Numbers 11

Up to this point in the book of Numbers the story has been one of order and blessing. The book now turns to the disappointing history of the people of God during their wilderness wanderings. When we look at the history of Israel, when we read about the New Testament churches, when we consider the testimony of church history, and when we make an honest assessment of our lives, we are reminded of our need for a Savior.

Numbers 11 begins with the words, “and the people complained.” There is ample room in our relationship with the Lord for an honest lament before God. He knows our weakness, and He hears our cries for help. The problem was that instead of bringing their helplessness to the Lord in faith, the people complained “in the hearing of the Lord.” They were complaining about their lives and about God, and God heard it.

What was the result? The fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. What put out the fire? The people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the Lord., and the fire died down.

The people were hungry in the wilderness, not only for food, but for their former way of life in Egypt. They wept and they complained to one another, remembering the former days, maybe forgetting that they had cried out to the Lord for help when they were slaves in Egypt. Now they remembered life in Egypt as a great and varied banquet. The miracle manna that God was sending to them for their sustenance provoked no thanksgiving from their lips.

People were weeping. God was blazing hotly in His anger. Moses was displeased too. He talked with God, and he wanted to die.

God's solution to this crisis was multifaceted. He brought aid to the covenant mediator, and He disciplined His covenant community with a plague of the very meat for which they longed.

God's aid to the covenant mediator was through the gift of Spirit-touched leaders in a wonderful anticipation of the New Testament age and even of the fullness of heavenly life. The gift of the Spirit was for service. These men would bear the burden with Moses. Consider Ephesians 4.

The discipline of the Lord sounded like a great provision; a month of meat. Moses did not believe such a thing was possible. He would learn that the Lord's arm was powerful, but the quail would not be a blessing.

Meanwhile, the glory cloud of God came upon the seventy elders that Moses gathered, and even on two who were not with the larger group. Joshua was alarmed that these two men were prophesying in the camp. Moses words in reply were prophetic, not only of the coming New Testament era, but of the day when resurrection life would be full in the kingdom of heaven. He says, “Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”

For now the Lord would send more quail than the people of Israel could have ever dreamed of. But with it came God's wrath as He “struck down the people with a great plague.”

When we long for some old life that we imagine to be better than it ever really was, we insult the Christ who died on the cross for our sins. He took the plague of God's wrath that was rightly directed against us. He suffered that we might have abundant life. Can't we trust Him in this present hour? May He fill us even now with His Spirit, that we might speak the oracles of God and live the life of love.

Numbers 10

Why do you believe in God? Reason? History? Scripture? Experience? All four have a divine story to tell for the person who has ears to hear by the Holy Spirit. But whether or not you or I believe, one day the fact of Christ will be undeniable. The trumpet will sound.

God prepared us for a life of faith and for the culmination of His great purposes with something so simple and unexplained as the use of the trumpet within the community of Israel while this church under age moved toward the promised land. He gave Israel a feast of trumpets every year, but this was not the only time that the sound of the trumpets was heard among God's people.

All of the old ceremonies of preparation were the context for Jesus' prophesy about “a loud trumpet call” and for the apostle Paul's words about what would take place “at the last trumpet” when death would be “swallowed up in victory.” What can we learn about that coming day and about our lives today from the varied uses of the trumpet call in Israel?

The sound of the trumpet meant something to God's people. It was a call to come together sounded by a leader in response to a condition. God would raise up His glory cloud to call His people forward, but it would be one of God's servants that would blow the trumpet.

Blowing the trumpets in different ways signaled different messages. Leaders summoned, the entire congregation called to the tent of meeting, the tribes setting out on the next leg of their journey, … All of this was moving Israel toward a promised destination. God was leading them. He was using His priests and His tribal chiefs moving in obedience to His direction. The sound was not a call to individualism, but to a communal walking in accord with Lord's will.

Along the journey, Israel needed to be protected from potential enemies. They needed to know that God had not forgotten them. The trumpet not only was a call to the people. It was also a surprising plea, like the prayers and worship of the church, that Israel might be remembered before God and be saved from her enemies.

