I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 8-10.

In the dedication of the Levites described here I continue to see foreshadowing of Jesus.  God set Jesus apart as His similar to the way He had the Israelites set the Levites apart as His.  The Levites were presented to God as a wave offering, whereas Jesus was treated as an offering fully dedicated to God.  Yet, with the Resurrection God returned Jesus to us as if He had been a wave offering.

I have written on this in previous years, but I find the actions of those who realized that they could not celebrate the Passover along with the rest of Israel instructive.  They did not just say to themselves, “Oh well, we can’t celebrate Passover because we had to handle a dead body.”  No, they went to Moses and asked what they could do.  They desperately wished to take part in this celebration of God’s power and of unity with their fellows.  God replied through Moses that not celebrating the Passover was not an option.  Instead, those who, for one reason or another, were legitimately unable to celebrate the Passover at the appointed time were to do so one month later.  In addition, God used this opportunity to remind the people of Israel, and us, that the same rules and regulations should apply to everyone.  The only exception we find to this is one that runs counter to what we as humans so often do: the rulers and leaders sometimes have stricter, more exacting, rules to follow than the common man, not special exemptions to the rules which apply to everyone else.