Feb 13: Numbers 7:60 – 10:10
Ok, I have to
admit that I secretly appreciate all the duplication in both yesterday’s and
today’s texts. It is easy to scan the text and get done quickly. Just so you
know, I did carefully look at each contribution to verify that everyone brought
identical offerings! Ok, so I definitely went off on a tangent when I was
reading all of this. Did one group of craftsmen make all of the plates,
sprinkling bowls, and gold dishes, or did each tribe make their own? Were the
designs identical, similar, or totally different? And the organizer in me wants
to know if they stacked efficiently!
Can you
imagine the pageantry and grandeur of the dedication time? Twelve days of
sacrifices and then the gathering of the entire group (remember, almost 2
million people) to dedicate the Levites.
More than 8500 men were dedicated to service in the tabernacle (and we
don’t know if all the rest of the Levite men and women were included). All
freshly washed and their entire bodies shaved. The Israelites must have juggled
for position to lay their hands on a Levite in dedication. Children were
stretching and creeping forward through the crowd to be able to see. Oh, the
awesome responsibility of being not only set aside from the world as an
Israelite, but then dedicated wholly to serve God in his earthly residence.
And then, in
the presence of the entire assembly the cloud of God descended upon the
tabernacle as evidence that all they had done was acceptable to God. I can’t
even comprehend the amazement they must have felt.
Some ‘fun’
items in today’s reading:
·
This
is the first mention of retirement – at age 50
·
The
Levites were presented as a wave offering to the Lord. I have to giggle a bit
(probably disrespectfully) because I can only imagine ‘the wave’ that occurs in
a stadium. Lord forgive my disrespect.
·
The
second Passover was celebrated. Oh, the memories people must have had as they
recollected all the events of the past year.
TOMORROW’S
TEXT: Numbers 10:11 – 13:16
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