19 "A Priestly Provision for Perishing People" Numbers 17-19 | Thursday, February 12, 2026

Numbers chapter 17.

Numbers 17 · chapter mention

Numbers 17. Once you found your place,

you can stand as we give honor to the

Lord's word.

We're going to

try something rather ambitious tonight.

That is to cover chapters 17, 18, and 19

in less than 50 minutes.

And uh not sure if that will happen, but

we're sure going to try.

There's a reason for that. Number 16, we

saw the rebellion against Moses, against

Aaron,

and the judgment that came out from God

against Kora, Dayan, and Byum, as well

as against the 250 princes that joined

them, as well as 14,700

Israelites

who rebelled the very next day against

them yet again.

And what we're seeing is as part of

their judgment for their rebellion

against God when he was ready to bring

them into the land, they're being turned

back into the wilderness. And that

entire generation will wander for 40

years. And everyone that was 20 years

and older will not get to see the

promised land. They will die in the

wilderness. We're seeing that happen in

mass means in chapter 16.

And as we come to chapter 17, what the

Lord is doing is he gives Israel a sign

that

will establish once and for all that God

has chosen Aaron and his sons. And so

it's very interconnected

what we saw last week that that they

were really casting off Moses and Aaron.

and when you cast off the priesthood

that there is nothing to stand between

you and death. That's what we saw. You

need a priesthood. And so that theme is

going to continue here um in chapters

17, 18, and 19. So let's just read

chapter 17 for now and then we'll get

into chapter 18 and 19 in the course of

the message. So Numbers chapter 1 verse

Numbers 1:7

7 or 17 verse1.

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

"Speak unto the children of Israel, and

take of every one of them a rod

according to the house of their fathers,

of all their princes, according to the

house of their fathers, 12 rods. Write

thou every man's name upon his rod. Thou

shalt write Aaron's name upon the rod of

Levi.

For one rod shall be for the head of the

house of their fathers. and thou shalt

lay them up in the tabernacle of the

congregation

before the testimony, which is the ark

of the covenant, where I will meet with

you. And it shall come to pass that the

man's rod whom I shall choose shall

blossom, and I will make to cease from

me the murmurings of the children of

Israel, whereby they murmur against

you." And Moses spake unto the children

of Israel, and unto every one of their

princes gave him a rod, a piece, for

each prince won according to their

father's houses, even 12 rods, and the

rod of Aaron was among their rods. And

Moses laid up the rods before the Lord

in the tabernacle of witness. And it

came to pass that on the marorrow Moses

went into the tabernacle of witness. And

behold, the rod of Aaron for the house

of Levi was budded, and brought forth

buds, and bloomed blossom, and yielded

almonds. And Moses brought out all the

rods from before the Lord unto the

children of Israel. And they looked and

took every man his rod. And the Lord

said unto Moses, "Bring Aaron's rod

again before the testimony to be kept

for a token against the rebels, and thou

shalt quite take away their murmurings

from me, that they die not." And Moses

did so, as the Lord commanded him, so

did he. Now, Israel recognizes

by this demonstration that God has done

that they are in the wrong. That God has

made his choice clear and they have

rebelled against him and they have seen

what happened to those who had rebelled

against them in the previous chapter.

And so now here's their response in

verse 12. And the children of Israel

spake unto Moses saying, "Behold, we

die. We perish. We all perish. Whosoever

cometh anything near unto the tabernacle

of the Lord shall die. Shall we be

consumed with dying?

See, they're concerned now that all of

them are going to die and the chapter

ends with a question. When something

ends with a question, it demands an

answer. And that is what God gives them

in chapters 17 or 18 and 19. And so

that's what we'll look at tonight. The

title of the message is a priestly

provision for a perishing people. Let's

pray one more time. Lord, I just want to

ask you to bless your word to make it

clear. I pray you'd help us to focus on

the main idea that you want to get

across through these chapters. and I

pray for your grace to communicate them

clearly that our hearts would be open

and ready to understand. It's in Jesus

name I ask. Amen. Thanks for standing.

You can be seated.

God created every one of us with an

instinct to survive.

