Numbers 7:89: God's Presence in the Wanderings

"And when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with the LORD, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim; and it spoke to him." Numbers 7:89

Before I begin today's devotional, let me make two quick side notes. Firstly, I apologize for the lack of devotionals lately. It's not as feasible nor enjoyable to type these when you're sick. Furthermore, college doesn't stop when you're under the weather, but fortunately, blog posts can. Secondly, we just walked through the entire book of Leviticus and we didn't fully touch on why many of the Old Covenant laws are null and void. I would love to post a devotional on it, but frankly, it is a big topic that would take a lot of time to dive into. In short, there were three types of laws in the Old Testament, that is, civil, ceremonial, and moral. In Jesus' person and work, he fulfilled the civil and ceremonial laws, and we thus no longer have to follow them because their entire purpose was to point to Christ. However, the moral laws still stand. Once again, that is an extremely simple and surely uncomprehensive answer to the question, but it's all this college student has time for. If you're really interested in the topic, email me, and I can send some resources your way. Also, this video may help: How to Read the Bible: The Law

All of that being said, let's talk about the book of Numbers. Numbers is an interesting book in scripture, as it stands between the two great books of the law (Leviticus and Deuteronomy). Thus, it has a large legal component (which we find primarily in the first ten chapters), but also speaks of what happened to the Israelites as they were wandering in the wilderness towards the promised land. In summary, the book of Numbers speaks of God's covenant faithfulness in contrast to the Israelite's covenant unfaithfulness, which we will see. In other words, the Israelites keep messing up, but God keeps having mercy. What we will find in this book is perhaps some of the greatest pictures of grace in all of the Bible.

But before we get to all of that fun stuff, we encounter the first ten chapters of the book, which continue speaking of the Tabernacle, the Levites, and the legal obligations concerning both. Furthermore, in these chapters, we see the battle plan of how the Israelite camps were to be arranged and how they were to set out when they traveled (ch. 2). The big thing to note here is that that Tabernacle was in the center of it all. In other words, God's presence was what the lives of the Israelites were to be all about. After these instructions as well as a few others, the Lord requires the consecration of the Tabernacle in chapter 7, where we find many sacrifices being offered up by each tribe for the Tabernacle's consecration, after which we find this wonderful verse: "And when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with the LORD, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim; and it spoke to him" (Numbers 7:89).

Why is this verse so important? You may ask. Well, don't worry, I'm going to tell you, but first, let us note the context. We've literally just spent the past 40ish chapters of scripture looking at the Tabernacle and the Mosaic Covenant. In the past several chapters, God has both described the place in which his presence was to dwell among the people and how they ought to live in response to it. God would be their God, and the Israelites would be God's people, and the last 40ish chapters of scripture described what that looked like. However, after all of that, God comes and sits on the great mercy seat which is on the Ark of the Covenant that was in the Tabernacle. The Lord has delivered his people from slavery, then set up a covenant with them, and now comes to dwell with them now that they have consecrated themselves to him.

That's great, you say, but why the big deal about this one verse? Well, let us consider here how God is restoring his presence with his people. As we saw in the Garden of Eden, God was perfectly present with his people before the presence of sin. However, because of Adam and Eve's sin, they were cast out of the Garden, away from the presence of God. However, God's plan was not to end there. Therefore, he restarted his perfect plan with the man named Abraham, whose descendants would experience the amazing presence of God, and ultimately usher in the presence of God to all of God's people as they would bear the Messiah, who would usher the coming of the Holy Spirit. In other words, this verse in Numbers 7 isn't merely a verse about God's presence among his people; it's an evidence of God's gracious plan to redeem and restore his people to himself despite the effects of sin.

Thus, we ought to praise him for his mercy. He did not have to restore, he could have given us the wrath that we deserved. However, we serve a loving God who desires to dwell with his people. This is what we see in Numbers, yet it is also what we see in the person and work of Jesus Christ, as he goes out of his way to humble himself to come live among us, ultimately dying on a cross to pay the atonement needed that we may dwell in God's perfect presence forever in the new heavens and earth.