Numbers 4–6

Well, good evening. Good to see everybody. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. Let's go before the Lord in prayer. We'll get started. Father, we thank you so much for the beautiful day we've got today. So nice to have some sunshine and some warmth. Let's pray, Lord, that you would just let your Holy Spirit do its work tonight as we worship you and as we have a time in your Word.

Speak exalted now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. We've got a few that are old songs, but they'll be new to you because you probably don't know them. So I want to teach them to you. One, this first one is written by our brother Randy Manske, the fellow that's usually over here playing guitar so well. He wrote this song years and years ago. And I got to thinking,

you know, we had Easter. Easter Sunday. And we always, you know, on Easter Sunday, celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. But sometimes we forget that every day is a day to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. That's what this first song is about. It's called He's Risen. OK. Since he raised and by the power at the Father's right hand in the glory he had before the world.

Jesus, who is worthy of praise and by the power of God, he was raised. He's alive. He's waiting beside the throne of God. Just like Pastor Ryan told us Sunday that he's seated at the right hand of God right now, waiting for that sign for God to say, go get him, son. Go get your bride.

The sins of the sins of the sins of the sins of the sins of forgiven because you were forsaken. I am accepted. You were in the live and well. Your spirit is within me because you forsaken accepted even well spirit is within me. You died and rose again. Amazing love. My king would die for me. Amazing love. My joy. Amen. It is Lord. I am accepted. Your spirit is within me.

Amazing love. Amazing love. Amazing love.

Would die for me.

Amazing love.

Yes, it is, Lord. And all I do.

Lord, that's our heart's desire. We want to honor you in everything that we do. Everything that we say. Let our lives be a reflection of your love and your life. Lord, we just pray now that you would have your way as we have this time of day. Let's pray. in the Word. Bless Pastor Ryan as he presents what he's got tonight out of the Word. In Jesus' name. Good evening.

If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Numbers, chapter 4. Numbers chapter 4. The goal was to make it all the way through chapter 4 last week. We didn't quite make it that far. We got held up there in chapter 3. So the goal tonight is to cover chapters 4 through 6. So we're just going to play it by ear and see how far we make it tonight. As we dove into chapter 1 of the book of Numbers,

we first of all saw the reason why it was given the title Numbers. And that's because it starts off with a census of the people. They number the people by the tribes because God wants to get the people organized because if you're going to move a group of people that's somewhere between 2 and 3 million, you better be organized in the way that you do it. And so God was getting the people organized, which started off by numbering the people by their tribes. Once the

people were numbered by their tribes, God told them exactly how they were to camp when they set up camp and then how they were to travel, the order in which they were to travel. And at the center of all of that would be the tabernacle and the Levites that took care of the tabernacle, giving us the reminder that God was to dwell in the midst of his people. And God was to be at not only the heart of the camp, but even the heart of their traveling. God was to be at the center of everything that they did as a nation. And he would show that in the way that the camp

was set up and in the way that the people would travel. As we moved into chapter 3, we saw him begin to organize the priesthood. We saw that Aaron initially had had four sons. Two of them, of course, Nadab and Abihu, were killed because they offered profane fire to the Lord, as we read in the book of Leviticus, leaving him with two sons, Eleazar and Ithamar.

And so those two would be the ones that would help Aaron in the leading of the people. And so they began to organize these groups within the Levites that would perform the duties. We saw the overarching duty that each was to do. And so as we move into chapter 4, they will be given specific instructions on what they're supposed to do in order to travel with the tabernacle. And so we pick up in chapter 4, verse 1, and this is what it says.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, Take a census of the descendants of Kohath from among the sons of Levi by their families, by their fathers' households from 30 years. And upward, even to 50 years old, all who enter the service to do the work of the tent of meeting. Now, there's, again, three sons that we'll look at. There's Kohath, there's the Gershonites, and the Merorites. So as we look,

first of all, at the sons of Kohath, we pay attention to something that will be true of all three of these groups of men. True of all three of these groups within the Levites. You see, there were particular men that were supposed to be the ones who would do the serving that's going to be listed here. These were the men that were from the ages of 30 and 50. At this point in time, that was considered to be the prime of life.

And so those were the ones who not only had the strength physically, but the wisdom spiritually to handle the work that they were to be given. Now, if you were to jump into Numbers chapter 8, you would actually see, which we won't do that right now, you would actually see that when someone started into the service of the Levitical ministry, they would actually start at the age of 25. So between 25 and 30 would be a training period so that at the age of 30, they would officially begin their ministry as a Levitical priest. Now, I appreciated what John Corson had to point out. He said, have you ever

wondered when they quit being a Levitical priest at the age of 50, what they did with their life then? Well, again, if you were to look at Numbers chapter 8, you would see that those who were beyond the age of 50 would help them keep their obligations. What John Corson said, John Corson proposes in his commentary is that those over the age of 50 performed an incredibly important role. They would train the 25 to 30-year-olds on how to perform their duties in the ministry.

They would take these young men under their wings, and they would begin to teach them the things that they would need to know in order to properly perform the work of the ministry that they had been given because the work of the ministry was so important. And they could use the wisdom of somebody who'd been at it about 20 years to teach them how to do it. Exactly what that was supposed to be like. And I think that that's a pretty good model to be followed. And so from the ages of 30 and 50, they were to number

these guys because they would be the ones that would do the work. Now, this is the work verse 4 of the descendants of Kohath in the tent of meeting concerning the most holy thing. When the camp sets out, Aaron and his son shall go in and they shall take down the veil of the screen and cover the ark of the testimony with it. And they shall lay a covering of porpoise skin on it and shall spread over it a cloth.

