God's Delight in Order
W. Attersoll. Numbers 2:1-2 And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,… 1. God is the God of order, not of confusion. As He hath order in Himself, so He commandeth and commendeth an order to be used of us. 2. All wise men will order their affairs with wisdom and discretion, and will dispose of them with seemliness and comeliness. An expert captain that goeth against his enemies will keep his soldiers in good array, whether he march or retire. If he fly out of the field out of order one is ready to overthrow another, and all are left to the mercy of his adversary. 3. The Church is not a confused multitude shuffled together, where no man knoweth his place or his office, and one encroacheth upon another; but it is the house of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth. Now in a house well ordered is to be seen the master as the ruler, and the family subject to his government, every one employing his proper gifts, and no man usurping the place and calling of another. If this be to be seen in our private houses, how much more must we conceive this of the Church of God, which is the house that He hath builded, the mountain of the Lord which He hath prepared, and the peculiar people which He hath chosen?Uses: 1. Learn from hence to acknowledge an exquisite order in all God's words and works above and beneath, in heaven and on earth. 2. This reproveth such as know no order, but bring in all confusion and disorder in Church or commonwealth; these have nothing to do with God, but are the children of the devil, that hath transformed them into his image and likeness. For from whence are seditions and confusions but from our own lusts, enflamed and kindled from his furnace? 3. Seeing God requireth orderly observation of His ordinances, we learn this duty, that we must be careful to observe it and practise it with a due regard of His commandment. This is the general rule that the apostle commendeth unto us (1 Corinthians 14). (W. Attersoll.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, WEB: Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,