Another dull passage, but let’s not miss the fact that the gift given by the twelfth tribe was as noteworthy to God as that given by the first tribe. Are you last? Do you feel obscure and forgotten, buried in the invisible middle of the line? God hasn’t missed you or your gifts; He values you as much as the first person in line, and treasures your contribution as much as that first guy’s.
A sad reality of life in our sin-cursed world is that not everyone can be first. That’s sad enough that our culture tries to convince us that it’s not so, so everyone gets a trophy. God doesn’t propagate that lie, but He does treasure each one of us as much as the first. If that doesn’t feel like enough to you today, please ask God to align your perception with the truth.
As monotonous as this reading is, isn’t it so much more effective a reminder of God’s esteem for the obscure than His simply saying so would be?