40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Episode 131 (Numbers 3:1-5:10)

Episode Date: August 31, 2018

Chad and Daniel discuss the role of priests, Levites and moving of the temple. What is the connection between the Levites and the Passover? Why is the language of "firstborn" so significant in scripture? What does this tell us about the priesthood of all believers? And how do they end up at the parable of the Good Samaritan? Have a listen? 1517 Podcast Network CHF Hattiesburg HWSS Live-Stream 

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. you can go over to 1517legacy.com check out all the podcasts that are over there there's a whole bunch of them so whatever you're into we probably got it covered or if we don't have it covered

we'll have it covered pretty soon probably what you're really into is the book of numbers which we'll be covering more of shortly but before we do if you're in the south September 15th me and Chad will be hanging out

in Hattiesburg, Mississippi for the city event so you guys should come down we're going to be talking about how the Christian faith fights against hopelessness, I'll be there. Chad will be there. Scott Keith, Cindy Koch, Blake Flatley, Jared Wilson,

we're going to all be there talking about it. We'd love to have you come down. It's free, but if you would do us a favor and go over to ChristSoulFast.org, go to the events page, sign up so that we know you're coming so we can plan the hospitality accordingly. It costs you nothing to reserve your spot.

We'd love to see you. It's going to be a good time. September 15th, all day on Saturday. if you live a little ways away you should drive i'm driving and i live far away and i'm driving getting a van loading it up full of people driving down there doing the eight hours so you can too if i can you can that's your that's your uh word of law for the day chad how's it going it's good i was just thinking about uh i guess i got lazy i'm flying i'm flying down to mississippi but you know the birds gotta fly the birds gotta fly well chad's gotta fly

chad's chad you know chad's a celebrity so yeah i got my got my private jet all fueled up ready to go flying all over the place i'm i'm renting like white you know vans that look like i'm smuggling stuff uh chad's flying it's fine yeah just not first class though yeah i don't i don't live that high on the hog no not yet not quite there no it seems i win the lottery though it's all over well it's hard to get there first class all the way it's hard to get to that that level when you're doing these events for free yeah this is true this is true we just don't we just don't charge enough for this stuff yeah yeah i i i'm looking forward to uh to that one we got i mean we got san diego coming up uh the month after that it's gonna be uh yeah i got a few events uh

between those so september october gonna be crazy but uh but but but a good kind of crazy yeah a lot of different places and you can see a lot of different people so yeah and people and you know the san diego event here we still stand that's sold out but good news we are going to be doing a pretty awesome live stream of all the plenaries of that if you want to if you want to do that um you do have to go over to here we still stand and you have to register for the live stream so what you'll do is you'll register that's free as well but then you'll get an email with a link so that you can tap into the live stream so you if you uh wanted to go and can't or maybe you couldn't go but you're interested you should do that but uh that event is sold out um and then live stream

it and then during the live stream towards the end of the live stream you will actually have an opportunity to register for the 2019 here we still stand conference for a very very reduced rate so you could jump on it and uh and make sure that you get your spot in case you didn't this year chad where we where we at in the in the book of numbers well we got a pretty good start last time We introduced the book, a little bit of a guide to where we're going with it, a little bit about the structure. And then we talked about the first couple chapters already, which really wasn't too difficult to cover that much, because a lot of it is actually pretty easy to cover.

We start out with a census, and then chapter two tells about where all the various tribes are camped. So last time we talked about the idea of Israel as a spiritual military unit, talked about the church militant. And today we're going to jump right into chapter three and chapter four. We're going to cover those together because they really talk about pretty much the same kind of themes. And then we're going to hopefully get into chapter five as well. So we'll get right to it. So, chapter 3 and 4, if you were to really summarize it, reduce it down to one particular

theme, it's that of the Levites. So, we've heard a little bit about the Levites already. Of course, the Levites are the tribe of Levi, but the Levites, when we hear about them in the scriptures, often refer not necessarily to the tribe as a whole, men and women, children, but in reference to the male Levites, because the Levites were part of the servants of God at the tabernacle. So we heard about the Levites at the episode of the golden calf. You may remember that they're the ones who drew their sword and executed a lot of the idolaters that day. So we encountered their zeal for the Lord back then.