There's something in our brain that is

like an alarm system so that it's

constantly scanning for threats and

whenever danger is detected our bodies

shift into survival mode. you know,

adrenaline begins to flow and your heart

rate increases and your breathing

accelerates and you know those stories

of people who can lift cars when they're

trying to save someone and and they they

don't feel any pain. I think of how uh

Bo Nicks a few weeks ago had broken his

ankle and then went on to play a few

more plays through that without really

feeling the pain. That's what adrenaline

uh can do for you. And so uh when when

you talk about adrenaline, it's like the

body saying in that moment, living

matters more than comfort. Living

matters more than comfort. And all of

this takes place without a conscious

thought about any of it. See, God

designed us in such a way that whenever

death becomes a serious threat, our most

pressing cry is, "How can I survive? How

can I live? And that's what Israel's cry

is here in Numbers 17. They've been

surrounded by death because they've been

asking the wrong question. Who's in

charge? Who's in charge? Remember Aaron

and Miriam

asked about Moses being in charge? And

they were soundly rebuked. And now you

have Kora, Dayan, and Abram bringing

this great rebellion and saying, "You

take too much upon you, Moses and Aaron,

who died and made you king. Who made you

a prince over us?" That's what they are

concerned with. Who's in charge? And

then their rebellion against them. Kora

and his company were swallowed up by the

earth. The earth split open and they

fell and it covered them. We also found

that 250 of the princes were consumed by

the fire of the Lord and that 14,700

died by a plague.

Now God is using this sign to plainly

demonstrate that he had chosen Aaron and

that they were in rebellion and now they

know that they are in trouble. And so

they cry out there in verses 12 and 13,

we die. We all die. Shall we be consumed

with perishing

with dying?

That's their heart cry of survival mode

in this moment. The most important

question for them is no longer who is in

charge, but how can we live? That's

their question.

They want to know how we can come near

to this holy God and possibly survive.

Isn't that what all of us want though?

to live in God's presence,

to have access to him unhindered.

We want to live with him both now and

draw near to him forever. That's what we

want. We want eternal life with him, to

be in the new creation when the Lord's

tabernacle is with men, as Revelation 22

says. That's where we all want to be,

living in God's presence.

But we also know that God is infinitely

holy and we are not.

That we have times of sin,

times of rebellion.

And what we know is that when we feel

filthy,

we don't feel fit for God's presence.

We don't know how we can possibly live

in God's presence. not only today but

forever. How could God accept such

unholy people into his holy presence?

And yet that is exactly what our heart

longs for.

Eternal life in God's presence with no

sin and no death. But here in lies the

question, how can we who sin and die

come near to God and live?

Well, only the one who created us with

that longing is able to fulfill that

longing.

And that's what numbers 17-19 is really

about.

Chapter 17 proposes that question.

Who can draw near to the tabernacle of

the Lord? Because whosoever cometh

anything near to the tabernacle of the

Lord shall die. Shall we be consumed

with dying? That is their problem. We

can't live in God's presence

in chapters 18 and 19 is God's reply to

their question.

It's the remedy for the death that

surrounds them. And what God provided

for Israel in these chapters is what you

and I must have if we are to live in

God's presence. I mean, if you're to

really enjoy your relationship with God

today, fellowship, prayer, and communion

with him, but not only that, but to live

forever with him. Apart from God's

remedy, we would perish in God's

presence. Well, what is his remedy? I

want you to see first of all that the

first thing that God provides is a

continual priesthood. He provides a

continual priesthood. We read in chapter

17 how God demonstrates his choice of

Aaron and his sons to serve as priests.

He tells Moses, "I want you to get a rod

from every tribe, and I want you to

write the prince's name upon their rod,

and I want you to write an Aaron's name

on the rod of Levi, and I want you to

bring all of these rods into the Holy of

Holies, and I want you to lay them

before the ark of the covenant." And God

tells him that that what I'm going to do

is the one that I shall choose, that

rod, that dead piece of wood is going to

bring forth sprouts. That's how I'll

make my choice clear. What is his intent

in this? If you look at the end of verse

5, he says,"I will make to cease from me

the murmurings of the children of Israel

whereby they murmur against you, you

plural, Moses and Aaron." And so what it

is is they have had a track record of

murmuring against Moses and Aaron for

their leadership. And what God is going

to do is he is going to give them a

once-for-all sign that he has chosen

Aaron and his sons in particular. And it

will cause them to stop. Why? Because

every single time that they decide to

grumble against them and say, "Who died

and made you king?" then go back to

Aaron's rod and say, "God did." He's

going to cease their grumblings and

complainings.

