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Numbers 8 - 9

Numbers
NumbersSteve Gregg

In these chapters, Steve Gregg provides a close examination of Numbers 8-9, delving into the intricate laws and rituals surrounding the Levites and the Nazirite vow. He highlights the significance of the lampstand made of hammered gold and discusses the cleansing rituals for the Levites. Gregg also explores the concept of laying hands on the Levites and suggests that their ordination serves as a type for full-time ministry in the church. He further relates the cloud leading the children of Israel during their journey to the idea of the church following the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

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Transcript

We're now putting in at Numbers chapter 8. And the book of Numbers up to this point has been a mixture of somewhat tedious lists on the one hand, and kind of intriguing laws like the ordeal of jealousy and the Nazirite vow. On the other hand, we are getting to the section where we will find more narrative, more movement. Because in chapter 9, or actually chapter 10 really, we find that they begin to move, and then we'll have stories that are a little more action-packed.
Not action-packed compared to our modern action movies by any means, but at least there will be some movement, some activity, and some disasters. Disasters are always good. There are no special effects, but there are some disasters for sure.
In chapter 8, however, we have some miscellaneous matters still to attend to, so we're not yet out of the woods or out of the wilderness. In Numbers chapter 8, And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Speak to Aaron and say to him, When you arrange the lamps, the seven lamps, you shall give light in front of the lampstand. And Aaron did so.
He arranged the lamps to face toward the front of the lampstand as the Lord commanded Moses.
Now, this workmanship of the lampstand was of hammered gold. From its shaft to its flowers, it was hammered work according to the pattern which the Lord had shown Moses.
So he made the lampstand. Now, this apparently refers to the initial lighting of the lamp, because once it was lit, it was not really supposed to be allowed to go out. It was required to be perpetually burning.
And so this must be the first lighting of the lamp, and the main emphasis seems to be that there must have been some kind of reflectors behind the lamps themselves, maybe some gold plates of some kind or something that would reflect the light a certain direction, and they must have been adjustable, so he was supposed to place it so they send the light forward. But it's not entirely easy to picture this because we can't picture exactly what the lampstands look like, but these instructions probably applied only one time, and that would be to the first lighting of the lantern. I'm not sure exactly what they did actually when they moved it.
Maybe they did let the lamp go out and then relight it. Maybe this idea that's supposed to perpetually burn only means, well, you know, when it's set up, you know, because they did cover it with a cloth when they when they moved it.
And it is hard to picture them doing that with the lamps still burning the flames.
So we're not, you know, they were there. They saw how this was done. We only read these instructions without all the details, so it's hard to picture.
So it's hard to picture, even though it says the lamp should not be allowed to go out. Perhaps that just means, you know, when the when the tabernacle is functioning, when the tabernacle is set up and and they're actually using it, it would seem reasonable that the lamps would be put out when they traveled. And if that was true, then this relighting of the lamps would have to be redone every time.
And that would make sense. Now, verse five. The priests had been dedicated and consecrated earlier on.
It remains now for the Levites to be consecrated to the Lord because they have been taken instead of the firstborn. We know to be God's workers in the tabernacle, full time workers. And so they've got to be consecrated.
And it says, Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Take the Levites from among the children of Israel and cleanse them ceremonially.
Thus you shall do to them to cleanse them, sprinkle water of purification on them and let them shave all their body and let them wash their clothes so they make themselves clean. Part of this purification process was done to them and part of this was done by them.
The water sprinkled upon them is, of course, what Aaron did to the Levites.
But the Levites themselves had to shave themselves and wash their clothes. And I'm sure that there's symbolic value to this.
Shaving the hair would be, of course, the hair grows out of the flesh. What the flesh produces has to be shaved off. And the clothing in the Bible often represents behavior, really.
I mean, all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
The Bible talks about in Jude the need to rescue some people carefully because of their dangerously infectious evil lifestyle. It says we should do so, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.
The Bible talks about the bride adorned in fine linen, clean and bright. In Revelation 19 it says the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
It does appear that clothing often is used as an emblem of one's behavior.
In fact, Paul tells us to put on the new man and to put off the old man. And he describes the deeds of the old man and the new man. The deeds of one were to put off like an old garment and the deeds of another were to put on like a new garment.
So the changing of the garment, the washing of the garment could easily be symbolic of cleansing one's behavior.
And the shaving of the hair, of the face and so forth and the head probably represents something else about that which proceeds out of the flesh, that which grows out of the body is to be shaved off. That is, we're supposed to have a clean start.
Now, sanctification of the believer is partly God's work and partly our own. If it was all God's work, then we'd all be perfectly holy because there'd be no obstructions. We'd be always perfect because it's just God doing it and God wants us all to be holy.
So he'd make us holy if it's entirely up to him.
If it was entirely up to us, we'd just have a frustrating religion that puts requirements upon us that we couldn't meet. But sanctification is a combination of God's work in us and our response.
Just like the cleansing of the Levites included them being sprinkled by another, but them also responding by washing their clothes and shaving their hair off. When I think about sanctification and I think about God's part and our part, the passage always comes to my mind is in 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, because there it does talk about sanctification. It seems to talk about our part and God's part.
And it ends up with the promise that God will sanctify us holy. 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5. It says in verse 23, Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.
So sanctification is something that God does to us. He sanctifies us and he is faithful. He'll do it.
But this is this statement follows a series of exhortations which begin at verse 16, which says, Rejoice always pray without ceasing in everything.
Give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the spirit.
Do not despise prophecies. Test all things. Hold fast to what is good.
Abstain from every form of evil. Now, may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. Well, it sounds like a lot of stuff you got to do to.
God will sanctify you. He's faithful. He'll do it.
But what do you have to do? Well, a lot of things. Rejoice. Give thanks.
Don't quench the spirit. Don't despise prophesying. Abstain from evil.
You know, hold fast what is good, although you judge all things and reject what is false. There's our part and there's God's part. The promise is that God will sanctify us wholly.
But there are certain exhortations and commands given to us that are associated with that. If we do despise prophesying, if we don't abstain from evil, if we don't give thanks always, if we if we, you know, we do quench the spirit, you know. Then I don't think that promise that God will sanctify as holy is intended to be understood as without these without these actions on our part.
He's telling us how we are supposed to cooperate with God in sanctification. Then he does the inward work. It is Paul said in another place in Philippians, he said, work out your own salvation with fear and tremble for God who works in you to will and to do of his good pleasure so that it's God working in us working out.
We can't change the inside, but we can control the outside. And at least we're supposed to make that our goal. And as we work out our salvation, God is working in us.
And so there is both parts of this. These people are cleansed partly by the external work of the priest, sprinkling them with purification water. And then there is what they do.
They wash their garments, they shave off their hair. Now, back to. Numbers, eight, eight, then let them take a young bull with its grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil, and you should take another young bull as a sin offering and you should bring the Levites before the tabernacle of meeting and you should gather together the whole assembly of the children of Israel.
So you should bring the Levites before the Lord and the children of Israel shall lay their hands on the Levites. And Aaron shall offer the Levites before the Lord as though a wave offering from the children of Israel. And they may perform the work of the Lord, then the Levites shall lay their hands on the heads of the bulls.
And you shall offer one of the sin offering and the other is a burnt offering to the Lord to make atonement for the Levites. And you shall stand the Levites before Aaron and his sons and then offer them as though a wave offering to the Lord. Thus, you shall separate the Levites from among the children of Israel and the Levites shall be mine.
After that, the Levites shall go into the service of the tabernacle of meeting, so you should cleanse them and offer them as though a wave offering. For they are wholly given to me from among the children of Israel. I have taken them for myself instead of all who open the womb, the firstborn of all the children of Israel, for all the firstborn among the children of Israel are mine.
Both man and beast. On the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified them to myself. I've taken the Levites instead of all the firstborn of the children of Israel.
And I've given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the children of Israel to do the work for the children of Israel in the tabernacle of meeting and to make atonement for the children of Israel, that there be no plague among the children of Israel when the number of when the children of Israel come near the sanctuary. Now, this ritual, of course, involved, as most Jewish rituals did in those days, the offering of animals, the sin offering and a burnt offering to bowls. But one thing that was interesting is that the children of Israel would put their hands on the Levites.
Now, this doesn't correspond to anything else in the law that we've seen. The next time we see hands being laid on a human being is when Moses is told to put his hands on Joshua a little later in the book of Numbers and that Joshua then is going to be received some of Moses authority that is the laying on of hands of Moses upon Joshua was a transferral or an acknowledgement of authority being transferred to Joshua from Moses. And in the New Testament, ministers were ordained that way when the spirit said to the church in Antioch in Acts, chapter 13, in the opening verses separate to me, Saul and Barnabas, actually Barnabas and Saul for the work that I've called them to.
It says that the elders of the church there fasted and laid hands on them and sent them out and at later times, Paul and Barnabas appointed elders and and so forth. And the laying on of hands was used. The apostles had earlier laid hands on the seven in Acts, chapter six, who they appointed to help administer the distribution of food to the poor widows.
Stephen and Philip being among them, they had hands laid upon them by the apostles. The laying on of hands of one group of men upon another group of men or an individual like Moses on the hands of putting his hands on the head of Joshua usually was the normal way of ordaining somebody for ministry. It was a ritual that suggested that those whose hands were laid upon them already were recognized as authorities and they were now delegating authority to the person to whom on whom they were laying their hands.
Now, when the children of Israel laid their hands on the Levites, it apparently was something a little bit like that. They were recognizing, authorizing the Levites to act authoritatively on their behalf. To serve God as sort of their representatives.
And so this is perhaps the first time we see ordination to ministry through the laying on of hands. We later see it with Joshua being ordained by Moses. But here the people themselves are asked to acknowledge the Levites.
The Levites are not imposed on the people exactly against their will. They kind of are because God has made all the decisions about this. God's one who's decided he wants the firstborn.
Then he's the one who decided he'll trade him for the Levites. And the people have not really been making those decisions at all. But by laying their hands on the Levites, they are showing their approval.
They are agreeing to what God has said. They are owning it themselves. The Levites, therefore, cannot be later looked upon by the children of Israel as something imposed upon them against their wishes or else they should not have laid their hands upon them, authorizing them.
So that the whole congregation is supposed to lay their hands on the Levites. Of course, there were only 22,000 Levites and, you know, two or three million people in the congregation. So it might not be for everyone to get close to one of the Levites to lay hands on.
