Scripture Daily

Context No. 1533 of 4322 · Numbers

Context · Reflection

Numbers 7:44-49: in context

44one golden ladle of ten shekels, full of incense; 45one young bull, one ram, one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering; 46one male goat for a sin offering; 47and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two head of cattle, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Eliasaph the son of Deuel. 48On the seventh day Elishama the son of Ammihud, prince of the children of Ephraim, 49gave his offering: one silver platter, the weight of which was one hundred thirty shekels, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a meal offering;

This passage is part of a long chapter recording the offerings brought by the leaders of the twelve tribes at the dedication of the tabernacle. Each leader brought an offering, and remarkably, every one of them brought exactly the same thing: the same silver platter and bowl, the same golden ladle of incense, the same animals for the burnt, sin, and peace offerings. And scripture records each one in full, day after day, tribe by tribe, though every offering was identical, naming each giver and repeating the whole list twelve times over.

There is something worth noticing in the sheer repetition of this chapter. Twelve leaders brought identical offerings on twelve successive days, and rather than say once and be done, and the others did likewise, scripture records each day's offering in full, in the same words, twelve times, naming each giver. It would have been simpler to summarize; instead each identical gift is written out and each giver named. This says something about how God receives our repeated, routine devotion. To us, repetition can feel monotonous, our daily prayers and worship blurring into sameness, one day's offering indistinguishable from the last, and we can wonder whether God is not as wearied by the repetition as we are. But this chapter suggests otherwise. God does not lump the twelve identical offerings into a single dismissive line; he has each recorded in full, each giver named, as though each day's gift were received fresh and mattered in its own right. Our routine, repeated acts of devotion are not tedious to God; he receives each one, however like the last, as a real offering, named and recorded. The sameness that makes our worship feel monotonous to us does not make it monotonous to him. Each day's ordinary offering, identical to yesterday's, is received freshly, honored, and remembered. God is not bored by our repeated devotion; he records each offering as if it were the only one.

Do I think my routine, repeated devotion is too monotonous to matter, when God recorded twelve identical offerings in full and named each giver, receiving each one fresh, and can I trust that my ordinary daily worship, like yesterday's, is received and honored by him?

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