Numbers 7:1-9—1 Now it came to pass, when Moses had finished setting up the tabernacle, that he anointed it and consecrated it and all its furnishings, and the altar and all its utensils; so he anointed them and consecrated them. 2 Then the leaders of Israel, the heads of their fathers' houses, who were the leaders of the tribes and over those who were numbered, made an offering. 3 And they brought their offering before the LORD, six covered carts and twelve oxen, a cart for every two of the leaders, and for each one an ox; and they presented them before the tabernacle. 4 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 5 "Accept these from them, that they may be used in doing the work of the tabernacle of meeting; and you shall give them to the Levites, to every man according to his service." 6 So Moses took the carts and the oxen, and gave them to the Levites. 6 So Moses took the carts and the oxen, and gave them to the Levites. 7 Two carts and four oxen he gave to the sons of Gershon, according to their service; 8 and four carts and eight oxen he gave to the sons of Merari, according to their service, under the authority of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest. 9 But to the sons of Kohath he gave none, because theirs was the service of the holy things, which they carried on their shoulders.
This may very well have taken place after what we read in Leviticus 8:10. When we are reading Scripture, especially the Torah, we need to remember that it was not all written in chronological order as we think. Consider, almost every chapter (not every chapter, mind you), from Exodus 20 through Numbers 6, begins with the words “And the LORD spoke to Moses…” So all these chapters deal mostly with God speaking, and Moses speaking those words to the people, with very little action on the part of the people, save, for example, the Golden Calf episode and the actions of Nadab and Abihu. That is the trouble with many skeptics: they think that some “Middle Eastern goat herder” was sitting around in a cave, and said to himself “I think I’ll write a Bible”. That is why one must not just read the Bible, but rather study the Bible, so he may have a better understanding of it, so he does not fall into the trap of not believing Him. There are some passages of Scripture that are difficult to understand, and cannot be interpreted except by other Scriptures. As Paul writes in 1st Corinthians 2:14—But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. And since all Scriptures was given by the Holy Spirit (2nd Timothy 3:16), what better way to understand the difficult passages of Scripture than by way of other Scripture?
Now, as far as the passage at hand. This was the first offering God required of the heads of each of the 12 Tribes. What was the purpose of the carts? Well, if we refer back to Numbers 4, we will understand that these were for carrying the elements of the Tabernacle. Not every item could be carried by staves on the shoulders of the Levites, so they had to be loaded onto a cart and carried that way. The sons of Gershon were to carry 25 …the curtains of the tabernacle and the tabernacle of meeting with its covering, the covering of badger skins that is on it, the screen for the door of the tabernacle of meeting, 26 the screen for the door of the gate of the court, the hangings of the court which are around the tabernacle and altar, and their cords, all the furnishings for their service and all that is made for these things (Numbers 4:25-26). Ever help someone take out a carpet? How heavy is it? This was the burden of the sons of Gershon. They had to carry the curtains and coverings for the Tabernacle, and trying to carry this on their shoulders would have required an enormous amount of effort. So they were given these carts to carry them through the desert. The sons of Merari were to carry 31 the boards of the tabernacle, its bars, its pillars, its sockets, 32 and the pillars around the court with their sockets, pegs, and cords (Numbers 4:31-32). This one really needs no explanation. These things could not have been carried by themselves, or they would have been dropped, the cords would have gotten their feet tangled causing them to fall, etc. They had to be carried in a cart to facilitate their transport to Canaan.
