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.