A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Numbers 17

Numbers 17:1-7—1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 2 "Speak to the children of Israel, and get from them a rod from each father's house, all their leaders according to their fathers' houses—twelve rods. Write each man's name on his rod. 3 And you shall write Aaron's name on the rod of Levi. For there shall be one rod for the head of each father's house. 4 Then you shall place them in the tabernacle of meeting before the Testimony, where I meet with you. 5 And it shall be that the rod of the man whom I choose will blossom; thus I will rid Myself of the complaints of the children of Israel, which they make against you." 6 So Moses spoke to the children of Israel, and each of their leaders gave him a rod apiece, for each leader according to their fathers' houses, twelve rods; and the rod of Aaron was among their rods. 7 And Moses placed the rods before the LORD in the tabernacle of witness.  

Numbers 17 could be considered a continuation of Numbers 16, and in fact Numbers 16-18 could be considered as one unit. Here we see God finally putting to rest any question about who is the High Priest. Not only by the negative sign of destroying Korah and company, but by a positive sign that Aaron was High Priest. They were to gather twelve rods, one from each family, and gather them together inside the Tabernacle so God could show whom He had called as High Priest. He had shown, in Numbers 16, was not High Priest, now He is going to show who was High Priest. And it shall be that the rod of the man whom I choose will blossom. 

Numbers 16:8-11—8 Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses went into the tabernacle of witness, and behold, the rod of Aaron, of the house of Levi, had sprouted and put forth buds, had produced blossoms and yielded ripe almonds. 9 Then Moses brought out all the rods from before the LORD to all the children of Israel; and they looked, and each man took his rod. 10 And the LORD said to Moses, "Bring Aaron's rod back before the Testimony, to be kept as a sign against the rebels, that you may put their complaints away from Me, lest they die." 11 Thus did Moses; just as the LORD had commanded him, so he did. Eventually, Aaron’s rod was to be placed inside the Ark of the Covenant, along with the Two Tablets of the Law and a pot of manna. This was a picture of the Christ to come. The Roman Catholics think of Mary as the new Ark of the Covenant because she bore the one who was High Priest, Prophet and King. And they are sadly mistaken. Was Mary a blessed woman? Yes, for God chose her to bear His Son, the One who would bring salvation. But Mary is not the new Ark of the Covenant; that title belongs to Jesus. What was held in the Ark of the Covenant? Three things: The ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant (Hebrews 9:4). 

The two tablets of the Law. Christ lived under that Law, kept that Law, and was the fulfillment of that Law. Matthew 5:17—“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” He did not come to open up the floodgates of sin; He did not come to make every device of a man’s heart acceptable to God. He came to live under the Law, to carry it within Himself, and to fulfill every word which was written about Him. And He is the fulfillment of that Law for all those who believe in Him. The God’s Word Translation (not a literal word-for-word translation, but a thought-for-though translation) renders Romans 10:4—Christ is the fulfillment of Moses’ Teachings so that everyone who has faith may receive God’s approval. That is essentially what this verse is saying, that Christ has fulfilled the Law in our place, and we receive the fulfillment of that Law by faith in Him. What could we possibly do to earn such a reward? There are not enough good works to do in the entire world to merit any kind of favor from God! We are saved by faith alone, in Christ alone. Titus 3:5—Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. The Law was against us, there was nothing we could do against that Law, and it condemned us. And Christ, who is our life, took upon Himself the burden of our sins, that we may be found approved of by God, apart from the works of the Law or any “good works”, for that matter. Romans 8:2-4—2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. “The Law was weak? How?” Because of the flesh. The Law only prescribed sacrifices that were to be carried out after the person sinned, it could not prevent them from sinning. Just like laws against murder and robbery cannot prevent people from committing these crimes, but only prescribes a penalty to be served after the crime has been committed. God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh. He condemned His Son to die in order to take away the penalty we owed because of our sins. So that that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who…walk... according to the Spirit. 

Mary, blessed as she was, contributes nothing to our salvation. Yes, she bore the One who would save us from the wrath of God, but there is nothing about her herself that is in any way involved with our salvation. We don’t pray to her, we pray to God. We do not look to her for our salvation, we look to Christ. She has passed, she was not “assumed to Heaven” as the Romanists say. She died just like anyone, having fulfilled her role in bringing forth the body of our Lord. 