But then we get to the sons of Kohath, and they get no cart. Numbers 7:9—But to the sons of Kohath he gave none, because theirs was the service of the holy things, which they carried on their shoulders. They were to carry the Ark of the Covenant, the Table of Showbread, the Lampstand, the Altar of Incense and the Altar of Burnt Offering on their shoulders via staves inserted through the rings of gold on each corner of each item. They were not to be transported on one of the ox-carts. Remember how I said earlier that Scripture is the best interpreter of Scripture? This is one of those places. 2nd Samuel 6:6-7—6 And when they came to Nachon's threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. 7 Then the anger of the LORD was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error; and he died there by the ark of God. Some people are amazed that God would strike down Uzzah. After all, he was just making sure the Ark didn’t fall to the ground. But there are two things we need to consider: (1) In Numbers 4:15 we read that when Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, when the camp is set to go, then the sons of Kohath shall come to carry them; but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die. If it were not lawful for the ones carrying the Ark to touch it, then it goes to show that one who was not a Levite could not touch it, lest he die. Furthermore, and more related to our passage in Numbers 7:9, (2) the service of the sons of Kohath was the service of the holy things, which they carried on their shoulders. The Ark of the Covenant was the most holy thing in the Tabernacle, and it was not to be treated as a common thing. It was where God met with the High Priest on Yom Kippur. It was where He dwelt between the cherubim. And as such, God has a right to determine how it is to be handled, and how it is not to be handled. The same is true for the teachings of Christ. They are not to be handled lightly but are to be held in higher esteem than any volume written by man. He will hold those accountable that write any literature against the Christ, and who openly (or even secretly) write anything against His Christ, or teach men to do things which are abominable to Him.
And there are many today who do just that. They want to make God more palatable to the masses, and to the sinner, so they make God, they make Christ, and they make Christ’s cross, less offensive, and they leave the Cross out of their teaching. Elevation Church, pastored by Steven Furtick, one of the most man-centered “preachers” there is, left out the words “Calvary” and “Resurrection” on their invitations for their Easter service, because they didn’t want to offend anyone:
I'm putting a lot of my focus, energy, time, resources toward what I would call the ‘cold audience,’ people far from God,” she reiterated. “I'm not going to say the word ‘Calvary,’ not going to say the word ‘resurrection,’ I'm not going to say the ‘blood of Jesus,' I'm not going to say any of these words that make someone feel like an outsider. This is really an important guide for how we develop language. Anyone can be a part of our church; it might not be for everyone, everyone might not like it, but anyone can come.”
(https://www.christianpost.com/news/elevation-church-sent-easter-invites-that-omit-resurrection.html)
Brandon Robertson, who calls himself a pastor, is an openly gay man who sells a brand of “Christianity” that has no problem with homosexuality. He has said that “drag is holy”, that when Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb, He was really calling him to come out and announce he was gay, and other such despicable heresies. This is how he is described in one magazine:
Rev. Brandan Robertson is a noted spiritual thought-leader, contemplative activist, and commentator, working at the intersections of spirituality, sexuality, and social renewal and the author of Nomad: A Spirituality For Travelling Light and writes regularly for Patheos, Beliefnet, and The Huffington Post. He has published countless articles in respected outlets such as TIME, NBC, The Washington Post, Religion News Service, and Dallas Morning News. As sought out commentator of faith, culture, and public life, he is a regular contributor to national media outlets and has been interviewed by outlets such as MSNBC, NPR, SiriusXM, TIME Magazine, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Associated Press.
(https://progressingspirit.com/paupress/profile/20015)
Do you think God is okay with these kinds of things? Do you think He is okay with ignoring the cross because it might offend someone? Jesus said to Peter, after Peter told Him that He would not go to the Cross, “Get the behind Me, Satan!” (Matthew 16:23). Do you think God is okay with a man claiming that He will accept those who live a life of debauchery into His kingdom? Paul said in 1st Corinthians 6:9-10—9 …homosexuals, nor sodomites 10 …will inherit the kingdom of God. These are those that Jesus spoke of, who worship mammon instead of God, who lead men away from God and into Hell, who do not give the proper reverence to God, and who do not see Him as more than a plaything. They are like Uzzah, who do not take into consideration the glory of God and His righteousness. AW Pink wrote the following in his book “The Attributes of God”:
The wrath of God is His eternal detestation of all unrighteousness. It is the displeasure and indignation of Divine equity against evil. It is the holiness of God stirred into activity against sin. It is the moving cause of that just sentence which He passes upon evil-doers. God is angry against sin because it is a rebelling against His authority, a wrong done to His inviolable sovereignty. Insurrectionists against God’s government shall be made to know that God is the Lord. They shall be made to feel how great that Majesty is which they despise, and how dreadful is that threatened wrath which they so little regarded. Not that God’s anger is a malignant and malicious retaliation, inflicting injury for the sake of it, or in return for injury received. No; while God will vindicate His dominion as the Governor of the universe, He will not be vindictive.