And what we hear about now, here in chapter 3 and 4 of Numbers, are the various divisions according to the families of the Levites, as well as the duties of each of these particular families. So what they're going to be doing, this is discussed in chapter 4, what they're going to be doing is they're going to be basically the assistants to the priest. So just to make sure we're all on the same page here, you have the tribe of Levi, of course, Levi, one of the sons of Jacob, and his descendants of the tribe of Levi. But within the tribe of Levi, you have the family of Aaron. So the male descendants of Aaron served in the priesthood. They were in the tribe of Levi, but they were of the family of Aaron. So we could call them the Aaronides, if you will, these descendants of Aaron who served in the priesthood. So that was the priest.

But then within the broader tribe of Levi, you had the non-Aaron descendants. And these were the guys who were basically the helpers of the priest. So the priests are the ones who do most of what we've been reading about so far. They're the ones who take care of the altar. they're the ones who offer the sacrifices they're the ones who go into the holy place and make sure the the bread of the presence is there they light the candles they burn the incense and and offer prayers for the nation and then of course one of their number the high priest goes into the holy of holies on yom kippur to offer the sacrifices there so that's what the priests do they're the

ones i guess you could say it this way they're the ones who are involved in the most intimate aspects of of worship intimate in the sense of closeness so they're close to the altar they're close to the tent they're close to the sacred articles in the tent but there's a lot going on in the worship around the tabernacle and they needed some helpers they also needed guards to make sure that everything was safe that everything was being done in the right kind of way so you could really think of the levites not only just as servants but also as as on guard around the tabernacle. But there's one other thing that has to be taken care of at this stage in Israel's history. Of course, they're in the wilderness. They haven't arrived yet in the

Holy Land. And so this one other thing that they need, the priests need help with, is moving all the stuff every time that the cloud of glory goes up from the tabernacle, thus signaling that it's time to move on to the next place. So anytime that Israel as a whole is ready to break camp and to move on to the next location, they basically just have to pack up everything. And there's a lot to pack up. You've got the tent wall, if you will, the covering of the barricade that surrounds a tabernacle square you have all those poles all those curtains that have to be taken down and put together and carried then you have the altar that has to be carried you have the the basin that has to be carried and then you have the tabernacle proper which is

another tent with poles that has to be taken apart and then you have all the sacred objects inside it so it's really it's a lot to to take down and to transport from one location to another and so that's where the levites come in and this was this was all organized uh according to the various families within the tribe of levi some of them were in charge of carrying the the sacred objects like the uh the the uh the the mercy seat uh the ark of the covenant the mercy seats some were in charge of carrying the lamp stand and so forth so all of these would have been covered up they would have been actually the the verb used there in hebrew is the uh or the noun user in hebrew is is what we use for for garments for clothing so it's not less like these are considered to be like

cloth covers but it's more like regal clothing that's placed upon these sacred objects so just like a king would would be robed in his regal garments so all of these sacred objects are robed in these regal, sacred, colorful garments, and then they are transported. They're transported by poles that are put through rings in each of these, and the Levites are the ones who carry them. So the priests go in, they cover everything up, and then once it's covered up and the poles are inserted, the Levites come up and they help to carry everything from one location to the other. So, I mean, they're doing a lot of the grunt work. They're the ones who are in charge of having the backs and the shoulders and the biceps to carry all this stuff from one place, one place to another. So that's basically what chapter four is all about. Everything that the various Levites are responsible for in their assistance to the priesthood.

but there's there's one i mean that's kind of the practical stuff and we also have where each of them is to camp around the tabernacle if you remember from last time we talked about where the various tribes were to be encamped on the north south east and west all directions around the tabernacle but we also have within that in more inner circle more inner encampment where the the tribes the levites are to are to camp so all that's kind of you know ritual as well as practical concerns now there's there's another aspect here that which i think is worthy of dwelling on just for for a moment and that is what's talked about in chapter three in chapter three uh beginning around verse nine uh we have these words so this is numbers three nine you shall thus give the

levites to aaron and to his sons they are wholly given that is they are completely given to him from among the sons of Israel. So you shall appoint Aaron and his sons that they may keep their priesthood, but the layman who comes near shall be put to death. So Aaron and his sons, that is the priest, they do one thing, and then the Levites are given to them as servants. But here's the point I'm getting to. This is verse 12. I have taken the Levites from among the sons of Israel instead of every firstborn, the first issue of the womb among the sons of Israel. So the Levites shall be mine for all the firstborn are mine. On the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified, I made holy to myself, all the firstborn in Israel

