The Commander of the Lord‘s Army
13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” 14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped1 and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” 15 And the commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.
The Fall of Jericho
6:1 Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. 2 And the LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor. 3 You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. 4 Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. 5 And when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat,2 and the people shall go up, everyone straight before him.” 6 So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the LORD.” 7 And he said to the people, “Go forward. March around the city and let the armed men pass on before the ark of the LORD.”
8 And just as Joshua had commanded the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the LORD went forward, blowing the trumpets, with the ark of the covenant of the LORD following them. 9 The armed men were walking before the priests who were blowing the trumpets, and the rear guard was walking after the ark, while the trumpets blew continually. 10 But Joshua commanded the people, “You shall not shout or make your voice heard, neither shall any word go out of your mouth, until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout.” 11 So he caused the ark of the LORD to circle the city, going about it once. And they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp.
12 Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the LORD. 13 And the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the LORD walked on, and they blew the trumpets continually. And the armed men were walking before them, and the rear guard was walking after the ark of the LORD, while the trumpets blew continually. 14 And the second day they marched around the city once, and returned into the camp. So they did for six days.
15 On the seventh day they rose early, at the dawn of day, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. 16 And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for the LORD has given you the city. 17 And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the LORD for destruction.3 Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent. 18 But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. 19 But all silver and gold, and every vessel of bronze and iron, are holy to the LORD; they shall go into the treasury of the LORD.” 20 So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city. 21 Then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.
22 But to the two men who had spied out the land, Joshua said, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her, as you swore to her.” 23 So the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. And they brought all her relatives and put them outside the camp of Israel. 24 And they burned the city with fire, and everything in it. Only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD. 25 But Rahab the prostitute and her father’s household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
26 Joshua laid an oath on them at that time, saying, “Cursed before the LORD be the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho.
“At the cost of his firstborn shall he
lay its foundation,
and at the cost of his youngest son
shall he set up its gates.”27 So the LORD was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land.
Footnotes
[1] 5:14
Or and paid homage
[2] 6:5Hebrew under itself; also verse 20
[3] 6:17That is, set apart (devoted) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction); also verses 18, 21 (ESV)
God Commissions Joshua
1:1 After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. 3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. 4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. 5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success1 wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
Joshua Assumes Command
10 And Joshua commanded the officers of the people, 11 “Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, ‘Prepare your provisions, for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.’”
12 And to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh Joshua said, 13 “Remember the word that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, saying, ‘The LORD your God is providing you a place of rest and will give you this land.’ 14 Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall remain in the land that Moses gave you beyond the Jordan, but all the men of valor among you shall pass over armed before your brothers and shall help them, 15 until the LORD gives rest to your brothers as he has to you, and they also take possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving them. Then you shall return to the land of your possession and shall possess it, the land that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise.”
16 And they answered Joshua, “All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. 17 Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Only may the LORD your God be with you, as he was with Moses! 18 Whoever rebels against your commandment and disobeys your words, whatever you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous.”
Footnotes
[1] 1:7
Or may act wisely (ESV)
26 And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 27 “How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me. 28 Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the LORD, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: 29 your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, 30 not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. 32 But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. 33 And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. 34 According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’ 35 I, the LORD, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”
36 And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing up a bad report about the land—37 the men who brought up a bad report of the land—died by plague before the LORD. 38 Of those men who went to spy out the land, only Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive.
(ESV)
Categories
Saturday Study
Saturday Study
Aaron (5-2-2020)
In today’s Bible study, I want to break down each one of the sections we read this week and then help you consider the different foreshadows of Christ through Aaron’s role as priest. First, a quick word of warning. While the Old Testament (law and the prophets) in general points to Christ, I think we can take this too far when we look at extremely tiny details and try to connect every single little thing to Christ. Be careful to not dig too deeply and make some unnecessary connections the authors didn’t intend.
Exodus 4:10-31
There is so much going on here in these verses, but the focus of our study is on Aaron, so I’ll try to cover the context briefly and then bring the focus back to Aaron.
God reveals to Moses that He has chosen him to bring His people out of Egypt. Moses quickly begins to plead with God to use someone else. He brings out all of his excuses: they won’t believe or listen to me; I am not eloquent and never have been; I’m slow of speech and tongue. God’s answer to Moses’ objections are clear. God responds by saying, “I am the One who makes man’s mouth. Who makes man mute or deaf or blind? Isn’t that Me? Moses, stop looking to your abilities and rely on mine.” This should be a sweet reminder to us that, if God has called us to something, He is powerful enough to carry it out.
