Dedications to the Lord

Transcript

GRS 2-28
03/05/2006
Dedications to the Lord
Numbers 6-8
Gil Rugh


We are in the Book of Numbers and we are ready for Chapter 6 in your Bibles. Numbers Chapter 6, one of the things we are reminded of as we move through some of these Old Testament sections is the awesome Holiness of God. And as we are in the Old Testament, we are dealing with the people that God has called to Himself an earthly nation, the nation Israel. He created this nation from the descendants of Abraham and formed them into a great nation in 400 years in Egypt. Now he has brought them out of Egypt. They went down a family of 70, they come out a nation of perhaps two million plus people. They are at Mount Sinai in the opening portion of Numbers.

They will not leave Mount Sinai until the middle of Chapter 10 of Numbers. The events taking place here are heart of what began back in Exodus Chapter 19 and all of it takes place from Exodus 19 to Numbers Chapter 10, takes place at Mount Sinai. The giving of the Law, all the instructions for Israel, they have to function not only in their worship but in their life as a nation, and their daily conduct as God’s people. So there are many instructions and you are reminded God is a Holy God and he expects the people that belong to Him to reflect the fact that they are His. And so they will be different from the world around them and they will obey God and stand out in stark contrast to the nations of the world. These are Chapters that are preparing us for the departure from Sinai which will take place in Chapter 10 verse 11.

In Chapter 6, we have a special group of people that are called the Nazirites and the Nazirites were laypeople, not part of the priestly group, could be a man, could be a woman who take a special vow of commitment to the Lord, it could be for a briefer period of time, it could be a lifetime commitment and they will have special characteristics that mark it out. Normal procedure would be that it was a vow taken for a particular length of time. The word Nazirite is just a transliteration of the Hebrew word “nazir” and it means to separate, to be set apart. So a Nazirite is one who is separated or set apart in three areas.

Number one, under a Nazirite vow had to abstain from all strong drinks and fruit of the vine, all the products of the vine, grape products of all kind along with all strong drinks. Secondly, they could not cut their hair during the length of their vow and that would mean for those who were lifetime Nazirites. They would never have their hair cut, but for those who made the vow for a particular point then their vow during that period of time they would not have their hair cut. And thirdly they could not have any contact with a dead body and that includes any. We say why would they? Why would if their close relatives dies, they could not be part that in any way would bring them into contact with the dead body during the time of their vow.

Three very well-known Nazirites in the Bible. Jesus Christ is not a Nazirite. He is a Nazarene. He is from the town of Nazareth, but he was accused of being a winebibber indulging in wine and so on. He was not a Nazirite, He was a Nazarene. There are three well-known Nazirites in the Bible, Samson is one of them. You might turn to Judges Chapter 13, interestingly these three stand out, they are lifetime if you will Nazirites. Judges Chapter 13, this is Samson and interesting to see when you have this kind of cases. They are committed to a Nazirite life and the Nazirite vow by their parents. They don’t really have a say in it.

Judges Chapter 13 verse 4, speaking to the mother of Samson “Be careful not to drink wine or strong drink or eat any unclean thing.” Here the mother is required to abstain from certain things because you shall conceive and give birth to a son and no razor shall come upon his head for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb and he shall begin to deliver Israel, he shall be one of the judges. So here even the mother abstains for example from strong drink, anything that would defile because from the womb, at the time of conception Samson will be under this Nazirite vow and obligation and you are familiar with the story. When he does violate that vow and has his hair cut, he loses his strength. It is part of the discipline of God. Over in 1 Samuel Chapter 1, just after Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel Chapter 1, Samuel is himself a Nazirite.

Samuel Chapter 1 and again you have the mother of Samuel, Hannah being involved in verse 11, “She made a vow and said, Oh Lord of Hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant, (she is childless), remember me not forget your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a son, I will give Him to the Lord all the days of his life, a razor shall not ever come on his head. Sometime you just have one particular major aspect of the Nazirite vow emphasized, but that marks them off. The not cutting the hair would mark particularly a person in a very visible way and actual question is why haven’t they cut their hair, well, they are Nazirites.

