Preparation

Exalted tonight, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You are mighty, you are holy, you are awesome in your power. You have risen, you have conquered, you have beaten the power of death. You are mighty, you are holy, you are awesome, you have risen, you have conquered the power of death. Good that we can rejoice no matter where or what our circumstances, we can just give our praise to the Lord.

Jesus, come, let us pray, let us sing your desire, Lord. Lord, you said that we're two or three are gathered together, we thank you, Lord.

Good evening. You would open up in your Bibles to the book of Numbers, chapter 7. Numbers, chapter 7.

We've been following the people as they've been getting ready to start traveling to the promised land. This entire time they've been there at Mount Sinai. God's given them the law and he gave them all the instructions. And now, as they're preparing to depart to go to the promised land, we've seen God do a handful of things with the people in order to get them ready to do so.

We saw him organize the people and organize even the way that they would travel and the way that they would camp. We saw God. Purify the people, we saw God consecrate the people, and tonight we're going to look at preparation because there's three aspects of preparation that are going to take place. There's going to be the preparation of the tabernacle, the preparation of the Levites, and then the preparation of the people.

Because once we get into chapter 10, they will depart Mount Sinai and they will begin to head towards the promised land. Now, as we move into chapter 7, you're going to take note of something. The thing that you're going to take note of is that 7-12. 7-9 is actually out of chronological order for the book of Numbers. We'll find that what's going to take place, and we take note of this in chapter 9,

what takes place is actually chronologically at the end of the book of Exodus with the setting up of the tabernacle. I've not gotten any really good answers as to why it's out of chronological order, but it is. So I wanted you to be prepared for that. So, as we pick up in chapter 7, we see the preparing of the tabernacle. And so notice what it says. Perhaps your Bible...

It entitles this the offerings of the leaders or the offerings of the tribes. But the idea is preparation. So we pick up in chapter 7, verse 1, and this is what it says. Now, on that day, Moses had finished setting up the tabernacle. He anointed it, and he consecrated it with all its furnishings. In the altar and all its utensils, he anointed them and consecrated them also.

Then the leaders of Israel... The heads of their fathers' households made an offering. They were the leaders of the tribes. They were the ones who were over the numbered men. When they brought their offering before the Lord, six covered carts and twelve oxen, a cart for every two of the leaders and an ox for each one, they presented them before the tabernacle.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, They may be used... Except these... Excuse me. Except these things from them, that they may be used in the service of the... And you shall give them to the Levites, to each man according to his service. So Moses took the carts and the oxen and gave them to the Levites. Two carts and four oxen he gave to the sons of Gershon, according to their service.

Four carts and eight oxen he gave to the sons of Merari, according to their service under the direction of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest. But he did not give any to the sons of Kohath, because theirs was the service of... So the first thing that we see is the consecrating of the tabernacle, which is part of the reason why we know that this actually would have chronologically taken place at the end of the book of Exodus. Because remember, that's when the tabernacle was actually set up.

And so we're given a quick summary statement there in verse 1, where it says Moses finished setting up the tabernacle, again the end of Exodus. He anointed it and consecrated it with all its furnishings and the altar and its utensils. And he... He anointed them and consecrated them also. We've already covered that at the end of the book of Exodus, so we won't go into that again.

But now what we begin to see is we see an offering for the Levites. Remember, all of the tribes were divided up with a head over each tribe, and then they were numbered. The head of each tribe is going to not only bring an offering to the Levites, but he's also going to bring an offering, which is what we'll see in just a moment, for the tabernacle. But the offering that he brings to the Levites are six carts, or if you will, six wagons that they would be able to haul things in, and twelve oxen, two oxen for each cart.

And so they bring these carts to the Levites, and God says, accept them on their behalf. And so Moses begins to distribute these things. But did you notice that in the distribution it was a little, shall we say, not fair in the distribution? We're told that Gershon got two carts and four oxen. Merari got four carts and eight oxen, but Kohath got zero carts.

Now, if I'm Kohath, I'm like, now wait a second. Everybody gets a cart to haul their business in except me. But God was absolutely fair and wise in the way that these were distributed, because if you remember how these things were laid out, the Gershonites were to carry all of the coverings of the tabernacle, and so those coverings would have been sufficient to fit in those two carts. But the Merarites were to carry all of the structure of the tabernacle, which would have weighed an incredible amount.

Probably about twice as much as the coverings would have weighed, which is kind of interesting because they got two times as many carts as the Gershonites did. But then when you come to the Kohathites, you go, but they got no carts. Why did they get no carts? Because remember what the Kohathites were carrying? The Kohathites were carrying all of those specific instruments that belonged in the tabernacle.

Do you remember how each of those things was supposed to be carried? Each of those things was not supposed to be carried on a cart. Each of those things... Each of those things was to be carried on a pole. As a matter of fact, in Israel's history, if you know very much about it, as you go down the line, you'll find that there was a point in time when the Ark was no longer in Jerusalem the way that it was supposed to be.

