for Issachar, Nethaneel the son of Zuar;
Numbers 1 opens with God ordering a census of Israel's fighting men. He names one man from each tribe to stand with Moses and Aaron and do the counting. Verse 8 names the man for Issachar. Scripture tells us nothing else about him, so the question is what a bare name and a father's name are doing in the record at all.
Chosen, not elected
The tribal heads were not picked by the people or even by Moses. Commenting on how the list is introduced, one writer draws out who did the choosing.
Our chapter records that as a preliminary a "head" or prince of each tribe was selected. The choice was not left to the people, or even to Moses. The word to him was, "These are the names of the men that shall stand with you…" God chose His own leader for each tribe, and this may usefully remind us that God today chooses His own servants and leaders, and does not submit the matter to a popular vote.
Names left to speak
Because the record gives us nothing about these men except their names, the names themselves carry the weight.
Of these we have nothing noted but their own and their fathers' names, but just for that reason, if there could otherwise be doubt, we may be sure that their names are intended to speak to us. All these Bible names should speak and their connection with the several tribes which they represent must be of importance.
Nethanel belongs to a cluster of names in this list built on the Hebrew word for God. Another writer counts them and reads something into the pattern.
It may be that the Spirit of God was stirring the hearts of many in Israel at this time, and turning them to the God of their fathers. If we read the names of those who were "the renowned of the congregation" in Numbers and remember that "El" means "God," we cannot but be struck with the number of names of which this forms a part. For example, Numbers 1:5, Elizur means "God is my rock"; verse 6, Shelumiel means "Friend of God"; verse 8, Nathaneel means "Given of God"; verse 9, Eliab means "My God is Father."
The gift set against the hire
Issachar's own name means "hire," and Jacob's words over him in Genesis 49 picture a strong donkey that bows its shoulder and becomes a servant at forced labour. Against that background, a prince named "gift of God" is pointed.
Issachar's prince comes fourth in the list, Nathaniel, the "gift of God" — again exactly suited to him whose name speaks of hire, and whose tendency is to stoop his shoulder to foreign yokes, and to pay his tribute from the love of ease. The spirit of legality takes up readily with such strange service, since it is self which it really serves, and a bribe will turn it from its true Master… the hireling spirit in the people of God themselves would turn His grace into legal compensation, and a true overcomer is this Nathaniel who has learnt that the "gift of God" cannot be purchased.
Son of "little"
The father's name is not filler. Zuar means "little," and commentators tie the two names together as cause and effect.
Nethanel was the son of Zuar, meaning "little." How true it is that when we receive every blessing simply as a gift of God our pride will be brought low, no longer to think highly of ourselves, but like Paul, whose name means "little," to consider ourselves "less than the least of all saints" (Eph. 3:8).
Standing in the ranks
Nethanel does not stand alone. In the camp order that follows, Issachar takes his place beside Judah, whose name means "praise."
The last thought connects with Issachar, who, with Zebulon, fights under Judah's banner, with his captain Nathaniel, "the gift of God." They are both under the best of leadership evidently. The one will not seek his own, nor the other stray off to the world, while Judah leads.
Later, this tribe became known for something more than numbers.
Some of Issachar came to David at Ziklag, and of them it is said that they "had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do" (1 Chr. 12:32).
Counted because owned
Behind the whole roll call is God's claim on the people He redeemed.
He was careful thus to assert His title, and survey His possessions. He would have the number of Israel exactly brought to Him, for they were all His own. He called them by their names, and knew their numbers.
Summary
- Chosen — God Himself named the man who stood for Issachar. The tribe did not vote him in, and Moses did not pick him.
- Named — Scripture records no deeds for him, only a name. Writers take that silence as the point: the name is the message. Nethanel means "gift of God."
- Gift — a tribe whose name means "hire" gets a leader whose name means gift, and the gift of God cannot be bought or earned.
- Little — his father's name, Zuar, means "little." Receiving everything as a gift brings pride down to size.
- Ranked — the gift-of-God man marches under Judah's banner, and his tribe later gave David men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.