Numbers Without Numbers

Okay, so let's pray, and we will get started.

Heavenly Father, Almighty and Everlasting God, we come before you in humble awe.

You are the one true God, there is none other like you.

Come, we pray, and bless our hearts and minds as we study your word.

Send your Holy Spirit into our lives so that we may grow in love and grace, and that we may go forth into all the world, proclaiming your

gospel so that others may learn of your saving grace.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Okay, Bruce has promised to be good, so I'm assuming that there's no

major questions as it pertains to the sermon, but if one comes in, I

will entertain that.

But all of that being said, we're going to start our study of the book of Numbers today, and in studying the book of

Numbers, we're going to note that we will take the liberty to pass over the

tongue -twisting portions of the book of Numbers where it is

just a list of names or things to that effect.

We will note that they exist, and we...

The book of Numbers minus numbers.

There are narratives in the book of Numbers, Bruce.

So yeah, that's right.

We're going to do Numbers without the numbers, so it makes sense

to me.

That's all that matters.

Anyway, oh man, I'm all...

I'm verklempt here.

Anyway, Numbers chapter one, we'll kind of...

We will work our way through this chapter, and we'll kind of dive into this a little bit.

Now, the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the tent of meeting on the first day of the second

month.

So a little bit of a note, as we get into the book of Numbers, Israel is still

camping at the foot of Mount Sinai, which, by the way, is in Saudi Arabia.

It's not in Egypt.

And in camping at the foot of Sinai, they've received the Ten Commandments.

They've received a large portion of really the Mosaic Covenant, its rules and regulations.

Moses has said about the job of actually starting to write down the first five books of the Bible.

Now, Deuteronomy means second law, and when we

get to the book of Deuteronomy, we'll note that the tone changes, and Deuteronomy is a

restating of much of what we heard in Leviticus, but there's also additions to it when you get to the book of

Deuteronomy, which is very fascinating.

And so they haven't left yet, and when they do, I'm going to kind of prepare your mind for this,

when we get to the narrative where Israel will pull up their camp and begin to

leave the base of Mount Sinai in order to head towards the Promised Land, a very fascinating

thing happens, and that is, I'll kind of prepare you for it now, the

fellow who is the next in line in

the lineage of the Messiah, he is going to be at the head of Israel

as they pull up stakes and head out towards the Promised Land.

It's a very fascinating thing when you consider that, and you sit there and go, how is it

that modern -day Jews deny that Jesus is the Messiah when you read stuff like that?

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

So the Lord told them, take a census of all the congregation of the

people of Israel by clans, by fathers, houses, according to the numbers of names,

every male head by head.

And yeah, you're going to note here, patriarchy, oh I know, I know, the female,

gender -fluid, anti -patriarchy, SJW types, you're going to lose their minds with passages like this.

Anyway, so from 20 years old and upward in all of Israel, in all of Israel who are able to go to

war, you and Aaron shall list them company by company, and there shall be with you a man from

each tribe, each man being the head of the house of his fathers.

And these are the names of the men who shall assist you, from Reuben Eliezer, the son of Shadur, from

Simeon, Shallumiel, and you kind of get the idea.

I'm not going to go through this whole list.

It really is a verbal gymnastics, even for somebody who knows Hebrew.

It's not easy.

And of course, we're dealing with English transliterations anyway, which makes it, I think, just a little bit more

complicated.

But you get the idea.

So he lists all the heads of the clans.

Notice these are all males' names.

These were the ones chosen from the congregation, the chiefs of the ancestral tribes, the heads of the clans of

Israel, and they were the ones listed because God said, I want those guys.

And that's how he's ordered his creation, that the man is the head of the household.

So Moses and Aaron took these men who had been named, and on the first day of the second month, they assembled the whole congregation

together, who registered themselves by clans, by fathers' houses, according to the numbers of the names,

from 20 years old and upward, head by head, as Yahweh commanded Moses.

So he listed them in the wilderness of Sinai.

The people of Reuben, Israel's firstborn, their generations by their clans, by their fathers' houses, according to the

number of the names, head by head, every male from 20 years old and upward, all who were able to go to war,

those listed by the tribe of Reuben were 46 ,500.

Now I'm not going to give you all of the

pleasantries regarding the listing of each clan.

We'll just note that from Simeon then there were 59 ,300.

From Gad there were 45 ,650.

Judah and their generation, 74 ,600.

From Issachar there were 54 ,400.

Zebulun, 57 ,400.

From Ephraim, let's see here, now this is where it gets interesting.

I always point this out because it's a fascinating note here, that when we look at the tribes of Israel, Joseph,

because he technically died and rose again, it's kind of weird how that works.

Joseph is not a clan, although the book of Revelation does list him as one, which is

weird because it's an outlier.

So Joseph's sons, Ephraim and Manasseh,

they will be split into two half -tribes.

So I always like to point out that there are 12 tribes of Israel, but there are 13 names.

I always like to point out then when it comes to the Apostles, there are 12

Apostles but 13 names that are kind of primary.

The Apostle Paul kind of being the outlier.

But he's from Benjamin, but that's a different story altogether.

But I always like to kind of make that comparison.

So you get a dozen, but you get 13.

Weird how that works.

And so kind of the same thing going on here.

Joseph, so he's split into two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh.

From Ephraim there are 40 ,500.

From Manasseh, 32 ,200.

Benjamin, there were 35 ,400.

Dan, 62 ,700.

Asher, 41 ,500.

Naphtali, there were 53 ,400.

And these are all those who are listed whom Moses and Aaron listed with the help of the chiefs of Israel.

Now a little bit of a note, you're sitting there going, why is such a boring thing important?

I'm glad you asked the question, by the way, because you'll note that the devil is always in the details, or I'd

like to say in this particular case, God is in the details.

So what oftentimes happens with scoffing, unbelieving

liberalism that should not be tolerated in the Church, but often not only is tolerated, it becomes

a predominant thing in the Church, is that they would like to say that, well, you take a look at the

book of Numbers, well, there's miraculous things that happen in the book of Numbers.

You know, like the people of Israel were bit by desert adders and they

lived by looking at a bronze serpent.

Well, that can't really happen.

Miracles are not possible.

So what really we have in the book of Numbers is legendary material.

This isn't historical narrative.

This is something other than that.

And then I just point out, well, take a look at that first chapter of Numbers, man.

That doesn't read like legend or myth.

It reads like historical narrative to me because, I mean, we got all these details

about exactly how many clans and men were able to go

to war who were above the age of 20 and all this kind of stuff.

And then, of course, they'll turn around and say, well, if you look at the final number then, you know, like look at the

verse 46, the final number of those males who are able to go to war who

were 20 years old or above in Israel were 603 ,500

and 50.

When you count up then wives and daughters and children who are under the age, we're talking

there's more than a million people camping at the base of Mount Sinai.

That can't really be true.

How could they survive out in the wilderness?

There's no crops, there's no nothing.

And so they'll sit there and go, this can't be historical narrative.

And you sit there and go, well, it reads like a historical narrative.

When did it switch to legend or myth?

Well, miracles are not possible, to which I say, how do you know that?

Who told you this, you know?

And so you'll note that the text itself screams at us what

genre of literature this is.

This is historical narrative.

Legends and myths don't have this kind of detail in it because the purpose of legends and myths is

not to recall historical events.

And so it's these types of really boring, dry, gravelly, high

-detailed Excel spreadsheet kind of passages that just completely

debunk the idea that the Bible, when it contains miracles and things like this, this is

legend or myth.

Legend and myth doesn't read like this, all right?

You want to know what legend and myth reads like?

Well, it's kind of like the Star Wars movies, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

This is where this took place, in the misty sands of time back in

ancient Arabia.

