Chapter 7 The Offerings of the Princes.
The Princes Offer Their Gifts and Offerings for the Maintaining of the Holiness of the Sanctuary and For The Dedication of the Altar (Numbers 7:1-88).
The offerings of the princes for the carriage and maintenance of the Sanctuary and for the dedication of the altar complete the activity of Yahweh's people in making the camp pure and holy. The covered wagons would protect the holiness of the Sanctuary. The dedication of the altar would contribute to its holiness and ensure its continuation. So the people as a whole, individuals, priests and now princes will have all made their contribution to the holiness of the camp. All would now be set to receive Yahweh's response.
What is described here took place even before the numbering of Israel. But Moses was determined to ensure that it was recognised that the princes partook in the purification of the camp. Princes, priests and people all had to be seen as involved together. All God's people were at one in the work.
The presentation of this information about the wagons here also helps to explain Numbers 4. This was how the Levites would convey the great bulk of the Tabernacle. Thus although chronologically it is slightly ‘out of order', it fits perfectly into the pattern, and leads on into the response of the King in Numbers 7:89. Chronology was usually not seen as important. What mattered was the presentation of the message in order to present its full significance.
The Princes Make Their Offerings Once Moses Has Anointed And Sanctified The Dwellingplace.
‘And it came about on the day that Moses had made an end of setting up the dwellingplace (tabernacle), and had anointed it and sanctified it, and all its furniture, and the altar and all its vessels, and had anointed them and sanctified them.'
This happened on the day that Moses had made an end of setting up the Dwellingplace, and had anointed and sanctified it with all its furniture (see Exodus 40:2). He had also set up the altar and all connected with it, and had anointed and sanctified them. They had all been set apart exclusively for Yahweh. That this setting apart was accepted would come out in Numbers 7:89.
The atmosphere in the camp would have been electric as they gazed at the new newly-consecrated Dwellingplace of Yahweh. Later on in that day they would see the cloud of Yahweh descend on it and the glory of Yahweh fill it. It was one month before the numbering was commanded. Before that numbering the altar had to be dedicated and the second Passover observed.
‘That the princes of Israel, the heads of their fathers' houses, made their offerings. These were the princes of the tribes, these are they who were over those who were numbered.'
And that day when the Dwellingplace was consecrated was the day when the princes of the tribes, (the ones who would mobilise the troops), being concerned for the holiness of the camp, and for the holiness of the Dwellingplace, made their offerings of wagons and oxen. That would then be followed over a period of twelve days by their offerings day by day for the dedication of the altar. Thus when the instructions for the Levites about the carrying of the Dwellingplace with all its contents was given (Numbers 4), these wagons were already in place. The twelvefold dedication of the altar would demonstrate that all in Israel were involved. This was a dedication of the whole of Israel (compare Numbers 28-30).