Sun.’s Devo - The Levites Set Apart

Read: Numbers 8:1-9:23; Mark 13:14-37; Psalm 50:1-23; Proverbs 10:29-30 The large menorah was to be placed so that the light panned out to illuminate the whole room. It was made of one piece of gold beaten by a hammer into its shape. It had buds of the almond flower on its arms. God told Moses to take the Levites and cleanse them by sprinkling water on them and shaving all of their flesh. They were to wash their own clothes and make themselves clean. Then they were to take a bull with flour and oil and another bull for the sin offering and offer them in front of all the people. The people would put their hands upon the Levites and transfer their sin to the Levites. The Levites would then put their hands upon the sin offering and transfer all of their sins to the bull. The other bull would be for the Levites to set them apart from the other people and atone just for the Levites. The Levites were then offered to Aaron and his sons to be an offering to the Lord. The Levites would be separate from the children of Israel and the Levites would be the Lords. I think of this as being how Jesus died for the world represented by the first bull, but he set apart his chosen remnant and they got to enjoy the atonement of his death which was represented in the second bull. God had designated the first born as his, but now he substituted the Levites for them. After their ceremony, the Levites began assisting Aaron in the service of the Tabernacle. Once we are saved and sanctified we can minister in God’s work. The age of service was 25-50 and when they retired they were guards but could not officiate in the service. They were to celebrate the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan which was the first month of the religious calendar and the seventh month of the civil calendar. They were to be ceremonially clean to celebrate, but a group of men had buried a person making them ceremonially unclean. They came to Moses to ask if they could participate. Moses took their request to the Lord and God said that they could wait and do it the same day the next month. If they were clean and chose not to celebrate the Passover, they would suffer the consequences of their guilt. The Passover was the foreshadowing of the cross. What they did then was a ceremony to cover their sins for a year. The cross took away our sins forever as long as we believed. When they finished setting up the Tabernacle the glory of God rested upon it in the form of a pillar of a cloud. When it lifted and moved, they broke camp and followed it. In Mark, Jesus warned them of a day that a very unsecured object would be standing where it should not be and when they see that happen they were to run to the hills. That very thing happened years later when Antiocus Ephiphenes offered a pig on the altar in the Temple. It will also happen in the very end of time in a different way. It seems that this act will mark the beginning of the Great Tribulation. Calamities would be rampant and false messiahs and false prophets would rise up. After the anguish of that time was over the sun would be darkened and the moon give no light. The stars will fall from the sky and the powers in the heavens would be shaken. Then everyone will see Jesus coming in the clouds in great glory. He will send out his angels to gather the chosen from the earth. When this begins to happen it will mark the last generation Jesus ended it with a story to remind them to always be watching and waiting for these signs to happen. Keep spiritually awake. Lord, thank you for signs that you give us to wake us up and to show us that your Word is true. May we stay alive and awake in you.