Chapter 9

Chapter 9 breaks neatly into two segments, and both of these are worth spending a little time over.

Verses 1 – 14 are about the celebration of the Passover feast. Verses 15 – 23 are about the pillar of Cloud that appears over the Tabernacle. We’ll deal with them in order.

Passover

Passover is still celebrated by modern Jews (they call it “Pesach”), so you can see that they learned well the importance of this festival.

This passage doesn’t really go into the question of why the Passover celebration was important; for that you’ll need to look elsewhere. But just in case you don’t know the full story, here’s a potted version:

The Israelites escaped from Egypt when God sent the plague on the Firstborn. On that night, the firstborn of all Egypt suddenly died, except where a sacrifice had been made and the blood of the sacrifice painted onto the doorposts and lintel of the home[1]. The wording is that the Angel of Death would see the blood and “Pass over” the home. Needless to say, this was one of the defining moments of the Israelite people, and it has therefore become their main holiday – imagine it as having the importance to the Jewish people of Christmas to us. It is an elabourate ceremony involving lots of ritual and symbolism, and I’d encourage you to take part in one if you ever get the chance (Jews for Jesus organize one every year that Christians can go to).

Numbers assumes that you understand why it’s important. Quite apart from the events that God is wanting his people to remember (once again, reminding them of the theme of redemption!), it’s also important as a way of binding this disparate community together.

In fact, so important is Passover that not only are the Jews commanded to observe it, foreigners are to be invited to participate also (provided they do so properly). So Passover was a time that was important to all people among the assembly.

In fact it’s so important that we face the problem – people became ritually unclean if they had to deal with a corpse, and therefore a person who suffered a bereavement just before Passover had problems. Not just because of the horror of a time of celebration turning into a time of mourning (and everyone can understand that!); also the fact that a person in this situation cannot connect with the rest of society.

This is important, and Moses can see that. God can see that too. Because people are important to God, a provision is made.

It might be a long bow to draw here, but I think it’s possible to demonstrate from this passage (as well as many others) that to God, PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS MORE IMPORTANT THAN RITUAL. One of the errors that God’s people (Israelites, Jews and Christians) have made time and time again is to give customs first place and people second place.

I can think of a lot of examples of this. For example, how many times have you and I missed a significant moment in a non-believing friend’s life because “there’s a church event on”? This is one area in which I’m a terrible offender. Customs and rituals certainly have their place (and here I point out that if you’re committed to do something and there are people depending on you, that’s another important thing, so don’t look to me for support in you welshing out of things!!!), but if God wants you to minister to someone who needs you at church time, it is at least POSSIBLE that the place you should be is there. Tell your church friends, maybe. Get them to pray for you! Sometimes the best way you can grow God’s kingdom is to be somewhere else at church time.

(Boy, I’m going to kick a few ants’ nests with that one. However . . . )_

The Pillar of Cloud/Fire

We read here how God’s presence appeared above the Tabernacle in a visible form. In the daytime that form was a pillar of cloud; in the night time it was a pillar of flame. And the cloud/fire would move whenever the people were to move, and they got used to preparing to head off every time the cloud or fire lifted, regardless of what time of day or night that would have been.

I get mixed emotions when I consider this. On the one hand, I can’t help feeling a little jealous that God appeared in such a visible form for His people. I almost wish He’d do the same for us today. If God was so visible, it’d be tough for the atheists and agnostics we face every day. They say “What God? Show Him to me!” and we’d just point at the pillar of fire. The only logical response would be “Oh, right . . that God.” To paraphrase Terry Pratchett, “It’s tough being an atheist in a world where the gods tend to go around breaking the windows of unbelievers.”

On the other hand, though, I feel a little sorry for the Israelites. True, God didn’t do this because it was fun; He had a plan, and working within the “normal” world wasn’t going to accomplish what He needed to do. But I can’t help feeling for people whose every day was completely controlled by God.

In this, we can see partly why God is often so hidden within our world – freedom is a precious gift that He has given us, and if He is controlling us in such an undeniable way, notional freedom doesn’t count for very much.

Yeah, I’d like to be able to walk by sight. But God has told me that I have to walk by faith instead. And at the end of the day, it’s a better way to live.

[1] It has been pointed out that this creates a crude cross, just in case you’re looking for even more foreshadowing. . . .

Chapter 8

In The Message, chapter 8 has a heading that looks promising – The Lights. But in fact that part of the chapter basically says “God told Aaron to install the seven lamps. And he did.”

