PREPARATION AND SEPARATION

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

When Moses entered the Tent of Meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim above the atonement cover on the ark of the Testimony. And he spoke with Him. Numbers 7:89

The Lord said to Moses, "Speak to Aaron and say to him, 'When you set up the seven lamps, they are to light the area in front of the lampstand.'"

Aaron did so; he set up the lamps so that they faced forward on the lampstand, just as the Lord commanded Moses. This is how the lampstand was made: It was made of hammered gold—from its base to its blossoms. The lampstand was made exactly like the pattern the Lord had shown Moses.

The Lord said to Moses: "Take the Levites from among the other Israelites and make them ceremonially clean. To purify them, do this: Sprinkle the water of cleansing on them; then have them shave their whole bodies and wash their clothes, and so purify themselves. Have them take a young bull with its grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil; then you are to take a second young bull for a sin offering. Bring the Levites to the front of the Tent of Meeting and assemble the whole Israelite community. You are to bring the Levites before the Lord, and the Israelites are to lay their hands on them. Aaron is to present the Levites before the Lord as a wave offering from the Israelites, so that they may be ready to do the work of the Lord.”

"After the Levites lay their hands on the heads of the bulls, use the one for a sin offering to the Lord and the other for a burnt offering, to make atonement for the Levites. Have the Levites stand in front of Aaron and his sons and then present them as a wave offering to the Lord. In this way you are to set the Levites apart from the other Israelites, and the Levites will be mine.”

"After you have purified the Levites and presented them as a wave offering, they are to come to do their work at the Tent of Meeting. They are the Israelites who are to be given wholly to Me. I have taken them as My own in place of the firstborn, the first male offspring from every Israelite woman. Every firstborn male in Israel, whether man or animal, is Mine.”

“When I struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, I set them apart for myself. And I have taken the Levites in place of all the firstborn sons in Israel. Of all the Israelites, I have given the Levites as gifts to Aaron and his sons to do the work at the Tent of Meeting on behalf of the Israelites and to make atonement for them so that no plague will strike the Israelites when they go near the sanctuary."

Moses, Aaron and the whole Israelite community did with the Levites just as the Lord commanded Moses. The Levites purified themselves and washed their clothes. Then Aaron presented them as a wave offering before the Lord and made atonement for them to purify them. After that, the Levites came to do their work at the Tent of Meeting under the supervision of Aaron and his sons. They did with the Levites just as the Lord commanded Moses.

The Lord said to Moses, "This applies to the Levites: Men twenty-five years old or more shall come to take part in the work at the Tent of Meeting, but at the age of fifty, they must retire from their regular service and work no longer. They may assist their brothers in performing their duties at the Tent of Meeting, but they themselves must not do the work. This, then, is how you are to assign the responsibilities of the Levites." Numbers 8

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

You may remember back in Numbers, chapter 3, that a count was made of all Levite males a month old or more. Included in this census were the Gershonites, Merarites, and Kohathites with the total number coming to 22,000. The Lord then ordered the counting of all Israel’s firstborn, a month old or more, and that total came to 22, 273. Then, after both these counts were made, the Lord said this to Moses:

"Take the Levites in place of all the firstborn of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites in place of their livestock. The Levites are to be Mine. I am the Lord." Numbers 3:45

In other words, God was saying that the 22,000 Levites were a substitute for 22,000 of the firstborn of Israel and you’ll recall that the Israelites had to redeem the other 273 firstborn with redemption money (five shekels each).

Fast forward now to Chapter 8 where the Levites are dedicated to the Lord’s service and we need to note that our scripture passage today further expounds on why God took the Levites in place of the firstborn of Israel:

"They are the Israelites who are to be given wholly to Me. I have taken them as My own in place of the firstborn, the first male offspring from every Israelite woman. Every firstborn male in Israel, whether man or animal, is Mine. When I struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, I set them apart for Myself. And I have taken the Levites in place of all the firstborn sons in Israel. Of all the Israelites, I have given the Levites as gifts to Aaron and his sons to do the work at the Tent of Meeting on behalf of the Israelites and to make atonement for them so that no plague will strike the Israelites when they go near the sanctuary." Vv. 16-19

Here, we find the Lord making a comparison to the Passover day in Egypt when He passed over the firstborn of Israel while killing all of Egypt’s firstborn as a penalty for Pharaoh’s stubborn refusal to release the Israelites from their captivity. And so just as the Lord set apart Israel’s firstborn then, we see He now is setting them apart again but the difference is that He now was taking the Levites in their place so to "make atonement” to prevent any “plague” from striking “the Israelites when they go near the sanctuary." The Levites were also to be a gift "to Aaron and his sons to do the work at the Tent of Meeting on behalf of the Israelites".