And so David, when he became king, decided, hey, the best thing I could do is to bring the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem. And so what did David do to bring it back to Jerusalem? He put it on a cart being pulled by oxen. And do you remember what happened? If you've read this story at all, what happened is this. As those oxen were pulling the cart, one of the oxen began to stumble.

And somebody reached out their hand to stop the Ark from tumbling over. And the moment that they reached out their hand to steady the Ark, do you remember what happened? That guy was struck dead. Why? Because they weren't to be carried on carts. They were to be carried on poles. That was the way that God set it up. They were to bear those things up on their shoulders.

And so while it may have seemed a little bit unfair that they didn't get any of the carts to do, any of their work, God knew exactly what he was doing because he had a specific way that those things were to be carried, a specific purpose in doing so. And so this offering is brought to the Levites for the purpose of helping them in their work. But the next thing that we see is this. When we get into verse 9, or excuse me, verse 10, we start seeing that there was also an offering that was brought for the sanctuary.

And it says this. The leaders, same ones that brought all of the offering for the Levites, offered the offering to the Levites. They offered the dedication offering for the altar when it was anointed. So the leaders offered their offering before the Lord to the altar. Then the Lord said to Moses, let them present their offering one liter each day for the dedication of the altar.

Now the one who presented his offering on the first day was Nashon, the son of Amminadab of the tribe of Judah. And his offering was one silver dish whose weight was 130 shekels, one silver dish whose weight was 130 shekels, one silver bowl of 70 shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, both of them full of fine flour, mixed with oil for a grain offering, one gold pan of 10 shekels full of incense, one bull, one ram, one male lamb, one year old for a burnt offering, one male goat for a sin offering, and for the sacrifice of the peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five male lambs, one year old, this was the offering of Nashon, the son of Amminadab. Now what we're gonna find is this.

God said each of the leaders is to bring their offering, and each of the leaders is to bring that offering on consecutive days. In other words, Judah brought his on one day, and then on the next day, another offering would be brought. So for 12 days, an offering would be brought to the tabernacle for the consecration of the altar. Now there's some people who say, there's something interesting to pay attention to.

If we were to go through and read this entire chapter, which we're not going to, because it's like 89 verses long. If we were to go through and read this entire chapter, we would find something interesting. We would find that each head of each tribe brought the exact same offering, word for word. And yet when they brought that offering, they brought it one day at a time.

Now to you and I, that would be really monotonous, right? It's like Groundhog Day. What do we do? What are we doing today? The same thing we do every day. We're waiting for another offering to come in. Is it going to be different this time? No, it's going to be exactly the same as everybody else brought. But there's some things to pay attention to about this.

John Corson in his commentary pointed out the fact that this is the second longest chapter in the Bible. The first longest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119, which by the way, I would recommend that you go and read maybe later because it's an amazing Psalm, but it's an amazing Psalm. But give yourself a little time and make sure that you're good and perky because it's a really long chapter. I believe it's 150 verses-ish, give or take.

A really long chapter. Do you know what the subject of Psalm 119 is? The subject of Psalm 119 is the Word of God and how important God's Word is in our lives. But do you know what the second longest chapter in the Bible, the entire subject of the second longest chapter of the Bible is? Giving. Isn't it kind of interesting that the second longest chapter in the Bible

is all about giving? And it kind of reminds us of something. It reminds us that giving is really important to God. Why is giving really important to God? Well, because if you remember what we were told in the book of Matthew, we were told this, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. I was just teaching some kids this morning in the book of Genesis about when Joseph

was in charge of the people. And when Joseph was in charge of the people, they first of all paid all of their money to Pharaoh in order to get food. And when the money came, they paid all of their money. And when the money ran out, they gave all of their livestock to Pharaoh for food. And then when the livestock ran out, they gave all of their land to Pharaoh for food.

And then when the land, there was no land left to give, they gave all of themselves for food. Now, there's an interesting correlation that comes into play there. If we want to live lives where we truly are plentiful, where we are truly blessed in a spiritual way, we must first of all surrender all of our wealth to the Lord. Now, that doesn't mean you have to bring every single penny that you have and give it to some sort of missions work or something like that.

But it does mean that if all of your money is not completely surrendered to the Lord, that perhaps there's a chance that that money has become your God. And then we must surrender all of our possessions to the Lord. And then ultimately, if we're to live a truly bountiful life, we're to surrender all of ourselves to the Lord. And we spent a lot of time talking this morning about the fact that unfortunately, most people in the world today are actually bowing down to money.

That's their God, because where their treasure is, that's kind of where their heart is. And God knows that that's true of us as human beings. And so since that's true of us as human beings, the best thing that he can do is spend the longest chapter in the Bible talking to us about the importance of giving of ourselves to the Lord, because where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. But you know, I think that there's something else that's kind of interesting about this chapter, because each tribe brought the exact same thing.

And yet, each tribe not only got to bring the exact same thing on their own separate day, if you were to choose to read through this chapter entirely, you would realize that God in explicit detail lists out what every tribe brought, right? If I'm writing this out because I don't have a lot of patience sometimes, I would be like, and then this tribe brought the same thing as the last one. And then this tribe brought the same thing as the last one. Like, I would just write that 12 times, right?