So Moses does what the Lord tells him to

do. He gathers their rods. He goes and

he lays them before the ark of the

covenant. And the very next morning, he

goes in to look at them. And if you look

at verse 8, it says, "And it came to

pass on the marorrow Moses went into the

tabernacle of witness. And behold, the

rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was

budded and brought forth buds and

bloomed blossoms and yielded almonds."

It did a little bit more than sprout. It

went through the full process overnight

that while you've got these 11 dead rods

laying there against the altar, there's

only one that sprung forth into new

life. And that was Aaron the priests.

And so Moses takes his rod, this

four-fold vindication that Aaron is his

choice, and he brings it out to the

people, and he gives all of them their

rods. And it becomes unequivocally clear

that Aaron is God's chosen priest. And

then God tells him, I want you to take

that rod and I want you to store it in

the ark of the covenant and it is going

to be a testimony from here on out to

every generation of Israel that I have

chosen Aaron.

Well, now that God has made his choice

clear, Israel recognizes

their rebellion.

They recognize what has happened that

they've seen all the death that took

place and they realized their own

murmurings and complainings, their own

roles in resisting Moses and resisting

Aaron. And now they are at this

conclusion that we're all going to die.

God's going to take us all out. Are we

going to be consumed with dying? And

God's remedy to their question is found

in what Aaron's priesthood was appointed

to do. And that's where chapter 18 comes

in. Would you look at verse one? 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." And so

the the first thing that we see is that

Mo Aaron and his sons, they are

appointed to bear sin. To bear sin.

Remember, the high priest has stones on

his shoulders and 12 stones on his heart

that represent the 12 tribes of Israel.

And his responsibility was to bear not

only their names, but the iniquity of

their names in God's sight. And so, they

needed Aaron's priesthood to serve as

sinbearers.

But then we're going to see some

instruction about the rest of the

Levites. It says in verse two, "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

son shall minister before the tabernacle

of witness, and they shall keep the

charge and 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. 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."

And so here you have the priests that

are bearing sin as they offer

sacrifices, as they make loaves of

bread, as they keep the the candle

shining upon the 12 loaves of bread. And

so they are bearing sin. But then you

have the Levites whose duty is to

protect the sanctuary that that they are

responsible to live around the

sanctuary. They are responsible to serve

in the sanctuary to protect the altar,

to protect the priesthood, to protect

the entrance of the congregation to make

sure that no outsider comes in. Why is

that? Look at verse 5. And you shall

keep the charge of the sanctuary, the

charge of the altar, that there be no

wrath anymore upon the children of

Israel. Now, this echoes back to chapter

uh number 16 and verse 46 where where

Moses says that there is wrath gone out

from the Lord and the plague has begun.

And so what has just happened is that

Kora and Dayan and Abram, they approach

God with sensors.

And the 250 princes from all the other

tribes, they bring forth sensors before

God to offer incense. question, who

according to the law is permitted to

offer uh incense?

Only the priests,

only Aaron and his sons. And so what you

have is these men approaching God

without the barrier of a priesthood. And

what happens? The earth swallows some of

them up. And the fire of the Lord comes

out from the altar and consumes the 250

princes. And the wrath of the Lord goes

out against the rest of the people in

their rebellion. And 14,700

of them die. 15,000

in a very short time. Why? They tried to

approach God without the barrier of a

priest.

When I was in uh in after I graduated

high school, I was working on a a

Stuckco crew and uh I was here in

Boulder working at a house actually and

and I was working on the back deck and I

was kind of leaning over in an awkward

position and trying to mask off this uh

this trim on the deck and and as I

leaned over an exposed piece of wire

went in my nose and this thing

I felt it, you know. Could you imagine

if the the current of that was higher?

