Each leader of the tribes of Israel had a different job and function based on how the tribes were placed around the tabernacle. They had to go through a ceremonial pattern in order to be “ordained” to the job God was calling them to do. Every prince accepted their anointing. All the names listed here are a play on words that teach us about God’s love and the Messiah’s sacrifice.
The Nazarite vow is a special vow. It’s an extraordinary one not taken lightly. It also is not a vow that is easy to do. It is not a vow of terror or weakness, but of strength. You have to count the cost before you take a vow like this. It’s a serious vow. When Yeshua said, “But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom” (Matt. 26:29), He was taking on a Nazarite vow, a vow that He is still under until the Messianic age.
God is careful to make sure that holy things are treated with respect and covered up. Anyone who touched a holy thing unworthily would die. However, if God’s holy people — His assembly — sins, that sin will be uncovered and dealt with by Him. He will make sure it’s exposed. However, if someone is falsely accused, He will vindicate them too.
Even if you aren’t a literal descendant of Aaron this chapter is about you. If you are joined to the High Priest Messiah Yeshua, you are joined, in a spiritual sense to the priestly Levites. Numbers 3 tells you how.
Numbers 1 told us the names of the leaders of the tribes of Israel and the numbers of their fighting men. Numbers 2 places them in rank and shows us how they were strategically camped around the Tabernacle and in what order they are to move in case of danger or battle. The names of these men not only shows us how the Messiah fights His own battle but how God’s army is going to fight His battle.
The lists of numbers in the book of Numbers can be somewhat overwhelming. The first chapters are talking about how they are to count and assemble an army, not the entire community. We don’t pay attention to Numbers 1 because it is “just a bunch of names and a bunch of numbers,” but these were real men who had to be ready to fight in a real war (Num. 1:17-54).
Numbers 1 foretells Yeshua’s burden, the burden He tried to give up three times in the garden before His crucifixion (Matt. 26:39–44). That message is embedded in the meanings of the names of the tribes and clans, and that message becomes clear when the meanings are read together.