It was not only a call of need, but of celebration, for the trumpets were also sounded on the day of gladness. When it was time for the joy of worship together, at the appointed feasts of God, at the beginning of a new month, at the sacrifice of peace offerings, the trumpets spoke a message before God and man that was more than words could communicate.

With the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, and with His gift of the Holy Spirit from heaven, the cloud of God has lifted up from the Old Testament holy place. The people of God are being led forward by Word and Spirit from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, to the ends of the earth. God is in the lead. He calls some to be special ambassadors, but the whole community of faith is on the road of Christ toward a new heavens and earth.

This church on the move is an inviting church. It needs all of the faithful from among the Gentiles to be brought in to worship the God of Israel. Just as Moses strongly encouraged his Midianite relatives to find a place in the camp of God, Jesus has issued a call to all the spiritual sons of Abraham to find their place in His church. His word to every neighbor is simple: “Come with us, and we will do good to you, for the Lord has promised good to His Israel.” Those who come along can help us through the wilderness. Each one has a gift from God.

One day this gospel phase of the journey will be over. The last trumpet shall sound for the greatest gathering of a worldwide congregation. Then the enemies of the Lord will flee, but Jesus will return to the thousands and thousands of His full Israel. Come soon, Lord Jesus!

Numbers 9

The story of the Passover event and the institution of the commemoration of this great redemption has already been told in other places. The command to keep the Passover is retold in this chapter because life does not always work out as we might like.

God had given two inflexible commands: the Passover had to be kept on a specific day every year and it could not be kept by those who were unclean. Yet the Lord would be surprisingly flexible, and men would be able to keep the Passover in the second month rather than the first because their contact with a dead body or their presence on a long journey prevented them from participation in this important celebration at the commanded time.

This was one of God's surprises. The Lord who is inflexible in His demand for perfect holiness somehow finds a way to accommodate our weaknesses, our tragedies, and even our heartfelt desires. This is our God. We need to follow Him in helping weak and harassed people among us and all around us. He gives us many a fresh start.

This did not in the least mean that God had abandoned His standards. All of the laws concerning Passover had to be kept. For example not one of the bones of the sacrificial lamb could be broken.

God would not accommodate a person's mere preferences. If a person did not come on the first month at the right time because of some casual personal reason, that person would be cut off from the community of Israel.

The Lord, the Son of God, became our Passover Lamb. In accord with the Scriptures, not one of His bones was broken. He met all the holy requirements of His Father when He redeemed us through His own blood. Because of His great work, and because of Him alone, we have forgiveness and acres of divine accommodation.

How are we then to live as followers of this Lamb? We must be led through this life by the Spirit of God. Only through this work of the Spirit graciously applying the holy Word of the Lord will we know what to say and do. The essential for us is God.

Like Israel in the wilderness, we move when God moves, and we stop when He stops. We should not pretend that our navigation through this perilous world is a simple matter of using our understanding in following a list of written instructions. There is more to wisdom than an inflexible application of established commands. The Lord must lead.

He will not lead us against His own Word. Yet we will never be able to navigate His holy will together through the mysteries of life without a living Guide.

Numbers 8

Jesus commanded His followers to be the light of the world. He also said that He Himself was the light of the world. Prior to either of these declarations, Israel was given a picture of these great blessings through the lampstand in the tabernacle.

Numbers 8 told us that these Old Testament lamps were to shine on something. They were “to give light in front of the lampstand,” inside the tabernacle in the holy place, so that the priests could do the tasks that God called them to do.

The priests came from the tribe of Levi, but most of the Levites were not priests, as God made clear in many places. The clans of the Levites each had their appointed tasks in connection with the tabernacle structure and contents. They had to be set apart for this important task and marked as holy.

The active Levites were cleansed by sprinkling with the water of purification. Their hair was shaved with a razor all over their bodies, their clothes were washed, and they were cleansed.

As everything was set apart by sacrifice before it could be of service, even the people, the Levites, needed more than a water ceremony in order to serve the Lord as He commanded. They needed to be associated with sacrificial cleansing involving the offering not only of grain, but the blood of the sin offering.

