I am in Austin now.  Highway 35 ebbs and flows off my balcony.  I smell barbeque every morning.  People flock from miles around to wait in line for perfection, the perfect brisket.  As we turn to Numbers, the people of Israel, the ex-slaves, will wander far and wide searching for something, the promised-land. Like any good road trip, they will have time for self-discovery and disappointment.  Waiting and standing in line is boring and sometimes dangerous, but getting to the end and receiving your juicy reward is sweet.  As usual, my guide to working through Numbers is the imperatives in scripture.  These are not the commands in the traditional sense.  They are the times when God breaks into the story and says, “Do this thing here, right now.”

Num 1:2 “Take a census of all the congregation” Lit. “Lift up the heads.”  The idea is that Moses and crew are doing a head count to see how big their army is.  The same phrase is in Exo 30:12, where the counted are supposed to provide a ransom of a half shekel.  This time there is no mention of ransoms.

Num 1:50 “Appoint the Levites to be in charge of the tabernacle” The Levites aren’t counted as part of the 603,550 from v46 because they are not supposed to be fighting men.  In v53 the Levites are talked about as a buffer between God’s presence in the tabernacle and the rest of the people.  They are more than soft skinned churchy guys.  They exist to create a barrier for God’s wrath.

Num 3:6 “Bring the tribe of Levi near and set them before Aaron” Aaron’s family is supposed to be the priestly line.  Out of the first five priests, Aaron, the father, and Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar the sons, two of the priests died on the job.  Left with three priests, the people of Israel need people to help run the tabernacle.  Interestingly, the verb for “bring near” is the same root as 3:4 “made an offering.”  The idea being that the Levites are an offering, not for human sacrifice but service.

Num 3:15 “Number the sons of Levi by their fathers’ households” Now Moses is commanded to count the not-army men.  The Gershon, Kohath and Merari clans total 22,000 in v39.

Num 3:40 “Count all the firstborn Israelite males… make a list of their names” The idea is that Moses counts all the Israelite first born, 22,273 in v43, and finds the difference with the total number of Levites.  The difference of 273 in v46 is redeemed by paying shekels.  However, the bulk of the Israelite first born are redeemed at a 1 to 1 exchange with a Levite.  This is not human sacrifice, but the implication is that this “taking” is a prevention of blood-shed.  All the animal firstborn are to be offered or redeemed, but humans can’t be offered so there is a replacement put into service at the tabernacle (Exo 13:15).  That may sound not fair to the Levites.  Well, atonement isn’t fair.

Num 3:45 “Take the Levites instead of all the first-born among the sons of Israel” The flocks and herds of the Levites as well as their inheritance exists to serve Yahweh.  The language of “shall be mine” echoes Exo 13:2 “the first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me.”

Num 4:19 “So that they may live and not die… do this for them” Chapter 4 is the big break down of jobs for the Kohathite, Gershonite and Merarite clans.  The Merarites carry the frame and structural stuff.  The Gershonites carry the walls and general setup.  The Kohathites carry the décor and get the details ready for priest-stuff.  The Kohathites are closest to all the priestly action and are most likely to be lured by ideas of performing Aaron’s duties or feeling self-important.  So God specifically warns Moses and Aaron to be very precise and mindful of the Kohathites.  Fast forward to Num 16:32 and God opens up the ground and swallows Korah and his fellow Kohathites for starting a religious rebellion.  In short, they thought they could be the priests while ignoring the promise, “they will die.”  God chooses his priests. The priests don’t get to choose their god.

Num 5:2 “Command the Israelites to send away… every leper” All the ceremonially unclean have to be put outside.  This wasn’t a death sentence, but it wasn’t a life sentence.  For a nomadic people, straggling behind the camp is dangerous.  Also, the shame of expulsion is much worse than not getting picked for dodgeball. Why send them away?  They would defile, tame, the camp.  However, Lev 5:2-13 records how an unclean person gets restored through sacrifice.  Numbers 5 answers the question, “If they don’t care about being clean, why would they offer the sacrifice?” Because, you have to be a straggler till you do.