Aaron’s budding rod. What we see here in our text in Numbers 17. Just as God chose Aaron to be the High Priest of His people Israel, so He sent His son to be the High Priest of our confession (Hebrews 3:1). We will see more of Aaron’s and the priests’ responsibilities in Numbers 18. But let us focus on our Great High Priest. We see in Hebrews 4:15 why He came in the flesh. Hebrews 4:15—For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Was Christ tempted with sin? Absolutely. Was Christ tempted by sin? Absolutely not. “What’s the difference?” you ask. If your friend tries to get you to run to iniquity, he may dangle some hope before you that you will somehow benefit from it. But in Christ, you know that what they are doing is wrong, and will only turn out to your hurt. He is tempting you with sin, but you are not tempted by it. Take Aaron, the High Priest of our passage in Numbers. Was he tempted to sin? Yes. Did he sin? Yes. When the people did not know Moses’ fate when he was on Mount Sinai, they prodded Aaron into making a golden calf that they could worship. And what did Aaron do? Did he rebuke them, and let them know that only YHVH is God? No. He took their gold, and as he told Moses, he “cast it into the fire, and this calf came out!” (Exodus 32:24). “Can you believe it? Out of that molten mass of gold, this calf just *POOF* appeared!” No, it didn’t just appear. It was fashioned by the hand of Aaron, a man who should have known better. But our great High Priest knows better! What was His goal while on the earth? To glorify God. John 17:1— “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You”. He did not come to glorify Himself, but to glorify the One who sent Him. 

Hebrews 5:4—And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was. Aaron was the one chosen by God to offer up sacrifices for the sins of the people that the other priests could not. And making his rod to bud was a work of God that no man could work. Could a man make not only blossoms but full, ripe almonds grow on a rod that was cut off from the tree? And overnight, no less? This is the work of a God who creates. Just as at creation He did not create eggs, but birds; He did not create fish eggs, but fully formed fish; He did not create calves but fully grown cattle, and He did not create a baby, but an adult Adam from the earth. And here, He caused ripe almonds to grow from a stick taken from a tree. And He showed the people that they do not decide who will be High Priest, but God calls the High Priest. 

The pot of manna. When the people were in the wilderness, and cried out because they had nothing to eat, God caused manna to come down at sunset. The people were to gather for themselves one omer, that nothing be left for the morning, and they were not to gather on the Sabbath. And what happened? Exodus 16:18—So when they measured it by omers, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. Each person had exactly what they needed; no one had any more, and no one had any less. This was another sign Christ explained to the people. In John 6, a multitude of people were gathered to hear Him, and it was near twilight. There was not enough food to satisfy the people, so what did Jesus do? He had the people sit down, He took the 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread, then He blessed it and broke it, and fed the thousands that had gathered. The people came back the next day—to hear more of Jesus’ teachings? John 6:26—“Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.” They wanted another free meal. But Christ answered them well (as always). He let them know that He understood what was in their hearts, and that He did not come to simply give them free food, but to give them food that would never perish. John 6:49-50—49 “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.” Our lives are about more than eating and drinking, but about glorifying God and being in His presence for eternity. What eternal good was the manna to the people? They ate it, and what happened the next day? They ate it again. They had to eat it every day in order to survive their life on Earth. But what happened to them eventually? They “ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead”. It could only sustain them while they were living on this rock; it could not give them eternal life. 

But Jesus taught them something better. He said “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever” (John 6:51). This must have been a hard saying for the people to understand. “Live forever? How can someone live forever and not die?” But He was not talking about physical death, everyone will experience that. He was talking about spiritual life; eternal life lived in the presence of God. And it is the spiritual bread that Christ gives us. John 6:52—The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" Jesus answered them, but did so in the way He always answered those who questioned Him with ulterior motives (Proverbs 26:4-5). He did not give them a direct answer, but rather a parable. Was He saying you had to eat His literal flesh and drink His literal blood? Of course not, and it is foolishness to think this is what He was saying! This was a parable, a truth hidden beneath a story parallel to what He was teaching. For if He was saying that the people needed to drink His literal blood, then the Jerusalem Council was lying (Acts 15:29). No, He was teaching them something hard to understand for a reason: those who believed Him would understand, but those who did not believe would not understand. Hebrews 6:4 speaks of those who have tasted the heavenly gift. Did they eat this gift? No. But the Writer uses this metaphor to describe those who have had some experience with religion, even salvation, but go looking for something else to do what only Jesus could do. He is the true Manna, He is the One who can give us eternal food and drink, He is the only One who can sustain us forever at the table in New Jerusalem. From the hymn “The Marriage Supper” by Carrie Breck: 