Clearly, God doesn’t see that as the significant bit of this chapter!

But from verse 5 onwards, we are looking at how the Levites were to be “Purified.”

Remember how the last few chapters have been about the contrast between life under law and life under grace? Let’s go through the purification procedure for the Levites.

• Sprinkle holy water on them.
• Each is to shave his entire body (really!)
• Each should then scrub his clothes.
  

And then they are purified before God. But wait – there’s more!

• Each now takes a young bull with an offering of fine flour and oil.
• Plus another young bull as a sin offering.
• They are then presented as a “Wave offering” to the Lord.

What is a wave offering? Don’t be embarrassed to ask. I didn’t know either. Apparently it is symbolically waving something before God to demonstrate it being given to Him. When meat or flour (or other foodstuffs) are made a part of a wave offering, the priests are allowed to eat/use it – i.e. the offering isn’t burned or destroyed.

I’m guessing the Levites were probably pretty pleased about being offered as a wave offering rather than a burnt offering. Anyhow . . .

Once again God emphasizes the reasoning behind His selection of the Levites – that they are effectively the Firstborn of the Israelites, and ever since the Passover God has established a claim for the right to all firstborn of the Israelites, their flocks and their herds. But God has redeemed the firstborn by taking the Levites in their place.

This redemption theme is an important one – this is the second time it’s shown up in Numbers alone, and it’s all over the other books of the Law!

The rest of the chapter details how the Levites got straight to work. God also institutes a 25 year period of service for Levites – they start their Tabernacle work when they’re 25 and must retire at 50.

So what can we get out of this?

Two themes I can see, both of which are things we’ve met before in this book.

1) The importance of redemption. God wants to drum into our head that we are His by creation, and that we’ve been bought back for a price. We know now that the price God had to ultimately pay was His own life. Right now it’s all symbolic, but one day it will all be literal and in deadly earnest.

2) Once again, the contrast of law and grace. It is mindblowing how many hoops the Levites had to jump through to become clean before God – and that’s the LEVITES, not the regular run-of-the-mill Israelites!

Are we getting this picture yet? We are worshipping a BIG, POWERFUL and AWE-INSPIRING God, and He commands respect.

The amazing paradox is that it is THIS God who wishes to become near to us, to take us as friends.

Chapter 7

Chapter 7 is a tricky one to write a great deal about, because once again we have a list. This time it’s the day on which the Tabernacle is to be consecrated, and we’re seeing an archived list of the things that were given by each of the tribes.

Firstly (vs 1-9) we see that 6 carts are given, by pairs of tribes. The Gershonites get four of these (for lugging a dirty great tent around) and the Merarites receive two (for moving tent poles and cords). And the Kohathites receive none, because all their stuff is to be carried on the shoulder. Scratch what I said before about it sucking more to be one of those two clans, right now I’m thinking that the Kohathites would have been a little annoyed by this. Anyway . . .

Next we have a gift given by each tribe, represented by the leader mentioned in chapter 1.

Now, this is the list of which I am speaking. Each tribe has its gift detailed in full, even though EVERY TRIBE IS GIVING EXACTLY THE SAME OFFERING.

This offering, by the way, is:

• A silver plate weighing just under 2 kilos (according to the Sanctuary shekel, but translated into metrics for your convenience)
• A silver bowl weighing just under 1 kilo. Both of these filled with fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering.
• A gold vessel (just over 100g) full of incense
• A young bull, a ram and a yearling lamb for a whole burnt offering
• A male goat for a sin offering
• Two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five yearling rams for the peace offering.

I suspect there is something deeply significant from Hebrew culture about each of these items. I’d guess that there is also something of numerological consequence about the number of animals involved. But I don’t know either of those; If I were writing this list, I’d have said “And each tribe gave THIS:”, and if I was really wanting to be thorough I might also throw in the summary you can read from verses 85 – 88.

However, it is well worth contrasting what the Jews had to do to get right with God with what WE have to do. Yesterday I touched on the difference between a law based covenant and a grace based covenant. This chapter bolds, underlines and italicizes the difference.

Specifically, let’s look at the sin offering. 12 goats for the people of Israel, and that’s just for ONE DAY. Elsewhere in scripture we read about the fact that whenever someone knows themselves to be guilty of sin, they are required to give a lamb as a sin offering.

I don’t know about you, but if that were still in place today I’d be burning an awful lot of sheep; and that’s not even counting sins that I commit unknowingly.

