Numbers 7:4-5

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

The Lord spake ... Take it of them. They exhibited a beautiful example to all who are great in dignity and in wealth to be foremost in contributing to the support, and in promoting the interests, of religion. The strictness of the injunctions Moses had received, to adhere with scrupulous fidelity to the divine model of the tabernacle, probably led him to doubt whether he was at liberty to act in this matter without orders. God, however, relieved him by declaring His acceptance of the free-will offerings, as well as by giving instructions as to the mode of their distribution among the Levites. It is probable that in doing so He merely sanctioned the object for which they were offered, and that the practical wisdom of the offerers had previously determined that they should be distributed "unto the Levites, to every man according to his service" х 'iysh (H376) kªpiy (H6310) `ªabodaatow (H5656); Septuagint, hekastoo kata teen autou leitourgian] - i:e., more or fewer were assigned to each of the Levitical divisions as their department of duty seemed to require.

This divine sanction it is of great importance to notice, as establishing the principle that, while in the great matters of divine worship and church-government we are to adhere faithfully to the revealed rule of faith and duty, minor arrangements respecting them may be lawfully made, according to the means and convenience of God's people in different places. 'There is a great deal left to human regulation-appendages of undoubted convenience, and which it were as absurd to resist on the ground that an express warrant cannot be produced for them, as to protest against the convening of the people to divine service, because there is no Scripture for the erection and ringing of a church bell' (Chalmers).