The Levites were brought before the tent of meeting with the whole congregation of the people of Israel assembled. The people of Israel placed their hands on the Levites, and the Levites were offered up to God for this divine service in the place of all of Israel. Then the Levites placed their hands on the bulls, and one was offered as a sin offering, the other as a burnt offering. This blood sacrifice was to make atonement for the Levites.

The Levites had their own sins. They had not fully loved their Lord with their every breath. It was necessary for them to be purified with the washing of water through sprinkling, but it was also necessary for the blood of the sacrifice to atone for what they lacked in the fullness of obedience that the Lord required.

This was the way that the Levites were separated from among the people of Israel. The Levites belonged to God in this way. They were the substitutes for the firstborn of Israel who had been spared in the day when God struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt. The Levites were a gift to the High Priest to do the service in the tent of meeting in the name of all of Israel. This was the Lord's decision. No other plan would have been safe.

This service was performed by the males of the tribe of Levi who were in the prime of their lives. They needed to be at least twenty-five years old, and they could not be over fifty years old. These were the ones who were set apart by washing and by sacrifice. These were the servants of the Lord who came to God for the rest of the congregation of His people.

In the New Testament we have one premier Servant of the Lord. He was willing to be washed ceremonially in order to be identified with us. He did not bring the blood of bulls and goats in order to be acceptable for His appointed service. He came to God as one who was well-pleasing to Him without any ceremonies. But He laid down His life as a sin offering for an entire kingdom. He has taken His rightful spot through the greatest of all blood sacrifices and through the most hearty vindication of His perfection.

He is the Light of the world, and His light shines on us. Now, by the virtue of His great light, we have become the light of the world. We have been washed with pure water and sprinkled by His blood. It is our privilege to follow this One Man in His cross-love for the unworthy. He gave Himself in the full service of consecration in the very prime of His life. We serve Him as those who have first been served by Him.

Numbers 7

The story of the consecration of the tabernacle is told in another place in the Scriptures. Here in Numbers 7 the Lord's focus is on the offerings of the twelve tribes in connection with that consecration.

The chiefs of Israel had a part to play in this that was different than the roles played by Moses, Aaron, and the builders of the tabernacle. These chiefs brought the offerings of the tribes to the Lord.

These were not the individual offerings given in obedience to the Lord's regulations listed in Leviticus. The offerings here were a highly structured communal gift to the Lord's work given be each of the tribes at the inception of Israel's worship.

These gifts included oxen and carts that were distributed to the clans of the Levites according to the particular needs of each clan. No carts were given to the Kohathites since this clan was to bear the holy things on the shoulder, and not to carry these sacred objects in carts.

The offerings of the tribes were brought through their chiefs, and they were given for the dedication of the altar, the place of sacrifice. The offerings were presented one per day for 12 days.

The tribe of Judah led first in offering to the Lord, just as they led first on the march. The chief of Judah was the same Nahshon the son of Amminadab whose name appears in the genealogies of Jesus in Matthew's and Luke's gospels.

The offering from Judah had several very specific components. There was a silver plate and a silver basin, both of precise weights, and both filled with flour and oil for a grain offering. There was a small golden dish full of incense. There were three specific animals for a burnt offering, the offering of complete consecration. There was a male goat for a sin offering in recognition of the great need of Israel. Finally, there were seventeen specified animals for a peace offering, that sacrifice that pointed to the desired result of the offerings of the people to God; that they might have peace with Him as those who called upon His Name.

What was striking in the offerings of the eleven days that followed was the exact repetition of these offerings tribe be tribe, roughly in the marching order of the tribes as given earlier in the book of Numbers. Everything here was precise and all was in order.

Every tribe made their commitment to the system of sacrifice involving burnt offerings, sin offerings, peace offerings, grain offerings, and the burning of incense before Almighty God. Everything in these ritual days communicated a message of complete consecration to the Lord on the part of each of the twelve tribes. All twelve tribes of Israel followed the good example set by the tribe of Judah.

The total of all these offerings was twelve times the offering of Judah through her chief. This was a tremendous moment of unity and commitment. This was Israel as she ought to have been. This was the dedication offering for the altar after it was anointed.