But I’m not an Israelite or a Jew; I am a Christian. My sin is covered by the blood shed by Christ on the cross. Once for all!

So when we look at this there are two reactions we can very correctly have.

The first is to note how seriously God takes our sin (as well as understanding just how Holy God is, and how reverent the people of Israel are towards Him).

The second is to be incredibly grateful that He should create a permanent way of dealing with sin.

Chapter 6

The bulk of chapter 6 is given over to the Nazirite vow. This is an interesting vow, and it’s worth knowing about because it turns up elsewhere in Scripture. The most noteworthy Nazirite is, of course, Samson, but there are others.

The thing about the Nazirite vow is that most of us understand it very poorly. When we read about Samson, a lot of it goes over our head. If we understand the vow at all, mostly the vow would go something like this:

• Don’t cut your hair.
• Get super strength from God.

In fact, the super strength bit is unique to Samson, and it’s worth noting that he pretty much flubbed the rest of the vow. Let’s take a look at what it really entailed.

Becoming a Nazirite was a special way of declaring that you belonged to God. Although Samson’s vow was life-long from birth, it was more usual to have a Nazirite vow that began and ended at a particular time.

During the time of the vow, the person (who may be male or female – noteworthy in an ancient world that rarely allowed women the same rights as men!) had the following restrictions on them:

• They may not drink wine or beer (and in pre-distillation days, that is as good as saying “no booze.”). They are not even to eat grapes or grape skins (vs1-4).
• They may not cut their hair (v5). So that part of Samson’s vow is right.
• They may not be in the presence of a dead body(vs 6-7). If someone suddenly dies in their presence, there is a procedure, but that procedure basically amounts to restarting the vow(vs 9-12).
• At the end of the vow they are to present a series of offerings and sacrifices (vs 13-21).
  

The Nazirite vow is an interesting one because it is so alien to us today. In our world your religious behaviour is something that you do in private, perhaps even something you hide from others. Something so overt as to declare yourself a Nazirite is almost shocking to us, especially when the symbol of your vow is to shave your head, then to grow your hair long for the duration of your consecration. Why would you do it?

It is interesting to compare and contrast this vow with other equivalents. Most religions (including Christianity) have a monastic tradition, where people who wish for a deeper experience of their faith would separate themselves from the rest of their community and live a life dedicated to their religious observances (which may vary broadly).

Here, though, the entire people of Israel are essentially one big monastic movement. So leaving the assembly is not warranted. Hence this order of Nazirites, who remain a part of society, yet are in very visible ways separated from the rest of the people.

So where does this leave us?

Well, to begin with, we have evidence from Acts chapter 21 that the Nazirite vow was still linked with jews. Paul demonstrated his continuing identification with Jews (even as a Christian) by joining with a group of temporary Nazirites and paying for their sacrifices at the end of the vow. There is no evidence that I can find in scripture of this vow continuing on to non-Jewish Christians; so in its direct form I do not believe that it applies to us today.

The covenant or agreement between God and the Jews is a covenant of law – Do these things and I will be your God, you will be my people. But the covenant between us and Christ is a covenant of Grace – You are granted freedom from your sin unconditionally! So in some ways it is appropriate that we do not have a mandated way of declaring an individual devotion to God.

This makes it harder, because it is then difficult to know what you should do. On the other hand it is also easier – we have total freedom in Christ. How you express your holiness is up to you to a point (in that it must STILL be in accordance with God’s revealed will; for example, there’s no point in stealing money to glorify Him!).

More than that, the Jewish covenant is about what you DO. Our covenant is about what God has already DONE. To an extent, vows such as the Nazirite vow are obsolete for the Christian. It is still useful to develop spiritual disciplines – reading God’s word, praying, fasting and others – but it needs to be recognized that these ARE disciplines, entered into as training in righteousness, and not something that gains you extra favour with God.

Ultimately, God does not see the Nazirite – or the Christian who fasts – as a better person than the one who is not/does not. So whilst there is much to be gained in disciplining yourself in such a way (and let’s not forget, the reason you’re reading this right now is that I decided that the creation of this commentary was a discipline I would accept for the year!), it’s important to recognize that we are accepted in Christ before we even start.

Chapter 5

We have now left the organization and lists for a time. But we’re still looking at the practicalities of living as a movable city in the desert.

Chapter 5 has 3 sections, two of which are short and the third long.

