Welcome And Passage Setup

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Welcome. I'm Cliff Hedges. This is Pastor Cliff's Notes. This is a podcast where we are studying the Bible. We're working our way through the book of Numbers. Today is episode 1603, and we're looking at Numbers chapter 4, verses 21 through 33. The Israelites are still in the Sinai wilderness. They've built and dedicated the tabernacle, and God's getting them ready to move on to the promised land. Moses and Aaron conducted a census of all the males, 20 years old and older. This was to count the army. The army is going to have to take possession of the promised land. Even though God will guide them, God will assist them, the army still has to conquer the promised land. Then Moses conducted another census. This one was the tribe of Levi. They are not part of the armies, they weren't part of the first census. And this census was of the males one month old and older. That was because it was counting up them as substitutes for the firstborn of the other tribes. God said that the firstborn belonged to him. But he allows the substitution here for people, and he's substituting the tribe of Levi for the firstborn of the other tribes.

The Three Levitical Counts

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Now we're in a section with a third census. Moses is again counting the clans of the tribe of Levi, but now he's counting males 30 years old to 50 years old. These are those that would serve at the tabernacle. And we're also seeing more details about what they actually do in their service. Last time we saw the Kohathite clan. They were responsible for transporting the holy items that are inside the tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, the golden lampstand, the golden table of the bread of the presence, the golden altar of incense, the bronze altar of burnt sacrifice. So that's the Kohathite clan.

Gershonites Handle The Fabrics

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That brings us to Numbers chapter 4, verse 21. The Lord spoke to Moses, take a census of the Gershonites also by their ancestral families and their clans. Gershon was the oldest son of Levi. And he's listed second here. We see from their placement around the tabernacle when they camp the priority of these clans. So it was back in chapter 3, verses 31 through 38. And he gave the camping locations. The east side is the primary side, number one side. That's where Moses, Aaron, and the priests camp. Then the south side, that's the number two side, that's where the Kohitites camp. Then the west side, that's number three position. That's where the Gershonites camp. Then the north side, that's the fourth position, the last position, that's where the Merorites camp. So we're looking at the Gershonites now. They are second in position after the Kohatites. Verse 23. Register men from thirty years old to fifty years old. Everyone who's qualified to perform service to do work at the tent of meeting. This is the service of the Gershonite clans regarding work and transportation duties. They're to transport the tabernacle curtains, the tent of meeting with its covering, and the covering made of fine leather on top of it, the screen for the entrance to the tent of meeting, the hangings of the courtyard, the screen for the entrance of the gate of the courtyard that surrounds the tabernacle and the altar, along with their ropes and all the equipment for their service. They will carry out everything that needs to be done with these items. So the Kohatites that we saw last time, they're carrying the actual golden things from inside the tabernacle, and they took down the curtain inside the tabernacle and wrapped that around the Ark of the Covenant. But all the other tapestries, basically fabric, that's going to be the duties of the Gershonites. And there's quite a bit of it. There's the curtains that actually make the wall, interior walls of the tabernacle. They were several of them were all sewn together to make two great big pieces that were 30 feet by 42 feet. And those were the woven tapestries that basically made the interior walls. Then there was the goat hair covering, and that was two pieces. One was 30 feet by 45 feet, the other's 36 feet by 45 feet. So two enormous goat hair coverings to go over the top of the tapestry. Then the goat skin covering to go over the top of that. We don't know how many panels it was made of, but altogether it's like 60 feet by 45 feet. Then the covering of fine leather. We talked about it last time. We don't really know exactly what fine leather is, whether it's sea cow skin or porpoise skin or badger skin or what. This translation is calling it fine leather. And it's another 60 feet by 45 feet of covering. We don't know how many panels it was made of. Then there's this fence that goes around the courtyard. It's seven and a half feet tall, and there's four hundred and fifty feet of panels that make up this fence. So there's a tremendous amount of fabrics that are all the responsibility of the Gershonites to carry this along. Yes, it is. But we'll see in a couple chapters, actually chapter 7, verses 1 through 11, it's going to have kind of a flashback to the dedication of the tabernacle. Now, for us, that was a month ago. When the tabernacle was dedicated, it says that the tribal leaders gave six covered carts and twelve oxen to the Lord, and they were assigned to the Levites for this very purpose. And the Gershonites are given two of these covered carts and four oxen to pull these two carts. We'll see the Merorites are actually given four carts to carry their stuff and the remaining eight oxen. Kohites? They don't get any carts. They're carrying the stuff with the handles that go through these rings on the side of things. So it's people by on foot carrying the things that the Kohathites are carrying. Now there's more probably than would fit on the two wagons that the Gershonites get. How's it all work? We don't know, we're not giving any details there. Verse 27. All the service of the Gershonites, all their transportation duties, and all their other work is to be done at the command of Aaron and his sons. You're to assign them all that they are responsible to carry. This is the service of the Gershonite clans at the tent of meeting, and their duties will be under the direction of Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest. Now remember, Aaron is a high priest, and he has two sons, Eleazar and Ithamar. Eleazar, we saw, was to supervise what the Kohathites do with the special golden objects from inside the tabernacle. And now Ithamar, the other son, he'll supervise what the Gershonites do.

