Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 7.

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I know I have written about this before, but it is one of the most important parts of today’s passage: Each tribe, in the person of the chief of the tribe, made the same contribution to the consecration of the tabernacle.  This was to ensure that the tribes all understood that they had equal standing before God.  None of the tribes could claim that God was more their god, than He was of any of the other tribes.  That was important in the cultures of that day because the various gods were both regional and ethnic.  The gods of Egypt were the gods of the Nile River valley, but they were also the gods of the Egyptian people.  While they were in Egypt, the Israelites had been expected to worship to gods of Egypt, but they were also to understand that the Egyptian people were favored by their gods over the Hebrews, even if the Hebrews conducted the same rituals and sacrifices to them.  It was made clear here that none of the tribes of Israel were favored by God over the others.

I don’t think I have written about this before, but I do think about it every time I read this passage.  Why didn’t the writer just say list the offering given by every chief once and then say that each chief gave the same thing?  It should be obvious that there were reasons for listing who each of the chiefs were, but did the writer have to repeat the offerings for each one?  The answer that question is, yes, he needed to repeat the offerings for each one.  Once again that was necessary to show that each gave the same amount in order to show that all of the tribes were equal before God.  In addition, it gives a greater sense of the solemnity with which the Israelites approached the dedication of the altar.

My final point today is about the last verse in today’s passage.  There we are told that when the Lord spoke to Moses in the tabernacle he heard the voice speaking from above the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant (note that the word here translated as “ark” means “box”), from between the two cherubim.  I had mentioned back when we covered the design of the ark that it resembles both the thrones of gods set up in Egyptian temples upon which the Egyptian priests set up their idols each day, and the portable throne which Ramses took with him to war (and archeologists believe it likely that each Pharaoh of this time period did similarly).  Pharaoh would have sat on the seat of their throne and spoken to their people when they held court.  Pharaoh’s portable throne was intended to communicate that he was one of the gods, and that when he spoke from the throne, it was a god speaking to the people.  God spoke from the similar place above the ark of the covenant to tell the people of Israel that the Egyptians were trying to claim His power and authority and that they were to never place someone or something else in that place.  I find it interesting that despite the people of Israel at several times throughout their history setting up other gods in place of God, they never placed another god on the mercy seat.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 7.

Today’s passage reviews how the leader of each of the twelve tribes gave the same offering for the dedication of the tabernacle.  I want to note that for this passage it counts Ephraim and Manasseh as two of the twelve and does not count Levi.  The leaders of the tribes coordinated to give twelve oxen and six carts to be used to transport the tabernacle.  Then each was given a day to provide offerings and sacrifices.  One might wonder why the writer did not just write the list of items each tribal leader gave and then say which tribal leader gave on which day, but that would have diminished the sense of how much the people of Israel offered and sacrificed for the dedication of the tabernacle.  I find it interesting that all of that leads into the ending of the passage where it tells us that when Moses entered the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, the Lord now spoke to him from two cherubim above the ark.  First, this is how the writer chose to tell us that the tabernacle has taken the place of the tent which Moses had set up outside the camp to function as the place for him to meet with God: the tabernacle was now the tent of meeting.  Second, before, God had spoken out of the cloud which rested on the tent of meeting, now He spoke from above the Ark of the Covenant.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 7.

In today’s passage we once again see the Children of Israel divided into the “twelve plus one” groupings I mentioned a couple of days ago.  In fact, the twelve plus one nature of the tribal divisions is more obvious in today’s passage.  Here the leaders of each of the “twelve” made offerings for the upkeep of the tabernacle.  The first part of these offerings were a cart for every two of the leaders of the “twelve” and an ox from each of them (two of the oxen to pull each of the carts).  These oxen and carts were given into the care of the “one” in order for them to transport the tabernacle and its furnishings.  In addition, the leader of each of the “twelve” offered items to be sacrificed by the leader of the “one”.  I believe it was this passage with the tribe of Levi handling the offerings made by the other twelve tribes which caused me to see a connection with Jesus and His twelve Apostles.  There is more to this parallel between the relationship of the Levites to the rest of Israel and the relationship of Jesus to the Twelve Apostles, but I do not yet have a clear enough understanding of it to write about it.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 7.

At first I did not know what to make of today’s passage because it can be easily seen as a repetitive listing of the same offerings from different people.  However, when I thought about it I realized there is something interesting here.  The leader of each tribe gave exactly the same offering as the leader of every other tribe for the dedication of the Tabernacle.  They did this despite the tribes varying in population by a very large degree.  I believe this reflects the principle that each tribe had an equal share within the nation of Israel, regardless of how many warriors they could provide to the nation.  Having written that, I am not sure what significance it actually has.  It seemed very significant when I started writing.  I thought that as I wrote I would be able to explain that significance, but that did not happen.  I am still convinced the equality of the tribes is significant, but I am not sure why.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 7.

I am not sure if I am correct, but it seems to me that in today’s passage we see Ephraim and Manasseh counted so as to make the number of tribes equal twelve without counting the tribe of Levi.  To me this is a foreshadowing of Jesus and His Twelve Apostles.  I find it interesting that we have this symbolism in the Torah 12 +1.  I did an Internet search (DuckDuckGo, not Google) for the Jewish understanding of the meaning and found a lot of articles which spoke of the fact that the number of Tribes was always 12, either Levi was counted and Ephraim and Manasseh were counted as part of the tribe of Joseph, or Ephraim and Manasseh were counted as two tribes and Levi was not counted.  However, as a Christian, I cannot help but see a parallel between the Tribe of Levi and the other 12 Tribes with Jesus and His Twelve Apostles.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 7.

The leader of each tribe, except for the tribe of Levi, presented the same items for the dedication of the Tabernacle.  I had mentioned the other day the way in which the descendants of Joseph being divided into two tribes created a circumstance which foreshadows (in a way) Jesus and His twelve apostles.  This passage makes that more clear by showing how the leaders of the twelve tribes made their offerings.  I actually find it interesting that the Old Testament sometimes designates twelve tribes by the names of Jacob’s sons, which would include Levi, and at other times does not include the Tribe of Levi and counts Ephraim and Manasseh separately.  The former seems to be in situations where the listing is more ceremonial, while the latter appears most of the time when the writer is describing actual events involving the tribes (such as today’s passage).  It is passages such as today’s which make me see the relationship between the Levites and the rest of the tribes as a foreshadowing of Jesus and His apostles.