(first clause, "Now these are the names of the tribes")
Names.
The tribes are here severally named. Elsewhere whole pages of the Bible are taken up with lists of names. Let us consider the significance of this method of assortment.
I. NAMES INDICATE INDIVIDUALS. Each tribe has its name; each person also has his own private name. Thus the community is broken up into its several constituent elements. God does not treat men in the mass. He takes "one of a city, and two of a family" (Jeremiah 3:14). Each tribe of Israel had its separate district, each family its own allotted inheritance.
II. NAMES DESCRIBE CHARACTERS. This was the case with names in Old Testament times. It does not apply among us, excepting in the case of soubriquets. But the old suggestiveness contains a lesson for all time. Different men have different characters. All these varieties are known to God, even though some of them may be concealed from our fellow-men. It might often have happened that by some accident, misunderstanding, or act of malice, a false name would be given to a person—a good name to a Bad man, or a bad name to a good man. No such error can be found in God's books, the books in which he reads the names of his people. There he notes the true character of all.
III. NAMES DIRECT APPEALS. We call a person by name to arrest his attention and to show that we desire to speak to him individually, and we write his name on a letter in order that it may be sent to him and accepted by him as intended for himself. Christ calls his sheep by name (John 10:3). He knows each member of his flock separately, and has direct, separate, personal dealings with every one. God called young Samuel by name. We do not expect audible appeals from heaven. Yet God is changeless, and he just as truly seeks us out separately now as he sought out Samuel in the days of the judges.
IV. NAMES PRESERVE MEMORIES. History would be a hopeless morass but for the solid ground afforded in definite names. If a man has done anything worthy of fame he is said to have made a name. His name is now treated with respect and handed down to subsequent generations. There are names of honor and names of infamy. To Christ is given the name that is above every name (Philippians 2:9). If one lives an ill life he may earnestly desire to be forgotten; but, alas! the stigma of disgrace is indelibly stamped on his name.
V. NAMES JUSTIFY CLAIMS. A signature gives authority. A name in a will entitles its owner to what is bequeathed under it. There are names "written in the Lamb's book of life" (Revelation 21:27), and all who own those names are entitled to an eternal inheritance with the saints in light. A man's name may not be down in the list of Israel's heirs, nor recorded in any Doomsday book on earth; yet if it is written in Christ's records it is secure for a possession better and richer than the most valuable estate that can ever be enjoyed in this world.
VI. A CHANGE OF NAME SIGNIFIES A CHANGE OF STATUS. Jacob, "the Supplanter," is named afresh Israel, "God's prince" Christ's people have a new name on their foreheads (Revelation 22:4). We may leave the evil name of the old life and enjoy the blessings that attach themselves to a true Christian name.