So they probably just crowded around the nearest Levite. Sort of like you see at a Pentecostal meeting where there's too many people to lay hands on the person. So they're laying hands on the person who's in front of them.
And, you know, there's a whole line of people laying hands on one. So you get this chain of laying on of hands. It's hard to know.
But when the whole congregation laid their hands on the Levites, it was the way that God required the congregation to acknowledge.
We authorize these people. We are owning this arrangement.
When you own the arrangement, you can't really later back down and say it was something that you didn't approve of, obviously. And when you do own it, you have some responsibility for it, too. Paul told Timothy not to lay hands suddenly on anybody, neither to be partaker in other men's sins, which suggests that if you hastily.
Ordain someone to ministry and they end up being sinful, then you are kind of a partaker of their sins. You're the one who you're among those who authorize them to act. And if they abuse their position, then you authorize them.
It's kind of your responsibility and measure. So laying hands on them is sort of taking responsibility for them and also acknowledging that you recognize them in the position that they are being ordained into. And then the Levites themselves put their hands on the bulls.
Now, it's possible also that when the people laid their hands on the Levites, it may have been a way of saying, OK, from now on, when you lay your hands on these bulls. You know, our sins have been given to you and you put them on the bulls. It's just kind of a chain there so that we can't all get our hands on the bulls, but we can get to a Levite, lay hands on him and he'll lay hands on the bull.
So that it could be that the bulls are also somewhat a figure of carrying the sins of all the people. But that doesn't seem to be the main meaning of this ritual, because this is about atoning for the Levites, not for the people primarily. So the laying on of hands of the people on the Levites probably is just a typical ordination.
I mean, what became typical later on in the New Testament. Now, verse 20. Thus, Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel did to the Levites, according to all that the Lord commands Moses concerning the Levites, so the children of Israel did to them and the Levites purified themselves and wash their clothes.
Then Aaron presented them as though a wave offering before the Lord and Aaron made atonement for them to cleanse them. Obviously, it's a little hard to picture exactly how he offered the Levites as though a wave offering. A wave offering was usually an animal, actually the breast of an animal.
And they would actually lift it up and as near as we can tell, they would wave it in the air as a sort of a symbolic presentation to the Lord. I don't think they did that with the Levites unless they're doing this kind of thing they do at the concerts where they have, you know, all these people up on the hands of the audience and pass them around and wave them around. I don't think that's how they were doing it.
I don't think they had the Levites up in the air. But what they did, I don't know. Maybe there's just the gesture with the hands, you know, and you're supposed to imagine the Levites were being waved there.
It's as though they were a wave offering. They aren't. Of course, here we have the idea of the Levites being like an offering to the Lord, which is also how the New Testament speaks of our view of ourselves, that we present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, that we're like an offering that's been given to the Lord.
We are the new Levites. Actually, if you look at Isaiah chapter 66, we'll see that Isaiah 66. I can't take the time to prove it at this moment.
And there would be some who would doubt what I say, and therefore I don't I won't try to convince them. But I'll just say what I say, because I believe it's true here. And I believe Isaiah 66 is time for the new covenant.
It's true, the language is language of the old covenant, because that's all that Isaiah's listeners were familiar with. But I believe it's predicting spiritual things that correspond to the ritual things that are spoken of. And it says beginning of verse 18, Isaiah 66, 18, for I know their works and their thoughts, it shall be that I will gather all nations and tongues and they shall come and see my glory.
I believe this is referring to the Gentiles becoming saved, coming into the church. He gathers all nations to himself and I will set a sign among them and those among them who escape, meaning the remnants of Israel, I will send to the nations. Well, that's what he did when Jerusalem was destroyed.
The Christian Jews escaped and he sent them to the nations as evangelists. And then he gives the names of some ancient nations to Tarshish and Pole and Ludden, who draw the bow and Tubal and Javan and the coastlands far off who have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles.
I believe that speaks about world evangelism, the world mission of the church. Then they shall bring all your brethren for an offering to the Lord out of all nations on horses and in chariots and in litters on mules and camels to my holy mountain. Jerusalem says the Lord, as the children of Israel, bring an offering in a clean vessel onto the house of the Lord.
Now, before I read any further, look over at Romans. Chapter 15. Romans 15 and verse 15 and 16.
Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points as reminding you because of the grace given to me by God that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles ministering the gospel of God. That the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Notice Paul sees himself as someone who's offering an offering to God, that offering is offering them is the Gentiles.
He is serving God as a minister to the Gentiles, and they are Paul's offering to the Lord. If you have cross references in your Bible, perhaps in the center call or something, you'll probably see a cross reference there to Isaiah 66 20. Because the editors of your Bible would know that Paul is alluding to this verse when Paul talks about the Gentiles that he is converting, he refers them as an offering to the Lord.
And that's an allusion to Isaiah 66 20, which says they shall bring all your brethren for an offering to the Lord. Meaning from the Gentile lands among the Gentiles. And it says at the end of that verse, Israel shall bring an offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord.
Then it's I mean, as they do, excuse me, then verse 21 says about these Gentiles and I will also take some of them for priests and Levites, says the Lord. So in other words, instead of the priests and the Levites of Israel, God will take these Gentiles to be his ministers. Now, Levites and priests, of course, in a sense, all Christians are priests, but Levites in one sense could represent full time ministers.