Of pure blue and shall insert its poles over the table of the bread of the presence. They shall also spread a blue cloth and put on it dishes and pans and sacrificial bowls and the jars of the drink offering and the continual bread shall be on it. They shall spread over them a cloth of scarlet material and cover the same with a covering of porpoise skin and they shall insert its poles. They shall take a blue cloth and cover the lampstand for the light along with its lamps and its snuffers and its trays and all its olive oil, or excuse me, all its oil vessels by which they serve it. And they shall put it and all its utensils

in a covering of porpoise skins and shall put it on the carrying bars. Over the golden altar they shall spread a blue cloth and cover it with a covering of porpoise skin and shall insert its poles. And they shall take all the utensils of the service with which they serve in the sanctuary and put them in a blue cloth and cover them with a covering of porpoise skin and put them on the carrying bars. Then they shall take away the ashes from the altar and spread a purple cloth over it. They shall also put on it all its utensils

by which they serve in connection with it the fire pans, the forks, the shovels, the basins, all the utensils of the altar and they shall spread a cover of porpoise skin over it and insert its poles. When Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy objects and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, when the camp is to set out after that the sons of Kohath shall come to the sanctuary and put their to carry them so that they will not touch the holy objects and die. These are the things in the tent of the meeting which the sons of Kohath are to carry. The responsibility of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, is the oil for the light, the fragrant incense, and the continual grain offering and the anointing

oil. The responsibility of all the tabernacle and all that is in it with the sanctuary and its furnishings. Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, Do not let the tribe of the families of the Kohathites be cut off from among the Levites. Do this to them that they may live and not die when they approach the holy objects. Aaron and his sons shall go in and assign each of them

to his work and to his load. But they shall not go in to see the holy objects even for a moment or they will die. Pretty self-explanatory. The job of the Kohathites was to carry all of the implements, the articles that were within the tabernacle. But did you notice what had to take place first? Before they could begin to do their job, Aaron and his sons had a very important job to do.

Because all of these objects within the tabernacle were very holy objects because each of them somehow spoke not only of the worship of the Lord, but they spoke of the holiness of God and ultimately foreshadowed the truth of Jesus Christ. Therefore, since all of those objects were holy and we are just men, not just anybody could go in and look at them. So before they could begin to carry them the way that they were supposed to, Aaron and his sons had to go in by themselves and they had to cover all of the articles that were to be carried out of the tabernacle. Now, this tells us something. This tells us something about

the holiness of God. That the holiness of God is so intense, that the holiness of God is so other than anything that we can ever imagine, that even the priestly tribe that was set apart unto the Lord, whose inheritance was not found in the land, but whose inheritance was found in the Lord, were still not holy enough to go into the tent of meeting and see the holy objects. Only Aaron and his sons, which if you remember went through an entire purification process that was different than everybody else, only they could go in there and do this. My friends, sometimes I think we forget just how holy God is. Sometimes I think

it's easy for us just to brush by how other than us God is. When I go through a day and all of the things of this earth either run through my mind or run in front of my eyes or run through my ear gates, whatever it is, I'm reminded of how unholy the world is that we live in. And as I'm reminded of how unholy the world is that we live in and then I read something like that, I realize just how holy our God is and how much he is to be reverenced. And rather than that causing me to think, oh, I can never be good enough, it actually causes me to praise God for what he's done to make me good enough because of the blood of Jesus Christ. Because now

all of those instruments of the tabernacle, all of those things that speak of Jesus and speak of God's holiness, I have access to because of the blood of Jesus Christ. That's my first observation of this Sons of Kohath and what they were supposed to do. But the second thing that I took note of was this. Did you notice that as they covered each of these articles within the tabernacle, they first covered them with a beautifully colored cloth.

Did you take note? Some of them were blue. Some of them were scarlet. Some of them were purple. But then on top of that, they would put a porpoise skin. Now, isn't that kind of an interesting thing? Now, I can't imagine that that was an overly beautiful cloth. As a matter of fact, can you imagine as they're marching through the wilderness, they're like, why are they carrying a bunch of dead

porpoises? This seems strange. Why would they carry something so beautiful covered in something so ugly? But do you know what it reminds me of? Perhaps when we started into this study in the book of Numbers, or perhaps when we started into the study of the book of Leviticus, you thought it looked like it was covered with porpoise skins, right? You were like, oh my gosh, I do not want to get into the

book of Numbers. That is going to be so terrible. Because on the outside, you look at it and without digging very deep, you can go, there's really nothing here to learn. There's nothing for me to apply to my life. Until you begin to peel back the layers of what's there, and you realize that underneath of what appears to be something very dull and boring is actually something that once

again reveals the truth of what's there. And you realize that underneath of what appears to be something very dull and boring is actually something that once again reveals the truth of who God is. Something that once again is very beautiful because it actually speaks of heavenly realities. You see, I think sometimes people view the study of the Bible as a very boring thing to do. Not everybody, but there's a lot of people that do. And they say, I just don't

know if I could get into a book that's that old, whose language is that dry, and really get into what it has to say. And all I can think is, then you'll never discover the beauty that's underneath. That's kind of what Bible study is like, right? If you're really willing to dig in and learn, God is completely willing to peel back the porpoise skin and show you something that's absolutely beautiful underneath. Something that actually teaches you the realities of who

