Here were the original “Twelve Days” of giving. But sorry, no leaping lords or maids a-milking.
Do you recall that this book in the Greek was called Arithmoi? Well, God certainly does His arithmetic here. After the long list of the dedication gifts in Numbers 7:11-83, the Lord totals them all for us in verses 84-88. There were 252 animals given as offerings, and the gold and silver was substantial. Each silver platter was estimated to weigh 4.5 pounds (2 kilos), not including its contents. The precious metals certainly added up: “All the silver of the vessels weighed two thousand four hundred shekels,…all the gold of the pans weighed one hundred and twenty shekels” (vv 85-86). It was quite a display of largesse—strangely reminiscent of, but way better than, the “Twelve Days of Christmas”! The last verse gives us a clue as to why this was all so important. After all twelve days of giving was done, we read: “When Moses went into the tabernacle of meeting to speak with Him, he heard the voice of One speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the Testimony” (v 89). Ah, that was it! God was speaking! These gifts pointed to His “indescribable gift” (2 Cor 9:15). All the gold pointed to the glory of Christ’s deity; the silver spoke of His lavish redemption; the grain offerings illustrated His sinless life; the animals prefigured His infinite sacrifice; and the incense reminds us of the sweet satisfaction He brought to His Father. God is not enriched by our giving to Him—He owns everything! He gave us everything in the gift of His Son. Someone noted that this chapter has 89 verses and the four Gospels have a total of 89 chapters. There we will hear “the voice of One speaking,” not from above the mercy seat, but as a real Man living in our world, talking to people like us with God’s message for our hearts.