You know, I felt that. But if it was

higher, I' i'd be dead meat. Why? Cuz I

touched a live wire without a shield

covering it. What God is doing is he is

showing Israel that they cannot come

into contact with a holy God without a

shield or the holiness of God will

consume them.

And so he tells them that you need a

priesthood,

but this priesthood must be continual.

And so how does he communicate that?

It's really with the rest of the

chapter, and we'll not go through the

details again because we actually

covered it in Leviticus. But what God

reminds Aaron and his sons of is that

all of the offerings of the children of

Israel belong to them. Whatever is not

fully dedicated and consumed on the

altar of burnt offering is to be eaten

by the priests. Whether it's the meat or

if it's their first fruits or if it's

the redemption of the firstborn or their

first slings of animals or whatever it

might be, whatever the children of

Israel bring to offer to God, a portion

of that belongs to Aaron and his sons.

And then you go to verse number 20 and

he talks about the Levites and he gives

them the tithe of all the Israelites.

And so the tenth of their harvest and

the tenth of their first fruits and the

tenth of their animals and the tenth of

their money. And so all the tithe is

brought to the temple and that goes to

the Levites. And then he tells the

Levites that they're to give a tithe of

the tithe over to Aaron and the priests.

Now why is this? Why is God reminding

them and giving them these provisions?

Well, he tells them that this is their

inheritance. Why? So they can serve as

priests. It's the reward for their

ministry. It's the provision for their

ministry.

Why is that important? Well, it's

because if the priests and the Levites

have to go out and plow fields and sew

seeds and reap harvests and make a

living and provide for their families,

then who will serve in the tabernacle?

Who will offer sacrifices? Who will

serve as that barrier or that shield

that that enables them to draw near to

God and live? See, God is establishing

that for Israel to draw near and live,

they must have a continual priesthood.

And that's exactly what he provides for

them. And I want you to understand today

that we are sinners, too.

And we still need something to shield us

from the holiness of God consuming us.

And what we need is the same thing that

Israel needed. And that was a continual

priesthood.

But wherein is our continual priesthood?

Well, in the old covenant, God chose

Aaron and his sons to serve as priests.

But in the new covenant, God has chosen

another priest. And if you were to go to

Hebrews 5:4,

Hebrews 5:4

it says, "And no man taketh this honor

unto himself, but he that is called of

God, as was Aaron." That is pointing us

back to this very account where God made

his choice of Aaron clear that Aaron did

not take the priesthood for himself. He

was called of God and it was given to

him. The author of Hebrews goes on to

say, "So also Christ glorified not

himself to be made a high priest, but he

that said unto him, thou art my son."

That Jesus did not take a priesthood for

himself, but he was given a priesthood

by his father. And in Hebrews 7 22 it

says by so much was Jesus made a shity

of a better testament or covenant and

they truly were many priests because

they were not suffered to continue by

reason of death. You know what he's

talking about there the ironic

priesthood that they could not be the

continual priesthood that Israel needed

because they die. And so there had to be

a constant transition and changing from

priesthood to priesthood. And what that

did is it showed that that priesthood

was insufficient

that it that it wasn't what we needed.

And so the author of Hebrews goes on to

say this of Jesus, "But this man,

because he continuthth ever, hath an

unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is

also able to save them to the uttermost

that come unto God by him, seeing he

ever liveth to make intercession for

them. See, the priesthood of Aaron only

pointed forward to a greater fulfillment

in the priesthood of Jesus Christ. See,

Jesus is not just continual. He is

eternal. He has no beginning and he has

no end. He is the eternal son of God.

And what this tells us is that he

continues to live forever to make

intercession for us to mediate our

relationship with God to uh to cover our

sins to bring our prayers to God to

mediate unhindered access to God. That

is what Jesus Christ does. Through the

eternal ministry of Jesus, you as a

believer can come near to God without

being in survival mode.

See that wire? If it's got that rubber

shield on it, I don't mind coming near.

I don't mind touching it. I can wiggle

it. I can move it around. Well, listen.

