Day 058 (Numbers 8-10) - Year 7
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Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. I bet you're happy we're back in some narrative sections. We still have some bits of law sprinkled throughout the rest of Numbers, but today marks the place where we start to round the corner into some of my favorite spots in the book.

God has been dealing with the cleanliness of the people of Israel for the past few days. We started with the external purity, then he moved to the internal purity, then yesterday felt like a bit of a deviation, but it fits into the storyline because internal purity and righteousness will result in expressing it externally. Today, in God's conversation with Moses, he gives orders to purify the Levites.

He's already addressed the people in general, and here he addressed the Levites specifically. As you would imagine, their position of leadership required them to undergo an even more thorough cleansing process. God reiterates his plan for the Levites and their position as his firstborn among Israel, who is also his firstborn. So I guess they're kind of like the firstborn of the firstborn, which is maybe like winning the Super Bowl and also being named MVP or something. I don't know.

The people put their hands on them, which is usually what was done to an animal before it was sacrificed. The people were symbolically offering the Levites up as something they were giving back to God. This symbol is repeated again, but in a different way when the Levites are given as a wave offering. Whatever item was waved in a wave offering always belonged to God afterward.

I think of the Levites every time I see people doing the wave in a stadium. I don't know if that's what it looked like for them to be offered as a way of offering. Probably not. But that's the only thing I can picture. And that concludes today's sports references. As a reminder, we're still a little more than a year past Egyptian slavery, which means it's time to celebrate Passover for the second time ever. God gives instructions about this requiring everyone to participate, but also requiring everyone to be clean in order to participate.

A few guys were bummed because they weren't clean and they were frustrated with God that they couldn't celebrate the anniversary of his rescue. They talked to Moses about it. Moses talked to God about it. And God says, you can celebrate it. You just have to wait a month. It's maybe like if you have the flu on your spouse's birthday. You don't get a pass at celebrating them. You just have to take a rain check.

And in fact, there were big consequences, possibly death or excommunication, if you opted out of the celebration altogether. Because you can imagine what that might reveal about your heart toward God. I also love that God opened up this celebration to the outsiders living among them, including the Egyptians who had fled with them. God is so welcoming and hospitable.

I was once traveling through Asheville, North Carolina on the day my Jewish friend Esther had gone to visit her family there for Passover. It's a big family event. But they still invited me in and gave me a seat at the table, just like God commanded approximately 3,500 years ago.

So they celebrated their second Passover in the wilderness of Sinai. Then they begin a new season in their lives as God's people, moving through the wilderness. They're on their way to Canaan, the promised land. By most estimates, it's roughly an 11-day journey from Egypt to Canaan. So why have they already been out here a year and they still aren't there yet? This is like when people say they crammed four years of college into six years, right? Except this is much worse. Have you ever heard someone say, "'The Israelites were lost in the wilderness.'"

We've talked about this before, but it bears repeating, especially given today's reading. They weren't lost at all. They were following God, guided by His pillar of fire and cloud. They camped where God camped, stayed as long as God stayed, and followed God wherever He led them next. This was an act of submission and trust, and honestly, sometimes probably even desperation.

To not break free and just escape to the hills when times get tough, you really have to know how absolutely dependent you are on Him for everything. As they're preparing to leave, one of the things God sets up is two trumpeters with a series of different ringtones to communicate specific things to the people. Some ringtones were to get people's attention or to celebrate, and some were used as a cry for help to God.

Then, once all this was in place, they set out. After nearly a year in the wilderness of Sinai, they pack up the brand new, recently assembled and consecrated tabernacle. And you may remember, their marching formation was intentionally designed by God. Even the order that the clans of Levites arrived was executed with efficiency in mind. The Merarite Levites with the structural stuff, and the Gershonite Levites with the coverings, then finally the Kohathite Levites with the holy vessels.

God put the Kohathites in the middle of the procession so there was as much protection as possible surrounding the vessels on each side. It appears that the one exception to this is that the ark is at the head of the whole procession as God led the way with the cloud. What was your God shot today? Where did you see something about his character or his heart? Mine was in the section where he was talking about consecrating the Levites for himself because that section gives us a fraction of visibility into the mind of God.

He says he consecrated the Levites on the day he struck down all the firstborn of Egypt. Do you know what the Levites had done to catch his attention so they had bestowed this great honor on them? And remember, this was before the golden calf moment where they slayed 3,000 idolaters within their camp, so it wasn't that. According to Exodus 32, that was the day he ordained them, but not the day he consecrated them for ordination. When God struck down the firstborn of Egypt, the only thing the Levites or any of the Israelite slaves had done, as far as we know,

was doubt God and his servants Moses and Aaron. So when I ask, what did they do to deserve this? It seems like the answer is exactly nothing, or at least not anything scripture tells us about. This was just God's plan, and he's working it out all along. He says he consecrated them. He made them holy for himself. He takes a bunch of doubters and turns them into the people who live and serve in closest proximity to himself. If you're a doubter, if you're wrestling with some of this stuff,

I believe God has great plans to bless you with more of His nearness. Stay in this. Bring your doubts to His Word. Let your doubts see firsthand that He's where the joy is.

Quick, what's the most confusing part about Christianity? Okay, besides Revelation. If you answered the Trinity, ding, ding, ding, we're on the same page. The Trinity is critical to the core of our faith, but it's so easy to misunderstand. Are they three? Are they one? Well, yes. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are completely unified, yet unique. They each have specific roles in their relationship with us.

We've built out a PDF that talks more about the roles of the persons of the Trinity, and it includes lots of examples and, of course, scripture references. We would love to share that with you. If you want to get this PDF for free, all you have to do is go to thebiblerecap.com forward slash Trinity and submit your email address. That's thebiblerecap.com forward slash Trinity.