Scripture Daily

Context No. 3125 of 4322 · Numbers

Context · Reflection

Numbers 7:56-61: in context

56one golden ladle of ten shekels, full of incense; 57one young bull, one ram, one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering; 58one male goat for a sin offering; 59and 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 Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur. 60On the ninth day Abidan the son of Gideoni, prince of the children of Benjamin, 61gave 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 continues the twelve days of dedication offerings, Manasseh's completed and Benjamin's begun, each tribe bringing the same silver platter and bowl, the same bulls and rams and lambs and goats.

Elsewhere this record reminds us that God names each giver and honors each day's gift in turn. Here, draw one more thread: the sheer, patient repetition. Twelve days, the same list written out twelve times over, with no shortcuts. Neither Scripture nor God tired of recording each tribe's offering in full, though every one was identical. There is a lesson in that patience. God does not grow bored with faithful, repeated devotion. What may look monotonous to us, the same offering, the same prayers, the same faithful acts day after day, is not tedious to him; he receives each one fully, as though it were the first.

Do I think my repeated, ordinary acts of devotion are too monotonous to matter, when God receives each one fully, as he did each identical tribal gift?

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