God begins to make a new world while Israel is still in the wilderness. For many readers, the first ten chapters of Numbers are boring, with long lists and lots of numbers. What these chapters tell us is how God is organizing His people at Sinai. One part of this is the way that Israel camps around the tabernacle. At the end of the book of Exodus, Yahweh comes down in His glory-cloud, the same glory-cloud that hovers over the original creation (Gen. 1:2), to sit on the throne in the Most Holy Place. With God ruling as King in their midst, Israel is called together, and each tribe is told where
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