Year in the Bible Week 9

The Jews in the Desert by Jacopo Tintoretto, c.1593

Hello friends! This week we finished the clean and unclean, moved on to God’s instruction regarding the five main festivals, and finally got into the structure of the camp, which was over 600,000 men, plus women and children! Imagine being a part of the community during that time. Every day, God was raining down enough Manna to feed the entire nation, and his presence was so close they could see God’s fire, smell the sacrifices, and watch people coming and going. There were constant miracles and judgments, reminding them that the Lord was present with them always.

Setting up the camp was very specific and we can see the military wisdom, and the community planning is very wise. Very often this kind of wisdom is credited to men, and even though Moses was a great leader in Egypt, this idea wasn’t his. The picture below shows the Tabernacle at the center, with the levites on Three sides and the clans in all four directions.

Now we dig into the Book of Numbers, and by the end of next week we will meet the Moabites and their tricky King Balak, and we will see one of the most memorable moments in scripture, as God uses Balaam’s words to spoil the Moabite king’s plans. Keep reading!