The chapter closes with a word from heaven affirming the reality of the Lord's receiving the offerings of the twelve tribes and receiving the tribes themselves. Moses heard the voice of the Lord coming to Israel through him “from above the mercy seat.”

The Word of God came to Israel in person in the man Jesus of Nazareth. This same Jesus has drawn all kinds of people to Himself, and He receives gifts from men. We would worship through Him, not only sacrificially, but with decency and order.

We may find ourselves divided today, not by tribe as Israel was once divided, but by churches and group of affiliated congregations. Yet there is only one church, just as there is only one Lord.

The Lord is still speaking to us from the word of His testimony in the Scriptures. But it is the Word incarnate, Jesus the Son of God, who is our constant confession, and our continuous plea before the throne of God.

Any offering we give to God in worship or in life is a part of the fullness of the offering given by the King of the Jews, the true leader of the great tribe of Judah. We are a part of His offering to His Father. We see our Lord's great offering on the cross and believe. We gladly give ourselves to God as His servants. He is our offering to the God that saves. We are His offering to the God that came to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.

Numbers 6

Those who follow Jesus Christ follow the one true Holy Man. In Him, in His death, in His resurrection, we have been granted the status of holy ones (saints), but also the experience of heaven-sent holiness as a growing reality in our lives now.

One day, when we live with Christ in the heavenlies, we will finally be as holy as we ought to be now. Until then, we seek the gift of living holiness in the midst of a world with so much death.

In the Old Covenant Scriptures, there were many ceremonies and laws that told this great story about Jesus and His kingdom of holiness. One of them was the Nazarite vow, a picture God gave to Israel about a person in their midst who was set apart as holy.

This was a vow that an Israelite of any tribe, whether a man or a woman, could willingly make to the Lord. The person needed to abstain from all things connected to grapes, even the seeds or the skins. He could not cut the hair on his head. He could not go near a dead body, not even for a close relative. Everything about this holy one was to be without stain, and without the touch of death.

Any defilement from the dead that would violate the Nazirite vow necessitated a cleansing ritual including the shaving of his head and a sacrifice of birds brought to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting. Breaking the Nazirite vow required this atonement before the Lord: one bird for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering. Another offering, a guilt offering of a lamb, was required when the separation time for defilement was over, and the previous period of remaining pure was not counted toward the pledge that had originally been made.

At the end of the pledged time, further offerings were required as gifts to the Lord, a lamb for a burnt offering, a ewe lamb for a sin offering, and a ram for a peace offering, with an unleavened bread offering and other grain and drink offerings. Then his head would be shaved, and his hair put on the fire under the peace offering. The priest would be given some of the gift, the holy portion for the priest. Then the Nazirite was free from the vow, and could again drink wine.

All of this would have been quite an expense for an average person, and all for the privilege of living out a picture of holiness. But we have been declared holy in the blood of a far better and more costly sacrifice.

Christ's holiness was complete. It was far more than any of the Old Testament pictures. His holiness extended all the way into the thoughts and intentions of his perfectly pure soul. His holiness was lived out under fire. His head was on the line, and His enemies were obvious.

At the very beginning of His ministry, He was led by the spirit into the wilderness, fasted forty days and nights, and faced the temptations of a cruel demonic adversary. He passed this test for us. Much more, He later faced the test of the cross.

Through all His suffering that procured our holiness, Christ was holy without the slightest fault. To have His Name given to us, so that we would now have the privilege to be sons of God in Him, is the greatest blessing that could ever come to us. And this has come to us not because of our holiness, but because of His.

This blessing for sinners through Jesus was so sure in the mind of God that words of blessing were spoken to His covenant people 1500 years prior to the coming of the Messiah. The priest, in another rich picture of the coming grace of God, spoke words of blessing from the Lord upon His people.

“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” This triune blessing has come to us today through the one true Nazirite who did so much more holiness for us than the most scrupulous Nazirites during the 1500 years between Moses and Jesus.

The name of God has been put upon His people forever. We are richly blessed.

Numbers 5

The fighting men of the conquest have been numbered. The Levites, left out of that first census, were then numbered twice; once as the substitutes for the firstborn men of Israel, and then for service, numbering the males among the clans between the ages of 30 and 50 who were able to serve in the tent of meeting.