from man to beast, they shall be mine. I am the Lord. So I think it's worthy of reflecting just a minute about the theological status of the Levites. You'll remember that back in Exodus, when we talked about the 10th plague and God coming through to slay the firstborn of the Egyptians, he also sanctified at that time to himself all the firstborn of the Israelites. So what's going on here is that instead of God taking for himself every firstborn among all the Israelite tribes, he's taking for himself in their place, in their stead, the firstborn tribe, if you will, the Levites. So the Levites are going to be substituted for all the other firstborn in Israel. They are set apart, they are drawn into the Lord's service, and they are then taking the

place of their brothers in this service to the Lord and service to the priesthood that takes place at the tabernacle. And we see this theme of a firstborn carried all the way through the Old Testament into the New Testament. I counted them up, I think, last week, and there's, I don't know, six or seven or eight occurrences in the New Testament where you have the phrase firstborn, and most of the time, these are applied not to people in general, but to Christ himself. So, for instance, Romans 8 says that Christ is the firstborn among many brothers. And then in Paul's letter to Colossians, it says that he is not only the firstborn of all creation, that the Christ is the firstborn from the dead.

Then we have this really odd phrase in Hebrews chapter 12 where all the saved, all the children of God are called the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. The assembly of that one who is the firstborn, those who are enrolled in heaven. So we have a lot of different occurrences in the new testament of christ being referenced as as the firstborn and really to understand that

what that's talking about you have to go all the way back to exodus and you have to go all the way back then to numbers to understand the significance of the firstborn now what's what's unique here i think about christ being called the firstborn is he really encompasses in himself kind of both both sides of being the firstborn, because in the 10th plague, when God goes through Egypt, he slays all the firstborn of the Egyptians. So they are the ones who are punished. They're put to death. And then the firstborn of the Israelites are redeemed, they're rescued, and then later their place is taken by the Levites as those who are dedicated in service to the Lord. So what Christ is the firstborn is unique in that he in himself brings both of these together,

because when he's crucified, when that Passover takes place, he is the one who stands as one like the firstborn of the Egyptians. That is to say, he's the one struck down. He's the one put to death. But at the same time, he is also the one who is like the Levites, set apart. He's the he's the substitute he's the one dedicated in his service to the lord and so there's both kind of the the death and the life the the positive and the negative that are brought together in christ so that he as as the one who bears our sin is an egyptian and the one who is our substitute the one who serves the lord he is our he is our israelite so he brings together both of these facets of the firstborn into himself. And then when he rises from the dead, he, as Paul says,

he becomes the firstborn from the dead as well, the one who then becomes the source of blessing for all of us who are his younger brothers and sisters. So he's the one, like the firstborn, the firstborn always is the one responsible after his father's death. So the firstborn is the one who takes charge of the family. He's the one caring for the family. So Christ, as the son of the Father, after he comes back from the dead, he is then responsible for the care of his family. He's the one who cares for us, his brothers and his sisters, by giving us the life that he himself won by his resurrection. One thing that's interesting about the New Testament is that the idea of the priesthood of all believers. And so you might be tempted to think that,

well, what happens with Christ is that the firstborn thing is done away with or a certain tribe or group of people being priests is done away with. It's actually not. What it is is that you are brought into the one person who encapsulates both those things. And so the reason that, as you were saying, that the Levites are the only ones that can do certain things. They're the ones that approach God. The reason that you have the priesthood of all believers, that all believers can approach God,

that all believers can do priestly things, is because of who they're in. And so you don't do it as yourself, you do it in Christ. You're baptized into the one who is the firstborn of the dead, the firstborn among many brothers, the one who is the high priest in the order of Melchizedek, all of this kind of stuff. you're like brought into that so you are then qualified to be a priest and so like the assembly of the firstborn is the assembly of those who are in the firstborn that have been put in there placed in christ yeah i think that was a i think a perfect way to explain it um yeah i think what happens usually is that we kind of i don't know if i would call it a misuse of language but it's

little bit of a muddying of the waters we tend to think that in the new testament the priesthood is as it were expanded right so that everybody's a priest but actually it's narrow it's the exact opposite uh no longer do you have a particular family within the tribe of levi that serves as a priest now it's reduced it's narrowed down to one guy he's it he's the only priest and by our So our priesthood is the priesthood of Christ. We are incorporated by baptism into him, and thus our priesthood is nothing more than the priesthood of Christ. So there's really only one priest in the New Testament, just like there's really only one baptism. Our baptisms are incorporation into the one baptism of Christ.

