Latest / Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan / May 26, 2026 - Numbers 8 & Psalm 114

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May 26, 2026 - Numbers 8 & Psalm 114 · Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's word lighting the way.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Josiah Smith, lead pastor of Compass South Valley.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Today is Tuesday, May 26th, 2026.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Listen intently to God's written word.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Numbers 8.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron and say to him, When you set up the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light in front of the lampstand.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: And Aaron did so.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: He set up its lamps in front of the lampstand, as the Lord commanded Moses.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And this was the workmanship of the lampstand, hammered work of gold, from its base to its flowers, it was hammered work, according to the pattern that the Lord had shown Moses, so he made the lampstand.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Take the Levites from among the people of Israel and cleanse them.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Thus you shall do to them to cleanse them, sprinkle the water of purification upon them, and let them go with a razor over all their body, and wash their clothes and cleanse themselves.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Then let them take a bull from the herd and its grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil, and you shall take another bull from the herd for a sin offering, and you shall bring the Levites before the tent of meeting, and assemble the whole congregation of the people of Israel.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: When you bring the Levites before the Lord, the people of Israel shall lay their hands on the Levites, and Aaron shall offer the Levites before the Lord as a wave offering from the people of Israel, that they may do the service of the Lord.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Then the Levites shall lay their hands on the heads of the bulls, and you shall offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering to the Lord to make atonement for the Levites.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: And you shall set the Levites before Aaron and his sons, and shall offer them as a wave offering to the Lord.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Thus you shall separate the Levites from among the people of Israel, and the Levites shall be mine, and after that the Levites shall go and to serve at the tent of meeting.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: When you have cleansed them and offered them as a wave offering, for they are wholly given to me from among the people of Israel.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of all who opened the womb, the firstborn of all the people of Israel, I have taken them for myself, for all the firstborn among the people of Israel are mine, both of man and of beast.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: On the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I consecrated them for myself, and I have taken the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the people of Israel, and I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and his sons from among the people of Israel, to do the service for the people of Israel at the tent of meeting, and to make atonement for the people of Israel, that there may be no plague among the people of Israel when the people of Israel come near the sanctuary.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Thus did Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the people of Israel to the Levites, according to all that the Lord commanded Moses concerning the Levites, the people of Israel did to them.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the Levites purified themselves from sin and washed their clothes, and Aaron offered them as a wave offering before the Lord, and Aaron made atonement for them to cleanse them.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And after that the Levites went in to do their service in the tent of meeting before Aaron and his sons, as the Lord had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so they did to them.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, This applies to the Levites.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: From twenty five years old and upward they shall come to do duty in the service of the tent of meeting, and from the age of fifty years they shall withdraw from the duty of the service and serve no more.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: They minister to their brothers in the tent of meeting by keeping guard, but they shall not do service.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Thus you shall do to the Levites in assigning their duties.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: When Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Jacob, from a people of strange language, Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: The sea looked and fled, Jordan turned back.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: What ails you, O sea, that you flee, O Jordan that you turn back, O mountains that you skip like rams, O hills, the lambs.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now in numbers eight, we have the specific instructions to Aaron to arrange the salmon lamps of the lampstand so that they illuminate the area in front of it.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: And they also, of course, it describes the construction of the lampstand, fine hammered golden metal for these items that are to be in the holy place on the table.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: And there's specific instructions to that.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: But really, the chapter primarily records the ceremony dedicating the Levites to their role of guarding, transporting, and even serving within the tabernacle.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: So this dedication process involves cleansing the Levites from among the Israelites through sprinkling, purification, water, shaving really their whole body, washing their clothes, then presenting them with a bull for a grain offering, and another for a sin offering.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, these two offerings, of course, look forward to their ultimate and final fulfillment in Christ.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: So they are being consecrated, they are being set apart, they're to be priest for the nation of Israel, specifically from the tribe of Aaron, of course, or I should say from the family of Aaron, who is a part of the tribe of Levi.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: And all of this again points forward to our foundation that Christ secures for us as the founder of our salvation.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: So all of this is again a shadow of the substance that would find its fulfillment in Christ.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so after all of this consecration, the Levites are separated from the people and become the Lord's possession.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: So this is again another instance of God referring back to the firstborn of Egypt.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: So God separates them.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: They are his firstborn, they are his possession, and then they perceive to serve at the tent of meeting.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: So unlike the priest, the priests, again, who are from Aaron, who are sanctified, the Levites are cleansed through water, through shaving, and hand laying by the people.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: They remain a lay tribe with the special function of making atonement for the nation.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: They serve as guards of the tabernacle.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: And in do in so doing, they prevent God's wrath from breaking out against the nation when unauthorized persons approach the sanctuary.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: So if we were going to kind of outline Numbers eight, we'd have the seven lamps that are talked about in verses one through three.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron arranges the lampstands, the seven lamps to give light in front of it.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then we have the lampstand description in verses uh really the the next kind of section, right?