Like, I would write the first one. I just keep saying, ditto, on all the rest of the tribes. But God doesn't do that. You know why? Because God pays attention to us all very individually. Isn't that great? I love that God pays attention to what we do on a very individual basis. It may look exactly like what the other person did. It may not look that unique or that original,

but God says, but you did it. And so I pay attention to who you are individually. Because that's how God views us as individuals. And so, this entire chapter is given to us to talk about this beautiful aspect of the children of Israel coming and giving all of their sacrifice to the Lord. And so, as we move down towards the end of the chapter, we come to verse 89.

And after all of these things are given to the Lord, and Moses brings them into the tabernacle and dedicates them to the Lord, I want you to notice what happens in verse 89 of chapter 7. It says, Now, when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with him, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the testimony from between the two cherubim. So, he spoke to him. It's kind of an interesting spot, I think, for this verse to get plugged into Scripture.

Because this verse is really kind of cool if you think about it. Because all of the children of Israel have just brought their offering to the Lord. And then Moses takes this offering, offering in to the tabernacle and presents it to the Lord. And what happens after the people gave of themselves and Moses surrenders all of those things to the Lord? Well, Moses goes in and he hears from the Lord.

And isn't it amazing that when our heart is aligned with where our treasure really should be, that our ears are much more open to what God has to say to us? Isn't it amazing how when our heart is in the right place and there's no idols that we're holding up in our lives, that our ears are very tuned in to what God has to say to us? And so Moses goes in and it says, he hears him speak to him from above the mercy seat that was on the Ark of the Testimony between the two cherubims. And so he spoke to him.

We're reminded of the fact that when God gives us commands, it's not just for the sake of a command. He gives us commands to obey so that through our obedience, the path of fellowship is always open. Well, there's one last aspect of preparing the tabernacle that's presented to us. And it's presented to us by the Lord. It's presented to us in chapter eight. Notice what it says in the first handful of verses

of chapter eight. It says, Now this was the workmanship of the lampstand, hammered work of gold from its base to its flowers. It was hammered work of gold from its base to its flowers. It was hammered work of gold from its base to its flowers. work according to the pattern which the Lord had shown Moses. So he made the lampstand. Now again, we're just given a handful of verses here to tell us an important fact about the

lampstand. Remember the only thing that was to give out light inside of the tabernacle was this golden lampstand that had these seven golden lamps that it bore. And inside of the seven golden lamps, you remember that they not only had light, but the thing that was fueling the light was the oil that had been specifically prepared for the lampstand. And so God tells Moses, this is exactly how I want you to set the lampstand. I want you to make it to where the

lamps are facing forward so that it puts as much light into the tabernacle as possible. But it's kind of interesting to think about this lampstand and sort of apply it to our lives a little bit spiritually. If we think about this, the lampstand itself is not what really gave the light. The actual lamps were the what gave out the light. The lampstand was just the oil that had been specifically prepared for the lampstand. And so God tells Moses,

simply that which held the light. It was, if you will, the display for the light. And the fuel for the light was actually that oil that was in there. And if we think about this, we see kind of an interesting picture of what we as believers in Jesus Christ are supposed to be, correct? Because remember, what did Jesus tell us that he is? He said, I am the light of the world.

He who follows me will not walk in darkness. And so we remember that Jesus is the actual light. And yet, what does that work to produce that light, to point to that light within the world? Well, it's that working of the Holy Spirit. What is the Holy Spirit always synonymous with throughout the Bible? Oil, that oil of the Holy Spirit. And so we're reminded that this golden lampstand, which was beautiful,

was really only there to display the light which was fueled by the oil. What are you and I supposed to be? Those who bear the light of Jesus Christ. And so we kind of see here what the picture of the church is supposed to be in the lampstand itself, simply to display the light of Jesus Christ fueled by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so we see this last of the

arranging of the things of the tabernacle. So the tabernacle is prepared and it's ready. But now we need to prepare the Levites. So we pick up in verse 5 of chapter 8, and this is what it says. Again, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, take the Levites from among the sons of Israel and cleanse them. Thus you shall do to them, for their cleansing. Sprinkle purifying water on them and let them use a razor over their whole

body and wash their clothes and they will be clean. Then let them take a bull with its grain offering, fine flour mixed with oil, and a second bull you shall take for a sin offering. So you shall present the Levites before the Lord, or excuse me, before the tent of meeting. You shall also assemble the whole congregation of the sons of Israel and present the Levites before the Lord.

