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 leaders of each of the tribes of Israel(not counting the Levites), selected to help take the census of the tribes, got together and brought offerings for the dedication of the Tabernacle. The offerings from each leader was the same, despite the great disparity in the sizes of the tribes (there were almost 75,000 fighting men in the tribe of Judah, but only just over 32,000 from the tribe of Manasseh). This reflects the idea that each of the tribes was equal despite their varying sizes. There is an important lesson here for us in creating federations of smaller groups. If we want those smaller groups to each be equal in the larger group, they must each contribute equally to the larger group. The tribe of Manasseh could have claimed that because they were smaller, their share of the offerings of dedication should be smaller. However, if they had done that there would have been a perception that because they were smaller they counted for less. With each tribe giving the same offering of dedication for the Tabernacle it was established that each tribe had an equal share in the Tabernacle.