And then there is one in the New Testament, but he is so part of Old Testament system, but in the Book of Luke Chapter 1, John the Baptist is a Nazirite. Luke Chapter 1 verse 15, “For he will be great in the sight of the Lord.” Again, before his birth, here the angel is telling his father Zacharias about him. He will be great in the sight of the Lord. He will drink no wine or liquor. Wine is a strong drink. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb, and he will go to prepare the way for the coming Messiah as you are aware. With Samson the emphasis is not cutting the hair, here they emphasize no strong drink. So here are the three major Nazirites, but within Israel.

Come back to Numbers Chapter 6, any man or woman could take a vow, there we saw particular cases from birth you have lifetime Nazirites, but the Chapter opens up in Numbers Chapter 6, “again the Lord spoke to Moses saying, "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'When a man or woman makes a special vow, a difficult vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to dedicate himself to the Lord. Here is what he shall do, any man any woman is potential for taking such a vow and dedicating themselves, they are examples we looked at. For example, Samson, Samuel, those are dedicated from birth by the parent.

“He shall abstain from wine and strong drink. He shall no vinegar this is probably referring to the wine vinegar that was commonly made then so this is a product of the wine, special type of wine called wine vinegar whether made from wine or strong drink. He shall not drink any grape juice; eat any fresh or dried grapes. So you see all strong drinks, all alcoholic drinks and anything associated as a product of the wine, whether it is grape or grape juice, resins, all of that he has to abstain from. All the days of his separation he shall not eat anything that is produced by the grape vine, from the seeds to the skin. All the days of his vow of separation, no razor shall pass over his head. Shall be holy until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to the Lord. He shall let the locks of hair on his head grow long. All the days of his separation, note that there is not a defined period.

Obviously this vow is more than a for couple of days because the cutting of the hair and so on would be irrelevant, but it does not define that the duration of a Nazirite vow must be this long. So we are not told how long they would be. We know it can extend to a whole lifetime from the examples we saw. And then verse 6, “All the time of his separation to the Lord, he shall not go near to a dead person. He shall not make himself unclean for his Father, for his Mother, for his brother, for his sister when they die because his separation to God is on his head. All the days of his separation, he is Holy to the Lord. This is more binding than what was required for the priests in Israel.

Turn back to Leviticus 21, we did not go through the book of Leviticus on this occasion, because the Book of Leviticus does not move us forward in the developing history because everything there takes place at Mount Sinai, but in Leviticus Chapter 21 verses 1 and 2, “Then the Lord said to Moses speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron and say to them no one shall defile himself for a dead person. This is for the priest, none of the priests shall defile themselves for a dead person except for his relative who are nearest to him, his Mother, his Father, his son, his daughter, his brother, a virgin sister who has no husband he may defile himself in other words he may go and take care of the burial. For this kind of occasion what is required of a Nazirite is more than what is required when it comes to contact with the dead body and involvement with the funeral that was required of a normal priest. It is the same level of requirement that is required of the High Priest in verse 11.

Verse 10 says the Priest who is highest among his brethren the High Priest. Verse 11, “He shall not approach any dead person, nor defile himself even for his Father or for his Mother,” So when a person made a Nazirite vow, they were committing themselves to a special level of commitment to the Lord to be Holy to the Lord that is the ramifications if father or mother died during the time of your vow then you could not be involved in their funeral. Death was a defiling thing. You could not have any kind of contact with the dead body. Now when you come back to Numbers Chapter 6, what are you going to do? You have taken a Nazirite vow. You have bidden this vow for eight months. You are standing and talking to someone and have a heart attack and they fall over and bump into you. You are defiled as you touched a dead body, now what, well verse 9 covers that, verses 9 to 12 tells you what to do if you accidentally come in contact with a dead body.

If a man dies very suddenly beside him and he defiles his dedicated head then he shall shave his head on the day when he becomes clean. He shall shave it on the seventh day. So you have seven days if you will of isolation, you are unclean, then on the seventh day now, your head shaved and then he has to make certain sacrifices. In verse 11, the priest offers a sin offering and a burnt offering and in verse 12 then he starts all over. So if he is eight months into this Nazirite vow, and he has been defiled, he has to go through the cleansing process then he starts over. So his Nazirite vow, a vow that I will serve the Lord as a Nazirite for the next twelve months he is 8 months into that vow when he was defiled, he has to go through the cleansing process and then start over with a new 12-month segment to complete that vow. So such a stringent vow especially setting myself aside as one Holy to the Lord and committed to him in a special unique way.

