DIAGRAM: Israelite camp in the wilderness under Moses in relation to the Tabernacle.

While teaching on the Tabernacle of Israel during the wilderness wanderings I needed a chart depicting the probable layout of the Israelite camp. I couldn't find one I liked so I made my own. I am happy to share it with you. I used simple math to figure the ratios of the area needed to accomodate those listed for each tribe in the Biblical census. By grouping those tribes on each side of the tabernacle you can figure the total area needed on each side. When you divide that area by the length of the respective side of the tabernacle you can figure the distance from the tabernacle that the encampment on that side would have gone. The formula for the area (square feet per man) really doesn't matter as long as you are consistent throughout. The ratios will remain the same which is what you really need to illustrate the shape anyway.

Copy and use this as you need it as a teaching aid, as long as you aren't selling the image. Please credit the image as IMAGE: Tony Thomas, 2013.

Little Things, Big Things

“I can’t find my pink socks!”  

“I want Rabbit!”

“I don’t want to sit in the middle!”

If you’re a parent, I guessing you have, on occasion, been frustrated by such phrases. Perhaps when you’re

• leaving home on vacation… 
• or late for church…
• or just trying to go to the grocery store with two preschoolers… 
• or going to the park…
• or grandma’s house.

You have a goal in mind. You have someplace to be. You are trying to do something or go somewhere important, and the little ones around you had no concept of the “big picture”. Sometimes it seems their entire world, their horizon, is within the reach of their little hands. Those socks you put on them against their will have the gravity of a nuclear arms race.

Frustrating isn't it? It’s especially when the “Big Thing” you are trying to do is for their benefit or enjoyment. We are beyond the toddler and preschool years in my house now, but not that long ago I was there, and the phrase “little things, big things” was coined in my family.

After a little explanation, my kids came to understand what “little things, big things” meant. It was a simple way of saying,

 “We are trying to do something you will like, but you are getting hung up on little things that really don’t matter. Leave it. Forget it. Get over it.  Let’s go do the ‘Big Thing.’”  

It worked. They got it.  They have learned, for the most part, to sidestep the minutia and keep their eyes on the big picture, much to my relief.

The whole concept of “Little Things, Big Things” makes me wonder if our Heavenly Father sometimes has the same frustration with us. Certainly we can find such frustration in the Bible. In Numbers 13 and 14 we find God quite frustrated with Israel. He has led them to the threshold of the Promised Land. He has already began the process of giving the land to them (13:1).

Victory was within reach…and they choked.

They look past God to see the bounty of the land.
Then they look past the bounty of the land and saw the obstacle:

Big, fortified cities filled with big strong people with scary names:

• Sons of Anak
• Amalekites,
• Hittites,
• Jebusites, 
• Amorites,
• and Canaanites.

Now, impenetrable fortresses filled with corn-fed Canaanites could look scary  to be sure, but only because they lost sight of  “The Big Thing”. They forgot to look up. Had they looked to God, what seem like a “big thing” would have become a “little thing”. They forgot about God’s promise. They forgot about his gift to them. Above them was a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. They had seen God part the Red Sea with a wind. They had seen an entire Egyptian army stand back in fear of the fire of God. They had seen the plagues that struck Egypt and the work of the death angel. They had seen the glory of God and heard his voice at Sinai. Then, standing at the threshold of promise, they choked.

To bring this a little closer to home now, I wonder how often God is at work in each of our lives and in our churches. He has a plan to lead us into a land of promise, a land of peace, and we get hung up on the details. We lose sight of God's big picture for us. Rather than allowing God to bring us to a place of victory we get hung up in an endless cycle of "wilderness wandering" just like the children of Israel.

So, let me encourage you, friend, figure out what is hindering you in your walk with the Lord. Jesus wants you to live life in a place of spiritual victory, not defeat. The magnitude of your biggest obstacle is diminished if you look at the greatness of your Savior. Look to Jesus, and follow his leading. He will take you to "Big Things."

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." [Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV]