Hey everybody, welcome to Monday's edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. What's up folks? Happy Monday. It is Monday. Yeah. It's also the last week, officially, of us in the Bible. Our first office is here. Oh, thank the Lord. Right. The Lord. This has been great though. It's been great. I was thinking about this two days ago and I was wondering, and are we going to miss this? It's really tight in here. Calling it a shoe box is gratuitous. And unhelpful. It's an insult to shoe box. Right? This place is tight, but looking at our, our new office location and the spacing between us, we're not going to have the same interaction unless we do something about it, because we have to be intentional because here you can't bump into somebody. You can't help it bump into somebody even after sneezing, right? Oh, you hit somebody cause you sneeze and you just move your body too quickly. But in this new place, the hallways long and kind of dark. And I'm just afraid that people might forget that we work together. Yeah. You make this new place sound so bad. It's not bad. It's wonderful. It's an upgrade. It's, it's, it's great all the way. It's just that this is, this is nice. We have attic space even so we can attic. If somebody annoys us in the office, we could vote them and go to the attic. Yeah. I mean, I do appreciate that. I do like that you get the attic this week. We can store stuff in the attic and not a lot, but I mean, there's, there's, I walked in that area and there's lots of space up there. I'm not sure how hot or cold it gets. I didn't think about that for like the two weeks out of the year that it's just beautiful. We can just put somebody up anything we want for two weeks of the year. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm excited about it, but I think I'm going to miss how tight and how close we feel here because we're not going to get this again. Yeah. I mean, this, this is certainly going to carry the nostalgia for us of being like, this is where we started. This is where we got going and everything else. Yeah. This is Steve jobs garage. There it is. Yep. Yep. Yeah, if you're wondering, Hey, where are they moving? If you know where Andy's frozen custard is off of Preston road, there in prosper, there's an office complex right behind that off of, I think that's what Prosper trail that cuts behind there. I don't think so. Is it first? First. So first that cuts behind Andy's there and there's offices back there. We're just back in there. So it's, it's almost directly across the street from where we're at right now, but it affords us more space. We're able to have a conference room and a break room and gets Mark out of the break room, gives him an office without a refrigerator and a a. Microwave in there. So I don't know. I think we should keep it in there. Well, he said he doesn't mind. He says that repeatedly. I think it's time to test him. Yes. Let your yes be yes. And you're nobody. No Mark. We'll see. We'll see whether you want it in there. No, it should be great. So we're, we're excited about that. And it's just a, it's exciting too, because it's a sign that God is doing great things. He's, he's growing the church. He's building his church here. And, and he's added to our team and those additions have been super helpful and, and we're just excited. I like Mark. Yeah, I was thinking, you know, mark and Ally and I like them. Louis Ali Kelly. Yeah. You were added to the team recently. Yeah, I was. I was at some point I was added to the team. Don't like having you around Alright, let's jump into numbers three and four. Numbers three, we we have the sons of Aaron first and then the duties of the Levites. So you might be looking at this going, wait a minute. I thought the Levitical priesthood descended from Aaron wasn't Aaron and also Moses for that matter, part of the tribe of Levi. So why are the sons of Aaron? Different and the reason being at this time that the sons of Aaron are the priestly class and the priestly class is different from The levitical class the levites were there to serve in the tabernacle But their role was different than the priest the priests were the ones that were the mediators between god and man at this time The priests were the ones that were offering the sacrifices that were doing the things that we often associate with The tabernacle or temple worship and so they were distinct from the levites. That's why there's A separate section here dealing with the sons of Aaron. And then we get into the duties of the Levites because there is that distinction there. The Aaronic priesthood is what we're describing. Exactly. And it's kind of, I don't know how much you can draw the parallel, but a pastor and a deacon, the priests were something like the pastors. Levites were like the deacons, right? They were in charge of moving things and taking care of the tabernacle, supporting the priest's ministry as it were. And. Even though it's not quite the same. That's kind of the idea. The distinction is priests and Levites. They work together. They're not the same people. The Aaronic priesthood under Aaron, but through his sons, is who was meant to govern and lead in that particular ministry. Now, did that stay the same for all of Israel's history? What happened? Or should we even, is this not the best time to talk about that? Probably later on. Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't stay the same. The Aaronic priesthood is not, is not consistent. In fact, there's lots of gaps in it. We don't know who the high priest is every time someone transitions office. You might think, well, United States, the president, we always know who the next president was and who the next one is. That's not the case with the high priest, even though he's super important here. Now we don't have an unbroken record of who succeeded, who, which is interesting. And when you get to the new Testament times, there's even some confusion there about who the high priest is, because they just kind of use a term. If you, it's like, when we talk about a president, a former president, so and so former president Biden. In, in, in New Testament times, the high priest was just still called the high priest. You have Caiaphas. You have Annas. You have a couple of people that are listed there. So anyway, high priests and the priests pastors, which is, is even an, and I find this is, is a unique. Conversation to have with Jewish people today who are are religious still in in that is There's no way for them to recover the the tribal lineage of anybody at this point No, like nobody in israel right now knows if they're of the tribe of judah unless they use 23andme And which like myself, we can identify. I don't think that that gets back to the 12 tribes. Well, I don't think it goes that close enough, but you think about the, like, there's a whole temple Institute in Jerusalem right now. That's ready for the, the, the temple. When the temple is rebuilt, they've already got everything. They've got the, the table made. They've got the menorahs made. They've got everything ready to go into the temple. But the question is who's going to serve as priests. You don't know who the levites are. You don't know who the the high priest is going to be and then on top of that they're still expecting a davidic messiah But you don't know who is of the the line of david anymore. There's no way to trace that back And so they're expecting The fulfillment of things that we're pointing back to going it's already been fulfilled And by the way, the things that you would measure to fulfill those those don't even exist anymore. So Yeah. That is an interesting question. I wonder how they're going to approach that. I'd be curious to see if and when that takes place, how they approach that, that question. My guess is that they're, they're assuming God's going to provide. The direction on that. Good luck with that. Yeah, that has nothing to do with number chapter three. I guess it does by it's related. It's, it's a, it's a flank who the high priest is who the Levites are fair here. It really matters because these are the people got appointed to have certain work and roles within the church. Religious practice of Israel, right? Well, you'll remember if if you, you've been with us for this year that in the book of Exodus, we were reading about the death of the firstborn and how God after that said, Hey, all of the firstborn of the Israelites are going to be mine and all of the firstborn of the animals. They're going to be mine. And there were, it was a sacrifice, the sacrificial offering that was set up to, to substitute for the firstborn. So that the, the firstborn wouldn't actually have to be killed. Given over to the Lord, but now in number chapter three, God's going to install the Levites as the substitutes that God is going to say, rather than requiring the firstborn from all of the nation of Israel into perpetuity. Instead, what I'm going to do is I'm going to require the Levites, the Levites are going to take the place. They will serve me in exchange for the role of the firstborn of everybody else. And so that's what we find here in chapter three is God's laying that out. And that's where we get into this idea of the firstborn, which again, leads us to the question of the numbers. So numbers three 43, if you look at numbers, chapter three, verse 43, it says all the firstborn males, according to the number of names from a month old and upward as listed were 22, 273. So here's what we have to ask ourselves. If that's the total number of firstborn in Israel at this time, then the population would be far less than the nearly 2 million or so that we talked about in yesterday's episode. If the total number of firstborn is only 22, 000 or so, then the total population is going to be far less. But the alternative is if this is the number of firstborns since they left Egypt that have been born just in the two years since they left Egypt, because we're two years out from this, then that would imply the much larger number. And so again, we can't draw from conclusions from this because it could go either way. But that's the point. Again, it could go either way on this. Chapter four, then we get into some of the duties of the Levites, right? so The, the Levites were going to serve the priest. They were going to serve the people and they were going to have a lot of responsibilities when it came to the tabernacle. And so he, God does rather assigns the duties of the Levites here, and he breaks them down into three classes. Here are three families specifically here, the Kohathites, the Gershonites, and the Merorite. The Kohathites were to carry the furniture of the tabernacle, including the ark and the table and the lampstand, but it's worth noting here. They weren't allowed to go in to the Holy of Holies and just grab the ark and take it out. The priests first had to go in and cover it and cover it in the animal skins and everything else. And then the Levites could come in and take that out. But that was the Coethites, the Gershonites, they had charge over all the curtains and the veils, all the temple hangings, the