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<p>Here is the general appointment given both for their orderly encampment where they rested and their orderly march when they moved. Some order, it is possible, they had observed hitherto; they came out of Egypt in rank and file (<a class="bibleref" title="Exod.13.18" href="/passage/?search=Exod.13.18">Exod. 13:18</a>), but now they were put into a better model. 1. They all dwelt in tents, and when they marched carried all their tents along with them, for <i>they found no city to dwell in</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Ps.107.4" href="/passage/?search=Ps.107.4">Ps. 107:4</a>. This represents to us our state in this world. It is a movable state (we are here to-day and gone to-morrow); and it is a military state: is not our life a warfare? We do but pitch our tents in this world, and have in it no continuing city. Let us, therefore, while we are pitching in this world, be pressing through it. 2. Those of a tribe were to pitch together, <i>every man by his own standard</i>. 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. 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 <i>appoints us the bounds of our habitation</i>, and to him we must refer ourselves. <i>He shall choose our inheritance for us</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Ps.47.4" href="/passage/?search=Ps.47.4">Ps. 47:4</a>), and in his choice we must acquiesce, and not love to flit, nor be <i>as the bird that wanders from her nest</i>. 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 <i>lift up an ensign, to which the Gentiles shall seek</i>, and by which they shall pitch, <a class="bibleref" title="Isa.11.10,Isa.11.12" href="/passage/?search=Isa.11.10,Isa.11.12"><span class="bibleref" title="Isa.11.10">Isa. 11:10</span>; <span class="bibleref" title="Isa.11.12">12</span></a>. Note, God is the God of order, and not of confusion. These standards made this mighty army seem more beautiful to its friends and more formidable to its enemies. The church of Christ is said to be as <i>terrible as an army with banners</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Song.6.10" href="/passage/?search=Song.6.10">Song 6:10</a>. It is uncertain how these standards were distinguished: some conjecture that the standard of each tribe was of the same colour with the precious stone in which the name of that tribe was written in the high priest’s ephod, and that this was all the difference. Many of the modern Jews think there was some coat of arms painted in each standard, which had reference to the blessing of that tribe by Jacob. Judah bore a lion, Dan a serpent, Naphtali a hind, Benjamin a wolf, etc. Some of them say the four principal standards were, Judah a lion, Reuben a man, Joseph an ox, and Dan an eagle, making the appearances in Ezekiel’s vision to allude it. Others say the name of each tribe was written in its standard. Whatever it was, no doubt it gave a certain direction. 5. They were to pitch about the tabernacle, which was to be in the midst of them, as the tent of pavilion of a general in the centre of an army. They must encamp round the tabernacle, (1.) That it might be equally a comfort and joy to them all, as it was a token of God’s gracious presence with them. <a class="bibleref" title="Ps.46.5" href="/passage/?search=Ps.46.5">Ps. 46:5</a>; <i>God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved</i>. Their camp had
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