Moses then pleads one more time and there’s this interesting phrase in verse 14, “… the anger of the Lord was kindled against him and He said, ‘Is there not Aaron your brother the Levite?’”
I’m not exactly sure what the purpose is for God’s anger being revealed here. Is it simply to show a frustration God had with Moses’ lack of faith? Is it to say that Aaron would be a sort of penalty to Moses for his lack of faith? The scriptures do not really give us an answer. I often wonder if God’s allowing Moses to use Aaron has caused Moses to miss out on something greater that he may have experienced if he had had more faith and had been obedient instead of fearful. In any case, God’s final answer to Moses’ pleading is Aaron. Aaron, your brother, doesn’t have all of these things of which you’re afraid, Moses, so I will let you use your brother.
So, Aaron has finally come into the scriptures and is now on the scene as a part of God’s redemptive story. The first role, or job, given him by God is to be the mouthpiece of Moses—ultimately of God—to the people of God. God says in verses 15 and 16, essentially, that Aaron will speak for Moses and that God will be with both their mouths and teach them what to do.
The role that Aaron receives here is like that of the prophets; he is to be the mouthpiece of, or speak on behalf of, God. This is where we begin to clearly see some of the foreshadowing of Christ in Aaron and his role. It is not a stretch to see how Aaron’s being the mouth piece of God to save His people from slavery to Egypt can point toward Jesus (the Word who became flesh in John 1) as God, Himself, speaking to us and rescuing us from a far greater and eternal slavery to sin and death. We can see this more clearly in Hebrews 1:1-2: Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
You can see the foreshadowing from Aaron to Christ in these verses as Aaron was a real reflection of, or precursor to, the prophets that would speak on behalf of God.
Exodus 28:1-14
So, what’s going on here? Why are such details given in the making of the garments? What’s the point of setting aside Aaron and his sons for this? The answer is priesthood. In a rather unique way, God is trying to show the Israelites how magnificent the true high priest, namely Jesus, would be. Jesus is called the High Priest twelve times in the book of Hebrews and called priest about six more times. Jesus was pure, holy, and glorious—Aaron was not.
If Aaron and his family were to take on this role, they would have to take great pains to make him look as marvelous as possible. This was done in order to, in some small shadow-of-a-way, point to the beauty and magnificence of Christ. Notice that verse 2 says, “… you shall make a holy garment for him for glory and for beauty.” This is to point toward Jesus’ holiness, glory, and beauty.
What about this role of priesthood? The priest stood in the gap between God and His people. There was no access directly to God for most people. The role of priesthood was to give someone the ability to intercede for us. Jesus is our ultimate intercessor. He is the true high priest who stands in the gap between the beloved and God. We now have access to God because the true High Priest made the sacrifice for us with His very life. There were many roles of the priest. One was to make the sacrifice for the people of God to atone for sins. Christ Jesus was not only our High Priest, he was also the sacrifice, the spotless Lamb. This is why Aaron, and the role of the priesthood, is merely a shadow of what God had planned from before the ages to redeem His people through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Exodus 32:1-7, 21-35
Wow! How quickly we abandon the God of our salvation! These people have just watched God rescue them from Egypt and Pharaoh, and yet they freak out when Moses is gone for too long and they demand that Aaron make them a god. Isn’t that funny? How can man make a god?
So, what’s really interesting in this passage is that Aaron goes along with the people’s demands. What should Aaron have done? Why doesn’t he tell this people, “No, you can’t do this; this is unacceptable?” This whole scene is so similar to Adam and Eve’s debacle in the garden. Eve had wanted to be God—or wanted to be like God—so she had bought the serpent’s lie and ate the fruit. The Israelites want a god so badly that they demand Aaron make them one. Adam, who was supposed to protect Eve and be her spiritual leader, not only didn’t stop her but instead joined her and he ate, too. Aaron, who is supposed to intercede between the people and God and be their spiritual leader, not only doesn’t stop the people, he joins them in their sin.