And all the sons of Israel shall lay their hands on the Levites. Now, if we were to jump back to Leviticus chapter 8, what we would see is the cleansing of the priests. The priests would have included Aaron and his four sons. Of course, now we're down to just those two sons because of the whole Nadab and Abihu incident. But we saw that cleansing of the priests. But now what we see is

the cleansing of the Levites, those who would be given to the priests to assist them in the work of the tabernacle. And just because they were only the assistants in the work of the tabernacle did not mean that their cleansing was any less important. And so there was a process that they had to go through. And again, it's kind of an interesting process, right? So the first thing

that they were supposed to do is they were supposed to be sprinkled with water and they were to wash their clothes. Now, it's kind of interesting to think about what must take place first with that sprinkling of the water and the washing of the clothes, because that gives us a really beautiful picture of the washing away of sin. Because what does baptism represent, for us? It represents for us that washing away of the sin. And that's kind of what would take

place with them, is the first thing would happen is they would be washed with water. And then the second thing that would happen is it says, and for some of them it probably took a little longer than others, a razor was to go over their entire body, right? In other words, that dude had to be cleanly shaven. I don't know if you ever thought about what that must have been like, but that had to have been a somewhat humbling experience for the Levites, because whoa, right?

That's kind of an interesting thing to think about, that they had to have their entire body shaven. Well, there's a reason why, and I didn't realize this until studying it this time, because it would reveal fresh skin. In other words, their skin would be like that of a baby, completely clean. Isn't it kind of interesting? Because what are we to be as believers in Jesus Christ?

Born again. It's a fresh start. And so that's what would take place in the lives of these Levites, is not only were they washed clean from sin, it was a born-again experience that took place for them. And then, of course, there would be the sacrificing of the bulls that had to do with both sin and consecration unto the Lord. And then once all of those things were done, they were presented before the children of Israel. And all the

children of Israel would lay hands on them, probably just the heads of the tribes would lay hands on them, picturing them presenting this to the Lord. And then take note of what happens next in verse 11. It says, Aaron shall then present the Levites before the Lord, as a wave offering from the sons of Israel, that they may qualify to perform the service of the Lord. The Levites shall lay their hands on the heads of the bulls, then offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering to the Lord to make atonement for the Levites.

You shall have the Levites stand before Aaron and before his sons to present them as a wave offering to the Lord. Thus, you shall separate the Levites from the sons of Israel. From among the sons of Israel, the Levites shall be mine. Now, if you're a person who likes to write in your Bible, right there next to verse 11, I would write Romans 12, 1 and 2, because that's exactly what happens right here.

Aaron shall then present the Levites before the Lord as a wave offering from the sons of Israel, that they may qualify to perform the service of the Lord. If you don't know what Romans 12, 1 and 2 says, it says this, That's the idea of what's taking place here, is that they are literally being given to God as a sacrifice, as a sacrifice being offered to the Lord, because take note of what they're supposed to be. Did you take note of it? It says that, verse 14, Thus, you shall separate the Levites from among the sons of Israel. They shall be,

mine. The Levites are kind of an interesting group of people, are they not? If you really think about, I can't remember if we talked about this the last time we were talking about the Levites or not. We'll talk about it again, because what the heck. It's kind of interesting how God has redeemed this people. Remember what happened back in the book of Genesis? Again, if I'm

repeating myself, please forgive me. Remember what happened back in the book of Genesis when Dinah was raped by Shechem and Levi and, I believe it was Simeon. Simeon and Levi came up with this plan. They said, hey, you can marry within our family if you do one thing, you men of Shechem. If all of the men of Shechem will be circumcised, then they can marry within our family, because after all, it would be

uncouth for us to do so. And so, when all of the men of Shechem, it says, had been circumcised and were sore, they went in and wiped out all of the men of the city. This is Levi. This is the one, the great-grandfather of all of these Levites. They were kind of known for being a pretty violent group of people. And yet, God has redeemed them. How has he redeemed them? Well, if you remember

what happened at Mount Sinai, when everything took place with the worshiping of the golden calf, Moses said, who's on the Lord's side? And the Levites strapped up. The Levites got themselves ready for war, and they did some battle for the Lord, and they started dealing with the judgment that God had to hand out before the people. And God said, because they made such a strong stand for me, the Levites are now set apart unto me. I will take them instead of all of the firstborn

of the males of the children of Israel. They will be holy unto me. As a matter of fact, they will have no inheritance in the land. I am their inheritance. Isn't that great? You know what I love about that? Is that God takes a life that looks like it's completely wasted through sin, and he absolutely redeems it. And redeems it to the point that they are now the,

ones who are responsible for the service of the Lord in the sanctuary. They are redeemed to the point where their greatest inheritance has nothing to do with the things of this earth, and it has everything to do with the creator of the heavens and the earth. Because that is what God does with broken lives. Because that is what God does with sinful people, is he redeems them, he makes them brand new to where you don't even recognize who they were before.

And so, God takes these, these, these Levites and says, offer them before me like a wave offering, just like I'm going to eventually call all human beings to do that have been born again, and been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. Because they shall be mine. Then after the Levites, verse 15, after that the Levites may go in to serve the tent of meeting, but you shall cleanse them and present them as a wave offering. For they are wholly given to me from among the sons of Israel.

