Morning Light – Numbers 18

[Numbers 18] Jesus Bears Your Iniquity. In this chapter, God charges Aaron and his sons to bear the iniquity of the tabernacle. The New Testament tells us we are the Tabernacle of God. Jesus bears our iniquity. Even though Jesus was perfect, He could only bear the sin of the world by the enablement of the anointing that He received when the Spirit descended upon Him like a dove. Our response to the gift of God through Jesus is to give Him our best and put Him first in all things.

[Num 18:1-32 KJV] 1 And the LORD said unto Aaron, Thou and thy sons and thy father’s house with thee shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary: and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood. 2 And thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee: but thou and thy sons with thee [shall minister] before the tabernacle of witness. 3 And they shall keep thy charge, and the charge of all the tabernacle: only they shall not come nigh the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, that neither they, nor ye also, die. 4 And they shall be joined unto thee, and keep the charge of the tabernacle of the congregation, for all the service of the tabernacle: and a stranger shall not come nigh unto you. 5 And ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar: that there be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel. 6 And I, behold, I have taken your brethren the Levites from among the children of Israel: to you [they are] given [as] a gift for the LORD, to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation. 7 Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priest’s office for every thing of the altar, and within the vail; and ye shall serve: I have given your priest’s office [unto you] as a service of gift: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death. 8 And the LORD spake unto Aaron, Behold, I also have given thee the charge of mine heave offerings of all the hallowed things of the children of Israel; unto thee have I given them by reason of the anointing, and to thy sons, by an ordinance for ever. 9 This shall be thine of the most holy things, [reserved] from the fire: every oblation of theirs, every meat offering of theirs, and every sin offering of theirs, and every trespass offering of theirs, which they shall render unto me, [shall be] most holy for thee and for thy sons. 10 In the most holy [place] shalt thou eat it; every male shall eat it: it shall be holy unto thee. 11 And this [is] thine; the heave offering of their gift, with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel: I have given them unto thee, and to thy sons and to thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: every one that is clean in thy house shall eat of it. 12 All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the firstfruits of them which they shall offer unto the LORD, them have I given thee. 13 [And] whatsoever is first ripe in the land, which they shall bring unto the LORD, shall be thine; every one that is clean in thine house shall eat [of] it. 14 Every thing devoted in Israel shall be thine. 15 Every thing that openeth the matrix in all flesh, which they bring unto the LORD, [whether it be] of men or beasts, shall be thine: nevertheless the firstborn of man shalt thou surely redeem, and the firstling of unclean beasts shalt thou redeem. 16 And those that are to be redeemed from a month old shalt thou redeem, according to thine estimation, for the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, which [is] twenty gerahs. 17 But the firstling of a cow, or the firstling of a sheep, or the firstling of a goat, thou shalt not redeem; they [are] holy: thou shalt sprinkle their blood upon the altar, and shalt burn their fat [for] an offering made by fire, for a sweet savour unto the LORD. 18 And the flesh of them shall be thine, as the wave breast and as the right shoulder are thine. 19 All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto the LORD, have I given thee, and thy sons and thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: it [is] a covenant of salt for ever before the LORD unto thee and to thy seed with thee. 20 And the LORD spake unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them: I [am] thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel. 21 And, behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they serve, [even] the service of the tabernacle of the congregation. 22 Neither must the children of Israel henceforth come nigh the tabernacle of the congregation, lest they bear sin, and die. 23 But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they shall bear their iniquity: [it shall be] a statute for ever throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they have no inheritance. 24 But the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer [as] an heave offering unto the LORD, I have given to the Levites to inherit: therefore I have said unto them, Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance. 25 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 26 Thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up an heave offering of it for the LORD, [even] a tenth [part] of the tithe. 27 And [this] your heave offering shall be reckoned unto you, as though [it were] the corn of the threshingfloor, and as the fulness of the winepress. 28 Thus ye also shall offer an heave offering unto the LORD of all your tithes, which ye receive of the children of Israel; and ye shall give thereof the LORD’S heave offering to Aaron the priest. 29 Out of all your gifts ye shall offer every heave offering of the LORD, of all the best thereof, [even] the hallowed part thereof out of it. 30 Therefore thou shalt say unto them, When ye have heaved the best thereof from it, then it shall be counted unto the Levites as the increase of the threshingfloor, and as the increase of the winepress. 31 And ye shall eat it in every place, ye and your households: for it [is] your reward for your service in the tabernacle of the congregation. 32 And ye shall bear no sin by reason of it, when ye have heaved from it the best of it: neither shall ye pollute the holy things of the children of Israel, lest ye die.