Oh, the bride shall shine in bright array/With her tears all forever wiped away–

There will be a great rejoicing on that day/At the great marriage supper of the Lamb

From all sin forevermore released/They will come from the west and from the east,

For all nations will be gathered at the feast/Of the great marriage supper of the Lamb

We shall praise him by the crystal tide/When the Lamb that was slain is glorified

And the ransomed church of God shall be the bride/At the great marriage supper of the Lamb.

That is when we will feast with our Lord who ransomed us, who gave His life for us, and who gives us meat to eat and wine to drink at the marriage supper of the Lamb! 

Numbers 17:12-13—12 So the children of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, "Surely we die, we perish, we all perish! 13 Whoever even comes near the tabernacle of the LORD must die. Shall we all utterly die?" What was one of the first lies ever told? “Thou shalt not surely die!” (Genesis 3:4). Here, the people put forth a lie that was the opposite of this, “we shall surely die!” This was an echo of when they were at the base of Mount Sinai, when God said “Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death” (Exodus 19:12). They were under the impression that if they even went near the Tabernacle, God would cut them down. This was not the case. They could not go into the Tabernacle, and certainly not the Holy of Holies, but as long as they stayed outside the tent, God would not strike them down. It is also an echo of Eve’s argument to the serpent. Genesis 3:3—“But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'” Did God tell her she could not touch the fruit? No. Did God tell the people they could not come near the Tabernacle lest they die? No. Perhaps they were afraid because of the punishments God had inflicted upon them because of their various rebellions. Now, they were afraid to even put God to the test, lest they incur His wrath. Was it necessarily a bad thing for them to stay as far away from the Tabernacle as they could? No. But it could have prevented them from bringing the offerings they needed to in order to stay God’s wrath. 

It’s not a bad thing to set up boundaries and fences against sin. Will God be angry if we stay farther away from sin than may be necessary? No. No one has ever been condemned to Hell for being too far away from sin! And sometimes, we need to set those fences even further back from sin than may be necessary. Jesus even warned us we may need to cut off our hand or gouge out our eyes to keep us from sin (Matthew 5:30, 18:8; Mark 9:43). Is this going too far? Is it too much to mutilate ourselves to keep us from sin? Well, as RC Sproul once said, “What’s wrong with you people?” Jesus said “it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell” (Matthew 5:30). If you are in Christ, and destined for an eternity in the presence of the Father and the Lamb, then go maimed and blind, rather than going into eternal destruction with all your limbs and both eyes. Now, did Jesus mean we should maim and blind ourselves to keep us from sin? No. He was telling us to cut away anything that may lead us to sin. If one of our temptations is drink, and our route to and from work takes us by a bar, find a different route. If we are tempted by someone we work with, maybe we need to find a different job. There is always a way to avoid sin. 1st Corinthians 10:13—No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. Stay close to God, do not fear to call on Christ. Do not avoid drawing near to the Tabernacle, in fact run to it! Run to the One who will save you from your sins. Run to the One who can give you eternal food to eat and eternal drink to drink. Run to the One Whose arms are open wide to accept any who call on His name. From “Untitled Hymn” by Chris Rice: 

Weak and wounded sinner/Lost and left to die

Oh, raise your head for Love is passing by

Come to Jesus

Come to Jesus

Come to Jesus and live       

 

Now your burden's lifted/And carried far away

And precious blood has washed away the stain

So, sing to Jesus

Sing to Jesus

Sing to Jesus and live

 

And like a newborn baby/Don't be afraid to crawl

And remember when you walk sometimes we fall

So, fall on Jesus

Fall on Jesus

Fall on Jesus and live

Come to Jesus, sing to Jesus, fall on Jesus, cry to Jesus, dance for Jesus, fly to Jesus—and live! 

Father, may we never be afraid to run to the arms of our great High Priest for forgiveness of our sins. May we always cling to the One who tabernacled among us, who ever lives to make intercession for us. Thank you for this eternally wonderful gift, that we may taste of His glory and be saved from Your wrath. Help us to avoid the pitfalls of our flesh, that we may ever live to glorify You!

 Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen.

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Numbers 4 (Part 1)

Numbers 4:1-20—1 Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: 2 "Take a census of the sons of Kohath from among the children of Levi, by their families, by their fathers' house, 3 from thirty years old and above, even to fifty years old, all who enter the service to do the work in the tabernacle of meeting. 4 "This is the service of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of meeting, relating to the most holy things: 5 When the camp prepares to journey, Aaron and his sons shall come, and they shall take down the covering veil and cover the ark of the Testimony with it. 6 Then they shall put on it a covering of badger skins, and spread over that a cloth entirely of blue; and they shall insert its poles. 7 On the table of showbread they shall spread a blue cloth, and put on it the dishes, the pans, the bowls, and the pitchers for pouring; and the showbread shall be on it. 8 They shall spread over them a scarlet cloth, and cover the same with a covering of badger skins; and they shall insert its poles. 9 And they shall take a blue cloth and cover the lampstand of the light, with its lamps, its wick-trimmers, its trays, and all its oil vessels, with which they service it. 10 Then they shall put it with all its utensils in a covering of badger skins, and put it on a carrying beam. 11 "Over the golden altar they shall spread a blue cloth, and cover it with a covering of badger skins; and they shall insert its poles. 12 Then they shall take all the utensils of service with which they minister in the sanctuary, put them in a blue cloth, cover them with a covering of badger skins, and put them on a carrying beam. 13 Also they shall take away the ashes from the altar, and spread a purple cloth over it. 14 They shall put on it all its implements with which they minister there--the firepans, the forks, the shovels, the basins, and all the utensils of the altar--and they shall spread on it a covering of badger skins, and insert its poles. 15 And 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. "These are the things in the tabernacle of meeting which the sons of Kohath are to carry. 16 "The appointed duty of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest is the oil for the light, the sweet incense, the daily grain offering, the anointing oil, the oversight of all the tabernacle, of all that is in it, with the sanctuary and its furnishings." 17 Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: 18 "Do not cut off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites from among the Levites; 19 but do this in regard to them, that they may live and not die when they approach the most holy things: Aaron and his sons shall go in and appoint each of them to his service and his task. 20 But they shall not go in to watch while the holy things are being covered, lest they die."

As I have said before, God is a God of order. He doesn’t do things willy-nilly, He doesn’t say “well, I didn’t see that not working out. Let’s try it differently”. He has a certain way He wants things done, and He does them that particular way. If we go back to Exodus, we see this. He hardens Pharaoh’s heart so he will not let the Israelites go, so that God can bring the 10 plagues on Egypt. The last plague is the death of the firstborn, after which Pharaoh relents and tells the people to leave, and God puts it in the hearts of the people of Egypt to give the Israelites their gold and silver—the things which will go into making the tools used in the tabernacle. He brings the people to Sinai, where He gives them the Ten Commandments and other commandments of His law. Then in Leviticus He gives them the rules by which they are to offer their offerings to Him. Then in Numbers 1, He tells Moses to take a census of the people, in Numbers 2 He tells Moses to have all the tribes camp by their standard, in Numbers 3 He addresses the Levites and how they shall be His, then this chapter, Numbers 4, outlines the duties of each division of the Levites. We will focus only on this section of the chapter, verses 1-20.

The Tabernacle was where God would put His name. It was where He would come to meet the people one day out of the year, Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16), and only the High Priest was to go into the Holy of Holies on that one day. The Tabernacle was 30’ long and 10’ wide, the Holy of Holies was the smallest part of it, at 10’X10’. And the High Priest had to prepare himself to go in, lest he die. And at no other time was ANYONE to go into the Holy Of Holies. Only the High Priest, and only on that day and in that particular way.

So the things that were in the Holy of Holies were very special, to say the least. It wasn’t like a tent where you would hold a Revival. Everything in it had to be taken care of in the most special of ways. You could not look upon the Ark of the Covenant or you would die. How many of y’all are thinking of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” right now? The makers of that film don’t quite get it right, but they come kinda close. The Nazis looked at the Ark. Fire went out from it and consumed them, melted some of their faces. Right? That is kinda what would happen if any of the Israelites looked upon the Ark. Numbers 4:4-6—4 “This is the service of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of meeting, relating to the most holy things: 5 When the camp prepares to journey, Aaron and his sons shall come, and they shall take down the covering veil and cover the ark of the Testimony with it. 6 Then they shall put on it a covering of badger skins, and spread over that a cloth entirely of blue; and they shall insert its poles” The first thing to be done was this: the sons of Aaron were to take the veil which separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place, and they were to use it to cover the Ark of the Covenant. That way no one could look on it and die. Then they were to cover that with badger skins, and then a blue cloth.

