If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.
14-15 February. Numbers chapters 7-10.
These chapters complete the instructions for the furnishings of the tabernacle and for the ministry of the Levite tribe. One little point of interest is that they were to commence their service from the age of 25 and retire from active ministry at 50 (8:23-25). The prime of their lives was to be given to God, but not their youth or old age (50 being old then in a way that it is not now!). Too many people leave the church in their teens or early adulthood because of other interests or family commitments, and only return after the age of 40 or 50, meaning that we end up with congregations consisting of mainly elderly people and a few young families. How can we encourage people in that elusive 25-50 age bracket to come back and give of the best years of their lives to God?
Shortly after celebrating the Passover on the second anniversary of the Exodus, the tribes break camp and begin the first of many stages of wandering that would last a generation (38 more years, if the ’40 years in the wilderness’ is taken as accurate rather than indicative). All seemed well, but…