Scroll down to see and play Audio.
Good morning my “Walking With Jesus” friends, today is Saturday August 10th and we’re in the Bible book of Numbers chapter 3&4.
For millions of American families it’s ‘back to school’ time. . . But this year it’s VERY different!
I saw on the news last night something that broke my heart, I wonder if you saw it? School children back-packs, are now being made “bullet proof”, and are selling faster than shop-keepers can put them on the shelves. . . in the United States of America!
It’s a cultural shift, in response to the school shootings, and these are back-packs for kids of all ages, from Collegians all the way to kindergarten age kids! It’s a sad commentary on the condition of our nation isn’t it? Can you imagine the conversations parents will have with their children about how to take off their backpack and hide behind it, as a shield, if a shooter attacks their school? This is not Afghanistan or Yemen or North Korea… this is America, today my friends?
How did we get here?
I like to offer you resources which I have found helpful and here’s another one. Dr. Albert Mohler produces a daily (Monday-Friday) podcast he calls “The Daily Briefing”. At the bottom of this page is the direct link to “The Daily Briefing”. It’s free, and can come to you as an email.
Dr. Mohler is one of the clearest, strongest, Christian voices in our day, helping us understand the moral and spiritual drift of our society, as seen in the daily news headlines. His book “We Cannot Be Silent” is very powerful! The subtitle is: “Speaking truth to a culture redefining sex, marriage and the very meaning of right and wrong”.
I urge you to consider these resources, which will help you understand the spiritual battle raging for the heart & soul of America! The more we gain God’s perspective on it all, the more we can help our children and grandchildren navigate the shark filled, turbulent waters all around us.
I call our daily journey together “Walking With Jesus”, because a vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ is the only way I know, to hold back the dangerous drift of our hearts, our families, and our nation! In our daily reading, we are with Moses and the 2 million runaway slaves he led out of Egypt. We’ve been camped together with them at Mount Sinai. The “Tent of Meeting” has been erected, and the cloud of God’s Presence hovers over it by day and night, signifying God is with His people! May I help you with a time-line?
Exodus 40:1 tells us Moses and his helpers erected this “Tent of Meeting” (Tabernacle) for the first time on “…the first day, of the first month” of the second year. They had left Egypt on Passover night, on the 14th day of the first month of the first year (Exodus 12:2,6). Numbers 1:1,2 says God told Moses to take a census of all the Hebrew slaves and tell them how to re-arrange their tent city, according to tribes, clans and families, around the “Tent of Meeting”. We saw that yesterday.
Then if you look forward with me to Numbers 10:11 it says “On the 20th day of the second month of the second year, the cloud lifted from above the Tabernacle of the Testimony. Then the Israelites set out from Sinai…” Their journey from slavery in Egypt, to being a nation of God’s people, living in God’s promised land, re-launched, after many months at Mount Sinai!
Here I’ve laid out those dates in order to help you see the time-line…
14th day of 1st month of 1st year. . . .Passover night escape from Egypt! (Ex. 12)
“In the 3rd month after leaving Egypt, they came to the Desert of Sinai…and camped in front of the mountain.” (Ex. 19:1,2)
1st day of the 1st month of the 2nd year. . . Set up the “Tent of Meeting” the first time. (Exodus 40)
1st day of the 2nd month of the 2nd year . . . Take a census of the camp & re-arrange the tent city (Numbers 1&2)
20th day of the 2nd month of the 2nd year . . . The cloud lifted, the people leave Mount Sinai (Numbers 10:11)
Now please let me link what I started with today… bullet proof backpacks, and America’s frightening moral drift…, with what God was doing these months at Mount Sinai, with these runaway, lawless slaves. Do you see that without the whip of the slavemasters, and the strong control of Pharaoh, and especially without God, these slaves would be living in anarchy, out of control immorality and self-destructive violence… does that sound like America today?
So God rescued them from the suffocating slavery of the Pharaoh, and in these months at Sinai, with Moses’ 8 trips up the mountain, God invited them into relationship with HIMSELF…, Holy, Almighty God.God also gave them His laws to form the framework of a new, God honoring society. And finally, God invited them into a worship relationship, that involved His Presence dwelling among them, His Presence leading them and His daily provision of their basic needs for food and water.
During the month between the erection of the “Tent of Meeting” for the first time, and the census and re-arrangement of their tent city around that Tabernacle, do you wonder what was happening? That’s the book of Leviticus. God was giving Moses and Aaron further detail about how this gathering of lawless, runaway slaves, could live as a people of God, in an organized, peaceful, lawful, God honoring community! It can be some heavy reading…but that’s because God was shaping a safe, God honoring, entire society for lawless, runaway slaves!
