Numbers 7

celebrating the Passover (9:1–14), numbering the soldiers (chap. 1), organizing the tribes (chap. 2), and assigning the priestly duties (chaps. 3—4).

When Mohandas K. Gandhi was the spiritual leader of India, a missionary asked him what he thought was the biggest obstacle to Christian missions in India, and Gandhi replied, “Christians.”

We may not like his answer, but we do have to face the fact that too often God’s people get in the way of God’s work. This is no better illustrated than in the book of Numbers where we see Israel repeatedly disobeying God and suffering for it. This explains why the Lord laid down some plain and practical rules for daily life in the camp of Israel. Israel was God’s chosen people, separated from the other nations, and God wanted them to be different in the way they lived. What kind of people did the Lord want them to be?

On the first day of the first month, in the second year after Israel was delivered from Egypt, the tabernacle was erected and dedicated to the Lord (Ex. 40). On that day the twelve tribes of Israel began to bring special offerings to the Lord to be used by the priests and Levites in the tabernacle service. The people had donated generously to the building of the tabernacle (Ex. 25:1–8; 35:4–36:7), and now they were contributing to its ministry and maintenance.

A cursory reading of this long chapter (the longest in the Pentateuch) might give the impression that it contains nothing but repetition, for on twelve successive days each of the tribal leaders brought identical gifts. But we must not miss the point that God took notice of each gift, each leader, and each tribe on each successive day. In fact, each leader is mentioned twice, at the beginning of the report and at the end. We met these leaders in Numbers 1:5–16 and 2:3–32. The order is the same as that established for Israel whenever they marched to a new location.

While it’s impossible by modern prices to calculate the value of these gifts, it’s obvious that this was a very costly and generous offering. No doubt the twelve leaders got together and decided what to give, and then they gave their respective tribes opportunity to contribute. The gifts were both expensive and useful, showing generosity and practicality. The silver plates and bowls, and the gold dish (spoon, kjv), were needed for the priests’ ministry in the tabernacle, as were their contents of flour and incense. Of course, the twenty-one animals for sacrifices that each leader brought would represent a considerable amount of money, a total of 252 beasts!

The fact that God noted and recorded each name and each gift indicates His love for and interest in the individual believer. He knows our names (John 10:3) and has recorded them individually in His heavenly register (Luke 10:20; Phil. 4:3). When we stand before the Lord, He will see us individually, “and then shall every man have praise of God” (1 Cor. 4:5) and “every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor” (3:8). Nobody will be overlooked and nobody will be lost in the crowd.

David kept a register of the names of his “mighty men” (2 Sam. 23:8–39), and Paul sent greetings and appreciation to his friends in Rome (Rom. 16), twenty-six of whom he named specifically and two that he simply mentioned. David was a great warrior, but where would he have been without his mighty men? Paul was a great apostle and evangelist, but he needed his helpers to get the job done.

Just as with His ancient people, God wants His people today to be clean and separated, “unspotted from the world” (James 1:27). Campbell Morgan said that when the church was the least like the world, the church did the most for the world. We are a people blessed of the Lord, and with these blessings comes the obligation to be a blessing to others. God wants us to be a generous people, supporting the local church and helping the work of the Lord around the world as He directs us.

Can God count on us?