Because, well, they were that portion of Israel that served full time in ministry rather than farming and other vocations, and they represented the rest of the children of Israel and ministered on their behalf. So did the priests in one sense. But the whole nation of Israel was a kingdom of priests and all Christians are a kingdom of priests.
But the Levites as a category might be seen as representing those who are actually preachers and ministers and so forth. And he says that he will take some of those Gentiles in the place of the Levites, which is, of course, in the context of Isaiah, talking about God ending the old covenant, destroying the temple, you know, putting the Levites that were out of a job and in their place. He'll take some of those who are brought in from the nations.
And so the preachers of the gospel. Are to a very large extent drawn to God from among the Gentile background, there are Jewish Christian ministers, too, of course, but he has taken some of the Gentiles for Levites. And so there, I think, is a correspondence there.
And also, as I said, the hands laid on the Levites by the people. Is like an ordination into full time ministry. So perhaps Chapter eight of Numbers provides a type for us of the full time ministry in the church, not just the church as a whole.
And it says in verse 22. Numbers 22. After that, the Levites went in to do their work in the tabernacle of meeting before Aaron and his sons, as the Lord commanded Moses concerning the Levites.
So they did to them. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, this is what pertains to the Levites from 25 years old and above. One may enter to perform service in the work of the tabernacle of meeting.
And at age of 50 years, they must cease performing this work and shall work no more. They may minister with their brethren in the tabernacle of meeting to attend the needs that they themselves shall do no work. Thus, you shall do to the Levites regarding their duties.
Now, this age limit for the Levites to be serving between 25 years old and 50 years old, of course, would not not apply to Christian ministry because God sometimes raises up ministers who are younger than 25. And certainly there's a lot of ministers that are over 50. But to have that range selected would perhaps suggest that there is a certain level of maturity.
That is necessary for ministry before age 25, the Levites couldn't serve, they weren't considered to be ready, apparently, or mature enough after age 50. Now, a man is usually not greatly impaired by age 50 these days, but people didn't live. As long in ancient times, I mean, they did in Noah's day and Antediluvian times, but it's possible that at age 50, a man in those days, unless it was unusual, like with Moses, who God had made his eye not become dim in his natural state, his strength not abated.
But the average man didn't live all that long after all, all those who are over 20. At the time of the 13 were dead 40 years later. Somewhat natural causes, you know, traveling around and just dying off.
So a lot of people who were just 60 or a little above were dead by the time they reached the promised land. And that may have been kind of a normal time for people to die about them. So that age 50 might have been near the end of a man's productive years.
And therefore, to have a man who was no longer in his prime, no longer able to work as well, was a disservice to God. Now, of course, the the ministry, the Christian ministry isn't the same as the Levitical mystery, because the Levites were carrying things. The Levites were doing physical stuff.
The priests were offering sacrifices, the Levites were moving stuff around and carrying things and doing physical labor. Therefore, a man who'd reached a certain physical age would not be able to do as well. Spiritual ministry is different because although if a man becomes senile or something like that, he should probably step out of ministry.
But a man who becomes physically frail in his old age might still be spiritually quite in his prime or at his best. He might be the best he's ever been when he's 70 years old or 80 years old, if his mind is good. But the point is that the best service is to be provided, the best years of a man's life are supposed to be the years that are given to the ministry.
Mature enough, but not so old as to be impaired. Now, Chapter nine, the people kept the Passover. This was the first Passover since the Exodus.
So this was the first time they kept Passover as a memorial. They had done the first Passover as the original event that was to be memorialized annually afterwards. This was the first year afterward that they memorialize it.
So commands are given about it. The Jews had not yet gotten in the habit of celebrating Passover because they hadn't been out of Egypt long enough to form such a habit. However, since the Passover was celebrated on the 14th day of the first month, we see that we're in Chapter nine, stepping back chronologically to a time before the opening of the Book of Numbers.
Because the Book of Numbers opened in the first day of the second month, that's already after Passover. And so we have this stuck in at this point, though it's not in its chronological place. Remember, Exodus closed, the Book of Exodus closed on the first day of the first month of the second year.
Numbers opened a month later, the first day of the second month. Exactly halfway between those two was the Passover that we're about to read of. So we just need to bear in mind that this is not chronologically following what we've been studying.
Chapter nine says, Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, Let the children of Israel keep the Passover at its appointed time on the 14th day of the month at twilight. You should keep it at its appointed time. According to all its rites and ceremonies, you should keep it.
So Moses told the children of Israel that they should keep the Passover and they kept the Passover on the 14th day of the first month at twilight in the wilderness of Sinai, according to all that the Lord commanded Moses. So the children of Israel did. And we know that that also meant that they spent the week of unleavened bread after the 14th of the month.
There was the week of unleavened bread. So they did that. However, this is interesting.
It doesn't go into the details of the Passover. I mean, we don't need it. We've had that described before.
It's just unusual for the book of for anything in the penitent not to go through all those rituals again in detail. But the main focus of this story is not to remind us of what all those rituals were, but to introduce something new. And that is what about people who had become ceremonially unclean and were still in a state of uncleanness at the time of Passover? They obviously could not keep the Passover in the state of uncleanness.