You know, you think of the Sinbad things and stuff like that, right?

Yeah, but this doesn't read anything like that at all.

And so passages like this, as boring as they may seem, I mean,

I must be blunt, I got to pick on Dwayne while he's here, that, you know, Dwayne,

I always like to say he has the spiritual gift of Excel spreadsheets, and boy does he.

You know, I'm just saying, I mean, if you've ever seen the, you know, when he puts

together the minutes for our meetings, it's clearly done on an extremely elaborate Excel

spreadsheet, you know.

And see, Dwayne, are you here to defend yourself or just affirm what I'm saying?

I'm recording this.

So am I.

But I would note that this chapter, this opening chapter, just has Dwayne Levin

written all over it to me, you know?

I could see you putting something together.

Numbers chapter one, let's take a look at how this all works, and let's check the math, and I could just see it.

And this is a good thing, not a bad thing.

So we note then that when you get to a passage like this, don't just discount it.

It's, you know, God inspired and had Moses write these things down for our

benefit, and it's texts like this that provide us some of the necessary

artillery that we need in order to fight against those who would try to tell us, oh, the Bible is

just myth, it's just legend, it's like Aesop's fables.

Jesus didn't really rise from the dead, he didn't really walk on the water, Moses didn't really part the Red Sea, none of this

stuff really, really, really happened.

Well, how do you know?

Well, it's just legend, it's just myth.

Well, it reads like historical narrative to me.

At what point did it cease being historical narrative and turn into legend and myth?

You see, you get the idea.

So these little bits in here are quite helpful in helping us defend the

faith and to know that what's recorded for us in Scripture really happened.

Oh, and by the way, you always like to point out this thorny little thing, and that is that

Jesus, you know, the Son of God in human flesh, he was

a six -day creationist.

He really was.

And Jesus affirmed the miracles of the Old Testament, including the flood,

and the miracle in the book of Numbers regarding the bronze serpent.

Yeah, he affirms all these things.

And I remember years and years ago, when the emergent church was still a thing.

It's not a thing anymore.

They've taken the seeds of their weeds and blown them all over the church and then

disappeared as a thing.

But back in the day, Tony Jones and I went toe -to -toe a few times on social media, and he

was making the claim that we as Christians, we need to embrace evolution and we need to embrace

all this kind of stuff.

So on social media, I challenged him, I said, well, Jesus believed in the six -day creation.

Why are you smarter than him?

How is that possible?

And his response was, well, if Jesus had been born and raised in our modern world,

he would have been an evolutionist.

Really?

You think so?

Uh -huh.

And I said, you are aware he is an eyewitness to the creation, right?

He was the one who said, let there be light, and there was light.

And oh, he got so mad.

He got so mad he blocked me after that, which I considered to be glorious, but that's a whole other story.

So chapter 1, verse 47, then, the Levites, then, were not listed along with them by

their ancestral tribes.

So Levi is excluded from this particular portion of the census.

For Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, only the tribe of Levi you shall not list, and you shall not take a census of them among the

people of Israel.

But appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony and over all of its furnishings, all

that belongs to it.

They are to carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings, and they shall take care of it, and

shall camp around the tabernacle.

So they are excluded from the listing of people who can go to war.

They're excluded from this particular census, and we'll see this as Israel gets ready to start to

strike the camp and start to head towards the Promised Land, that when it comes

to the tribes of Levi, the clans of Levi, different clans will be

given the duties of carrying different parts of the tabernacle.

Some will have to do the furnishings, some will carry the tabernacle itself, and so

they're split up by three primary clans as to what their responsibilities are when it comes

to carrying the tabernacle and all of the things that are in it.

And remember, in the wilderness God now has established what true worship of

Him looks like and how it's to be done, and He will also

punish, how should we say, innovative worship that He has not authorized.

We'll talk about that when the time comes as well.

So when the tabernacle is to set out, the Levites shall take it down.

When the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up.