Verses 1-4 refer to infectious skin diseases (commonly referred to as “Leprosy”, but this causes confusion because today that term is defined more precisely than it once was. Today it refers to an illness which doctors call “Hansen’s Disease,” caused by Mycobacterium Leprae; in the old days they weren’t so fussy, and the diagnostic procedure was basically “That spot looks bad.”), bodily dischargers, dead bodies and anything else that could make people ritually unclean. It is worth mentioning that today these regulations (draconian as they may seem at first) can be demonstrated to be moderately effective in helping to control the spread of disease, so they are quite logical rules to keep in the circumstances.

Whilst verses 1-4 refer to physical uncleanness, verses 5-10 are about SPIRITUAL uncleanness. They outline how a person is to make things right with God. Elsewhere we read about the details, but the general principle is seen here, and is fairly simple – confession, followed by repentance and restitution. Times and methods have changed, and since the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, sacred offerings are no longer needed; but still we need to confess our sins (to God, and to anyone else who has been affected), repent and do whatever is necessary to make things right with other people our sin has hurt.

Verses 11 – 31 go through a fascinating little ceremony. If a woman is suspected of unfaithfulness, this procedure is to be followed which basically amounts to getting her to drink a potion while the priest prays. If she is guilty, she will suffer immediate physical results from the potion.

At first glance this seems barbaric – why is the woman treated this way and not the man? And why such a graphic physical effect?

Interestingly, I can see something immediate and healthy here. There is nothing so destructive to a marriage as an unresolved suspicion of infidelity. And in the ancient world, it was invariably the woman who was under a cloud; for some reason men were often assumed to be innocent. At any rate, this ceremony gave an opportunity for the allegations to be tested and for the woman to be finally declared guilty or innocent.

This is important because once the ceremony was complete, an innocent woman could rule off from that incident and continue with her life. She would be free of the stigma (hopefully!) of being accused of adultery; her name was cleared and the couple could rebuild their marriage, hopefully with a clean slate.

Sometimes I wish there was such a thing available to us. I have seen in the marriages of friends how destructive it is when one partner accuses the other of infidelity, and there is no way to be completely free of the allegation afterwards. So in these words from Numbers, God demonstrates his concern and love for the individual – especially the woman, who in many civilizations had little recourse. He is in the business of cleaning slates, and this fits with His personality.

Chapter 4

One more chapter of procedures before we hit something different!

This time we are revisiting the clans of the Levites from before, and we’re going into some detail of what their duties are to be.

In truth, this was actually a part of Numbers that I always found interesting when I read it years ago. I am always into the “how it works” kind of deal, so the detailed instructions on how a portable temple is to be stripped down and transported are fascinating to me.

(Just think about that for a moment – a temple that could be carried through the desert! And we’re not just talking about a little shrine or a statue that one would normally consider portable; not even an inflatable church[1]. What we’re talking about is something so ambitious that it would be more akin to a CATHEDRAL being carried around with the Israelites. Did I mention that these people were organized? I mean SCARY organized!)

We have the three families mentioned previously – the Kohathites, the Gershonites and the Merarites. Each family is assigned a different role.

The Kohathites have a job which would be described as potentially dangerous. They are to be responsible for moving all the holy objects from the inside of the Tabernacle. The danger here is that if these things are moved incorrectly, death could be the result (see 2 Samuel 6). So before they can do their work, the Priests have a number of jobs to do, disassembling some things and covering others. Just about everything to be carried has a cover made from the hide of Sea Cows (aka Dugongs or Manatees, although the Message uses the term “dolphin skins”). More about this in a moment.

Strangely, whilst the Kohathites have the dangerous work, I tend to think it would suck worse to be one of the Gershonites – lifting the tent itself; or one of the Merarites – lifting the poles, cords and tools. This is perhaps due to my allergy to hard work. I would be quite happy to risk death if it meant I was lifting lighter loads than the other guys. Then again, the Kohathites had to carry a lot of stuff too (including the Ark of the Covenant), and a lot of it was gold plated; so maybe that’d suck just as much. Anyway, each person has their job to do and knows when and how to do it.

We round off the chapter by Moses counting the various clans.

To me there is a striking contrast between the way we view God and the way God is viewed here. Let me explain further – to me, as a Christian, God is seen as a close friend; someone who cares about every intimate detail of my life. This is as He intends, and as such it is a very good thing. It’s something God wants, in fact.