I have given them to you, I have given them to you, I have given them to you, I have given them to you, I have taken them for myself instead of every first issue of the womb, the firstborn of all the sons of Israel. For every firstborn among the sons of Israel is mine, and among the men and among the animals. On the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified them for myself. But I have taken the Levites instead of every firstborn among the sons of Israel. I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among

the sons of Israel, to perform the service of the sons of Israel at the time of their death. I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the sons of Israel. I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the sons of Israel, so that there will be no plague among the sons of Israel by their coming near to the sanctuary. Thus did Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the sons of Israel to the Levites, according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so the sons of Israel did to them. The Levites too

purified themselves from sin, washed their clothes, and Aaron presented them as a wave offering before the Lord. Aaron also made atonement for them to cleanse them. Then after the Levites went in to perform their service in the tent of meeting before Aaron and before his sons, just as the Lord had commanded, concerning the Levites, so they did. Now, it's kind of interesting to think about the wonderful picture of what it's like to be a born-again believer that we see here in these Levites. First of all, the Levites were redeemed, right? They were part of those redeemed because

of what God had done in their lives, because of what God had done with the tribe of Levi, redeemed them from being a violent people who had been cursed by God to a people who God used very greatly. But not only were they redeemed, but at this point in time, they were cleansed, cleansed from all of their sin, cleansed from all of their impurity. And now, not only are they cleansed and redeemed, but they are set apart unto the Lord for his own special service. And not only that, but they are set apart unto the Lord for his own special service. And not only that, but they are

set apart unto the Lord for his own special service. And not only that, but they are set apart they had no inheritance in the land, just like we have no inheritance on this earth, because our inheritance is not here. Our inheritance is in heaven. And so, what a beautiful picture that we have of a born-again believer in Jesus Christ with these Levites. And so, now we look at the career of the Levite. It was a short-lived career, if you will.

Now, the Lord spoke to Moses, verse 23, saying, this is what applies to the Levites. From 25 years old and upward, they shall enter to perform service in the work of the tent of meeting. But the age of 50 years old, they shall retire from service in the work and not work anymore. They may, however, assist their brothers in the tent of meeting to keep an obligation, but they themselves shall do no work. Thus, you shall deal with the Levites according to their obligations.

Now, again, that sounds mildly different than what we read in the last few chapters, remember? Because in the last few chapters, when they numbered the Levites, they numbered them from 30 to 50. But here it says that they enter the service at 25. So, what do they do from the ages of 25 to 30? Well, from the ages of 25 to 30, the Levites would have been in what we would call an apprenticeship program,

a training program. Because remember, their job was not like anybody else's job. Their job held them to a higher standard than any other job within the world. And the nation of Israel. Because their job was a life and death thing. Do you remember what it said? The reason why they were called is so that there would be no plague among the children of Israel. Therefore, it was important that they knew everything that there was to know about that job.

So, if you will, they spent five years preparing to serve in the tabernacle, preparing to serve the Lord in the way that God had called them to serve. But again, they only served until the age of 50. If you think about it, the work of the Levites, as well as the work of the priest, was pretty rigorous work, constantly dealing with livestock. And so, they were to stop serving in the hard work of the tabernacle by the age of 50. But did you notice what they were supposed to do after the age of 50?

We're told in verse 26, it says, they may, however, assist their brothers in the tent of meeting. So, if they were to do the heavy work, but they could assist their brothers, what was the assisting that they did? Well, I believe, personally, that it was twofold. I believe that it was in a supervisory sort of role because, again, it was a very important job that the Levites did. But I believe it was also in a training sort of a role. I believe that some of

these men over the age of 50 would take some of these younger guys between the ages of 25 and 30, they would take them under their wing and they would teach them. They would teach them what it looked like to be a Levite. They would teach them what it looked like to do their job properly. And it brings up, I think, a really powerful, powerful, powerful, powerful, powerful, powerful, point for us as the church. Because I think sometimes us as the church, there can be a little

bit of an age division. There can be an age gap and we don't always blend together quite like we should. One of the things I used to always tell young kids to do when I was working with youth is I said, you need to go find somebody that's walked with the Lord for a really long time and you need to ask them to teach you everything that they've been learning in their walk with the Lord. I said, because they have wisdom that can't be given in any other way. You can't read it in a

book, but they could sure talk about it. And I said, well, I'm going to ask them to teach you about the ups and the downs of their life, the things that they have learned, the mistakes that they have made. Find someone and ask them to disciple you in those kinds of ways. And I had a handful of young men that took me up on it. As a matter of fact, I had somebody come to me one

time and say, I think your youth member just told me I was old. I said, sorry, what do you mean? He said, well, they told me that you said, go find somebody that had been walking with God for a long time. And I said, well, I'm going to ask them to teach me all the things that they need to know. I think they just called me old. I'm like, yeah, but in a really positive sort of way. It's

in a good way. They're saying, hey, look, you've got a lot of wisdom in the things of God. And so while at one time I used to tell kids, hey, you need to go find somebody that's walked with Jesus for a really long time and have them teach you the things that they learned. Well, now I'm talking to all of us because all of us are pretty much the ones that have been walking with Jesus for quite a while now. Yes, I'm calling all of us a little bit older.