Before any of this could happen, we see where the Levites had to go through a conversion process before they could officially assume their duties in the tabernacle. This process involved intentional preparation to separate and sanctify the Levites for their service for God so to fulfill His purposes. The preparation phase was pretty involved and centered on purification as the Levites were to go through the following steps:

1. Be sprinkled with water for cleansing.

2. Be shaved over their whole bodies.

All hair had to be removed because follicles trapped dirt and impurities. God expected the Levites were to be completely cleansed.

3. Wash their clothes.

Not only were their bodies to be cleansed but what they wore needed to be clean as well.

4. Finally, sacrifices had to be made for atonement.

We read where two bulls, one for a sin offering and one for a burnt offering were required along with a grain offering of "fine flour mixed with oil".

After their cleansing, the scriptures tell us the Levites were brought to the "front of the Tent of Meeting" where "the whole Israelite community" was assembled. Moses was required to "bring the Levites before the Lord" and the Israelites were to "lay their hands on them". You may remember from earlier study in the Old Testament that hands were placed on sacrifices so to pass the sins of the person onto the object that was being sacrificed (most often an animal). Through this ritual, the sins of the people were symbolically passed onto the Levites but only temporarily. For after Aaron presented the Levites "before the Lord as a wave offering from the Israelites so that they may be ready to do the work of the Lord", the Levites laid "their hands on the heads of the two bulls" of which "one (was) for a sin offering to the Lord and the other for a burnt offering, to make atonement for the Levites." And so, the sins of Israel were passed onto the Levites who then in turn passed the sins onto the bulls, serving to atone not only for their sins but the sins of the people.

Through this entire process, the Lord’s end goal was to "set the Levites apart from the other Israelites" so they would belong solely to Him and work at the Tent of Meeting, assisting Aaron and His sons. The preparation led to the separation from the other Israelites and thus their sanctification.

Today God still expects the hearts of people to be converted through acts of preparation and separation.

For to truly be a Christian, one who believes in the Father God who not only created us but sent His only Son to die for our sins and purchase our pardon, we must first be changed from the inside out, divorced from the world and its ways that too often pull us down into the realm of sinfulness instead of the righteous, holy life that the Lord expects us to live.

Indeed, God wants us to be believe in His Son and also be baptized just as Jesus was, personally proclaiming and experiencing His death and resurrection into new life, a new life which makes us a new creation and outs everything that was in our past gone (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Just as the Levites shaved off all their hair, shedding themselves from what was, we too are to shave off our old ways, shedding ourselves of our sinful habits while allowing the Lord to grow new and holy ones from within our hearts and souls, all the while transforming our inner spirits with His Holy Spirit.

Indeed, we need to wash away every single thing we used to wear that is not of Christ Jesus and put on new, divine, clean clothes, ones that radiate the light and love of our Savior to all who look at us. Through the shed blood of our Savior, all believers are washed white as snow (Isaiah 1:18, Revelation 7:14). 

Ultimately, we need to dedicate ourselves before the Lord as individual wave offerings, surrendering ourselves to His will and way while devoting ourselves to His service.

Friends, when we reach this point of preparation where we are truly willing to deny ourselves and come after Jesus as faithful, obedient disciples who are willing to take up His cross and follow Him (Matthew 16:24), then and only then will we have made it to the point of separation, the point where we have chosen to set ourselves apart, the point where we say “goodbye” to the ways of the world and “hello” to the blessed ways of Jesus, the One who is the Way and the Truth and the Life, the only One who can bring us to God the Father so to live with Him now and forevermore.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.