The word “standard” (or flag) is mentioned often. Every man in Israel must not only know his family but also recognize where that special standard was set up. What confusion there would have been had every man decided for himself where he would set up his own tent.
V.17 The tabernacle of the Lord was in the very center of the whole great camp. The Levites were around it. What a happy thing it would be, if we who are believers would remember this. All around us we see those who have set up their own standard. They use a name. They go to “the church of their choice.” But what does God’s Word promise? “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:2020For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20)). Let us be gathered around the standard that God has provided, the person of God’s own Son and His worthy name. It was so at the beginning of Christianity (Acts 2:4242And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. (Acts 2:42)).