In this video listen to Numbers 7 read by David Alley, followed by comments and prayer.

In Numbers 7 we have the third longest chapter in the Bible with 89 verses. It is narrowly beaten by Deuteronomy 28 which has less verses but more words, and significantly beaten by Psalm 119. One of the things that makes this chapter long is the repetition. You would think that there is no point repeating the same thing twelve times.

But it is a clue about the dating of the book, being dated to the time of Moses, when all the literature of that point was repetitive in this manner. Some people think the book was written later, made up by priests after the Babylonian exile, but they wouldn’t have included repetition like this. The repetition is a dead giveaway that its old. Also, the writing is in prose.

All ancient writing was poetry w ...