Then the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first of the second month, in the second year after they  had come out of the land of Egypt, saying...

In this week’s parashah we find G-d commanding that a census be taken of the Israelites.  Where in this seemingly tedious accounting of the tribes of Israel can we find a portrait of Messiah?  Scripture records a census during this period of Israel's redemption from Egypt.  Scripture also records a census during the period of Israel's redemption from sin and death.  It was the Roman census which resulted in Mary going to Bethlehem (Luke 2:4-5) and fulfilling the prophecy of Micah 5:2-5.  Bethlehem is the home town of King David (1 Samuel 17:12) which provides another prophetic link to the long-awaited Messiah.  How many myriads of details had to occur in perfect order for this single prophetic event to be fulfilled?  And this is only one among more than a hundred prophecies regarding the Messiah given in Scripture.  Only our sovereign G-d could have orchestrated a single one of them much less all of them.  First century readers of parashah B'midbar would have seen a clear link between a census, Bethlehem, Messiah, King David, and G-d's promised redemption.

Here in parashah B'midbar the census is the initial paintbrush stroke of another portrait of Messiah.