I decided to start doing more on my personal devotions, and the OT has been nagging at the back of my mind, so I flipped to Numbers and started meditating on it… Some interesting stuff, and it ended up taking me back to Exodus for some backup reading, so a good start all in all…

Numbers 1:1 – the Israelites have a portable temple, called the “Tent of Meeting” and God speaks to Moses there… I need to look into this more, and what is the Tabernacle?

1:2-3 – God likes numbers, there seems to be some sort of divine order in creation, God is precise and numbers are a language he uses to teach us how perfect He is…

1:20-40 – Wow, a whole lot of counting… again, precision…

1:47-53 – God even has chosen people inside his “Chosen People” to handle the Tabernacle.

Exodus 40

Note: There seems to be an emphasis on Moses obeying the Lord, “as the Lord commanded him” appears 8 times in this chapter.

40:2-15 – God gives Moses specific instructions, so that he can obey, and bring glory to God.

40:16-33 – Moses obey’s, on every last little detail.

40:34-38 – God comes down and fills the portable temple, and He gives a sign to tell them when to move and when to stay. Also, remember only Aaron & his sons can enter the “Tent of Meeting”, as God had commanded… (NOTE: actually God said no one else could even approach it or they would be put to death).

Finally, in Numbers 1 we see God give Aaron and his sons helpers, the Levites…

Numbers 2-3
In chapters 2 and 3 we see God layout the camping arrangements and responsibilities for the tribes of Israel. Moses obeyed. We also see why God chose the Levites to help with the Tabernacle. They were to take the place of the 22,273 firstborn of Israel that God wanted for himself… But there were only 22,000 Levites that were eligible for service to God, and because God is an exact God he requred payment for the last 273, even having Moses collect gold of a certain proportion to the 273 so that the debt could be satisfied…