If any outsider comes near, he shall be put to death.

The people of Israel shall pitch their tents by their companies, each man in his own camp and each man by his own

standard.

But the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, so that there may be no

wrath on the congregation of the people of Israel, and the Levites shall keep guard over the tabernacle of the

testimony.

Thus did the people of Israel, they did according to all that Yahweh commanded Moses.".

Now note, the Levites are there to guard the tabernacle, and the

person who is an outsider, one of the goyim, you know, somebody who's not

a believing Israelite, is not permitted to come near to the tabernacle.

And on pain of death, he shall be put...so any outsider who comes,

that he shall be put to death.

That's kind of an interesting thing.

And we'll note that this practice then will continue even when Solomon's temple

is built, and then later when Herod's temple is built, you know, kind of the renewal

of the temple under Herod's building project, that we have signs.

This is kind of an interesting thing.

We have, as physical artifacts of the ancient world of the first

century, we have existing signs that were posted around the temple

warning that if any Gentiles should enter past this particular point, that they would be put to death.

That's part of the artifacts we have of the ancient world that exists to this day.

And so we'll note that this is congruent with the

archaeological evidence that exists even now.

All right.

So then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, the people of Israel shall camp each by his own standard, with the

banners of their fathers' houses.

They shall camp facing the tent of meeting on every side.

So you'll note all eyes are inward towards the center of the camp,

has the tabernacle.

So everybody camps with their tent door facing

the tabernacle.

Those to camp on the east side towards the sunrise shall be of the standard of the camp of Judah.

And I love this.

It's kind of in the types and shadows.

You'll note that Judah, wherever they camp, the tabernacle's

in the center of the camp.

Judah is going to be towards the east side toward the sunrise.

It's like, you got to be kidding me, right?

You'll note that we even in our burial practices today, we

bury people in such a way that when Jesus returns, they

will be facing Jerusalem.

They will be facing towards the east.

And so this practice is done today.

Whenever we bury somebody, they're always buried with their feet towards the east.

So when they come up out of the grave, they're facing Jerusalem.

So it's kind of a fascinating thing how that plays out.

So as the camp of Israel then is set up, Judah is on the east toward the sunrise.

I wonder why.

Could it be that out of Judah will come the Messiah?

The sunrise of the day itself when Christ returns in

glory to judge the living and the dead.

There's prophetic implications.

There's types and shadows here, even in how Israel is set up in

their camps.

All right.

So there's the sunrise by their companies.

The chief of the people of Judah being Nashon, the son of Amminadab.

Now, that sounds like a familiar name.

Let me do a little bit of work here.

Let me see here.

I'm in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 1, and I want to see what I can...

Ah, there he is.

All right.

So in Matthew chapter 1, Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob.

You'll know that Matthew's genealogy kind of picks up from Abraham,

but doesn't go all the way back to Adam in that sense.

So Abraham the father of Isaac, Jacob the father of Judah, Judah and his brothers, Judah the father of Perez

and Zerah by Tamar.

So Matthew notes that Tamar is the mother of Perez, Perez the father of Hezron,

Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of, there he is,

Nashon.

And watch this, and this will be an important bit as we get later into this.

So Nashon is the father then of Salmon.

So as we get to this part in the Book of Numbers, Nashon is the head of the tribes of

Judah, his son, his first son being Salmon, and Salmon

is the father of Boaz, and who's Boaz's mother?

By Rahab.

That's right, Rahab the prostitute of Jericho.

So I always like to point this out because this is just amazing when you consider the implications.

So when we will finally get to the fall of Jericho, when we get to the Book of Joshua, important to note, Jericho

is, the fall of Jericho is a type and shadow of Christ's return in

glory.

It's a type and shadow of the Day of Judgment.

And the only people who survive are the ones who have the scarlet cord

outside of their home, and that happens to be the home of Rahab the prostitute.