The resting position of the camp of Israel, and the order of Israel on the march have been established. Leaders have been appointed, and the place of Moses, Aaron, the Levites and the various tribes with Judah in the lead have been communicated through Moses to all of Israel.

With all this in mind, the Lord again spoke to Moses about holiness. The leper, the one with a discharge, and the man who has touched a dead body must be put outside the camp, and the uncleanness of sin must not spread among the people of God.

Wrong done to a neighbor must be addressed in the Lord's holy camp. There must be confession and full restitution on the part of the guilty. The adulteress must not entertain thoughts that her offense will remain hidden in secrecy.

All of this is very overwhelming to consider. The details of the test for possible adultery in response to a spirit of jealousy which might come over a husband hardly seem like the Lord's highest and best plan for public justice in His kingdom and throughout the world.

What is the function of these regulations? God's camp could not be ordered in rest or in action merely by being in the right place and under the leadership of the correct tribal authorities. The Lord demanded something much more.

The demands of the Lord for an outward and inward holiness were most exacting, and even frightening.

Who can meet the demands of full righteousness that come to us from the Lord? Do we think that test for adultery was a bit much? Would we not expect that there would be accommodation for the leper and the near relation who simply was showing respect for a deceased loved one? Yet how do we feel about the real fullness of the Lord's righteous requirements for His people?

We remember that God is the One who said, “Be holy, for I am holy.” We are reminded of the words contained in the Shamah: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your everything.” These verses should cause us more concern than anything written in Numbers 5.

The only way we can have peace with a God who has a perfect love for holiness is through our association with the Man who has kept the holy commands of the Lord in our place. He is the true Israelite. He has a right to be in the camp.

Yet look what happened to this Holy One! He suffered outside the camp for our sake as if He were the unclean thing. Let us go to Him outside the camp, and let us find His love for the weak that so fills His holy heart. He spoke grace to prostitutes, and even showed the self-righteous the way to be justified by God. In Him we have a place in God's camp, for through this Jesus the Lord will make His people holy.

Numbers 4

The Lord's plan for His people was not only a plan for redemption, but also a plan for mission, for service. For this work of serving Him, He commanded Moses and Aaron to number the males among the clans of the Levites; not all the males from one month and above as he did for counting the Levites as substitutes for the all the firstborn males of Israel, but the males specifically between the ages of thirty and fifty years old.

These were prime years of service for those who were called to be Levites. The call came not through the judgment of their peers or through proving their abilities, but through natural descent. The nature of the service depended on the clan into which a man was born. If you were a male Levite between the ages of thirty and fifty, what you did in life depended on whether you were descended from Kohath, form Gershon, or from Merari.

The male descendants of Kohath, all who were between thirty and fifty years of age, all who could come on duty to do the work in the tent of meeting, were to attend to “the most holy things.” As a worshiping people of the Lord on the move, it would be Aaron and his sons alone who would take down the veil between the holy place and the most holy place in the tent of meeting. They would cover the ark of the testimony with that veil, and then with goatskin, and finally with a cloth of blue. They would put in its poles so that the ark could be properly carried. Aaron and his sons alone would also care for the table of the bread of the Presence in a similar way, but with particular attention to all the holy objects for the system of Old Covenant worship. The same for the golden lampstand and all the objects related to the worship of God used in the Lord's sanctuary.

Once the priests had prepared all of these sacred objects appropriately, the Kohathites would have the privilege and duty of moving them by using the poles for that task. They could not touch the objects themselves or they would die. They could only move them using the poles once Aaron and his sons the priests had prepared them to be moved. Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest would have charge of the oil for light, the incense, the grain offering, the anointing oil, and the general oversight of the whole tabernacle and all that was in it. This limitation on the freedom of the Kohathites was for their own safety, lest they be destroyed.

The descendants of Gershon had different duties than the Kohathites. Those males who were thirty years old up to the age of fifty were to carry the curtains of the tabernacle and the covering of the tent of meeting. They were to perform this important task under the direction of Aaron and his sons, particularly under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest,

The men of Merari between the ages of thirty and fifty, the third group of Levites, were to carry all of the frames, bars, pillars, and bases that gave structure to this movable house of worship. These men were also under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron.