things that separated space from space, the Gershonites were going to take those. And then finally you had the Mararites and they had the task of transporting the structure and the basis, which leads me to conclude that the Mararites probably were the jacked. Cause those, those silver bases were no light load. Like those things were massive. I would think all of these things, because how much did the, the, the temple furniture way? Yeah. It was solid wood and then it was covered with gold. Some of it, some of it was covered in bronze. So I would think they all were probably pretty strong, which is why they're, they're pretty They have to be between 20 and 50 years old. We're going to see that later. Yeah. But yeah, you're right. And in fact, Kohath, just in case you guys are wondering those, that, that family is where Moses and Aaron come from. So they're kind of a privileged bunch. They get to handle the really cool furniture. I mean, if you're going to have a job, I would want to carry, I would want to carry that cool stuff. Right. I would enjoy that. Right. If I had to do it, I'd prefer not to do it. But if I had to, that would be my role. You get a spoon. You can carry the spoon. I mean, come on, man. Wait a minute. I don't want to carry the Lord's spoon. Yeah. Let me have that thing. The Menorah. Man, I can't help but but draw the connection to our setup and teardown process Right. That's a stretch bro. I mean, it's we don't have the arc. I'm not saying that Are we gonna carry you in a chair from now on? Yes. Is that the goal? Yes, you want to throw? Absolutely Carry you to the stage Bishop Bro, we should do the thing where I don't know if you've seen some churches. They have chairs behind the pastor No, I I would like that When I'm done leading the worship team, I'm just going to sit down behind you and you make a good point. I'll nod and when you say something else, I just like, what's he saying? What's, I don't know. What's he saying? So at, at Dallas seminary, while I was there they, they would have the faculty sit on the stage and not just sit on the stage. They, they weren't sitting behind the pulpit. They were sitting in front of you. No, they were sitting. Facing the pulpit and so the guy was preaching with the faculty of the seminary on either side of eggs Like six rows deep on either side and you've got some of at that time, you know, you've got daryl bach there You've got eugene merrill there. You've got these leading brilliant minds. They're shaking their head at you or you're preaching, right? I cannot imagine And lf means thousand come on, yeah Defying yeah That's funny. Yeah. I, that would be an intimidating. Oh, for sure, man. I get intimidated preaching in her own pulpit, much less the pulpit of someone else with the scholarly rankings and books. And there was books that I probably read to study the passage. No, thank you. Right. But I agree. This is kind of like our setup in tear down team that there's a role for this. And I find it interesting that God. Speaks their organizational chart. He's like, this is how I want you to do it. I'm going to tell you precise. And then if you'll notice, it's so organized that the first thing that's going is the, is the most important, important furniture. No, actually it's not because it has to be delayed in order for the tabernacle to be set up. So the furniture has a place to go. That's right. So God is wise and his approach is not haphazard. It's not freestyle. It's not just like, Hey, let's just see what happens. He's got a plan and he tells them, here's how I want you to do this. And it's, and it's a beautiful, well thought out plan, which of course that's the Lord. That's how he does things. But I think, man, you and I ought to take note. Yeah. And we're actually working on that with our setup and teardown teams right now. We're trying to really refine it. Yeah. Each area that they're responsible for that area and they're going to get it done. And, and and our, our team does a great job. We're grateful for our team on that organization is of the Lord. And God has given some people the ability more than others, but that doesn't excuse the rest of us from saying, man, this is the character of my God. I want to display that character as well. Yep. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. All right, well, let's pray and then we'll be done with this episode of the daily Bible podcast. God thanks for that truth that reality that we get to reflect you we get to image you through how we organize how we Pursue the lack of chaos, but but instead pursue order in things and we want to do that with excellence and even beauty We've been talking about that that the beauty for the sake of the glory of God and we see that emphasis here They were gonna take Care for all of these things. They were going to cover them and cover them in skins as well in order to protect them while they're traveling so that they don't get dinged up or anything else. I mean, there are parallels though. They may be loose and how we care for the things that you've provided for us to do church with. We want to be wise stewards of these things that we have and, and reflect a God who's beautiful. A God who loves excellence and loves beauty and loves quality. So help us to do that God, as we labor in your, work. Service a week in a week out. And so we thank you for this in Christ's name. Amen. Amen Keep reading your bibles tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the daily bible podcast to you folks. Bye

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