Daily Scripture Reading Numbers 8:1-22

Thomas had been sober for eleven years when he finally decided to do what he had been avoiding since the day he was released from prison after killing a girl. His victim’s name was Emily. She was nineteen years old and driving home from her shift at a diner when Thomas, drunk and driving nearly twice the speed limit, ran a red light and T-boned her car. She died at the scene. Thomas walked away with a broken arm and a blood alcohol level of 0.19.

He served six years in prison. During that time, he got sober, went through every program available, and genuinely came to hate the man he had been. When he got out, he didn’t drink again. He worked construction, lived simply, and never tried to excuse what he had done.

However, as the years passed, the guilt didn’t fade. It grew heavier. He began to feel that simply living a quiet life wasn’t enough. He needed to face what he had done. He needed to atone.

He found Emily’s mother’s address online. Her name was Margaret. Thomas wrote her a letter. He simply told her who he was, what he had done that night, and that he was sober. He said he would understand if she wanted nothing to do with him, but that if she ever needed any money or help, or just someone to listen to her anger, he would be there.

He sent the letter. Three weeks later, he received a reply. It was short.

“Do not contact me again. Do not write to me. Do not try to see me. If you truly care about the damage you caused, you will respect this one request. My daughter is dead because of you. Nothing you do now can change that. Seeing you or hearing from you will not bring her back. It will only hurt what is left of my family. Please disappear from our lives completely.”

Thomas read the letter several times. He had expected anger. He had even expected hatred. What he hadn’t expected was that his quiet request to make things right would only cause more pain. He realized then that there was no path forward. He couldn’t apologize in person. He couldn’t offer help. Any action he took to ease his own guilt would be selfish, because it would reopen wounds that the family was trying to heal. For the first time, Thomas understood that some things cannot be atoned for.

Every human has a similar problem. We have all sinned against our Creator. We deserve eternal punishment. We cannot atone for our sin. We cannot earn our way out of punishment and into heaven. Our only hope is to be redeemed. The eighth chapter of Numbers is an illustration of the redemption we have through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Num. 8:1 ¶ Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

Num. 8:2 “Speak to Aaron and say to him, ‘When you mount the lamps, the seven lamps will give light in the front of the lampstand.’”

Num. 8:3 Aaron therefore did so; he mounted its lamps at the front of the lampstand, just as Yahweh had commanded Moses.

Num. 8:4 Now this was the workmanship of the lampstand, hammered work of gold; from its base to its flowers it was hammered work; according to the pattern which Yahweh had shown Moses, so he made the lampstand.

Think about the phrase “according to the pattern which Yahweh had shown Moses”. The artists who created the tabernacle and its furniture did not create the designs. Instead, they were given designs to follow. The author of Hebrews mentioned this and pointed out that the wilderness tabernacle was a copy and shadow of heavenly things (see Hebrews 8:5). The wilderness tabernacle was not an end in and of itself. Instead, its purpose was to teach us heavenly things.

Num. 8:5 ¶ Again Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

Num. 8:6 “Take the Levites from among the sons of Israel and cleanse them.

Num. 8:7 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.

Num. 8:8 Then let them take a bull from the herd with its grain offering, fine flour mixed with oil; and a second bull from the herd you shall take for a sin offering.

Num. 8:9 So you shall bring the Levites near before the tent of meeting. You shall also assemble the whole congregation of the sons of Israel,

Num. 8:10 and bring the Levites near before Yahweh; and the sons of Israel shall lay their hands on the Levites.

Num. 8:11 Aaron then shall present the Levites before Yahweh as a wave offering from the sons of Israel, that they may be qualified to perform the service of Yahweh.

Num. 8:12 Now 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 Yahweh, to make atonement for the Levites.

Num. 8:13 And you shall have the Levites stand before Aaron and before his sons so as to present them as a wave offering to Yahweh.

Num. 8:14 ¶ “Thus you shall separate the Levites from among the sons of Israel, and the Levites shall be Mine.

Num. 8:15 Then 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;

Num. 8:16 for they are wholly given to Me from among the sons of Israel. I have taken them for Myself instead of every first issue of the womb, the firstborn of all the sons of Israel.

Num. 8:17 For every firstborn among the sons of Israel is Mine, 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.

Don’t miss the significance of this verse. When Yahweh brought the tenth plague upon the Egyptians and struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, He claimed all the firstborn of Israel as His own.

Num. 8:18 But I have taken the Levites instead of every firstborn among the sons of Israel.

Instead of keeping all the firstborn of Israel, He took the entire tribe of Levi instead.

Num. 8:19 And 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 tent of meeting and to make atonement on behalf of the sons of Israel, so that there will be no plague among the sons of Israel by their coming near to the sanctuary.”

Since the Levites belonged to Yahweh, their role in the life of Israel was to serve in the tabernacle.

This is a picture of what Jesus did for us. We are all sinners. We all deserve to die for our sins. We cannot atone for our sins. Fortunately, Jesus died in our place and made atonement for us.

Num. 8:20 ¶ Thus did Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the sons of Israel to the Levites; according to all that Yahweh had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so the sons of Israel did to them.

Num. 8:21 The Levites, too, purified themselves from sin and washed their clothes; and Aaron presented them as a wave offering before Yahweh. Aaron also made atonement for them to cleanse them.

Num. 8:22 Then after that the Levites went in to perform their service in the tent of meeting before Aaron and before his sons; just as Yahweh had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so they did to them.

Every human is a sinner and deserves to die. However, just as Yahweh allowed the Levites to redeem all the firstborn of Israel, so too Jesus died on the cross and rose again in order to redeem us from all our sins.

Thanks for visiting Bible Mountain. If you have already joined my email list, thank you and please tell others about Bible Mountain. If you have not joined my email list yet, please do so now. In order to join, go to Bible Mountain dotcom, click on subscribe, and that will take you to a page where you can sign up. Your email address will not be sold nor given away. Once again, thanks for visiting Bible Mountain.

“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”