So in this verse it talks about the jobs for the men in the Levite clans between the ages of 30 and 50. For some reason, it made me start to wonder about the number of Israelites traveling through the wilderness...
so we have 8.580 men between the ages of 30 and 50 in the tribe of Levi...if we look back to yesterday's chapter, we see that the number of males over the age of 2 was about 22,000. Let's assume that their is an equivalent number of females, so now we are at 44,000. Now there are 12 tribes traveling, so we have 538,000.
Now just take a moment and try to imagine leading upwards of a half a million people through the wilderness. Somehow this seems bigger to me than I had ever really thought about or imagines. And all these people need to be governed in addition to being guided.
It is no wonder that God gave Moses specific instructions and job for different groups. And the people had to submit to that direction in order for the journey to not become a pit of chaos.
When I think about that journey, I think about the different times I have rebelled. I can be stubborn and want my way. Of course we know the Israelites also rebelled, so I don't want to indicate that things went smoothly...in fact they didn't. But I challenge you to put yourself in the shoes of one of those Israelites and consider what that journey would have been like. Would you humble yourself or rebel? Would you want to stay with the whole nation or take your chances with a smaller group?
After you have thought about that, I also challenge you to think about your current submission to God's direction. How are you doing? Are there some changes that need to be made?
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