When when Jesus Christ is shielding your

sin from the holiness of God, you can

come near without fear, without guilt,

and without shame. Because Christ ever

lives to intercede for us. He is the

mediator of a better testament, a better

covenant. And what that means is even

when you have sinned because of Christ,

you can come near with confidence that

if you will confess, he will forgive.

That's who he is. Just as a shield

enables us to come near a live wire,

Jesus enables us to come near a holy

God.

See, for Israel to come near to God's

presence and live, they needed a

continual priesthood to shield them from

God's wrath. And that's exactly what he

gave them. But that's not all that God

provided for them because that's not all

that they needed. We find in chapter 19

that God also provides not only a

continual priesthood but he also

provides a cleansing sacrifice.

In chapter 19, God instructs Moses and

Aaron to offer a hepher as a sin

offering.

But it's not an ordinary sin offering.

What we find in chapter 19 does not

match what is given in Leviticus chapter

Leviticus 4 · chapter mention

4 regarding the sin offering. This one

is very different. If you look at verse

one, it says, "And the Lord spake unto

Moses, chapter 19:1 and unto Aaron,

saying, This is the ordinance of the

law, which the Lord hath commanded,

saying, Speak unto the children of

Israel, that they bring thee a red

hepher without spot, wherein is no

blemish, and upon which never came

yoke."

And so what God is calling them to do is

to bring a red heer that is pure,

undefiled and unused. It is wholly

dedicated for this unique purpose.

Now some of you are wondering what is

the esqueological connection

of the red heers that were purebred in

Texas and then shipped to Jerusalem.

Does it have any significance regarding

the end of the world and the third

temple and all of that?

I'm gonna sadly disappoint you. What we

are reading in this chapter is the only

mention ever of the red heer in all of

scripture.

So what that means is

I don't know. There's nothing that the

Bible gives me to suggest that this has

anything to do with the end of the world

or a reconstructing of a third temple or

the tribulation period or the

antichrist. That none of that is the

point of the red heer. I say all that so

it does not distract you and make you

wonder why isn't he addressing the red

heers in Jerusalem? Well, there you go.

I just did and it means nothing right

now.

So, what is this red hepher all about?

Well, let me tell you first what they're

supposed to do with it. It's it's very

unique. They're actually to take the red

heer outside of the camp. They usually

slaughter the hepher or the the bulls,

the goats. They usually slaughter them

at the door of the tabernacle of the

congregation and then they pour out the

blood at the altar and they offer the

fat and the inwards and then they take

the rest out and dispose of it. That's

that's usually what they do with the sin

offerings. But with this particular one,

they bring the heer outside of the camp

and they they kill it out there and in

the sight of the priest and the priest

brings the blood of the red heer not

inside the tabernacle of the

congregation but outside the door and he

sprinkles it seven times toward the door

of the tabernacle and then that's his

role. They take they go in, they take

the hepher in and somebody else places

the hepher completely on the altar of

burnt offering. They don't divide it.

They don't only offer the fat. Nobody

eats the rest of this. It's burned

wholly and completely on the altar. The

priest then takes a piece of cedarwood

and hissup and a scarlet thread and

throws it onto the altar along with the

hepher. And then the priest is done. the

priest must go and wash himself and wash

his clothes and he remains unclean for

the rest of that night. Now there's some

and then the same thing with the person

who who uh put it on the altar that he

as well has to wash his clothes and

bathe and be unclean for the rest of the

night. Well then somebody else who is

clean after the hepher is burned he

takes the ashes of the hepher and he

takes it outside the camp to a clean

place where the ashes are usually poured

out. But it says this time that he is to

store them up, that he is to keep these

ashes there in the clean place. And so

that's what the the ordinance is up to

this point. What it it like it's very

unique. It's very different. The ashes

are not poured out. They're stored. The

whole animal is burned. The priest is

unclean immediately after for the rest

of the night as is the person who burned

it. So there's a lot of unique stuff

going on. Well, what was the unique

purpose of this particular offering?