You can even see the similarity in their responses when being rebuked for their actions. Adam had said, “the woman whom You gave me is to blame (essentially shifting the blame to God and the woman)”, while Aaron responded with, “the people made me do it, and the fire made the calf (blaming the people and the fire)”. Aaron is giving us a great example as to how badly we need Christ. Aaron not only reveals how perfect a representative for mankind Adam was, but how he, himself, fell terribly short of the intercession the people needed. Praise God for Jesus and His perfection!
Leviticus 10:1-20
Aaron and his sons were to have represented the true High Priest, Jesus. Notice how God responds when they do that in a way that is not according to God—He kills them immediately! God takes very seriously the glory and honor that are due Him.
Leviticus 10:3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’” And Aaron held his peace.
Such powerful words—God will be sanctified and glorified.
Do we take God’s glory this seriously in our lives? Notice the response of Aaron: “he held his peace.” Aaron should have been upset about the dishonoring of God! Having children of my own, I could not imagine this scenario. I can only understand some of the hurt that Aaron withheld over the situation. In a world of false teachers and false worshipers, it is only the grace of God that keeps them from being wiped off the face of the earth, or possibly it is the judgment of God who is storing up wrath for the sins they continue to commit.
Notice in verses 10 and 11, Aaron is to distinguish between the holy and common, the clean and unclean, holy and unholy, and to teach Israel all the statutes of the Lord. It is, therefore, Aaron’s job to teach what belongs to God (holy, clean) and what does not (common, unclean). We see this role done properly and perfectly in Christ. He came and taught these truths. But what’s more amazing is that through Him we, God’s beloved, are made holy and clean. All Aaron can do is teach these things, but Christ not only taught these truths, He applied them to us in a way no one else could, including Aaron.
Is this not what Christ did? Jesus is the only way anyone can be made clean and holy; without Him we all are unclean and common. Through this failure, on behalf of Aaron’s sons, God reiterates the role of the priesthood and the responsibilities of it.
Look at verse 17. What are the priests supposed to do? They are to bear the iniquity of the congregation and make atonement for their sins. Well, that doesn’t need much explanation. That is exactly what Christ did—He took the penalty for the sins of His people and made atonement through His life, death, and resurrection. Christ is the perfect Aaron, the perfect high priest who sacrificed Himself to set His people free!
Numbers 3:5-15
God establishes who will carry on the priesthood until the coming of Christ. When God plagues Egypt and kills the firstborn of all the cattle and men, He passes over the firstborn of Israel, thereby setting the firstborn of all Israel as the servants in the sanctuary of God. However, after the golden calf incident, the Levites take the place of the firstborn. The Levites’ role is to minister and protect.
Christ says in John 10, “I am the good shepherd … I lay down my life for the sheep.” Christ protects His sheep with His very life. His being a shepherd would mean He ministers to His sheep, provides for them, cares for them, etc. The role given to the Levites is ultimately fulfilled in Christ.
There are many ways in which the priesthood, and Aaron, point to Christ. I hope the Old Testament is coming alive for you as you study. We must see all that God is doing in and through people like Aaron. Praise God that He prepared for the great high priest, Jesus Christ, to come and intercede for us in a way we never could.
Hebrews 7:23-25 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he [Jesus] holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” Amen!
*Special thanks to Steven Obert for his gospel partnership and help with this week’s devotional.
By His grace and for His glory,
Pastor Joshua Kirstine
Disciples Church
Duties of the Levites
5 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 6 “Bring the tribe of Levi near, and set them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister to him. 7 They shall keep guard over him and over the whole congregation before the tent of meeting, as they minister at the tabernacle. 8 They shall guard all the furnishings of the tent of meeting, and keep guard over the people of Israel as they minister at the tabernacle. 9 And you shall give the Levites to Aaron and his sons; they are wholly given to him from among the people of Israel. 10 And you shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall guard their priesthood. But if any outsider comes near, he shall be put to death.”
11 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 12 “Behold, I have taken the Levites from among the people of Israel instead of every firstborn who opens the womb among the people of Israel. The Levites shall be mine, 13 for all the firstborn are mine. On the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I consecrated for my own all the firstborn in Israel, both of man and of beast. They shall be mine: I am the LORD.”
14 And the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, saying, 15 “List the sons of Levi, by fathers’ houses and by clans; every male from a month old and upward you shall list.”
(ESV)