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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 1634. We're looking at Numbers chapter 18, verses 1 through 13. So the Israelites rebelled Kadesh Barnea at the edge of the promised land, and they've been sent back into the wilderness until the faithless generation dies. That'll be 40 years. Then a little bit later, we saw the rebellion led by Korah. He claimed that all Israelites are holy and challenged the priesthood established by God. So the 250 prominent men were consumed by fire when they offered incense at the entrance to the tabernacle. And then Korah and the Reubenites who teamed up with him and their families were swallowed up by the earth. So people were still grumbling, and the Lord instructed Moses to have the leader of each tribe of Israel to write his name on his staff and give it to Moses. Then Moses took the staffs from all of them along with Aaron's staff and placed them by the Ark of the Covenant overnight. The next morning Aaron's staff budded, blossomed, and produced almonds. And so God made it clear that he had chosen the tribe of Levi to minister at the tabernacle, and specifically the family of Aaron to be the priests. So now that we're clear about who the priests are, we'll have a little bit of time dedicated to what the priests do. That brings us to Numbers 18, verse 1. The Lord said to Aaron, pause there. The only time we see that is here in this passage and in Leviticus 10, 8. Normally it's the Lord said to Moses, or the Lord said to Moses and Aaron. So rarely do we see the Lord speaking directly to Aaron. But this is dealing with the duties of the priesthood. And Aaron is the high priest. So the Lord is speaking directly to Aaron here. So verse 1, the Lord said to Aaron, You, your sons, and your ancestral family will be responsible for inequity against the sanctuary. So you, Aaron, your sons, his two sons that are the two priests, and your ancestral family, that would be the tribe of Levi, responsible for inequity against the sanctuary. What's that mean? It means you're responsible. Things go wrong at the sanctuary. Continuing, you and your sons will be responsible for inequity involving your priesthood. So he's made it clear who the priests are, and he makes it clear here. And take that very seriously, Aaron and your sons, that you do it correctly and protect the priesthood. Verse 2. But also bring your relatives with you from the tribe of Levi, your ancestral tribe, so that they may join you and assist you and your sons in front of the tent of the testimony. So it makes it clear here that the Levites have a role here, an important role, incredibly important role, but it's to assist the priest, not take the place of the priests. Verse 3. They are to perform duties for you and for the whole tent. They must not come near the sanctuary equipment or the altar, otherwise both they and you will die. So this is serious. Both of 'em. If the Levites start taking on the duties of the priests, well, the Levites that do that and the priests that allow it are going to die. Verse 4. They are to join you and guard the tent of meeting, doing all the work at the tent, but no unauthorized person may come near you. So they, that's the Levites, they are to guard the tent of meeting. So they're to provide the guard service. Remember the encampment. You had the four camps. Each camp was three tribes of Israel around the four sides of the tabernacle. And then you have Moses and the priests camp on the east side, then the Kohatites on the south side, and the Yershonites on the west side, and then the Meriites on the north side. So the Levites camped around the outside of the courtyard of the tabernacle, outside the curtain that was went around the entire area. The priests were there at the entrance, and they're to guard the area. Verse 5 You are to guard the sanctuary and the altar, so the wrath may not fall on the Israelites again. So he said, Okay, outside the courtyard of the tabernacle, that's the area to be guarded by the Levites. But inside the courtyard, the tabernacle structure itself, the altars, those are to be guarded by the priests. Verse 6 Look, I have selected your fellow Levites from the Israelites as a gift for you, assigned by the Lord to work at the tent of meeting. So here he's saying the Levites are a gift for the priests. They are there to assist the priests, they're to do a lot of stuff outside of the tabernacle itself, and that's to be considered as a gift from God for the priests. But you and your sons will carry out your priestly responsibilities for everything concerning the altar and for what is inside the curtain, and you will do that work. I am giving you the work of the priesthood as a gift, but an unauthorized person who comes near the sanctuary will be put to death. So here he's saying the office of priesthood is a gift from God. So what's he mean here? Well, there's some good deals for being the priest. You're supported by the community. You get to be in an incredibly special position with respect to proximity to God. So it's an incredible good deal to be a priest, but it's also incredible responsibility. You do it wrong, you die. So the priesthood is a gift to Aaron's descendants. Verse 8. Then the Lord spoke to Aaron. So we say it again, the Lord speaking directly to Aaron. Look, I have put you in charge of the contributions brought to me. As for all the holy offerings of the Israelites, I have given them to you and your sons as a portion and a permanent statute. So all the gifts that are brought in to the tabernacle, the priests are the ones to handle that, deal with that. Verse 9. A portion of the holiest offerings kept from the fire will be yours. Every one of their offerings that they give me, whether the grain offering, sin offering, or guilt offering, will be most holy for you and your sons. You're to eat it as a most holy offering. Every male may eat it, it is to be holy to you. So we've seen this before, this uh holy versus most holy. In some places they were kind of used interchangeably, but here it does have some distinction. And this is some of the sacrifices that are brought. They are considered most holy. The grain offering, the sin offering, also known as purification offering, the guilt offering, also called the reparation offering. Those, the portions for the priests are considered most holy. In verse 10, every male may eat it. It is to be holy to you. So it's restricted to the priests themselves to be able to have these priestly portions of the offering. They are most holy. Verse 11. The contribution of their gifts also belongs to you. I have given all the Israelites' presentation offerings to you and your sons and daughters as a permanent statute. Every ceremonially clean person in your house may eat it. I'm giving you the best of the fresh oil, new wine, and grain which the Israelites give to the Lord as their first fruits. The first fruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to the Lord, belong to you. Every clean person in your house may eat them. Okay, so the big distinction here. But these specific sacrifices, the grain sacrifice, the sin sacrifice, the guilt sacrifice, there's a priest portion of that. And that is for the priests only. But then there's a bunch of other things that come in. One is the fellowship, also called the peace offering. The priestly portion there, the breast and the right thigh. That along with the first fruit offerings and the firstborn offerings, they can be consumed by the entire family of the priesthood. So there's a distinction there. So the most holy would be the grain offering, sin offering, guilt offering. And then these other things, they are holy, but they're not most holy. Still have to be ceremonially clean, and you have to be a member of the priest's family to consume those. So we had a big argument, and then God has made it clear who the priests are, and that the Levites are special. The Levites have been set apart by God to serve the Lord at the tabernacle. But the family of Aaron, his descendants, have been set aside to be the priests. And that was the whole issue with the rebellion of Korah. So the priestly office is a gift itself. The Levite help is a gift itself. And the support from the community is a gift from God, but via the offerings they bring. Because they have a dangerous job. Do it wrong, and you die. So I look at this, say, okay, this is all Old Testament way back stuff. What's this mean for us? Well, we see some principles here. We see the serious nature in which God considers worship. It's important stuff. And while we don't have the specific, strict, regimented way things are supposed to go with worship, we see it is important. And as we think about worship, our focus should be on what God desires. What does God find pleasurable, not what do we like and dislike? And also as we see the duties that the priest performs, it helps us to understand what Christ has accomplished as our high priest. And a big difference in now in that we have been given direct access to God versus the way it was back here in the book of Numbers. And that comes as Christ is our mediator. So if Christ is our mediator, do we still have to go through Him to have access to God? Well, hint there, read Hebrews 4, where he talks about because of Christ, we now can boldly approach the throne of grace. So we have been given direct access to God. Thanks for joining me. Join me again next time as we continue working through numbers.