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

After the ordination of Aaron and his sons as priests, God had Moses consecrate the Levites into service to God in place of the firstborn males of the rest of Israel (thus cementing their status as intermediaries between the rest of Israel and God).  Once that was done, it was time to celebrate the Passover.  So, the Israelites did so.  However, some of the Israelites were unable to celebrate the Passover because they were ceremonially unclean.  However, they wanted to celebrate Passover and asked Moses what they should do.  We can learn an important lesson from their enthusiasm for worshiping God and celebrating what He had done for them.  Finally, after those who were unable to celebrate the Sabbath at Mount Sinai at its appointed time were able to celebrate it according to the instructions God gave for such circumstances, the Israelites set out from Mount Sinai.

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

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

A few days ago, I wrote about the fact that when Moses counted the Levites to determine who was available to work in the care and maintenance of the tabernacle he only counted the men between the ages of thirty and fifty.  In today’s passage. Moses, in accordance with God’s command, purified and set aside the Levites for service to God, particularly in the care and maintenance of the tabernacle.  However, when God gave Moses instruction on who should do the work of the tabernacle, He specified that men of the tribe of Levi should begin doing the work in the tabernacle at the age of twenty-five and retire from actively doing the work at fifty.  Then God told Moses that Levites over the age of fifty could continue to assist their brothers in performing their duties, but they should no longer do the work.  I am not quite sure what is meant by that, but I think it means offering advice on the best way to carry out the duties, helping to resolve conflicts in the course of carrying the work, and training the younger men who were just starting out.  I believe this passage reinforces what I wrote about the Levite census.  It adds two things for our consideration.  Young men should be encouraged to become active in doing the work of the Church when they reach twenty-five years of age, and older men should step back and encourage younger men to take over leadership roles.  Older men should seek to provide advice and training to younger men as those younger men seek to do God’s work.  Again, this does not mean that older men should not do God’s work if no one younger is available, but they should seek out and encourage younger men to do the work…and under no circumstances whatsoever should they allow themselves to be perceived as standing in the way of younger men doing the work.

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

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

I never thought about it before, but today I was struck by the mention that the gold lampstand in the Tabernacle was made of hammered gold.  Why say “hammered gold” and not just “gold”?  Later in today’s passage it describes the trumpets as being made out of hammered silver.   The writer clearly thinks it was important that his audience know that not only were these things made out of gold and silver, but that they were hammered into shape, not cast.  When I started writing this, I was not planning on saying any more about it than that.  However, as I wrote the above I started trying to determine what the significance could possibly be.  So, I did a little Internet research and discovered that hammered precious metals  are generally stronger and more durable (I am oversimplifying a little bit by phrasing it that way) than when the same metals are cast into shape.  So, the writer was telling his readers that these items were made as durable as possible for the tasks for which they were created.  So, what does that mean for us?  So, just as the lampstand and the trumpets were hammered to make them stronger in their service to God, we too will be hammered from time to time to make us stronger in our service to God.

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

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.

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. 

I don’t want to spend much time on this, but with the dedication of the Levites to God we have more of a sort of foreshadowing of the relationship between Jesus and His twelve apostles.  I know that I have not done a good job of explaining the meaning of that connection, but I hope my comments on it have provided food for thought for my readers about it.

Having said that I want to look at the the discussion here of the Second Passover.  In a way, we have two apparently contradictory things.  First, we have a group of people who are upset that they will miss out on celebrating the Passover.  But then we have Moses  giving a command to cut off from the entire people anyone who is ceremonially able to celebrate the Passover at its proscribed time who does not do so.  This tells us a lot about people.  There are aspects of worshiping God which we should be eager to take part in, that if we are right with God we will be eager to take part in.  Nevertheless, there will be people who choose to forgo those celebrations.

When I first read this passage, I wanted to write something about the fiery cloud which settled over the Tabernacle when the Israelites were camped, which rose and moved to direct them where to go next.  Considering the difficulty I have discerning God’s guidance for my life, this seems like a wonderful thing.  Yet, despite this visual evidence of God’s guidance, many of the Israelites still questioned Moses’ leadership.  Which makes me wonder if perhaps my inability to discern God’s guidance is not a lack of clarity, and obviousness, in the message He sends to guide me but rather in my resistance to doing what He wants me to do.  I will continue to pray that He open my eyes to the path He wishes me to follow.