And would they then be excluded for the next whole year because they missed it? Now, when the Passover rituals were first described in the 12th chapter of Exodus, the laws of cleanness and uncleanness had not yet been given. But now in Leviticus chapters 11 through 15, there's all these rules about things that would make a person unclean. And some of them are things that might happen accidentally to a person, obviously, for a leper.
They didn't do that on purpose or if they had come into contact with a dead body, perhaps accidentally or of necessity. I mean, let's face it, the average person, if his father died, he had to bury him. He'd incur uncleanness for seven days.
It wasn't a sin to bury your father. You were required to do that unless you're the high priest. The high priest couldn't even defile himself for his father or his mother.
But everyone else could. Even the priests, ordinary priests could. And anyone would be expected to.
Who else is going to bury the body? And so if your father died or your mother died or someone when your children died and you had to bury them and it happened that the Passover was in the next seven days after that, you'd still be unclean. And so some provision had to be made. What do you do when on a festival day like Passover, the person can't participate because of uncleanness? And that's what comes up in verse six.
Now, there were certain men who were defiled by the dead body of a man so that they could not keep the Passover on that day. And they came before Moses and Aaron that day. And those men said to him, we became defiled by the dead body of a man.
Why are we kept from presenting the offering of the Lord at its appointed time among the children of Israel? In other words, it's not our fault that we're defiled. And why can't we keep the festival like everybody else? It's for all of us, isn't it? And Moses said to them, stand still and I may hear what the Lord will command concerning you. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying.
Speak to the children of Israel, saying, if any one of you or you or your posterity is unclean because of a dead body or is far away on a journey, he may still keep the Lord's Passover on the 14th day of the second month. That would be exactly one month late. Assuming that would give the person time to, you know, cease being unclean.
Now, there would be some people who might not be would not be clean by that time if they were a leper, if they were somebody with the chronic issue of blood or something like that, they'd be unclean for a protracted period. They'd have to miss out on keeping the Passover anyway. But someone who's unclean because of a dead body, that's only uncleanness for seven days.
So they should be able to be back to normal within a month easily. And so he said they can keep the Passover, but they can do it. They can offset it by a month.
So on the 14th day of the second month at twilight, they may keep it. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They shall leave none of it until morning, nor break one of its bones.
According to all the ordinances of the Passover, they shall keep it. But the man who is clean and is not on a journey and ceases to keep the Passover, that same person shall be cut off from among his people because he did not bring the offering of the Lord at its appointed time. That man shall bear his sin.
And if a stranger sojourns among you and would keep the Lord's Passover, he must do so according to the right of the Passover and according to its ceremony. You shall have one ordinance both for the stranger and for the native of the land. Now, the stranger here might not refer to a Gentile because it's made clear in earlier legislation that a Gentile who is uncircumcised cannot take the Passover.
If a non-Jewish servant in the household or a person who had immigrated to Israel from another race. Wish to take the Passover, they had to become a proselyte and become circumcised, and this may be referring to them without giving all that detail. Or it may be that a foreigner or a stranger might refer to a Jew who comes from who lives in another land, although that wouldn't really apply in most of this time.
It would apply at a later time after the diaspora when the Jews were scattered all over the world as they are now and as they were in the days of Jesus. They would they would migrate to Israel to take the Passover at the proper time. And if a foreign Jew would do that, it could be that he's referred to as one who is a stranger.
But he's to follow the same procedures as a native of the land would. However, since in Moses day there was no diaspora, all the Israelites lived in one place and were probably anticipated to always been one place. It probably is referring to Gentiles, and therefore, though it doesn't mention it, other legislation previously had mentioned that a Gentile who wanted to keep it would have to be circumcised.
But it doesn't have to be mentioned, perhaps because it's just saying they have to keep the same laws as the native Jew does. Of course, the native Jew had to be circumcised. That was part of the requirements.
Now we have verse 15. And on the day that the tabernacle was raised up. So this is going back to, again, the end of Exodus.
And then looking on forward from that point through the period of numbers, this is a sort of a summary of them following the cloud on the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony from evening till morning. It was above the tabernacle, like the appearance of fire that is at night. It looked like fire.
It looked like a cloud in the daytime. So it was always the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night. Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle after the children of Israel would journey and in the place where the cloud settled there, the children of Israel would pitch their tents at the command of the Lord.
The children of Israel would journey and at the command of the Lord, they would camp as long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle. They remained in camp. Even when the cloud continued long, many days above the tabernacle, the children of Israel kept the charge of the Lord and did not journey.
So it was when the cloud was above the tabernacle a few days, according to the command of the Lord, they would remain in camp and according to the command of the Lord, they would journey. So it was when the cloud remained only from evening until morning. Sometimes they would just camp in one spot overnight, then they have to break camp again in the morning when the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they would journey, whether by day or by night.
Whenever the cloud was taken up, they would journey, whether it was two days, a month or a year. Apparently, sometimes as that Sinai, they would actually stay in one place as long as a year. Other times a month, sometimes just a couple of days in one spot.
They didn't know when they can't, how long they would be there. Only God knew. And they had to keep an eye on the cloud and make sure they were aware when it would be in the mood.
It says that the cloud remained above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would remain in camp and not journey. But when it was taken up, they would journey at the command of the Lord. They remained in camp and at the command of the Lord.
They journey. They kept the charge of the Lord at the command of the Lord. By the hand of Moses.
Now, it sounds a little redundant.