Merarites Move The Framework

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Verse 29. As for the Merrites, you're to register them by their clans and their ancestral families. Register men from thirty years old to fifty years old, everyone who's qualified to do the work of the tent of meeting. So the Merites, that is the youngest son of Levi, and the clan that camps in the fourth position, the north side of the tent of meeting when they set up camp. Verse 31. This is what they're responsible to carry as the whole of their service at the tent of meeting, the supports of the tabernacle with its crossbars, pillars, and bases, the posts of the surrounding courtyard with their bases, tent pegs and ropes, including all their equipment and all the work related to them. You're to assign by name the items that they're responsible to carry. This is a service of the Merite clans regarding all the work at the tent of meeting, under the direction of Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest. So this group also is under the direction of Ithamar. They're carrying basically the structures that make up the tabernacle. The things inside are being carried by the Kohathites. All the fabric coverings, the tent itself is being carried by the Gershonites. But all the posts and poles and things are being carried by the Merites. They're assigned four covered wagons to support them and eight oxen. That's a bunch of stuff. There's like sixty vertical posts that go around the tabernacle itself. And there's cross beams that go down the sides of each of the walls of the tabernacle, five cross beams on each side, and it's not all continuous, but it's 45 feet long cross beams, five rows on each side. So that's 450 feet of cross beams. There's 53 posts for the courtyard fence. There's bases for the tabernacle posts that add up to 7,500 pounds of silver, the brass bases for the 53 courtyard posts or 100 pounds each of brass. Then you have all the ropes, the tent pegs, and everything else. There's a bunch of stuff here. So it's all divided up. Now some say the Kohethites, they get the glory job. They're carrying the Ark of the Covenant and these golden articles. Yeah, they are. And it's important stuff. They also get struck dead if they mishandle them. Where these two groups, the Gershonites and the Mariorites, they're handling this stuff unsupervised, basically. The priests are supervising everything they do, but they fold up, roll up, tie up, load up. There's no restrictions on what they do with it. Where the Kothites, they're not even allowed to see the things they're carrying. But we see the rule for everyone here. Even the person that carries a bag of tent pegs has an important job. If you don't have the tent pegs, you can't set up the tent. And it's all important.

God Is Holy And Present

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We see here some actually lessons about God Himself here. We often talk about the transcendence and immanence of God. Transcendent means far off, distant. Or imminent means here and present now. And it's like different religions have different views of their gods. Allah in Islam, he's a very transcendent God. He doesn't really deal personally with people. Where the Norse gods, they were just like supermen. They were right there amongst them. They were sinning with everyone else and partying. They not transcended at all, very imminent. Where the one true God, the Lord, Yahweh, he's both. He lives in heaven, yet here he sets up his tent amongst his people. We're told his ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts, yet we're told we're created in his image. And so we see these both and with the true God as he is transcendent and imminent. And we can often fall into error in either one of these ways, where we think he's too transcendent. And that's an error that he's unapproachable. We have to speak to a bit of foreign language, we have to go through a bunch of ceremony in order to approach God, that he's too far off. That's an error. But we can also be error just being too casual about approaching God. He's just my best friend, he's my big buddy, he's my co-pilot, and the angels are there to make my life happy. No. The Kohathites are very aware it's dangerous to be close to God. And we sometimes lose that idea that God is a holy God and he has a wrath toward sin. And so just remember that. God is transcendent, but he is also imminent. How can he be both? Well, he's God. He can be, and he is.

Why Every Role Still Matters

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So we see here the duties of the three clans of the tribe of Levi. The priests operate within the tabernacle itself. They're the ones that make the sacrifices happen. They're the ones that go into the tabernacle to put the bread before the Lord, to burn the incense before the Lord, to light the golden lampstand. That's the priests. Then the priests bundle everything up inside, and the Levites then take everything apart and transport it all to the next campsite. There's two aspects to Israel at this time. There's the Israel whose army is going to take possession of the promised land. And there's also the Levites of Israel who are facilitating and protecting worship. Thanks for joining me. Join me again next time to continue working through numbers.