Look at verse 11 of chapter 19. It says,

"He that toucheth the dead body of any

man shall be unclean seven days. He

shall purify himself with it," that

references the ashes. On the third day,

and on the seventh day he shall be

clean. But if he purify not himself the

third day, then the seventh day he shall

not be clean. And and so what do they do

with these ashes? Look at verse 17. It

says, "And for an unclean person, they

shall take the ashes of the burnt hepher

of purification for sin, and running

water shall be put thereto in a vessel.

And a clean person shall take hissup and

dip it in the water, and sprinkle it

upon the tent, and upon all the vessels,

and upon the persons that were there,

and upon him that toucheth a bone, or

one slain, or one dead, or a grave. And

so, do you catch what's going on here?

They take some of the ashes from that

heer and they put them in, let's just

say, a jar. And then they find a running

stream of water. And they take that jar

and they let that running water come

into it and form this mixture. And what

it pictures is that God's provision of

life is now conquering the death of that

heer. And so it mixes with the ashes.

And now they can take this watery

mixture and they dip his in like a

paintbrush and they fling it on the

person that's unclean. They sprinkle

them with it as well as every vessel

that is unclean. Now, why have they

become unclean?

Death.

This sacrifice

is meant specifically and uniquely

to cleanse Israel from death.

Why is that important?

And why is that given in this particular

place?

It is because Israel is surrounded by

death.

Kora and his company were swallowed up.

250 were consumed by the fire of the

Lord. 14,700

have died by plague. Death is

everywhere. They're going to experience

much more death over the course of this

wilderness wandering of 40 years.

and they're going to uh the the problem

right now is that they are completely

surrounded by death.

They have to bury and remove these

bodies.

And what it means is that there going to

be a lot of people who are defiled by

these dead bodies and the beds they

slept on and the the the the vessels

they drank out of and everything that

they touched. The whole camp is defiled

with death right now. See, Leviticus

showed them that if they contact a dead

body or anything a dead body has

touched, they become unclean. But

Leviticus did not provide the cleansing

remedy for them. And now Israel is

surrounded by death. And now it's no

wonder that they are crying out in

chapter 17, we're all going to die.

We're all going to perish. because they

realize this that the tabernacle of God

is right there and his holy presence is

right there. And if we come near him in

this defiled state, we will be consumed

just like everybody else has been in

this situation. And so what they need is

something that can cleanse them from

death.

something that like that living water

from the river can conquer the death

that they have encountered.

They're crying out, "We're all going to

die." Question, why do medical examiners

wear masks when performing autopsies?

Well, it's because although that body is

dead, it can still release infection and

disease and fluids and dangerous

pathogens. There's and there's nothing

that a living mortician can do to put

life into that dead body. There's a lot

that dead body can do to put death into

that mortician.

See, Israel needed cleansing because

death defiles everything it touches.

Let me clearly state that death poses no

danger to God. Life that comes from God

can overcome any power of death. This

rather is giving us an earthly picture

of spiritual realities

because he there's a lot of references

to Hebrews now because it deals a lot

with what's contained in these chapters.

Hebrews 9 tells us that the first

tabernacle and the first priesthood and

the first sacrifices and rituals were

given as signs by the Holy Ghost to show

that the way into the holiest of all had

not been manifested.

The fact that they are still restricted

from coming into God's presence and

living. The fact that they are still

restricted. Just like in the Garden of

Eden, the cherubim protected the way of

the tree of life. They could not come

into God's presence and live in the

garden. And now that they have this

tabernacle, they still couldn't come

into the presence of the holiest of all.

Is because Eden has not yet been

restored. And Aaron is not the remedy to

bring us back to Eden, to bring us back

to close intimate personal contact and

fellowship with God. There's something

coming that is greater, something that

gives us greater access to God. And so

these rituals were signs that there was

a greater tabernacle, a greater priest,

a greater sacrifice, and therefore a

greater cleansing that was coming in the

Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 9:13 says

Hebrews 9:13

this. Listen, this this is the only

other time in scripture the ashes of the

hepher are mentioned. Listen, for if the

blood of bulls and of goats, and the

ashes of an hepher, sprinkling the

unclean to the purifying of the flesh,

how much more shall the blood of Christ,

who through the eternal spirit offered

himself without spot to God, purge your

conscience from dead works to serve the

living God. What the author of Hebrews

connects is that the ashes of that

hepher mixed with running water purified

Israel outwardly and temporarily, but

the blood of Jesus purifies us inwardly

and eternally.

