Moving from Mt. Sinai Numbers 10
So the Tabernacle was carefully taken down for the journey; the sons of Aaron covered each piece of gold and brass furniture with cloths and skins; the curtains, boards, and pillars, with the many bars, sockets, pins and cords were placed in covered wagons (Chapter 7:3-10). And the people would take down their own tents, and be ready to go.
The silver trumpets sounded the first signal the tribe of Judah started forward; then the tribes of Issachar and Zebulun: next the sons of Levi with the six wagons, drawn by oxen, carrying the curtains and boards of the Tabernacle; then the, tribes of Reuben, Simeon, and Gad; next marched the men of Levi who carried the furniture of the Tabernacle, not in wagons, but by the staves, or poles, on their own shoulders. All the tribe of Levi went at this time (Chapter 2:17); then the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, Benjamin, Asher, Naphtali, and last of all went the tribe of Dan. Each tribe had its own leader and carried its standard. Notice the Tabernacle was in the center, except that the ark was taken ahead of all for the first three days at least.
What a sight it would have been to have seen this great company marching, with their flocks and herds also! They were to cross deserts and mountains where none of them had ever been. Moses asked a man of the land to go as guide, and they would do him good. But he said, “I will not go.” He did not want to go with God’s people. But the One who best knew the way guided them: The Lord led them by the cloud over the ark, and choose their places to rest (Verse 33).
Read Moses’ prayers when the cloud raised and when it rested (Verses 35, 36, Read also chapter 9:15-23).
ML 09/19/1937