Verse 13 to 20, go through the details of what is involved in completing your Nazirite vow and returning to a normal life as an Israelite. He has to offer the major sacrifices covered in verses 13 to 20, the sin offering, this will cover any sins that were inadvertently committed during the period of his consecration. Obviously he is not going to be sinless. So, any inadvertent sins will be covered under the sin offering. The burnt offering symbolizes his dedication to the Lord. The fellowship offering also called the peace offering indicates the harmony that exists, the peace that he has, the relationship with God. There is a serial grain offering, drink offerings are all unfolded in verses 13 to 20, then all of these are the minimum requirement according to verse 21. This is the Law of the Nazirite who vows his offering to the Lord according to his separation in addition to what else can he afford.

So these and verses 13 to 20 are what are required now if he is an individual or she is an individual who can afford to do more than this then you do more than that. Now these were the minimum requirements in completing your Nazirite vow. So this is not something that someone will enter into lightly. It has serious requirements and obligations attendant to this part of God’s provision within the nation for people that would commit themselves in a special way to Him. To serve Him separated from the normal every day enjoyments and the fruit of the wine was major part of Israel’s life, now you are cut off from that, other things that mark you off. You move from something not directly related to that but something that relates to the whole nation when the Chapter closes. A benediction that is well somewhat familiar to us, sometimes in some churches they close their services with such a statement. It is a prayer of blessing the priest were to pray over the nation Israel. Israel belongs to God. He will be their protector. He is the one who will provide for them. He will bring them peace.

So verse 22, “The Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to Aaron and his sons saying thus you shall bless the sons of Israel you shall say to them The Lord bless you and keep you The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace. So they shall invoke my name on the sons of Israel and I will bless them.” So Chapter 6 is about how people in the nation can make a special commitment, vow of commitment to the Lord to separate themselves to him for a special purpose and for a certain time. They are holy to him in a special way. Then he concludes with the blessing that the priests are to pronounce over the nation to remind the nation that they belong to God and He is the one who cares for them and will bless them, and be gracious to them, make His face shine on them and give them peace.

Chapter 7 is one of those Chapters I find interesting as we were going to do the reader’s digest of this Chapter we could summarize about 73 verses in just a couple of verses, that’s not the way God does it. He repeats himself again and again and again twelve times He says the same thing in this Chapter beginning in verse 10. This Chapter covers the gifts that are brought by the leaders of the twelve tribes for the tabernacle ministry and really what takes place in Chapter seven, eight and nine go back before the census of Chapter one when the nation was numbered, so that the army could be marshaled in anticipation of going into the land of Canaan and destroying the enemies of God. Now, verse 1 tells us “Now on the day that Moses had finished setting up the tabernacle, he anointed it and consecrated it.”

So we are going back now to fill in and tell you some of the events that had happened. Now they are all within the period of while they were at Mount Sinai, but we are going back before the first Chapter of Numbers and the events there as it is unfolded here for us to tell the events that took place because this is related to the moving of the tabernacle. So, what is related here took place earlier. It fits in the unfolding here because how we are going to move the tabernacle as we prepared to move out of the camp. Well God made provision for that. We didn’t tell you about it then, let me tell you about it then, let me tell you the provision he made for the moving of the tabernacle. Every tribe is involved in the worship of God.

So every tribe makes a contribution and thus will be unfolded. The first nine verses tell you about the gifts of oxen and wagon. Every tribe brings a gift of oxen and wagon. You are going to have twelve oxen and six carts and what carts and oxen are for moving the tabernacle. So, you have six carts, each cart pulled by two oxen. So, the tribes all go together and two tribes commit one cart and each tribe an ox. So, verse 2 tells you the leaders of Israel, the heads of their father’s household, they make an offering, then they brought their offering before the Lord. Six covered carts, verse 3, and twelve oxen, a cart for every two of the leaders and an ox for each one. They present them before the tabernacle and the Lord told to Moses, accept these things from them, that they may be used in the service of the tent of meeting, and you shall give them to the Levites. So Moses took the carts and the oxen and gave them to the Levites. Two carts and four oxen he gave to the sons of Gershon, and four carts and eight oxen he gave to the sons of Merari.