It involved the ordination of Aaron and his sons to Spiritual leadership of the people which we find in Leviticus 8&9. But in Leviticus 10 we also find the sad reality of the death of 2 of Aaron’s sons, who were not respectful of God’s Holiness and the spiritual leadership role. It’s similar to the death of Eli’s 2 wicked, yet priestly sons, in 1 Samuel 4. They too made a mockery of their spiritual leadership roles. With God, Spiritual leadership is a high and holy calling, and He responds, when those He calls and anoints into spiritual leadership, make a mockery of that sacred privilege….in all societies, all generations.
Now in the 20 days or so between the census and their departure from Sinai, in addition to re-arranging the tent city, there was something else quite important happening, and we find that in Numbers 3 & 4. God defined WHO would have both the responsibility and great privilege of caring for this “Tent of Meeting”. You’ll see it was the families who are descendants of Levi, the third born son of Jacob and Leah (Gen. 29:34). God chose this ‘tribe’, and all it’s ‘clans’ and ‘families’ to be “Levites”, the people who would serve the spiritual needs of the Hebrew nation! Moses and Aaron were born into that Levite tribe (Exodus 2).
As you read Numbers 3 you’ll find God saying to Moses “The Levites are Mine” (Numbers 3:12,13), and then God explains that just as He spared the first-born Hebrews males, when the angel of death passed over in Egypt, (Exodus 14), so He is choosing all Levite males, as representatives of all Hebrew first-born males, in their special spiritual service for Him. You’ll see there were three ‘clans’ in the tribe of Levi, and God gave each of these three, very distinct and special roles…and even a special place in the camp where they should pitch their tents and live close to the “Tent of Meeting”.
To the ‘clan’ of Gershon, was the privileged assignment of caring for, maintaining and even transporting the structure of the “Tent of Meeting” itself. You’ll see that in Numbers 3:21-26 & 4:21-28. Also, they were given the area immediately to the WEST of the “Tent of Meeting” for their living area.
To the ‘clan’ of Kohath, was given the privileged assignment of transporting the sacred items used in worship INSIDE the Tabernacle. That would include the Ark of the Covenant, the Altar of Incense, the Golden Menorah Lampstand, the Table of Shewbread and even the Veil which separated the Most Holy Place. You’ll see the description of their assignment in Numbers 3:27-32 & 4:1-20.
May I draw your attention to something important with the instructions given to the Kohath clan? When you read Numbers 4:1-20 you’ll see it is Aaron and his sons ONLY who are to go into the “Tent of Meeting” and prepare those sacred items for transport, and God even gave very specific instructions as to how to wrap those sacred, golden items. You’ll see that while the Kohath’s were privileged to carry them, they did not touch them… Aaron and his sons already had the poles in the rings so the men lifted and carried, but did not touch the Ark or Altar or Table.
Now may I ask you…why would God go to such extreme detail my friends?
Do you see the consistent message from God that HE is HOLY, and worship of Him is a Holy encounter and He wants His people to be a HOLY people, very distinct from all people on earth, especially the lawless, violent, and immoral? Now… can you look closely at America, and can you see that because we have long ago lost our respect and awe for Holy God, we have drifted deep into the darkness, of becoming the type of society that God warned His Hebrews about, and in fact instructed these Hebrew slaves, that when they entered into the Promised Land which was filled with people living like modern American Society, God warned them to not intermarry with them, but rather to wipe them out, so the Hebrews would not become corrupted, contaminated by them. Now think about that my friends!!!
The “clan” of Merari was the third and final group of the Levites, and their responsibilities and privileges are outlined in Numbers 3:33-37 & 4:29-33. They were the carriers of the structure of the “Tent of Meeting”, the poles and frames. They were given the area on the north side of the Tabernacle to live.
So now we see the plan for dismantling, transporting and re-assembling this “Tent of Meeting” in the desert, as the refugee city of 2 million people moved from place to place.
I wonder what you conclude when you think about all the detail God went to with Moses and Aaron, in designing the “Tent of Meeting” and all the worship artifacts inside; and then the process of dismantling, transporting and re-assembling this place of worship?
And what do we learn about God and the relationship He wants with us His people, when He designs the entire city of refugees to live according to their tribes, clans and families, in an orderly design AROUND the “Tent of Meeting”, so that the central focus of the entire city, even while 2 million people are moving from one place to another, is the cloud of God’s Presence and this place of worship?
Do you see my friends, as we watch the news reports nightly, and we buy ‘bullet proof backpacks’ for our kids going back to school…that we, America, have drifted so very far away from this picture in Exodus and Numbers, and we are paying the horrible price for pushing God out of our society?
May I invite us to pray…right now, asking God to show us what HE wants us to do, where-ever you live, in helping turn America back to Him??
Attachments:
Click to read today’s chapters: Numbers 3; Numbers 4. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Audio Player
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.