in the center, we are called to embody what the tribal formation signified.
Jesus called people to follow him. He tabernacled among sinners (John 1:14), reorganizing and reorienting their lives. He gathered around himself twelve disciples who would hear him and learn from him. For those with eyes to see, they would have noticed that a holy king was in their midst.
Peter tells his readers what the church of Jesus is: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9).
We are a redeemed people following our holy king to the promised land. The darkness is behind us, and Christ is with us. We now proclaim his excellencies, the excellencies of our holy king. A disciple’s life embodies the truth of Numbers 2: we belong to the One who is at the center.
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