Yet there’s another side to this particular coin – in our closeness with God, sometimes we forget that this very God is Holy, powerful, righteous, and all those things we sing about (but rarely THINK about).

I encourage all Christians to have a look at the video “How great is our God” by Louie Giglio. In this video, Louie shows a number of stars and gives some neat comparisons of their sizes with the Earth in a starring role as a golf ball (you’ve GOT to see it!). He demonstrates just how HUGE these stars are, then reminds you that God was the one who created these things.

The Israelites had to handle each piece of Temple equipment EXACTLY AS DIRECTED, or else they could quite literally drop dead. I’m guessing that this is a discomforting idea to modern Christians, and perhaps it should be. We’re not used to treating God with the kind of respect we see here.

When I was a kid, Mum used to use a particular word – Reverence. Reverence is out of style in some circles. Where once Christians seldom would say God’s name in any disrespectful way, abbreviations like “OMG” are now commonplace. We tell jokes about God (Even I do at times), and doubtless we don’t give Him the respect He deserves. I think we might be emboldened by the fact that God chooses not to strike us down these days.

Yet it is important for us to recognize just what kind of a God we worship. He is great in power, in might and in Holiness. And He deserves all the respect and honour we are capable of giving to Him.

[1] Seriously – they really do exist!

Chapter 3

Well, we have good news and bad news.

The good news is that we’ve moved away from numbered lists and organization of the people of Israel (for the moment!).

The bad news is that now we’re into numbered lists and organization of the Tribe of Levi!

Well, let’s get into it anyway.

We start with setting out the Tribe of Levi and splitting them up into their families and clans. We hear about Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron who died in the incident where they offered “Unauthorised sacrifices” (whatever that means; I don’t know personally, but it sounds bad), leaving Eleazar and Ithamar to serve as priests. Note that priesthood was to be a hereditary office (something which leaves celibate priests in a bit of a pickle).

Then we have another of these patterns we see in the book of numbers – namely, each of the three Levite families is named, its clans listed, it is counted and its duties are set out. So the families descended from Gershon are responsible for the movement and maintenance of the Tabernacle tent itself; the descendants of Kohath are responsible for the Ark of the Covenant, the altars, the tables and all other holy objects; and the descendants of Merari were responsible for moving the frames of the Tabernacle and its cords and tent pegs. Once again, we see amazing organization befitting a city more than a bunch of nomadic tribes.

Moses and Aaron and his sons were listed as camping to the East of the Tabernacle. They were to be alone in performing the Tabernacle rituals, on pain of death. And the number of Levites is finalized on 22,000 (considerably smaller than the other tribes).

But this chapter contains something very interesting, which is worth considering further – God talks about how the Levites are being taken in place of the firstborn sons of the Israelites. This may take a bit of explaining.

In Exodus we read of the plague of the firstborn, which was the last straw in allowing the people of Israel the freedom to leave. What you might NOT have picked up is that the plague actually affected the Israelites as well – the key was simple; God declared that the lives of the Firstborn children were forfeit. The secret was that the people of Israel had been told to REDEEM those children by substituting a lamb.

The theme of redemption is built into scripture, and can be found just about everywhere. Here in Numbers we see yet another place where redemption can be found. The Levites being set aside for God is nothing more or less than the redemption of the people of Israel – they are taken in place of the firstborn of the entire assembly! (Here we’re going to forget about the typically Numbers detail about how to deal with the fact that there are 273 more firstborn sons in the assembly than the tribe of Levi).

It has been said that the only page of the scriptures which is not inspired by God is the page separating the Old Testament from the New Testament (one Bible college lecturer going as far as to tell his students to tear that page out of their Bibles!). This might be an extreme way of saying it, but there’s a point. Sometimes we feel like there’s a different God in the Old and New Testaments; we see the vengefulness, the ruthless judgement, the “I am a Jealous God”, and compare it with the loving forgiveness of Christ. It seems not to make sense.

But there ARE hints here and there that it is the same God. The theme of Redemption is one of those. Another is the theme of substitutionary atonement – the idea that one can pay the price for another. Both of these themes are found here. But they take on a special significance for the Christian, who lives their entire life based on the concept that they are, once and for all time, redeemed by God in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We see this part of the book of Numbers as one of many illustrations God has placed into history (and therefore into His word) of what will eventually save humankind from the burden of their sins.

There is consistency in this. The God we worship, the one who has redeemed us, is the same God who commands a substitution to take place to redeem His people here in Numbers 3.