QUESTION: What do Israel’s 42 wilderness encampments, the Shema, the Tabernacle, footwear and unicorns have to do with one another? Click on the play button to find out.
42x in Numbers 33: ויסעו … ויחנו = (vayis’u … vayachanu) “and they encamped … and they journeyed”
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
The Shema
שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יהוה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יהוה אֶחָד׃
וְאָהַבְתָּ אֵת יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בְּכָל לְבָבְךָ וּבְכָל נַפְשְׁךָ וּבְכָל מְאֹדֶךָ׃ וְהָיוּ הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ הַיּוֹם עַל לְבָבֶךָ׃ וְשִׁנַּנְתָּם לְבָנֶיךָ וְדִבַּרְתָּ בָּם בְּשִׁבְתְּךָבְּבֵיתֶךָ וּבְלֶכְתְּךָ בַדֶּרֶךְ וּבְשָׁכְבְּךָ וּבְקוּמֶךָ׃ וּקְשַׁרְתָּם לְאוֹת עַל יָדֶךָ וְהָיוּ לְטֹטָפֹת בֵּין עֵינֶיךָ׃ וּכְתַבְתָּם עַל מְזוּזֹת בֵּיתֶךָ וּבִשְׁעָרֶיךָ׃
Exodus 26:14 “And you shall make a covering for the tent of rams’ skins dyed red, and a covering of tachash (תחש)skins above.”
Badger skins?
Porpoise skins?
Sea cow skins?
Unicorn skins?!
Ezekiel 16:10 “I also clothed you with embroidered cloth, and put sandals of tachash skin on your feet…”
Isaiah 66:1-2 Thus says Adonai: “Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool. What is the house that you would build for Me, and what is the place of My rest? All these things My hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares Adonai. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at My word.”
REFERENCES:
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 “Hear, O Israel: Adonai our God, Adonai is one. You shall love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
Genesis 6:11 Now the earth was corrupt (שחת, shachat) in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. [Shachat appears 7x in the flood story – Genesis 6:11,12 (2x),13,17/9:11,15]
CLICK HERE to order: Forty Years at Forty-Two Camps