Is God love? Yes (1st John 4:8). But He is also a God of wrath, and will not allow Himself to be worshipped in any other way than in righteousness, and will punish any who mock His name or mock His Christ. Numbers 7:10—Now the leaders offered the dedication offering for the altar when it was anointed; so the leaders offered their offering before the altar. The phrase “dedication offering” is the Hebrew word חֲנֻכָּה (hanuka). Does that look familiar? It should. It is the same word as Hanukkah, the Jewish festival celebrated in December with the lighting of the Menorah.
Numbers 7:13-88 outline the offerings that were brought by the heads of each tribe, which were 13 one silver platter, the weight of which was one hundred and thirty shekels, and one silver bowl of seventy shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering; 14 one gold pan of ten shekels, full of incense; 15 one young bull, one ram, and one male lamb in its first year, as a burnt offering; 16 one kid of the goats as a sin offering; 17 and for the sacrifice of peace offerings: two oxen, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs in their first year (Numbers 7:13-17). Do not think the Israelites had it easy in the desert. They had to give much to His service, including articles of gold as well as animals to be sacrificed. They had to give up a lot. But they had this hope: The Promised Land. If they gave up a little now, they could look forward to a far greater promise in the land of Canaan. We can see a picture of Christ in all this. Hebrews 12:1-3—1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. Jesus gave up more, and endured more, than we could ever imagine. God the Son, who lived in perfect harmony and unity with the Father since eternity past, had to set His glory aside and be made in the form of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3), to face hostility, be mocked, spat upon, called Beelzebub, reviled by those who called themselves by His name, then be nailed to a cross to die, something God had never done (which is why He had to be made flesh), in order to obtain that eternal pardon for all whom the Father had given Him.
And you see, this is why I do this. This is why I go through the Old Testament Law—to show how it all points to Christ and our walk with Him. Can you imagine all this as your life? We have it easier—although not always easy by any stretch of the imagination—than those did when it was written. We are no longer bound by this Law, since Christ has set us free from it (Romans 8:2). We have the fulfillment of the Law, Christ Himself, living in us so we no longer have to bring sacrifices of bulls and goats, we merely look to the One who was sacrificed for us (1st Corinthians 5:7). But we think we have it so hard. Many don’t want to hear hard truths because they are hard to hear. Why? Because men are growing dull of heart. They want to be eased through this life. They don’t want to have to think, they want things given to them on a silver platter with a big red bow tied around them. They don’t want to sing hymns that are based on theology, they would rather hear pop tunes with a little Bible kinda sprinkled in. The PCUSA, the liberal arm of Presbyterians in the United States, thought the words “til on that Cross, as Jesus died/The wrath of God was satisfied” was too controversial, and they didn’t like the fact that it spoke of God as being wrathful.
Last summer the modern hymn “In Christ Alone” made headlines for its lyrical references to the wrath of God and atonement theology. A hymn committee with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) wanted to add the song to their new hymnal, Glory to God, released this fall. But in doing so, the committee requested permission from the song’s writers, Stuart Townsend and Keith Getty, to print an altered version of the hymn’s lyrics, changing “Till on that cross as Jesus died/the wrath of God was satisfied” to “Till on that cross as Jesus died/the love of God was magnified.” The songwriters rejected the proposed change, and as a result the hymn committee voted to bar the hymn.
“The song has been removed from our contents list, with deep regret over losing its otherwise poignant and powerful witness,” committee chair Mary Louise Bringle told The Christian Century. The “view that the cross is primarily about God’s need to assuage God’s anger” would have a negative effect on the hymnal’s ability to form the faith of coming generations, Bringle explained.