These were the three groups of Levites who were numbered for this holy service, this supportive role under the direction of God's high priest, Aaron. There were 2,750 Kohathites, 2,630 Gershonites, and 3,200 Merarites who were able to come on duty for service in the tent of meeting.

The sanctuary of God was at the very sacred heart of the camp of Israel. Though only Aaron and his sons could perform certain functions in that sanctuary, this movable house of worship could not have been carried through the wilderness by Aaron, Eleazar, and Ithamar. They needed thousands of helpers alongside them. This was the way that God chose to move His house of worship through the wilderness and into the Promised Land.

God did not need Levites. He chose to use them. This was a gracious blessing to them for God to give them a part in such a strategic work. Christ our High Priest has not only found our names on His list for redemption. God has prepared works of service that we might walk in them under the direction of our High Priest.

The works that the Lord has for us are not distributed based on our clan. Jesus gives His congregation gifts from heaven according to the mystery of the Lord's holy will. He has made some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Others give watch over the saints of God as those who must give an account to the Lord. Some lead the churches in manifold works of love and service. Many are called to help in a supportive role like the Levites of the Old Covenant.

Everyone has something to give. This is the way that Christ has determined to build up His living sanctuary. He has made us a body, where each member supplies some gift that comes from the Lord. Jesus does not need us to create His kingdom. His calling upon our lives is an expression of His merciful grace.

We have been numbered for redemption. We have also been numbered for the Lord's service. Thanks be to God for all His mercies.

Numbers 3

The tabernacle of the Lord was at the center of Israel's camp. The guardians of that tent belonged to the tribe of Levi. One family in particular among all the Levites had a special role as priests to God, the sons of Aaron, the brother of Moses. They alone could approach God in certain ceremonial ways according to Old Covenant law.

The sad story of Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu is not repeated in detail here in this chapter. The simple summary tells us of the danger of approaching God in ways that were unauthorized. “But Nadab and Abihu died before the Lord when they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children.”

The remaining sons of Aaron, Eleazar and Ithamar, served as the Lord's priests. The rest of the Levites had their assigned duties according to their clans. The three clans of the Levites descended from the three sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. All the males that were at least one month old were listed and numbered according to their father's houses and clans.

There were 7,500 Gershonites. With their leader, Eliasaph, the son of Lael, they were to camp to the west of the tabernacle. They had the assigned duty of guarding the tent itself, all of the cords, and all of the skillfully woven materials.

The 8,600 Kohathites were led by Elizaphan, the son of Uzziel. They camped on the south side of the tabernacle. They also had the responsbility to guard certain sacred objects: all the holy furnishings, including the ark itself. Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, was chief over the chiefs of the Levites. His name was mentioned in connection with the duties of the Gershonites.

The males of Merari totaled 6,200, with Zuriel, the son of Abihail, as their head. They camped on the north side of the tabernacle. Their guard duties included all the frames, pillars, and bases that provided the necessary structure for the tent.

Finally, Moses and Aaron camped to the east of the tabernacle, toward the sunrise, but within the sacred heart of Israel at the leading edge of the Levites.

Moses, Aaron, and the 22,000 numbered men of the Levites not only protected the holy sanctuary of Israel's sacrificial system. They were themselves the Lord's substitute for all the firstborn males of the people of Israel. God had rescued the firstborn males of Israel from the fate that came upon the firstborn sons of Egypt.

The 22,273 firstborn males of the people of Israel were able to live, but they belonged to the Lord in a special way as His dedicated servants. Yet God took the males among the Levites as His servants rather than the firstborn males of all the tribes. Even for the additional 273 males beyond the 22,000 of the Levites a special redemption price was required.

The Lord accepted five shekels per head for those 273. Together with the dedicated service of the males of the Levites, this was what the Lord required for the ceremonial freedom of the firstborn males of Israel.

This was the system according to the ceremonies given in the Law of Moses. Yet the true eternal freedom of the people of God required a different payment to be made. The Levites had their place and time in the plan of God. But now the Messiah, the Son of God has paid for our redemption with His blood.