And first order of business after the fall of Jericho is that

Salmon, who is the next in line of the Messiah, he's the son of Nashon,

he ends up marrying Rahab.

So Rahab is a type and shadow of the Bride of Christ.

And you're sitting there going, are you saying the Bride of Christ started off as a, well,

a sex worker?

Yeah, spiritually that's how that works out.

We were all dead in trespasses and sin, soiled in sin.

And idolatry throughout the Old Testament is likened to sexual immorality.

So you'll note then that here you have this beautiful picture that the one, Salmon, who is

the direct descendant of Christ, he marries Rahab the prostitute and becomes the father of Boaz.

So I mean, this is important stuff going on here.

So although we're skimming through the details, the details are quite important as we work

our way through the book of Numbers.

So here we got Nashon then is the head, and he is the son of Aminadab.

His company is listed as being 74 ,600.

Those to camp next to him shall be the tribe of Issachar, the chief of the people of Issachar being

Nethanel, the son of Zohar.

His company listed as 54 ,400.

And so you kind of get the idea.

So what God is going to do then, you're going to note then the way the camp of Israel is set up, and

this is just really easy to kind of demonstrate, you have in the center of the camp,

you have the Tent of Meeting, which is the tabernacle.

To the east, you have Judah and Issachar and

Zebulun.

And then you'll note then that the way God set up the camp then is that the tribes are

divided by compass points.

That's to the south then you get Reuben and their companies, right?

And then as well, let's see here, Simeon and Gad are to the south,

and Reuben, those are to the south.

The Tent of Meeting shall, okay, set up with the camp.

On the west side then shall be the standard of Ephraim, their companies, and

as well as Manasseh, and the tribe of Benjamin, and all those

listed, the camp of Ephraim, those are on the west side.

And then on the north shall be the standard of the camp of Dan, as

well as Asher and Naphtali, and you get the idea here.

So if you were to set up then the camp of Israel, just do this in your mind, you can kind of work this out.

You got the center, all right, and you got tribes to the west, tribes

to the south, tribes to the east, tribes to the north.

What geometric shape is created in your mind when you

stretch out the tribes according to compass points with the tabernacle in the middle?

And if you're thinking, well, that sounds a lot like a cross, you got it.

So you'll note then that here in the desert, in the

wilderness, God has organized the tribes of Israel that when they

camp, they are camping according to tribes and they're set at different compass points.

West towards the sunrise, Judah, most important.

West and south, east and north, and when you're so if you were to take a drone, fly a

drone over the camp of Israel, get above it high enough that you can see all the whole camp,

you'd sit there and go, that camp mysteriously looks like a cross to me.

That's kind of the point.

All these little details just kind of mess everything up.

You're sitting there going, there's a cross right in the middle of the wilderness in the book of numbers, and

it's made by the people of Israel based on how they're camping.

Now you got it.

I always like to point that out because none of these details are throwaway details.

They're all so fascinating when you consider the implications of it.

Numbers 232 then.

So these are the people of Israel as listed by their father's houses.

All those listed in the camps by their companies were 603 ,550, but the Levites were not listed

among the people of Israel as Yahweh commanded Moses.

Thus did the people of Israel according to all that the Lord commanded Moses.

So they camped by their standards, and so they set out each one in his clan according to his

father's house.

Now this next part, let me see here.

I'll keep reading until we get to something a little verbally gymnastic, but that's okay.

So these are the generations of Aaron and Moses at the time when Yahweh spoke with Moses on Mount

Sinai.

These are the names of the sons of Aaron.

Nadab, the firstborn, Abihu, Eliezer, Ithamar.

These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the anointed priests whom he ordained to serve as priests.

But Nadab and Abihu died before the Lord when they offered unauthorized fire before Yahweh in the

wilderness of Sinai.

So once God has established how worship is to work, innovation

was punished by death.

Basically God says, this is authorized, this is not, you've got to follow.

I get to pick how you worship me, you don't get to pick how you worship me.

