Chapter 10

Two silver trumpets made to be used for signalling when the people should gather, when they should depart, and as alarms.  These were constructed after the tabernacle was set up, so not part of the official equipment of the tabernacle.  Two trumpets blowing meant all were to come to the tent.  One trumpet meant only the elders were to come to the tent. 

Vs 8 says this trumpet blowing was a statute forever. 

2021 - This verse:

10 On the day of your gladness also, and at your appointed feasts and at the beginnings of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings. They shall be a reminder of you before your God: I am the LORD your God." [Num 10:10 ESV]

This reads almost as if the trumpets are to get God's attention, so that He will turn His face toward them when they sacrifice.  But it seems to be a trumpet for the whole people of Israel.  There is nothing here that says individuals should blow a trumpet before each sacrifice that they make.  Maybe that's what the showing off of the Pharisees was about in the NT, that Jesus condemned.  Maybe they'd taken this verse and turned it into an announcement of individual recognition, perverting the original purpose.

This verse:

11 In the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud lifted from over the tabernacle of the testimony, 12 and the people of Israel set out by stages from the wilderness of Sinai. And the cloud settled down in the wilderness of Paran. [Num 10:11-12 ESV]

The first move as an organized, ordered people.  They had camped in this one spot for over a year, preparing.  And then suddenly the cloud lifts, and it is time to go.  Imagine the breaking of that camp of several million people who'd gotten "comfortable" where they were for so long.  And they were leaving, never to return, because the cloud had lifted.

Israel camped there at Sinai for about 14 months, there in that one place, in the desert. 

2021 - I have these next verses underlined in my Bible, but I really don't even remember ever reading it:

35 And whenever the ark set out, Moses said, "Arise, O LORD, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you." 36 And when it rested, he said, "Return, O LORD, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel." [Num 10:35-36 ESV].  God went out before them, cleared the way, straightened the road, smoothed the terrain.  And when they rested, God came back and dwelt in the camp.  No other people at any time ever had a God who did such things.