The Lord required a full and exact accounting of the demands of His justice. He told us of His holiness through the lives and deaths of Aaron's sons. He reinforced the seriousness of His just demands in the way that the Levites were to guard the sanctuary. According to the picture of redemption provided through the numbering of the Old Covenant Levites, every payment needed to be made exactly. But when the Lamb of God gave His blood for us, He gave a payment of inestimable worth.

What a great redemption price has been offered up to our heavenly Father! What surpassing worth is there in the life and death of Jesus! He alone, a solitary payment to the Father, has covered the debt owed by millions of people who belong to Him.

Psalm 139

“The Ultimate Miracle Baby”

(Psalm 139:13-18 and Matthew 1:18-25, September 11, 2011)

Psalm 139:13 … You formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there was none of them.

The Catechism of Christian Unity (CoCU) contains this provocative question: 2. Why are you here? The answer is surprising. We rewrite the question when we hear it to be more like this: “What have you done for me lately?” But the God-centered answer comes to us from Jeremiah 31: Why are you here? God loved me with an everlasting love.

We are here because God is determined to love us with an everlasting love. This is what He determined to do from before all time. This is for His own glory, which is the best purpose there can ever be for anything, but isn't it amazing that what will bring such great glory to God will be His everlasting love for us?

God knows. People say that sometimes when they really mean that no one knows. But Psalm 139 says that God knows. In particular, the beautiful verses in the middle of the psalm tell us that God knows about a life before a child even experiences day one in the womb of his mother.

God made you. That was an outstanding achievement in so many ways, combining two lives into a new life... God knit you specifically together. We can never know the depths of that, but we can know that God did it and that it is a very praiseworthy work; we can know that very well.

What was hidden to your mother, God saw, and even planned. From the depths of an unseen world, God knew your name, and he knew something about you that you have no idea of: how many days you have ahead of you in your life, not just the number but what each day of your life will contain. He formed you and He formed each of your days fully.

More amazing than that: God saved you by coming into the world as you came into the world. God knew the baby Jesus. He formed Jesus by the Holy Spirit inside Mary. That was a miracle! And he formed all of the days of Jesus, including the day of the cross. This is the way He proved His everlasting love for you. This was part of His eternal knowledge and His holy plan: to send His Son to die for you before you were even born.

He was willing to be Immanuel, God with us. Because of that, we will always be with Him.

Numbers 2

The Lord is a God of order. He spoke to Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, instructing them about how the people of Israel should move through the desert. They were to camp according to their tribes in four groups of three tribes each in a special formation around the holy center of Israel.

The leading tribe of the first group of tribes was the tribe of Judah, with that first group consisting of Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. They were to camp on the east side, “toward the sunrise.” Our Lord descended from the tribe of Judah. Though Nahshon the son of Amminadab would lead the 74,600 fighting men of Judah, our hope is not in him. In both genealogies of Jesus his name would appear. Nahshon would lead the tribes camped toward the sunrise, but his descendant, Jesus, is the bright and morning star from on high for whom we wait. Nahshon would lead 186,400 from three tribes who would set out first on the march in the wilderness. Jesus is leading millions from every tribe and tongue and nation to a new heavens and earth.

On the south side, Elizur the son of Shedeur, the chief of the people of Reuben, Jacob's oldest son, would lead not only the Reubenites, but also the people of Simeon and Gad. They would move out in the second position after those camped on the east.

In the very middle of the line of the marching thousands of Israel would be the tent of meeting, and the Levites who had charge of the holy things. The tabernacle was in the middle of the camp at rest and in the middle of the marching men of Israel. God was in their midst.

After the tent came the tribes camped on the west, under the leadership of Ephraim. Finally, the tribe of Dan led the last group of tribes camped on the north.

Israel camped by their standards according to the Word of God through Moses. Israel marched through the wilderness in tribal order according to the Word of God through Moses.

We had already heard the names of the tribal leaders. We had already considered the numbers of the thousands of fighting men from each tribe. What is new in this message of the order for camping and the order for moving out?

