The book of Numbers really surprised me. I never had really known what it was about. But the name is pretty self-explanatory, because this book is all about counting the number of people in each tribe, assigning jobs to each tribe, and counting out men from each tribe to be in the Israelite army.
The neatest thing about the whole book, I thought, was that it very specifically described where each tribe was to camp when the people stopped traveling and set up camp. I didn't even know that the people had rules about this- I thought they just picked whatever grass spot looked best to them. I will try to post a picture of this configuration, but it may not look very professional. :(
Basically Moses was instructed to do a census of the children of Israel. God named the head of each of the tribes (btw- there was no tribe of Joseph- there was a tribe each for Ephraim and Manasseh, his children, instead. There would be 13 tribes, but remember the Levites were supposed to take care of the temple, so that left an even twelve to tally for the Israelite army- good thinkin', God!)
The tally for the men of the army of Israel ended up at 603, 550.
After all of this information, there is instruction for various things regarding the temple, mostly different types of sacrifices. Then the alter of the temple was dedicated. The instructions for the design, building/materials, and dedication of the temple and objects that were supposed to go inside it make up a large portion of this book, as well as Leviticus, the previous book.
Moses and the people were in the wilderness next to Mount Sinai for about a year, building the temple and organizing themselves and getting all of God's commandments. After this, they were more "ready" to travel, and they camped at many different places, always taking the temple with them and setting it up (it was a tent) wherever they went. Church on the go. Alright.
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