Matthew Henry … Another Vile Kinist

I.) Numbers 2:2-4f

 And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: ² “Everyone of the children of Israel shall camp by his own ^[a]standard, beside the emblems of his father’s house; they shall camp some distance from the tabernacle of meeting. ³ On the east side, toward the rising of the sun, those of the standard of the forces with Judah shall camp according to their armies; and Nahshon the son of Amminadab shall be the leader of the children of Judah.” ⁴ And his army was numbered at seventy-four thousand six hundred.

1.) Those of a tribe were to pitch together, every man by his own standard. Note, It is the will of God that mutual love and affection, converse and communion, should be kept up among relations. Those that are of kin to each other should, as much as they can, be acquainted with each other; and the bonds of nature should be improved for the strengthening of the bonds of Christian communion.

Numbers 2:³⁴ Thus the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses; so they camped by their ^[l]standards and so they broke camp, each one by his family, according to their fathers’ houses.

2.) Every tribe had a captain, a prince, or commander-in-chief, whom God himself nominated, the same that had been appointed to number them, ch. i. 5. Our being all the children of one Adam is so far from justifying the *levellers, and taking away the distinction of place and honour, that even among the children of the same Abraham, the same Jacob, the same Judah, God himself appointed that one should be captain of all the rest. There are powers ordained of God, and those to whom honour and fear are due and must be paid.

* Levellers were a 17th century movement in England that advocated what we would call egalitarianism today. They desired a flattening out of the social order unto a sterile equality. In contrast to their counterparts, “the Diggers” the Levellers opposed common ownership, except in cases of mutual agreement of the property owners.

Matthew Henry
Numbers 2:3-34

3. Every one must know his place and keep in it; they were not allowed to fix where they pleased, nor to remove when they pleased, but God quarters them, with a charge to abide in their quarters. Note, It is God that appoints us the bounds of our habitation, and to him we must refer ourselves. He shall choose our inheritance for us (Ps. xlvii. 4), and in his choice we must acquiesce, and not love to flit, nor be as the bird that wanders from her nest.

4. Every tribe had its standard, flag, or ensign, and it should seem every family had some particular ensign of their father’s house, which was carried as with us the colours of each troop or company in a regiment are. These were of use for the distinction of tribes and families, and the gathering and keeping of them together, in allusion to which the preaching of the gospel is said to lift up an ensign, to which the Gentiles shall seek, and by which they shall pitch, Isa. xi. 10, 12. Note, God is the God of order, and not of confusion.

Matthew Henry
Commentary Numbers Chapter 2