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Details of the hammered gold construction and uh made according to God's pattern.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Then we have the cleansing of the Levites, the purification ritual involving involving water, shaving, washing, and presentation of sacrificial animals.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then we have the separation and dedication, the consecration.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: The Levites are set apart as the Lord's possession, the firstborn, as they're referred to, and commission for tabernacle service.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, then we have this sense of they are doing what God has commanded.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron offered them as a wave of offering before the Lord, and Aaron made atonement for them to cleanse them.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: And after that, the Levites went in to do their service in the tent of meeting before Aaron and his sons, as the Lord had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so they did to them.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what's interesting is that how Numbers 8 ends in the retirement of the Levites, there was a specific period that they were to serve from 25 years old to 50 years old.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when they turned 50, they weren't completely retired from all of the service.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: They were to withdraw from the duty of the service and serve no more within the context of the holy place, but they were to minister to their brothers in the tent of meeting by keeping guard.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: But they shall not do service, it says.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: So there was a sense in which they continued, you could use modern language like mentor the those who were younger to kind of give them counsel and help them better do their job.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, they kept guard to make sure that unauthorized people did not enter into the holy place or the tent of meeting.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: So they still were continuing to serve in some capacity, uh, but not with all of the different items, not with all the sacrifices.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Their role kind of transitioned to more of uh of a mentor role, but also a guarding role.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so they continued to pass on wisdom from their years of service to those who were younger, and they continued to guard the tent of meeting so that those who were unauthorized would not enter.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: So that's numbers eight.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: And remember, we're we're still kind of in a different chronology because numbers one uh is the second month, the first day of the second month, and we're still kind of talking about things that happened before that with the the erecting of the tabernacle, with all of the the gifts that are given from the the tribes uh of um Israel, and then you know the the altar as it's talked about in number seven, and then in numbers eight, we have some specific instructions again concerning the lamps and other things like that that we see here and the cleansing of the Levites specifically.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, they are the firstborn again for all the firstborn among the people of Israel, God says, are mine, both of man and of beast.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: On the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I consecrated them for myself.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: So he set them apart to devote them to, and that is Numbers eight.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Psalm 114 is connected, of course, to the Exodus.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: I say, of course, because the Exodus event is one of the number one events that gets uh appeal to, referenced, alluded to throughout the entire Bible.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so Psalm 114 does just that as well.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so it says, When Israel went out from Egypt, a direct reference there uh to the Exodus event, the house of Jacob or Israel from a people of strange language, that was the Egyptians, Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion, the sea looked and fled.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's the the parting of the Red Sea, Jordan turned back, the mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: What ails you, O sea, that you flee, O Jor Jordan, that you turn back, O mountains that you skip like rams, oh hills like lambs.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you can see and hear the rhyme in this, and then tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, the God of Israel, who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: So that is a reference to Numbers chapter 20, verse 11, which we will get to later in our reading in our study of Numbers.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: But it says, And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank and their livestock.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: So that was the rock uh that is being struck, and there's this reference to a pool of water, uh, which is kind of a quotation from Psalm 107.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: He turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water, and then the flint into a spring of water is uh another reference.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, really, that's to Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 15.