02/15/08: Numbers 18-20
Chapter 18:
What would qualify as an offense against the sanctuary, priesthood, or tent of meeting?
Ted: In Numbers 18:1, when it says "father's family," it probably is referring to the tribe of Levi. Back in 3:6-8, the Levites were to take care of all aspects of the tabernacle. Their specific duties are summarized in 3:25,26,31,36,37,38.
The details of all the duties are provided in Number 4:1-33. Aaron and his sons were to cover and wrap all of the holy and sacred objects in the Tent of Meeting (4:4-14). Then the Kohathites, Gershonites, and Merarites were responsible for carrying all the objects from there to the next place they camped. However, no one but Aaron and his sons actually could TOUCH the sacred/holy objects or they would die (4:15). They were not even supposed to go near the sanctuary furnishings or they would die (18:3).
Chapter 19:
I don't understand what they'll use the ashes for? Cleansing? If so, why are the men who touch them unclean?
Ted: That has been a mystery to many for millennia, even King Solomon. Of course, Jesus had not yet come along, and virtually everything in the Old Testament points to Him.
A New Testament author wrote, "The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!" (Hebrews 9:13,14). Yet, this describes only why the blood of Christ cleanses of us our sins.
Paul wrote, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). This indicates that all the sins of humanity were laid upon Jesus on the cross. "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree..." (1 Peter 2:24). Incidentally, Jesus was sacrificed outside the city, just as the clean man had to take the heifer's ashes to a ceremonially clean place outside of the camp (Numbers 9:9). So, millennia before Jesus was nailed to the cross and "became sin" for the world, the clean man who gathered up the ashes of the heifer "became unclean," even though he made others clean.
Chapter 20:
What did God want of Moses?
Ted: God wanted Moses to be 100% obedient, always let God be glorified by all of his actions, and never waver from that. Moses did this 99.99% of the time. But the one time he did not, it was the cause of his (and Aaron's) not being able to enter the promised land (Numbers 20:12). You might say that God has a "zero tolerance" for sin.
Having been the conduit through which God had performed so many miracles up to that point, I believe that Moses, in his prideful anger at that moment, assumed that he had the power to bring water out of the rock, so he did it his own way. Forgetting briefly that he could do absolutely nothing without the Power of God, he assumed that he could be like God. It was the same faulty assumption that Eve had made before eating the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:5,6). This is the reason for which Moses was punished, just as Eve was, because no one can be like God, other than God Himself.
What would qualify as an offense against the sanctuary, priesthood, or tent of meeting?
Ted: In Numbers 18:1, when it says "father's family," it probably is referring to the tribe of Levi. Back in 3:6-8, the Levites were to take care of all aspects of the tabernacle. Their specific duties are summarized in 3:25,26,31,36,37,38.
The details of all the duties are provided in Number 4:1-33. Aaron and his sons were to cover and wrap all of the holy and sacred objects in the Tent of Meeting (4:4-14). Then the Kohathites, Gershonites, and Merarites were responsible for carrying all the objects from there to the next place they camped. However, no one but Aaron and his sons actually could TOUCH the sacred/holy objects or they would die (4:15). They were not even supposed to go near the sanctuary furnishings or they would die (18:3).
Chapter 19:
I don't understand what they'll use the ashes for? Cleansing? If so, why are the men who touch them unclean?
Ted: That has been a mystery to many for millennia, even King Solomon. Of course, Jesus had not yet come along, and virtually everything in the Old Testament points to Him.
A New Testament author wrote, "The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!" (Hebrews 9:13,14). Yet, this describes only why the blood of Christ cleanses of us our sins.
Paul wrote, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). This indicates that all the sins of humanity were laid upon Jesus on the cross. "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree..." (1 Peter 2:24). Incidentally, Jesus was sacrificed outside the city, just as the clean man had to take the heifer's ashes to a ceremonially clean place outside of the camp (Numbers 9:9). So, millennia before Jesus was nailed to the cross and "became sin" for the world, the clean man who gathered up the ashes of the heifer "became unclean," even though he made others clean.
Chapter 20:
What did God want of Moses?
Ted: God wanted Moses to be 100% obedient, always let God be glorified by all of his actions, and never waver from that. Moses did this 99.99% of the time. But the one time he did not, it was the cause of his (and Aaron's) not being able to enter the promised land (Numbers 20:12). You might say that God has a "zero tolerance" for sin.
Having been the conduit through which God had performed so many miracles up to that point, I believe that Moses, in his prideful anger at that moment, assumed that he had the power to bring water out of the rock, so he did it his own way. Forgetting briefly that he could do absolutely nothing without the Power of God, he assumed that he could be like God. It was the same faulty assumption that Eve had made before eating the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:5,6). This is the reason for which Moses was punished, just as Eve was, because no one can be like God, other than God Himself.
