Clearly
excited Zeb told the gang, “But that isn’t the half of it! Look
at chapter 2. It repeats the totals for each tribe and its head
person and his father’s name too! Do they match with chapter 1?
Absolutely!” Next Zeb drew a big box on the blackboard and wrote
the word ‘Tabernacle’ inside of it. Then he told the gang, look
at verse 3 of chapter 2. “Do you see the words ‘east side’? And
down in verse 10 do you see the words ‘south side’? Now look at
verse 18 and 25. You’ll see ‘west side’ and ‘north side’.”
“What
happens is that God is telling all the tribes where they are always
to camp around the Tabernacle. On the east side of this tabernacle
square we’ll write “Judah, Issachar, and Zebulon”. On the south
side down here we’ll write “Reuben, Simeon, and Gad.” He then
continued on with writing the remainder of the 12 tribe’s names
being sure to have just 3 tribes on each side of the Tabernacle
square.
“Now
look in verse 9 to see the total stated for the 3 tribes on the east
side of the tabernacle. Does this verse jive with the sum of the
individual totals of those three tribes? Now look at verses 16, 24,
and 31. These verses also give the totals for each group of 3.
Now
here’s the frosting on the cake. Look at the number representing
the sum of the totals of the 4 groups. Frankie, what does it say?”
Frankie was not a very big fella and not all that lively but he
shouted so loud it got Smokey to barking. “Zeb. It says 603,550! It
matches everything. Nobody had a bad hair day writing all these names
and numbers down! God’s Word is true… no mistakes… I can feel
good and comfortable about reading every inch of it!”
A
couple of the boys rubbed Frankie’s back to calm him down and make
Smokey quit barking. Two of the rescue squad team ran in to the mop
room and were ready to put a cold wash rag on Frankie. Norma said,
“its all right fellas. Frankie just got real excited when he saw
that God’s Word is true and we can trust it to comfort us and keep
us safe.”
Zeb
told the mop room gang, “It actually gets better than this, but I
don’t think Frankie and Smokey can take any more today. Let’s
have closing prayer thanking God for all the great things we learn
about Him and His love for us. I’ve had about all the excitement
this ol’ ticker will take in one day.”