It's time that we start taking some young folks under our wings and start saying, hey, I'd love to take you to dinner sometime. I'd love to take you out to lunch. I'd like to take you for coffee sometime. If you're open to it, I'd love to share with you some of the things that God's done in my life. And I guarantee some of these kids would love to have you do that. I think that it would

be a really neat thing to see that start to happen where there's nothing structured about it. It's not like, oh, we're a part of the church. It's not like, oh, we're a part of the church. It's not like, oh, we're a part of the discipleship program. No, it means that you just actually take someone under your wing and say, what can I teach you? I'd like to share with you the truth

of what God has done with me. Because I guarantee the kids that are walking around this church right now, they need the wisdom that many of us have learned over lots of ages of making mistakes, over lots of ages of watching God or having God be very patient with us and teach us what we need to learn. I've always said, I want as many of you as I can to be a part of the church. I want as many of you as I can to be a part of the church. I want as many people that are not me telling my kids

about Jesus as possible. Because my kids get tired of hearing it from me. They really do, right? My daughter's always like, is this going to be another lecture? I'm like, I like to call it a sermon, but you call it what you will. But she's tired of hearing that from me. She needs to hear it from somebody else, right? That's my take on it. In chapter nine, we see God preparing us for the

people. So we've seen God prepare the tabernacle. The preparation of the tabernacle had to do with the offering as well as the positioning of the lampstands. We've seen God do his preparation in the Levites, in the cleansing of them and laying out what their career is exactly supposed to look like. Well, now we're going to see God prepare the people. And the first way that God

is going to prepare the people is through the Passover. Wow, that was a lot of alliteration right there. Thus the Lord, chapter nine, verse one, spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the first month of the second year. After they had come out of the land of Egypt saying, now let the sons of Israel observe the Passover at its appointed time. Exactly like that. At its appointed time on the 14th day of this

month at twilight, you shall observe it at its appointed time. You shall observe it according to all its statutes and according to all its ordinances. So Moses told the sons of Israel to observe the Passover and they observed the Passover in the first month. On the 14th day of the month at twilight in the wilderness of Sinai, according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so the sons of Israel did. Now, again, this is where we get this

chronological difference. If you remember, verse one of Numbers chapter one said that it was the second month of the first year that they had been departed from the land of Egypt. So this Passover took place actually before Numbers chapter one, verse one. But why was God, so intent on making sure they remembered that in order to be prepared to head to the promised land, they needed to partake in the Passover meal? Well, we're reminded in this Passover meal

that they were set free through redemption. And God wanted that to always be in their mind. God always wanted it to be in their mind that the only reason that they were able to be set apart from Egypt, to be set free from Egypt, was because God had redeemed them. That process of the Passover was such a beautiful picture because in order for the judgment that God was bringing on the world, the nation of Egypt, in order for that judgment that God was going to bring on the world to pass over them, they of course had to have the sacrifice of a perfectly spotless lamb. And that blood of the perfectly spotless lamb could not just be sitting

there. It had to be applied to the doorpost of their home because it showed that the blood, is who was protecting those in the home. Therefore, when the angel of death, that angel of judgment, saw that blood, he would pass over. And in the same way, our lives are no different. In order for our lives to be protected from the judgment that God is going to bring on the world, we have to have the blood of the spotless lamb,

not applied to the doorposts of our home, but applied to the doorposts of our heart. And the only perfect spotless lamb that fulfilled that was Jesus Christ. But in order for them to continue on on this wilderness way, in order for them to be a people of the promised land, they had to remember that they were a people of redemption, that they were a people who had been redeemed from the penalty of sin, a people who had been redeemed from the slavery of the world. And so God wanted them to always keep this in mind. And so for the children

of Israel in the old Testament, what they were to do every year at the exact same time was to celebrate this feast of Passover. Why? Because he needed them to know the only reason they were in the promised land was because they had been set free by the blood of a spotless lamb. Now there's an application for us as New Testament believers because we no longer have to celebrate the Passover. Sometimes it's kind of an interesting thing to do to take part in a Passover

Seder because all of the pictures and typology continue to point us to our faith in Jesus Christ. But now we do this celebration in a completely different way because you see now we take time as often as we feel. necessary to remember the redemption that we have in Jesus Christ. And so we don't celebrate a Passover meal. What do we celebrate? We celebrate a communion meal because we're reminded that to

be promised land people, that to be people of the promise, we must remember that we are a redeemed people. And we have not been redeemed by the blood of bulls and goats. We have been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. So we remember that this is what they had to do in order to keep going. In order to be prepared for the promised land, they had to always keep in

their mind that they were redeemed people. And so God has them celebrate this Passover and they celebrate this Passover. I often wonder how amazing the Passover was one year later, how perhaps emotional it was one year later for them to remember the fact that, gosh, one year ago, we were girding up our loins to run from Egypt because things were getting really crazy. Can you believe it was one year ago that all of this stuff was going on, that all of these things were happening? And now here we sit, a redeemed people.

