Nu. 7: The Israelites Hit The Same Sale

Moses is done setting up the tabernacle by now. So after anointing and consecrating it and all its furnishings, the tribes brought their offerings.

The first gifts were a total of six carts and twelve oxen. Each cart was pulled by two oxen, and there was one ox from each tribe. I wonder if there’s any significance there, like the twelve tribes were pulling six somethings…

They were distributed among the Levites for their temple work…
Gershonites – two carts, four oxen
Merarites – four carts, eight oxen
Kohathites – nothing. They had to carry the tabernacle stuff on their shoulders with poles.

For twelve days, each leader of each tribe brought the same offering to the temple. The offering was exactly the same from each tribe:
- One silver plate weighing 130 shekels (filled with fine flour and oil as a grain offering)
- One silver sprinkling bowl weighing 70 shekels (filled with fine flour and oil as a grain offering)
- One gold dish weighing ten shekels (filled with incense)
- One young bull, one ram and one male lamb a year old (burnt offering)
- One male goat (sin offering)
- Two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five male lambs a year old (fellowship offering)

Day one, the offering was brought by Nahshon of the tribe of Judah.
Day two, the offering was brought by Nethanel of the tribe of Issachar.
Day three, the offering was brought by Eliab of the tribe of Zebulun.
Day four, the offering was brought by Elizur of the tribe of Reuben.
Day five, the offering was brought by Shelumiel of the tribe of Simeon.
Day six, the offering was brought by Eliasaph of the tribe of Gad.
Day seven, the offering was brought by Elishama of the tribe of Ephraim.
Day eight, the offering was brought by Gamaliel of the tribe of Manasseh.
Day nine, the offering was brought by Abidan of the tribe of Benjamin.
Day ten, the offering was brought by Ahiezer of the tribe of Dan.
Day eleven, the offering was brought by Pagiel of the tribe of Asher.
Day twelve, the offering was brought by Ahira of the tribe of Naphtali.

Why did they all have to bring exactly the same thing? Perhaps they each had their own plate, bowl and dish for their people? I can understand the offering…offerings.

And I wonder if Warren Harding’s parents named him after this Gamaliel? There aren’t many names there in use by westerners…We all probably know a Reuben, Simeon, Benjamin…Dan. Ahira seems more Japanese to me.

What an awesome celebration this must have been, to have every single Israelite present in the span of twelve days. This was going to be their tabernacle. Each of them had a stake in it, and had an offering offered for them.