It says the same thing a number of times with only slightly different phrases, like if it was a long time, if it was just from evening to morning, if it was two days, if it was a month, it was a year. And it says the same thing no matter what the time frame is.
It just wants us to know that they could travel only when God guided them to travel by the visible movement of the cloud. Now, following the cloud, I believe the apostle Paul intends for us to understand this cloud as the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives. In that passage, we've seen several times in First Corinthians 10, where Paul likens the experiences of the children of Israel in the wilderness to the experience of the Christian, says they're a type of us.
He says they were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Well, there's two baptisms that they apparently experienced. One was in water.
The other was in the very presence of God.
And no doubt Paul intends for us to understand that's like baptism in water and baptism in the Holy Spirit, both of which are spoken of in the New Testament as normative for Christians. And therefore, the cloud, its presence and its movement and the following of the cloud, I believe, is a picture of the church following the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Now, the leading of the Holy Spirit is to most Christians a bit of a vague concept. We know, for example, that, you know, if if if God speaks prophetically through a prophet or if an angel appears or a dream or a vision from God comes and says, do this or that, that that obeying that would be following the leading of the Holy Spirit. And those would be we consider a lot of those things would be like gifts of the spirit through the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
God sometimes speaks to the church and gives guidance. But we might have the impression that God is supposed to be giving us that kind of guidance all the time. And yet he gives it periodically, just like the cloud moved periodically.
Sometimes the cloud just sat still and there was no place for them to go. He wasn't leading them to do anything new. They were just supposed to continue.
In the last spot, he had brought them to now, how were they supposed to know God's will during that time they had the law, the law gave instructions about every detail of life, practically what they were to eat, what they were not to eat. When they were to work, when they were not to work. How to conduct their relationships, how to handle the defects in their lives and atone for them.
They were basically all the practical matters in life were governed by the law so that the cloud leading them was only necessary when God had something new, some new place he wanted them go to to take them forward. But he didn't want to take them forward every single day. Sometimes it might be every day or two other times, it might be a month or a year.
It could be any period of time that God wished. And in between the times of the moving of the cloud, the people simply had to be guided not by the cloud because it wasn't going anywhere, but by the law, the written code which God had given them. And I believe that when Christians think about being guided by the Holy Spirit, we need to realize that it's somewhat like that.
I believe where God has given us his word. Jesus has said, if you continue in my words, then you're my disciples. Indeed, and we're to make disciples, teaching them to observe everything Jesus commanded, the Bible says.
So as we teach people to do what Jesus commanded, what Jesus commanded is what the Holy Spirit commands. Jesus was filled with the spirit. He spoke through the spirit.
It says in Acts 1 1 that through the Holy Spirit, Jesus gave commandment to the disciples. Jesus commanded disciples through the Holy Spirit, it says in Acts 1 1. So what Jesus said to do is the guidance of the Holy Spirit and what we're supposed to do day by day. On ordinary days is simply to obey Jesus, simply to follow him, to imitate him, to obey his commands and so forth.
However, the Holy Spirit does give special guidance when he wishes to. And we shouldn't think it's strange if we go some period of time without getting a word from the Lord. Some special revelation about some new thing he wants you to know, some new progress he wants you to make.
A lot of times he's quite content to have you settle in and just live the righteous life that he wants you to live and just keep doing the last thing he said. And people sometimes get worried because the Bible does say in Romans Chapter 8, Paul said in verse 14, as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the children of God. Those who are led by the spirit are the children of God.
And we think, well, I don't know. I haven't had a dream or a vision or heard an audible voice or had an angel appear to me or even had a prophecy given to me. How do I how's the spirit leading me? Well, he'll lead you when it's time to lead you elsewhere.
In the meantime, he's given you his word. And you follow his words. God does from time to time move the church forward, I believe.
I believe the Reformation is a signal historical instance of God moving the church forward, the remnant out of the some of the errors of the medieval church. And I believe that the probably I mean, my own interpretation would be that I think that the Pentecostal movement, when it first happened, was a new move forward also for Protestants. And I believe now I don't believe anything the Protestants believe everything Pentecostals do are what God is leading them to do.
But I believe that God has moved the church step by step into, let's just say, more light. Restoring us more into even what some of the apostles may have known in their time, which has been to some degree forgotten by the church. But the point is, I'm not I'm not making a case that God is taking the church somewhere, you know, way out there.
I'm just saying that if God wants the church to move forward, the cloud will move. The Holy Spirit will will move and those who are his children will follow as many as are led by the spirit of God are the children of God. But it shouldn't be thought strange if we don't get audible voices and supernatural kind of guidance every day.
The children of Israel didn't, and they are a type of us, their wanderings are a type of our lives in this world. And for the most part, day by day, they followed the instructions God had given them in writing. And and then when God had something different he wanted them to do to move to a different location, then, of course, the cloud would move and they would follow the spirit to the next stage of the progress that God was taking them to.
And I believe there is something that God is bringing the church to, and that is the image of Christ corporately. That is what God has in mind for the church. Remember that parable in Mark, chapter four, where Jesus likened the kingdom of God to grain that grew by itself with the farm would sow the seed and he would sleep by night and rise by day and the seed would sprout and grow.
And he himself does not know how. It's in Mark four and in verse twenty eight of that parable, it says, for the earth yields crops by itself, first the blade, then the head after that, the full grain in the head. But verse twenty nine, when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come.