First we see that there are two notable positions in the camp and procession of Israel. One is in the very front of the line where the leading man of Judah sets out in front of the people of God. But the second is the position of God Himself in the midst of the Levites and His entire Israel from the center of the camp.

Second it is clear that there was no way for any man in the Old Covenant to occupy both of those significant positions. No Israelite could be counted in the tribe of Judah and serve at the center of the tent of meeting where only the Levites could serve.

Finally we can rejoice in this fact: that as we are now on the move, our King and Lord is not only the best Son of Judah and leader of all Israel, but He is also the very Son of God and the Temple of the Holy Spirit in our midst. He has the greatest place of honor in every sense as His church moves forward. If we rest, we rest in Him. If we serve, He is in the lead. We can do all things through Him who strengthens us.

Our God is the God of order. He has made His kingdom so that in all things Christ shall have the preeminence.

Numbers 1

The Lord took Israel out of Egypt and led them into the promised land. He did not transport His people to Canaan directly. When God brought His nation out of bondage, He led them into the wilderness. There He spoke to them through Moses.

The Lord commanded Moses to count the people, but not each and every human being, only the males who were twenty years old and older who were able to go to war. The census was to be done company by company within the tribal structure of the Israelites.

The men of Israel were to be heads of households, leaders in warfare, and part of the fighting force that the Lord would use in bringing His people through the wilderness and into the promised land. At the head of each tribe was a leading man with a God-given responsibility. His name was listed in these records, and he was to be with Moses in the numbering of that tribe.

These men were each named by their given names that identified them particularly, but they were also named by their father's names, and by their tribal affiliations. There was a context within which their leadership was granted. Elizur, mentioned in verse 5 was not just Elizur the independent man all by himself. Elizur was the son of another man, Shedeur, his father. This was significant in terms of the way he was to understand himself and the way others were to view him. This sense of belonging was not only a family matter. Elizur the son of Shedeur was of Reuben, the first son of Jacob. He was also a part of the people of Israel. The Israelites were the people of God.

Identity was not only individual for this man. It was familial, tribal, and beyond the limits of humanity. Elizur was a part of the people of God.

You are to be a part of a fighting force, not with the weapons of this world, but under the banner of Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God who died for your sins and rose for your justification. In Him you are part of the household of God. You are not just an individual. You are part of a family, a family with a mission to overcome evil with good.

Your identification with your Captain, Jesus, should be more precious to you than any other affiliation that you can imagine. Apart from Him you still have human dignity, but you do not have a true future and a hope in the eternal promise of God. But you are in Him through faith. Help us Lord to live in that faith, to live the life of faith that works itself out through love.

The leaders, we are told in verse 16, were the ones “chosen from the congregation.” How were they chosen? That was not important for us to know. Whatever the method may have been, we should see the sovereign hand of the Almighty as He worked according to His own will.

Tribe by tribe, the number of males able to go to war was determined in the presence of the leaders. Reuben: 46,500, Simeon: 59,300, Gad: 45,650, Judah: the largest, and the one from whom David and the Messiah would come, 74,600, Issachar: 54,400, Zebulun: 57,400, Joseph's son Ephraim: 40,500, Joseph's son Manasseh: 32,200, Benjamin: 35,400, Dan: 62,700, Asher: 41,500, Naphtali: 53,400, all totaling 603,500 fighting men in Israel.

Only the tribe of Levi, the tribe of priests and tabernacle servants, was left out of the census. The Levites were to put to death any outsider who came near the holy things of the Lord that were in their charge. They were to keep guard over the tabernacle of the testimony.

Would your ancestors have been welcomed into the presence of God in that day about 1500 years before the birth of Jesus Christ? Unless they were Israelites, unless they were Levites, unless they were descendants of Aaron, there would have been a point beyond which they would have traveled at the cost of their lives.

But we who were once far off from Israel have been drawn near because of our adoption into the household of God. Not only do we have the rights and privileges of the sons of God, we have been numbered among the congregation as those who have a sacred mission to go forth and to make disciples of all nations. We are a force that will not easily be eliminated, not because of our own ability or wisdom, but because of the One who died and rose again. He is our great leader and our hope. We will not deny Him.