And so Nadab and Abihu got all innovative in their worship practices,

and they died as a result of it.

Now the Lord spoke to Moses saying, bring the tribe of Levi near, set them before Aaron the priest so

that they may minister to him.

They shall keep guard over him and over the whole congregation before the tent of meeting.

As they minister at the tabernacle, they shall guard all the furnishings of the tent of meeting, keep guard over the people of

Israel as they minister at the tabernacle.

And you shall give the Levites to Aaron and his sons, and they are wholly given to him from among the people of Israel.

And you shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall guard their priesthood.

But if any outsider comes near, he shall be put to death.

And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the people of Israel instead of

every firstborn.

Now this is kind of an important bit of information here.

So you know, Levites are not counted.

Why?

Answer.

It has something to do with the Passover.

Now if you remember when the Passover occurred, the way that final

curse worked is that the destroyer was going to go through Egypt

and every firstborn of animal

and human, you know, human and beast was going to die unless,

unless the blood of the Passover lamb was on the door lintels of the

house.

So the destroyer would go house by house through all of Egypt.

And anybody who didn't have the blood of the lamb on the door, the destroyer went in and killed the firstborn.

And so you'll note there was a substitute for the firstborn.

The firstborn substitute was a spotless lamb.

Got it?

And so note then that God's going to come back to this concept then, and basically note that

this firstborn idea still continues on

in memoriam, and this then impacts how they understand,

you know, how the tribes work, how they're numbered, and things like this.

So the idea is the firstborn belongs to God, and so watch how this works out.

So Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the people of Israel instead of every firstborn

who opens the womb among the people of Israel.

The Levites shall be mine.

So they are taken instead of the firstborn.

For all the firstborn are mine.

On the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I consecrated for my own all

the firstborn in Israel, both of man and of beast, they shall be mine.

So it kind of starts off then with this idea.

All the firstborn belong to God, period, and then what ends up happening

here, and you'll see this, is that the general firstborn across all the tribes then

have to come up with the redemption price for them to be exchanged

for Levites.

It's kind of weird how this all plays out, but you kind of see this.

So Yahweh spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai saying, list the sons of Levi by fathers, houses, and by clans.

Every male from a month old and upward you shall list.

So Moses listed them according to the word of Yahweh as he was commanded, and these were the sons of Levi by their names,

Gershon and Kohath and Merari.

So these are your primary tribes, clans within Levi, Gershon, Kohath, and

Merari.

These are the names of the sons of Gershon by their clans, Libni and Shimei, the sons of Kohath by

their clans, Amron, Izhar, Hebron, and Uziel, and the sons of Merari by their clans,

Mahli, Mushi, and these are the names of the Levites by their fathers' houses.

So to Gershon belonged the clan of the Libnites, the clan of the Shimeites, and these were

the clans of the Gershonites.

They're listing according to the number of all the males from a month old and upward was 7 ,500.

The clans of the Gershonites were to camp behind the tabernacle on the west, all right?

So this is their allotment and where they are to camp

with Eliasaph, the son of Lael, as chief of the fathers' houses of the Gershonites.

And the guard duty of the sons of Gershon in the tent of meeting involved the tabernacle, the tent with its covering, the

screen for the entrance of the tent of meeting, the hangings of the court, the screen for the door of the court that is

around the tabernacle, and the altar and its cords, all the service connected with these.

So the Gershonites were responsible then when it came to strike the camp and to move, they were the ones responsible

for those particular portions of the tabernacle to move them.

Now Kohath, which is another primary clan within Levi, to Kohath

belonged the clan of the Amramites, the clan of the Isharites, the clan of the Hebronites, and

the clan of the Uzielites.

These are the clans of the Kohathites.

According to the number of the males from a month old and upward, there were 8 ,600 keeping guard

over the sanctuary.

The clans of the sons of Kohath were to camp on the south side of the tabernacle with

Eleziphon, the son of Uziel, as the chief of the fathers of the house of the clans of the Kohathites.

