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.