In the wilderness of Sinai in the tent of meeting, Moses drew near to God to listen to Him. It was needful for Moses to hear from God, especially when they were about to head into territory where they were unfamiliar with. God knew that on the way they would be facing hostility. Hence, fighting men, males who were capable of engaging in warfare, were needed when they faced opposition. So God instructed Moses to take stock of the number of men, head by head by clan, any man 20 years and above who was capable to fight in a war. Aaron was to be assigned the task of listing down, company by company, these available men. Besides Aaron, Moses was to deploy the services of the head of each tribe in the counting.
The
counting was needful so that Moses would be aware of the number of useful men available
to him for the task ahead. The reason God asked for the numbering of only the men
probably because of their suitability for the anticipated task. They would soon
be facing tough opposition where men who could fight would be needed. Hence only
capable men 20 and above, able to engage in warfare were included. This selection
tells us that the weak, the sick, and older men, as well as the women and children, were excluded. This was logical.
An account like this tells us
that we need to plan steps ahead in our journey. This will enable us to be more
prepared. Like Moses, we need to first identify the number of right people available
to us. God did not want Moses to head into the situation unprepared. He was
helping him to anticipate what he would be facing and then to be prepared for it.
To accomplish God’s work successfully, we need to know the task ahead and the number
of competent people we have available for the task. It suggests that we need to
anticipate ahead of time and then make plans to contain the situation. If we
don’t plan, we are planning to fail!
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