The camp of Israel

“The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: ‘The Israelites are to camp around the Tent of Meeting some distance from it, each man under his standard with the banners of his family.’” Numbers 2:1-2
The first part of the book of Numbers is a portion of Scripture that we may be tempted to gloss over, but even in these descriptions of the camp of Israel and the census taken of the Israelites, there are some special insights for those who would take the time to look.
The Israelites were to camp around the Tent of Meeting, the Tabernacle – the place where God had promised to reside among the people. As we know, they consisted of twelve tribes (the descendants of Joseph being split into the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, and the Levites excluded from the count in order to be used in the service of the Tabernacle). These twelve tribes camped in four camps: Judah, Issachar and Zebulun under the standard of Judah; Reuben, Simeon and Gad under the standard of Reuben; Ephraim, Manasseh and Benjamin under the standard of Ephraim; and Dan, Asher and Naphtali under the standard of Dan.
Throughout history, the tribes of Israel have had tribal symbols, largely drawn from the blessings of Jacob (Gen. 49) and Moses (Deut. 33). We have all heard of ‘the lion of the tribe of Judah’ – Judah’s symbol was indeed the lion. Reuben’s symbol was the man. Ephraim’s symbol was the ox. And one of the symbols of the tribe of Dan was the eagle.
Why is this of interest? Because of what we read elsewhere in the Scriptures about the cherubim surrounding the throne of God: they have four faces: a lion, a man, an ox and and eagle (Ezek. 1:10, Rev. 4:7). We know that the Tabernacle itself was a model of God’s throne room in heaven; here we see that it was not just the Tabernacle that was a model, but in fact the whole nation of Israel.