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: That those who he he who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground, where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: So those are references to things that'll happen later on in the book of Numbers after, again, the Exodus event, where we have uh the nation of Israel that are in the wilderness for for two years, and they have the tabernacle that is erected, and of course, they're making their way in numbers to Canaan, the promised land, the physical rest that God offered them.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: And in Numbers 13, they send the spies, the 12 spies, and of course we we know what happens there.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so let's just connect that back to even what we talked about on Sunday in Hebrews chapter 3.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: If you remember, uh, it says, as the Holy Spirit says, and then he says, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: And there's this quotation from Psalm 95, 7 through 11, where David is reflecting on Numbers 14.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's the day of the rebellion.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so the author of Hebrews is quoting David, who is reflecting on Numbers 14 and the events that happened there, where there is this whole congregation, this whole generation, I should say, of Israel that does not enter into the physical rest of Canaan, the land of Canaan, because of their disobedience and their hardness of a heart.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's this physical rest that they are uh not again experiencing because of their rebellion.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: So Psalm 114 connects to that because it talks about some of those things.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, the the presence of the Lord, the presence of God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of water.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's uh even Moses kind of rebelling against God.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: He's he commanded him to speak to the rock, but of course he struck the rock.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: And Moses himself, actually, even though he's referred to as the greatest prophet, there is no one after him except for Jesus, the one who would come later.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but nevertheless, even though he was the greatest, even though he was referred to as the meekest man on earth, he does not enter into the promised land because of his unbelief, because of his hardened heart.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: So even as we think about that in connection to our sermon on Sunday, that this rest that ultimately the spiritual rest, uh, that the physical rest of Canaan pointed to, uh, we we want to be people that have soft hearts.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we want to be people who obey and hear the voice of the Lord as it is as he speaks to us through his word.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: As the Holy Spirit says, there's this ongoing voice of the Lord in his word that we are to listen to and obey.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: And there should be this sense of trembling, if you see there in Psalm 114, verse 7.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: That there should be this response of God's power, his might, and not just his power and his might, but his faithfulness and his steadfast love.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: And our response should be one of trembling, of recognizing who God is, uh, what he has done, the ways that he has provided, even to a generation that was complaining, that wanted to kill Moses and Aaron, that ultimately did not make it into the promised land because of their grumbling, because of their unbelief.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that's really what we'll talk about this coming Sunday as we look to this next section of uh the rest that Hebrews 3 is offering and reminding and urging people to receive.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: And the next thing that we're really going to focus in on is not just a hardened heart and assessing our heart, uh, but really that the state of our belief, uh, and and it really talks about being united by faith.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so we want to be people that are united by faith uh and that are entering the promised rest that Christ offers.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, we want to tremble at the presence of the Lord, as we see here in Psalm 114.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: We want to learn uh from the mistakes of the nation of Israel who did harden their heart in the day of the rebellion, who ultimately did not tremble at the presence of the Lord, but who long for something in the past.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: They long for Egypt rather than the promised rest that God was offering them in the land of Canaan.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: So let's learn from that.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: Let's learn from the mistakes of even Moses, who disobeys and strikes the rock instead of uh speaking to the rock.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Let's learn uh just even from the Exodus story as a whole, which is how this begins when Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Jacob, from a people of strange language.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: And let's tremble at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, the one who is faithful, the one who is from everlasting to everlasting, from age to age.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Let's tremble at the presence of the Lord and look forward to the rest that we can experience now in Christ and the future, final, eternal rest that we are secured and guaranteed if we are secure in Christ by faith.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you so much for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass Bible SV.org.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Keep reading, keep growing.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.