Numbers 7:84 This was the dedication of the altar, in the day when it was anointed, by the princes of Israel: twelve chargers of silver, twelve silver bowls, twelve spoons of gold.
Numbers 7 is the longest chapter in the book of Numbers. There are 89 verses. It is the kind of chapter you might wake up to read one morning, then panic because you don’t have enough time to read such a long chapter. I think the easiest way for me to explain why it is such a long chapter is for me to tell you what I did in our staff devotions at the Ranch this morning.
When I started, I reminded people that this was the longest chapter in the book of Numbers, and I told everyone that we were going to read it word for word out loud today. I read the first three verses in a condensed form to set the context. Then, I chose twelve people to read one verse, which was representative of the entire chapter. I had the twelve people read their verses all at the same time. They ended up reading in unison because all of the verses they read say the exact same thing.
Well, what is the chapter about? The Bible says, “And it came to pass on the day that Moses had fully set up the tabernacle, and had anointed it…that the princes of Israel… brought their offering before the LORD.” That is a distillation of the first three verses of Numbers chapter 7. What follows is an account of the twelve tribes, represented by twelve princes, individually bringing their offerings to the Lord. The verse I had everyone read was just the shortest verse for each section.
Basically, the Bible repeats six verses twelve times. The reason is that this is an account of twelve offering that were identical for each of the twelve tribes offering them. For instance, verse 14 says, “One spoon of ten shekels of gold, full of incense.” If you look at verse 20, a different tribe on the second day, the Bible says, “One spoon of gold of ten shekels full of incense.” And on it goes, the exact same verse twelve times over.
Verse 84 summarizes the entire chapter. It says, “This was the dedication of the altar, in the day when it was anointed, by the princes of Israel: twelve chargers of silver, twelve silver bowls, twelve spoons of gold.” In other words, the tribe of Judah, the tribe of Naphtali, and so on all gave one spoon. In total it was twelve spoons.
Now, though we did a speed reading of this entire chapter, God doesn’t speed read. Do numbers count? Yes, they do, and they count because people count. So what you have is a long chapter that basically could be summarized in one verse, “This was the dedication of the altar,” and it gives you the totals.
God said the exact same things twelve times over, and He did it on purpose. There may be a number of reasons, but one thing that is transparently obvious is that teamwork does not hide your individual contribution to God’s eyes. Sometimes we feel like, “I am doing the same thing that everyone else is doing. People don’t see me as a person; they see me as a nameless face at church.” God does not see it that way. There are twelve princes here, most of whom we know nothing about. But God not only knows them, He remembers them here.
Let me tell you, it is not the same without you. It is not that God can’t survive without you, but it is not the same without you. God knows you. How would this record read if the tribe of Naphtali was missing? Well, at 6:30 in the morning I probably wouldn’t be awake enough to even miss that, but God would miss that. God knows you and your contribution. When God looks at you, He does not merely see a nameless face. When God gave us the record of Numbers, God is reminding us that numbers count because people count.
Teamwork is important, whether at your church or some other entity that is doing something worthwhile, but teamwork does not hide your individual contribution to God’s eyes. God knows, God remember, and God cares.