Now remember the sons Levi, the three sons and that’s where we are here, but he did not give any verse 9, to the sons Kohath. So remember the Levites divided into these three groups by the three sons of Levi, but for the priestly line the Kohathites for the service of priests, they don’t get any carts because they are responsible to carry certain items. For example, the arc with the pole on their shoulder, that was not to be transported on a cart. It is to be transported by the poles carrying it, so very clear instruction here. Now, you are familiar with the Old Testament background later in Israel’s history they get into trouble because they ignore this.

Turn over to 2 Samuel Chapter 6, 2 Samuel Chapter 6. The ark had been captured by the philistines. God plagues the philistines. So, the philistines returned the ark. This goes back to First Samuel Chapter 4, 5, and 6. For twenty years the ark is not where it belongs. Now David is ready to restore the ark and bring it back where it belongs. So Chapter 6 verse 1, “David gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. David arose with all the men who are with him to Baalah of Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, the very name the Lord of Hosts who is enthroned between the cherubim. They placed the ark of God on a new cart.

Wrong, I mean there is a lot of preparation has gone into this. This is David, I mean he doesn’t do things in a small way. Thirty thousand chosen men of Israel are gathered together here, then all the people here and they are ready to move the ark and they want to honor it. They put it on a new cart. They want to do this right that they might bring it from the house of Abinadab, and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were leading the new cart. So they brought it with the ark of God from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill and Ahio was walking ahead of the ark.

Meanwhile, David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord with all kinds of instruments. I mean they are committed and they want to honor the Lord and celebrate His presence which the ark represents and you have got thousands and thousands of people. 30,000 chosen men and all Israel joined here and you can be sure that the musicians were well trained and prepared and the ark and they come to the threshing floor in, verse 6, of Nacon and Uzzah reached out toward the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen nearly upset it. And the anger of the Lord burned against Uzzah and God struck him down there for his irreverence and he died there by the ark of God.

I remember when early years became familiar I thought poor that is just so mean of God. I mean Uzzah didn’t mean anything, I mean you want the ark to fall over and crash and get broken. I mean what you would have done if you were there. You know what you should have done. Stop, stop, stop we can’t put the ark on a cart. God said that’s not the way to be transported. Good intentions are not acceptable before the Lord. You know we think it’s alright. Well they mean well. Oh, if you hear this we talk about church not doing something biblical well they mean well. Their intentions are good. Good intentions don’t matter. Meaning well I think Uzzah had good intentions. From that sense, he didn’t want the ark to follow over. Would you wanted it to follow over? What you would have done. Well, he did what was natural.

The problem was they were honoring the Lord according to His word. Don’t put the ark on a cart, not even a new cart, not even with all the attending musicians and all the chosen men and all the nation declaring the praises of the God of the ark. You cannot honor God by not obey. David became angry because of the Lord’s outburst against Uzzah and David was afraid verse 9 of the Lord. The whole proceeding is over; you talk about throwing water on the celebration. They are done, the ark is not going. Celebration is over. You know the thousands of people here, all the celebration and just like that it is done. We are not taking the ark back. Thus the ark in verse 11 remained in the house of Obed-edom for three months.

David, in verse 10 was unwilling to move the ark of the Lord into the city of David with him. He is afraid. He is angry. I don’t know you know; I don’t want to say he was angry at the Lord. He was angry over events here and he is afraid to proceed. Now after the three months and he hear about the blessing of the Lord on the house of Obed-edom because of the ark being present there. Then verse 13 tells us, “So it was when the bearers of the ark of Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an oxen and a fatling and now the celebration, but what are they are doing? Now we are going to move the ark the way God says it. You know what happens, he moved the ark the way God says. The cart doesn’t trip over and spill the ark, but David had learned a lesson about the holiness of Lord here.

Even King David the man after God's own heart can overrule God's word no matter if his intentions were the best possible. Read the word and see what it says, do it. Don’t replace the word with good intentions. I mean we get objects lessons like this. If they had no excuse in David’s day, what excuse do we have with the whole Book and you at the church is running around coming up with all these great ideas and we think God should be so pleased. He is pleased with the obedience of His people. He doesn’t ask to improve on what He said. He doesn’t ask us, He commanded us to do what he said and David has learned a lesson you honor the Lord. Every six paces, they stopped and do a sacrifice. This can be a long trip even if it is a short distance.