This I see as Christ's picture of the kingdom of God growing from its first planting at his time to the time of the ultimate harvest. When Jesus returns. And he says the kingdom grows under power that's not human power.
Certainly, farmers have to water it. There has to be human cooperation. There are human agents that God uses, but the seed grows by a power that even humans don't understand.
It only God understands. But it begins. The kingdom begins small.
It's a seed. Then it's a blade of like a blade of grass. And then it becomes a stock with heads of grain, but they're green and unripe.
And then the grain ripens in the head. And when the grain is ripe, that is when the grains in the head are mature, that's when the sickle is put in. He doesn't harvest it while the grain is green.
He doesn't harvest the crop before it matures or ripens. That's what Jesus says when the grain is ripe. That's when he puts in a sickle.
I don't think Jesus is going to come back until the kingdom has ripened to the kingdom is mature. What does that look like? Well, if you look at Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians four, verse 11.
It says of Christ that he himself gave some to the church, he gave some to the apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry or the service, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Until when? Until we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the son of God to a mature man. The word perfect means mature.
Until we all, plural, become a singular mature man, the church is a single man. It's the body of Christ, corporate man. By the way, Paul had introduced that idea two chapters earlier, quickly just to point it out in Ephesians 2. Verse 14, Paul had said, for he himself is our peace, he means between the Jew and the Gentile in the context.
Who has made both one that is both the Jew and the Gentile one in the church and has broken down the middle wall of division between us, having abolished his flesh, the enmity that is the law of commandments. And it says contained in ordinances in so as to create in himself one new man from the two, that is from the Jew and the Gentile, thus making peace from the two, the Jew and the Gentile. God has made one new man in himself.
That's Christ. The body of Christ is the new man. And now, Paul says in chapter four of the same book, we're going to become a mature man someday.
Well, what does that look like? Well, it means we come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God unto a mature man. Ephesians 4, 13 says. He says to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Now, that's what the mature the church is to become, is to become a mature man characterized by unity of the faith, unity of the knowledge of the son of God. That means the church has to move forward in its understanding and its knowledge of the son of God and its faith. And therefore, there is a goal and God has given apostles and prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, the gifted leaders of the church in order to equip the saints so the saints can do ministry and the body can be edified until it reaches its.
Desired end, which is maturity, corporate maturity, not just individual maturity, but corporately until we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of God to a mature man. Not till we all become mature individuals, because when Jesus comes, there will still be some new converts who haven't become very mature yet. But the church as a whole will have reached this stage, apparently of maturity.
Look what Paul said in Ephesians three. His prayer for the church. Ephesians three, 14, says, for this reason, I bow my knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family of heaven and earth is named.
That he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the things. What is the width and the length and the depth and the height and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge that you may be filled with the fullness of God. God, Paul's prayer for the church is that the church be filled with the fullness of God and to know the love of Christ in all its dimensions and to comprehend this along with all the things, not just you as an individual or a bunch of individuals, but that all the things together will come to comprehend this.
Now, that's we're not there yet. You know that even now, 2000 years after Paul's time, we're still not there yet. But is it possible? Is it really possible for that to happen? Well, look what he says in verse 20.
Now, to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us, to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. You don't think it can happen. Well, God can do more than you think he can do exceedingly and abundantly more than you ask or even think he can do so.
God has a plan. The Israelites didn't think that God could bring them into the promised land either, but they were wrong. But he brought them there by stages, the cloud moving a little each time to a new spot and eventually bringing them into the land.
And so also the church is to grow into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And that being so, that's going to be the work of the Holy Spirit. Remember when Paul said that we all with unveiled faces, beholding as in a glass, the glory of our change from glory to glory into that same image, even as by the spirit of the Lord.
It's the spirit who leads. But we needn't be nervous about not getting enough words from God as frequently as we want to, because we have the word of the Lord already to live by. If he has another word, that is to say, if he has more insight into the word, into his mind, into his purposes, then that's for his spirit to bring about when he wishes.
We just. We move when he moves. And so, in other words, we shouldn't be overly eager to move forward, we should be quite content to just be obedient to what God has given us already up to this point and not be too itchy to get on the move again.
On the other hand, some people get itchy not to move. They get settled in at the place that God brought them to. And then when God does want to take him forward, they don't want to go any further.
It's a little hard breaking camp and setting up camp. Imagine, especially when they just did overnight, the cloud moved and then he just stopped from evening till morning. Then they moved again in the morning.
They have to set up their tents and tear down their tents, set up the family dwellings as if they were going to be there long term because they don't know. You know, they're getting out the furniture and setting up the tent, the household and stuff. And then the morning, oh, we're moving again.
So put it all away. It gets hard changing locations and moving forward. And so some people prefer to camp out where they are and not to go forward, even if the clouds moving.
They say, what's wrong with this place? This place is good. I'm comfortable here. This is where God led us.
What's wrong with it? God led us here. Why do we have to move again? And it seems to me that that's sort of the story of denominations. Most denominations started because the Holy Spirit was doing something with some leaders or some leader or something, and and they they saw some defect in the church as it was.
And so they saw that they needed to do something that they thought was more biblical in certain areas, and they felt God led them to a new place. And so they had new distinctives. They they they camped out there.