So there's really not many baptisms. There's only one baptism. Our baptism incorporates us into the baptism of Christ, just like our priesthood is a priesthood by virtue of our incorporation into the priesthood of Christ. So there's not so much a broadening as there is a narrowing down to this one person in whom we have our priesthood, we have our baptism, we have our redemption, we have our sanctification, we have everything that God desires to give to us. Yeah, there's a couple of things where in the New Testament, things become more exclusive and inclusive at the same time. So they'll take a statement like, the road is narrow, right? So this sounds very exclusive. And it is.

I am the way, the truth, and the life. That's very exclusive. Yet, at the same time, it's also been reduced down to this one thing. And so the road is as narrow as this one man. The road is as narrow as Christ. And who is welcome to come enter Christ? Well, everybody, right? So he's the way, the truth, and the life, but who does he call and who does he beckon?

Everyone. Who does he die for? The world. and so it's as inclusive as the totality of all of creation and as exclusive as them entering through this one thing but it's not exclusive in the sense that you don't have to be anything all you got to do is be a sinner so so that's extremely inclusive uh but yet very exclusive you can't get in any other way but there are no he's the only he is the only qualification you you don't have to meet any qualifications he's already met them all you have to do is pass

through him so it is with that with the priesthood it's narrower and it's exclusive in that it is reduced to him but that all may become priest in him uh which is a pretty cool thing in the new testament yeah yeah it is cool it's like you you have the what is often referred to as the scandal of particularity but then you also have which is maybe even more of a scandal it's a scandal of universality because yeah the scandal particularity is that there's salvation in no one else but this one man but the scandal of universality is that every man is in him so i mean he is the person and so all are reconciled in the death of of this one man so you get you kind of got a whole these two intention you have the particularity but then

you have the universality one man in whom are blessings for the entire entire world yeah it's pretty cool that's pretty cool yeah so uh when when you when you read about the firstborn or the levites in in the old testament uh kind of keep this broader bigger picture in mind of where this is all where this is all leading all right i don't i don't know if i really need to say much else about uh about chapters three and four i mean chapter four we we talked about at the beginning that's just uh talking about the various responsibilities for for uh the for the levites and then we kind of jump backward to chapter three and that's where we have the discussion of the uh of the firstborn so uh we'll just we'll just move on to chapter five do it that

might have been the the quickest we've ever covered two chapters in the torah pat ourselves in the back. Okay. So chapter five is a little bit different than what we've been covering so far. At least the beginning of chapter five sounds a whole lot like some of the material that we have encountered already in Leviticus. That's because some of it actually does duplicate what we have already, what we've already seen there, but it adds a little bit different dimension to it as well. So the chapter starts out, chapter five starts out by God telling Moses, basically they need to make sure that the camp itself, remember the camp is a major concern to these first few chapters where

everybody's at, how it's all situated. Logistics have taken everything down and, and, and camping and moving somewhere else. So that continues into chapter five, except here, the concern is that the camp,

because Yahweh dwells in the midst of it is to be kept clean. And again, we're talking here about ritual, ritual cleanness. So it says that verse 2 of chapter 5, command the sons of Israel that they send away from the camp every leper and everyone having a discharge and everyone who is unclean because of a dead person. So we've encountered these groups of people before. If you remember when we talked about this in Leviticus, we made the point that when we see the word leper here, this is really not what we today think of as leprosy, as

Hansen's disease. This is some sort of skin disease, whatever it might have been. Most of the time it was temporary, which of course leprosy is not. So this was something else. But anyway, if you have someone who's suffering from a skin disease or they have some sort of discharge. And the discharge here was, was probably, uh, either some sort of, some sort of, uh, uh, genital disease, or perhaps it was, uh, uh, some other, some, some flow of blood hemorrhaging that was, was not part of a woman's monthly cycle. Something that was something that

was unnatural, not just a re not recurring. So if someone was suffering from that, or if for whatever reason, they'd come in contact with a dead person, maybe they're, uh, one of their family members had died and they were responsible for making sure that the person was properly buried, whatever happened, they came in contact with the corpse and so were rendered ritually unclean. So if they're ritually unclean, they cannot come into this clean, pure camp until they have gone through the rite of purification, which we've talked about in Leviticus. And so they are placed, men and women, it says here, men and women are to go outside the camp so that they may not defile the camp. This was usually, except in extreme cases, not a permanent thing. It just

was until they had healed, until the priest was able to verify that they were no longer suffering for whatever unclean ailment had defiled them, and they had gone through the proper sacrifices and cleansings to be brought back into the midst. So this continues with our Leviticus theme of God holding two things in tension. His camp is holy, his camp is clean, but he also desires those who are outside the camp to be brought back into it. And so one of the duties of the priesthood was to make sure that they were going out on a regular basis, that they were conversing with, that they were entering into fellowship with this person who was unclean. They were going outside the camp to make sure that they were brought back brought back in so that's a that's the first four verses

you know you know that that uh that comes into that comes to bear when you when you look at just a little of an aside but when you look at the story of the uh of the good samaritan and there's a priest and a levite who come across a guy who is maybe dead i mean he's left for dead they don't know if he's dead and and you ask the question why would you not go make sure well there's ramifications if he is dead if you go and you have to check the pulse and and i mean you're gonna try to figure it out without touching him you know uh and and this is where the priest and the levite are put in a an awkward situation where trying to love your neighbor and then trying to stay ritually pure are at odds with each other, of course, I would say that when you're

faced with the, ooh, I think that there's no non-sinful options here, you go with the one that helps your neighbor. We know this because Jesus is willing to become unclean for love of neighbor, and certainly the priest ought to do the same. But I only bring it up because if you if you read that story and you wonder like why does he choose a priest and a levite that's that's part of it is that if anyone knows that that's a fast way to become ritually unclean is to like go mess around with this dead body potentially i mean if anyone knows that the levites know it yeah and uh because they were going down from jerusalem and jericho probably the priest and the levite had ended their their uh their terms of service at the temple that's

the way it worked in the first century so if you were a priest it's not like you lived in jerusalem all the time and served the type served the temple uh you know 365 days a year you actually only went on occasion when it was your turn to go the rest of the time you lived wherever wherever your hometown was so this priest was probably had been serving at the at the temple doing his duty and he was going home maybe he lived in jericho and so if if if the guy on the side of the road had been dead and he went over there and defiled himself he would have to turn around and go back to jerusalem to the temple uh which was he didn't want to do that because then he'd have to go through all of the the cleansings uh to to make sure that he was ready to serve again he was ready

to get home and this guy on the side of the road well i he's probably dead i'm not going to risk getting defiled to go make sure and so I'm going to go on my merry way. There's also the option, now this is just so you guys know, there's a book about to come out in October that this is talked about in. The Scandalous Stories book, which Chad wrote the foreword to.

So I mean, you can buy it just for that. That'll be available very soon, but I do may bring up the option also that this is not exactly a good place to be. Historically, the way of blood which is the the road that leads from jerusalem to jericho is a notoriously violent

and treacherous place uh not exactly some place that you traveled and uh you know if you're a priest and you're in a place that maybe i don't know what these guys are doing down there maybe maybe they're not supposed to be there at all and uh and a good way for you to like get discovered in a place that you weren't supposed to be uh is to bring up a dead body or or have to you know help some guy they're just gonna be hard to hide and so who knows what's going on there uh well i thought about i don't argue this in the book but uh if you really want to get scandalized if i walk out my front door and uh there's a guy beat half to death i'm probably gonna help him um if i walk out of a strip club and there's a guy laying in the parking lot beat

have to death i'm at least gonna pause because i'm not supposed not that this has ever happened but uh if it did uh if you're somewhere you're not supposed to be you're gonna pause and be like how am i gonna help this person and not have where i am exposed it's a possibility but either way the ritual uncleanness is is part this is the reason jesus i think uses the the priest and Levi? Yeah, I mean, I think either scenario there pinpoints really what Christ was driving at when he told the parable, is that if we're going to be a neighbor to act in love and compassion toward another, then we can't be concerned about ourselves. Right. Yeah, so it's death to selfishness and a life lived in love for the neighbor, even if that means placing ourselves

into a situation where, in his case, we're going to be ritually unclean. It's going to be a problem for us. Well, love is always a problem. Love is not easy. Love is hard. Sometimes it hurts like hell, but that's what love is, because love is sacrifice, right? Love is giving of ourselves, and so that's what Christ was calling

the priest and Levite, and, of course, all of us to do. Well, and part of what you said there, I mean, in a real way, it is the priest's job to go out to the people anyway. So they don't actually get to avoid, like, the people if you have a discharge or if you came in contact with a dead body,

it's actually their job to go try to get you clean. So there's like a shirking of responsibility here, too. They're the ones who are set apart to sort of, I mean, they prefigure Christ in this way, that they're the ones that are actually interacting with the

unclean. Yeah, I mean, you could kind of, to put it in terms that we use, they have really a law and gospel ministry. I mean, they are there in a sense, in the law sense, to guard, to protect, to make sure that the sacred things of God are not defiled. But at the same time, they have a gospel ministry because they are sent by God outside the camp to the sinners, to the defiled, to the unclean, in order to bring them back. And the priest, who had just come from serving at God's temple in that parable that Jesus told. He was still a priest. It wasn't like he had ceased to be a priest as soon as he left the sacred precincts of the temple. He was still a priest. And so he would have been responsible for going outside the camp, outside

