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Articles, Bible studies, and sermons that contain Numbers 8:18:
Numbers 8:18-19
Excerpted from: Matthew (Part Thirty)The ministry today is set apart by God to serve Christ. That is our primary function. Now, we also serve you, but we do it because of Christ; because we have been given to Christ to carry out functions that He is not here to do. Christ is our High Priest, and even as the Levites were a gift to Aaron, so is the ministry a gift to Christ to carry out functions in behalf of you.
I think it is interesting there. It says that the work of the Levites would be that there would be no plague among the children of Israel, when the children of Israel come near to the sanctuary. It became very clear that the Levites responsibility actually divided into three areas. One was the care of the Tabernacle itself—the building that includes its transportation, keeping it clean, keeping it maintained. The second function was that they were the singers in Israel, and instrumentalists and therefore they had a direct and active part in the worship services of Israel. And the third and by far most important overall function was that they taught the people; they were the teachers in Israel; they taught spiritual matters, religious matters, and the way of life. Their functions even included secular education as well.
The reason, of course, is given in a general statement that there be no plague among the children of Israel—to keep the people from sinning, because the result of sin was to be plagued. And so the Levites responsibility was to teach in order that the people had the knowledge necessary to properly conduct their lives and therefore keep from sin, and therefore keep from plague.
Numbers 8:14-19
Excerpted from: Wilderness Wandering (Part 2)Let me explain what happened here. Everyone knows that the Levitical priesthood was established to offer sacrifices, but how many of you know that they were living sacrifices, separated to the work of God, and as such they became forerunners of you and me. The wave offering given in this ceremony was of themselves. Symbolically and figuratively, they were sacrificing themselves, and when hands were laid on the sacrificed animals, the animals then represented them.
In other words, the Levites, who were offering themselves here to the direction of Aaron, laid their hands on the animals that were actually sacrificed, and when they laid their hands on the animals, those animals figuratively became them, and then those animals were actually sacrificed, but the priest remained alive. The emphasis in the Old Testament sacrifices was not on the death of the animal, but the giving of a life—a life lived. Now where do you think Paul got the expression telling us to be living sacrifices? That is where he got it. Right there.
Numbers 8:15-19
Excerpted from: Wilderness Wandering (Part 3)The Levites were separated out of Israel by means of being used as a living sacrifice. They were not actually sacrificed, but symbolically they were, and they were to give their lives, their body, in service to God. They were to replace the firstborn of all the tribes in a family responsibility that the firstborn formerly held. Verse 19 then becomes important. "And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron." Aaron was the high priest, and the Levites' full time job then was to assist Aaron in the operation of the Tabernacle. Now this foreshadows something far more important that occurs much later.
Numbers 8:14-22
Excerpted from: The Priesthood of God (Part 2)I think you are seeing that God was pretty insistent about these people being attached to the high priest and to Him. This was no minor responsibility.
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