Num 5:6, 12 “Speak to the Israelites… who wrongs… wife goes astray” These two passages are setup as parallels concerning sins against your fellow Israelite.  The first is if you intentionally wrong someone.  Think swindling, stealing, conning, etc.  The restitution is financial, specifically 120% of what the loss was.  This makes Zacchaeus 400% repayment even more extravagant (Luke 19:8).  But then the question arises, “What if the wrong is something you can’t put a value on? What if someone robs you of trust?”  In v11-31 the scenario is that a husband is suspicious and jealous of his wife. Although this passage shocks our modern idea of marriage, in the ancient world women could be killed for simply speaking out of turn (Esther 4:16).  God is putting a clear line on how far jealous husbands can go.  They can go to the priest, who will essentially give a stern warning to the wife.  This command would not apply to an actual case of adultery, someone caught in the act.  The sentence for adultery is death (Lev 20:10).

Num 6:2 “Speak to the Israelites… the vow of the Nazirite” Now to the other side of the spectrum, from wrong doers to the super dedicated.  The Nazirite vow seems weird, but at its heart is the idea that God desires our spurts of devotion.  Every other purity ritual was for people who didn’t have a choice.  Priests are born that way. Levites are born that way.  Sinners and the unclean, they are responsible, but the purification is pretty compulsory if you don’t want to rot in the desert.  Nazirites are for the people who want to nazar, “consecrate oneself.” They intentionally distance themselves from society.  They have to steer clear of booze and funerals, and they can’t visit the barber.  And God knows that they won’t be perfect, so most of the discussion of Nazarites is what to do when they do mess up or how they can still keep their vows.  The end result is that Nazarites shave their grown out hair and can have wine again.

Num 6:23 “Speak to Aaron and his sons” Moses is to tell the priests how to do their job, specifically how to bless the people.

Num 7:5 “Accept these things from them” The tabernacle parts are all constructed, then the common people spontaneously donate ways to move it around.  God didn’t command them to, and Moses didn’t ask them to.  I bet the Gershonites and Merarites were relieved.  But notice that the Kohathites, the ones tasked with carrying the priceless stuff, don’t receive any pack animals (v9).

Num 8:2 “Speak to Aaron and say, ‘When you set up the lamps’” Chapter 7 details all the material gifts that the Israelite clans brought for the tabernacle.  The altar is dedicated, and then Moses goes inside and hears a voice in the darkness saying, “Hey, turn on the lights!”

Num 8:6, 7 “Take the Levites… Sprinkle purifying water” Notice that Moses by himself setup the tabernacle (Num 7:1).  The first task God has him do is prepare his helpers.  The tabernacle was big and heavy.

Num 8:12 “Then offer one for a sin offering” God will eventually say, “the Levites will be mine,” but first they have to have their sin atoned (8:14).  Notice that a bull can be sacrificed if it is without spot or blemish and not sick.  But God doesn’t say, “Find the perfect Levites, no need for a sacrifice for them. I’ll take them as they are.”

Num 9:10 “Speak to the Israelites… unclean because of a dead person” This is amazing!  The people asked Moses a “Well but what if” question, and Moses gets an answer from God.  And the answer is, “There is a second chance for Passover observance.”  If your circumstances don’t line up with the festival, fine; but if your attitude doesn’t line up, then that is trouble.  Those intentionally skipping Passover are exiled (9:13).

God desired to be with the ex-slaves.  He provided ways to restore wrong doers.  He even moves his calendar to their needs.  But he isn’t a push over.  Moses better keep an eye on those Kohathites.  So in closing, do you treat God like a pushover? Do you need to set aside a specific time or observance, a vow perhaps, to help you remember who God is and who you are? Devotion to God may seem tedious, but at the end of the line, it is good.