The Ark is the only piece of the Tabernacle that is to be covered with 3 coverings. Every other piece only requires 2 coverings, but the Ark is to be covered with 3 layers. First there is the Veil, which closes off the Holy of Holies. That is to go next to the Ark. Then the badger skin, which was thick and dense to keep any possible rain from staining that veil. Keil and Delitzsch post that this could be from a sea cow, John Gill comments that it was a seal skin. Either of these would be waterproof, and would allow any water to slide right off. Then the covering of blue, to denote that this was where the presence of YHVH would sit that one day out of the year.

Then it says in Numbers 4:6—“they shall insert its poles”. The phrase here is probably more likely “adjust its poles”, since they were never to be taken out (Exodus 25:15). You could not look on the Ark, let alone touch it. And we see no clearer indication of that then when the Ark was returned to Jerusalem in 2nd Samuel 6:1-7— 1 Again David gathered all the choice men of Israel, thirty thousand. 2 And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, whose name is called by the Name, the LORD of Hosts, who dwells between the cherubim. 3 So they set the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill; and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart. 4 And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill, accompanying the ark of God; and Ahio went before the ark. 5 Then David and all the house of Israel played music before the LORD on all kinds of instruments of fir wood, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on sistrums, and on cymbals. 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. There were so many mistakes made with the Ark, starting way back in 1^st Samuel, when they rushed it out into the battle against the Philistines, treating it like some kind of good luck charm. Then a couple chapters later some men dare to look inside it, and God struck down 50,000 men of Beth Shemesh because of it. Then it sat in Kirjath Jearim for 20 years in the house of a man named Abinadab. Then David had it moved into the house of Obed-Edom, a Gittite, for 3 months. It was on this leg of the journey that Uzzah made his fatal mistake.

So why was it that Uzzah died? I mean, after all, he was just making sure the Ark didn’t fall on the ground. Pretty harmless, no? It was not harmless. The Ark was where God met the High Priest and atonement was made for the people’s sins. NO ONE was to touch it. That is why it was carried on poles. Uzzah was not struck down only for placing his hand on the Ark, They all should have been struck down for the flippant way they were handling it. They sat it on an ox cart. By all rights, the sons of Kohath should have been carrying it. By its poles. That’s the way God commanded it. Chuck Smith says this:

It is interesting though that as David sought to bring the Ark of the Covenant back, rather than going back to the book of the law to see how God had ordered the Ark of the Covenant to be transported, David was following the Philistine example. When they sent the Ark of the Covenant back, they had built a cart, and they took oxen and had it pulled back with the cart pulled by oxen. Now that was the Philistines’ method of transporting the ark. However, the law of God said that when they bore the ark, they were to put these staves through the rings, and it was to be borne by four priests. So David really wasn’t following the law of God in building this new cart, and having it pulled by oxen. He was not following God’s pattern, but the Philistine pattern. It had, of course, disastrous results.

So what application does this have for us 21^st Century Gentile Christians? This—we should not have a low view of the things of God. When we are handling His Word, we should do it with all reverence and respect. The one thing that came immediately to my mind was in how we take the Lord’s Supper. The Apostle Paul gives us a stern warning in 1st Corinthians 11:23-31—23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me." 25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. 27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. 30   For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. 31 For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. It’s just a little piece of bread and some wine, what can be the harm? It’s not the elements that you need to be afraid of. It’s not the bread and the wine. It’s your attitude toward the One they represent. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself. In an unworthy manner. Basically you are saying, if you are not following Christ, if you have not submitted yourself to His Lordship, if He has not forgiven your sins—you're saying that He has. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. And if you are not in Christ, you are proclaiming that as a jest, as a mockery. You're saying “Yes, He’s dead. And I’m glad He’s dead. He can stay that way, what do I care?” You’re no different than Uzzah putting out his hand and touching the Ark.

Part 2 next week

 Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen