Dawn in the Desert - Part 1
- Bible Prophet
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship [Romans 12:1].
It is dawn in the camp of Israel out in the wilderness. The tent of meeting is prominently constructed in the center of the camp. The wall of curtains around the entire tabernacle worship structure sets apart this area from the day-to-day functions in the rest of the camp.
Around the outside of the wall of curtains are four camps:
1. the priests on the east
2. the Kohathite clan on the south
3. the Gershonite clan on the west
4. the Merarite clan on the north
Those four camps encompass the entire tribe of Levi. The Levites are camped in that location according to the precise instructions of the Lord. The Levites, you see, keep the other tribes of Israel from approaching the Lord’s ministry at the bronze altar and inside the tent. The Lord chose the tribe of Levi to be His priests and ministry servants. The other Israelites were excluded by the Lord.
And speaking of the bronze altar, it was located before the doorway to the tent of meeting. Its purpose was to provide an appropriate instrument for the blood offerings which the Israelites presented to the Lord. The priests alone could sprinkle the blood on the altar. The priests alone were permitted to enter the tent to minister inside. These were the Lord’s choices, and His alone.
Well, every morning and evening a whole burnt offering was offered up on the bronze altar. Those offerings were Old Testament types of the “living sacrifice” which the Apostle Paul made reference to in Romans 12:1.
But there was one significant difference to the whole burnt offerings of the Old Testament and the living sacrifices of the New. Allow me to portray a whole burnt offering, so that we may better understand this distinct difference.
Normally when an Israelite presented an offering to the Lord, he brought it to the priest at the bronze altar. He then laid his hands on the animal’s head to identify the animal as representing himself. Then the Israelite offerer slit the throat of his substitute sacrifice.
The animal, you see, represented the offerer. It died in his place. Even more, he killed himself vicariously, in acknowledgment that he is sinful and unable to approach the holy Lord. He deserved death for his sins, but he availed himself of this method of approaching the Lord, a method which the Lord Himself authorized.
In the case of the continual burnt offering which we are examining, an individual Israelite didn’t present it to the Lord. The morning and evening whole burnt offerings were on behalf of the entire congregation of Israel. So who was to lay hands on the offering and kill it then? Hmm. Now that’s a toughie.
We’ll stop and ponder the question a bit, as we sit with Jesus a while. Tomorrow we’ll share the answer. See you then.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Numbers: Volume 4 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please click on the "Shop" tab at the top of this page, where you will find a complete list of my books. Each book is available in both paperback (Createspace) and eBook (Kindle).
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