Sunday 10th September
Read Numbers 18:1-7
“The Lord said to Aaron, ‘You, your sons and your family are to bear the responsibility for offences connected with the sanctuary, and you and your sons alone are to bear the responsibility for offences connected with the priesthood. 2 Bring your fellow Levites from your ancestral tribe to join you and assist you when you and your sons minister before the tent of the covenant law. 3 They are to be responsible to you and are to perform all the duties of the tent, but they must not go near the furnishings of the sanctuary or the altar. Otherwise both they and you will die. 4 They are to join you and be responsible for the care of the tent of meeting – all the work at the tent – and no one else may come near where you are. 5 ‘You are to be responsible for the care of the sanctuary and the altar, so that my wrath will not fall on the Israelites again. 6 I myself have selected your fellow Levites from among the Israelites as a gift to you, dedicated to the Lord to do the work at the tent of meeting. 7 But only you and your sons may serve as priests in connection with everything at the altar and inside the curtain. I am giving you the service of the priesthood as a gift. Anyone else who comes near the sanctuary is to be put to death.’” (NIVUK)
The following two chapters provide both comfort and hope through law (Numbers 18-19). They describe who will stand before Yahweh on behalf of the people and how the people can be rendered pure enough to interact with them. The regularity and familiarity with which Moses converses with Yahweh and vice versa creates an impression that Yahweh is safe and approachable. That impression could not be more false. We forget that the distance between the tabernacle and the people was a kilometre in every direction! Pause and ponder that. A kilometre is quite a distance. Some people can’t even see that far! The gap, literally a no-man’s land, was for the people’s safety. After all, Yahweh is a consuming fire (as has just been dramatically illustrated).
That is why we have these detailed instructions. As much as others may perceive it as a privilege and seek to usurp, the emphasis in these instructions is on the responsibility. Only Aaron and his descendants are permitted to stand in the breach. Anyone else will die (v3, 5, 7). Besides the clear language describing responsibility and service it is graciously indicated in another, more subtle way. ‘The Lord said to Aaron…’ (v1). Normally God speaks with Moses, but in this instance, after this failure by the people, Yahweh spoke with Aaron affirming his role in perpetuity. That Yahweh would prepare and affirm a means of grace, a way to interact with Him, despite all the people’s failings can only make us stop and pause in awe and thanks.