There's nothing quite like being able to remember your spiritual birthday. Mine's in April, right? The beginning of April is when I really started walking with Jesus, when I really got things right with the Lord and started walking with Him. And there is something about the beginning of April that is a really special time for me. That is just an amazing time in my life because it is my reminder of the redemption that I have

in Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, a lot of kids that I know that grew up in our youth group, their redemption story involves Young Christians Weekend at Silver Dollar City. Mine does too, but in a little bit of a different way. Because you see, I couldn't go to Young Christians Weekend that year because I had to take the stupid ACTs, right? At least that's what I called them at the

time. I think that's what I said. I said, I'm going to go to Young Christians Weekend. I'm going to go to Young Christians Weekend. I'm going to go to Young Christians Weekend. I'm going to go to Young Christians Weekend. I still call them. Anyway, I had to take the ACTs. And so I was like, oh man, I can't go. But I had started working out at a Christian camp here in town. And they said,

can you work this weekend? And I said, I guess I can because I can't go to Young Christians Weekend. I'll wash dishes this weekend because I can make a little bit of money. I just have to be off in the morning because I have to take the stupid ACTs, right? Yeah. By the way, do you know what you don't need to go to Bible college? The stupid ACTs. Right? Except for me to get there, I had to because it involves this story. And so I had

to stay in town to take these ACTs. And so I go back out to the camp that night. And it was that night while I was washing dishes at that camp that the Lord just broke me. And that's my redemption story is that on that weekend in April, when all the rest of my friends were at Young Christians Weekend, I was at home washing dishes at a camp exactly where I was supposed to be, learning about redemption, learning about who I really needed to be in Christ.

And now at the beginning of every April, it always comes back to my mind that that is my time of redemption. That is the beginning of life for me. And so he wanted them to always keep that in mind in order to be this promised land people. And so they did so. And I just can't imagine how emotional that time had to have been for them to be reminded of the redemption that they had because of the

blood of that spotless lamb. And it says, verse 6, But there were some men who were unclean because of the dead person, so that they could not observe the Passover on that day. So they came before Moses and Aaron on that day. And those men said to him, though we are unclean because of the dead person, why are we restrained from presenting the offering to the Lord at its appointed time among the sons of Israel? Moses therefore said to them,

Wait, and I will listen to what the Lord will command concerning you. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, If any of you or of your generation becomes unclean because of a dead person or is on a distant journey, he may, however, observe the Passover to the Lord. In the second month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, you shall observe it. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, they shall leave none of it until morning, nor break a bone of it. According to the statute of

the Passover, they shall observe it. But the man who is clean and is not on a journey and yet neglects to observe the Passover, that person shall then be cut off from his people, for he did not present the offering of the Lord at its appointed time. That man will bear his sin. If an alien sojourns among you and observes the Passover to the Lord, according to the statute of the Passover and according to its ordinance, so he shall not be cut off from his people.

He shall do. You shall have one statute, both for the alien and for the native of the land. Now, I love this little section, because here you've got these guys that, for no fault of their own, no sin of their own, but ceremonially speaking, they were unclean, therefore unable to take part in the Passover, something that represented their redemption as well. And so they asked a question. They said, Hey, is there some way we can still take part in the Passover,

even though we're unclean, even though we have had something happen in our life? And so they said, Hey, is there some way we can still take part in the Passover, even though we're unclean, even though we have had something happen in our lives? It prevents us from being able to do so when everybody else does. I love this because these men had such a passion for doing what God called them to do, that they were looking for any way that they could get around this thing that was preventing them from worshiping the Lord. I love it because their heart was just

to worship and they wanted to overcome any obstacle possible so that they could come with God's people and worship. And of course, Moses does exactly what he's supposed to do at this point in time. He says, Let me wait and hear from the Lord and see what he has to say. And I believe that God's heart is blessed when somebody says, I know there's an obstacle in my way, but how can I overcome the obstacle so that I can worship the Lord? And so God says, Tell them this. Tell them if anybody's

unclean or if you happen to be out of town on a long journey and can't make it back in time for the Passover celebration, there's still an opportunity for you to worship. You simply wait 30 days and then at the exact same time in the second month, you do everything that you're supposed to follow all of the Passover rules and you can still worship the Lord. Isn't that great? Because God's heart is for those of us that love him to be able to worship him and he gives us any opportunity that he can. And so he says, However, if you can worship God and you choose not to, that's on you.

So we see that God makes this option for those who perhaps have had some obstacle get in the way of following him. Now, the second part of preparing the people is giving them an understanding of what it is to follow God's direction. And so in verse 15, it says, Now on the day that the tabernacle was erected, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony. And in the evening, it was like the appearance of fire over the tabernacle until morning. So it was continuously the cloud would

cover it by day and the appearance of fire would cover it by day. And so in the evening, it was And when the cloud lingered over the tabernacle for many days, the sons of Israel would keep the Lord's charge and not set out. If sometimes the cloud remained a few days over the tabernacle, according to the command of the Lord, they remained camped. Then according to the command of the Lord, they set out.

If sometimes the cloud remained from evening until morning, when the cloud was lifted in the morning, they would move out. Or if it remained in the daytime and at night, whenever the cloud was lifted, they would set out. Whether it was two days or a month or a year that the cloud lingered over the tabernacle for many days, or if it lingered over the tabernacle, staying above it, the sons of Israel remained camped and did not set out. But when it was lifted, they did set out.

