This week’s Torah portion is the first four chapters of the Book of Numbers; so called because it records the census, the counting of the men of Israel. In Hebrew, it is called ‘Bamidbar’ – ‘In the Wilderness.’ The wilderness became for the children of Israel a place of divine encounter, a place where God demonstrated His love, the place where He took them to be His people. A place He remembers with love.

This portion is traditionally read on the Shabbat before the Festival of Shavuot which is seen as the festival that not only commemorates the giving of the Torah, but reminds us of that moment when God married Israel under the Chuppah (the wedding canopy) of Mount Sinai. A tradition has developed out of this for the Jewish bridegroom to be called up to read from the Torah on the Shabbat before his own wedding.

We are told that the census took place one month after the Tabernacle had been erected. What is the significance of the Lord counting the men of Israel? Is it simply to find out how many men are of age to fight: surely the Lord knew the answer to this? So taking a census reveals something else, but to whom?

The rabbis note that we read in the Tanach (OT) ten times when the children of Israel were counted:

1. When Jacob goes down to Egypt (Genesis 46)
2. When the children of Israel came out of Egypt (Exodus 12:37)
3. After the sin of the golden calf (Ex30:12)(Exodus 32:27-28,33-35)
4. After the erection of the Tabernacle (Numbers 1)
5. To show that there were no survivors of Moses census in Num 1- God’s judgement had been executed and that generation (Numbers 26)
6. Saul counts them before striking down the Ammonites (1 Samuel 11:18)
7. Saul again counts them before defeating the Amelekites (1 Samuel 15:4)
8. David counts them in anger (2 Samuel 24:9)
9. Ezra and Nehemiah count them after the return from Exile (Ezra 2:64; Nehemiah 7:66)
10. The Midrash Rabba explains that the tenth and final counting will be in the Messianic Era when "The flocks shall again pass under the hands of Him that counts them." (Jeremiah 33:13)

It is believed by Jewish scholars too that this last counting refers to King Messiah and of this we can be sure: for Yeshua called himself the Good Shepherd, the One who knows when even one of us goes astray. So, perhaps Rashi the famous medieval French rabbi had it right when he wrote that it was God’s love for His people that motivated Him to count them and that God is always counting us.

He notes that they were counted as they came out of exile and again when God took note of the survivors after the sin of the golden calf and He counted them after establishing the tabernacle as His dwelling place on the earth. Perhaps the key to understanding why these censuses were taken is found in the root of the Hebrew word used. Moses was told in Numbers 1:3 ‘to number’ them and the Hebrew word here is, ‘pakod’, which also means to "remember" and "be concerned with." God, then, is not simply counting them, He is remembering them, He is committing them to memory.

Numbers 1:20 The people of Reuben, Israel's firstborn, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war:

Each one was counted by name and remembered by God. We see here something of vital importance. He doesn’t just remember the great men, spiritual giants, but the ordinary too are considered worthy of His time. It has been pointed out that you don’t count something unless it has significance to us – we count our money, our friends and even our enemies. Here God counts all the men of Israel because they might have to go to war and lose their lives and He wanted them to know that He knew them by name and he valued them. How encouraging to be reminded that God knows us by name and that we belong to Him. The Good Shepherd laid down His life for us and He won’t allow one of us to be lost.

2 Timothy 2:19 But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: "The Lord knows those who are his.”

Interestingly, the usual Haftorah reading that goes with this Torah Portion (although not this year) comes from Hosea 2 which begins in the Hebrew Tanach (OT) at 1:10 with words that echo his covenant with Abraham (Genesis 22:17). In the midst of the Lord’s rebuke to Israel, He declares his faithfulness.

Hosea 1:10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered.

The book of Hosea tells of the epic love story of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob for the children of Israel. God explains His relationship with Israel is that of a husband who loves his unfaithful wife. In this chapter we see God unleashing both His anger and the pain He experiences as a result of Israel’s betrayal. He reveals just how unsuccessful His marriage is – there is no pretence here just the raw pain of God’s heart spoken out to his people. Yet this love for his people is so great, so deep, so encompassing, that nothing can destroy it. Not even their desertion of Him. His love is so enduring that He provides the solution to its success: Himself through the gift of his Son.

Romans 8:38-39 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Messiah Yeshua, our Lord.

The Tanach (OT) has as a recurring motif the imagery of Israel as a bride and links it clearly to the festival of Shavuot, also called the Festival of First Fruits:

Jeremiah 2:2 "Thus says the LORD, "I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holy to the LORD, the first fruits of his harvest.”

God is remembering His Bride, how he led her out of Egypt and took as His own, the first among nations to enter into covenant relationship with Him as His people; to whom He entrusted His Torah so that they would establish his light and truth and prepare the way for the coming of His Messiah. Israel, His bride, is the first fruits of the peoples of the earth pointing forward to the ingathering of the nations through the Messiah. Paul also picks up this motif:

2 Corinthians 11:2 For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I espoused you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

Back in Hosea 2 we have the Lord’s faithful promise to His bride: He will renew His covenant with His people. He will with deep affection speak words of love to her. He promises a relationship of deep tenderness. His bride will not call Him master but ‘my husband’ for the affection is to be mutual. There will be a song of worship that arises within her.

Hosea 2:19-20 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.

As God’s people we will know and experience just how good He is as He calls us to live in covenant relationship with Him through Yeshua.