We are going to six paces and we are going to stop and we are going to sacrifice an oxen and fatling and we are going to go six more paces and we are going to stop. This is a God to be revered. Verse 9, says “David was afraid of the Lord.” It is good for us to fear the Lord, to tremble. I mean here they are moving the ark, which is the evidence of the presence of the Lord among His people. Here we have Him dwelling within us. What kind of reverence are we to be characterized by? How careful should we be? David learned a lesson from this. Certainly we should as well.

Come back to Numbers Chapter 7. So verse 9, you move the ark. It is transported according to the instructions God gave for the moving of the ark and certain of the holy objects that the priest’s themselves were responsible, others couldn’t. Certain general items, the exterior things, the poles, the outer coverings are these things that could be transported by the ark. The Levites were responsible that each had assigned tasks and so on for doing that. You come down to verse 10 down to verse 83, you have listed gifts that are brought as offerings and these are the ways that the ministry of tabernacle and priestly order and the Levites are supported and here so verse 12, now the one who presented his offering.

And this goes over a period of days, verse 11 says, let them present their offering one leader each day for the dedication of the elder. Say you got twelve days here. Each day one leader, the head of one tribe comes and presents the offering. We will just read the first one, “now the one who presented his offering on the first day was Nahshon the son of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah; and his offering was one silver dish whose weight was one hundred and thirty shekels, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering; one gold pan of ten shekels, full of incense; one bull, one ram, one male lamb one year old, for a burnt offering; one male goat for a sin offering; and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five male lambs one year old. This was the offering of Nahshon the son of Amminadab.

On the second day Nethanel the son of Zuar, leader of Issachar, presented an offering. He presented, you know what it is, it is exactly the same offering and so have each of them because it is important to realize each on of the tribes fulfill their responsibility and carry their weight so to speak. You come down to verse 84. See I am capable of covering large blocks very quickly, summarizes the gifts and totals them. This was the dedication offering for the altar from the leaders of Israel when it was anointed: twelve silver dishes, twelve silver bowls, twelve gold pans, each silver dish weighing and you go through and now each silver dish weighing one hundred and thirty shekels, each bowl seventy; all the silver of the utensils total this much weight, 2,400 shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. The twelve gold pans and then you total up the total weight, so that all the nation is involved here, all twelve tribes. The leader acting on behalf of the twelve tribes they are involved in supporting the ministry of the tabernacle.

When you get over to First Corinthians 9 and we will come to that in the not too distant future. Paul uses this as an example of how we are to support the ministry today. For each were supported by the gifts of the people, First Corinthians Chapter 9. So even though we don’t have a tabernacle and a priestly system, there is a principle that Paul will say is still applicable. That is those specially involved in the ministry of the word of God are supported by the people of God and their gifts and he draws back to the analogy from the Old Testament system.

Chapter 8 is about the Levites and their responsibility. You give some instructions on how the lamp stand, remember the seven-branch candle stick, how it is to be lit by Aaron and then the rest of the Chapters concerned about consecrating the Levites and then concludes with instructions regarding their retirement. So, you get a complete picture here. What we are really taking about are the matters related to the tabernacle and those involved in service and ministry of the tabernacle, the Levites and that has to be taken care of in preparation for moving on and all the events ahead. And first four verses, its Aaron’s responsibility to mount the lamps on the lampstand. So you take this apart to transport it and the lampstand is an # lamp.

So on each of the seven branches and you have seen these represented you have the center stalk and the three on each side. Well this mantle for transportation done by only the priests. Now it falls to Aaron, the high priest to place the lamps, the oil lamps at the top of each of these branches and to see that they are arranged properly so that the back of the lamp reflects the light in certain way. The light has to reflect down on the table of showbread where the twelve loaves representing the twelve tribes will be presented in two rows of six loaves each representing the fact that twelve tribes live in the light of God's presence. All are very important these details are very important these details. How they ever get these all straightened, keep track of it. Everything is important, we saw that.

Down are the details of how moved everything and it is a fatal mistake to do it other than how God said. So, Aaron verse 2, “When you mount the lamps, the seven lamps will give light in the front of the lampstand.” So you mount these lamps, the oil lamps, so that the light cast out to the front on to the table of the showbread in the front. So Aaron did so. He mounted his lamps at the front of the lamp stand just as the Lord had commanded and now you are told of something of the workmanship of the lampstand. Leviticus 24, verses 5 to 9 talk about the table where the twelve loaves are arranged in front of the lampstand and the loaves are lined up in two rows in six each, each loaf representing one of the tribes and the light God's presence. The Israel lives continually the presence of the Lord in the light of His presence.