At the command of the Lord, they camped. And at the command of the Lord, they set out. They kept the Lord's charge, according to the command of the Lord, through Moses. What a beautiful scene that it had to have been when the tabernacle was set up and everything was consecrated. We talked about this in the book of Exodus. And the cloud of the Lord came down and settled on the tabernacle.

What an amazing scene it would have been. What an amazing scene it would have been. All of the people, no doubt, engulfed in this cloud that they're surrounded by. And it's kind of interesting, as you go through the Old Testament, you see different times when the cloud was there over either the tabernacle or the temple. Of course, it was there over the tabernacle

when they were going through the wilderness. We're reminded that when Solomon built the temple, and he prayed that prayer of dedication of the temple to the Lord, that the cloud settled and you couldn't even see anything because the presence of the Lord was so thick there in the tabernacle. And what a disappointing thing. That we're told about, I believe it's in the book of Ezekiel, where it says that the cloud had departed because the glory of the Lord had departed.

But that cloud was that visible representation of God among the people. And that cloud by day and pillar of fire by night was the direction that the people were to follow. Did you take notice of how many times it says, at the command of the Lord? I should have had you underline all of them, but perhaps you go back later and you take note of all of the times that it says, at the command of the Lord.

Because they were to follow the Lord's direction in the things that they were to do. One thing that I took note of, and if you are an underlining person, a great verse to underline is verse 22. It says, whether it was two days or a month or a year that the cloud lingered over the tabernacle staying above it, the sons of Israel remained camped and did not set out. But when it was lifted, they did set out.

Now, if you were camped at a really comfortable place where there was a sweet oasis nearby, perhaps a, a, a Hebrew's Starbucks, we'll just call it Hebrews, perhaps a solid ground cafe. Trying to think of what else I can come up with for a Christian coffee shop. We'll keep working on it. Then everything's great, right? Because you're at a really comfortable place to camp.

Everything's perfect. You're like, hey, cloud, stay here forever. I really kind of enjoy this place. And then maybe it would stick around for a long time and maybe it wouldn't. But can you imagine if you're in that camp in a place where there's nothing around you? You're camped someplace where it's like, dude, there's no coffee shops around here. There's no mall here.

There's no, you know, there's no Brahms here. There's nothing. There's no place to eat. There's no water to drink. There's no great place to get a cup of coffee. Everything in this place is terrible and the cloud won't move. You can easily be like, I think we'll just move anyway. And Moses is going, nope. As long as the cloud stays, we stay. Why? Because they could only move or stay.

At the command of the Lord. You see, they had to do it God's way, not their own way. They had to learn through this a very practical lesson that in their life, they had to follow the direction of God. And the direction of God was always under the cloud of his blessing. Now, oftentimes when we think of the cloud of God's blessing, we think, well, that means everything's going to go perfect.

But remember where they probably camped a few times? Where there was no food, where there was no water. And yet that is where the cloud of God's blessing was. As a matter of fact, as we get into things next week, we'll see that it's not going to be very long before they start complaining about where they're camped. And yet, that is where the cloud of God's blessing is.

And we have to remember that in our lives. Because sometimes God's blessing is seen through abundance and sometimes God's blessing is seen through dependence. And they were always to be where that cloud of blessing was. And they were to follow that leading of the Lord everywhere they went. And it's a good reminder for us as New Testament believers, a lesson that we're told out of Romans 8, verse 4.

You don't necessarily have to turn there, although I do think I had her put it up on that. Romans 8, verse 4, because this is what it says. Those who are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. You see, brothers and sisters, you may be in a job right now where God's cloud of blessing is not there. You may be in a job right now where God's blessing is there,

but it sure doesn't feel like it. You may be in a situation in your life where God has said you can't move and you're going, I don't understand why I can't move. Why won't you let me go from here? Well, because perhaps the way that God is blessing you right now is through dependence. And sometimes maybe you're in a place where God's blessing is there and that blessing is there through abundance

and you should appreciate that as long as it's there. But remember, when God says it's time to move, it's time to move. Even if it looks like it's not, it's like the abundance is there. But when God says it's time to go, it's time to go. I'm reminded of Philip there in the book of Acts. Remember, Philip goes down and has this amazing ministry, not Philip the apostle,

but Philip, one of the seven that was chosen there. It's this amazing ministry. And God says, hey, there's a new place I want you to go. I want you to go down to another place because I want you to preach to somebody. And remember the little commentary that's given on where he was supposed to go? This place is desert. Because there was one guy that needed saved.

Brothers and sisters, we can't look at things the way the world does. We have to follow the leading of the Lord. Amen. Father, we come before you. And Lord, I just thank you for the preparation that you give us as people. The ways that you prepare us to be the promised land people. And so Lord, continue to do your work in our lives. Lord, may we see you more clearly.

May we follow you more fully. And may we see you more clearly. And may we see you more clearly. And may we see you more clearly. And may we see you more clearly. And may we be set apart unto you as we seek your direction in our lives. Lord, bless us through your word. Bless us through our times of prayer. Bless us through our own personal worship. And may our lives be fully surrendered to you.

We just thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.