In this chapter, we see the Father charging Aaron and his sons with the sanctuary’s weighty responsibility and everything within it. Remember that the tabernacle and all its activities speak of something going on inside of us. We are the tabernacle of God. We are in our persons are temples of the Most High God as Paul affirms in the following two verses.

[1Co 3:17 KJV] 17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which [temple] ye are.

[1Co 6:19 KJV] 19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

Verse one mentions the iniquity of the sanctuary. What does it mean that Aaron shall bear the iniquity of the tabernacle? This is a foreshadowing of Jesus taking sin upon himself. You are the temple of God, yet outside of Christ, there is sin in your life. Jesus – your Aaron, your high priest bears your iniquity. You cannot deal with it yourself. The law of Moses was a law of reciprocity. Every sin required a proportional response of either repetitive sacrifice or ongoing punishment. In the New Covenant, Jesus intervenes once and for all in this process, stepping between us and the penalty of the law of sin and death. Isaiah and the writer of Hebrews affirm these truths in the following passages;

[Isa 53:6 KJV] 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

[Heb 9:26 KJV] 26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Notice in v. 8 that this responsibility is laid upon Aaron “by reason of the anointing.” As a type of Christ, this tells us that it was more than Jesus’ sinless birth that was necessary to qualify Him to bear our sins. Paul made this statement in Rom. 1:4:

[Rom 1:4 KJV] 4 And declared [to be] the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

The anointing oil on Aaron is a type of the Holy Ghost. Jesus is declared – distinguished as God’s son by the “spirit of holiness” or the Holy Spirit anointing. John the Baptist saw the Spirit descend upon Jesus like a dove. Jesus was unknown before this time. He did no miracles until the Holy Spirit descended upon Him. Apparently, He didn’t comprise much of a threat to the devil because it wasn’t until AFTER He received the Spirit like a dove that the enemy tempted Him.

Having established that it was the Holy Spirit that distinguished Jesus from other men, it is essential to note that this same Holy Spirit that distinguished Jesus rests upon us when we accept Jesus as savior:

[Rom 8:11 KJV] 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

Just as Jesus’ piety and perfection did not fully prepare Him for His role as savior; likewise, our piety or religiousness does not empower us in any way to do the works of God. We need the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit given is the same Holy Spirit that empowered Jesus to fulfill His purpose before the Father in the earth.

[Jhn 16:7 KJV] 7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

In verse 19, there is a mention of a “covenant of salt forever” by which the heaven offering was given to Aaron and his sons and daughters. What is the “covenant of salt”? James Orr, who wrote the International Bible Encyclopedia, says:

“As salt was regarded as a necessary ingredient of the daily food, and so of all sacrifices offered to Yahweh (Leviticus 2:13), it became an easy step to the very close connection between salt and covenant-making. When men ate together, they became friends. Compare the Arabic expression, “There is salt between us”; “He has eaten of my salt,” which means partaking of hospitality, which cemented friendship; compare “eat the salt of the palace” (Ezra 4:14). Sacrificial meals generally confirmed covenants, and salt was always present. Since, too, salt is a preservative, it would easily become symbolic of an enduring covenant. So offerings to Yahweh were to be by a statute forever, “a covenant of salt forever before Yahweh” (Numbers 18:19). David received his kingdom forever from Yahweh by a “covenant of salt” (2 Chronicles 13:5). In the light of these conceptions, the remark of our Lord becomes the more significant: “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace one with another” (Mark 9:50).”

To refer to the covenant of salt connected with the sacrifices, God is blurring the lines between what we would call the SACRED and the SECULAR. It is a reminder that God is in covenant with us. When God told Abraham in Ge. 15, “I am your exceeding great reward,” the wording is actually “I am your salt.”

The heave-offering was designated as belonging to Aaron and his sons and daughters forever. In v. 24, the Father delineates that the people’s tithes were to be considered part of the heaven offering. Aaron and the Levites were to receive the “best” that the heave offering represented. The Israelites were not allowed to give God lame or diseased animals as sacrifices. My father preaches a message titled “giving God the left-overs.” Jesus is our Aaron, our high priest, and we must give Him the best that we have to offer. The tithe was the first fruit. Sometimes people will reckon their tithe after they have paid all their expenses, and if they have any left-over, they give God a tenth. Always remember that the quality of your response to God measures the quality of His response to you. Give God your everything. In the New Covenant, you are hard-pressed to find the tithe. Does that mean we are off the hook? No – we are to give EVERYTHING to God. That seems impractical to the natural mind. God is a God of the miraculous, and when you give Him your everything, He renders back to you His fulness, and you live in blessing.