7 Kids against 2 Clueless Adults: Numbers 2-5

 

Numbers 1-10 brings back memories of raising 7 children. I think Moses would have been extremely jealous had he known about the future discovery of Advil. Moses and Aaron had more than 7 kids, they had close to two million people, however many of the same methods God gave him to deal with them came into play as we dealt the issue of nine people under one roof. When Stan and I were first married we took on the task of raising 7 children all under the age of 10. Neither of us had any idea how to go about blending a family, or how to deal with the issues we knew would come up. Necessity dictated that we learn fast. I having been recently widowed and Stan being left to raise his two young children 5 year earlier had decided to get married and combine our families. We joined forces with 6 kids between us and added one more for good measure. The first thing we learned was that order, rules and routine made the difference between sanity and complete mayhem. Our 12 passenger van became the first order of business. After learning that it is extremely dangerous to try to stop sibling fights while driving, and threats don't hole any weight when you can't reach the child, we gave each child had an assigned seat, this way I could reach the more mischievous ones without having to climb over the seats to get to them and sit between them when necessary. There was even a rule that row one exited first, followed by rows two and three. We learned this when they were pushing each other out of the van to see who could get out first. Next was bed time, each age group had a time. When you reached the coveted age of 7 you got to stay up an extra 30 minutes; this happened again at 10 and 14. This made bath, teeth and pajama time much easier and it made those birthday's even more fun. The kitchen had open and closed times, chores were divvied up on Saturdays, and all 12 year old got to go to the beach for a weekend on that birthday with a parent and a friend. Rule breaking also had specific consequences. Those consequences were on a chart that was fastened to the refrigerator. The top were the least offences and punishments and on down the list to the big ones; "hurting another person with intent". This offense carried the highest punishment. Most daily offenses fell into one of the lessor categories, so you if you got caught, you exaclty what you were in for. And much like the Census  in the book of Numbers, every trip in the van started and ended with a head count.

TIDBITS FROM NUMBERS 2-5

• Only on month has elapsed from the book of Exodus to the book of Numbers, Leviticus all took place at Mt Sinai
• If you think of the tabernacle in it's rectangle shape, there would then be 3 tribes instructed to camp on each side whenever they stopped
• The Levites took care of the tabernacle and became the "firstborn" of Israel, consecrated to God
• Many of the instructions were for the sake of the health benefits of the people
• Instruction on how to make restitution is made clear
• The jealous husband was not to decide for himself if his wife was faithful, God is the judge as only he knows that heart.
• God who knows the problems that will arise in this culture, time and community, He gives specific instructions to handle them.

DIG DEEPER

Read Numbers 2-5
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+2-5&version=NIV