UNROLL
Twilight over the camp of Israel at Sinai: rows of black goat-hair tents with small cooking fires and thin lines of smoke, dark granite mountains behind, and a full moon rising pale gold over the ridge into a deep blue sky.

The Book of

Numbers 9

A second chance to keep the Passover, then a cloud that told a nation when to move and when to stay.

23 verses≈ 5 min2 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

  1. 1–10Ready at SinaiCounted and orderedChapter 9
  2. 11–14GrumblingTo Kadesh and refusal
  3. 15–21Forty yearsRebellion and mercy
  4. 22–25BalaamA curse turned to blessing
  5. 26–36A new generationReady for the land

The Second Passover

In the first month of the second year after Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, the LORD spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai: “The Israelites are to observe the Passover at its appointed time. You are to observe it at the appointed time, at twilight on the fourteenth day of this month, in accordance with its statutes and ordinances.”

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So Moses told the Israelites to observe the Passover, and they did so in the Wilderness of Sinai, at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. The Israelites did everything just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

But there were some men who were unclean due to a dead body, so they could not observe the Passover on that day. And they came before Moses and Aaron that same day

The unclean men

and said to Moses, “We are unclean because of a dead body, but why should we be excluded from presenting the LORD’s offering with the other Israelites at the appointed time?”

Moses

“Wait here until I find out what the LORD commands concerning you,” Moses replied.

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites: ‘When any one of you or your descendants is unclean because of a dead body, or is away on a journey, he may still observe the Passover to the LORD.

On a plain reed mat at dusk, a round flat unleavened loaf broken in two lies beside a heap of bitter green leaves and a small clay dish, in low firelight.

The law

The second Passover

  1. When

    The fourteenth of the second month

    Such people are to observe it at twilight on the fourteenth day of the second month.

  2. How

    Lamb, unleavened bread, bitter herbs

    They are to eat the lamb, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs;

  3. Nothing left, no bone broken

    they may not leave any of it until morning or break any of its bones.

  4. By all its statutes

    They must observe the Passover according to all its statutes.

  5. Warning

    Failing to keep it: cut off

    But if a man who is ceremonially clean and is not on a journey still fails to observe the Passover, he must be cut off from his people, because he did not present the LORD’s offering at its appointed time. That man will bear the consequences of his sin.

  6. Welcome

    One statute for the foreigner

    If a foreigner dwelling among you wants to observe the Passover to the LORD, he is to do so according to the Passover statute and its ordinances. You are to apply the same statute to both the foreigner and the native of the land.’”

Reflect

Not shut out

The men were unclean through no rebellion of their own, and they did not want to be left out: “why should we be excluded from presenting the LORD’s offering with the other Israelites at the appointed time?” God did not wave the rules away, and He did not shut them out. He gave them a second date, a month later. Where do you feel you have missed your moment with God? Write it down, and then write what it would mean to come to Him now by the way He has opened. Lord, thank You that You make a way for me to come. Amen.

The Cloud above the Tabernacle

On the day that the tabernacle, the Tent of the Testimony, was set up, the cloud covered it and appeared like fire above the tabernacle from evening until morning. It remained that way continually; the cloud would cover the tabernacle by day, and at night it would appear like fire.

Whenever the cloud was lifted from above the Tent, the Israelites would set out, and wherever the cloud settled, there the Israelites would camp.

At the LORD’s command the Israelites set out, and at the LORD’s command they camped. As long as the cloud remained over the tabernacle, they remained encamped.

JudahReubenEphraimDanCourtyard · 100 × 50 cubitsNGate · EastTent of MeetingBronze altarBasinThe tent, enlarged · 30 × 10 cubitsArkTableLampstandIncense altarVeilScreenMost Holy PlaceHoly Place

Plan to scale in cubits · north at the top

The tabernacle

Over the tent

The cloud rested over the tent in the middle of the camp, with the twelve tribes around it on every side and the Levites closest. Every tribe could see it from its own tents. When “the cloud was lifted from above the Tent,” the whole camp knew it was time to move.

Question

Quick question

God led His people through the wilderness by the cloud over the tabernacle.

What told Israel when to set out?

At the LORD’s command the Israelites set out, and at the LORD’s command they camped. As long as the cloud remained over the tabernacle, they remained encamped.

Numbers 9:18

Sunset at a new camping place: a man seen from behind drives a tent peg with a wooden mallet while his family unrolls the black tent cloth; far off over the tabernacle the cloud stands still and begins to glow.

Whether the cloud lingered for two days, a month, or longer, the Israelites camped and did not set out as long as the cloud remained over the tabernacle; but when it was lifted, they would set out. They camped at the LORD’s command, and they set out at the LORD’s command; they carried out the LORD’s charge according to His command through Moses.

0:20

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

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Numbers 9

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A verse to carry with you

At the LORD’s command the Israelites set out, and at the LORD’s command they camped. As long as the cloud remained over the tabernacle, they remained encamped.

Numbers 9:18

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