02.19.2018 – Old Testament: Num 2.1–2

To read the Bible in a year, read Numbers 1–2 on February 19, In the year of our Lord 2018

By Don Ruhl

While the children of Israel camped by their tribes around the tabernacle, the tribe of Levi encamped around the tabernacle, but inside of the other tribes, serving as a barrier between the people and the meeting place of the Lord.

Nevertheless, the tribe of Levi did not camp right up to the barrier of the tabernacle, but they had to remove themselves a ways from it,

And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: “Everyone of the children of Israel shall camp by his own standard, beside the emblems of his father’s house; they shall camp some distance from the tabernacle of meeting” (Numbers 2.1–2).

That tabernacle was a holy and sacred place on earth, and it prefigured the church and heaven, the sacred place on the earth at the present, and the sacred place above. We cannot just approach the church and heaven with a nonchalant attitude, but we should see them as sacred, even as that ancient tabernacle was.

Questions:

• What is your attitude toward the church?
• Where does the church rank in your life?