the road, outside of his safe little bubble in order to make sure that this guy was okay, to give him whatever assistance that he needed. Yeah, so that's the first few verses. Picking up here with 5 and following, 5 through 10, this is very much like what we've already talked about in Leviticus chapter 5, continuing into 6. You may remember that when Leviticus starts out, we have several chapters devoted to the various kinds of sacrifices

can be offered the whole burnt offering as well as the uh the sin offering and the peace offering and then what is called the guilt of the reparation offering if you were if you recall that one was different because not only so if you did something wrong let's say you stole from your your neighbor you stole your neighbor's sheep i don't know why you did but you stole your neighbor's sheep okay so you've you've not only you've not only uh broken the the commandment against stealing but you also have sinned directly against that particular neighbor so what do you do well you first of all you give the sheep back that's that's the first thing that you do you give it back and then you uh you offer sacrifice for the guilt that you have incurred because of that but you

also this is what what sets this particular offering apart it's called the asham offering which is guilt or reparation in the asham offering you also tack on to that 20 so whatever the value was you you tack on another another 20 when you give it back so that was what kind of set this apart well that is the background of five through ten uh and it's more or less repeating what we've already heard except what what is added in this particular part of numbers is that not only is the offering to be made, not only is the stolen property or whatever is taken needs to be returned, and then the 20% added, but also we have in verse 7,

this addition that we don't hear in the book of Leviticus, that a confession of sins should take place. It says, when a man or woman commits any of the sins of mankind acting unfaithfully against the Lord and that person is guilty, then he shall confess his sins, which he has committed, and he shall make restitution in full for the wrong and add to it this 20%. Now that confession is something that's not stated in Leviticus. So it's, it's an addition to what we already, already know. And I, I love the fact that, that, that it's included here because it's a, it really is an integral part of, especially

of sins of this nature. So it wouldn't be enough, in other words, to take my analogy from earlier, a guy stole the sheep, and well, now he realizes he's sinned, he needs to return the sheep. Now, he could sneak it back and tie a little bag around the sheep's neck with some silver or gold in it that's 20% of the value of the sheep, but that wouldn't be enough. Instead, he needs to confess is sin. So the confession of sin is basically bringing things out into the open. In the confession of sins, we more or less say the same thing as God does. So you can think of confession of sins as echoing. God says that you have sinned, and so we echo back to God, I have sinned. God says you stole, and so we echo back to Him and say, I stole. So the confession is not a revelation

of something new. A revelation is a confession of something that God has already spoken. And the confession doesn't make for atonement. It doesn't make for absolution. The confession is nothing more than a statement of the truth. It's not like it somehow achieves forgiveness. All the confession does is achieves honesty. It achieves the breaking free of the silence of the lie that we have been been held to so uh so far so the confession is a stating of what god has a restating of what god has already said so that's uh that's what's discussed in in verses in verses five through five through ten now we're kind of at a we're kind of at a tight spot here uh dan because we only have about a minute left and so uh i think what i'm going to do is just kind of

give you a teaser will that work yeah i thought you were going to finish the book yeah i'm going to go ahead and jump forward to the closing chapter yeah so what we have here uh we'll talk about this next week in 11 through the rest of the chapter is a very unique section that talks about what is to be done if a husband suspects his wife of adultery so he has no proof there are no witnesses all he has is what's called a spirit of jealousy or a spirit of suspicion and what is what is prescribed here is kind of a trial by ordeal in which the woman is made to drink some water mixed with dirt from the floor of the tabernacle along with ink that has been scraped off a scroll on which a curse has been written

so what i want to do uh when we come back next week is talk about that in connection with a very well-known story from the new testament john chapter 8 and that is the woman caught in adultery and i think you will be uh uh i think you'll be as surprised as i was when i first discovered many of the parallels between those two stories so we'll we'll get there next week all right that's a pretty good teaser chad that was that's pretty good i do what i do what i can yeah it's pretty good all right guys well hey if you're in the south come hang out with me and chad and hattiesburg We want to hang out. We're going to have a good time.

September 15th, go over to chrisfieldfest.org, go to the events page, and that's where we will be next. Guys, we will see you next week either way. Chad, have a good one. All right, man, you too. See you. We'll see you next time.