God is. I'll be honest and say, I was this way with the first handful of chapters of the book of Numbers. I was like, can I just skip it? Right? That was my thought. Can we just brush by this and not even worry about it? And God said, don't do that. And I said, okay. So I dug in and I have geeked this about as much as I have any section of scripture here lately,

because it's just been fascinating to me. Brothers and sisters, sometimes God just wants us to dig deep. And once we begin to do a deep dive and really dig deep into what God has to say to us, he is more than content to open up the truth of who he is in whatever part of scripture you're in. Well, now we move to the duties of the Gershonites. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying,

take a census of the sons of Gershon. Also by their father's households, by their families from 30 years and upward to 50 years old, you shall number them all who enter to perform the service, to do the work in the tent of meeting. And this is the service of the family of the Gershonites in serving and in carrying, they shall carry the curtains of the tabernacle and the tent of meeting with its covering and the covering of porpoise skin that is on top of it. And the screen for the doorway of the tent of meeting and the hangings of the court and the screen for the doorway of the gate, of the altar and their cords, all the equipment for their service and all that is to be done,

they shall perform. All the service of the sons of the Gershonites and all their loads and all their work shall be performed at the command of Aaron and his sons. You shall assign to them as a duty, all their loads. This is the service of the family of the sons of the Gershonites in the tent of meeting and their duties shall be under the direction of Ithamar, the son of Aaron, the priest. So again, we see that their job is to carry all of the,

the coverings. Remember we talked about all the coverings that were on the outside of the tabernacle. You can again, look back at the book of Leviticus. If you want to learn more about this, they were to take all of those down. They were to carry all of those. Now, again, that's a lot to carry. That's a serious amount of coverings that they were to carry, but this was their job and they were under the command of Ithamar, the priest.

Now we come to the third group, the duties of the Merorites. As for the sons of Merari, you shall number them by their families, by their father's household from 30 years, and upward even to 50 years old. You shall number them, everyone who enters the service to do the work of the tent of meeting. Now, this is the duty of their loads for all their service in the tent of meeting, the boards of the tabernacle and its bars and its pillars and its sockets and the pillars around the court and their sockets and their pegs and their cords with all their equipment and with all their service. And you shall assign each man by name, the items

he is to carry. This is the service of the families of the Gershonites. And you shall assign the sons of Merari according to all their service in the tent of meeting under the direction of Ithamar, the son of Aaron, the priest. So Moses and Aaron and the leaders of the congregation numbered the sons of the Kohathites by their families and by their father's families from 30 years upward, even to 50 years old, who entered the service for the work in the tent of meeting.

And they numbered by their families, 2,750. These are the numbered of the Kohathite families, everyone who was serving in the tent of meeting who Moses and Aaron, numbered according to the commandment through Moses. The numbered men of the Gershonites, jump down to 39, from 30 years and upward to 50 years old, everyone who entered for the service in the tent of meeting, their numbered men by their families, by their father's households was 2,630. And then jump up to verse 43. These are the Merarites from 30 years old and upward to 50

years old, even who entered the service for the work in the tent of meeting, their numbered men, by their families, were 3,200. And then if you jump down to verse 48, the number of all of them together was 8,580. According to the commandment of the Lord through Moses, they were numbered. Everyone by his serving or carrying, thus these were his numbered men, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. And of course, that third group, they had to carry all of the pieces of the

structure of the tabernacle. One thing I took note of in there about the Merarites, did you notice that they had to carry all of the pieces of the structure of the tabernacle? They had to carry all of the pieces of the tabernacle. Each individual was told what they were to carry. Did you catch that? That's a lot of things to be carried, but remember the heaviest amount, because this is the structure that is oftentimes

plated in metal. The heaviest amount or the part that had the most weight had the most number of people to carry it. Isn't that amazing? 3,200 men. And they said, you hold this screw right here, right? Or you hold this socket right here. Everybody had their part. So as we end chapter four, we're reminded of a couple of things. Number one, we're reminded that God is a God of order. And in order to transfer something like this, there had to be

great order, and we praise God for that. And of course, the second thing we take note of is the fact that everybody had to play their part. They couldn't decide, oh, I don't want to play my part because my part's not as glorious. Everybody had to play their part no matter what it was. And so as we've seen this organizing of the priests, as we come to chapter five, we begin to

see the purifying of the people because if they were to be a promised land people, they needed to be a pure people. And so the first thing that we see is an aspect of separation that was to take place. So we pick up in chapter five, verse one, and this is what it says. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, command the sons of Israel that they send away from the camp every leper, everyone who has a discharge, and everyone who is unclean because of a dead person. You shall send away

both male and female. You shall send away both male and female. You shall send away both male and female. You shall send them outside the camp so that they will not defile their camp where I dwell in their midst. The sons of Israel did so and sent them outside the camp just as the Lord had spoken to Moses. Thus the sons of Israel did. Now, the first thing that we begin to see take place is we begin

to see the fact that the children of Israel, if they're going to travel towards the promised land, there must be a separation from impurity. There must be a separation from the things that will cause God to not want to dwell in the midst of their camp because if they're to move into the promised land, they need God in the midst of their camp. These three areas that they were supposed to separate themselves from was, first of all, the leper. We remember from Leviticus chapter 13 that we spoke a great deal about leprosy, how leprosy was a type of sin, and leprosy was to be separated from the camp. You separated those that were dealing with that from the camp until one of

two things happened. Number one, until the leprosy went away and they found themselves clean and they could return, or until the leprosy eventually took their life. That was how long they were supposed to be separated from the camp. The second one was those that dealt with some sort of a discharge. None of us want to go through Leviticus chapter 15 again, but that's where you find that.

And in Leviticus chapter 15, you find that those that deal with that have to be put outside of the camp. Again, not forever. There was a ceremonial cleansing that needed to take place. So as long as they dealt with that issue, they had to dwell outside the camp. And then when it was finished, they went back in. And then of course, the third group of people, which are dealt with in Leviticus

chapter 21, are those that had touched a dead body. They had to move outside the camp and they had to do so for, if I remember correctly, it's seven days and up to 14 days. These did not have to dwell outside the camp necessarily forever, just until their ceremonial cleansing could be dealt with. Now, the question should occur to you, why? Why did God tell them that they have to set

those people outside of the camp? Why did he tell them that they had to deal with that? Well, I think that there's three reasons why. Number one, because each of those things, leprosy, the discharge that we talked about, and death are all the effect of sin. Now, understand what I'm saying. Those things don't come upon somebody because of a specific sin, but the fact that those exist in life is an effect of sin. Why is there death in the world? Well,

because God said, in the day that you do this, you will die. It will usher death into the world. It was not God's perfect plan for it. It was not God's perfect plan for it. It was not God's perfect plan for it. It's the effect of it. Therefore, death defiles us. The second reason why is because it would defile the camp. Because it would defile the camp. Because here's what you find.

Even if it's something small, those things that cause uncleanness have a tendency to spread amongst us, don't they? They have a tendency to cause everybody else, to have an issue in their life. I've seen this photo floating around social media here lately, and it shows two pieces of fruit sitting right next to each other, and they're both rotten in the exact same place. They're both rotten in the place where they touch each other. And it says,

unfortunately, rottenness tends to spread to those it's closest to. And, you know, that's kind of true of defiling things in our lives, too. If we allow those things to exist, they will end up defiling us. And so, we have to be careful. We have to be careful. We have to be careful. We have to everyone around us. So, there has to be separation from it until it's dealt with. It would defile the

camp. But the third reason, and I think the most important reason, is because God was to dwell in their midst. Did you catch where it said right there in verse 3? It says, you shall send away both male and female. In other words, don't show any favoritism. Anybody that's dealing with this has to be set outside the camp so that they will not defile their camp where I dwell in their midst.

You see, the knowledge of the presence of God should bring about purity in our lives. The knowledge that God is with us, dwelling amongst us, dwelling in us, should bring about some form of purity in our lives. I've always said that the knowledge that God is always with us does two things to us. Number one, it brings us a great deal of comfort because we realize that no matter what's going on in our lives, God is dwelling with us. Praise God. I don't walk through anything alone, even if physically

I'm all by myself because God is with me. But the second thing that that knowledge does to me is it absolutely terrifies me. Why? Because I know that any aspect of impurity that's in my life, God knows it because he's always dwelling with me and he can see all of those things. Why do we maintain purity in our lives? Because God is dwelling in the midst of us. I think Paul probably put it the best in

1 Corinthians when he said, don't you know that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit? Therefore, glorify God with your bodies. Therefore, glorify God with this physical thing that he's given to us. And as God is moving them closer to the promised land, they had to understand that as I get closer to God's promise for me, the greater the separation needs to be in my life. The more that I need to

separate out those things that might cause impurity or uncleanness in my life. And may I say, we too are on a journey towards the promised land. The promised land that we're journeying towards is that place where we will spend eternity with the Savior. Now, in standing, we're as holy as we're ever going to be. But as far as sanctification goes, there should be a continual purifying that

takes place in our lives. In other words, the closer I get to the promised land, the more I should begin shedding those things that keep me from the promised land. The more I should begin shedding those things that don't look like the promised land. The more I separate myself from the things of this world because I'm seeking a home that is heavenly and I shouldn't be bound to this place that is very earthly. And so he tells them,

you need to separate from it because I'm dwelling in your midst. So as he talks to this purifying of the people, the first thing that he talks about is separation. The second thing that he starts talking about in the purifying of the people is he starts talking about restoration. Notice what it says in verse five. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the sons of Israel,

when a man or a woman commits any of the sins of mankind, acting unfaithfully against the Lord, and that person is guilty, then he shall confess his sins, which he has committed, and he shall make restitution in full for his wrong and add one fifth to it and give it to him whom he has wronged. But if the man has no relative to whom restitution may be made for the wrong, the restitution, which is made for the wrong must go to the Lord. For the priest, besides the ram of atonement by which atonement is made for him. Also every contribution pertaining to all the holy gifts of the sons of Israel, which they offer to the priest shall be his. So every man's holy gifts shall be his. Whatever any man gives to the priest,

it becomes his. Now, the second thing that he begins talking about is an aspect of restoration. He says, when anyone sins in any of the sins of mankind, then he shall be restitution. He says, when anyone sins in any of the sins of mankind, then he needs to make restitution for it. He first of all confesses his sin. And then the second thing he does is make restitution for his sin.

Now, because of the verses that continue, we understand that what God is talking about here is sins that we have committed against each other. Things that we have done wrong towards each other. You see, this promised land people was not only going to travel as one big group of people, but once they got to the promised land, they were going to live as one big group of people. This is the largest family you can ever imagine, right? And we know that when we have family,

we have family issues, right? Because that is the reality of life. From pastoral speak, they say, wherever there is the body of Christ, there is body odor, right? And so sometimes that has to be dealt with. He says, when anyone commits any of the sins, and I love the phrase that God uses here, of mankind. In other words, when anyone commits any of the sins of mankind,

the things that we just tend to do, where we hurt each other. He said, restitution needs to be made. And when restitution is made, there's sacrifice that's made. However, if no one is there to make restitution, in other words, you've wronged someone. It's come to your knowledge later, that person is no longer around for you to make restitution to, but you still want to get your

heart right with God. You pay that restitution to the priesthood. And in the process of all of it, there is a sacrifice that's to be made. And when that sacrifice of the ram is to be made, that sacrifice, a portion of it is to be kept by the sacrificer. Why? Because they were supposed to take part in it. Why? Because restoration is always for one reason and one reason only.

Restoration is to restore fellowship. That's the purpose of restoration. That's the purpose of ever dealing with any of the sins that we commit. Is it my, my goal is to restore my relationship. First of all, my relationship with you, because if I have wronged you, then I need to restore my relationship with you. But second of all, I restore my relationship with God. I restore my fellowship with him.

You see, I I've learned a lesson through some years of doing a lot of working with people who have lost loved ones. And a lot of times when they lose loved ones, you know what they always say? I wish I would have said fill in the blank here because their relationship ended poorly. And so, you know, I start telling people at funerals. I always tell them this verse out

of the book of Ecclesiastes. It says, it's better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of dancing because the living will take notice and it will purify them. I always tell them, you know what that verse means? That verse means that you need to make sure that your relationships are right. There should be purity because all of life is made up of two relationships.

The relationships that we have with each other and the relationship that you have with your creator. And life is too short for bad relationships because life is too short for me to live in a bad relationship with a brother or sister in Christ. Or I usually tell them a brother or sister or cousin or family member or friend because none of us wants them to go to the grave without having made that restitution, without having brought about that restoration. But life is also entirely too short for a bad relationship with God. In other words,

you need to get your life right with the Lord. Before we all face the exact same end, I got to tell you, a lot of people think a lot about that one, especially if you're standing there with a casket right in front of you, because they all know he's right. We're all going to face that someday. And you know what? So are we. We're all going to face the same end. And I'm going to tell you the same thing I tell every family I ever do

a funeral for. Life's too short for bad relationships. Life's too short for that. Do you know what the beautiful thing about what God says here is? Because I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that anytime I talk to a group of people, somebody has not said what they needed to to a loved one before they passed away. God even says in that, there is still a chance for you to make restitution. In the old covenant, it was that what you would do is pay

that restitution. Perhaps you stole something, something was damaged. You paid that restitution to the priest. But do you know how we deal with that? We deal with that by making our confession to the Lord. We deal with that by making our restitution to the Lord. How do we do that? We say to God and say, Lord, I let him go with a bad relationship. I can't do anything to change it

now. I can't do anything to go back and change what I did wrong now. But you still say that you offer forgiveness. And so all I can do is confess to you what I've done wrong and ask you to forgive me. Because any sin that we commit against mankind ultimately is a sin against our Savior. Isn't it great that God still gives us that opportunity, even though from a worldly perspective, it feels

like we've lost it. And so he brings up this aspect of restoration that is so important if this many people are going to live together. And then the third thing he talks about in this aspect of purity is the aspect of investigation. This is the strangest portion of the book of Numbers I think we're going to read. My Bible labels this the adultery test. Does anybody else's Bible label it that?

That's just great. I feel like this is like the Salem witch trials, only it's godly and it's what he calls us to do. So then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the sons of Israel and say if any man's wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him and a man has intercourse with her and it's hidden from the eyes of her husband and she is undetected, although she has defiled herself and there is no witness against her and she's not been caught in the act. If a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife when she has defiled herself, or if a spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife when she has not defiled herself, the man shall bring his wife to the priest.

As an offering for her one-tenth of an ephah of barley meal, he shall not pour oil on it nor put frankincense on it, for it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of memorial, a reminder of iniquity. Then the priest shall bring her near and have her stand before the Lord. The priest shall take the holy water in the earthen vessel. He shall take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. The priest shall have the woman stand before the

Lord. Let the hair of the woman's head go loose. And place the grain offering of memorial in her hands, which is the grain offering of jealousy, and in the hand of the priest is to be the water of bitterness that brings a curse. The priest shall have her take an oath and shall say to the woman, if no man has lain with you and you have not gone astray into uncleanness, being under the authority of your husband, be immune to this water of bitterness that brings a curse. If you, however, have gone astray being under the authority of your

husband, and if you have defiled yourself, be immune to the water of bitterness that brings a curse, then the priest shall have the woman swear with the oath of the curse. And the priest shall say to the woman, the Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people by the Lord's making your thigh waste away and your abdomen swell. And this water that brings the curse shall go into your stomach and make your abdomen swell and your thigh waste away. And the woman shall say, amen, amen. The priest shall then write these curses on a scroll and shall wash them off into the

water of bitterness. Then he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings a curse so that the water which brings a curse will go into her and cause bitterness. The priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman's hand, and he shall wave the grain offering before the Lord and bring it to the altar. The priest shall take a handful of grain offering as its memorial offering and offer it up in smoke on the altar. And afterward, he shall make the

woman drink the water. We'll deal with the conclusion in just a moment. Strange section of scripture. I'm so glad I read this this week because this has been kind of fascinating to me. First of all, we can look at this and you can look at it like, oh my gosh, God just gave men the total upper hand here. Right? Because I've seen some criticisms of this. But do you know, this is actually a protection for a woman because not only was this a surefire

way to investigate, but it was really a protection for a woman. If she had done something, wrong, by the way, the man's going to get caught too, because ladies, if you swallow that water and it begins to make your thigh waste away and your stomach starts to swell, aren't you going to start talking about what fella you just, you know, were rolling in the hay with when you shouldn't have been? Right? Right? Everything gets found out that way. But if the husband's just some

oppressive jerk who's constantly jealous of his wife, because that's basically what it says there, he says, if he's jealous of her and she's not defiled herself, well, this is a surefire way for her to go. Right? What are you talking about? We need to go to the priest. So this is really not only a way to investigate, but it's a protection for a wife from an overly jealous husband. But the process

is just fascinating to me. So he goes, dude, you've been sleeping around. She's like, I have not. Have to. Have not. Let's go see the priest. Fine. Right? At that point in time, do you think she would be like, uh, let's talk. I need to tell you some things. Uh, so, so he goes, let's go see the priest. Fine. So the first thing that the priest does, okay, we'll stand before the Lord. So she comes into the temple where everybody can see her or

the tabernacle where everybody can see her. She stands before the Lord. First thing she does after that is lets her hair down. Why does she let her hair down? Because her hair is her glory. So to let her hair down shows her in her complete humanity. In other words, this is a humbling place for her to be. And then they bring some water and she holds some grain in her hand. The priest holds

some grain in his hand, but then did you notice what they add to the water? Two things. Number one, priest goes off the floor of the tabernacle, sprinkles it in the water. I don't think he used his finger to stir it, but that in my mind, that's probably what happened. And then he writes all of the curses and sort of scrapes all those off into the cup. And then he says, this is what's going

to happen. If you drink this and you're all guilty and whatnot, your abdomen's going to swell and your thigh is going to waste away. Why those two things? Well, because it would affect her ability to have children and the thigh was the place of strength. Therefore, it would remove her strength and it would remove her hope. So everything that she desired as a woman would be taken away from

her. And so she stands there and he says, this is what's going to happen to you. And she says, amen and amen. In other words, so be it, so be it. And then she drinks the water. And as a sidebar, I would add, and now we wait, right? Because everybody's kind of like, the husband's going. And the wife's going, well, you know, she's guilty. She's like, oh no. At some point in time, you think if she's guilty, she goes ahead and starts squeaking,

right? Because she's eventually going to start saying what's going on. But if she's not, guzzles that thing with all kinds of confidence and then looks at her husband and says, we need to talk. Right? So this is what was supposed to take place. Now, verse 27, when he has made her drink the it shall come about, if she has defiled herself and been unfaithful to her husband,

that the water which brings a curse will go into her and cause bitterness and her abdomen will swell and her thigh will waste away. And the woman will become a curse among her people. But if the woman's not defiled herself and is clean, she will then be free and conceive children. This is the law of jealousy. When a wife being under the authority of her husband goes astray

and defiles herself, or when a spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife, then he shall then make the woman stand before the Lord and the priest shall apply this law to her. Moreover, the man will be free of guilt, but the woman shall bear her guilt. So there's this aspect of investigation. Again, it's to keep Lifetime movies from happening in the midst of the nation of Israel. Now, the third thing that we see that we're going to look at tonight

is in chapter six, and that has to do with consecration. Notice what it says. Again, the Lord spoke to her and said, to Moses saying, speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, when a man or woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazarite to dedicate himself to the Lord, he shall abstain from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar, whether made from wine or strong drink, nor shall he drink any grape juice, nor eat fresh or dried grapes. All the days of his separation, he shall not eat

anything that is produced by the grapevine from the seeds, even to the skin. All the days of his vow of separation, no razor, no razor shall pass over his head. He shall be holy until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to the Lord. He shall let the locks of his hair on his head grow long. All the days of his separation to the Lord, he shall not go near to a dead person.

He shall not make himself unclean for his father or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister when they die, because his separation to God is on his head. All the days of his separation, he is holy to the Lord. Now, as we begin this portion of consecration, we see that there was one special vow that could be taken by the children of Israel, anyone, a man or a woman, at some point in time to choose a period of time to be wholly devoted to the Lord. As a matter of fact, the word Nazarite literally means set apart.

That was what was to take place. They would completely set themselves apart to the Lord. Now, typically, the vow of the Nazarite would usually last 30 days. Sometimes it would go six months, sometimes a year. There were rare occasions where someone would take the Nazarite vow for a lifetime. The two that come to mind the most would be John the Baptist and then also

Samson. Now, Samson is such an interesting character because he took this vow of the Nazarite because God told his parents that's what he was to be, that he was to be a Nazarite completely set apart unto the Lord. Most of us know the story of Samson. If you don't, Samson struggled with his Nazarite vow. He wasn't supposed to touch anything dead. Of course, he had killed a lion, and on his way back, he said, look, there's honey. There's a honeycomb

inside that lion. I know I'm not really supposed to touch a dead thing, but gosh, honey sure does sound good. Ate some honey. He wasn't supposed to take part in anything from the vine, and of course, he found himself at all kinds of drinking parties. And of course, he found himself loving the women of the world, one of whom finally talked him into cutting his hair. And finally, once he did

something that was such an outward sign of the breaking of his vow, God finally dealt with him, and he took all of his amazing strength away that God had given to him because he was a Nazarite. Now, I have a thought. I have an opinion on Samson, perhaps because of my own personal build, but also because I think that this is true. Most of the time when you see a story of Samson, you see him as some large human being, like Dwayne the Rock Johnson, only with hair. And perhaps Troy Pollyamalu, if you guys

know who that guy is, played for the Pittsburgh Steelers, had sweet flowing hair, right? I don't think that that's true. I actually, this is my own personal thought. I don't know if I can prove it biblically. I actually think Samson is a Nazarite. I don't know if I can prove it biblically. I don't think Samson was just your average looking guy. The reason why I think Samson is your average

looking guy is because, did you notice, if you were to read in the book of Judges, everything that happens with Samson, everybody's pretty shocked at the things that he can do, right? Because where did his strength come from? His strength didn't come from the fact that he was such a large human being. His strength came from God. And the source of his strength was that he

had kept that Nazarite vow by not cutting his hair. It was only when he cut his hair that he lost his strength. That's my own personal opinion on Samson. Sad for what it's worth. That and 375 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks. That being said, he was one that was to keep this Nazarite vow. He was supposed to be set apart to the Lord. As a matter of fact, I highlighted the end of verse two where it says

to dedicate himself to the Lord. Now, you and I are probably never going to take a Nazarite vow, nor should we take a Nazarite vow. But I do think that there's something about setting aside portions of our life, times in our life, where we are completely dedicated to the Lord. Now, as believers in Jesus Christ, we know that we are to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, because it's our reasonable service. However, within that sacrifice that we continually make, I think that there's something

to be said about saying, I'm going to set aside this time and I'm going to cut off certain things from my life so that I can be more focused on the Lord, to sort of hit reset in my life. I think that's kind of what this Nazarite vow was oftentimes doing. It's kind of a time to hit reset in their relationship with God. Now, as we look at this Nazarite vow that was set aside to dedicate themselves to the Lord, I want you to notice the things they were supposed to abstain from. There were three. Number one, they were supposed

to not drink any wine or anything that came from the vine, even grapes and raisins and things like that, because they didn't want there to be any chance where they would take part in anything alcoholic. Why? Because if you are going to drink alcohol, you're going to drink alcohol. You're going to set yourself apart unto the Lord. You must have a clear mind to think with and

unobstructed vision to see with. Now, again, I know that there's a lot of debates about Christian liberty when it comes to alcohol, and I can't say that that's not true, that we have liberty, but I will say this. Are you really allowing yourself to be set apart unto the Lord if that's something that you take part in? If you can do that and be unobstructed in your vision and be clear-minded, that's between you and the Lord. If you can do that and be unobstructed in

your vision and be clear-minded, that's between you and the Lord. But I will say there's something to be said about complete separation from the things of the world in order to pursue the things of God. The second thing that they were supposed to do is they were supposed to have no razor go over their head. In other words, they were just supposed to let their hair grow. Now, for a guy

like me, that would be a disappointing thing to do, because when my hair grows in, it does not look awesome. Some of you fellas can just grow such sweet heads of hair, and it's amazing, and I support you fully in doing that. For me, it wouldn't look very good. So why did God say, you can't cut your hair for this period of time? Well, because good Jewish men at this point in time would not let their hair grow long

because their covering was God, not their hair. For women, their hair was their glory. So this would make them, within this vow, easily identifiable. See the guy whose hair is growing really long? He has taken a vow unto the Lord. Isn't it kind of interesting that when we are willing to set apart our lives unto the Lord, that we become pretty easily identifiable? I think

one of the greatest accountability partners we can have is the world around us, because when we begin to make strong stands for the things of God, we start going, ooh, that means that the accountability level for me just got higher. Not because of the people that are around me that love Jesus, but because of the people that are around me that don't and know about the stand that I just took. Therefore, the accountability level just got higher because I just made myself more easily identifiable to the world and the stand that I've taken. The third thing that they were supposed to do is they were not supposed to touch any dead body. They were to be completely separated from

any aspect of death. Even if it was a family member, during this time of the Nazarite vow, they were not supposed to touch anything that was dead. Now, this last point I did not come up with myself. I stole it from John Corson, but he made a very interesting point. He said, you know, for us, we are not supposed to touch anything that is dead. We are not supposed to touch anything that is

As New Testament believers, we realize that the company that we keep is pretty important in our lives. And if we're to be set apart under the Lord, sometimes it means we have to change the company that we keep. I worked with a young man when I lived in Kansas City. Wonderful young man, loved the Lord, but could not seem to get past alcohol in his life. And so he said, I have a

problem with this and I need you to counsel with me on it. So I sat down with him quite often and talked about it. And he said, I have a problem with this and I need you to counsel with me on it. And so we started getting down to the root of his issues. I said, okay, so what I'm hearing from you is that the root of your issue is that the friends that you're around the most always pull you back

in to this lifestyle. They always pull you back into this issue. And he goes, you know what? You're exactly right. And eventually he had to move from the area. He had to completely separate himself out because he knew that if he was to continue on in his walk with the Lord and have any victory, he couldn't be around death. He couldn't be around all those dead bodies any longer

because that would ultimately defile him. And so that was what was to take place in the life of this Nazarite. And while you and I probably won't take a Nazarite vow at any point in time soon, I think these are some interesting principles for us to hold on to. And so as they took this vow, notice what it says in verse nine, again, all the days, verse eight of his separation, he is holy to who? The Lord.

We don't just separate from the world. We separate to God. He says, but if a man dies very suddenly beside him and he defiles his dedicated head of hair, then he shall shave his head on the day when he becomes clean. He shall shave it on the seventh day. Then on the eighth day, he shall bring two turtle doves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the doorway of

the tent of meeting. And the priest shall offer one for a sin offering, the other for a burnt offering and make atonement for him concerning his sin because of the dead person. And that's the same day he shall consecrate his head and shall dedicate to the Lord his days as a Nazarite and shall bring a male lamb, a year old for a guilt offering. But the former days will be void because his separation is defiled. And this is the law of the Nazarite when the days of his

separation are fulfilled. Now, verses nine through 12 deal with an issue. What if you stumble in your separation? What if you stumble as a Nazarite and end up breaking your vow? God says, then it's time to stop. Start over. You cleanse yourself of everything that you've done wrong. You shave your head, you wait the proper amount of time, you bring a sacrifice to the Lord, and then you start over.

Two things that are pretty interesting about this. Number one, when we backslide, because essentially that's what this Nazarite who has stumbled in this way has done. When we backslide, we can't go back and reclaim. Those days are done. There's nothing we can do about that now. We can't do anything about the fact that for those weeks, for those months, for those years, we look and we go, that was wasted

time because I backslid during that time. However, it does not mean God is done with us. It simply means we start over from where we are. We make our sacrifice for sin, which for us is going to the Lord and confessing our sins to be forgiven. And then we start back over again. And we redeem the time by at this point in time saying, from now on, I am born again, again, and I'm not going back. I'm now going to live in separation

to the Lord. I can't do anything about what happened back there. I can't do anything about those backslidden years. But what I can do is go on and live in victory now. I don't know how many people I've worked with over the years that have backslidden and areas of their life. And they say, I don't know what to do about that. And I say, there's nothing you can do about it. You got to confess it and move on. You can't live in the defeat. You can't

live in what you did wrong yesterday. You live in the consecration that you have today. The only reason I know that is because I've had to do that myself. It's because I've had to look at my life and say, I can't do anything about that. But what I can do is start over today and put the old things behind me and walk on in newness. And so when you then complete your consecration, verse 13, this is the law of the Nazarite when his

days of separation are fulfilled. And then from verses 13 through 21, it tells us the sacrifice that was to be made involving the bringing of a goat, the waving of those things before the Lord, the shaving of the head as it should be. And all of those things are done in making of the sacrifice to the Lord when he completes his Nazarite vow. And then when we come to verse 22, the last aspect of consecration, the first thing that we saw was the vow of consecration is the Nazarite. But the last thing that we see is the consecration through

the blessing. Notice what it says in verse 22 of chapter six. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to Aaron and to his son saying, thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine, on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace. So they shall invoke my name on the sons of Israel. And I then will bless them. Now I'm running a

little bit low on time here, meaning I'm running past my time, but I want to spend a few minutes talking about this blessing. And I think it's important to hang with me for just a few more minutes. That okay with everybody? Because this blessing is really pretty interesting. The Lord spoke to Moses and told him, this is what Aaron is to speak over the children of Israel. The first thing he says is

the Lord bless you. You know, God longs to bless his people. I tried to look this up in the Hebrew to see if there was any distinct meaning to the word bless. And you know what it means in the Hebrew to bless. Isn't that great? But it tells us something that if this is what was to be spoken over the people, we realize something and that's that God longs to bless his people.

But you know, what's kind of interesting is that oftentimes the way God blesses, is not the way we think he's going to bless us. You see everything that God brings into our life is ultimately a blessing. Although on surface, on the surface, or perhaps at face value, it doesn't always appear to be a blessing. Sometimes there's very difficult things that come into our lives and we think, wow, Lord, I thought you said you wanted to bless me. And he

says, I did. You just haven't seen it yet. And as God begins to peel back the layers of what's in our lives, we look and we say, wow, ultimately that was a blessing. It's not what I would have chosen. It's not the path that I would have chosen, but it's what God chose. And it's the greatest blessing that's ever happened to me in my life. He says, the Lord bless you. The second

thing he says is the Lord keep you. The word keep there means literally to post a guard or to keep guard over. It reminded me immediately of a verse out of 1 Peter. I didn't have her put this up on the screen, but just write down 1 Peter 1 5. Oh, she did put it up there. Look at me go. You're the best. Lisa Holland, everyone. Okay. So 1 Peter 1 5, and it says this, you who are kept in the New

American Standard, it says protected by the power of God through faith. You see, that's who we are now. We are protected by the power of God through faith. We are protected by the power of God through faith. You see, that's who we are now. That word protected or kept there in 1 Peter, it means literally to put under guard or to put under garrison. That's who we are now. And the same

principle in the Old Testament is now true in the New Testament, that those of us who belong to God are kept by the power of God through faith. Now, again, as we look at sometimes those blessings that don't look like blessings when they first come into our lives, and yet that's what God intends them to be. That tells us something about those blessings, that everything that comes into my life, if I am kept or protected by the power of God through faith, that's who we are now. That's faith, that everything that comes into my life has already been filtered through the hands of a loving God. And his protection is actually causing the greatest blessing in my life. Because though

it may seem like a difficult thing, God knew exactly what he was doing. Because who knows what he was actually protecting me from. The third thing that it says is that he would make his face shine upon you. Isn't this great? Because Moses is supposed to tell Aaron to say this to the children of Israel. Do you remember what happened to Moses when he went up on

Mount Sinai? When he went up on Mount Sinai, he said, Lord, I'd like to see your glory. And God says, no one can really see that, or else they'll die. He said, but I'll let you see the backside of my glory after I go by. My favorite reference to this always is Pastor Rick Jardine. So I'll let you see the afterburners of my glory. And that's what he did. He came as close to seeing

God face to face as any human being ever has been. And do you know what it caused Moses to do? It causes his face to shine. Kind of an interesting word picture that's given to us here. Now, when God pronounces this blessing through Aaron on his people, it says, make his face to shine upon you. So what does he mean by that? What he means by that is it speaks of God's presence among us.

The greatest way that God shines his face upon us is to dwell among us. And we all reflect the glory of God as he in his presence dwells among us. What a blessing that he pronounces over these people. Number four, he says, and may he be gracious to you. Of course, that word gracious finds at its root, the word grace, God's unmerited favor. And there is no saint, Old Testament or New Testament,

that doesn't know and understand that the only way that they can stand is by the grace of God. And so he says, may he, and may he be gracious unto you. Number five, he says, and may he lift up his countenance on you. I loved what David Guzik had to say about this. He says, literally, the idea is may he pay attention to you. May he pay attention to you. One of my favorite psalms

has become very important to me over the past couple of years is that of Psalm 40. It says, I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and he heard my cry. You know what that word inclined means? That word inclined means to kneel down or to stoop down. To draw near. It carries with it the idea of a father stooping down and leaning in so that he can

hear what his little child is saying. That's the same idea that we're given here when God says, may the Lord lift up his countenance on you. May he pay attention to you. We're given the idea that when we speak, when we cry help to God, he leans near to us. He pays attention to us and hears everything that we have to say. And then the last of these blessings is it says, and may he give

you peace. This word peace is the Hebrew word shalom. And it carries with it the idea, not just of a lack of hostility, because that's usually what we think of with the word peace, but it carries with it the idea of wholeness and total satisfaction in life. That's the idea of that word peace. Yes, a lack of hostility because that's important, but there's also just a

satisfaction. Picture it this way. Jesus says, he who comes to me will never thirst. Again, why? Because they have peace. They have total satisfaction in life because it's been found in the Lord. And this was to be the blessing that he was to pronounce upon them. And notice what it says, verse 27, so they shall invoke my name on the sons of Israel. What does it mean to invoke

his name? He says, so they will find their identification in the name of God amongst the sons of Israel. What a beautiful blessing. You see, the greatest way that we can be set apart unto God is to experience the blessing of God. Which comes only because of his grace in our lives. Amen. Father, we come before you and I thank you so much for the time that we've had in your word tonight. Lord, I thank you that we can

dig deep into who you are and dig deep into what you have to say to us through the book of Numbers. And Lord, I just pray that you would continue to speak to us as you see fit. Lord, continue to draw us near to you and continue to teach us the things that we need to see in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.