okay i confess when i read the beginning of the book of numbers and the passage that follows i am semi reading blah blah blah blah… its numbers and tribes and families and east and west and positions and things i cannot imagine in my brain. i cannot picture where they are and what they are doing.
The LORD told Moses and Aaron how the Israelites should arrange their camp:Each tribe must set up camp under its own banner and under the flags of its ancestral families. These camps will be arranged around the sacred tent, but not close to it. numbers 2:1-2
so imagine my delight and my *happy dance* when i saw this (this below) for the first time….
the israelite tribes arranged themselves, according to the orders of God, into the shape of A CROSS!
A CROSS!
the cross was foreshadowed even in numbers 2!
i must say i get excited by that. you might think that it is random, but remember who organised the israelite tribes into this formation… God. it was all a picture of the truth of salvation through the messiah, through Jesus Christ.
Israel did everything the LORD had told Moses. They arranged their camp according to clans and families, with each tribe under its own banner. And that was the order by which they marched into battle. Numbers 2:34
One Passion One Devotion 
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May 4, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Jim Thornber
I’ve been studying the Tabernacle of Moses since 1993. Even the arrangement of the seven articles are in the form of a cross (Altar of Sacrifice, Laver, Altar of Incense, Ark and Mercy Seat are in a line from east to west. The Table of Presence is on the north side of the Holy Place, and the Lampstand is on the south). Some commentators like to say when Balaam looked down upon the tribes of Israel he could not curse them because the cross wouldn’t let him. I think that’s looking into it a bit too much, but you are right; the tribes form a cross.
Furthermore, the tribe outside the once entrance on the east is Judah, which means “Praise.” One must go through the tribe of Judah, the tribe Jesus was from, to enter in His presence. Furthermore, the Psalms say we enter into His presence through praise.
Is it any wonder that there are over 50 chapters in Scripture that are given over to the Tabernacle, but only two to creation? I think God is trying to point us to something, don’t you?
Blessings,
Jim
May 4, 2009 at 9:33 pm
pathwaytoanamazinglife
Wow! I was just reading Numbers 2 this morning as I was progressing through the Bible in my reading and I did not see the cross. Thanks for pointing it out!
May 4, 2009 at 10:43 pm
fireball3316
that is awesome jim! thanks for sharing. i had read about the tabernacle again as a shadow of Jesus and salvation but havent really gone into depth with it. i love htough how God has done that! and it makes it all so much *richer* too – to read the OT things like leviticus and the descriptions of the tabernacle and see the plan of God in their more, than just some bowels and flames and altars… blessings, fireball
May 4, 2009 at 10:44 pm
fireball3316
i only knew it cos i had heard about it it pathway – so i went and looked it up. awesome eh!