Numbers 7:1-89

In our division of Numbers into Chapter s, chapter seven is the longest. It deals with worship and, first of all, with the princes' voluntary offering of their substance to the maintenance of worship. It is to be noticed that this offering was voluntary, not in answer to any compulsion outside even that of divine commandment. Out of their own consciousness of the importance of worship did the princes of the people offer willingly.

It is further to be observed that in each case the giving was equal, thus precluding the possibility of any spirit of rivalry and realizing unity of purpose. Perhaps the matter of simplest and yet greatest interest in this long chapter is the fact that this giving was so carefully chronicled and that in so detailed and elaborate a way. While all the story might have been told in a very few sentences, it is set forth with elaborate attention to detail. Every man is named and every gift is recorded Thus, while the whole reveals unity of purpose and of equality of giving, in the divine recognition there is a remarkable attention to individual devotion.