And God has moved us forward from where we were and now we're here and we're going to stay here. And they institutionalized their doctrines, they institutionalized their creed. They they make it the distinctive of what they stand for.
And then they can't move anymore because they can't do that without violating their organization. The organization already has written down what it stands for. If God says, but what about this next step? I want to take it.
Well, what's wrong with this place right here?
God, you brought our ancestors here. This is where we're camped. We like this spot.
We've become accustomed to it. But actually, we need to always be ready to be led by the Holy Spirit, not over eager to move when he's not moving. Certainly.
And sometimes I think some people, charismatic people especially, can be overly eager to get a new word from God.
In fact, some teach that you can get a new word from God anytime you tune in. I've heard that talk many, many times over the past 40 years among charismatic people that God is always wanting to speak a new word to you.
Just need to tune in like a radio. You know, it's like this room is full of music and talk programs and news programs. We just can't hear them because our radio is not on.
We don't have a radio on in the room. If we had a radio on, we could turn it on and we could pick up all the stuff that's all around us. And they say that's how it is to hear from God.
God's always talking, but we're just not tuned in. So they try to teach techniques for tuning in to God and getting a word for God from God. That's actually more like witchcraft than Christianity.
Witchcraft teaches there's all kinds of information out there for you to tap into. You just need to know the techniques. You do the right techniques.
You can get it anytime you want it. That's not how God is. God speaks when he wants to speak and he's not hard to hear.
People often hear from when they're not even trying. Balaam wasn't trying to hear from God when an angel appeared to him. Saul of Tarsus wasn't trying to hear from God when Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus.
There's no statement in the Bible because you need to tune in properly to hear God speak. As if God's always speaking, but you can't hear him. But he talks anyway, even though he knows you can't hear him.
No, he's a being who has intelligence. If he wants to communicate to you, he speaks in words you can hear. If he isn't speaking, then you can't make him talk.
And if you try, you may end up doing ridiculous things. My wife, my ex-wife, was in a school, a Christian school, where they were learning to hear from God. And it was a charismatic school that wanted to teach people how to hear from God.
And so they gathered in small groups and they were supposed to wait quietly and empty their minds and just share with each other what they felt like God might be showing them. Sometimes they get a picture in their head and they share that or a word would come to their head and they'd share that. And they'd assume that that's, you know, they're learning how to hear from God.
God's giving them that. But many times people in those situations don't get anything from God because he's not saying anything in that way. You can't make God give you a prophecy.
You can't make God give you a dream or a vision. No one in the Bible ever did. The Bible doesn't say that we have that power.
God is the one who speaks when he wants to speak. And when my ex-wife was in one of these, she said one of the guys said, I got a picture in my head of Mickey Mouse. I wonder if God's saying that we're supposed to pray for Disneyland, you know, and he was serious.
But to me, it's so obvious that when people decide that they're supposed to get something from God and God's not doing that. They almost have to take anything that comes into their imagination as being from God. I can't imagine anything more dangerous than that.
I'm thinking the first thing that comes to your head is from God. God leads through the Holy Spirit in ways. That that, you know, are understandable to the person who's being led, visible when the cloud moved, no one had to wonder, I wonder if the clouds moving.
Is that really the cloud moving or is that just, you know, something else in my head? No, I mean, it was obvious when the cloud moved, the people of God who were obedient to God saw and moved. And it happened when God wanted it to happen, not when they wanted it to happen. The Holy Spirit leads.
Day by day in enabling us to follow Jesus in his word and so forth, and then when he wants to take us into a new place of understanding, perhaps not not contrary to the word, certainly, but I certainly have had my times in my Christian life where I've seen something in the word very differently than I've seen it before.
And I personally have attributed that to the Holy Spirit's leading in my life, and I've seen it as very productive and progress, you know, toward my understanding of God better and my Christian life better. And I believe the whole church moves like that.
And it's God's responsibility to move the church when he wants to in that way. Well, we need to take a break. It's my responsibility to give you a break, so we'll do that right now.

Series by Steve Gregg

Some Assembly Required
Some Assembly Required
Steve Gregg's focuses on the concept of the Church as a universal movement of believers, emphasizing the importance of community and loving one anothe
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2 Samuel
Steve Gregg provides a verse-by-verse analysis of the book of 2 Samuel, focusing on themes, characters, and events and their relevance to modern-day C
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In this four-part series, Steve Gregg explores the concept of salvation using 1 John as a template and emphasizes the importance of love, faith, godli
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Knowing God
Knowing God by Steve Gregg is a 16-part series that delves into the dynamics of relationships with God, exploring the importance of walking with Him,
Creation and Evolution
Creation and Evolution
In the series "Creation and Evolution" by Steve Gregg, the evidence against the theory of evolution is examined, questioning the scientific foundation
Romans
Romans
Steve Gregg's 29-part series teaching verse by verse through the book of Romans, discussing topics such as justification by faith, reconciliation, and
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Numbers
Steve Gregg's series on the book of Numbers delves into its themes of leadership, rituals, faith, and guidance, aiming to uncover timeless lessons and
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Titus
In this four-part series from Steve Gregg, listeners are taken on an insightful journey through the book of Titus, exploring issues such as good works
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This series by Steve Gregg delves into the foundational beliefs of Christianity, including topics such as baptism, faith, repentance, resurrection, an
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