Okay, so they're on the south end of the tabernacle.

Their guard duty involved the ark, the table, the lampstand, the altars, the vessels of

the sanctuary with which the priests minister, the screen, and all the service connected with these.

And Eleazar, the son of Aaron, was to be chief over the chiefs of the Levites and have

oversight of these who kept guard over the sanctuary.

To Merari belonged the clan of the Mahlites and the clan of the Mushites.

These are the clans of Merari.

They're listing according to the number of all the males from a month old and upward was 6 ,200.

And the chief of the fathers of the houses of the clans of Merari was Zuriel, the son of

Abihael.

These were to camp on the north side of the tabernacle.

And appointment guard duty of the sons of Merari involved the frames of the tabernacles, the

bars, the pillars, the bases, and their accessories, all the service connected with these, also

the pillars around the court with their bases and their pegs and the courts.

So you can see how the distribution of labor works, as well as the distribution of guard duty regarding

these implements.

Those who were to camp before the tabernacle on the east, before the tent of meeting toward the sunrise, were

Moses and Aaron and his sons.

So Moses and Aaron and his sons, they get to be on the same side as Judah.

It's fascinating when you consider all this.

Again, towards the sunrise.

I wonder what that's referring to.

Yeah, we got that.

So, all right, and they shall protect the people of Israel.

Any outsider who came near was to be put to death.

All those listed among the Levites whom Moses and Aaron listed at the commandment of the Lord by

clans, all the males from a month old and upward were 22 ,000 even.

And Yahweh said to Moses, list all the firstborn males of the people of Israel from a month old and upward, taking the number of

their names, and you shall take the Levites for me, I am Yahweh, instead of all the firstborn among the people of

Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the cattle of the people of Israel.

So Moses listed all the firstborn among the people of Israel as Yahweh commanded him, and all the firstborn males

according to the number of the names from a month old and upward, as

listed, were 22 ,273.

As Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the people of Israel, and the cattle

of the Levites instead of their cattle, the Levites shall be mine, I am Yahweh, and as the redemption price

for the 273 of the firstborn of the people of Israel, over and above the number of the male

Levites, you shall take five shekels per head.

So note here, God now is taking the firstborn of Israel in general from

all the clans, doing the census and finding that there was an excess of

273 Levite males, or not an excess, but

probably a minus, but to work out a redemption price for the

difference then, it's five shekels per head, you shall take them according to the shekel of the sanctuary.

Oh, and by the way, a shekel of 20 geras, if you were wondering what a shekel is, it's 20 geras.

I know that's really helpful.

I always like pointing that out.

And so you give the money to Aaron and his sons as a redemption price for those who are over, so Moses took the redemption money

from those who were over and above those redeemed by the Levites, from the firstborn of the people of Israel, he took the

money, 1 ,365 shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary, so now we have an even

exchange for all the firstborn, and Moses gave the redemption money to Aaron and his sons according to the word

of Yahweh, as Yahweh commanded Moses.

All right, we did three chapters at light speed, but that's where we're going to end today,

because we're not going to get into the next part until next week.

But thus begins our journey through the book of Numbers.

Again, God is in the details, and the details are actually fascinating and wonderful when you consider it, and we

understand now what we've done.

Considering the pace we're going at, I think Duane should be happy that we're working through Numbers a little quicker than we were working through

the book of Leviticus.

It's mind -blowing.

Thank you.

Thank you for that, Duane.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So I'm going to say goodbye to everybody.

Bruce says, amazing what my mute button can accomplish.

Indeed, indeed.

All right, peace to you, brothers and sisters.

Stay safe.

Don't go outside and travel until you can, and we'll pray for

our part of the world that we can shovel out of this sometime soon, but I'm looking at the forecast.

It's going to keep snowing until sometime tomorrow morning, so peace to you, brothers and sisters.

We will hopefully see you next year.