We’re making progress! Numbers 10:11 begins the second major section of the book.
For two years, Israel has been living at the base of Mount Sinai. Then, to their amazement, “It came to pass on the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, that the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle of the Testimony” (v 11). They were on the move! I don’t know how long it took them to pack, but I know they didn’t have all the stuff we accumulate! It must have been quite a project for the Levites to dismantle the tabernacle, that’s for sure. But “the children of Israel set out from the Wilderness of Sinai on their journeys” (v 12). As chapter 2 explains, here was the order of their march: JUDAH with Issachar and Zebulun following; then the Gershonites with the veils and coverings on two ox-carts, and the Merarites carrying the tabernacle structures on four carts; then REUBEN, joined by Simeon and Gad; after that, in the middle of the march, the Kohathites carrying the holy tabernacle furniture on their shoulders, the highest being the ark, God’s throne on earth, covered in heavenly blue; then EPHRAIM with Manasseh and Benjamin; and finally DAN with Asher and Naphtali bringing up “the rear guard of all the camps” (v 25). Chapter 10 carefully lists all the leaders because God values those who direct His people to follow in His ways. In fact, Peter tells the overseers of the Church in our day that “when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away” (1 Pet 5:4). They should serve “not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock” (vv 2-3). How have they served? Willingly. Eagerly. Exemplary. God, give us more leaders like that, and help us to encourage the ones we do have!