Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Numbers 8-10.
The Israelites have been camped at Mount Sinai for nearly a year. During that year, we have witnessed God communicating his Law to Israel through Moses.
Further, God has now set up his theocracy, and is ready to take his chosen people to his promised land.
What a day this must have been. The silver horns sound, the twelve tribes move to their appointed positions, the tabernacle is dismantled as carefully instructed by God, and off they go to the wilderness of Paran with God's shekinah glory before them.
What must it have looked like to see 2,000,000 marching in a row through this wilderness with God's cloud guiding them.
Can you see it in your mind?
You would think that every single person witness to all these things would forever be changed, but as we shall very soon see, it is going to get ugly real quick.
Ah, the fallen nature of us all.
Note: some very early artwork shows Moses with horns on his head. Evidently, in early translations of the Bible, they were confused with the text and interpreted Moses' shining faces as Moses growing horns from his head. Thus, many early works will portray Moses with horns.
