Reading today, the Book sounded in my head like Brother Maynard reading Armaments 2:9-21 aloud. “Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three.”

There is a cloud that covers the tabernacle, and when it moves, the people must follow it. When it stops, they must reassemble the tabernacle under it.

I’ve just explained in two sentences what took the Lord half a chapter to explain.

And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed: and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents. At the commandment of the Lord the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the Lord they pitched: as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents. And when the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept the charge of the Lord, and journeyed not. (Numbers 9:17-19 (I left out the next four identical verses))

“Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three.”

There is more to these three chapters: a reminder of when to celebrate Passover, when to celebrate when you are out-of-town or ceremonially unclean, how and when to blow various trumpets, and fifteen verses naming the different leaders that went out when those trumpets were blown.

There is a bit of a throwaway story in 10:29-32, where Moses’ father-in-law wants to go home, but Moses convinces him to stay. Is this foreshadowing some event, or is it just filler?

Tomorrow: Numbers 11-13.