So rather than admit their theology is faulty, they decided to just ignore the fact that God is a God of wrath, and just make their congregants feel happy-clappy through the service, and not feel uncomfortable about their sin. Now, are there saints in the PCUSA? Possibly. There will be saints in Babylon the Great, for it says in Revelation 18:4—And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.” We are not to sit in service with those who reject the reverence of God in order that they may feel good about living in their sin. We are to come out of such assemblies, and worship with those who worship God in spirit and in truth.
Numbers 7:89—Now when Moses went into the tabernacle of meeting to speak with Him, he heard the voice of One speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the Testimony, from between the two cherubim; thus He spoke to him. The phrase “mercy seat”, in the Greek Septuagint it is rendered ιλαστηριου (hilasterion), which means
“relating to an appeasing or expiating, having placating or expiating force, expiatory; a means of appeasing or expiating, a propitiation; used of the cover of the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies, which was sprinkled with the blood of the expiatory victim on the annual day of atonement (this rite signifying that the life of the people, the loss of which they had merited by their sins, was offered to God in the blood as the life of the victim, and that God by this ceremony was appeased and their sins expiated); hence the lid of expiation, the propitiatory”
It is the same word that is translated “propitiation” in Romans 3:25—[Christ], whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed and Hebrews 2:17—Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people and 1st John 2:2—And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world and 1st John 4:10—In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. And in the English translation of the Septuagint, it is rendered “propitiary”. Interesting, isn’t it? That the mercy seat would be described as the place where forgiveness of sin was given by God on the Day of Atonement, would be referred to by a word which was used to describe Christ! When we put our faith for forgiveness in Christ, God meets us in the ιλαστηριου (hilasterion), which is Christ, thereby making propitiation for us and forgiving us of our sins. And not only for us, but for all those who belonged to God before Christ came in the flesh. For how were they saved? By the blood of bulls and goats? No! They were saved as we are, by the blood of Christ. You may say “well, that’s ridiculous, they lived and died without knowing Christ, having lived long before His coming!” But you see, that is thinking in human terms. But Revelation 13:8 says that Christ was slain from the foundation of the world. And since He was slain before the foundation of the world, then His blood was given for those who lived before His coming! And He was known to some before He came, like David (Psalm 110:1), Abraham (John 8:58) and Isaiah (Isaiah 6:1, Isaiah 53:2-10). In a sermon on Leviticus 16:34, Charles Spurgeon said thus:
But mark, this goat's blood was not only shed for many for the remission of sins as a type of Christ, but that blood was taken within the vail, and there it was sprinkled. So with Jesus's blood, "Sprinkled now with blood the throne." The blood of other beasts (save only of the bullock) was offered before the Lord, and was not brought into the most holy place; but this goat's blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat, to make an atonement. So, O child of God, thy Saviour's blood has made atonement within the vail; he has taken it there himself; his own merits and his own agonies are now within the vail of glory, sprinkled now before the throne. O glorious sacrifice, as well as High Priest, we would adore thee, for by thy one offering hot hast made atonement for ever, even as this one slaughtered goat made atonement once in a year for the sins of all the people.
We have a far greater propitiation than a goat, that only took away the sins committed in the previous year. A goat that would have to be replicated the next year, and the year after that, and the year after that, and so on. And each one would only take care of the previous year’s sins. But now we have a Lamb, one who takes away ALL our sins we have ever committed, One who has gone inside the Holiest Place in the Heavens, with the most perfect and precious blood, One who is without spot or blemish, One whose blood has made propitiation for not only those who show up at the door of the Tabernacle, but wherever those people might be—in the mountains of Tibet, or the jungles of Africa; in Los Angeles, CA or in Union Springs, NY. On the islands of the Philippines or in the shadow of Ayer’s Rock in Australia. In the Mansions of Park Place, or the prisons of Romania. He is always there, waiting to forgive, that He may present you as a gift to the Father, not having spot or blemish. A perfect Savior can make the most vile sinner a Perfect saint!
Jesus Christ is Lord.
Amen.