Verse 4, the gold lampstand that was described in detail in Exodus 24, verses 31 to 40 and here you have just a summary. Verses 5 to 22 talk about the consecration of the Levites. Chapter 3 talked about census. We numbered the Levites for their ministry and their being the replacement for the firstborn in Israel, remember. Chapter 4 talked about the various responsibilities in taking down the tabernacle and preparing it for transportation and how it is to be transported.

Chapter 7 talked about the carts that are provided for transporting much of the tabernacle and reminded us that the Kohathites did not get a cart or oxen because they carried of what they were responsible for. So, you see it all relates to preparation much of these really part of numbers for matters of the tabernacle. Verse 6 and 7, you have the ritual purification of the Levites. Verse 6, “You take the Levites from among the sons of Israel, thus you shall do to them for their cleansing.” So, they are consecrated in a special way. Verse 8, then you have special appropriate sacrifices for the setting aside of Levites in a special way.

Verse 10 of Chapter 8, you present the Levites before the Lord. What happens here is now the leaders of Israel come and place their hands on the Levites because they are representing now the Levites are taking our place because you remember the Levites are taken as dedicated to the Lord in place of the firstborn that God spared in Egypt. Jump down to verse 16, concerning the Levites that serve in the tent of meeting.

Verse 16, for they are wholly given to Me from among the sons of Israel. I have taken them for myself instead of the firstborn of the womb, the firstborn of all the sons of Israel. For every firstborn among the sons of Israel is mine, among the men, among the animals, on the day that I struck down the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified them for myself, but I have taken the Levites instead of the firstborn. So now the Levites are dedicated to the Lord, and they go through this cleansing process, the offering process and then the leaders of Israel come and place their hands on the Levites saying the Levites represent us and they are taken instead of our firstborn, they are substitutes.

Verse 12, now the Levites shall lay their hands on the head of the bulls, then offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. So in turn now, the Levites are the representative of the people and the Levites turn and place their hands on the heads of the sacrificial animals which are sacrificed and the animals are taken in the place of the Levites, so all a significant element in demonstrating God's work. Oh boy, why didn’t you just say I have taken the Levites, everything is important. We don’t tell God how he could condense of what He is doing. Just like David couldn’t decide, wouldn’t it be easier to put the ark on a cart and move it, then go through the trouble of carrying it and walking it on our shoulders.

You can’t just come out with an alternative to God, no matter how much more affective that might seem. So the Levites have a special role down verse 19, I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron. Remember Aaron is the part of the Levitical tribe, but he is one line in the Levitical tribe. The rest of the Levites are given to Aaron because the line of Aaron is given as the priestly line. All the rest of the Levites serve Aaron in Tabernacle ministry or ministry related to the tabernacle and at the tabernacle.

Verses 23 to 26, talk about the retirement of the Levites. Levites serve from 25 to 50. The priest served from 30 to 50. At 50 they retire. They can assist in certain activities, but they are not responsible for the labors of the tabernacle. So that’s God's plan. He has made provision from beginning to end. The Levites were set aside, were ready for the observance of the second Passover. First Passover was in Egypt. Second Passover was at Mount Sinai in Chapter 9, then moving to Chapter 10 and with verse 11 of Chapter 10, the assembly will move out and we are on our way.

By the time we get to Chapter 11, the people are complaining that I don’t like it because of all of this. That’s how quickly we begin to unravel and forget all that was unfold. We say why God through all this detail. We will appreciate it when we get to Chapter 11. How quickly God's people just abandon everything that was to draw their attention to the God who is present among them. Many lessons visually laid out for us and the account given so that we can learn how we are to live as God's people.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for the richness of your word. Even as we are considering the history of Israel, we are reminded of the awesome holiness of the God that we serve, the God that dwells among us in his church. God who dwells in each of us as your people, God who must be treated as holy. The people of God who must manifest holiness in the lives that they live. Thank you for your grace in dealing with Israel, in being the God of Israel and providing for Israel. Thank you Lord for the greatness of your grace as manifested in the church to us as your people. We praise you in Christ’s name, amen.