that it's no longer touching a dead body

that keeps you from coming near to God

because the blood of Jesus Christ

conquered death. When he rose from the

dead, he proved that death could be

defeated by himself. And so what this

means is that for us to come near to

God's presence and live, we not only

need a continual priesthood, but we need

a cleansing sacrifice. And the cleansing

sacrifice as well is the Lord Jesus

Christ. See, when he gave his life on

that cross and was buried in that tomb,

he became death for holy, totally, and

completely as a sacrifice that was

finished on the cross,

brought to ashes, so to speak.

And yet at his resurrection, it was like

the living water of life from God that

connected with with the death that he

died and it provided for us a cleansing

not only from sin but a cleansing from

death itself. That's what Christ

provided for us. And what the author of

Hebrews makes clear is that the

cleansing blood of Jesus is so great and

it's so perfect and it's so holy that

God accepted in the place of all of

those old sacrifices including the ashes

of the red hepher and that it is Jesus

who cleanses you and sprinkles you from

sin and death.

Notice what the author of Hebrews said

in verse 14 of chapter nine.

He said that if the ashes of the hepher

sprinkled the flesh, the blood of Christ

sprinkled the conscience.

Here's what that means.

that you in

can come near to God in spite of your

sin without guilt,

without shame,

without fear.

And that is why the author of Hebrews

repeats multiple times in that letter,

let us draw near.

Christ bore the iniquity. Christ bore

the guilt and shame. Christ bore our sin

on the cross. so that we could come near

to God and live.

Let me say it this way. Jesus died to

give you life. And he rose to bring you

close.

That's why we know we can draw near

because in his death, he provided a

cleansing sacrifice. But when he arose,

he ascended into heaven. He was seated

at the right hand of God. And he forever

lives as a great high priest to make

intercession for us. He is a cleansing

sacrifice and a continual priesthood by

whom we can come near to God as clean,

holy, and righteous in God's sight.

That's because of Jesus.

He mediates your relationship with God.

And therefore, you can draw near and

live. You can draw near without guilt

and shame because he has cleansed you.

The only esqueological fulfillment that

I see in these red heers

is that because Christ has cleansed you

from sin,

you can rest assured that when he

returns,

that you'll be able to stand in the

presence of God, when new Jerusalem

comes and new creation comes and the

tabernacle of God is with men, you will

be able to live near God's presence.

Why? Because he has continually mediated

your relationship with God. And he

offered himself as a cleansing sacrifice

who conquered death.

Believers

can draw near God's presence and live

because Christ is our continual

priesthood and he is our cleansing

sacrifice.

He died to give you life and he rose to

bring you close. So let us draw near.

You don't have to wait for Christ to

return to draw near to him. You can have

a relationship with him even now. You

can enter into the holiest of all with

unhindered access to God through Jesus

Christ. Listen, that is why we pray in

Jesus' name. Amen. Because the scripture

tells us that whatever we ask in the

name of Jesus Christ, we shall receive.

Why is that? Because he is the one who

is mediating our relationship with God.

He is the only reason we can draw near

to God. He's the only reason that we can

have eternal life. And so, what we ought

to do is just walk with him and talk

with him and pray and worship and

commune with him throughout each and

every day.

Listen believer, I want you to be

encouraged in this fact. In Christ, you

do not just survive in God's presence.

You thrive in God's presence.

So, as the author of Hebrews says, "Let

us draw near with a true heart in full

assurance of faith, knowing that our

continual priesthood and our cleansing

sacrifice has paved the way for access

to God now and forever more." Let's

pray. Father, thank you for the truth of

the gospel contained from cover to cover

in your word.

I'm thankful that you taught us who

Jesus is,

what he came to do and accomplish.

You showed us the ministry role that he

serves even today,

interceding for us as a faithful high

priest,

having offered himself as a cleansing

sacrifice.

I'm thankful for the resurrection by

which you have proven

life can come from death.

I pray that as believers we would ever

draw nearer to you through our savior

Jesus. It's in his name I pray.